CHAPTER NINE: DIVIDED ONCE MORE
They all hung their heads in the back of the old van that looked like it should've been used to carry band instruments around. Fiona was trying her best to sleep, but the bumps in the road were shaking her. Plus Adam still reeked of his brother's blood.
Holly J sat up front with Riley in silence. She rubbed her temples in thought. She was trying to decipher where the hell they were going to go. The police station had been ransacked, and she didn't feel like their homes were the safest places right now.
They couldn't hide out in some convenient store because everything in town was closed thanks to the holidays. So where was safety hiding right now?
It was as if Bianca had been reading her mind. "So where are we going now?"
All eyes turned to her. She was curled up in a ball in a corner of the van with determination in her dark brown eyes. Adam didn't have an answer for her, so he turned to look at Holly J and Riley.
But Riley never broke his line of vision from the rode. Holly J turned halfway in her seat to look at everyone else's scared faces. She felt mostly sorry for Adam though. He was the only one who had lost someone he truly cared for tonight.
But Adam had gotten one good thing out of seeing his brother's massacred body; there was no way that he was going to let anyone else end up like those police men or his brother.
Surprisingly it was Fiona who spoke first. "My mom and Declan," she announced. They all gave her puzzled looks, urging her to continue. "They're staying at a cabin we own across the lake. We'll be safe there, but we've got to get across the lake somehow."
"Good thinking, Fi," Holly J encouraged. "But there's one problem; none of us own a boat."
"Actually the dock has some pretty fast speedboats," Eli said. His arms were hugged tight around a traumatized Clare.
"So you want us to steal a boat?" Holly J asked in disbelief.
"Well it's not like we can swim there," Adam told her.
Fitz nodded and said, "And I can hotwire a boat in seconds."
Holly J nodded and leaned back in her seat in defeat. "So I guess we'll be breaking more laws tonight than we planned."
No one answered or responded to Holly J. Instead they all curled up and tried their best to forget the sickening experience they'd survived through.
Adam looked down at Fiona who was resting her head against his chest. "Are you okay?" he asked softly.
She simply nodded and snuggled closer to him. He kissed her damp hair and rested his cheek against it. Adam tried his best to close his eyes and think about what was going to come for them.
He swallowed a lump in his throat when suddenly the van shifted, and the sound of crushing metal was heard throughout the highway.
Bianca screamed and grabbed Adam's wrist while Fiona buried her head in his chest with her arms tied around his neck. He tried to move and look to see what was happening, but the whole entire van flipped.
Adam squeezed his eyes shut and felt his head hit something. He wasn't sure what it was. All he knew was that it had knocked him out cold.
After The Accident…
Adam stirred in his sleep and opened his eyes to see where he was. It all came rushing back to him when he saw all of his friends just waking up as well.
Holly J rubbed her head where blood was staining her forehead. She must've hit her head too.
"What happened?" Adam asked, now sitting up again. Fiona crawled over to him and went back to clinging to his body.
He rubbed her hair soothingly while he met eyes with Holly J. She opened her mouth to answer when the van's door slid open, causing everyone to jump and switch into attack mode.
Riley looked at all of them with wide eyes. "There's water, guys!" he announced in a happy tone.
"Wow," Bianca said sarcastically, "I've never seen water. Can I have a look?"
Riley gave her an angry glare before shooting everyone else his ecstatic eyes again. "Water means-"
"We're close to the dock!" Fiona said, also happy by Riley's achievement.
"Yeah," Clare said aloud, "but which way is it?"
Clare's question left everyone dumbfounded. "Damn it, Clare!" Bianca huffed. She slapped her palm against the floor of the van.
"Calm down, Bianca," Holly J lectured. "We'll just split up to see where both ways lead."
"There's no way we're splitting up again," Eli argued. Fitz nodded and said, "Yeah, last time we split up, it only caused problems."
"But staying together is going to waste time that we don't have," Holly J countered. "Two of us will stay in the van, and the rest of us will split up."
No one seemed happy about the plan, but all of them knew that Holly J was right. By now both of the killers had probably escaped in the teens' footsteps and were on their way to them right now. The best thing to do was to split up whether it was the most dangerous move or not.
"Riley, Eli, and Clare will take the left side. Bianca, Fitz, and I will go right. Whoever reaches the dock first needs to call us immediately and let us know where you are. Then the rest of us will follow suit."
"You don't seriously think that our phones are going to get service out here, do you? I have no bars," Bianca announced, showing her phone's screen for proof.
"Yeah," Eli agreed, "and mine lost battery while we were in the gym."
"Adam, move and lift up that floorboard," Riley ordered. Everyone scattered to give Adam room before he crouched down and pulled on the unnoticeable rope.
As the floorboard rose, dust filled the once empty van. Adam swatted it away so that he could see the insides of the secret compartment.
"You have a shotgun?" he asked. Adam wasted no time in pulling it from the compartment and aiming it out the window.
"And walkie-talkies. They should give us a better use of communication," Riley informed. Adam set the gun down carefully before he pulled out the three walkie-talkies.
Bianca snatched one from him without hesitation. Holly J then snatched it right out of her manicured fingers. "Every group will get one walkie-talkie."
Adam handed out the walkie-talkies, keeping one for him and Fiona. Holly J stepped out onto the snowy ground, her tennis shoes making a crunching sound. Eli, Clare, Bianca, and Fitz also exited the van.
Fitz had grabbed the shotgun and had let Eli take the metal pole. Adam stuck his hand back into the compartment to find a flashlight, ammo for a handgun and a shotgun, and a flare gun.
He held all of them and looked back over at Riley with raised eyebrows. Riley shrugged innocently and said, "I like to know that I have protection."
Fitz and Eli snickered at a dirty joke, causing Holly J to send them both menacing glares before turning back to face Adam. He handed Fitz the shotgun ammo and gave the flare gun to Holly J. Her stun gun must've run out of electricity.
Clare took the flashlight from him with trembling hands. "Turn the headlights off and keep that walkie-talkie on," Holly J ordered. Both Fiona and Adam nodded.
"I'll see you guys soon," she said before she slammed the door. Once they were out of sight, Adam ran up front to lock the doors and turn the headlights off.
He turned back to face a smiling Fiona. She motioned him over with her index finger. It would've seemed as though she had a rope tied around him with the way she could pull him towards her with a simple movement.
He crawled to her and placed his palms on either side of her sitting body. She leaned back slightly, letting Adam move closer to her. Adam normally wouldn't have wanted to have sex with Fiona in the situation that they were in, but she was getting him all riled up now.
She pulled teasingly at the strings on his hoodie with a smile on her lips. "You'd better watch out, Torres. It's going to get pretty steamy in here."
"It could be kind of kinky," he whispered back seductively. She wasted no time in kissing him with an open mouth while she continued to pull at his hoodie.
