Chapter 4

"Ok Walker we're going to play this calm so we don't bring attention to ourselves, or this may just end in a bad way." Casey said while very much hoping for the former. Casey pulled into the slow lane of the freeway allowing the black van to move ahead of them allowing Casey and Sarah to come up from behind.

"Ok so what's the plan." Sarah asked while running through situations in her head where it could all go wrong, there turned out to be way to many ways for this to turn on its head, the top of the list being Chuck getting hurt or worse killed.

"We follow them until we get a chance to take out the guards, grab Chuck and haul our asses out of there." was Casey's reply as he turned back onto the same lane as the black van, getting the required 30 yards behind.

The journey was longer than Sarah and Casey thought, taking them all the way up San Diego freeway and onto the 5 going north. Nothing was said between the two agents as the journey continued into Santa Clarita.

Just as Sarah was really starting to get impatient she saw something unexpected, a face appeared in the back window of the van they were following and worst of all the van then sped up in an attempt to get away from the following Vic.

"Casey we've been made someone in the van just got a good look at us." said Sarah as she turned to Casey to see what his next move would be.

"I hoped it wouldn't come to this." was Casey's reply as he put his foot down, making the car lurch forward with the sudden burst of speed. Finally catching up to the van Casey made a move around the outside, which in turn bought the car in front of the van but also made it swerve to avoid the collision that was inevitable if it had carried on with its coarse.

"Casey what the hell are you doing we're trying to rescue Chuck not kill him." she said wide eyed at the move Casey just pulled.

"Shoot out the tires on the van, we take them here and grab Chuck when we get the chance." was Casey's cool reply to Sarah's outburst seconds before.

"Are you crazy, did you not hear what I just said we are trying to rescue Chuck not kill him." was Sarah's reply as she couldn't believe the words that came out of Casey's mouth. But after a full minute of not hearing a reply from Casey, Sarah spoke up again. "Casey we can't shoot out the tires not when it puts Chuck in danger." Sarah's voice was almost pleading now but Casey turned to her.

"Walker unless you have a better idea I suggest you shoot out the tires and get this whole situation over with." he said before turning back to the road.

Sarah seeing no way to win the argument pulled out her gun and took the safety off. "I can't believe I'm about to do this." she said, the nervousness that she may hurt Chuck in the process showing through. She leaned out the window of the Crown Vic and took aim.

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"Sir we have a tail". One of the men guarding Chuck had looked out of the back window again only to see a black Crown Victoria, that he had spotted earlier, in the same position.

Mr. Colt turned around with a look of annoyance on his face. "It seems your friends don't know when to give up Mr. Carmichael." he said while turning to the driver. "Get us out of here". Colt turned to the back again to address one of the guards. "Take care of them I don't want them following us any further." the words were blunt and straight to the point, causing a pang of worry that he may never see Sarah again, to jolt straight through him, the look of worry clear on his face.

As soon as Colt turned back the front, the van swerved causing Chuck to slam into the side, the pain from the torture session earlier and the sudden blow against the side of the van made Chuck cry out in pain. It was at that moment that Chuck knew Casey and Sarah were making their move to rescue him, he couldn't think of any other reason why the van would swerve off coarse.

Grabbing a pistol off of one of the guards, Colt lowered his passenger window and leant out just as Sarah did the same in the Crown Vic.

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Casey looked out the rear-view mirror to see Colt setting up a shot that would most likely catch Sarah off guard, so thinking fast he jerked the steering wheel to the right causing the Crown Vic to side slam into an on-coming car. The events that occurred from that one move were devastating. The Crown Vic hit the front of the SUV which caused the back end to spin out and slam into the back of the van carrying Chuck.

The driver of the van did all he could to keep the vehicle on coarse, but his attempts failed as the van slid to the side causing it to flip over several times and come to a complete stop, twenty meters down the road on its roof.

Sarah looked on in horror as she saw the van loose control and flip, the sound of screeching metal reached her ears as the van continued its coarse crashing down the freeway until it came to a complete stop. Then silence.

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Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Sarah as she fumbled with the handle to open the door of the Crown Vic. Finally getting the door open, she jumped out of the car and sprinted over to the now mangled remains of the van. After reaching the van the destruction and the scene that was waiting for her inside caused her to let out a scream of pain that if Chuck was dead now then all would be over for her.

She new she would never be able to look at herself without thinking that she never told him how she felt, how she loved it when his attention was entirely focused on her or how an electric current seemed to pass through her whenever they touched each other. A few moments passed before she got down on her hands and knees and took a look inside the smashed window hoping to see a sign of life from Chuck.

She finally caught the sound of sirens in the distance as Casey came up behind her and had to drag her away to get her away from the flames that had now erupted from the van. What seemed like an eternity to Sarah, the Fire service finally reached the crash sight and immediately sprang into action putting the flames out before they could spread to anything dangerous. Minutes later the Paramedics arrived and started carefully removing bodies from the mangled van, one by one they were pronounced dead until a hulking man was pulled from the passenger side and was immediately sent off in one of the ambulances for medical attention.

The shouts of one more man being in the van caught Sarah's full attention as Casey held her in place. The shouts of "He's alive" were more than relief for Sarah as she broke down crying, struggling to get out of Casey's grip and rush over to Chuck. And finally his body was pulled from the wreckage straight onto a stretcher. Casey released Sarah allowing her to rush over to Chuck's side to see what condition he was in.

The sight that met Sarah Caught her off guard, Chuck was almost unrecognisable under all his injuries.