Something new from me, not sure I should be starting this new story, but it just wouldn't leave me alone. This story is AU but I urge you to give it a go, I promise its going to be one hell of a ride.

HOSTAGE TAKERS

Chapter one: The reckoning

After the minor meltdown of the economy in 2007 the world held its breath as the stock markets and banks tried to get back on their feet. Millions of dollars were pumped back into the economy, keeping businesses afloat and high street cash registers full. The backlash of these events was foreseen by many. A deficit too deep to control opened up from right underneath the government that attempted to control it. Billions of dollars gone in the blink of an eye, cost of living shot through the roof as taxes were raised to pull back the deficit. Millions lost their homes and their jobs, unemployment was no longer a thing for the uneducated it was on every street, in every town.

Back in the wall street crash of 1929 it was said that people were seen jumping from the building, preferring to commit suicide than to face the loss that they had brought about on the country. On the 5th of November 2014 the death count for suicides in the US had risen by 65%. From stock brokers to house wives, from hard working fathers, to farmers in the fields. Their crops too expensive to plant, and no one was buying. The country was in melt down and only the super-rich seemed to survive in tacked.

Left homeless and destitute many people took to the streets, forming communities living in abandoned apartment buildings. They had no electricity, no flowing water and no heat. Winter was just around the corner and people were crying out for assistance. Their cries fell upon deaf ears as the governing power continued to pick up their own crumbling democracy as martial law was declared. Armed police patrolled the streets, corralling people in to shanty towns, boarded off and apart from people who could still call themselves affluent. The divide in the people was greater than it had ever been before. Those with jobs clung to them, working exceptionally long hours far what amounted to little pay, but the alternative was far worse. Entire families living in one cold room. Eating what they could find and drinking almost unsanitary water.

It was hardly surprising that the rest of the world was in a similar state, the backlash from this spread far and wide, some countries faring better than others, but ultimately the human race was going to have to go on without its creature comforts. The sound of iPods in teenagers ears was a long forgotten memory. The roar of a v 8 engine something now only seen in movies, and the tapping of keyboards only heard in the few offices that remained in the city's.

Chicago was no exception, the pavement no longer echoed with the sound of people walking to work. The L train made no noise as it sat idle at the last station it had stopped at before it was turned off permanently. It was here that four former colleagues banded around a oil drum that contained burning newspapers and bits of furniture. The night was cold, colder than it had been before and as Randy breathed out he could clearly see his breath against the night sky. Rubbing his hands together in his torn gloves he pushed them once more against the heat of the fire. So close he could feel his skin burning underneath. He didn't pull back though, the feeling made him feel alive. Something he had not felt for a long time. The day he lost his job, no longer needed by a company he had worked for, for almost seven years he had died inside. No one watched TV any more, let alone paid for pay per view the wrestling business crumbled and feel into the abyss that all the rest of the world was slowly sliding into. His entire savings account had virtually be lost, spent and divided up between the banks attempting to bale themselves out of the situation they had created. Pulling in all loans and mortgages on the spot. Randy's house in Milwaukie had barely had chance to let the paint dry before the bank took all he had to pay off the mortgage on it. Left with nothing but a shell of a house that he could not afford to heat Randy had left, going to his best friend John Cena who had no luck either.

John had been let go at the same time as Randy, and although his finances were in good shape he had been hit hard on taxes. He had lasted longer than most, managing to stretch his finances for over six months. In that time he had taken in several house guests, all former wrestlers and diva's looking for a place to stay. Pooling their resources to keep the house running, heated and food in the cupboards. One by one though they had left, out of money, scared for their families and depression setting in, it had come down to the four of them. Finally as August had turned into the autumnal days of September the last of the supplies ran out and the bailiffs had come round to take whatever they could as council tax. John had no choice but to leave, encouraging his friends to come with him. Knowing they were better off together, for alone they were all vulnerable.

