CHAPTER 11
I awoke in a dark room. The only light I saw was coming from the heartbeat monitor that was next to me. I slowly sat up as I looked around. My chest ached a bit, it felt bruised, swollen even. My hand went to my chest as I adjusted myself on the bed I was laying in.
My mouth felt strange. I reached over next to me and my hand hit something solid. I moved to the top of it and found out it was a dresser. Something cold touched my finger tips and I grabbed a cold metal flashlight. It took a while to find the switch on it, but I eventually did and turned it on.
The light that came from the flashlight blinded me and I squinted at the bright light that come from it. After my eyes adjusted to the light, I moved it around the room and saw that I was in some type of basement. I then moved to myself and saw that there was an IV in my arm and quickly ripped it out and sat up as I let my feet dangle from the bed.
My feet touched a cold surface. But it felt good to feel it, it took my mind off of the bit of pain that was coming from my chest. As I looked down, I noticed there was a tube that was laying on the ground. I knew long enough to know it was used to help me breathe. I huffed and knit my eyes, I didn't remember taking it out.
I used the flashlight to see my surroundings, my eye sight was still a little hazy. I got on my feet and used the dresser next to me to help me stand up. My ankle was no longer in pain, that I remember clearly. The pain and the encounter with the Black Dragons at the police station. I tried to recall what had happened after all that, but it was still fuzzy.
I closed my eyes and saw images of my brother, Josh, as he leaned over me with tears in his eyes. I sighed and took a step away from the bed.
Light from the flashlight shined a bit off of something from the dresser next to me. I shone the flashlight over to it and saw that it was a silenced pistol. I huffed and smiled.
“Thank you, Santa.” I reached for it and when I picked it up, I noticed there was a note underneath of it.
I placed the gun in the back of my pants then reached over and grabbed the note. I opened it and began to read it.
“Joey, Ryan won the election sooner than expected, city has gone to hell. Inmates from the prison helping him. Meet up at James' house. Be careful.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head as I folded the note and stuffed it in my back pocket. I then took out the pistol and used the flashlight to see where I was stepping. A chair on the right caught my eyes, I noticed there was clothes folded up on the chair as well. I nodded and realized that I was in a hospital gown, and the back was open.
I went to the chair and grabbed the clothes and turned back to the bed to put the pistol down then quickly got changed. As I changed my shirt, I looked at my chest, where a bandage covered up a wound that still stung each time I moved quickly.
I put my shirt on and threw my shoes on then picked up the pistol as I used the flashlight to find the door. I saw the door and went towards it. There wasn't any light coming from behind it, but I opened it anyway. I quickly threw it open and used the flashlight to look around. I left the room I was in and entered what seemed to be a hallway.
There was a light at the left end of the hallway and I proceeded toward it. I looked around for anything that could help me. I snatched a black hat from the floor and put it on my head as I continued towards the end of the hall. The light was coming from a window above a staircase that was on the left side of a wall at the end of the hallway.
I turned the flashlight off and looked up at the staircase. Taking a deep breath, I hesitated then started up them, my pistol aimed and ready to shoot anything that came at me. I got to the window and looked outside.
I found myself shaking my head as I looked at the scene. There were posters everywhere with Ryan's face on it and with words below his face that I couldn't make out. There was trash in the streets and a bunch of guys with machine guns that looked like they were fresh out of prison. And I knew that they were.
I sighed and shook my head, this wasn't what I expected to happen when Ryan won the election. This was much, much worse.
Turning around, I saw there was another set of stairs and a door that looked like an exit. I started up the other set of staircases and studied the door. The door had the word 'Lobby', written across it, and there was another set of stairs that led up.
I put the pistol behind my back then slowly opened the door and peeked out into the hallway. It seemed quiet, empty. And when I saw the over turned chairs and hospital beds, I knew exactly where I was. As if it weren't already obvious.
Looking down both sides of the hallway, I left the staircases and shut the door behind me quietly. I started towards the front door but stopped suddenly when a second thought passed through my head. I froze and backed away from the door, knowing that it would be stupid to go out that way. I looked to the side and then started towards the back of the hospital, knowing that that would be a safer way to leave the hospital.
As I was going down the hallway, I saw a body that was laid out on the ground with a puddle of blood around it. When I got closer, I noticed that it was the body of a police officer and he had a bullet in his head and one in his heart, an all too familiar execution style kill.
I sighed and closed my eyes, recalling what had happened at this same exact hospital when my friends were still alive. I moved passed the body and continued down the hall. My thought's suffocated me, memories with Cole and the others from years ago, all the things that had happened in this very hospital. I had lost focus so much that I didn't even realize that I was back where Sean, Sam, Casey and I had escaped when that masked man was shooting at us.
