I was going to make you all wait until tomorrow before I posted this, but I figured I'd post it now instead.
Also, on another note, you all have kept me highly amused while reading your comments on the last couple chapters. So thanks for that.
Enjoy!
Thirteen's POV
Devin looks down at his watch again before motioning for the guard to unlock my cell. The door to the room opens before the guard's across the room, and Devin lets out a gasp of shock.
"Zombie!" He screams. "Zombie! He's risen from the dead!" He's screaming and pointing at a blood and soot-covered Zack standing in the doorway with a large black bag slung over his shoulder.
The guard turns to look, pulling his gun and Devin shoots him in the back when he turns away.
Zack looks over at me. "He was supposed to shoot me once. Once. Does this look like once?" He gestures to the bullet holes in his shirt. "And another thing, the incinerator? What the hell is wrong with you?!"
Devin smiles widely. "I was inspired."
"Inspired by what? Your future in hell?" Zack growls.
"What?" Jason manages to choke out as he looks between them in utter surprise. Chase is staring wide-eyed, and Lily appears to be getting madder by the second.
"Can one of you unlock the cells now?" I question, a smile on my face.
"I'm on it," Devin says as he rifles through the guard's pockets and removes a set of keys.
"Zack, you take care of the cameras?" I ask.
Zack nods. "Garrett won't be able to tell you're all on the loose until too late. And I located Sam. He's on the other end of the base."
"I could have told her that. I found him first," Devin says.
"It's not a competition," Zack says dully.
"You only say that cause you lost." Zack sticks his foot out and trips Devin when he walks past.
"You were in on all of this and left us out," Chase states angrily as he looks at me.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I took a page out of Ryder's book. And if I had told any of you about this, your reactions wouldn't be as real. I couldn't have any slip-ups. Garrett had to believe everything."
Jason is suddenly able to find his words. "You shot me!" He shouts at Devin. "You actually shot me!"
"That was purely for survival. You were looking like you intended to kill me. And I intended to live," Devin replies, not at all sorry.
"How long were you planning this?" Chase asks me, ignoring Jason who's spewing curse words at Devin.
"I'll leave you in your cell," I hear Devin say. Jason shuts up.
"For a while now," I reply to Chase as Devin unlocks my cell. "I had Zero doctor up some old files of Devin's. I had to make sure that when Garrett went digging into Devin, he'd only find what was needed to cause him to trust him. After that, it was all on Devin. And I needed someone out running around when we all got caught, so I had Devin 'kill' Zack. None of this was supposed to happen for another week or more. Garrett getting Sam and Lily escalated things."
"I only agreed to that because he was supposed to shoot me once. Three times. Three freaking times. Body armor or not, it's still damn painful!"
"You'll live," I reply simply. Devin moves on to unlock Lily's cell after he gets Chase and Jason out.
I hear the sound of something hitting metal, followed by a cry from Devin and a thud as he falls to the floor, a red welt beginning to form in the shape of the metal bars of the cells on his forehead. Lily glares murderously down at him, still locked inside.
Jason smiles widely. "I'm glad someone did it."
I take the keys from the floor next to Devin and unlock Lily's cell. She scowls at me.
"I'm mad at you too," She says. "What the hell were you thinking leaving me out of this plan?"
I shrugged. "I might have been inclined to tell you, but you went off with Sam and got yourselves caught. So I didn't have the chance."
"But you're not sure you would have anyway," Lily states. I nod. She frowns as she gazes at the bruise on the side of my face and turns her cold glare to Devin who's just now getting to his feet. "He hit you."
I nod again. "I was expecting it. It was part of the plan," I reply. I narrow my eyes at Devin. "The kick that came after wasn't."
"Just playing the part," Devin says with a smile. His smile falters when Lily takes a threatening step toward him.
He pulls Jason in front of him to use as a human shield.
Jason scowls at him. "I'm about two seconds from shooting you," Jason says. "I wouldn't be using me as a human shield right now."
