Chapter 8: Countdown

Worried looks were exchanged across the shed and a new sense of urgency began to slowly descend on everyone. Thompson's eyes darted from the giant desktop to the vault with wires attached to it. His eyes scanned the continuous lines of code that continued to appear on the screen. It didn't make sense. None of it made sense.

"Guys, whatever you're going to do, I suggest you do it now. The people below you are forty seconds out." Aaron's urgent and worried voice pierced their ears.

"We need to leave. We don't know what those guys are armed with, General." Hera started, advancing towards Thompson, who continued to remain fixed to the ground, thinking hard and fast.

"I knew this was all too good to be true. Why would a building like this be left unguarded." Shane started.

"It's not your fault." Aaron mentioned. "I should've checked the floor levels to see if there was space underneath. I'm so sorry. I should've—"

"Now's not the time to share blames around." Thompson said, his voice shutting down Aaron and Shane.

"General, we seriously need to leave." Hera called again, staring straight at Thompson.

"Twenty-five seconds more, guys." Aaron warned.

"But we don't know what we're dealing with. We don't know what program the computer is running and for the love of God, we don't know what's on the code."

A tense and hurried pause descends in the room, with everyone remaining frozen to the ground, despite having an extreme sense of urgency in their faces.

"Wait." Aaron suddenly called, breaking the silence. "Hera, you still have the flash drive I gave you this morning right?"

Hera hurriedly rifles through her pockets and in a few seconds, she pulled out a bright red drive, holding it close to her face.

"Yes."

"Good. Plug it to the CPU. It'll automatically download all the data. It just means you guys will have to wait a bit longer and you seriously have to make the decision now. They're fifteen seconds out." Aaron waded through his words like a hot comb was resting on his tongue.

Like marching soldiers, they began to hear footsteps and the voices grow louder below them.

"Give it." Shane called, instantly jumping into action.

Hera turned to look at him. "Are you out of your mind?"

"We don't have enough time! Throw the drive."

"Ten seconds guys." Aaron called

Hera, deciding it was rather foolish to waste time arguing with Shane, did as she was told. Shane caught the drive and dove straight to the far corner of the room, where the computer was sitting.

"I'll try and fight them off while the drive downloads the data. You guys should go now while you still can." Shane screamed, inserting the flash drive into the CPU.

"Five seconds!" Aaron said, his voice growing louder.

"Like hell we are." Hera exclaimed

"We're all leaving here in one piece, Emerson." Thompson added. He turned to look at Hera, giving her an understandable nod. Here reciprocates and pulls out her gun.

Thompson does the same as well and they remain bolted to the same spot, this time with their firearms aimed at the entrance.

"Snow—" Thompson started. "I'm ordering you to shoot to kill if necessary. We're not leaving Emerson behind."

"Affirmative, General." Hera responded, her finger resting gently on the trigger.

Soon, the curtain and the entrance floats open and men dressed in all black, holding rifles of all kind pour in, their loud voices slightly disorienting Hera and Thompson.

"Now!" Thompson screamed when the first of the men aimed at them with his rifle.

Loud gunshots penetrated the air as Hera and Thompson struggle to run for cover, using some of the old wooden boards and drums placed on the field.

"Oh, Jesus." Shane whispered, staring at the screen, trying desperately to ignore the sound of the gunshots behind him. "Aaron, it's saying download should take two minutes."

"Two minutes. We don't have that kind of time." Aaron called, his voice laden with fear.

"I can't not do anything, Aaron."

A wave of fear swept across Hera's face when she dropped her gun and turned to look at Thompson.

"I'm out."

Thompson stared at her, the same fear written on his face. "Me too."

The gunshots had stopped but they knew the guys weren't gone and couldn't dare peek their head out.

"Still need a minute, guys." Shane announced, his eyes frantically staring at the screen, willing the data to download faster.

Thompson rose from the back of the drum he'd been hiding and ran into the shed, barely avoiding the gunshots aimed at him. "Your gun."

Shane took his eyes off the computer screen and on Thompson. "What?"

"Give me your gun."

Shane nodded and pulled out his sidearm. As the loud gunshots outside resumed again, he threw his gun to Thompson, who caught it at once.

"I'll try and buy you more time."

Thompson ran out of the shed and with started to run towards the guys dressed in black, still firing their gunshots from afar. He evaded shots headed his way and avoided bullets until he got close enough.

"Okay, tell me something, Aaron. Distract me or I'm going to lose it." Shane called, staring at the screen before him. He still had fifty more seconds.

"I don't know what to talk to you about, Shane." Aaron responded. He was right of course. They still haven't gotten to know each other well enough to have things in common.

"That's funny because an hour ago you wouldn't shut up. Tell me about Road Sim, then." Shane continued, trying his absolute best to ignore the sporadic shots from outside.

"Yeah." Aaron replied. "It was a really cool game. You know, it had trivia boxes too, giving you some notes and quizzing yiu whenever you got to some historical landmark."

A low chuckle escaped Shane's lips. "I might just give the game a try if I'm able to get out of here."

"No. No ifs. I'm not letting you give up." Aaron whispered. "You're not dying on me here, Emerson. How far along is the download?"

Shane stared at the screen, watching the vacuum slowly fill the box.

"Twenty more seconds."

"Just hang on, okay? It's almost over."

Back out on the field, Thompson had managed to take down two more guards. As the second one crashed into the dry grass, Thompson's eyes turned to the third one, still standing, a lethal look in his eyes. He was the last man standing and Thompson could tell he knew.

Thompson aimed his gun at him. "What's in the box?"

The guy laughed. "Did you think that was going to work."

Thompson moved closer. "What the hell is in that vault!"

As the guy opened his mouth to speak once again, Shane's voice freezes his halfway.

"Yo, General. I've got it."

The events the followed happened really quickly and Thompson felt slow—too slow to have stopped them.

The guy in black raised his rifle and aimed it at Shane in the distance. Before Thompson could kick the gun out of his hands or find some other way to stop him, he had fired a few rounds.

Thompson hit the guy with the base of his pistol, sending him into an instant blackout. He hurried away from the guy and towards the shed. He could see Hera running towards Shane, who was now laying on the floor, his hand gripping a part of his stomach. Before Thompson could get closer to him, he could see the blood start to coat Shane's hands.

"What is it?" Aaron's voice in his ear shook him out of his reverie. "What is it, what just happened?"

"it's Emerson." Thompson started, rubbing his forehead and staring at the wounded Shane.

"He's been shot."

Even with the static lacing Aaron's voice, Thompson could her a low gasp escape his mouth.