The HP Effect Chapter IV

I grabbed eight flashbang’s, and handed four of them to Josh, “Use these only when needed. Like you said, were not gonna find any scavenger packs out here!” I said with a nervous smile. Josh took them and clipped them to his sash to which I did the same. We both slinked out of the Armoury and continued to jog back down the corridor towards the storage room. It was open, just as the armoury was, so we cautiously entered and looked for our bags.
The cheeky buggers. I found mine inside one of the metal bins. Josh found his wedged between a how to for dummies book and a stack of, what looked like, videos. God knows what was on them.
We left the cluttered space and continued towards the disease ridden kitchen.
I skidded to a halt.
“I think I just heard something. Kinda like a shuffling noise.” I whispered cautiously,
“Let’s not hang around to find out if your right!” Josh replied, with a firm grip on his ACR.
Too late. That Mr. Black was sneaky. We were in the same corridor we were dragged down earlier but I missed something. Another wall opening. The slat like door screeched open revealing a dark pathway. The lights went out for a second time. Josh and I slid behind some crates on either side of the corridor.
“Damn! They’ve cut the power!” I cussed, “Stay sharp and concentrate! This isn’t gonna be easy!” I continued,
Some guards wearing some sort of protection swarmed out the doorway like angry bees. They were carrying automatic weapons with small, bright flashlights on the undersides of them.
They knew we were here.
“They couldn’t have gone far! Search for them and when you find them, no mercy!” One of them barked to the others.
They split up and jogged down the corridor then turned off at different intersections. Two of them went right past me and Josh. I held my breath and tracked them with my eyes as they passed. I kept a steady finger on my guns trigger in case things got hairy. Luckily they never noticed and continued onwards.
“Come on. We’ve got to keep moving or we’re done for!” I said to Josh, “Be careful too. Any sign of hostility before we rescue Latias and either we’re dead or she is!” I reminded him,
“Well let’s stop chin waggin’ and save her! I can’t sit here all day.” Josh mused,
We got up and pressed onwards to the Laboratory where Latias was being held. I stood on one side of the door and Josh, on the other. We could hear voices from inside, mostly of which was a guards’ voice. Something along the lines of ‘Don’t let them brats in here’ and ‘shoot on sight’. If that’s what’s going to happen then I’m glad we brought the guns.
“Shush! I think he’s going to come out!” Josh whispered,
“Screw that! Get ready to shock!” I smirked back,
The lab door, surprisingly had, a normal handle. None of them fancy key-card activated doors. Thinking back to that book I saw in the store room, it must have been on, how to run an evil organisation for dummies. By the looks of things, they skipped a few chapters. Or the whole thing entirely.
“Stay focused! I’ve always wanted to say and do this!” I said with a smile, “BREACHING, BREACHING!” I said whilst stepping back and violently giving the door a kick, snapping it right off the hinges.
Honest to God the people in that room must have thought ‘WHAT THE HELL...’ as they looked at us with the biggest surprised face you could imagine. They soon noticed that we were armed well and they reached for their own weapons. We reacted pretty quickly to this and I dropped to a crouching position, aimed down the interventions scope and aimed towards the first guards’ hand. Josh lunged forward and struck the other guard between his eyes with the ACR’s butt, knocking him clean on the floor. Fortunately he fell unconscious. Josh grabbed his gun, removed its magazine and tossed it aside. I was a little preoccupied myself to care what the scientists were doing. The guard whom was still standing seized his UMP and aimed for me. I’m not quite sure what happened afterwards except for the fact that there was a bright flash and a thud.
“Ohhhhh God...” I said,
“Holy crap! What did you do?” Josh asked, entirely removing his concentration from the guard he hit,
“I don’t... I don’t know...” I replied not wholly understanding what I just did.
I must have reacted to him pointing at me and unknowingly squeezed the trigger putting him down for good.
“Wow. Errm...well...you’ve got good reactions...” Josh stuttered,
“Ha... I guess.” I murmured back,
I couldn’t help but stand a stare at the life I had just taken with my own hands. This was unlike anything I’ve felt before. I began to feel cramp in my stomach as my brain took in what I had just done. Then I thought to myself, ’what would have happened if I never shot him?’ Quite simply, he would have killed me first. I came to remember that I promised myself to defend Latias using any means necessary and make these bastards pay.
