Stuck in The Middle (Ep. 13) " - With You"
14 Oct 2021Isabella Adair-Levine
Previous Episode: Ep. 12 "Stuck in The Middle -" Oh! Forgot to add. Closing up the story now. (Love how it saves when you close the browser. I had half a message there. Lol)
BANG. An echoing gunshot went off and the grip around her neck loosened. BANG. Another shot rang out again. Isabella gasped as her lungs desperately tried to bring air in. Her throat burned with a sharp stinging-like sensation as if she'd downed scalding hot coffee. Her blurry dark vision quickly came back to normal as she heaved and coughed rubbing her own neck. She sat up to look at who saved her half expecting it to be Violet but it wasn't. No. It was one of the soldiers from Tyrese's squad. His dark armour like the others, giving him away. He was a young kid with dark brown hair, soft round features, dark brown eyes, and an Intimidator Shotgun in both hands. Isabella tried to say thank you but a hoarse voice with jumbled words came out instead. She gave herself a second and tried again.
"...thanks..."
She finally managed as she slowly got up and looked at Tyrese painfully writhing on the floor. She approached him slowly and looked into his eyes. They still looked cold and soulless even.
"You..and I...are so much alike, Ms. Levine. Hahaha-"
His laugh became laboured and hoarse before he started coughing and spat out blood on the floor.
"We're killers. I killed all those people and you killed all of my people. I...I told you...we're just opposite sides of the same coin."
He grinned at her with blood-covered teeth as she stepped aside and picked up her pistol from off the floor and came back. She raised the gun pointing it to his face.
"Do it. Finish the job. Kill me."
"Where's Violet? What did you do with her?"
He rolled his eyes and coughed up more blood again; spitting it to the floor.
"That teen girl is dead. I put a bullet between her eyes."
Isabella crouched down and jammed the muzzle of her pistol into a section of suit that had rapidly sealed itself to protect the wearer. She noted that the two blasts from the Intimidator Shotgun really did damage as not all the areas of his suit were sealed as blood slowly oozed out. Fining a new spot, she jammed the gun there and twisted. He seethed in pain.
"You...you think I didn't? Ohhh...I did! But I made her beg bef-"
She heard enough and pulled the trigger. The gun flashed with a slightly muffled pop as he cried out in pain.
"You didn't kill her. Spit it out! Where!"
Isabella pushed on his fresh wound as more blood pooled from it. He gritted his teeth and laughed through his pain. He...enjoyed this? It was sick.
"She's alive...but...I don't know for how much longer. Over there...in...in the next room. Blue storage container by the loading bay. Hopefully, she had enough oxygen."
He said with a smile on his face. Isabella ignored his comment and ran in a sprint towards the connecting storage room warehouse where she looked for a large blue rectangular container near the loading bay and found exactly what she was looking for. She jogged up to the container doors and lifted the locks on both doors pulling them open to reveal only darkness inside. She turned on her light and that's when she saw a blond-haired girl collapsed on the floor. Her heart froze and she felt cold needles run through her blood.
"No. No, no, no, no."
Isabella ran to her and tapped the side of her face trying to wake her.
"Hey! Come on. Wake up."
She tried to tap her face again but got no response. Nothing at all. She began to panic as she checked for injuries. Only a small gash with dried blood on the right side of her forehead. She was struck with something blunt at one point.
"Please! Come on, Violet. Don't do this to me. Wake up. Wake up, please. Come on, sweetie."
Isabella picked her up gently and took her outside the dark container. Tears began to welt in her eyes as she placed her down and leaned over her to listen for breathing. She heard nothing, so she began performing chest compressions.
"No, Violet! Come on! Wake up! You can hear me. I know you can hear me. Wake up, please!"
She continued compressions, stopped to deliver breaths, then continued for nearly a minute. She repeated the process checking for breathing between each set before suddenly there was a gasp of air and her brown eyes opened wide.
"Violet! Oh, god. You're alive! Oh, thank god!"
Violet looked at her with confusion in her eyes as Isabella sat her up, whipped away her tears, and hugged her tightly.
"Wha…Isabella? What's..."
"It's okay. It's fine. Just...breathe."
She continued to hold on tight as she heard the rattling of the metal around her. Ships were landing. It was the Feds. They arrived.
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
Isabella asked while checking her face again like.
"Not really. He hit me but that's nothing to what I did to his face. I slashed him good, Bella. Is he dead? Did you kill him?"
Isabella shook her head as she heard several booted footsteps approaching from in the connecting room.
"I don't think he's dead but he's screwed either way. It's over now, Violet. All of this crap. It's done."
Violet looked past Isabella and she followed her gaze. Four armed men approached with weapons raised.
"Hands where I can see them! Turn around slowly and follow all commands."
Isabella looked back at Violet and ruffled up her thin blonde hair with a smile.
"It's okay, kiddo. The circus clowns arrived to save the day."
Isabella raised her hands and slowly stood up. She then turned and faced the Federal Agents before her.
"I'm armed but I come in peace. The girl behind me, Violet, needs a medical check-up immediately."
One of the 4 Federal Agents, the leader most likely, lowered his weapon and pointed a finger towards her hip.
"Alright. We can do that. But I need you to drop your weapon first. Do it slowly."
