We both took one of John's arms and wrapped them around our shoulders. This position made it difficult to hold up my weapon, but not impossible. John was still able to use his other leg and limped along with us pretty good despite the fact that we were both shorter than him. It was a slow go getting over all the men we had gunned down. I couldn't even bring myself to feel bad about it, even if I had wanted to.
The hotel had taken on an eerie silence. My ears were sting ringing from all the gunfire and adrenaline pumping my blood at warp speed. We nearly dropped John as Lucas came around the corner.
"Don't shoot!" he barked as he retreated back around the corner.
I lowered my weapon and shuffled John's arm back in place. He had almost slipped off when I'd jumped at the sight of Lucas. Rose and I helped John onto one of the shredded couches. I winced in sympathy as he let out a grunt when his leg hit the cushion. The sitting area and bar were a mess. The expensive furniture had been destroyed in the firefight. Bodies were lying all over the place. Blood was everywhere. I didn't imagine there would be so much blood ...
Rose hurried over to Leo's fallen body after we dumped John. Everyone else had survived. I gave Lucas, Ethan and Sheri a weak smile. Lucas kneeled down and began to examine John's leg wound.
"Looks like the bullet went right through, tore up your muscle pretty good though," Lucas said. "We just gotta get the bleedin' to stop and you'll be fine-eventually."
John shuffled off the backpack he still had on and handed it to Lucas. "There's a small bit of first aid supplies. I figured we might need 'em."
Lucas pulled out a small jar of peroxide and other first aid fixings. He untied the windbreaker around John's leg and ripped his jeans all the way around until the entire rest of the material came off. It was like John was wearing a pair of jeans on one leg and jean shorts on the other. Lucas dumped some of the peroxide on the wound and John let out a hiss. Blood and liquid poured onto the floor, streaking the white linoleum pinkish.
"You pack a needle and thread?" Lucas looked up at John.
John nodded grimly. Lucas kept digging in the backpack until he pulled out a spool of medical thread and a needle encased in plastic. He ripped the plastic off the needle with his teeth, then threaded the needle with surprisingly steady hands. My own were still shaking slightly. When Lucas sunk the needle into John's leg I turned away and went over to Rose. Sheri was talking to her lightly, trying to coax her from hovering over Leo's body.
I closed my eyes for a brief second and took a breath, then looked down. Rose had maneuvered Leo so that he was no longer hunched over the dead girl but was lying beside her, his eyes closed. I was about to place a hand on her shoulder when a loud bang on the floor above us had me jerking my head toward the ceiling. My eyes flashed to Ethan who was at the ready with his own semi-automatic rifle.
Lucas hurried to finish tying off John's wound. He made a loop and cut the rest of the thread with his teeth. Ick. He pushed himself up and got his own gun ready.
"We did a sweep down here. The rest must be upstairs," he said, ejecting his magazine and stuffing it full again.
I sprinted over to the them and did the same, filling up my first AR15 magazine.
"Did you see any of the girls?" Sheri asked.
She had managed to get Rose up and back over to us. Rose looked lost, her cocky and rude demeanor completely washed away. Don't think about Leo, there's still work to do.
"Just the one in the bar area. They gotta be on the next floor," Lucas answered.
Another bang above us had everyone spurring into action.
Lucas pointed a finger at John. "You stay." John froze in the middle of getting up.
"Like hell I'm stayin' here!" John said with venom.
"You'll just slow us down and we're gonna need to take the stairs, which you can't do with that injured leg," Lucas said, no hint of superiority, just cold hard truth.
John let out a very unlike John curse. He knew Lucas was right. We couldn't afford to look after him if we had to have another shoot-out. John held his gun close as his eyes swept over the floor.
"I don't like it, but fine."
"All right, let's go."
Lucas led the remainder of us down the hallway. I gave John one last look just before he disappeared from sight. He gave me a clipped nod, letting me know he would be fine. He wasn't one to let ego get in the way. Together, the rest of us ran down the hallway heading for the stairs just past the dead elevator. Whatever power they were using to keep the lights on didn't extend to the lift. Lucas opened the door to the stairs and we ascended upwards in grim silence.