Mickie James had stayed at the house for she had nowhere else to go. Her father had killed himself, unable to make a living he had got in the bath one night and slit his wrists. Her mother was not far behind, simply wasting away in some corner of Richmond, forgotten and abandoned. Mickie's guilt over her mother's death had never left her, it had made her angry, both at herself and the government for what had happened. Now she was here with the only people she trusted in the world, with nothing to her name but the clothes on her back ,and the meagre possessions she had in a rucksack she carried with her everywhere. She liked to call it her in case of emergency bag, Mickie often wondered what constituted an emergency these days. If being freezing cold and almost starving was not longer considered an emergency what was? They had found out not long after they had taken to the streets. Everything out here was worth stealing, for everything had value. Wood for a fire, clothes for warmth, food even tooth brushes.

Beth had been searching for somewhere good to sleep for the night with Randy when a group of men had attacked them. Knocking Randy out cold from behind Beth had struggled with them for the food she had brought earlier on that day. It had cost her three dollars, almost all she had in the world, but they had not eaten for four days. Fighting with the gang had proved useless, once a former power lifter, Beth had grown thin and week, lack of food and activity had taken its toll on all of them and she was no match for the them. She had lost their food and almost her life, as one of them stabbed her with a knife, leaving the weapon embedded in her femur unable to remove it they had fled. Randy had woken up later and carried Beth to were Mickie and John had been working that day.

It was hard to find work, and it paid almost nothing, but when something came along you did it no matter what. On that day Mickie and John had found work gutting fish for sale, it was smelly, tiring and worth two dollars each for a ten hour day. As Mickie saw Beth she knew it was time to get out her in case of emergency bag. Knowing that she couldn't leave work she handed Randy the rucksack and told him to use whatever he could to get Beth seen by a doctor. It had cost her her mother's gold chain, and a pair of pearl earrings, but Beth was fine, and she still had the knife. It flashed now in the fire light, hanging from a makeshift pouch at her hip. The weapon never left the blondes side, almost like the scar on her leg now hidden from view by her tattered jeans.

Beth turned now warming her back on the fire, staring up at the train track above her and looking at the gathering clouds above.

"We are going to have to move from here, it's going to rain." She said her voice monotone, the compassion it had once held gone a long time ago. Her eyes never left the sky as the first drops of rain landed on her dirty face. Leaving streaks of clean pale skin visible beneath the dust of the city that had acuminated there over the past few days.

"We should try one of the shelters, they may have room." John said as Beth turned back around and looked at the underpass knowing it would not offer much protection.

"Yeah maybe, but I hear they are charging to get in now." Mickie said also looking in the direction of the bridge and shaking her head.

"If we go in there, I fear we might not come out again." Randy joined in as the rain now fell in earnest, covering them quickly in freezing cold water. Right now the underpass was their only option, well it was that or dying of hyperthermia before the sun came up. Racing for the dark cavern as the rain made the fire hiss and spit behind them, Beth turned back to see it extinguished by the rain, only smoke was left now and the light the fire had created no longer casting its glow into the tunnel.

Underpasses and bridges were dangerous, the world now in general was dangerous, criminals lurked on every street. Some just wanted food clothing and would do no more than threaten you for it. Probably once respectable people turned to crime through no choice. Others however were far more dangerous, willing to kill over a pair of gloves they often spent the nights under the cover of bridges and underpasses. Everyone knew this and would avoid the area's at all costs, but right now for the four former wrestlers the cost would have been their lives. Standing just inside the entrance, knowing they could make a run for it if they had to they watched as a blanket of rain pounded the ground in front of them.

"Looks like sleep is something we will have to think about in the morning." John said as Mickie wrapped herself around him for warmth. Personal boundaries had gone out of the window a long time ago. Often huddling together in shelters, sharing the same tiny bed all four of them had known what it would take to survive. Sex however was out of the question. Not only could they not afford to get pregnant at any cost, but it would cross a line they had long ago drawn in the sand. It worked for them, moving around the city working when they could and getting by with what they had, and everything was shared.