“Come on. We’ve got to get Latias outta here!” I said completely ignoring the two limp bodies in front of me,
I reloaded my Cheytac and kept the old magazine as a spare. We pushed onward into the bowels of the lab.
“Whew! I never realised it would be so big in here...” I panted at Josh,
Suddenly I recollected something. The two scientists earlier. They’d fled further into the lab. I ignored the thought, thinking it only as ‘unimportant’.
After a short while we neared the end of, what was, an empty working space and came to another locked door, this time it needed a key card. It was marked ‘Testing Labs’.
“Alright. They probably know that were trying to get in here so stay on your toes and take them down!” I said with anger in my voice,
“Lucas I know it’s probably the situation we’re in but you’re acting pretty violent all of a sudden.” Josh said to me cautiously,
“Why shouldn’t I be? She’s been taken from my arms and...” I stopped half way through my sentence. “I don’t care what you think now. You know what’s going on. I love her and as you’ve probably figured out, I would do anything for her. Even kill.” I snapped,
“I don’t know what to say to that...” Josh hesitated
“Just follow my lead.” I barked back.
I never realised at the time, but, I was starting to act like a real asshole, even in our given situation.
“We need a key card.” Josh suggested,
“Well done Captain Obvious!” I replied,
Josh had the most disdained face when I said this.
“I’ll just kick it in like the last one.” I continued,
“It’s probably fortified since it’s the testing lab.” Josh replied,
I took this into consideration and remembered the fact that I was quite good with electronics.
“Hang on a minute.” I said nudging Josh out the way.
The thing was we never had time to be hotwiring doors. I lifted my Intervention up and brought it down quickly upon the key card scanner smashing it clean off the wall.
“WHAT THE HELL!?” Josh shouted over what I just accomplished,
“Shut up! We can’t let them hear us!” I snapped,
“As if they never heard you break off a part of the door...” Josh grumbled back,
I simply stared at him with what I like to call ‘angry eyes’.
The door happily unlocked itself for us. How kind. Like Josh said however, it’s not like they would never have heard me.
“GO, GO, GO!” I ordered,
I kicked the door open as hard as I could and went straight to a crouching position again whilst Josh ran forward and slid behind a filing cabinet. I expected to hear either shocked outbursts, or worse, gun outbursts.
“Where are they?” I asked myself, “Hang on...” I whispered,
Nothing was in here. Absolutely nothing. I felt my eye twitch as realised Latias wasn’t here either.
Josh stood up and walked over to the contraption that she was being held in.
“It’s a note.” Josh said simply,
I was still trying to think about how they could have possibly escaped the room without running into us again.
“There must be some sort of secret exit or something.” I proposed,
“What?” Josh asked,
“They’ve taken her and got away, somehow, without us knowing.” I continued,
“Well read this then.” Josh said whilst thrusting the note under my nose,
I gave a few coughs and started to read the note,
“Dear pesky plumbers...”
“Lucas out of everyone, you’re, the person I get the least. You were going absolutely mental earlier about trying to save Latias and now you’re making Hotel Mario comments when this could give a clue to where she is.”
“Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. I need a bit of a laugh at the minute.” I laughed, “Anyway.” I said whilst straightening the note, “To the two convicts looking for Latias. You’re too late. We’ve escaped with her and gone to our headquarters leaving you with nothing but the bitter taste of defeat and some armed guards. Hope you enjoy dying. Signed, Simon Hathaway. (Head researcher)” I said whilst furrowing my brow at their sheer tenacity to get right under my skin. “Those arseholes! They sure know how to piss a guy off!” I said through my teeth, “This whole friggin’ charade feels like Mario what with the note and all. My princess really is in another castle ain’t she?!” I shouted.
Josh sniggered at my choice of wording. I began to smile slightly at the thought of me being Mario and her being taken to a big castle. Forcing myself back to the then and there I shook away the idea, folded up the note and placed it in my trouser pocket.