We still needed to find the girls and Zoe. There's no way they would be up there by themselves, so I prepared myself for more carnage. The door to the second floor flew open as we were still climbing. A burly man without a shirt burst through and began shooting. We all returned fire and the guy was hit many times. He stumbled back into the hallway as we took the rest of the stairs two at a time.
Lucas reached the door as it was about to close and held it open. He lifted up his hand, stalling us right behind him. The mercenary we had gunned down was lying on his back in the hallway, one of his feet stuck in the doorway. Lucas shuffled the guy's foot out of the way and stuck his head out the door, a bullet nearly hitting him, implanting itself in the frame beside his head. Lucas returned fire with just his gun sticking out of the doorway, his body still in the stairwell. They took turns shooting at each other until the other person stopped. Either they were out of bullets or Lucas had hit him with his random shooting.
We burst into the hallway. Indeed, another man lay dead about midway down the corridor with bullet holes decorating the wall space around him. Sheri let off a couple of nervous rounds even though there wasn't anyone actually shooting at us anymore. Lucas yelled at her to stop and she did. She looked deathly pale from fright. Slowly, we inched our way down the second floor hall. Door after closed door passed us. I heard knocking and screams from the inside.
"Help us!" a distinctly female voice sounded from the other side of room 215.
"Get back from the door!" I yelled.
I pulled out my Beretta and shot at the card reader door handle. It blew apart and the door creaked open. Three terrified girls looked back at us as they scuttled away having spotted our weapons.
"We're here to help," I said holding up my arms.
"All that shooting downstairs, was that you?" one girl asked.
She couldn't have been more than fifteen. Her dirty and tattered clothes hung off her small frame still skinny with adolescence. Those mercenaries deserved worse than a bullet to the head.
"Yes. Do you know where the rest of the men are?" It was a long shot, but I had to ask.
The young girl shook her head, but the oldest of the three spoke up.
"T-they use the meetin' room at the end of the hall. It overlooks the pool." She pointed due north toward the end of the hallway.
I looked at Lucas. "Why aren't they out here shooting at us?"
"Don't know." He narrowed his eyes, squinting the rest of the way down the hallway. "Probably hidin' away like cowards."
I turned back to the girls. "Do you know another girl by the name of Zoe?"
All three shook their heads. My heart sunk. "T-they keep us in here until they," the oldest swallowed, "until they need us. We don't get to see much of the other girls." My heart picked itself back up. Zoe might still be in here.
I could see bruises lining her naked arms and her lip was busted. If they hurt Zoe...
"Stay here until we come back," I said.
The youngest jolted forward and grabbed my arm, her eyes desperate. "Please don't leave us!"
"I'll stay here with them," Sheri said, taking the girls hand from my arm. "You go free the rest of the girls and send them to this room."
The girl seemed to relax at Sheri's words. She led them back inside the room so they were out of the line of fire should someone start shooting. The inside window had been boarded up so the girls only way put was the room door. Somehow they had managed to lock the doors from the outside. That was a scary thought. I didn't know hotels had that ability.
We continued down the hallway, knocks and yells coming from behind the doors we passed. Each room that we cleared had more girls, but none of them contained Zoe. We were running out of rooms to check. Some of the girls thanked us profusely, while others visibly slunk away from Lucas and Ethan. I could only imagine the horrors they'd gone through at the hands of the mercenaries. It made me what to kill them all over again.
I stood in front of the last hotel room door on this floor, my hands scared to open it. What would I do if Zoe wasn't in there? Where did I go from here? Lucas noticed my hesitance and pushed me aside, opening the door with his own gun. His was way louder, causing a fit of screams on the other side of the door. Please be Zoe, please be Zoe. The door swung open, but the girls were out of view. Probably hiding from the loud shot.
I cleared my throat. "Zoe?"
No answer.
"Zoe?"
Light footsteps approached me. I hadn't realized I had been looking at the ground, unwilling to face the possibility of my failure of not finding Zoe. Two girls stood in front of me, neither of them my best friend. Tears threatened as my brain worked through what this meant. Zoe wasn't here. She was more than likely dead. I wiped away the rogue tears and instructed the girls to head to 215 and wait for us to finish clearing the second floor. All that was left was the boardroom the first girl had told us about.
