Two weeks later:
Mary sat in the back of a black SUV. It screamed government agency in her mind, but she wasn't about to tell that to the two agents that sat in the seats in front her that. They had told her that her transport had to go as smoothly and discreetly as possible, orders from some higher up director, or they would never hear the end of it.
"So how did you guys really manage to get me an early release?"
The two agents glanced at each other, but said nothing. Which wasn't anything new, they hadn't spoken a word since they all got into the car almost two hours ago. The two men reminded her of the Men in Black- both were in black suits, sunglasses, and wore a stoic expression on their face that never seemed to change.
At first the silent car ride hadn't really bothered her, but now she was beginning to lose it. Back in jail, there was always voices, either from some other inmate, guard, staff, the television, or even the officer's walkies. Mary hadn't really realized that until now, when the silence seemed to become defining.
"Hey can you put on the radio or something?"
No answer, no movement.
"Really?" Mary said leaning forward in her seat, stretching her seatbelt, to see if she could get a better look at the two agents. They looked like statues, like they hadn't even herd her questions. She stretched and leaned forward more, reaching out her hand in an attempt to touch the volume nob on the console, but she was just too far away. In her peripheral vision she noticed that both agents were looking at her out of the corner of their eyes, but they just watched her struggle.
"Oh come on!" Mary exclaimed with a roll of her eyes and a huff. She began to withdraw back to her position and the seatbelt snapped back, constricting her to the seat. Exhaling deeply in frustration, she went to unclick her seat belt, but her hand barely made it to the red release button before the agent in the passenger seat whipped around in his chair and gave her a stern look. She was surprised by his sudden movement and halted her own.
"Ms. Chase you are by no means allowed to undo your seatbelt while the vehicle is in motion."
"Are you serious? Now you talk, just to tell me that?"
"Your seatbelt must be in place for the duration of the car ride to maintain your upmost safety," the agent replied with little expression, as if it had been rehearsed and repeated hundreds of times before.
Ignoring the agent's instructions, Mary proceeded with releasing some of the tension on her seatbelt by unclicking it from her buckle. "It will be undone for like two seconds."
"Ms. Chase yo-"
The car suddenly jerked forward as the agent in the driver's seat slammed on the breaks. Now unbuckled, Mary's body slammed into the seat in front of her while the agent in the passenger seat, who had been turned around, was cast back towards the front of the vehicle.
A few explicit words spilled from Mary's mouth as she pushed herself back into her seat, caught off guard by the abrupt and slightly painful stop. "What the hell?" she said as she regained her position. The only reply however, was the sound of a slew of bullets hitting the car. She instinctively ducked down, covering her head, as she herd the first few rounds hit the vehicle.
"STAY DOWN!" One of the agents yelled as the SUV was quickly thrown into reverse and was being floored backwards. Mary tried to peak up from her position, but her head was pushed back down.
"I SAID STAY DOWN."
Staring at her knees, and unable to actually see what was going on, Mary tried to take some sort of inventory. She knew that they stopped suddenly, some was shooting at them, they are traveling backwards, scratch that- forwards- the SUV whipped around and she was forced towards the door- and that the sound of bullets hitting the exterior was luckily becoming less and less. When the sound of bullets seemed to be practically no existent, Mary tried lifting her head and thankfully was met with no forceful push back down.
Looking forwards, the driver had his eyes glued on the road, white knuckling the steering wheel. The other agent in the passenger seat was slumped forward, the only thing keeping him in a somewhat upright position was his constricted seat belt. The thought that he was shot dead crossed Mary's mind briefly, but it soon went away realizing that none of the bullets had been able to pierce the bulletproof SUV which meant that the agent was hopefully just knocked unconscious.
"What just happened?"
"Hydra. Maybe ATCU, can't be sure."
"Are you serious?" Mary replied, not thinking he was wrong, just more of a statement of general disbelief of her life right now.
Reaching down onto the floor of the car, the agent driving grabbed a walkie talkie that had been thrown from its place in a cup holder when the SUV has suddenly stopped. Once he had managed to grasp it, he tossed it back to Mary quickly and rather haphazardly, wanting to return his other hand to the steering wheel a quickly as possible. It landed on the seat next to Mary and she took hold of it.
"What-"
"Get onto channel 7, make contact and say that we have been ambushed, agent down, shots fired, fleeing scene with a tail, transport package safe. Got it?""
"Yeah yeah," Mar quickly replied as she made work of getting the radio to tune into the right station.
"Hello? Is anyone there? Please come in? We have been ambushed, there is an agent down, we took fire, we have fled the scene but we have a tail….and the transport package is safe." Nothing seemed to be coming through from the other side. "Hello? Anyone?" No answer once again.
"Keep going kid." The agent told her as he made the SVU take a hard right, once again pushing Mary up against the window.
"We have been ambushed, shots fired at us, agent down, fleeing the scene with a tail, transport package safe."
This time there was a crackle over the walkie and then a voice on the other side replied. She recognized the voice, it was that women that had come originally to see her at the prison.
"This is Ragtag base, we have your location and are sending backup to you. Can you make it to the secondary location? Over."
"Tell her yes," the agent said rather quickly and with another sharp turn of the SUV.
"We can get there."
"Copy. See you soon. Over."
The sound of bullets ricocheting off the SUV had stopped now. For a moment there was an awkward silence in the car once again as if none of what had just gone down had actually happened.
"So this sort of stuff happen a lot?" Mary asked, leaning back into her chair, relaxing just a bit.