“We can’t give up. Not now. Not when she needs us. If your gonna quit I’m still dragging you along for the ride whether you like it or not!” I said as I turned to face Josh.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.” Josh replied re-cocking his ACR,
“Armoured guards or not, these, bastards WILL pay! Let’s go!” I ordered whilst jerking my head in the direction of the door.
We both jogged back out the door and continued until we got to the first door we broke into.
“What do we do now then?” Josh quizzed,
“We kill whoever gets in our way for what they’ve done and then we get our own asses out of this hell hole.” I replied with a calm face despite what I was saying,
“Sounds like a plan. One question though. What do you think of this place...other than it’s a secret organizations building of course.” Josh asked,
“Well, I think this place looks more like hell than the one we just left.” I replied with a smile this time,
“You and that Modern Warfare...” Josh said under his breath.
Ignoring what he said I, grabbed his sleeve and, yanked him down a narrow corridor which split off the main one. The lights seemingly got dimmer and dimmer as we continued until we finally hit darkness once again.
“These guys seem more like moles than humans!” I jested,
“Stop! I hear someone coming.” Josh whispered as he grabbed me and pulled me back,
“Quick behind here!” I hissed back as I returned the favour and pulled him behind, what I think was, a barrel.
I glanced over the top to have a look if Josh was right. He was, yet again. I could see the same bright lights we saw earlier as the guards went out searching for us. Curse him and his... rightness.
“Where are they? They can’t have escaped! It’s too complex for them to even think about escaping here!” One of the guards said to his squad mate.
Complex? It’s about as complex as a finished Rubik’s cube if you ask me. The only thing that confuses me is why is it so bloody dark in here?
“THUD!”
“What was that?” One of the guards asked pointing his gun in the direction of the sound,
They saw one thing and it made them smile. Joshes foot.
“Screw this!” I shouted, “Tossing flashbang!” I said whilst laughing hysterically to myself,
They fell to the floor and rolled around clutching their eyes because of the bright flash that just burned itself into their corneas.
I got up and walked up to one of the guards. I stood right above his head and then aimed the barrel of my intervention at it.
“You messed with the wrong kid.” I growled. With that I squeezed the trigger, regretting nothing. “Clean up the rest, help me search their bodies and then leave them be. Let them know we mean business.” I instructed.
I could hear a few whines coming from the ones who were still alive, well, for now.
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Ten minutes later...
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“Got any key card from them?” I asked,
“Just one. It’s marked garage.” Josh replied,
“Perfect...” I said, with a smile. “Take their torches. We could use them.” I continued.
With that, we carried on going down the corridor, leaving, the hall of bodies behind us. I was cautiously pointing my new, torch, lit Cheytac at various walls looking for any sort of directional sign.
“Bingo!” I exclaimed, “Here we go, our ticket outta here!” I laughed as I shone my torch straight at the garage door.
I grabbed the key card off my bandolier sash and placed it in front of the card reader. We heard the satisfying click of the locks unhooking themselves and retreating back into the frame. The door slid open and we both, cautiously, stepped inside. No one was there either. I looked around and found a light switch. Just another badly placed item in this building of organisational mess-ups. The lights slowly flickered on to reveal, what can only be called, a hangar of some sort filled with all sorts of vehicles. It ranges from Harrier jets to armoured Stryker vehicles. Out of everything though, I loved the sight of the ATV. I casually sauntered over to it, completely oblivious to everything else. I loved all of them, but with no way or knowledge of how to drive or fly them, I knew I wanted that quad bike.
“We’re so gonna take this!” I laughed whilst rubbing my hands together,
“How exactly? There’s no chance we’re gonna find the key’s for it!” Josh replied,
“No need.” I said, “Not with my ‘electrical skill’.” I sniggered.
I had a rough idea on how to hotwire a vehicle. Not something people should know but I just ‘happened’ to pick it up from somewhere. I yanked off the wiring cover and grabbed a bit of leather and metal I found on the floor. I cut the red and blue wires and stripped off some of the plastic coating. I then wrapped the leather around my fingers and tied the red and blue wires insides together. There was a slight roar from the ATV’s engine. Bliss. I replaced the cover, at on the seat and patted the passengers one.
“Hop on! We’ve got a dragon to save!” I grinned.