"Quite frankly, I'm offended how easily you all believed I'd turn on you," Devin says as he takes a few steps away from Jason.
"Also," Zack speaks up again. "No tears shed for my death? Really? I thought you people cared."
"No one likes you," Devin says bluntly. "I thought that was clear."
Zack scowls at him. He drops a bag off his shoulder and roots around in it, pulling out several weapons, and Lily's spiked heels. He hands them to her.
"I love you," She says as she takes them and slips them on quickly. "And for the record, I was sad you died. I actually like you."
Zack smiles widely and shoots a smug look Devin's way. "You hear that Devin?"
Devin looks about ready to actually kill him this time.
Lily glares at him. "You have no damn right to be angry about anything."
I take a pair of handcuffs off the guard and toss them to Devin. He smiles widely. "Ready for me to take you to your doom?" He questions with an evil laugh.
I nod. "Let's get this done," I reply, turning my back to him so he can cuff my hands. He places the handcuff key in my hand and I close my fist around it.
"How bad was Sam?" I question softly. Devin pauses before he finishes cuffing my hands. Zack shifts uncomfortably back and forth on his feet.
Devin finishes cuffing my hands. "He wasn't good," Is all he says.
Not an answer I wanted to hear.
"Garrett doesn't take being tricked very well," Zack says quietly. "And evidently Sam has been tricking him for years."
I nod, keeping my face blank. "Devin, how long do you think you'd be able to take on Garrett?"
Devin looks surprised by my question. "Uh, I really don't know. I don't have much experience actually fighting the guy. I was also under the impression that you would be fighting him."
"You scared of Garrett?" Lily questions in a taunting tone.
Devin stares seriously back at her. "Who in their right mind wouldn't be?"
"I'll need to see how bad Sam's wounds are. And I need to get him out of here as quickly as possible," I reply to Devin. "Which means you're going to have to be the distraction."
"Distraction? What you want me to be sounds an awfully lot like bait, or entertainment."
Lily shakes her head. "Garrett's going to be fighting angry. Devin will last, but not long enough for you to accomplish anything," She says. "I'll go with him. Devin and I can hold him off for a while. Who knows, we might even be able to kill the bastard."
"Excuse me, but it sounds as if you're sacrificing me like a baby lamb to a lion."
"You're not even on the scale of a baby lamb. You're like the rabbit served up as an appetizer first," Lily says dryly.
I ignore Devin and nod to Lily. "Alright." I turn to Jason. "You need to get out of here and get patched up before you lose too much blood," I say, nodding at his bullet wounds.
He shoots a scowl Devin's way. "I'm not going anywhere. You need all the help you can get." The idiot's not going to be any help if he dies from blood loss.
I shrug. "Ok, then I need you, Zack, and Chase to clear a way out of here. We'll need to get Sam out as quickly as possible."
"We're on it," Chase replies as he and Jason load up on weapons.
Chase goes to walk by me out into the hallway. He stops. "You want me to toss Jason out of the base to get medical help from Zero's men?" He whispers questioningly.
I smile. "On his ass," I reply in a whisper.
Chase smiles. "Jason! You're with me. Let's go."
"Devin," I call out, catching his attention. "Let's get moving."
He comes up behind me and grabs hold of my arm. Making it appear as if he's dragging me forcefully alongside him. "Lily, stay close, quiet, and behind me until we get to Garrett," He tells her.
"I'm not an idiot," Lily replies hotly. "That spot on the team's been reserved by you."
Devin breaths out a sigh. "She's never going to get over this is she?" He asks me.
"Not until after she's made you suffer a little for it," I reply with a smile.
"A little? A little is for something minor, like forgetting to feed Angel. There's hell to pay for the shit he's pulled," Lily grumbles.
"Excuse me, but I wasn't alone in this little endeavor. Why am I the only one getting punished?" Devin asks as we walk through the halls, taking various turns.
