A/N: I changed the times of the last chapter from 4am to 11pm to make it fit into the story better.
"Joe? If I ask you something will you promise to tell me the truth?" Addie asked, peering at her brother.
They had been in the car for the last hour and a half, mostly in silence. She had already re-read the book that Riley had shoved in her bag, grateful for something to break the awkward silence.
"What is it?" Not exactly answering the question.
"I'm not a little girl" She told him, sitting up straight to prove her point. "I know something that you and Harlan are doing is wrong. Too many bad things happen. What is his job?"
"That is not something I can answer." Addie huffed out. "But, after this has all blown over I think Harlan, Harry, you and I need to sit down and have a talk." Addie liked that idea, she would finally get answers.
"And as for being a little girl, you'll always be a little girl to your brothers." He chuckled.
"Even when I'm 18?" She asked, as if it was the worse thing that had happened today.
"Probably even when you're 50 with kids."
"That will be annoying"
"Probably"
Silence settled in the car as the trees zipped past.
"Where are we going?"
Addie frowned when Joe placed a finger to his lips, indicating her to be quiet. He leant over and whispered into her ear.
"Anyone could be listening."
"Oh."
Addie flipped back to the front of her book, attempting to read it upside down, it wasn't like she had anything else to do.
"Why did we all split up?" She eventually piped up. "Surely it would be safer to go together."
"So we aren't all together if something happens" He evasively answered.
"So if some of us die, we don't all die?" Her question was met with deathly silence, no-one daring to speak up.
'Awkward' she thought.
Addie shut her mouth and went back to her book.
They were passing through a town when the two men hesitated. Addie noticed the driver's eyes twitching continuously between the car behind them and the road ahead. They took a number of turns onto random streets, but the car still followed.
"Sir, I think we're being tailed" The passenger said. Addie and Joe glanced out the back window, a dark coloured car driving behind them on the empty street. She could just about make out the figure of 2 men in the front, one with sunglasses on.
"Shit" Joe swore. "If there's one, there'll be more nearby" He told the men in front, leaning over.
"Do whatever you have to do to lose them" Addie's eyes darted to the back as they sped up, the car behind doing the exact same.
The driver yanked the steering wheel to the right, skidding the car, Addie sliding along the seat.
She yelped when she heard the peppering shots of bullets on their back window. Joe grabbed his sister, harshly yanking her to the floor of the car.
Although the windows were bullet proof he wasn't taking any risks. The sudden contact with the floor made Addie wince, she still wasn't fully recovered from her surgery and her brother treating her like a rag doll didn't help.
The car didn't stop, from the way she shifted on the floor Addie knew they were continuously swerving down different roads.
Addie heard crying in the car, not realising it was coming out of her own mouth as she tucked her head in her chest.
The dark haired man in the passenger seat had a map out, as they couldn't use a SatNav, he was shouting directions at the driver, trying to be heard over the squealing of the tires and Addie's cries in the backseat.
"Hold tight" The driver suddenly announced, swerving off the road. He was in a pedestrian park, mostly empty except for the occasional few people dotted around.
He tooted the horn, letting it rip through the air like a wail, alerting those ahead of their presence.
The car behind still followed, it was joined by a larger blue car now. They flew off the grass and swerved through a set of traffic lights, narrowly missing a car. Cars on either side of them had to break hard to avoid the car that ran through them.
Addie heard a bang, the dark blue car had crashed into an oncoming vehicle, denting it, but they had managed to loose them.
Addie peeked her head out the window, they were still on the busy road. Ten minutes later and they knew there was no-one following.
Joe hadn't relaxed, his back pressed to the window, staring at every car around them, looking for something suspicious.
Nothing around them gave indication of another follower and they were back in the streets of the town, passing houses and trying to blend in.
They were nearing the forest on the edge of town, tall trees casting shadows on the nearby buildings.
They had just past 5th street when two identical black cars pulled out, one on either side of the road. This wasn't a coincidence, the only way they could drive was forward.
"Shane, DRIVE" Joe yelled at the man who had also seen the cars. For the second time Addie was pushed into the floor. Joe pulled the carpeted flooring up, opening a concealed, shallow hatch.
Addie gasped when she saw the shiny black weapons. They were large, clearly intended to inflict many casualties. She only stopped staring at the guns when her back banged into the door.
Small circular objects were also tucked away in larger containers, it didn't take a genius to figure out what it was.
