Chapter 14
A Rainy Chase
Feliks sat curled up in the tightest ball possible, staying completely hidden in the shadows of the car underneath the dashboard. He saw his phone lit up, and he quickly turned it over, hiding its light from the rest of the world.
"So we're really going to do this?" Toris asked nervously.
Feliks gave Toris a fake smile. "Like, totally." He answered, pointing over at Toris.
"Why?"
Feliks gave Toris a wink. "Yolo."
Toris threw his arms into the air. "What the hell is 'yolo?'"
"You only live once." Feliks answered.
"Really?" Toris exclaimed. "We're doing this for thrill?"
"No." Feliks replied. "No, we are doing this to put a family back together." Feliks turned his head away from Toris, and stared into the shadows beneath the passenger seat. "We are doing this to save a good man. A good man with a family who needs him."
Suddenly, Feliks' guilt slammed into him. He was the reason his cousin, might as well be his sister, was dead. Because it was his stupid plan. His idea that endangered and killed his Elizabeva, threw Roderich into grief, forced Feliciano to save his brother and put himself in a terrible car crash, and put Ludwig's life at risk.
Feliks shook his head. Keep your head on straight, Feliks. He sat up a little, making sure he wasn't seen, and peeked out the window. He saw men walking to the black car. He saw men pull Ludwig out of it, walk him around the corner, and out of sight.
"Feliks, get down!" Toris whispered worriedly.
Feliks lowered himself and curled back up in the little ball beneath the dashboard. "They can't see me." Feliks reassured.
"You don't know that!"
"Well if they did, they would have shot me."
Toris' eyes widened. "Why are you making that sound like it's okay to get shot?"
Feliks didn't answer. He didn't want to die, but if it meant saving a family, saving this Arthur Kirkland, then it was worth dying for. If he had to take a bullet for Arthur or Toris, he would.
"Feliks…?"
"I'm not saying that." He finally answered.
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm proving that they didn't see me."
Toris let out a sigh. "How did you talk me into this?"
"I told you that if you didn't come with me, I would go alone… And you know how bad of a driver I am."
Toris let out another sigh.
Feliks propped himself up on the seat, and peered out the window again, making sure he wasn't seen. Men were walking back, two of them talking to each other. One was looking at the wet ground, and the other was looking at the dark clouds above them. Neither one of them were paying attention. Good, Feliks thought, don't see us. The men entered the black car. They turned the car on. They began to drive out of the alley.
Feliks jumped up into the passenger seat. Toris followed, turned the car on, and drove, trailing behind the kidnappers at a safe, unsuspecting distance.
Feliks watched the road, glancing at every sign they passed, and writing down the name of every street they turned onto. Every time he would glance at the digital clock attached to the radio, only minutes passed. It was almost like time didn't want to continue, and was slowing to a stop. He felt his eyelids begin to droop as tiredness swept over him.
"Wake me up in an hour." He yawned.
"What?" Toris exclaimed. "No, you need to be writing down road names!"
Feliks moaned and repositioned himself in his seat. "Fine, but I can't feel my butt."
"Wha-? How is this information I need to know?"
"I don't know." Feliks replied with a shrug. "I thought you might be interested."
Toris didn't reply, but in the darkness of the car, Feliks could see him blush and shake his head.
Once again. time crept along, almost as if it was dying, but an hour eventually passed. They began driving through a small town, the exact way the kidnappers were going. The light they were approaching turned yellow. The kidnappers sped up. Even if Toris sped up, they wouldn't have made the light, so they stopped.
"Toris." Feliks mumbled.
Toris looked over at him. "Hm? What is it, Feliks?"
Feliks didn't reply for a moment, but he looked Toris up in his bright blue eyes. "Hey, I realized that we could die. Like, die."
"Yes, Feliks. We could."
"Well, just in case we do, I want you to know… Kocham cię, Toris, i zawsze będzie ... Bez względu na to, co dzieje się dziś w nocy."
Toris stared at him, then a smile formed on his face. "Aš myliu tave taip pat, Feliks... Amžinai."
Silence formed between the two as they sat there contently, staring up at the red light, waiting impatiently for it to turn green.
"Toris, if we live through this, will you marry me?" Feliks said quickly on impulse. Feliks closed his eyes tightly, begging that Toris didn't hear it, begging that what he just said was in his mind and just a hopeful thought.
"Yes."
Feliks snapped his head over to Toris. "Wha-What?"
"I will marry you, Feliks…" Toris looked over at him. "But it doesn't matter, though, because I like to believe that we're already married. Unofficially, of course… Because… If we're going to die… I want to die with you being my husband…"
Feliks stared over at the love of his life. "Only if you will be my husband." Feliks whispered, tears in his eyes.
Toris nodded. "Of course I will, Feliks."
The light turned green.
.
The thunder cracked overhead as rain pelted the small, four-door, silver car. It had barely rained all week, but now the water seemed almost limitless. The windshield wipers never stopped moving, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…
Toris drove the whole 70 miles an hour that he was supposed to go. He had to keep up with them.