"We will try the third district, I know a guy there he owes me a favour." Beth said not elaborating on why this guy owed her a favour and no one asked. They had all done many things they were not proud of since leaving John's home two months ago. At first they had tried to stick to the rules, paid their way, kept to the curfew that existed now. They had soon realised however that that was a quick way to an early grave. Running out of money quickly, Randy had taken to petty theft, stealing some chees from a local shop while Beth distracted the owner with her ample cleavage it was a minor infraction that could have cost them their lives if they had been caught. While martial law was in harsher measures had been in service. Small crimes were dealt with swiftly, if you could not pay for your legal fees you were dumped in a jail cell and left to rot. Little water and no food, it was a death sentence without the firing squad. Larger crimes like bank robbery, murder, rape were dealt with quickly too. Bullets cost money and so hanging had come back into fashion, no audience watched though, no executioner in a black shroud was on hand. The soldiers merely tied them to the nearest tree and shoved them off. Oh yes the world was a very dangerous place now and they all knew it, but it had not stopped them from playing their little distraction trick on more than one occasion. Either Mickie or Beth would go in, depending on which woman took the shop owners fancy on the first visit and one of the boys would go in and do the stealing. So far they had gotten away with it. Taking only what they needed in order to survive, they wondered if the people behind the counter had ever even realised they had taken anything.

"Ok third it is, we move as soon as this rain stops coming down." Randy said looking up at the sky but seeing no relief on the horizon. Looking behind him he could see nothing in the gloom of the tunnel. It didn't mean no one was their however, it was an almost certainty that someone was watching them, but as the four of them were together, unless a small army had been waiting in the tunnel it was unlikely anyone would be attacking them. John and Randy were still imposing figures, even though their muscle was now almost gone, replaced with thin frames over large bones, they both still stood well over six feet, and everyone was skinny around here. Mainly people left them alone when they were together, and as a rule the girls were not left alone together. Sex crimes were a rife as stealing and murder. It was even said in some parts women were traded for food almost like slavery days and none of them wanted that to happen, least of all Mickie and Beth.

"I think its slowing." Mickie said after what felt like hours as the sky seemed to be turning an inky blue from the deep black it had been before.

"Let's go." Randy said simply, stepping out into the now light rain he lead the way out on to the street beyond the railway tracks and towards the hospital. It was all but boarded up now, community hospitals no longer existed, doctors were for those who could pay only, and hospitals were only for the rich. Moving along the street carefully watching out for any patrols, the four of them ducked behind buildings and moved in the shadows. If the soldiers caught them out after curfew they would get a beating and have to pay a fine of a dollar each for being on the street after ten. It was now almost three in the morning, and patrols were light. Listening carefully for the sound of marching boots Randy stopped in a shop doorway and looked beyond the metal barrier. He could see the bread and cakes beyond the windows. Knowing that to afford even a single cake he would have to do two full days work and the effort would not have been worth the reward.

"Ok its clear." He said to Beth who was behind him as the blonde passed on the message and they all moved off. Making a dash for the street they wanted they slowed down as they approached the barriers cordoning off the street. The gate was of course locked at this time of night, keeping the occupants within safely tucked away for the night, but having lived here a while they knew all the secret ways in and out of the place. Mickie moved around to the left side of one of the buildings that bordered the surrounding street. She looked along and spotted the lose railing. Pulling it up out of the ground she squeezed beneath it and stood up once clear of the wire fence.

They all followed her John being last fixed the fence and left no trace it was ever lose. Safe now inside the walls the four of them moved along the street at Beth directions and stopped at a four story apartment building.

"Ok this is it, now I am not promising the Ritz, but I think Phil said they had hot water here, so many if we are nice to him we can all get a short shower." Beth smiled at her companions as she walked up the stone steps and knocked on the door. It swung open at her knock, and the darkness beyond made her take a step back. Something was not right here and Beth just hoped her old friend was ok.

There we have it a brand new story, my first real thriller and I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know if I should continue, I can see this one being an epic, so if I should just set fire to it, tell me now before I write it all and get cramp. Thank you for reading XxX