The moment my eyes open, I immediately want to close them and hide underneath my cover, but instead I pull myself out of bed and get dressed. I check to make sure that the necklace Sebastian gave me is secured around my neck. I walk out my door and see everyone but Em in the living room. It doesn't take long before she's here, and we start to leave.
"Wait," I say, "Let me say goodbye to Wendy before we go." I hurry next door where Bruce, Em, and Wendy sleep. She is nestled in the covers of her bed, the moment I step in her eyes fly open.
"Veronica?" She says in her sweet little voice.
"Hey sweetheart, I just wanted to say goodbye before I left," I say.
"I'll see you later right," she asks.
"Of course," I say, but not without a small hesitation.
"Okay," she smiles, "Be back soon please."
"I'll do my best," I say, "Now go back to sleep." I stand back up from where I was crouch next to her, and walk back to the others.
"Ready," Sebastian asks.
"As I'll ever be," I reply.
"Let's go then," Bruce says walking out the door.
It's a long quiet walk, with a nervous tension that fills the air. None of have the words to say, so we walk in silence praying that everything will be okay. At some point during our walk Sebastian must have noticed the tremor in my hands because he takes mine in his warm, calm hand. We start to near the compound, and my heart rate starts to escalate beyond what I think is a healthy rate.
"This is it," Em says, "it's now or never."
Then we start putting our plan into action. We sneak to the door, and we all take in a deep breath, then Sebastian shoved it open and we go in. When we enter there seem to be way more than thirty guards. They all turn their heads in our direction, and for one single moment we all stand there staring at each other, but then that moment ends and we are thrown into a blur of kicks and punches. I try to fall back on the little training I have, and apparently Sebastian is a better teacher than I thought he was, or they're just not that good at fighting. I manage to take down about five guys, before I notice that there are only two left, who both seem to be attacking Sebastian. I start to go to help, but before I even get there he has them taken down.
"Let's hurry," Em says, running to the stairwell.
We climb the stairs two at a time, we make it to level two, and Bruce and Em split going through the door. Sebastian and I continue up the stairs, we encounter one guard who Sebastian throws down the stairs, and I can hear is bones snap. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy had gotten spinal damage from how he landed. The moment we reach the door to the third floor, Sebastian wastes no time in pushing it open, and we enter. Luckily there weren't as many guards as we thought there were going to be, and we, mainly Sebastian, were able to disarm them. Sebastian knocked out the cameras, and then we entered the control room. I started the hack while Sebastian started piling things in front of the door.
The next fifteen minutes are grueling as I try my best to hack in. There are more security measures than I thought there would be, and panic rises as each minute passes.
"How's it coming?" He asked.
"This is going to take longer than I though it would," I say not taking my eyes off the screen. "If I'm not finished in the next couple minutes, you need to leave without me."
"What!? I'm not doing that," he demands.
"Sebastian, I'm not going to debate this with you," I answer pushing my fingers to type faster.
The minutes tick by, and along with them does my hope. "I'm not going to be able to finish this before the time we need to leave."
"Then leave it, we'll find another way," he pleads.
"I can't Sebastian, if I don't finish this now, I may never get another chance to take this down," I say sharply, "but you can go."
"I'm not leaving you," he says.
"Sebastian get out now," I demand.
"No!" He says.
"Sebastian!" I say turning around, "Get out now! There is no reason for us both to die. If I finish then I will meet you at the rendezvous point."
"I-" he starts.
"GO!" I practically scream. "I'll meet you out there."
"Veronica, I will not leave you!" He shouts back.
"Sebastian, I can't finish this if I worry about you, and if we keep arguing there will be no chance of me getting this done. So go and I will try to meet you out there," I yell.
"I will meet you outside!" He says.
"If you go now then I probably can, but if you don't then definitely not," I plead one last time.
"Fine, but I will see you again," he says. I nod and return my gaze back to the screen to continue typing. I hear him move the stuff to open the door, and close the door behind him. My fingers move faster than I ever thought they could, rivaling my racing heartbeat. It feels like forever, but it couldn't have been more than ten minutes by the time I finish typing. I quickly hit the enter button,and jump up from my seat. I crack the door open slightly to look out to see how many guards are in the hall, I let out a sigh of relief, there's only one. I take in one last breath, and then I go.
The moment I leave the room he sees me and immediately comes my way at a jog, within seconds he is on me. He throws a punch that I easily dodge, and I'm able to land one to his side. The next punch he throws I'm not lucky enough to avoid, but he only hits my shoulder. It produces more pain than I anticipated, and for a single moment I pause from the pain, but then the moment is over and I'm thrown back into reality. He tries to throw a kick, but I catch it and throw it back. While he stumbles, I manage another punch that lands in the side of his face. He pauses and unlike him I take advantage of his pause to throw another, this time to his throat. I bring my leg up and land a kick in his stomach, he hunkers down in pain and I kick him in the head. I don't know if this knocked him out or if he is just disoriented, but he lays sprawled on the ground, and I run. I fly to the stairs, and I'm practically am falling down them. I get to the bottom floor, and yank the door open. I'm greeted by more than three dozen guards. The hope I didn't know was there immediately deflates.
In the time it takes me to blink there are five people surrounding me yanking my hands behind my back. I'm in a daze as they drag me to one of the holding sells. They pull the door open and throw me in, I land hard on the floor pain shooting through my shoulder. I let out a gasp.
"Veronica, are you okay," says a voice.
I turn around, and see someone I never thought I would see. "Axle," I say shocked.
"In the flesh," he says giving a charming smile. Once the shock wears off, I get a good look at the bruises that cover his face. He has a swollen eye, a busted lip, and a gash that stretches from his eyebrow down to his jaw.
"What? How?" I ask.
"They said I had valuable information or something so I've been locked up in here for days, I think," he says. "How about you?"
"We broke in to stop this twisted organization," I say.
"Really, how?" He asks.
"Well, we were going to try to blow up the place," I reply.
"And how did you get caught?" He questioned.
"Leaving the control room," I reply, tenderly touching my shoulder.
"Did you place an explosive in there?" He asked.
"Something like that," I respond with a smile.
"You said we earlier, right?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Me, Sebastian, Em, and Bruce," I say.
"Ah, I see," he says slowly.
Then without warning, the door is opened again providing more light than what the single light bulb was giving off. A tall figure was thrown into the room, and the moment they turn to face me I recognize the handsome face. It's then when I wished it was somebody else, anybody else.
"Sebastian!" I demand, rage shooting through me.