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Arthur

"What the hell was that?"

"That would be our ticket out of here," I replied, taking a few steps out of the door. I shut the doors just as the soldiers sprinted down the hallway, guns in hand. They were in a major rush to get to the action, but I could care less about that. At least the heat was off of us and now being directed to the small group out up front.

The men behind me waited for my cue to move forward. Some of them still looked pretty weak, but the bulk of the group made up for that considering most of them were ready to fight after being freed. Carlos stood close to me. I could tell he placed his faith in me, and I couldn't let him down. He didn't know the plan, but I did, so I had to lead them out.

I turned to them. "I'm gonna wait until they pass, then we move forward around them and find the quickest route out."

One of the men stepped forward. "I heard there's an emergency staircase in the east wing. That might be the safest option."

"Is that our only option?" I asked, watching as the last of the soldiers finally passed by the doors. "I think we're gonna need more than one way out unfortunately."

Carlos stepped forward. "From what I've gathered, there is a back door to the laboratory. It shouldn't be heavily guarded, or it may not be guarded at all. We'd have to check it out in order to make sure."

"Knowing and assuming are two totally different things, you know," I replied hastily.

Another explosion went off and shook the laboratory, this one much louder and more powerful than its predecessors. Whatever Zoey was using to distract the men guarding the base, I had a feeling it was working out very well. All we had to do was get out of this place in the best way possible, but that was dangerous and risky enough considering a massive firefight was going on right in front of the laboratory, and we could get caught in the middle of it.

The base shook. "Alright, I have an idea. We take half and half to check out the individual escape routes. If one way seems too much trouble, then go to the second location. We'll meet up on the far left side of the laboratory if things work out."

"I'll take half the group and head for the back door, then," Carlos volunteered. "You take the other half and go for the emergency staircase."

"Fine, we'll rendezvous with you in twenty minutes," I agreed, taking half the group with me before taking off down the hall, splitting apart from the other group in just a few seconds.

With a plan like that, there were bound to be dangers we missed, but we didn't have time to work out all the kinks seeing as we didn't have much of a window to work with. Explosions were going off left and right at this point, many of them shaking the base violently enough to cause the structure to start failing. We ran past a collapsed wall and barely escaped a falling ceiling.

The soldier who mentioned the staircase stayed close to my side, guiding me down the corridor from his knowledge. For all we knew, the staircase was a hoax and we were heading for a dead end. I had faith that we were heading in the right direction, and if we were, all we had to do was go for the back door, assuming if we found it. I hoped that Carlos had better luck than us since he was more experienced with situations like this.

Another tremor shook the building, forcing me to stop as another portion of the ceiling fell, creating a small mound of stone. I jumped over the mound only to be greeted by two soldiers. They fired once but missed, allowing me the chance as I jumped forward again, quickly whipping out my pistol just to hit the first one on the side of the head, using my free hand to lay a hard smack to the stomach of the other. While they were incapacitated, I shot three times at the first and then another two at the other, waiting until each had stopped moving so I could bring my troops forward.

Seems the halls were still dangerous. I grabbed the fallen soldiers' guns and handed them to the two soldiers who joined me. If we encountered more resistance, I would have at least two more men by my side in case things became too much for me to handle.

The soldier who gave the directions took point, so we were forced to following him. He seemed to know where he was going amongst the fallen debris and shattered glass, so I was glad he was with us. We finally reached a door that we opened, revealing a staircase. Talk about having a Hail Mary! Everyone hastily filed inside the staircase after me as I lead them down the long flight of stairs.

Unfortunately, I couldn't communicate with Carlos since he didn't have a communicator. Damn it. Now, I could only hope that he found his route to escape just as we did and, if he didn't, then we were going to have to backtrack to his location otherwise. Considering how dangerous the halls were now, I honestly didn't feel like going all the way back to our separation and then heading to an uncertain location. Carlos was still a capable man who could handle himself very well, so I went down the stairs with a sounder mind.

The lights grew dimmer and dimmer with each level we passed, and the constant tremors rattling the entire building didn't help ease the stress. I could feel sweat begin to pour down my face every couple dozen stairs now. Zoey was definitely doing her job right, but I wished she toned it down so that we didn't get killed before making it outside.

