"They'll be bringing her out soon. Keep your eyes peeled."
A soldier was saying something to the groups of Syndicate agents who had gathered to watch the executions. He couldn't hear what was being said until the earpiece picked up on the amplified words. "The execution of the traitor Opal Arrington will now begin. First, we have a second traitor to bring to justice."
Jack's fingers pressed into the metal of the binoculars when the soldiers opened the tall doors and dragged Ellie out onto the front steps. They brought her next to Opal before looping the nooses around their necks. Both dressed in pure white, they looked like the innocent sacrifices they were. Neither of them had done anything to deserve death, definitely not like this.
"This is the bride of our beloved leader. He vowed his life to her and gave her everything she would ever desire. And what did this ungrateful whore do to repay him and show her undying loyalty? She threw herself at the enemy. Now, Elizabeth Dawson will face the same fate as the Sand spy. Do the condemned have anything to say?"
Opal spoke first. "Without sand, an hourglass is useless. Niki, baby, if you're out there, know I care deeply for you and I know what they did to you. They will pay for it. Somehow, those bastards will pay. I'll-"
Her words were cut off when a gag was shoved into her mouth by a soldier from behind. Even through the rag in her throat, Opal mumbled what could only be deciphered as profane curses.
Then it was Ellie's turn. Like a delicate daisy growing strong through the snow, her young voice was clear and untainted by fear. "Although I die tonight, I lived my life the way I dreamed of. I had friends at my side. We took trips to the beach. We studied for exams together while watching funny videos online. Jack and Niki were my world, my everything. Thank you, both of you, for giving me a happy life. Jack, I love you. All right, I'm ready."
Abejide touched his earpiece. "Go, now! Daniels."
"We're on it."
One soldier collapsed and rolled down the steps as a silenced gunshot sounded over the howling winds. Before the others could retaliate, Kage and Cleopatra jumped from the roof and landed on the group of soldiers with a ringing of steel and gold blades. There was an explosion before a dense cloud of grey smoke shrouded the area.
Nathan and Bradley emerged from the bushes to engage the Secret Service agents with their revolvers. The entire White House erupted in fighting. Emergency sirens screamed through the city and an alarm buzzed from inside.
When six black vans with purple hourglasses painted on the sides pulled up near the gate, Abejide shoved Jack out of the bushes. "Move. Get the girls untied. They can fight on their own."
"I'll try."
Abejide's curt words scraped at him. "No. You'll do it. After this is over, I'm going to personally train you. Move!"
Jack nodded his head then took off across the lawn. He wove through the pockets of soldiers clashing with allied FBI agents, around injured and dead bodies, and past the growing melee where Nathan and Bradley were taking on twenty or thirty soldiers. It looked like the mosh pits the metal concerts he used to attend with Niki and Ellie.
He made it into the smoke cloud on the steps where Cleopatra and Kage were already untying Opal. Jack glanced around through the dissipating smoke as his heart fluttered. "Ellie? Ellie! Guys, where's Ellie?"
"She was right here. She must have gotten free and run off once the fighting started." Cleopatra wiped the dark blood from her golden dagger onto her white gown as she motioned towards the approaching spotlights. "We've got company."
Two helicopters flew over the area and hovered there before ropes trailed down from the open doors. Daniels took shots at the soldiers who slid down the ropes to fill the yard with more gunfire. Four of them took a bullet to the skull and fell lifeless to the grass.
Kage shoved a 9mm pistol into Jack's hand. "Use it if you need it."
Jack drew Durendal in his right hand and held up his pistol in the left. He steeled himself to attack, but the blood drained from his face when the new group of soldiers turned to face him in unison. He flinched as the gunshots rang out and he closed his eyes, prepared to feel the projectiles tearing through his body. Nothing but cold wind touched him. He slowly regained the confidence to open his eyes to see the soldiers squirming on the ground. Durendal flew up again to block another round of gunfire from the soldiers to the left. In a flurried flash, the legendary blade reflected the bullets in a burst of bright white light.
The soldiers wailed in surprise a split second before their own bullets penetrated their necks above their bullet-proof vests.
