"Are you going to kiss me?"
"Do you want me to?"
"I need you Garcia."
"I'm right here."
"...Am I dead?"
"No, but you're going to wish you were."
"Lucy."
The deep voice was very near, talking to her, calling her back to consciousness. Slowly turning her head side to side, her brow furrowed in pain. Why did her head feel like a loaded sack of wet cement?
"Lucy."
The only thing she wanted to do was sleep. Sleep good. But her head! As she raised her hand to rub relief into the throbbing going on above her eyes, she felt it catch on something.
What the-.
"Lucy, wake up."
...Wait...did deep voice have an accent like…? She slowly opened her eyes. Blinking them to focus, a handsome face with dark green eyes and dark stubble came into view…
Flynn?!
"What? ...What's happening?" Groggily attempting to sit up and lift her right hand again, it was held fast. Looking down she saw the reason.
It was cuffed.
"Wha-?" Trying to make sense through the fuzziness, she raised her wrist. Her eyes traveled the length of the cuff over to the masculine wrist it was attached to on the other end. Realization dawned on her as she looked up at Flynn who had been watching her slowly figure out their predicament.
"Why am I cuffed to you?" She asked in a low voice of dread.
"I just asked you the same question." Lucy gave him a skeptical look as he continued, "Then you asked if I were going to kiss you."
Embarrassed, she squeezed her eyes shut, raising her free hand to rub her forehead. "That was out loud? I thought I was dreaming."
One of his eyebrows rose. "I'm in your dreams?"
Growing annoyed, she ignored his question as she struggled on to her knees and fired off questions at him.
"What did you do? How did we get here? What scheme are you doing now?!"
"I'm in the dark as you. I woke up next to a babbling woman not knowing how I got here."
Lucy sighed, "Well that's just great." Checking herself out, she saw that she was in her blue jeans, white t-shirt, blue cardigan and beige low top Converse. The clothes she had on yesterday. That is, if yesterday was yesterday because she had no idea how long she had been unconscious.
Flynn rubbed his head and the back of his neck. He had been shocked to wake up and find himself lying on a mattress, cuffed to Lucy. The last time he even saw her was a couple months ago. Noticing that he was still dressed in his navy-blue t-shirt, black jeans and black Nikes, of which he had on yesterday, he figured it was the next day. Maybe the next day. Judging from the heavy, thickness that he felt in his thrumming head, he'd been drugged hard. So, who really knew how long it had been? And, where were they?
"We have to figure a way out of here." He moved to get up, pulling Lucy's arm in the process.
"Ugh, we're cuffed weird." Holding up her right wrist she revealed that the cuff was on Flynn's right wrist too.
"I noticed." He got up from the mattress holding his hand out to her.
Taking it, she grumbled as he pulled her up. "This is unreal."
Looking up at their surroundings, it appeared that they were in a non-furnished room...of sorts. It had a very high ceiling with rusty crisscrossing steel beams near the top. The only thing in there was the full mattress they had been laying on and them. The room smelled like mildew and old. Stretching out her free hand to the nearest wall, she touched it. It was cold, solid concrete which matched the floors.
"A warehouse maybe?" She guessed.
Peering up, he saw two small dirty windows with a little sunlight fighting to shine through the grime. They were at least three stories high, so they weren't a means for escape. Flynn moved over to the door causing Lucy to trail behind him. It was a steel sliding one which, unfortunately, looked pretty sturdy. A long vertical metal handle stuck out along the side of the door. Grabbing it with both his hands, he tried to slide it open. No luck.
"Here, let me help." Lucy offered placing her petite hands on the handle too.
Flynn kind of just looked at her as she placed her back to him, positioning her small frame, all ready to push. So, he just went with it. Encircling his arms around her, he placed one hand above and below hers and counted off.
"One, two, three, push."
Straining hard against the handle resulted them nothing. Both stopped, drawing in some breaths.