"All in a day's work Ms. Chase," the agent driving said, throwing a glance to her through the rear view mirror. Mary smiled a little at his comment which actually made her feel slightly more at ease. In the inside she was screaming, but she tried not to show it. If you looked hard enough you could see it- she was gripping the walkie talkie in her hands for dear life and her leg bounced as fast as a humming birds wings.
The agent driving glanced at her again, and could see her apprehension, he was trained to notice things like that.
"Are you okay? Any injuries."
"Oh well apart from the fact that like 5 seconds ago I was being shot at- I'm a just peachy."
Sarcasm, humor. It was a method to deflect. To not face what she was actually feeling. Funny is easy. Being scared shitless, that's hard. Naturally, she takes the easy route.
"So no injuries then?" The agent sounded genuinely concerned, but then again that was his job. Mary just felt bad that she had not remembered his name. Something with an "R," but she wasn't about to ask now, that would be just a bit to awkward.
"Yeah no, no injuries. Bullet hole free."
Mary took a deep breath and looked out the window. They were on some road in a thickly wooded area. Every so often there would be a house, but it would pass by in a blur before Mary could even get a good look at it. For a few momenets everything seemed normal, but then she remembered they were being hunted by someone and feelings of unease started again. Mary twisted around in her seat and looked through the rear window. At some point they had lost the tail. She slid back into her seat and relaxed a little more. Maybe everything was going to be fine. In her mind she kept telling herself that before was just a hiccup. Now out of any apparent danger, Mary took the time to finish what she had started- fastening her seat belt. It reminded her of the other agent in the car, who had gone un-talked about.
"Is your partner all right?" Mary asked as she clicked her seatbelt into its buckle.
"He's fine, just knocked out. We will be at the safe house soon, we can look him over then, but first priority is getting you there."
Mary nodded and gazed out the window. Things were beginning to feel normal again, but Mary should have known that normal doesn't last for long.
This time there was no screeching tires or a sudden lurch of the car, only the sound of crunching metal and breaking glass as the SUV was T-boned from the side. Mary looked to her left just in time to see the door crumple in on itself and the window shatter into pieces.
When the SUV came to a stop on the shoulder of the road Mary didn't move. Shock gripped her body and made her still. Before she could even gather her bearings, her door was whipped open and the agent who had been driving was reaching across her lap to unbuckle her seat belt.
"Come on kid, get out of the car." Mary looked over at him, but only to see two men behind him.
A shot rang out and the agent dropped to the ground. She hadn't even known his name, but now his blood dripped from her face.
There was only one thing going through her mind it is was a little four letter word that began with F.
One of the men, who were dressed in full tactical gear, ripped her from the car, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her away.
Mary's heart began to pound as she felt a sudden rush of adrenaline coursing through her whole body. It was more than just adrenaline though, it was something more, a different feeling, the same feeling she had had when that man had tried to jump her in the alley months ago.
Suddenly everything became clear. Mary knew exactly what to do. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.
With an elbow to the groin, the man release Mary's hair and doubles over. She drops her shoulder and grabs his, pushing flipping him over her back. He lands on the ground stunned in front of her, and she drives a foot into his face. She quickly scurries back and hops up from the ground, but only to realize the other man was behind her, but as if on instinct she knows exactly what to do. She had never been trained to fight, but if you looked at her now, you would have thought otherwise.
Punch, duck, jab, back, duck, push, drop shoulder, punch, spin, elbow, head slam back, turn, kick.
As the man dropped to the ground, she took a second to breathe. Mary had no idea how she had just managed to do that, but she was slightly impressed with herself and really tired actually. She didn't have much time to think about it because before she could even settle down, there was another man and this time with a gun trained at her back.
Her heart began to beat faster as the man told her to turn around. She complied, but her body took over. The minute her eyes laid sight on the gun she was in action. She pushed the man's arms up, making the gun fire a shot into the air. Mary drove a shoulder into his chest making him fall backwards onto his back. He didn't lose his gun though, and quickly fired two shots off. One Mary dodged, the other landed at her shoulder. She saw it coming, but could do little to avoid it. It felt like a punch, but just a punch. Mary had expected it to hurt a lot more actually, she thought she should have dropped to the ground in pain or something, but she didn't. Mary was shocked, but not as shocked as the man who shot her, who had frozen in bewilderment. Mary took that moment to stomp on his face leaving him unconscious. She stepped back and slid a hand under her shirt to check her shoulder. Oddly enough, there was no blood or hole. There was a hole in her shirt, it hurt, but nothing was there. When she looked up from her non-existent gunshot wound, she saw two SUVs barreling down the road.
"You got to be fucking kidding me." Mary said aloud as she watched the vehicles approach. She was too tired to even run. She didn't care if it was more people to kill her, she wasn't moving. She was thoroughly exhausted. Her heart was beating hard and fast, both from worry and fatigue.
She watched as the SUVs came to a halt a few yards from where she stood. The doors to the lead car opened, but felt tremendous relief when she saw who had stepped out of them.
"Oh thank god."
That agent from the prison, Agent Johnson, stepped out from the SUV, accompanied by a large African American man, and two agents dressed in full tactical gear. Mary smiled as the approached her, ever more happy to see a group of people in her whole life. She could relax for real now which was good because she didn't know how much longer she could stand up. Mary had never felt this physically drained in her life.
"Clear?" Daisy yelled out and the two agents in gear yelled a clear back. As Daisy approached Mary she yelled to her, "Mary, you okay?"
Mary smiled and motioned towards the ground and began to sit, saying, "Yeah I'm good, I'm just going to sit here- on the ground."
Mary's controlled sit soon became a fall to the ground as her vision began to fade, everything becoming black.
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