An agent ran at him, firing a pistol with every step. With Durendal blocking the shots, Jack raised the pistol and pulled the trigger. The agent cried out before falling onto his injured leg. Jack left him there. He had no desire to kill anyone if he didn't have to. He would not let them turn him into what they made him out to be. He wasn't a killer. He wasn't a murderer. He wasn't a monster.
A hit to the back of his head sent Jack sprawling in the grass and Durendal fell to the ground beside him. He rolled over just as the muscular soldier pounced on him. Jack kicked and flailed, but the man's massive hands easily surrounded his throat. He gasped for air through the crushing pain. He tried to control Durendal, but the blade remained lifeless with the lack of oxygen to Jack's brain.
From somewhere over the noise of the battle, Jack heard Ellie cry his name. It was in that moment that he knew he had to do something. With his life draining at the hands of the attacker, he had only one choice remaining. Jack closed his eyes and tightened his finger on the trigger.
Hot blood splattered onto the ground around him before the agent slid off of his chest to gurgle in the fetal position beside him. Jack sat up with tears in his eyes for the man who was dying because of him. It never got easier. The suffering, the killing, the dying. For so long, he had believed in the good that humanity had to offer. He had believed that all people were inherently good. Now that belief was fading fast with every bullet, every scream, every torture they put innocent people through.
"Jack!"
Thyme slid down the rope from the right helicopter, still wearing his poncho and floppy hat. The boy spread his arms and threw back his head to the sky in the middle of the war zone. This time, instead of energy pulsing from the sage boy's hands, a line of white static appeared where he drew it into the air with his fingertips. It danced there, sparkling like a dew-kissed spiderweb until it began to grow. The glistening filament twisted and turned, widening with every passing second. Thyme's thin arms quivered and he broke out in a sheen of sweat, his frail body struggling to keep up whatever it was he was channeling. Thyme's eyes rolled back in his head as he let out a shrill, animalistic screech.
The line blew open into a static white portal with sucking winds that drew everyone towards it in a violent vortex. The helicopters whined and bobbed, trying to maintain altitude. Enemies and allies alike tripped and slid in the suction that defied gravity, making everyone seem weightless in its pull. Leaves from the bushes and food wrappers from the streets swirled together around the lawn.
Jack flopped onto his stomach and dug his fingers into the soil to keep from sliding into the anomaly.
Opal yelped when she rolled next to Jack and grabbed onto his leg. She shouted over the roar of the wind. "It's a tear. We'll all be sucked into it if he doesn't stop. We might die."
Jack shouted at the boy with growing urgency. "Thyme, stop it! Stop!"
A flood of heat surged over them when both helicopters crashed into the side of the White House. Debris chunks flew over their heads and were drawn into the tear.
Thyme collapsed under the stress and remained still, but he appeared to still be breathing.
As suddenly as it began, the tornadic winds ceased.
In the brief stillness, everyone picked themselves up and turned to gawk at the tear that illuminated the destruction on the lawn. Ally and enemy readied to battle whatever would come from the tear. They braced and anticipated a roaring monst
er, a demon, or a hoard of soldiers, but a calmness radiated from the static-filled maw. Then, out of the dull haze, hundreds of blue butterflies fluttered into reality. Their lace-like cerulean wings shined in glossy pearlescence as they drifted across the battlefield like ghosts.
One butterfly gracefully landed on a Syndicate agent's shoulder. It remained perched there for a few seconds before the agent froze as if paralyzed. Blue electricity snapped at her body in arcs that traveled down her limbs.
With wide eyes, Jack watched as the army of butterflies spread out to attack the soldiers. The men and women ran in a panic, swatting and shooting at the swarm. They fell in agony to writhe and twitch in the blood-soaked grass.
Nathan seized Jack by the arm and half-dragged him behind a makeshift barricade that they had built out of the metal from the destroyed helicopters. He pushed him down and spoke quickly to him. "We'll wait here until we get more orders. Abejide is injured and we can't reach him. I can't see anyone in all this madness."
Sasha's worried voice came over the speaker in Jack's ear. "Jack, come in, Jack."
He touched the earpiece as he flinched with the nearby gunfire. "Jack here."