The next tremor was more violent than the others, shaking everything that we stood on. I could hear and see cracks forming in the walls, prompting the party and me to go even quicker than before. We gripped the railing while the aftershocks went on, making sure that we didn't fall flat on our faces.

My heart thudded against my chest as he neared the bottom. We were so close to making it. If Zoey wanted to do something, like setting off another bomb, then she could do so once we were on stable ground. I could tell the soldiers behind me were getting nervous after all this. Hell, most of them were still trying to recover from being chained to a wall for the past couple of days with very minimal food, and they were still barely in any shape to fight. That was what scared me the most.

That was a lie. Jupiter definitely scared me more than that. If he saw me, he was going to try to do as much as he could and stop me. He wanted to settle the score with me after all the years of breaking out, but I would not give him the satisfaction of putting me back in chains. He would have to take me dead because I was not going to be his slave alive. I was sure that would make him even more furious, but I would not live if he took me captive once again.

We finally reached the bottom; only a half open metal door stood between us and escape. The only problem was that were soldiers on the other side of the door shouting out orders and shooting into the distance. There were a good number of them as well, so a full frontal assault was pointless.

I leaned against the wall and took a peek. The entire front wall of the lobby had been reduced to nothing but rubble, leaving a completely exposed area where men tried to hide behind small mounds of debris. While I looked around, I saw three take a dive forward and die without even putting up a fight. They weren't our men, though. They were Jupiter's men who fell like flies. I saw dozens of bodies littered across the exposed lobby, and I had to shut the door just from the sight.

Zoey definitely knew how to level the playing field even with a small group of men. I doubted I could create the same results if things had been vice versa. She always knew how to even out a fight despite the odds.

Carefully, I opened the door and took a few steps out. Hopefully Zoey made sure the soldiers who were with her didn't shoot at me as well otherwise I was going to fight a battle on two fronts. I beckoned the other soldiers who had picked up guns to follow me, and so they did and hid behind a set fallen columns.

"You three watch the doors on the sides of the lobby," I ordered. "I need one to help me cover the front."

Once the positions were decided, I had one man on my right and three behind me. I leaned up from my cover and gave the nod to the soldier by my side, quickly taking a shot at the men who were a few yards ahead of us. I managed another two shots at covering men, killing at least one of them, before being forced back into my cover. The man beside me then stepped up and fired plenty of rounds while I was forced to reload. He told me he saw two men fall but was unsure if those were the men he killed.

We kept up this pattern several times until the finally noticed us and turned around to face us. We stayed under our cover for a while as they rained down fire at us, but I could feel the intensity of the bullets slowly die away. I could hear loud shouts coming from the men far away from us and peeked up from my cover only to see them fall at Zoey and her men's hands.

I jumped from my cover and dove forward, firing two more shots at two individual men before taking cover behind a standing pillar. I flinched as a few bullets were thrown my way, yet I broke from my cover and fired another few rounds, killing another few men along the way.

Suddenly, I hissed, feeling a bullet cut through my skin. I looked up in time to watch a man standing a few feet from me finish loading his gun and jumped to the left where there was a wall of plants and stone blocking his aim. I panted and reloaded my weapon just as he stepped out and aimed his gun right at me. Before he could even fire a shot at me, I threw my gun right at his face, immobilizing him for a few short seconds until I was able to settle myself and dive right at him. I pushed the gun away and struggled to pull it from his grip, but he was a strong one and challenged my strength greatly. I grunted and pushed him right into the wall, finally able to pry the gun from his grip so I could slam the butt of it right at his face, knocking him out instantly.

I stepped out into the exposed area in the lobby, almost hounded with rain showers, and began to fire off as many rounds as I possibly could at the covering men, many of which fell quickly until the gun I held finally ran out of ammunition. They noticed me after their numbers went down, but I hid behind one of the fallen columns as they fired off bursts of full metal jackets.

My heart thudded against my chest, and my throat was growing dry from this whole ordeal. Sweat poured down the sides of my face and fell to the floor, and the hard rain made it difficult to see the area in front of me outside the stone wall. There still large amounts of men out there and just because we were giving them heat on both fronts didn't mean they couldn't handle it. I flinched just as another wave of bullets slammed against the column, nearly missing me by millimeters. I took a deep breath and looked over the column to see my options.

