Archie pulled away from the grip of the serpent who held him and fell to his knees. "Get a bandage, get something to put pressure on him," he said frantically. Some of the serpents listened to him and went out of the room to find bandages and medical gauze to put around his wound. Archie found the entrance of the bullet and put his hands on it to alleviate all the blood loss.
"Kid, jeez, I'm sorry, we'll do our best to help the guy," a serpent called out. Archie ignored him and continued pushing down on the wound. A few of the serpents came back and bandaged him up around his chest. Archie seized the opportunity to rush up on the Serpent who shot his father. The serpent did not have his weapon brandished and he merely held his hands up to resist Archie's advance. Archie uppercutted him in the face and then knocked him down with a forceful front kick.
"Son, I know it won't make you feel any better, but if you want to leave you can," Jimmy said while sitting by the comatose Fred.
"Like hell, I'm not leaving my father! Why don't you just let me take him to the hospital if you care so much about me?" Archie was still steaming with anger and looked ready to fight any of the other serpents just to let out the overflow of anger in his system.
"It all comes down to loyalty son."
"I'm not your son!" Archie was having a manic attack. Living without father was not an option. It can never be an option. Archie ran through all the decisions that had occurred that had led to this moment. He should have went home with his dad instead of going to the diner. He should not have tried to chased Jughead down and instead gone straight to the police. He should not have gone on the camping trip in the first place. It did not matter. If he made the wrong decision here, it could be all over.
"Ya see, when I was around your age, Fred, F.P., myself and a few others never thought we would be able to go to college. We weren't in great financial shape, we did not have scholarship worthy grades, so we made a pact that we would stay together."
"So you made my dad your enemy because he left and wanted to make a career for himself."
"No, it's not that. F.P. made a career of himself too but he had an oath to carry as a Serpent. People like us don't have the opportunity that all those guppies you see up north that come and go and eventually leave for the city, only to come back to start a life with a new family and start the cycle over. Fred was more well off than most of us but was never all high and mighty about it. He made a lot of promises that he would never be able to keep."
Archie ignored him and remained focus on the well-being of his father. He was unconscious but he could feel his vital signs still there. He got up and growled at Jimmy, still shaking in anger. Archie attempted to strike Jimmy in the head but was foiled when he blocked the strike by putting his arms together in an X shape before quickly shoving him back.
"You see we were going to buy a boat together. The group of Fredheads that is. Take it out on the summers up north. We made a bunch of money off a few local gigs. Guess who took the money and ran? Said he was going to fund his business that would help all of us. Just an amateur ponzi scheme when you think about it. No wonder he locked arms with a crook like Hiram Lodge."
Archie's face became more red than his natural hair color as he said that. If he couldn't beat that crap out of him, he was going to take his anger out on someone else. He struck Carl in the chest who capriciously put his hands to defend himself and sat down in a corner. Archie then utilized his football skillset to tackle two nearby ones simultaneously. None of them were putting up much of a fight. Archie did not care.
"Let me and my dad out now!"
"Kid, I know your under duress and shit but like I said, we Serpents don't let one of our own be held up in a hole. We gotta get him out and your father just happened to have done some of us dirty. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth kind of thing," said a beady eyed scraggily serpent with an elaborate jacket. Archie did not know his name nor did he care to. He charged at him, pinning him to the wall and taking the portrait off the wall to bang him in the head without giving him too serious of head trauma.
"Damn son, you need to bottle up that rage. Become a cage fighter and head to Vegas," Carl sneered. Archie knew what he was trying to do but he tried his best to remain as calm as he humanly could in this situation.
"Did you ever think maybe you guys screwed up! Did you ever think that maybe you could have taken your life into your own hands and made something of yourself! Every thing you do in life is a decision that branches off into something else. I have made so many mistakes in my life and I will own up to everyone of them! I chose not to tell the girl I love how I really felt and I had to deal with it. I wish I could have told my dad how much I loved him before I left, maybe my mom too!" Archie brought all of this out before he started to cry. Jimmy's countenance remained the same.
"You're right kid, we all have our sad stories. And a lot of them are sad because of being at the whim of other people. You may see him as your savior but he is the reason a lot of us are in the position we are in now. We have no choice but to work in construction and once that plug is pulled, it's a scramble just to survive. Just bottom of the barrel picking up the scraps. We're taking it in our hands in the only way possible."
"Agency! You have agency! You can choose to do something right now. I want to be able to choose. I want to be able to live- with my dad! That's all I want right now and I can't have it."
Jimmy licked his fingers before approaching Archie. "Listen sonny, you have to remember-"
"-Get down on the ground now!" A couple of M84s were jettisoned into the compound and two men armed with AR-15s entered. A stocky man with protective gear and a red beard came toward Archie and grabbed him.
"Let's get you out of here kid." He put his arm around Archie's back and sprinted out of the compound with his partner firing a few shots into the room before picking up Fred and trailing behind both of them. The next few moments all happened in slow motion. Archie got out of the house, was thrust into the car and enjoyed the view of the moon blissfully above them. A beacon of freedom.
"Archie Andrews, we're Hiram Lodge's security team. We're going to get your father to the hospital and get you home."
Archie closed his eyes and exhaled.
A/N: Wow, 14 chapters now and I don't know really what to make of this story. I feel it's gotten off the rails too much and differed from the genre I originally wanted it to be. I think the next Chapter will probably be the last one as I want to focus on a new Project. Thank you all for the support and let me know about your thoughts/wishes of the future of the story. TTFN.