"Again." He breathed out. "One, two, three, push."
Giving it all they had, it didn't budge, and they stopped. Leaning back against the door from the exertion, he looked at Lucy.
"Now would be a good time for your little friends to show up."
"I'm sure they'll be looking for me-."
His finger shot up to his lips stopping her mid-sentence. Falling silent she strained to hear what Flynn heard. The metal door was cold as he pressed his ear against it. Lucy turned and pressed hers to the door too, bringing them face to face as they listened intently. Footsteps were approaching. Their eyes met, he gave a quick flick over his shoulder as he gently pulled and placed her behind him.
The feet shuffled to a stop right outside. Then silence.
And more silence.
Holding their breaths, they strained to hear whoever it was lurking on the other side. He was taking forever. What was the guy doing? Suddenly locks were unlocking followed by the telling noise of a metal bar sliding. Flynn and Lucy watched as the door began to slide open. Determined to escape, Flynn braced and readied himself for whatever might come through.
Just as a man stepped in, Flynn socked him with his left, spun the guy around and locked him into a one-armed choke hold and squeezed. The man's arms flailed a bit with Lucy dodging out of the way, trying not to get hit. The man struggled against him to no avail and started to blackout. His hands clutched at Flynn's arm, who in turn, squeezed even harder. With his air thoroughly cut off, the man finally passed out and Flynn let him slump to the floor.
Breathing hard, sweat dotted his forehead as he quickly kneeled, pulling Lucy along with him. He padded the guy's body all over and went through his jacket pockets coming up with nothing.
"No key?" Rising, he towed Lucy over to the door as he answered, "I was looking for a gun."
Quickly, he stuck his head out of the room and saw no one and turned to her, "Stay with me."
"Do I have a choice?"
He took her hand in response, and they left the room.
The warehouse they were in was very big, dusty and rundown. Rusted beams ran along the ceiling near the top with old forgotten, dilapidated, desks and work counters lining the walls. A chaotic pile of old office chairs sat rusting in a far corner. There were more dirty brown broken windows than whole, and puddles of standing water strung about.
They sprinted across the floor about forty yards to the opposite end finding it challenging, moving around, chained together. A much larger sliding door that was about two stories tall loomed before them as they came to a stop. Flynn unlatched the lock and braced his hands on the handle. Lucy placed hers underneath his, and together they pushed, putting all their weight into it. The massive metal door slowly slid open with a rusty, creaking grind. Stopping short, they took in their surprise surroundings.
"Definitely not San Francisco." Flynn stated flatly.
"Where the heck are we?" Lucy wondered with annoyance.
They were in some kind of woods. Before them was a wide open circular dirt area with a couple of other buildings lining the edge of it. Beyond that were the trees. On the far left was a ten-foot link fence between the warehouse they were in and another small building. Before them was a smaller old warehouse which was being taken over by the growing woods and bushes. The right had no buildings and appeared to have less trees, making it seem like the best route for them to take.
Flynn took her cuffed hand in his. "We're making a run for it. Head towards those trees on the right."
Gripping his hand, she nodded. "OK."
Adrenaline rising to the next level, they stepped outside the shelter of the warehouse and made for the trees. In the stillness of the afternoon, their feet pounded the ground, closing the distance between them and their destination, until the unmistakable report of a gun cracked the silence.
The bullet zipped past their heads and was quickly followed by another. Dirt flew up around their feet as they simultaneously slid, pivoted and ran in the opposite direction with Lucy in the lead. More bullets flew as they crouched low and headed straight to the chain fence between the two buildings. They veered over to where it went behind the small building to gain some coverage.
Lucy grabbed the fence and pulled herself up as Flynn boosted her even further with a firm hand to her butt. Gripping the metal links, he hauled his body up, coordinating his climb with hers. Lucy just made it over to the other side as he swung his leg over the top. About a third of the way down the other side, he simply dropped to the ground, reached up, grabbed Lucy around her waist and yelled, "Let go!"