She nodded and moved with careful ease as she took her pistol from off its magnetic hold and gingerly placed it on the ground. Once she did that the lead agent motioned to the rest and they all lowered their weapons. The lead agent then cautiously approached as if she could inflict harm by simply looking at him wrong. It was funny to see. Maybe he'd connected all the destruction and bodies outside to her. A reaper of death almost. The thought made her feel bad.
"Is that your blood or someone else's? On your face."
Isabella wiped her face and looked at her blood-smeared hand. She'd forgotten half her face was covered with blood and not just hers from the slash wound.
"Both mine and...someone else's I guess. The bastard on the ground over there cut me but I'm fine."
Thinking back, she then rubbed her neck remembering how close to death she came for a moment there. If it wasn't for that...guy. Isabella glanced past the agent in front of her seeing the man cuffed and escorted by two armed men.
"Wait. Why are you handcuffing that guy? He saved my life. He helped."
The lead agent in front of her stayed silent and motioned with a finger for her to turn around but she didn't so he grabbed her wrist and cuffed them with the other before she could blink.
"Are you kidding me? We're not criminals!"
He quickly pointed for his men to escort her and they did, moving to her side.
"You're suspects of an investigation now. You'll be detained and questioned. How you answer determines the outcome."
Violet scowled and stormed her way towards the agent but was stopped by Isabella with an erupt bump from her hip.
"Violet, hey, hey. Don't. It's fine. I've been through this load of crap before. Same type of assholes, just a different power."
The agent smirked as Violet glared at him. The teen girl then looked at Isabella.
"Fine. But will they separate us? I'm not being left alone or being sent back to my mothers. I'll claw my way out and no one will stop me."
Isabella shook her head and smiled at her.
"They won't. I promise. Isn't that right, agent?"
She looked at the agent and he silently gave a nod, taking a step back and waving for his men to escort her.
"Good. Give her a medical check and I'll answer whatever garbage you need."
She said as they moved. Her little escort walked as a group back to the main factory floor and as they did they passed Tyrese Waters on the ground being worked on by three combat medics Isabella couldn't help but glance at Violet who held a scowl but thankfully stayed calm and quiet. Before they exited the building, they provided Isabella with an emergency Remlok survival helmet and she awkwardly fit it on handcuffed. It was an awkward fit but the helmet sealed itself to her suit.
"Hey. I wanted to thank you."
A voice said from behind her. She turned and the young man from earlier approached on her right flank. As he did the head agent stepped outside and waved for the rest of his men to escort the three.
"I should be thanking you. You saved me."
His eyes met the ground and he shrugged as they stepped outside into the dark night. She noticed her suit immediately went to reserve oxygen and the frigid cold bit through to her skin below. She couldn't help but shiver. Suit power loss stopped temperature regulation but the journey to one of the two Federal Dropships wasn't far. She could fight through it.
"I was a coward the whole time, really. I followed orders but when I saw the bodies here I just...felt like something was wrong the whole time. Then the news a few hours ago? I heard about you. Sergeant Waters mentioned your name over that PA system and...I had to do something. Couldn't just...do nothing. You shot at me so I hid."
Isabella's eyes widened when he said that. That explained how Tyrese got behind her. She watched as a ramp lowered and they were escorted into the back of the dropship.
"Sorry I shot at you. And hey, you did the right thing. That's not being a coward. Quite the opposite. But with everything that happened, I think we were lucky. Violet's father held daily records of settlement activities in his personal tablet. I found the date of the incident and we brought it to Adam Darlington. That...guy who ran against Sterling and lost or whatever. I think he made an official statement and will try to calm the unrest. Feds are here to...help."
The doors to the dropship closed with everyone inside and the interior holding bay pressurized allowing Isabella to take off the emergency helmet and breathe in freshly filtered air.
"Hey. I never got your name."
The young man took his helmet off and smiled slightly, looking at her.
"Ah. Names Leonard Rutkowski. I hate the name so you can call me Leon. Sounds...cooler."
Isabella chuckled to that as she studied his young face. He looked to be only a few years younger than her. Maybe near Violet's age. 19 years old or 20, she bet. Wasn't overly important to know his age but he seemed too young to be here. She wondered about his story and how he ended up falling in with someone like Tyrese Waters and his men. He just seemed to not belong or fit in well.
The Dropship vibrated as the engines to the rear of them roared to life. As the ship went to take off, Isabella activated her magnetic mounts on her boots and gripped onto the side of the bulkhead; just now remembering about her ship. It'd be left here and that thought started to bother her. She asked about where they were going but she didn't get much of a straight answer. Wasn't a surprise when it came to government types. Isabella glanced back at Violet and saw she looked a tad disappointed. Even frustrated. She didn't blame her. After everything they went through it all seemed...anticlimactic. The truth was out, people knew, Sterling was killed by Waters and they were on their way to some unknown system to be interrogated by Feds. Didn't feel like a good end to a load of crap. Tyrese Waters' condition was even unknown to top it off. He'd either survive or die and if he died it wasn't even her who could say killed him. But maybe that was for the best. She thought back to when all this started. When she killed all the scavengers. She returned and now killed all of Waters' men. She couldn't help but have the thought about what he said to her float into her mind. About being a cold focused killer. Isabella felt she was too good at it and hated that feeling. Violence wasn't something she was. She was a Freelancer on the surface, an explorer at heart. Not a murderer. But maybe she was after all this. As much as she didn't want to admit it.
She felt the ship tilt as it quickly accelerated into the starry sky. The Frame Shift Drive hummed as it charged and in a blink, they were gone.
