Operation M.I.A: Missing in Action (IN NEED OF REVISING)

Chapter XV

"Okay... everyone, get on!" Sam orders. I sigh and quickly run on board with everyone else. Sam lifts us up off the ground and takes off after the helicopter.

It doesn't take long for the pilots of the helicopter to notice us. One of them leans out of the cockpit window with a shotgun and begins rattling off shots. All of them miss thanks to the hovercraft's force field. Sam activates the hovercraft's machine gun and begins opening rapid fire on the helicopter, but the pilot is able to dodge all of the shots with flying precision the likes of which I've never seen before.

"Sam! Take off after the helicopter!" Avery yells.

Sam takes a look at the hovercraft's monitor and yells back, "Um... we can't do that right now."

"Why not!?"

"...We're running out of battery power and have to do a safety landing."

"NO!" Avery dangerously leans forward on the hovercraft and yells out, "BRIELLE!"

If Brielle is in the helicopter, she either doesn't hear or isn't able to respond in some other way. The helicopter takes off, and Sam slowly has to park the hovercraft behind a large church-looking building of some kind. Sam then plugs a small USB port into the hovercraft's computer to begin charging it.

"Well, that was a lovely waste of our time," Skylar grumbles after stepping off.

ELLE

Music: No Future from Salamander 2

As Avery steps off the hovercraft, her body is shaking and she has her hands to her head in complete and utter shock. "No... we had it..." she says softly, starting to sniffle. She then lets herself fall to her knees, puts her head in her hands, and starts sobbing uncontrollably.

Mia, Mackenzie, Sean, Shanna, Heath, Luke, and Skylar gather around Avery and start patting her on the back, hugging her, shushing her, and telling her things like, "It's gonna be okay," or, "We'll get another chance." Avery just keeps crying, stuttering out, "We-we had an opportunity... and fucking blew it!"

I start to make my way over to join everyone else when I overhear Sam saying, "Not now, boy." The only thing he'll ever say those words to is the hovercraft. I turn toward him to find out that the hovercraft is continuously tapping Sam on the shoulder (which doesn't make sense to me considering it's supposed to be charging right now, but then again, a lot of things in my life don't make sense) to try and get his attention. Finally, Sam caves in and asks, "What is it?"

Two images show up on the hovercraft's monitor. On the left appears to be one of the girls from the helicopter. On the right is a photo of a small baby girl that I don't recognize, but cleary Sam does. "No way... that can't be..." he gasps.

"What?" I ask.

"It's comparing that girl to Alexys Barnes... hold on one second." He then turns to the remainder of the group and gets the attention of Mackenzie. She walks over to us and examines the photo with him.

"You don't really think there's a connection, do you?" Sam asks.

Mackenzie looks back and forth between the two photos, and eventually nods. "It's hard to say for certain, but there's definitely a resemblance here."

"This is gonna bother me until I know for certain that it's her," Sam grumbles.

"If I'm gonna be honest here, I don't think rescuing Brielle is gonna be enough for us," Mackenzie says, keeping her voice low so no one else can hear. "I mean, think of all the locations they still inhabit. And just imagine how many girls they have at this point."

"You might be right," Sam sighs, facepalming. He then turns to everyone else and announces, "Guys, I know this might be a bad time to do so, but we need to have a team meeting."

Everyone else gets up and walks over to us. Avery still has tears falling down her face, but other than that she seems to have calmed down tremendously. Once Sam has everyone's attention, he takes a deep breath and says, "Okay, everyone, let's face it. T+his isn't about rescuing Brielle anymore. Even if we do get her home safely, we're never going to be safe by this trafficking center, and they're just going to keep getting more and more aggressive. We have to go all the way."

Immediately, he's met with backlash. "What! No way!" Mia yells.

"That's impossible, Sam," Heath sighs.

"There's no way we'll be able to take them all down," is Luke's remark.

Sam holds a hand up to shut everybody up. "We have to do this, guys. There's simply no other option."

"Yeah. As long as they're out there, we're all in danger. Besides, they're probably aware of our pursuit of them now. It's for the best," Mackenzie adds.

"Damn it..." Skylar groans.

Sam takes a glance at the hovercraft's battery meter, which is already close to halfway full. "Look, this has enough battery life left to take us back to the clubhouse. We'll crash there for the night, and discuss what to do tomorrow morning."

Nobody is terribly excited about Sam's idea, but everyone's eager to get some sleep, so they agree to the terms. On the way back home, I ask Sam, "Do you really think we're capable of taking down a large organization such as this?"

Sam only shrugs and responds with, "We have to try." He takes my hand and offers me a small smile of encouragement, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

Once we arrive back at the clubhouse, everyone immediately makes a beeline for the doors to head inside and get some rest. Right now, t's 11:43 PM in our timezone. The only people who don't head inside right away are Sam (who's busy packing the hovercraft up and shutting it down for the night), me, and Avery. Avery's sitting down in front of a tree with her head buried in her arms. I have to admit, I do kind of understand how she feels right now. We literally were right there to be able to save Brielle, but unfortunate circumstances got in the way and kept us from achieving our goal, which actually happens to us very rarely.

Before heading inside, Sam and I actually walk over to Avery to see if we can cheer her up, or at least, get her to go inside. "Listen, Avery... I'm sorry that I wasn't able to save Brielle. Believe me, if I didn't want to risk our lives as well, I would've continued fighting for her," Sam tells her.

Avery looks up at us. Her eyes and face are red from the amount of crying she's been doing recently, and overall she looks like an emotional wreck, but right now she seems to be handling the situation well. "It's fine, Sam. You didn't do anything wrong. I just... want to be able to bring Brielle home, that's all. You did the right thing for us there."

"We'll be able to take another shot at it tomorrow. So there's still hope," I tell her.

The slightest hint of a smile appears on Avery's face. "Thanks, Elle."

"You should get some rest. You really need it," Sam suggests. Avery nods, stands up, and begins walking to the clubhouse as well. While she's walking, I hear her mutter to herself, "I doubt I'm going to get any sleep tonight."

"In fact, we all need some rest. We're going to need as much energy as possible for tomorrow," Sam says, taking my hand once more.

"You're definitely not wrong there," I reply as the two of us begin walking back inside for (hopefully) a good night's sleep.

Yeah, this is a pretty long chapter, I'm aware. But a lot happens in these scenes, and I really couldn't think of a way to split it appropriately. Besides, it works for being the end of the first half of this story.

Part II will hopefully be more exciting than Part I, so look forward to that, I guess.