"No one else can hear us. We're on a private line. This is an emergency. Know that no one can be trusted, even those in our rebel group. Cleopatra and Kage have gone rogue. They gave Ellie to a group of Syndicate agents."
How could they do that? "What? Why would they do that?"
"I have no idea, but they're gone as well. That smoke was all the cover they needed to hand her over. The Syndicate was never going to kill Ellie. They want her too bad. This was all a setup to get you here. They just weren't counting on us fighting back as much as we have. There's a bike outside with the escape vehicles that Barry left us. Take it and I'll feed you directions. We have to follow that van."
"What van?" Jack asked.
"Just run, Jack. Towards the gate. Don't stop for anyone or anything."
Jack shoved the pistol into his hoodie pocket before vaulting over the barricade. He took off in a full sprint, ignoring Nathan and Bradley who called after him to stop. He pushed his legs to carry him farther, faster, with every last bit of energy he had saved up. Jack reached the gates just in time to see Ellie punching at four agents who were dragging him towards one of the Syndicate vans.
The agents shoved Ellie into the van then slammed the side door shut.
"No!" Jack ran towards them, but they jumped inside and took off down the road. "They have her. They have Ellie!"
"Get on a bike and follow them."
He watched hopelessly as the van sped away, but he took a deep breath and regained his focus. The inconspicuous line of vehicles parked near the curb drew him in. He picked the red motorcycle at the back and straddled it. For the first time in his life, Jack was glad that Niki had made him learn to ride around the streets of Mana Glen that one summer in middle school.
Sasha spoke to him. "Did you get the bike?"
"I'm on it. Leaving now. They're too far ahead of me. I can't see them."
"But I can. I have them on GPS. Thank you, Barry, for sneaking those trackers onto the vans. They're headed across town. Get on 15th Street then onto I-395."
"Got it." Jack throttled the engine and maneuvered around traffic. He passed emergency vehicles, tanks that the army had brought to help in the fighting, and soldiers who shined spotlights on him. A few bullets whizzed past his shoulders as he kept riding in the darkness. His tires squealed when he took a hard right and jumped onto the interstate. "I'm on I-395."
"Keep going. They're only a few yards in front of you. Go faster, Jack."
He gave it all he had and lowered his shoulders as the wind sliced at his hoodie like weaponized icicles. A blaring horn to his right made him change lanes, barely missing a minivan. Jack glanced over at the black van with the hourglass on the side and the barrel of some kind of weapon poking out of the open door behind the driver. "Shit. They're here, Sasha!"
"Another van?"
The clunking thud made Jack flinch as he hit 95 mph. Flames erupted behind him where a convertible exploded and filled the air with black smoke. Another deep metallic chunking sound came from the van that was managing to keep up with his speed. A silver canister flew across the tops of the cars to collide with a tractor-trailer. Jack veered to the right just as the grenade blew a hole in the trailer. Pink packing peanuts and cases of canned corn rained down on traffic. Cars crashed into a multi-vehicle pile-up while others smashed into the barriers or drove off the road entirely.
Before another grenade could be launched, Jack whipped out his pistol and fired at the van. The bullet clanked against the door. More obnoxious honking drew his attention. He glanced back over his shoulder to see another Syndicate van speeding to catch up with him from behind. Bright muzzle flash from an automatic weapon told him to swerve away from the onslaught. Jack sped up and barely missed clipping the van with the grenade launcher.
"You should be within sight of the target van, Jack. Stay on their tail."
"I'm being shot at. They have a grenade launcher."
"Keep moving. Zig-zag. It will make you harder to hit."
"What kind of vans can drive this fast? They're-" Jack heard the clunking sound a moment before the next grenade flew up to hit the green street sign above the road. Sparks and twisted metal shrapnel burst from the impact. The metal sign broke free and spun towards him with deadly precision, but a quick jerk to the left kept him inches from danger.
Sasha shouted over the earpiece. "Jack? Jack! What was that?"
"Grenades." He held out his pistol again and aimed at the van next to him. Two shots shattered the driver's window and it veered into the dividing wall. "Got one of them down."
