Part 2
"Rylee! Rylee!"
As she faded back to consciousness, she could hear someone saying her name. She groaned and opened her eyes to see Parker leaning over her.
"What...? What's going on?" she said groggily.
"Rylee." he said, breathing a sigh of relief, "I was worried. I was afraid you weren't going to wake up."
"Really?" Rylee said, sitting up.
"Uh... well... I mean... you know..." he said, blushing again as he stumbled over his words. Rylee grinned.
"Thanks for worrying about me, Parker." she said. Parker turned even redder.
"Uh...yeah, no problem." he said, giving an awkward smile. They stared at each other for a moment before Rylee realized something.
"Where's Jill?" she asked. She looked around, realizing that they were in a bedroom, on a bed.
"I don't know. I didn't look for her. I wanted to make sure you woke up. I wouldn't leave you alone in here passed out like that." he said, placing a hand on her arm. She looked down at his hand, then back up at his face, and smiled, causing Parker to blush yet again.
"What happened, anyway? The last thing I remember is finding that fake Chris and then getting gassed.
"Same here. I woke up here on this bed, with you. You were still passed out. You had me scared for a while." Parker said.
"Don't worry. I'm fine. But, we need to find Jill. Have you tried contacting her?" Rylee asked.
"Not yet." Parker answered.
"Well, we'd better get going." Rylee said.
"We'll have to be careful. They took all our weapons." Parker said.
"Noted." Rylee said.
"Jill. Jill, are you okay?" Parker asked over the radio.
"Parker, where are you? Is Rylee with you?" came Jill's voice over the radio.
"Yeah, I'm here. We're in some kind of room, like a bedroom or something." Rylee said over the radio.
"Yeah. So was I." Jill said.
"Bastard took all our weapons." Parker said.
"Yeah, mine too." Jill said.
"We'll try and meet up with you." Rylee said.
"Alright. Be careful, you two." Jill said.
"You, too." said both Parker and Rylee at the exact same time, causing Jill to chuckle slightly. Rylee and Parker walked carefully out into the hallway.
"I'm starting to wonder if Chris and Jessica were ever here in the first place." Rylee said. They rounded a corner and saw an ooze. They ducked back around the corner again.
"Shit! What are we going to do about him?" Rylee said.
"We'll have to sneak by him." Parker answered.
"Easier said than done. Although, it might not be too hard. I mean, he doesn't have a face." Rylee said. Parker laughed slightly at her comment.
"Oh, hey, wait. See that air vent up there? It goes just around the corner, right where that ooze is. It you can get me up there, I can crawl through, jump down on that ooze, and take him out before he even realizes I'm there." Rylee said.
"I don't know. I don't like the idea of putting you in danger." Parker said.
"Parker..." she said, "This whole job is dangerous. I'm always in danger. There's no way you can get up to that vent. And there's no way we're going to sneak past that ooze. He's right in the middle of the hallway, practically guarding that door." Rylee said. Parker sighed.
"You're right." he said, "But, I still don't like it." Rylee grinned.
"Alright." she said, "I got that." She stood below the vent, and Parker put his hands on her waist, preparing to lift her up. He blushed slightly, and she turned her head to look back at him, smiling slightly at him before turning back around to look back up at the vent.
"Alright. Are you ready? I won't drop you. I promise." he said gently.
"Ready." Rylee said. He lifted her to the vent, and she pulled herself up and crawled into the vent. Parker watched the ooze as he waited for Rylee to emerge from the vent. He felt uneasy as he thought of how dangerous this was for her. She jumped down from the vent, right down on the ooze, grabbing hold of it, wrapping her legs around it's neck, flipping it, slamming it onto the ground. And let go, standing over it. She stepped on it's head, twisting it's head and breaking it's neck, killing it. Parker walked around the corner, from where he had been watching.
"Damn." he said.
"See? I told you." she said.
"Yeah." he said, walking over to her, "But, still..."
"Parker." she said, a serious tone in her voice now.
"Yeah? Is something wrong?" Parker asked.
"Thanks for being there for me, you know, all of this with my sister and all... I don't know if I could do it without you. And... I'm sorry for falling apart, you know, like I did before. It won't happen again." Rylee said.
"Rylee... you're welcome. And you don't need to apologize. It's completely understandable. If you ever need anything, I'm here. Just let me know." he said. He was blushing again, just slightly. Rylee smiled.
"Well, thanks again." she said. She looked at him for a moment, then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He blushed even redder, causing her to giggle. She turned away to face the door.
"Well, let's see what's behind this door." she said, trying to open the door.
"It's locked. Of course." she said. Parker tried opening the door too, but had no luck, either.
"What's in there, anyway?" Rylee said, looking through the long, thin, rectangular slot in the door.
"Hey, is that our weapons?!" Rylee said. She stepped aside to let Parker look in the slot.
"I think that is our weapons." Parker said. He tried kicking the door in, then, Rylee tried, then the two of them together tried.
"Damn. What did they do, weld this thing shut?" Rylee said, "We'll have to find some other way to get it open."
"There's got to be something on this ship we can use." Parker said. They walked down the hall, and eventually came across Jill.
"Jill!" said both Rylee and Parker at the same time.
"Hey, are you two okay?" Jill asked.
"Yeah. We're fine." Rylee answered.
"We think we found where they're keeping our weapons, but we can't get to them." Parker said.
"Yeah. Door is jammed, and we can't get it open. We tried kicking it. No dice." Rylee said, "Hey, wait. Do you think the three of us together could do some damage to that door?"
"It's worth a try." Jill said.
"It's not like we had any other ideas." Parker said. He and Rylee led Jill back to the door they had found.
"This is it. Our weapons are in this room." Parker said. The three of them simultaneously kicked the door, and it finally fell down.
"It's about damn time." Rylee said. They walked into the room and gathered their weapons.
"We have to get to the control room and contact HQ." Parker said. They made their way to the control room to find that the control panels were destroyed.
"Plan B?" Rylee said.
"We've lost control. We're completely adrift." Jill said.
"This is recent. The perpetrator can't be far." Parker said. Just then, they heard an explosion outside and looked out the window to see the tugboat they had come in on. The cables they had attached from it to the Queen Zenobia snapped, and the tugboat was on fire, sinking into the ocean.
"Tell me that wasn't the tugboat." Jill said.
"Holy shit." Rylee said.
"Shit. We'll be stuck here!" Parker said, starting to run. Just then, a man came out of the shadows, and grabbed Jill.
"Jill!" Parker said. Jill lifted her leg, and kicked the man in the face. Parker, Rylee, and Jill aimed their weapons at the man and he aimed his at them, though he kept his head down, not looking at them.
"Drop your weapon." Parker told him.
"Drop yours, Parker." the man said. Rylee looked at Parker, a look of surprise on her face. This man knew Parker? But, how? Parker had a lot of past that Rylee didn't know about, especially his time with the FBC, and she wondered if this man may have something to do with that. She always wanted to know, but, he never talked about it, and she didn't want to upset him, so she never asked.
"Who the hell are you?" Parker asked the man.