Well, I had an epiphany while I was riding the bus home today, so of course I went home and typed solidly for 45 minutes. Honestly, I'm surprised with what I came up with (with minimal revision, of course).
“Let’s move everyone!” I shouted, heading over to the pier where the chosen speedboat was waiting. I made sure that Alec could drive the thing, and then we were off to the massive yacht. The sun was setting, and we came in fast and low. Silently I signaled for everyone to climb a ladder that was hanging down into the water.
We crept across the deck and over to a stairwell leading down to the next level. It wasn’t as brightly-lit as I’d thought, so we were able to sneak in relative darkness to a lesser-used area of the ship. In everyone’s solid black, we were practically invisible.
“Listen,” I said. “We should probably split into two teams and begin to search. Leon, you take Doug and Sharon. Jessica and I will search this area of the ship, and you take this part. Remember, there’ll probably be a window in the door, and at least one guard. We’ll meet you here,” I said, pointing to an emergency access stairwell. “Go!”
It was now midnight, and Jessica and I walked our chosen route, peeking into every door, looking for any sign of activity. My best computer technician, I wasn’t sure she how well she could use the gun strapped to her waist, but she needed something to try to keep her safe.
“Hey!” she said as we neared the corridor. “This looks promising.”
In a side hallway off to our right stood two guards. They wore pistols and had their customary black shades on, despite the dimness of the ship’s interior. Flattening myself against the wall, I drew both of my guns.
“Three, Two, One!” I hissed, throwing myself into view and firing off two shots. Jessica gasped as I hit both men in the head, felling them both.
“Quick, help me,” I said. We grabbed the two bodies and put them in a nearby side room. Then I ran back to the door that the men were guarding. It was a simple steel door with no windows; I couldn’t hear anything through it, so I quietly turned the handle and flung it open. It was another corridor, this one thinner and probably only used for maintenance.
“Come.” I motioned for Jessica to move in and I led her down the hall. It made me nervous to have the only exit I knew about at my back, but we pressed on. When we came to the end of the hallway and peeked around the corner, I swore and prepared to fire. There were three guards, but I was able to shoot them with no trouble. These men had also been guarding a door. I peeked into the window.
“Bingo,” I said. There was our missing comrade, tied to a chair with an excessive amount of rope. With him was another girl, about fifteen years old, with white-blond hair. She was dressed in nothing but a bathrobe. They were both blindfolded, so I couldn’t signal them. I tried the door; it was locked. I searched the bodies that lay by my feet, but found nothing. Shoving them away from the door, I turned to my friend.
“Call the others,” I told Jessica. “Tell them we’ve found James and another girl. Tell them to hurry, because this is going to be very loud.” I drew a small explosive from my belt and put it up against the doorknob. I backed away and blew it.
A thunderous boom echoed through the ship. With a flash of super-bright light, the hallway filled with smoke and little droplets of molten steel, my magnesium detonator blew up the doorknob and a lot of the door. With my foot I kicked it open.
“James,” I said, grabbing his bound hands and sawing through the rope.
“Cat?” he said blindly. I tore off the cloth that covered his eyes and kept working.
“Cat, we have to go,” said Jessica, untying the girl.
“I know!” I hissed, cutting through the last strand. He stretched with great relief. I noticed that his wrists were raw from chafing, and his face was black and blue from a beating. Still, he winked at me as he grabbed a gun from one of the dead guards and cocked it. I was relieved, though I knew we weren’t safe yet. My best friend was going to be okay if he hadn’t lost his sense of humor.
“Follow me,” I said as we went back into the hallway. There was an alarm sounding, but I ignored it. We got back to the first corridor that I’d shot people in, and that was where our extraordinary luck ran out. Three guards came running towards us.
“Back into the hall!” I screamed as they began to draw weapons. We could hold them off (as they could only go through the door one at a time) but we were trapped ourselves.
“Call Leon!” I hissed. “Have him take them from the back.” There were three quick shots, and the guards fell dead.
“Disregard that last order,” I said as Leon and Doug came over.
“Hey man,” he said, pounding James’ fist. “I’m getting pretty tired of rescuing you.”
“Believe me, I’m sick of it too,” said my best friend wryly. Doug gave him a man-hug, and I smiled.
“Alec?” I telephoned. “We’re ready for you to get us out of here. Meet us by the back left, where the other ladder is, alright?”
“Sir yes sir!” he whispered into the phone. “I’ll be there in just a few minutes.”
“Don’t get caught!” I whispered back, and hung up, only to call Mr. Shier.
“We’ve located our man,” I said. “We’re going to be coming back in a few minutes, so turn on your engine and wait for us near the docks.”
“You got it,” he said briskly.