I don't know how I was still clinging to hope that Zoe was in there, but I was. One group of girls had told us that the mercenaries didn't use any of the floors higher than two. Too much energy to upkeep the entire building. So, this was my last hope for finding Zoe. I dragged my heavy feet over to the set of closed double doors to stand beside the others who were waiting for me.
I listened closely, picking up on movement inside. I nodded back to Lucas, Ethan and Rose. We got into formation around the doors with our guns pointed and ready. Lucas and I kicked in the doors at the same time, the meager lock not standing a chance against both of our strength. Gunfire immediately started from behind the boardroom table.
I aimed for the guy at the end of the table who was partially exposed. One of my bullets landed in the middle of his forehead sending him to the floor with a spray of blood that coated the blank whiteboard. The others were able to take out the rest of the men.
"Stop! Lucas!" one of the men cried out.
Lucas's head knocked back and he motioned for us to stop firing. The room was still. No one dared to move as if one little sound would send us back to war.
The guy hesitantly popped his head out from behind the table. "Lucas, my man, you know I didn't-" The man didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Lucas shot him in the face.
I looked at Lucas for an explanation.
"He was the traitor who turned me over to Shawn," Lucas said. "Don't know what he was doin' here. Bastard should've been at the first compound we checked."
His voice was cold as he regarded the guy he just shot. I walked around the table surveying the damage and searching for a female. No Zoe. She really wasn't here. I had failed her. All this had been for nothing. Not nothing. You saved those girls. It was a small consolation prize to my grief filled mind. I didn't even get to say goodbye...
A noise came from the closet pulling me from my aguish. Lucas approached the closet and turned the knob. A guy came tumbling out-he was already sniveling.
"Please don't kill me!" he pleaded.
His head was downcast and he was practically bowing in submission to us. His whole form was shaking. I didn't care how pathetic he looked, he was one of the sick bastards in this place. He wouldn't be shown any mercy. Lucas walked over to him calmly.
"You got one chance and one chance only, were else are the men in the buildin'?" Lucas said.
"I don't know! Please don't-" he was cut off as Lucas shot him in the calf.
The man let out a cry and fell to his side clutching is injured leg. He cried into the floor, a string of drool leaking from his mouth.
"Where are the rest?" Lucas asked again.
Ethan gave me a pleading look. He wanted me to stop Lucas from torturing the guy, but I had no intentions of stopping him. This is the last chance we would get. Snot bubbles joined in as the man became even more of a drooling mess. "Just the first floor and s-second." Just as the girl had said.
Lucas turned to me. "You and Rose stay with him, while Ethan and I verify."
"Sure."
After Lucas and Ethan thumped away, the man looked up at me with his eyebrows drawn and face scrunched in pain. "Please just let me go. I'm not like those men!"
I gave him the most apathetic look I could muster, which was hard because I wanted nothing more than to bash his face in for Zoe. "Then why are you here?"
He started to snivel again. "It was either that or they killed me!" He turned his pleading look onto Rose, which was a bad idea.
She wound up her leg and kicked him square in the gut. "Your friends killed mine!"
Another kick. "Your friends kidnapped me and sent me off to that damn hospital!"
An even harder kick. The man let out an unholy squeal. "Your friends killed Leo! He was like a son!"
She didn't kick him again because she was too busy falling to the ground in tears. Sobs shook her entire body. I placed a hand on her shoulder and she let me. She didn't swat me off like a wild animal like I half expected her to. Everyone had their breaking point and Rose had just found hers. I was pretty sure I was nearing mine. The goal of finding Zoe had kept me going, but now what did I have? Nothing. Just a missing toe, haunted memories and dead friends.
Lucas and Ethan came back into the room a short while later. Rose had composed herself and was no longer crying. Her eyes were swollen and red giving away her cold demeanor she had tried to put back into place.
"There's no one on the other floors," Lucas said, not taking his eyes off of the man.
The mercenary was curled into the fetal positon, staring at the corner of the room.
"Where's Shawn?" Lucas asked.
This got the man's attention. He went to speak and then started to cough. Maybe Rose had kicked in his lungs as well.
"Well?" Lucas prompted.
"J-just kill me," the man whimpered.
