"Raina, I'm here!" the voice called again.
"I have to go," Skye said as she backed away from the door.
"There's no way you can all get out of her unnoticed," Raina said unbelievingly.
"We're Shield agents," Skye smiled, "We can do anything."
Skye carefully put the lid back on the Diviner and placed it back on its shelf. She turned to Raina, "You don't let anyone get the Diviner and don't tell anyone I was here."
She was out the backdoor before Raina could say another word
"Ward, who is that?" Bobby demanded.
"We have to go," Ward said as he drew his gun, "Now."
Ward put his hand on the doorknob and thrust is open, expecting to see Skye and Raina, but neither was there. The other three quickly joined Ward in staring at the room in confusion, "I don't understand," Hartley said, "We should have been able to hear them leave"
Whoever was outside hit the door again, this time more aggressively, "Open the door, Raina."
Ward swore under his breath. Where the hell was Skye?
"What is going on, Ward," Bobby asked angrily.
"Skye's father is here," Ward said, "and we have to leave."
"I thought her parents were dead," Tripp said.
"So did I, until Hydra told me they weren't" Ward said, "We have to find her, Bobby. If Cal finds her first, he will take her back to Hydra."
"Okay," Bobby said, making a split second decision to trust him. He might not be loyal to Shield, but she could tell that he was loyal to Skye, and he'd do anything to keep her safe, "Out the back door then fan out. Make sure he doesn't see you." She said as she drew her gun and put Skye's earpiece on, "Fitz, we have to abort. Keep working on the tracker and tell me as soon as it's working."
"Sure thing," he replied.
The three left threw the back door as quietly as they could. Neither Skye nor Raina were anywhere in sight.
"Wouldn't Skye meeting her father be a good thing," Tripp whispered as they checked the perimeter of the cabin for their missing agent.
"He's not one of the good guys," Ward said, "He's a murderer"
"To be fair, so are you," Hartley said
"I never took joy in it," Ward argued, "He likes killing anyone who gets in the way of his little revenge plan."
"Revenge?"
"Revenge on Shield for killing his wife and taking Skye," Ward replied. It was clear that Cal had already gotten inside the cabin. But they didn't have long until he realized no one was there.
"There's no sign of her," Bobby said, "I bet she ran off into the woods."
"Then we go look for her," Ward said.
"The sun's setting," Tripp said, "There's no way we'll find her in the dark."
"Then we find her soon," Ward said, "It's not like she doesn't want to be found."
"She won't want to be found by the wrong people" Bobby said, "She'll hide herself."
"Dammit," Ward said. He'd trained her for espionage himself, she'd be good at it.
"Do you think Raina's with her?" Hartley ask.
"I doubt it," Tripp said, "Skye doesn't exactly like Raina"
"But she trusts her," Bobby countered.
"We're burning daylight," Ward snapped, "We need to get going,"
"You're right, me and Ward will-"
Whatever Bobby was going to say was cut off by gunshots. The three lowered their heads and took shelter behind the back wall of the cabin.
"Hydra?" Hartley asked.
"I don't think so," Bobby said, "We didn't see anyone else enter."
"It's Cal," Ward said, "He must have realized Raina wasn't there and when he saw three Shield agents…"
Bobby flinched as more shots hit near their hiding place, she darted her arm out and fired a few of her own, but none hit their mark.
"How can he be sure that Skye isn't with us?" Hartley asked.
"He can't and he doesn't care," Ward said, "He's a doctor, and a damn good one. He must figure that whatever he might do to her, he can fix."
"So what do we do?" Tripp asked, "Because we can't run a hundred yards into open fire."
"No," Bobby murmured. She took a quick look around the corner of the wall, "He's still there"
"We need a plan."
"Okay," Bobby said, taking a deep breath, "We split up. We each run four different ways and look for Skye. If you haven't found her by nightfall, you either stop and rest or go back to where the truck is. None of us will leave until tomorrow night if we're not all back."
"That is a shitty plan," Tripp said.
"Do you have a better one?" Bobby snapped, "He's going to come over here eventually, and I'd rather not kill an agent's father. If we're spread out, he can't hit us all."
"But he can hit a few." Hartley said.
"Run in a zig-zag pattern to make aiming difficult," Bobby said, "Hartley go East, Ward west, Tripp North, and I'll go south. On my count."
They all drew their weapons and prepared to run. Another shower of bullets hit just over their heads, "One…two… three"
The three took off in opposite directions. Ward wasn't sure who Cal was firing at, but he heard shot after shot go off. Even as he was running for his life, all of his thoughts were on Skye. Could she survive on her own if no one found her? Why the hell did she run instead of asking for help? Skye was prone to taking risks, but this was a new one. Ward was almost to the edge of the woods when he saw a bullet hit a tree just ahead of him, "Shit" Ward gasped. Of course, he would be the target. Cal must have recognized him and chosen to take him down. Ward had always suspected that Skye's father didn't like him, and he guessed this was the proof. Almost there, the thought just as he fell forward with a searing pain in his shoulder
Skye wasn't sure how far she had run before she heard the gunshots. She instinctively dropped her head, even though she knew they sounded too far away to be for her. But her team… she shouldn't have left them, but if her father was there it was more of a danger for them to be seen with her. It was best that she made her escape first and then met up with them. This would of course be easier if Raina had let her keep her damn communicator.
Now she was relying on sheer luck that she'd run into them. She could still hear shots going off and she prayed that she hadn't just gotten any of her teammates killed. While she ran, she examined her surroundings. She had tried her best to stay on the same path they'd taken getting here, but in her fear Skye worried that she may have made a wrong turn. She didn't recognize anything around her and she didn't seem to be on a path at all. She was only surrounded by trees and rocks and no clear trail in sight.
"Shit," she muttered. Of course she would be the one to get her lost after putting everyone else in danger. She was no less than 2… maybe 3 miles from the cabin. She could find the trail and maybe her teammates if she back tracked. But she could also find Hydra agents or her father.
Skye turned sharply back to the cabin when she heard rustling nearby. Someone was here, but she couldn't see who it was. If it was one of her teammates, then she was glad they were here, but if it was Hydra. She couldn't reveal herself until she was sure this was an ally. But there was nowhere to hide and the sounds were coming closer. She glanced quickly upwards maybe…
She quickly grabbed the branch closest to the ground and began to climb. She hadn't done this since she was a child, and soon Skye's hands were covered in cuts and scrapes, but she was as out of sight as she could be and free to observe without fear of being shot. She had a nice vantage point from the tree and decided it would probably be the safest place to stay for a while if it came down to her being stranded for the night.
She could still hear the rustling, but no one had come into her sight. Maybe it wasn't a person at all. Skye was sure there were at least some animals in this forest big enough to make that much noise. Maybe a bear or a mountain lion or…
"Grant," Skye whispered to herself, "Grant," she said again, relief creeping into her voice. He was alive and… bleeding. She jumped down from the tree, not wasting to time of carefully climbing and ungracefully landed on her feet and promptly fell on her ass in front of him. She leapt up to her feet and touched his shoulders, "Grant?" she asked. How long had he been walking? He seemed so out of it that he must have lost a decent amount of blood.
"Skye," he breathed. His voice was flooded with relief. She was safe. He felt the ground rush up to meet him as he slumped into her arms.ain in his shoulder
a searing aard with a searing ailet hit a tree just ahead of him, "