As a group, we crept around the ship, moving slowly and cautiously towards the stairwell near the explosives storage room. The halls were uncomfortably deserted, and I knew that our escape shouldn’t be this easy.
“Alright everyone,” I said. “Alec should be here by now, so let’s be careful. We’ve almost made it out.” I led everyone up the stairs on deck. Most of the enemy protected the section that I knew housed their leaders, so our path was mostly unobstructed. We broke into a run, crouching behind things, and we almost got out without being seen. Shots fired behind us made us break into an all-out sprint.
“Hurry, hurry!” shouted Alec from his motor boat. It was one in the morning, so it was almost impossible to see him.
“Go, everyone over the side!” I shouted, drawing a second gun and beginning to fire both simultaneously.
“I’m not going to leave you!” shouted James back.
“I’m not asking you to!” I snarled. “Now get down that ladder!” Doug cursed loudly. A bullet had hit him in the thigh.
“NOW!!” The girl was screaming with terror; Leon grabbed her in one arm and climbed over the side.
“Now!” bellowed Leon, badgering everyone down into the boat. I heard Doug fall a few feet, groaning with pain. Finally it was just me. I fired a long continuous burst of automatic fire, then vaulted over the rail into thin air. I dropped for almost a full second before I hit the freezing cold water. Almost immediately hands pulled me into the boat; I’d landed by the side.
“Go, Go!” I screamed as Alec hesitated to make sure I was fully seated. He gunned the motor and drove at top-speed away from this place.
“They’re launching boats to follow,” warned Jessica. I shot the last of my clip at the jet-skis that tried to follow us.
“They’re still coming!” warned Sharon in a tight voice, trying desperately to make Doug comfortable.
“Ivor,” I called, grabbing my phone. “Where are you?”
“I’m almost right above you now,” said Ivor Shier over the roar of his helicopter. “I can see you...”
“Land on the dock,” I said, and heard the chopper fly back towards shore. Doug was still moaning loudly, his leg a bloody mess. It had hit him in his upper thigh, in a place where the bullet would have been embedded.
“Sharon,” I said, slapping her so that she came to her senses. “I need you to put pressure on this spot to slow the bleeding, alright?” She shook her head to clear it, and began to push firmly on the pressure point on his leg as I pulled the roll of duct tape from my belt.
“Help me!” I said to the little girl, who was just sitting, shaking, in the bottom of the boat. She helped me tear strips and I began to tape the wound closed.
“This will hold for while,” I said. “We’ll...” A bullet slammed into the boat’s hull near my hand, and I flinched, jerking everyone down.
“Leon?!” I yelled. He understood, immediately firing a few rounds back. Alec tried to go even faster, but we’d filled the boat over capacity already and he had to be careful.
“The dock’s coming up, Cat,” said Jessica. I looked ahead of us, and could see the helicopter circling for a landing.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I said, putting the last finishing touches on Doug’s leg. “I’ll take the wheel when we get really close. You two get to the chopper first.” Leon nodded.
“Jessica?” I said. “I want you to make sure you and this girl get on the helicopter safely. Just run. You can film more once you’re on board.”
“What about us?” asked Sharon, indicating Doug.
“You and James are going to help Doug run to the helicopter,” I said. “I’ll cover the rear and try to keep them off of us as long as possible.”
“Are we ready?” I asked as I quickly switched places with Alec. Leon got ready to stow his gun. I roared up to the dock and braked, spinning the wheel so I slammed into it sideways as if parallel parking.
“Go, Go!” I screamed as Alec and Leon sprinted off towards the empty space where the chopper stood, blades spinning. Jessica was out next, dragging the girl along with her. Sharon crouched on the dock and helped Doug out, who put his arms around her and James for help running. Ivor had opened the helicopter doors; I sprang out of the boat and began firing down at our pursuers, hitting the driver of one of the boats and scaring the others. The boats slowed a little, and I turned and sprinted back to the chopper. In the next moment, we were airborne and flying away.
“We did it!” cheered Jessica, punching the air.
“Congratulations,” said the commander, allowing a smile to cross his face, looking back from where he sat beside Ivor. “A successful simulation.” Doug grinned, stripping away the duct tape from where the paint-filled blank had hit him.
“It almost wasn’t,” I said ruefully. “If we’d taken the faster boat when we started out, there wouldn’t have been enough room for...” I pointed at the girl.
“Natalie,” she said, brushing her hair out of her face.
“Natalie,” I said. “You know, sir, I didn’t expect to have a civilian to rescue as well as James here.” The man in question looked up from cleaning off the makeup that had made him appear beaten, and grinned.
“When do we get to do something real?” he asked eagerly.
“You’re getting a transfer the moment we get back to base,” said our trainer. “After that...we’ll see.”
