Chapter 32



𝕎𝕒𝕤 𝕚𝕥 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕒𝕟 𝕖𝕤𝕔𝕒𝕡𝕖?

Eve's POV (ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕪)

The grip I had on Lucas's legs slackened with joy when I saw Jay's knowing smirk. I didn't know what I was more grateful for. The fact that they were not Laura's men or that Jay had returned safely. I had prayed for us to come out of this alive and here we were. It felt good to know that the old man up there actually listens.

Lucas heaved a sigh and opened his arms for Damien to walk in, wrapping him in a brotherly hug when he did. Jay walked over to me, with Rita behind him, and swatted. Dropping his gun on the floor, he drew me into his chest, encircling his arms around me so tenderly, I thought I would cry.

Rita chuckled. "Big baby." She snickered and I sent her a playful glare before mouthing, "I miss you too."

She rolled her eyes and smiled.

"How did you find us?" I whispered from the crook of Jay's neck.

His hand tightened around me momentarily before whispering, "I stumbled upon your tracks." Releasing me, he turned to Lucas. "We found fresh tracks on our way here. And judging from the fact that it was just a single track, we figured it might be either one of you."

Lucas and Damien sauntered to our spot and settled on the spot closest to the fire - which ended up being beside me. And so did Rita and Jay, making a circle around the burning wood.

Battered, bruised, fatigued and hungry, we sat there, talking about how we evaded Laura's men, what our next plan of action should be, and how we'll need to be visible if TPD was to find us.

"That wouldn't be much of a problem," Rita said and pulled out her phone from beneath her bra. "It's still on. So the TDP should know exactly where we-"

She wavered as realisation struck her.

"Shit!" She groaned and everyone began to frantically get up, putting off the fire as we made our way out of the cave. No, we didn't make our way out, we practically ran.

"You have to turn off that thing Rita, we won't be able to evade Laura's men with that thing on," Jay grunted.

"Neither will the TPD," Rita replied. "We just have to be ten steps away from them. The thing starts reading ten minutes after we've moved from a position."

"So all we have to do is keep mov-"

The sounds of helicopters up ahead stunted Damien's words. We all drove for a curved rock, squeezing ourselves beneath it for cover.

"What if they are T-"

"Shhhh..." I whispered, placing my hands over Rita's mouth. The sounds of approaching footsteps caused everyone to stand still, heart in their throat. Lucas and Jay raised their guns, ready to take out any being, unfortunate enough to come at us.

When I sighted a boot coming around the rock, slowly approaching us, I silently tapped Lucas. He aimed his gun at the guy's unfortunate feet and was about to squeeze when a voice called, "Eve?"

I grabbed Lucas's arms and stopped him, then stepped out from under the rock. "I thought I recognised that voice." I beamed at Stone who nodded his head in relief.

"I thought we wouldn't find you on time. Is everyone okay?"

I turned towards the rock just in time to see Damien coming out. "It's okay guys, you can come out. It's Stone." I encouraged and Lucas, Jay and Rita came out slowly. Jay's eyes still roving around to see just how safe it was. Satisfied, he came to stand beside Stone.

"What took you so long?" He gritted, anger shining in his eyes.

"The moment we got Rita's broadcast, we lost control of our server. It was as if the broadcast had carried a virus or something."

"Laura." Jay grumbled, "She scrambled your network to delay you. Then sent her men to finish what she started."

"We figured something was wrong, that's why we came as quickly as the server was fixed."

Turning to me he said,  "The chopper is a mile away from here. If we leave now we can-"

Stone suddenly flinched, his eyes going wide. A few seconds later blood began spurting out of his mouth, his hands clamping his chest as he went down to the ground. My eyes widened in horror as I watched the light leave his eyes.

Bullet began coming at us like a spring, and before I could even react, Lucas was already trying to drag me towards - only God knows where.

Everything felt like an out of body experience. One moment I was talking to Stone, and the next he was dead. My blood began to boil, a switch going off in my head. This shit had to end, and it had to end now.

I yanked my arms away from Lucas, snatching the gun from his wrist in the process, then turned towards the direction the assault was coming from. I caught a glimpse of a boot behind a fallen tree and smiled. Aiming for the opposite end of the bark, I fired. It hit the bastard on the head, flinging him backwards and into his pool of blood.

"Eve, what are you doing?" Rita shouted frantically from behind the rock we had previously hidden under.

I ignored her and ran for the other bastard who had seen me kill his partner, and was coming at me in full blast. I dogged every single bullet he fired at me, adrenaline taking over. My sore body, forgotten. Fifty centimetres from him, I swiped to the left, missing the impact of his slug by a hairsbreadth, my body twisting 180 degrees. As my back hit an adjacent tree, so did my bullets. Hitting him in the groin, then his chest.

The bastard crumbled to the ground, dead. I felt satisfaction seeping into my bones at the sight, but the damn feeling was short-lived because shout and gunshots were fast approaching, meaning more were on their way and they were gaining on us, fast.  There was no way I could take them all and I knew it.

"Eve, we have to move." Jay howled and this time, I listened. "Get on my back," Jay ordered and I did, knowing that the adrenaline rush was over and I was beginning to feel my ankle throb. We headed east with high speed, jumping over rocks and fallen trees. We could hear Laura's men as they galloped behind us, firing as they did.

How we were able to dodge and miss every bullet was a miracle. If we didn't get to the chopper soon, fatigue would be the last of our problems. We sprinted into a clearing, spotting a chopper a few feet away from us.

"Start the freaking chopper!" Lucas roared, waving towards the pilot. On seeing us, two guys dropped from the chopper and began running towards us, guns in hand.

"Cover us. I can handle her." Jay howled when they got to us and tried to get me off his back. On his instruction, they whipped past us and engaged with Luara's men. As the shoot out went on, it bought us the few seconds we needed to reach the chopper.

Lucas helped Rita climb in, then helped Jay push me in. Jay jumped in and was about to grab Lucas when Lucas blurted, "Wait! Where is Damien?" We all turned around to find Damien staggering towards us, blood dripping from his shoulders.

"He's been hit!" Lucas screamed and attempted to pull away from Jay to go after his friend, but Jay's hand tightened instead, refusing to let Lucas go. The chopper was already beginning to rise and Jay knew if he let Lucas go, he'd never make it back in time.

"Let me go! I have to save him!" Lucas yelled, trying to yank his hand away from Jay. Seeing as Lucas wasn't going to give up, Jay dragged the chain that was hooked to the iron leg of the chopper seat, and tied Lucas' hand with it, making it impossible to escape.

"No!" Lucas screamed in horror and watched as Damien struggled to get to us. "Damien move, please try brother, I'm right here, just take my hand."

Damien was able to get to the foot of the chopper, and just as he stretched his hands towards Lucas, he froze, his pupils dilating. He looked down at his stomach and so did we. Blood was leaking from the middle of this stomach, soaking his shirt and soaking it fast. He placed his hand on the spot, then slowly went to the ground.

Lucas's face turned from horror to anguish as he watched the life being drained from his friend's eyes.

"Daaammmiiieeennnn!!!" He cried out, his eyes fixed on his dying friend. By the time I looked down, I saw stone's men laying on the dirty ground, in their pool of blood.

And as we flew out of that dreaded Island with Lucas hanging from the chopper, all we heard was his howls, as he screamed his friend's name into oblivion.

But that wasn't the worst of it, for it was in that very moment I remembered something horrifying.

We had forgotten my co-pilot. We had forgotten Vic.