Shane bared his teeth as he swerved again, desperately trying to dodge the bullets directed for the tires and windows. They drove up onto a grassy bank, the car slightly tilted sideways.
The pursuing demons didn't give up, still hot on their tails. Addie gripped the necklace tightly in her fingers, fiddling with it to calm herself down.
"How the hell did they find us again?" Joe called, passing a gun to the man in the passenger seat. Addie saw him pull out the smaller shotgun from his belt, placing it on the dashboard, his hands gripping the heavy weapon.
"Joe, what's happening?" She cried sitting up as bullets swiped the side of the cars, not breaking through the heavy protection.
He didn't answer, only sparing half a glance at her panicked form. He doubled around, diving for her.
Addie squealed as his hands wrapped around her neck. She thought he was trying to choke her, but his hands tugged away sharply, yanking the chain from her neck.
He tipped onto the floor, pulling the pendant Harry had given her when they first met off. He slammed the butt of his gun onto it repeatedly. He cracked the window open and chucked it as far as he could into the forest.
"What a-"
"Tracker" Was all he said. "Harlan put a tracker in it to make sure you where safe, they must have hacked it"
If they weren't in imminent danger Addie would be pissed off at her brothers belief that she needed a constant babysitter in the form of a tracker. She picked the remaining part of the necklace up and shoved it into the pocket or Rileys jumper.
It was ironic. Harlan gave her something to protect her, instead leading her into to eminent danger. Each pop of a gun caused flashed of light, severing the darkness.
A tree branch whacked into their front window, slowing the car down ever so slightly, but enough for the black car in front to zip ahead of them, open firing as they did so.
Addie stared in confusion as they slowed down ahead, opening their windows, pulling out a large machine she couldn't even describe.
Words couldn't even be put into her brain about the fear that she experienced. An object flew like a bird through the air, zooming for them. Joe dived on his sister, shielding her small body.
Shane reversed backwards as quickly as possible. It all happened so quickly.
It blew up before it hit them, creating a huge fireball in the air, the edges singing their car. Debris flew all around them, piercing the windows. Red scattered across the sky, illuminating the stars.
Addie finally sat up, her ears ringing. The other black car had seemed to take most of the impact, it was now a smouldering wreck, smoke pouring from all possible gaps.
The part of the blast that had hit her car was mainly on the front drivers side. In-front of her Shane was slumped, his head on the dashboard. He was dead, she knew.
Here she was, confronted with death, her worst fear.
The passenger man was groaning, clutching his head that was leaking blood. Half of Joe's hair was missing from his head, singed off.
She hadn't even had time to open her mouth when Joe gripped the gun from the floor, spraying bullets towards the men in the car.
Their windows weren't bullet proof apparently, the balls of metal splitting through, lodging into their brains before the men could react. A figure emerged from the back, holding something tightly in his left fist.
With one swoop he threw it, at the exact same time that Joe shot him in the chest, his body slumping like a sack of potatoes, blood gushing around him.
The object he threw bounced. It came to a stop in the car and Addie looked down. Shit.
"Grenade" Joe shouted.
Addie saw the man in the passenger seat toppling out the car as he opened the door.
She felt her brothers strong grip lift her off the floor, propelling her forward. The door hung open. His strength shoved her clean of the door and onto the gravel. Her arms and legs scrabbled at the floor, desperate to get away from the car, hoping her brother was following.
Her heart didn't have time to beat in her chest as the world slowed down, a tiny tase of adrenaline.
Behind her Joe leapt from the car, his feet jutting him forward.
It was in mid-air that it reached him. In movies you see people jumping from flames and explosions, always surviving with barely a scratch, their only injuries the dust that cloaks them. Addie knew that wasn't real life.
A whistle sounded through the air, glass shattering from its flames, metal deforming under the intense heat.
As soon as Addie reached the side of the road she turned to face her brother, it was that simple action that she would forever regret doing.
She watched terror-stricken as Joe's body was swallowed by the leaping ball of fire, agony ingrained onto his strained face.
His limp body was thrown through the air landing like a sack of potatoes metres from the where Adeline sat horrified. The car was still coveted in flames but Addie payed no heed, instead she rushed to her brother.
The ring of fire ripped through the darkness like a blade, cutting out rough figures and spaces. She could see around her; the trees that danced in the wind, the searing car.
The gust of air whipped through her hair, blinding her eyes. The bright glow silhouetting her brothers form. Her ears were muted, strained from the blast as a layering of soot covered her form.
Addie dropped to the floor as light as a feather.