Feliks still sat in the passenger seat, staring forward at the road, not even noticing the annoying sound of the windshield wipers. His tiredness faded and turned into restlessness. He just wanted to get this over with. If he was going to get shot dead by kidnappers, he wanted to get it over with. If he was going to save Arthur Kirkland, he wanted to get it over with.
The small, unsuspecting black car in front of them began to slow as it approached a small side road. Feliks could feel the car slow, he could feel it turn, but he was no longer watching the road. He quickly scribbled the name of the street on his sheet of paper.
Toris slowly followed, trying to look inconspicuous. Feliks' chest tightened. When they were on the side roads, they had to be more careful than ever. It might be possible for two people to be traveling on the same highway, at the same time, in the same lane for four hours straight. But the side roads were the dangerous part.
Another turn. A right turn. Feliks wrote down the name of the street.
No more turns. The road became gravel, that became dirt.
An abandoned old barn appeared in the distance.
Toris stopped the car right before the clearing, staying hidden beneath the shadows of the trees. "Well, we found it." Toris whispered.
Feliks nodded. "Yes, that's it." Feliks' voice was trembling with each word, but he forced his hands to stop shaking.
Only a few moments passed before they saw headlights pointed at them. The car they were following was now facing them.
"Uh, Toris…" Feliks breathed.
Toris pushed the car's shift into reverse. "Yes, I know. I'm working on it!"
Toris slammed down on the pedal with his foot, and the car screeched away… Backwards.
The black car followed them, quickly gaining. "Toris! They're gaining on us!" Feliks screamed.
"I know! I know!"
"The car moves much faster in drive than it does in reverse!"
"I know!" Toris screamed loudly. Once the road got wide enough, Toris spun the wheel quickly, the tires screeching on the gravel, and put the car in drive. Only seconds later, Feliks and Toris both heard the rapid, endless sound of shooting.
"Dammit!" Toris yelled, looking in the rearview mirror.
Toris made a quick left.
Feliks' body jerked, slamming his head against the window. "Ow," Feliks complained, rubbing his head, "that was my head!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Feliks could see Toris double-take in his direction. "Why isn't your seatbelt on?" Toris yelled.
"I-"
"Put your seatbelt on!"
"Toris, I'll be-"
"I will turn this car around!" Toris threatened.
The gunshots around them seemed to grow louder as fear rose in Feliks' chest. "No!" He begged, grabbing a hold of the strap. "Don't turn this car around! Don't! Don't turn-" Feliks desperately tugged at the strap, but the buckle locked, and Feliks was unable to pull it forward. "It won't work!" Feliks screamed.
"Feliks, calmly buckle yourself in." Toris instructed.
Feliks took a deep breath, and calmly pulled the strap around himself, and buckled.
A bullet crashed through the back windshield, and through the front. They both froze.
"I can't see!" Toris exclaimed, squinting, trying to look through the cracked glass.
Feliks leaned forward and pushed some of the glass out of the car, then he bent down, ripped his shoe off his foot, and threw it at the cracked glass in front of Toris, knocking the glass out of the way of Toris' view, and into his face, and sending ice cold rain into the vehicle.
"That was my face!" Toris yelled, taking his hands off of his face and swerving the car to stay on the road. "A little warning next time!"
"I'm sorry!" Feliks yelled back, while removing his other shoe, turning, and throwing it at the cracked back window. The glass fell onto the trunk of the car.
"What the hell?"
"What?" Feliks asked. "Now you can see out your back windshield."
"Yeah, but so can they! Now they have a clear shot of us!"
Feliks stared forward. "Whoops…"
"Whoops?" Toris repeated angrily. "I swear, Feliks, if we live through this I will-"
"Marry me?" Feliks interrupted.
Toris gave Feliks a side glare. "You bet your nice, Polish ass I will." He hissed.
More bullets flew past them, closer and more accurate than earlier. Feliks began to sweat nervously. "Can I freak out now?" He asked Toris.
Toris gave Feliks a quick side glance. "No! If you freak out, then I'll freak out! And I'm the one driving!"
The black car that was chasing them slammed their front bumper into the back of their car.
"Dammit!" Toris yelled.
Feliks realized that he knew exactly where he was, and he knew how to use it to his advantage. "Turn right!" Feliks screamed.
"What?"
"Turn right!"
"Why?"
"JUST TURN!"
Toris took a sharp, swift right turn onto another highway.
"Why did I make that turn?" Toris demanded angrily.
"There is a cop in this road, if we go speeding past them while they're shooting at us, we will gain his attention."
But the road was empty. The rain that pelted their faces only seemed to grow heavier. The police car nor the policeman were in their usual spots.
"Where the hell is he?" Feliks mumbled in fear. He felt the warmth of Toris' hand wrap around his own and squeeze it so tightly it hurt. But Feliks didn't care. "We're going to die." Feliks whispered, accepting his fate.
