The Net: Still Running: Chapter 10

Angela pulled Skate with her as she ran away from the hospital building and the jumping Trenches. Behind an ambulance, they hid from the Trenches view. She let go of his arm and checked to make sure all of her clips were in place. So far she hadn't fired a shot, but she wasn't going to go down with a full clip left in her gun. No way.

She looked over at Skate who was breathing heavily.

"You OK?"

"Yeah, fine."

Angela poked her head out to see the Praetorian Trenches coming towards them with a measured walk, as if they were in slow motion. Seeing her, one aimed his gun, but she was quicker, squeezing off a few rounds into the man's stomach. She watched him double over for a second before standing back upright and firing off a round. Angela hid behind the ambulance to avoid the shot, but the weapon he had was more than just a gun. The round hit the ambulance and she felt the vehicle rock with the force and then the explosion a second later. She covered her head and neck to avoid getting hit by flying debris before making a mad dash for cover further away.

"Shit, what was that?" Skate asked, when they'd found a new ambulance.

"I don't know. But I shot him, Skate. I know I did!"

She looked back to see all five Trenches still walking towards them in the same measured pace they'd been using all along. She returned to Skate.

"This is it. I'm going out there. I'm going to blast their heads off. And hope it doesn't come to hand to hand combat. If it does, then it does." Angela looked back to get a bearing on the Praetorians before dashing out there.

"Oh shit!"

"What?"

"Our boss is here! He's coming this way!"

"Boss? Our boss? You mean Walter? Walter Cizelski?" Skate asked in near confusion.

"Hi guys." Walter came around the ambulance and crouched with his two agents. "Mind telling me what's going on here? Who are those guys?"

"Long story. Can't really explain it," Angela said in a hurry to get back out there and kill the Trenches.

Skate piped up and spoke quickly, "basically, these are the remnants of the guys who changed her identity, and changed Jacob's. We found them going after Jacob, saved his life, he's in ER going through surgery, and now we're after these guys, looking to do them in. And, I think having another hand in this would help a great deal. These guys are nasty."

"I'm going out!" Angela called, and made a mad dash around the ambulance and into plain sight of the Trenches. She began firing her gun into another of the trench-coated men, unsure which one she'd hit previously because they all looked the same and none of them seemed to carry wounds at all. She emptied her gun into the trench and he went down, falling to his knees.

Reaching into her pocket she took another clip out, let the old one go, and slid the new one in, as another trench aimed his gun towards her and prepared to fire. She ducked and rolled, avoiding the missile like projection by a few inches. She came up in time to see the Trench she'd downed, get back up again. He had no wounds or injuries at all.

This was going to be harder than she'd imagined.

None of them had picked up their pace, they were so sure of themselves killing her and Jacob. Even as she ran, their pace never picked up, their long legs eating up the parking lot as they walked.

Bullets sounded from behind her, but not those of the Trenches. As Angela turned back for a brief second, she saw Skate and Walter coming out from either side of the ambulance firing every bullet they had together. She whipped back around, and while they had gotten the attention of the Trenches she dashed back towards them, hoping to somehow get one of their own weapons to kill them with. Obviously, her own standard issue FBI piece wasn't going to amount to a hill of beans in this mess.

She ran as hard as she could, and jumped onto the back of the last trench, and began to unclip the extra weapon strapped to his back. The Trench dropped the gun in his hands and reached over his head to grab her and pull her forward. Briefly she saw Walter motion Skate towards the fallen weapon as he kept their attention in the other direction.

Angela was launched forward, the Trench having a tight grip on her shoulders. Once she was over his head, he flipped her over and wrapped his arms around her stomach. Walter was engaging the other four Trenches, to keep them busy, while Skate had picked up the dropped weapon and heaved it onto his shoulders.

"Shoot him Skate!" Angela shouted.

He looked worried, trying to aim the large weapon that almost looked too big for him. But the Trench was holding Angela in front of him as a shield. If Skate missed the trench and killed Angela, the Trench's job would have been done easily, and he'd only have three more people to kill.

"Aim for his head! Do it!" she screamed, struggling in the Trench's arms to lower his head so that she would be slightly shielded herself and his head would be a better target.

"You can do it, Skate! Just shoot!"

The Trench held on tight, and refused to let her go, no matter how much she struggled. His muscles bulged in his arms and she wondered what would happen if she happened to bite him. But viewing what these guys were like, she doubted much would happen. He probably wouldn't even feel it.

Skate was still trying to aim the giant weapon on his shoulders, and she could see his hands shaking.

"Remember training, Skate. You're my last chance! I know you can do it!"

Skate looked up at her, a sudden calmness in his features. He looked at the Trench's head above hers and a fierceness came into his eyes. He pulled the trigger on the weapon, and the missile-like projection shot out towards Angela and the Trench. She pitched her body forward with all of her strength as the missile hit it's target and the Trench went down, roaring like an injured lion on the African plains.

He let go of Angela and she hit the ground rolling. Getting up she watched as the Trench stared at her, confused for a second, as a small metal spider clamped into his face and sunk into his skin. Two seconds later his head blew up. His body began to shake, and then was still before he collapsed.

"Nice job Skate!" Angela high-fived him before spinning around to see how Walter was faring.

Skate pulled the trigger on his weapon as he aimed it at another Trench but it wouldn't shoot. He pulled it again, and again it wouldn't shoot.

"I'll keep them busy. You figure that out!" Angela called, running towards Walter, who was slowly backing away from the four other Trenches as they advanced on him, in their calculated movements.

Upon seeing Angela approaching, one of them broke off from the group and began advancing on her.