I stopped and looked into the room Cole had said his last words, before he went after that masked man and never made it out. I closed my eyes and was about to go down the staircase to my right but stopped and looked in front of me to where I had last seen him.
I knit my eyes and started forward with my eyes surveying the ground. I had this feeling in my gut that made me want to look around, for some odd reason, I had the need to look around. But I was glad I did.
I bent down and got on my knees when I saw something out of the ordinary. The thing that stuck out from the trash and open medication kits that were on the ground was a necklace. I picked it up and held it in my hand. My grip loosened and the gun I was holding dropped to the ground. A burning pain appeared in my chest and my eyes started to water, I tried to hold it back, but, my thoughts took me over and made it agony and unbearable to hold it in any longer.
My hand went over my eyes and I clenched the Crew necklace in my fist as my face was drowning in tears. I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath as I stood up. Placing the necklace in my pocket, I picked my weapon back up and turned around, going through the emergency exit doors.
I got to the bottom of the staircase and the door that led outside was open. I went to the side of it and drew my weapon, looking on the outside for any enemies. There was an overturned car across from where I was, I got low then sprinted towards it, getting next to the hood for cover.
Looking around my surroundings, the only sound I heard was coming from the distance, yelling and screams. I shook my head as the corner of my lip twitched, Ryan had gone to damn far this time.
The note that was left for me said that they were at James' house. But, I didn't know where that even was. I sighed and looked up the street and over the turned car. I ran into an alley way and looked inside dark windows of the buildings next to me.
“What was that?” a voice said from the end of the alley way.
I froze, put my pistol in the back of my pants and quickly got behind a dumpster as I heard footsteps approaching me. There was a sound of radio static and a voice that seemed closer than the last.
“I'm checking it out now.”
I got behind the dumpster and leaned against the brick wall as a man in a black mask ski mask that had a white painted 'T' in the middle of it appeared. He stopped and looked around, his AK in his hands as he observed the area. His postu
re went slack and he put the radio in front of his mouth and it made a static noise.
“All clear.”
I came out from behind the dumpster as he was turning and grabbed him by his chin and then quickly grabbed the weapon out of his hand, throwing him to the ground and pointing the AK at him. It was so unexpected that he gasped as he landed on the ground and held up his hands. The radio that was in his hand was now laying on the floor by my feet.
I lowered the AK as my hand went behind my back and took out the silenced pistol from the back of my pants then aimed it at him.
“You're gonna hang for this.” he spoke.
I nodded and pulled the trigger twice. Once in the head and once in the chest. Execution style. I moved his body out of the middle of the alley and hid it inside the dumpster. I kicked dirt over the blood splatter that came from him and then proceeded towards the end of the alley after I picked up his radio.
I turned the volume down on his radio so no one would hear. There was a building to my right, just over that lead to a small neighborhood, I knew that well. I sighed and looked around, trying to piece together what I had to do to get out of this alive. I didn't know where James lived. The only place I knew he would stay at was his safe house. Which was about a 20 min walk from where I was. And I could not risk that with what was going on in this city. I had to stop it. And it had to end now.
I sighed and knit my eyes, leaning out of the alley to see down the street. There were men walking around, all holding AK's. I put my head against the brick wall behind me and squeezed my eyes shut, opening them then looking to the right, trying to decide a plan.
“All Triton Agents are to attend the hanging at the North Center. I repeat, there is a hanging in progress at the North Center, all Triton Agents are required to be there.”
The voice was blaring from a speaker and sounded like it was echoing around the city, which, it most likely was. I stuck my head out of the alley and looked down the street once more, but quickly pulled it back when two 'Triton Agents' started towards me. The two guys that were approaching me had on the same black mask as the one I killed. I went back into the alley way and ran up to the dumpster, opening it and quickly snatching the mask off of the dead guy.
It was wet with blood and had a hole in the head from where I had shot him. I froze and debated weather or not I should put it on. As I saw the shadows of the two agents that were approaching, I quickly put the mask over my head. The back of it was bloody and felt extremely uncomfortable, but the mask was black and basically disguised the blood with the color.
“Hey!” a voice called behind me.
I froze and turned. A Triton agent was at the end of the alley way. He waved and yelled.
“Boss is hanging two prisoners he recently caught. He wants everyone to be there. C'mon.”
I nodded and picked up the AK that was on the ground and ran out of the alley way, following him and the two other Triton agents down the street.