"We're not going to die." Toris replied as calmly as possible while rubbing his thumb over Feliks' hand.
Feliks looked out the window, no longer looking out of the hole in the car that used to be the windshield. "Yes we are."
Feliks saw a car turn its lights on in the distance. Feliks' eyes widened. "Oh my God, it's a miracle! Toris the police! Police! Do you see? Police!" Feliks screamed in fluent Polish. Feliks ripped his hand away from Toris', and unbuckled himself.
"Feliks! What are you doing?" Toris screamed in his native language of Lithuanian.
Feliks rolled down the window completely, leaned out of it, flailed his arms, and screamed bloody murder as they passed the police car. Feliks quickly and clumsily turned back into his seat when he felt a stab of pain through his face, as a bullet sliced through his right cheek. Feliks covered the right side of his face, panting.
"What happened?" Toris demanded.
Feliks felt his face with his hands, making sure that he was okay. "Just a close call."
Feliks heard Toris sigh in relief. "Thank God! I thought you were-" Toris was cut himself off with a pain filled inhale. He bit his lip, his breath quivering. He was trying not to scream in pain.
Feliks desperately grabbed at squeezed Toris' hand. "What happened?"
Toris shook his head.
"What happened?"
"I need my hand back." Toris replied.
Feliks let go of Toris' hand, who lowered his left arm, and steered the car with his right. "What happened?" Feliks demanded.
Toris shook his head again.
Feliks sat there, staring at Toris with an expressionless stare.
"Feliks, I'm going to pull over, when I do, you need to duck."
"What about you? The steering wheel is in the way."
"I will lay down on my right side, okay?"
Feliks nodded.
"Okay. On three. One. Two. Three." Toris pulled over quickly, slamming on the breaks.
Feliks ducked down, hiding himself again. Toris laid on his right side like he promised.
Bullets hit the side of the car and shattered the windows as the black car flew by them. Feliks sat up. "We're alive?"
Toris sat up with a grunt, holding the left side of his chest, up by his collar bone. "Yes."
Feliks opened his car door, ran around the car, and opened Toris' door.
"What are you doing?" Toris asked.
Feliks took his outer jacket off, folded it up, and pressed it against Toris' shot wound. Toris replied with a loud grunt.
The sound of a door opening and closing made Feliks jump and look up. A tall, platinum blonde police officer jogged up.
"Call an ambulance." Feliks ordered the officer.
The officer looked down at Feliks, then to Toris. "How injured are you, sir?" He asked in a slight Russian accent.
"I was shot." Toris whispered. His face was pale and twisted in pain. His body was shaking. He was going into shock.
"What exactly happened?" The officer asked.
Feliks took Toris' free hand, and pressed it against the jacket on his shoulder. "We were following the kidnappers who took Lovino Vargas, Peter Oxenstierna, Arthur Kirkland, Matthew Kirkland, and Ludwig Beilschmidt. They spotted us, chased us, and shot at us."
"Alright, sir. I will be right back with a medical kit. There's not much I can do except help with the bleeding." The policeman replied.
"Okay, thank you." Toris grunted.
"Do you mind if I call an ambulance while you're doing that?" Feliks called after the cop.
"No, no. I'll get it. Just give me a moment." The officer replied, not looking back at them.
Feliks sat on the road, leaning against his car, and stared forward.
"You okay?" Toris asked.
Feliks shook his head, tears in his eyes. "We almost died." He whispered.
"Well, yeah," Toris began, "but we didn't."
"You almost died. If they aimed a little lower, that would have been your lung."
"Yes, but if they aimed a little to the left, that would have been…" Toris trailed off.
"My head?" Feliks finished for him, rubbing the deep scratch on his cheek that would probably need stitches.
"Yeah…" Toris replied softly.
"And it would have been my fault."
Toris glared down at Feliks. "What is with you and blaming yourself?"
"Liza's dead because of my plan."
"No. She died because they killed her!"
"I put her there."
"They kidnapped Lovino!"
Feliks looked away.
"Listen, Feliks. I am alive right now because of you."
Feliks rolled his eyes. "How so?"
"You told me to make the right turn, and we found the police officer that I had forgotten all about."
Right on cue, the Russian accented police officer jogged over again. "Ambulance in on it's way."
"Thank you, officer." Feliks mumbled.
The officer knelt down in front of Toris. "Please," he said, moving Feliks' jacket out of the way and pulling back Toris' shirt, "Call me Ivan. I'm not into formalities."
"Okay, thank you, Ivan."
Ivan wrapped up Toris' injury they best he could with his medical kit, and the ambulance full of paramedics arrived. They put Toris in the gurney, strapped him in, and put him in the ambulance, with the words "Feliks, I will be fine. I will meet you in my room after I wake up from the anesthesia" in Feliks' head. More police arrived before Ivan finally asked him what had happened again. Feliks repeated his story, exactly how he said it the first time.
"And do you know their location?" Ivan asked.
"I have directions in my pocket." Feliks answered with a smug look.