"Oh shit," she said under her breath, as she began backing up.

Looking back, while keeping the corner of her eye trained on the Trench she carefully avoided Skate, and headed towards the building, intent on circling it in hopes of finding some way to take him out. The only way so far seemed to be his own weapon, but she didn't have one, and couldn't get one that easily. This was going to be tricky.

The Trench kept advancing on her, though he didn't aim his weapon and shoot her while he had the opportunity. None of them had. The only time they'd used their weapons, she realized, was to blast the ambulance away. To better see their quarry. And it began to make a little sense. These guys didn't want things simple, quick, and easy. If they had, Jacob would have been shot to death a long time ago and she'd be searching for him for the rest of her life. This guy wanted to trap her, and somehow make her life miserable. Though what he would do to her, and the others to Walter and Skate, she didn't know. But she thought it would be worse now that she had managed to get Jacob into the hospital and Skate had killed one of their own.

Angela backed up into a wall, and realized that what she'd been thinking about had come true. The Trench had her trapped. He smiled an evil smile, as she turned to see that she had indeed backed right up to the outer wall of the hospital. But luck was on her side after all. There was a door not three feet away!

She inched her way towards the opening, and slid through the small crack in the door she created. She dashed down the hall a short ways until she heard the door opening behind her. The Trench was coming inside. Angela began backing up again, in order to keep an eye on the Trench at the same time.

"What the..."

"You can't be in here with him! Get him out of here!"

Nurses, and doctors screamed in alarm, and ran in every direction, as Angela continued down the hall, backward, her gun trained on the trench, knowing it would do know good. But also knowing it was her only hope. Her only chance.

"Clear the hall!" Angela shouted to anyone who happened to be behind her. "Clear the hall! Coming through!"

There were more frightened screams, as people ran, and carts and wheelchairs were moved out of the way, by hands reaching from doorways.

Angela turned a corner and kept going, kept shouting. Though by now all the hallways seemed to have emptied of people and anything else that might have been in her way. The trench, calmly walked with Angela, following her every move, but still refusing to aim his weapon or attack her in any other manner. It seemed as if he was waiting for her to crumble in front of him. The way he kept following her, with such steadiness, and never backed down, with the size of his body and his weapons, he expected her to fall before him, afraid of him, before he came down on her. But she wasn't about to crumble in front of him. When it came to Jacob's life she would do anything to keep him alive. And she wasn't afraid of anything. Least of all a large bald man dressed in a long trench coat carrying a huge weapon. Or several of these men. Especially when they refused to use their weapons. This was only giving her a chance to kill him. She just had to find that chance.

The hospital had become silent since she'd entered with the Trench and she could easily hear heart monitors beeping, and a few whispers from darkened rooms as she passed by.

"Tweezers, please," she heard a familiar male voice say, and she knew where she was.

Looking to her left, she walked past the only room that had lights on inside. Dr. Steven Graff looked up to see her go by with her gun drawn, still trained on the Trench. Without a single hesitation he went back to the complicated surgery he was performing.

"Hang in there, Jacob," she whispered to the unconscious figure on the operating table. "Just hang in there."

Her eyes back on the Praetorian following her, she continued to lead him through the hospital, not knowing where she was going. He held his weapon across his chest and it never moved once. The man didn't even seem to be breathing at all. Only his legs and feet moved. The rest of him seemed to be one solid unmoving mass. Except for his eyes. No matter which way she went, his eyes always followed her and his feet led him to her, one step at a time.

A bright light suddenly filled the hallway as she made a right hand turn. Glancing behind her Angela saw two double glass doors. She swung her head back around to watch the Trench as she backed toward the doors. Together they swung outwards, as she approached, and a few seconds later she was back outside, relieved that nothing had happened inside with so many innocent people. And with Jacob.

"Ang! Look out!" Skate's voice caught her attention just as something caught her left foot.

She stumbled over something and fell backwards. Bullets rang out into the air, taking the Trench's attention away from Angela. When she looked up she saw Skate firing his gun in the general direction of the Trench who'd been following her. Then she looked to see what she'd tripped over and saw one of the Trenches own weapons. Her chance had arrived. Without a moment to loose she swiped it off the ground, surprised at it's heaviness, and swung it up onto her shoulder, her knees almost buckling at the heavy weight.

The missile-like projection fired off not even a second after she'd pulled the trigger and she watched as the Trench went down on his knees. A metal spider clamped onto his chest before digging it's claw-like legs into his skin. Moments later, his face a picture of confusion and agony, the Praetorian Trench let out a lion's howl before falling to his death.

"Nice job Angela," Walter congratulated her.

She let the weapon fall to the ground with a loud thump before she saw Walter and Skate coming over to her. Two other Trenches lay sprawled on the pavement. And the others didn't seem to be anywhere nearby, whether they were alive or not.

"What happened to the other two?" she asked.

"Don't know," Skate said. "They disappeared while we were dealing with the other one. Managed to kill him, though it took some dealing."

"So, why'd they leave? That doesn't make sense?"

"I can't answer that either," Walter said.

"I'm guessing they went to get more reinforcements when they realized how tough we are. Either that, or they went to tell their boss that we were beating their butts pretty good."

"Their boss is dead. They're not telling Mr. White what went down just now," Angela pointed out.

"And they don't need reinforcements," Walter said. "Not with the strength these guys have."

"Well, we did kick their butts. But still..."

Angela heaved a heavy sigh before leaning against one of the white pillars holding up the portico. Fishing around in her pocket she came out with a cigarette and her lighter.

Walter looked at her in surprise. "Since when do you smoke?" he asked.

"Long story."

"Yeah, everything with you is a long story."