"Zack got shot, three times," Lily responds. "I've worn that body armor before and yes it stops the bullets but you might as well have gotten shot since it doesn't stop any pain. And Ev got punched and kicked. You were the only one lacking bodily harm."
"You slammed my head into the bars," Devin protests.
Lily scoffs. "Let's be realistic here," She says. "Just for a second. I can't get retribution on Ev, that's just impossible. And again, Zack got shot. He was playing the victim, not the traitor."
"So just because I was given the better part, I'm going to suffer more for it?"
"Now you're getting it."
Devin grumbles something under his breath that I don't catch, but clearly Lily does because she kicks him in the back of his leg as he's walking. He lets out a yelp of surprise and nearly takes me down with him when he stumbles.
"Please refrain from taking your anger out on Devin right now," I tell Lily. "You should really be saving it for Garrett."
"Oh, believe me, it's not going to be a problem. I have good a four, almost five, years of anger stored up for Garrett," Lily says.
"Technically you were unconscious for those years, so . . ." There's another yelp as Lily kicks Devin again.
"If I were you, I think I'd just stop talking at this point," I tell him. He lets out a string of curses under his breath.
He suddenly tenses and gets very serious. "We're almost there," He says quietly.
Lily's footsteps behind us fade until I can no longer hear them at all, but I can still feel her as presses in closer to us, keeping herself hidden behind.
We turn a corner and there's a large metal door at the end. Devin stops in front of the door, and pauses, glancing back at Lily.
"Is she coming in or waiting out here for now?" He asks me.
"Waiting out here, we don't want Garrett to spot her immediately. He has to believe nothing's wrong." I turn to Lily. "Wait for a couple minutes, then come in. It's up to you whatever happens next."
Lily nods and pulls her crossbow off her shoulder and loads an arrow into it. "How big of an entrance would you like me to make?"
"That's entirely up to you," I reply. Her eyes spark with mischief and her devilish intentions. She just nods.
I turn back toward the door and nod to Devin. He nods back. "Just so you know," He says, his voice barely a whisper. "It's bad. It's really bad."
I keep my face blank and nod to the door. He wipes his usual mischievous look away and replaces it with the cocky dark smile as he opens the door and shoves me inside roughly.
No amount of warning could have prepared me for what I see.
Sam's strapped down to a long table, his eyes are closed and whether he's unconscious or not, I can't tell. I can't even tell the exact extent of his wounds, because everything is covered in blood. I can see various slashes and holes spread across his body, and I can't tell what wounds are the worst. His left arm is twisted at an awkward angle and there isn't much left of what used to be his shirt but is now nothing more than shreds and strips of blood-soaked fabric.
Garrett leans back against the wall, his hands cross over his chest, and a smug smile in place on his face. He waves his hands with a flourish over Sam.
"My finest work," He says. "He deserved it, you know. I trusted him."
My hand tightens on the handcuff key as I begin to unlock the cuffs. Devin moves discreetly closer to Garrett, putting himself between him and me.
I clench my teeth and I can feel my hands shaking as I try to subtly unlock the cuffs on my wrists. I don't want to keep looking at Sam, but I can't seem to look away.
Garrett's taunting laugh echoes in the room. "He's still alive you know," He says. "I wanted to make sure he was able to hear your screams and know what he caused before I finished him off."
I don't bother trying to hide the anger. I glare murderously at Garrett, bringing every bit of anger I hold against him to the surface.
This ends today. Once, and for all.
"You're going to wish, you'd never laid a hand on him," I say, venom coating my words and my eyes flashing dangerously. I let a deadly smile spread across my lips. "And I promise you this, you deserve everything that's coming your way, because I will not stop, until you've been taken down. This is it, Garrett. You've struck back at me for too long. So, I've only got one question for you." I take a threatening step towards him and his eyes flicker warily.
"Do you have any last words?"
Vote
Comment
Enjoy!
Still hating me?
And Thanks for Reading!