Forty-one - Junkyard explosions

With teary eyes, Amir gathered his stance and from where he was, he watched fumes go up into the sky. Not particularly sure of what to make of the sudden explosion, he reasoned he had to get them all to safety.

"We should-" he stopped as he turned and met an empty seat where Chloe was supposed to be seated or at least clamoring for shelter. "Where is Chloe?"

Lucille also got up and looked into the car, then around but there was no sign of her. "Do you think she ran elsewhere for shield?"

Amir who was already feeling extremely uneasy found no response to Lucille's question. His skin feeling like it was being burnt, he looked beyond the jumbled mess of abandoned, rusting cars behind them but saw no sign of Chloe.

"Lucille?" She looked his way, worry also on her face as she tried to figure things out. "Get your stuff and Chloe's too. I have a feeling we should leave this place now."

"But what about your car?"

He reached for his small cross bag which he always kept in his car in case of a need to hold less stuff in his hands. As his head popped to the surface, he said, "We need to find Chloe. Forget about the car."

"Okay. I have gotten our stuff."

"Good. Let's go." All that was on his mind was finding Chloe. Nothing was to happen to her as far as he was concerned.

"Wait. I think I can see someone approaching," Lucille said as she shut the passenger door, her eyes squinting as though they had ultra vision.

"That is definitely not Chloe," he pointed out as he made out the approaching figure with a gait of a huge dude. As the figure moved closer amidst the crazy fumes which Amir was starting to react to, another loud noise came.

There was another explosion and it had the floor shaking.

As Amir made to tell Lucille to run for shield, the earlier figure ran towards them. "Sebastian?" It was him alright. Covered in soot and sweat, he looked like life had pissed on him a million times over. "What is going on?"

The man found a way to reduce his thick breathing. "We-" He gasped for air. "We need to get out of here. They are going to blow this whole place up."

"Wh-" It was not yet time for questions. "Chloe's not here. We need to find her."

Sebastian's eyes darkened as he swept them from Amir to Lucille. "We had better do that fast."

~

Chloe had rushed out of the car after the explosion and had no idea she was running alone till she had made it to a distance really far from where Amir and Lucille were.

And she had no idea how she was going to find her way back. She tried looking for a way, but the area she was seemed to have been made into a kind of car maze.

The junkyard really was a huge one.

Her head calculating, her eyes scanning through the area for the umpteenth time, Chloe worked out and struck the paths she had taken, hoping within her that she was calculating the right thing.

With the growing desire to get out, she made for a certain path to her extreme right which was narrower than the rest. But, before she could move more than three steps, an explosion came and fire gutted out.

It felt so close as her legs gave in to the shaking ground.

As she got up, her side eyes caught a shade of fire and that was when she realized.

The explosion was right behind her and its ruins might hit her if she remained on the spot looking shocked.

So, she knocked herself out of the trance and made for the path she had in mind. Better put, with her heart racing crazily, she ran towards the path. And she maintained that pace, not stopping once to see if the heat she was feeling was that of the huge flame catching up to her.

Chloe was about to take the left turn as she met a dead end when she noticed an entrance that stayed slightly open. Without thinking twice, she entered.

She followed the staircase that led her away from the flames and soon, they ended and led to a large room that reeked of engine oil and had nothing but a small chair in the middle.

Chloe frowned. She found the setting really weird.

With her steps being as cautious as possible, Chloe walked in a bit and wondered how she was going to reach Amir and Lucille. She was about to help herself to a seat when a sharp pain rushed through her head.

Eyes squeezing to try and depict the source, Chloe found herself drawing closer to the floor in a slow, even more painful way.

Her eyes were already fading into a deep state, her chest was almost touching the ground from her dramatic fall when a large pair of hands caught her.

~

She was seated but in a very uncomfortable manner. As her head which had been hanging ridiculously came up and her eyes snapped open, she found out why.

Thick ropes held her hands down on both arms of the chair. Even her legs were roped together in a way that as she tried to budge, pain surged through her body.

Sighing deeply as she could make no sense of the situation, Chloe's eyes adjusted into the space that had become dimmer and instantly, she could see the eyes watching her from afar.

Scoffing, her eyes darting unbelivably, Chloe cleared her throat and said, "I can see you, so you'd better stop hiding and show your face."

Nothing came after. Not even a squeak.

"You will regret taking me like this. I will make sure," Chloe almost growled as she felt more pain.

"Now that's where you are wrong," came the response finally. But the masculine voice... Chloe's mind raced to and fro. The voice was so familair.

The owner didn't make her ponder too much. Heavy steps echoed through the room as he made his way forward, his hands pocketed with style.

As he finally came into the light, Chloe softened with bitterness as she said, "Agent Markings."