"Good. Keep up with the van Ellie is in. It looks like they're heading towards the 3rd Street Tunnel. You might be able to gain on them in there. Be careful, though. There's little room for error in a tunnel."
"Got it." Jack's eyes narrowed as he focused on the van in front of him. Ellie was in there, afraid and needing him. He would do whatever he had to do in order to get her back. He would stop them from hurting her ever again. It would end in that tunnel. As he approached the tunnel entrance with the orange lights lining the interior, he sped up as fast as he could go and lifted the pistol to take aim. Jack rode up beside the van just as they entered the tunnel.
"Jack, don't try anything in the tunnel. I'm warning you. Don't do it. It's not safe. This is where the car crash happened that killed the other half of your family, Jack!"
Jack ignored Sasha's voice. He locked eyes with the driver and pointed the pistol at the silhouette in the window. He slowed down as the traffic began to stop in front of him. He welcomed the slower speed as it gave him the perfect shot. With a pull of the trigger, blood splattered against the windshield and the van sped out of control before careening across traffic, colliding with four other vehicles and crashing into the center wall with a violent burst of fire.
Debris hit the motorcycle and threw Jack from the back. He hit the asphalt and blacked out before he could react.
Crippling pain in his right arm dragged Jack back into consciousness after an unknown amount of time. His vision blurred with tears and burned with smoke that billowed through the tunnel. Face-down on the road, he spit out blood from his busted lips and broken teeth. Jack shook as he forced himself to sit up. Blood poured down his face from a gash on the top of his head. He tried to reach up to wipe it away with his right arm, but he couldn't move it. The twisted limb with bone jabbing out of the skin remained useless at his side.
Shouting and flashing lights overwhelmed his senses. His ears rang with a high-pitched buzzing noise, he tasted tart metallic fluid on his tongue, and he reeked of gasoline. Coughing, Jack looked around at the ambulances and paramedics rushing deeper into the tunnel where concrete, shattered glass, and hunks of scorched metal littered the road. At least twenty cars clogged the tunnel. Bodies and injured motorists hung out of battered doors or moaned
where they had been thrown through their windshields.
With only one remaining shoe, Jack crawled on his badly bruised legs towards the inferno that had engulfed the center of the crash. A baby cried. Water sprayed from firefighters with hoses stretched across the littered carnage. Police officers shouted orders as they pried crushed vehicles open to pull out the bodies from inside.
Jack vomited and cried out in his pain, but he had to keep going. He had to get to the van. He screamed as loud as he could over the chaos, his voice weak and hoarse. "Ellie! Ellie, where are you? Ellie!"
He continued his crawl on lacerated knees, dragging his arm beside him. Each foot he slithered on his belly like a snake felt like an eternity. Time slowed around him as he held his breath and forced his brutally battered body forward. Jack found the mangled remains of his motorcycle crumpled below an overturned moving van. He panted as he struggled onward until the flames threatened to burn his skin from the radiating heat. But he didn't care. He had to find her.
The black carcass of the destroyed Syndicate van had already been torn through by the blaze and now smoked where first responders were busy prying away hunks of steel and scorched leather seats from the broken windows.
Jack stared in horror as one of the paramedics called for a stretcher and a tan hand he knew too well was uncovered in the rubble. Silver charms from her broken necklace clinked on the road where they spilled out in glittering coldness. Without words, Jack could only watch as the firefighters lifted the remnants of the van and pulled out Ellie's lifeless body. She was bloody and black with burns on her legs. Her arms were bent unnaturally and her long ebony hair was a matted mess of clotted blood. Half of her face had been burned to the bone and a metal pole had impaled through her stomach.
They lifted her up onto a stretcher then carried her away into the smoke.
"Sir, you're all right. We'll get you to a hospital."
He didn't even notice when two paramedics lifted him up and carried him to another ambulance. All he could see was Ellie. Jack let himself be carried through the tunnel in his state of complete shock that made his body feel like a foreign cloud. The lights on the ceiling blurred together and his ears popped until he couldn't hear anything aside from muffled yelling and piercing sirens. When he was loaded into an ambulance, the bright lights and beeping of machines sent him back into the blackness.
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