Suddenly, I heard gunfire go off really close to me, but the shots weren't even directed at me. I turned and saw Carlos and his men coming from the sides of the building, firing long rounds at the rest of the covering men, forcing them to fall in mere minutes. Quickly picking up my pistol, I ran right for them, covering behind plenty of areas until I met them near the half-build wall. Carlos stood beside one the front gates, flinching as gunfire was thrown his way.

I brought my gun up and stopped two men from passing the line between the gate and the area we held. One tried to get the jump on me but missed his shots, only scraping across my skin. I ignored the pain along my thigh and shot him down as well, hastily reloading my weapon before joining Carlos at the wall, being followed by my group of men from the back. We didn't exchange any sort of greeting seeing as we still had plenty of guys to take out before we could focus on chatting with each other.

My communicator buzzed in the middle of the fight. I grunted, knowing this was the worst of times, but I knew I had to take the call. It could be life-changing and I would never know if I missed it.

I tapped the button and shouted "Arthur here! Not the best time for a call!"

Gunfire blared through the other end. The rain made it difficult to get a good signal to the caller, but I recognized the voice of the caller once the call went through but it didn't sound too pretty.

_ "Arthur! This is Zoey! Urgh, we're gonna try and draw the heat off of your group so you can get the men into the jungle and into the boats!"_

_ _ "You sure they're there?" I exclaimed, watching as a chunk of stone fell right next to me. We couldn't hold this position forever.

"That's a chance you're gonna have to take! We intercepted a call telling that more were on the way, so you need to get the hell out of there before they swarm you!"

_ _ "Dammit! Alright, pull them closer to the west and we'll make a run for the jungle! Chances are they don't know the terrain very well, so you can use that to your advantage!"

"Gimme two minutes!"

_ _ The call immediately dropped. I leaned out from my cover and fired a few shots, missing two close targets but wounding one man farther away. Quickly, I covered once more and wiped the sweat from my eyebrows, feeling more dribble down my forehead. Carlos finished reloading his weapon and burst forward with me close behind, and I watched as he laid waste to half a dozen men just as we reached a large stone cache the yards from our original position. We still had plenty of headway before we could even come close to the jungle, but we looked over the stones and watched the soldiers closer towards the front push forward and to the right into the jungle.

At least Zoey was true to her word. Even though the wind blew hard against us and the rain poured around the group, we used it to our advantage and pushed as far as we could while moving as silently as we could. Zoey's diversion worked like a charm, allowing us to get closer and closer to the jungle with each attempt, and we could almost see the dense trees ahead.

Just when I thought we were in the clear, Carlos howled in pain, clutching his arm as blood quickly began to pour down. I finally realized he was wearing a newly acquired jacket which was slowly being covered in crimson blood. Wanting to know where the shot came from, I turned around and met the eyes of Jupiter, who stood in the open lobby, holding a smoking pistol in his hands. I saw part of his shoulder bandaged, only telling me that he wasn't dead, just wounded from the gunshot. He had a dozen men coming up from behind, only causing more of a headache for us.

His glowing eyes met mine, and they had me shuddering with fear just as always. We took very slow steps forward, slowly entering the downpour of rain and destruction which his laboratory laid in. We couldn't let him get close to us or else it was all over.

Carlos, thinking on his toes even with a bleeding shoulder, grabbed the grenade from my belt and pushed the button, stepping up from his cover and threw it right at Jupiter. He had to know it was just a smoke grenade from the way it blew out large amounts of smoke in the air before landing and exploding a huge plume that almost encased most of the front courtyard.

While the smoke remained active, he grabbed my arm and turned to the men. "You lot head into the jungle and follow Arthur's squad! He and I will draw Jupiter's attention and head eastward into the forest!"

"But sir--!" one of them shouted but was cut off.

"That's an order, soldier! Get moving! C'mon Arthur! We're losing time!" he yanked me upwards and started running for the forest.