She did just that, fell back and he caught her. Their hands found each other again as they shot off deep into the woods.
They dodged, twisted and ducked through the trees, threading a mad path as Flynn guided them with a death grip on Lucy's hand. Her mind raced as they ran on the uneven ground filled with roots, rocks and snagging limbs. Determined to keep up with his pace, she forged on, but several minutes later, it was too much.
"Flynn! Flynn!"
He looked back at her and slowed a bit.
"Over there!" He pointed.
A cropping of large rocks that had a thick canopy of trees growing around them was up ahead. Flynn slowed them down even more due to the need to high step it over numerous smaller rocks, branches and bushes. Moving around to the opposite side of the cluster, they came to a stop. Both desperately gulped air into their strained lungs as they dropped heavily to their knees facing each other.
Sweat fell from Lucy's face as she breathed hard and struggled to get air. Head down and dripping, Flynn, on all fours, took in deep breaths trying to slow his heart rate. All that could be heard in the woods was their labored breathing and their pulse drumming in their ears.
After a minute, Lucy ran her sleeve over her forehead as she squeezed out between breaths, "You know who they are?"
Flynn shook his head, "No." He looked around them at their surroundings. Trees, nothing but trees, endless trees. There had to be a road somewhere.
"There's got to be a road around here." Lucy parroted his thoughts as she sat on the ground to rest.
He sat back on his heels and kept his eyes on the woods as he pulled the hem of his t-shirt up and used it to wipe the moisture from his face and neck. Of their own accord, Lucy's eyes fell to the dark hair that spread out over his broad chest down to his stomach and beyond. "More than likely it was in the direction we tried to go from the warehouse." He muffled as her eyes snapped back up to his hand that moved the shirt over his face one last time before he dropped it and tugged it down. "Maybe doubling back, we could-."
His words were cut short by the distinct sound of dogs barking in the distance. A lot of dogs.
"Oh no." Lucy groaned as she looked around getting up on her hands and knees.
Flynn sprung to his feet and pulled her the rest of the way up. "Come on."
Sprinting off, they could hear shouts of voices mingled with the barking.
They pressed on through to a part of the woods that got dense with a knot of trees so close together that it made it difficult to get around and through them.
"You hear that?" Lucy asked.
He did. Through the packed crowded woods, the sound of running water met their ears. Eagerly they moved toward it and came to the banks of a small muddy river. Down the side of the embankment they went and headed straight into the water in the hopes of the dogs losing their scent.
Flynn reached for Lucy's hand as their feet stepped in and submerged into the chilled murkiness. Moving out toward the middle, the water came to Flynn's calves and up to Lucy's thighs. The river bottom was covered with slippery rocks that made it tricky to stay upright, with Flynn slipping once, but they crossed through the water to the other side. Barking reached them again as they looked up and saw that the creek curved just ahead of them.
"Get to the bend!" Flynn yelled.
They placed the very last of what they had into it and ran along inside the water's edge towards their target. Lucy marveled. The bend was just right there, but as they dashed on, it felt unreachable, so far away, as if it were moving just out of their grasp. Finally, the bank began to ease them around the curve and just beyond. Once they made the turn, they ran on some more until Flynn slowed them down.
"Let's stay in the water." He stopped, placed his hands on his thighs to catch his breath and was hit with a fit of coughing.
Lucy hunched over, hair sticking to her sweaty face. A sudden wave of bile rose in her, and before she knew it, she threw up. The feeling of flames tried to consume her face as a bout of half coughing, half gagging racked her followed by more vomiting.
Still breathing hard, Flynn placed his hand on her back as she spit and wiped her mouth. "Don't hear the dogs, but we need to keep moving."
Light headed, she breathed out as she slowly stood erect and agreed, "Yeah."
He took her hand and they moved on at a quick pace inside the confines of the water along the river's edge, hoping to place as much distance between them and danger as possible.