He's a She

Chapter Twenty-Two

            Parker woke to Luke shaking his shoulder lightly.

            “We’re here,” he spoke lightly as Parker stirred, cracking his eyes open and groaning.  He had been having a relatively nice nap.  He sat up the rest of the way and looked out the window taking stalk of the situation.  Luke had parker the car on the side of the street that paralleled a large gravel parking lot.  Every once in a while a car would zoom by, passing them as they stayed parked on the shoulder. 

            Parker covered his eyes, blocking out the sun as he looked out to the lake.  It was near sundown and there was a horrible glare.  He could barely make out the silhouette of the loading building that was placed at the opposite end of the parking lot.  It was a large square metal building with boarding doors on all sides.

            “That’s it,” Parker spoke.  This was it.  He opened his door and slid out of the car, stretching his sore muscles.  Luke followed suit as Parker started across the lot. 

            “So,” Luke started, “What do we do when we get there?”  Parker stopped, cocked his head to the side, lost in thought.

            “I’m not sure.  We just have to get her out of there in one piece.”

            “Oh, that sounds like quite the plan.” Parker rolled his eyes and continued towards the building, his bare feet were cold against the frozen gravel and he shivered with the next coming gust of wind.

            “You have a better one?” He shot back at Luke as they gained even more ground.

            They stopped beside the building, Parker glaring at it and Luke searching. 

            “I think we can get in through here,” Parker stated as he started walking to the nearest loading door.

            “Hey,” Luke grabbed Parker’s arm and pointed.  “What about that?” Parker frowned, following Luke’s extended arm.  Luke smiled and jogged up to the ladder.  Parker frowned.

            “I hate heights,” he grumbled and before following close behind.

            I stayed crouched, watching waiting.  I was breathing as controlled as possible, a hand covering my mouth so that my breath wouldn’t be visible to anyone passing by or looking down my aisle.  Eventually they would find me, but hopefully not anytime soon.  I needed time to plan this out, I needed time to get them distracted and to get myself away from here. 

            I heard some shuffling to my right and tried to look, but couldn’t get the best view.  There was one of the loading doors there, the ones for semis.  It was opened by about two feet or so, I swear someone had just walked passed it.

            “Close those doors!” My dad yelled from some point to my left and behind me.  “We don’t need her getting out.  Nobody leaves this room.” I shrunk back further into my crevice as the man I had driven me here went over to the door and pulled it closed the rest of the way.  The metal screeched all of the way down, signifying the end to my escape plan.  Even if I was able to get to the door, there was no way I would be able to open it without being detected.

            I cursed in my head.  I needed a new plan.  I looked up a bit through the holes that were along the inside of the sphere.  I had found that they gave me a better view of the rest of the room.  I looked up passed the newly closed door to the railings and fire escape like platforms that ran across the building.  Maybe if I could go up I could get out. 

            Jaxon surfaced in my mind.  I wouldn’t doubt it if my father had hurt him, he hadn’t stopped me, heck, he hadn’t even tried.  I also wouldn’t doubt it if he was the one who told Parker to get out of that hospital.  They would have killed him in that bed, and Jaxon still had some sanity left.  He would never let that happen to his little brother.

            I continued to carefully turn around in my sphere of safety, careful not to agitate the grate too much so I was still rather quiet.  I turned around, keeping an eye on all of the men.  So far the man who had driven me here, the balding one, was busy closing doors.  The one who had thrown me into the car was at his side, watching his back in case I dramatically popped out by them.  He had a gun in hand.  I shivered.  They were going to kill me.  It was obvious that I wasn’t going to cooperate, so they would kill me. 

            The man I had hit with the chair was no where to be found, but either was Jaxon.  My father was standing on one of the platforms, getting a bird’s eye view of the floor.  I counted two other men as well.  That made it five gunned men against one gymnastics super star.  Bring it on.

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What is this, Charlene with a game face?  Yeah Parker isn't fearless, but that doens't make him any less minty...