I was left with no choice other than to follow him, for he kept a strong grip on my wrist and pulled me into the thick jungle. He then grabbed my pistol and began to shoot in Jupiter's general direction, hopefully grabbing his attention from our fleeing men. Once we were ways into the jungle, we barely evaded an onslaught of bullets before skidding down the side of the hill. We used the thick trees for cover as best we could trying to find our way through the thick vegetation while keeping up with each other.

He saw me almost pull out a flashlight and yanked it from my hand, turning it on then throwing it behind us. I figured he would do such a thing, knowing that would help Jupiter and his men find us much quicker. The extra light was supposed to be used to help us see through the forest, but he did have a better use for it anyway.

I stumbled forward and caught him with me. He helped me back onto my feet and pulled me back up, hastily picking up our pace once more just to get as much distance from Jupiter as we could. He fired another few shots into the air just to keep their attention on us, hopefully. While I waited for him to climb over a very thick, hollowed out tree, I looked back and saw very faint flashlights in the distance, only telling me that they were hot on our trail. We had to keep moving or else we were going to die.

Once over, he helped me up and pulled me over the huge tree, grabbing me by the wrist once I landed and tugged me onward. The mud continued to slow our pace down considerably, and the rain made it incredibly difficult to see where we were going, but we had to keep moving. That was all we could do; just buy our men time and use ourselves as live bait.

This time he tripped, forcing me to back track a few feet and help him back up. For some reason, he felt rough and lumpy around his stomach. Maybe he just had a few things stuck in there from the forest and just couldn't get them out while we were running. I completely forgot about them once we picked up our pace once again, yet I had to sling Carlos's arm over my shoulder and help him jog forward. His other arm still looked bad and was still bleeding heavily, eventually dripping onto my fake uniform. If I didn't get him to a doctor soon...

No, I had to get him out of here alive! I came all this way to bring him home and I couldn't go back on my word now! He felt and looked weak, and I could tell with the wound open and bleeding, he was only going to get weaker until his body gave out. There was no way I could let that happen, so I continued to sling him on and jog through the jungle.

It felt like an eternity of walking, but I could still hear the gunfire in the distance. It wasn't that far away. I took the gun from Carlos's hand and fired the rest of the bullets into the air, hopefully keeping Jupiter on our trail and away from our fleeing men. With fatigue settling in, even I could feel my muscles growing weaker with the passing minutes. Carlos groaned, I huffed, and the rain just made everything feel ten times heavier. We were out of tricks and all we could do was walk until they found us.

He shifted and groaned. "Arthur...put me down."

I looked at him puzzlingly. "You need help."

Instead of listening to me, he pulled his arm off my shoulder and crumpled to the ground. I was about to pick him back up but he pushed me away, forcing me to step back. He had never done that to me before. It shocked me enough that I stared at him with shock, unsure about what to do now.

He finally groaned and used a tree to prop himself onto his feet. The canine gripped his shoulder with pain and let out a long sigh of grief. "And so this is how a dream ends?"

"What're you talking about?" I urged, taking a step towards him.

What I said didn't seem to get through him. "I knew one day I would die, but I did not know I would die today."

"You're not dying today, Carlos! Stop talking like that!" I practically yelled at him. I didn't care if Jupiter or his men found us. I just wanted the man who rescued me to come back and stop acting crazy.

He still paid me no mind, instead looking out into the darkness ahead. "Urgh, seems I've had my time in this world. The torch must be passed on."

"Carlos! What the hell are you talking about?!" I shouted with firm distinction in my tone, finally gripping his arms with my hands and brought his gaze back to me.

At first he looked stunned at my display. Even I felt shocked that I spoke that way, especially to him. We both stared at each other for a long time. Our faces were covered with mud, water, leaves, and sweat. He was still bleeding at a staggering rate, and we were standing here like nothing was wrong. We still had Jupiter and his men chasing after us but we stood there motionless for a long time.

Finally, he placed a hand on my wrist and took it off. "Arthur...you need to get out of here."

"What're you talking about? I don't understand," I could feel tears swell up in my eyes. He was talking nonsense at this point, and I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

The husky let out another breath and stepped back. He then pulled his jacket off and revealed to me his reason behind his manner of talking. I could see dozens of long sticks wrapped around his stomach, each one letting off a green light that looked untouched.

Those weren't ordinary sticks though. They were all bombs, and I saw Carlos holding the trigger.