It was a good thing John was downstairs. I don't think he would approve of our interrogation. Ethan was already squirming, clearly uncomfortable with what was happening. He kept trying to catch my eye with his own, but I ignored him. This would be for Zoe. If I couldn't find her, I would kill every mercenary I could find until they were no more.
"Not until you tell us where Shawn is!" Lucas raised the butt of his rifle and brought it down on the man's leg where he had shot him earlier.
The man struggled against Lucas, so Lucas brought down his knee onto the guy's throat, trapping him in place. The mercenary clawed at Lucas's leg, but he didn't budge. Lucas shouldered his rifle and pulled out a switchblade, flicking the blade up. The mercenary's eyes budged even more. He looked at us like we were the bad guys, and I suppose for just this moment, we were.
"I'm goin' to ask you again. Where. Is. Shawn?"
Ethan took a step forward, but I grabbed onto his arm. "Don't."
"Are you seein' this? You can't be okay with this?!" Ethan said, his voiced strained.
"He's one of them," I simply said.
Ethan's jaw dropped as he peered at me, taking a step back. "You can't be serious. I know you Bailey, this ain't you."
The others had turned to watch our interaction. Lucas let out an annoyed grunt, and turned back to the mercenary trapped under his knee. He raised the knife and the man screamed, "He's at the river drop-off zone with a couple of girls. He's tradin' 'em to stop the gang we've been havin' trouble with. A peace-offerin'!"
The air disappeared from my lungs. Zoe could still be alive! I stepped forward, interrupting Lucas.
"When did he leave?" I asked.
"This mornin'."
Damn. It was at least noon now.
"When was the meet?"
"All I know is that they aren't to be expected back until late."
That bode well for us. Maybe they would still be there by the time we reached them.
"Do you remember the girls' names?"
The man shook his head. Of course the sicko didn't, the mercenaries wouldn't care about that.
"Do you remember what they looked like?"
The man started to shake.
"Answer her!" Lucas raised the knife again.
The mercenary raised his hands to stop the blow. "Blonde! One was blonde!"
Natural blondes are rare these days. The words of the mercenary who killed Roy echoed in my head making my hands twitch.
"And the others?"
The guy took in a deep breath. "All I know is one was sort of Asian."
My body went still. Could be Zoe. I needed to calm down. Zoe wasn't the only half Asian girl in the world, but hope reared its head again. I had to check.
"Where's the river drop-off zone?" I finally asked.
"They don't tell me those things," he squeaked out.
Lucas gave him a warning look.
"B-but Keenan would know. He looks after this place," the man answered in a rush.
"Who's Keenan?" I asked.
"Big guy. His was up here just before you came."
The big guy from the stairwell? Shit, he was dead.
"You're the only one left alive in here," Lucas said.
The man let out a low wail. "Keenan wou-will have a log of all the areas. He was Shawn's pet dog."
"Where?"
"He had his own room on the main floor. It'll be there."
Lucas removed his knee and the man relaxed, only to be pulled up by the scruff of his neck. Lucas was still strong enough to lift the man up despite the bite on his shoulder he sustained yesterday.
"You're goin' to show us," Lucas said, shoving the guy toward the door.
We walked out with the hobbled man. He stumbled a few times, but Lucas just yanked him back to an upright position. I could hear all the girl's voice in 215 as we approached the room on our way back to the stairs. They stopped as they saw us pass by. One of the girls started to cry when she spotted the mercenary. Another girl comforted her while shooting daggers at the man. Any sliver of sympathy I may have felt for the man stopped right there.
"Should we come too?" Sheri asked.
There had to be at least thirteen females we had rescued.
"Yes. You guys can stay with John in the seating area while we check something out," I said.
They followed us down the stairs, then Sheri led them over to where John was nervously waiting for us. He relaxed when he spotted all the girls. His eyes fixed on mine and I shook my head. No Zoe. The girls were clearly uncomfortable. They wanted to leave, but they would be sitting ducks if they ran out there unarmed.
Ethan stayed back with John and Sheri, more than likely unwilling to be partner to what would eventually happen. This guy was as good as dead once we found what we needed-if he was telling the truth. Lucas shoved the guy forward and we continued on.