I'm so, so sorry it took me this long to get this chapter out ! I had some things my beta had to fix and I have been busy with a course I'm taking. I will get the next chapter out within the next couple days.
Anyways cheers to you all !
Chapter 24 - Storm In
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Gilbert cursed as he watched the car speed away on the long concrete road. He grabbed fistfuls of his hair and pulled. Hard.
"Shhh, calm down Gilbert. Getting frustrated isn't going to help." Matthew said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I agree, but what are we going to do?" Francis questioned.
"The chopper." Matthew said.
Lovino managed to get in through the massive garden at the back of the establishment that was crawling with guards and the nastiest looking dogs he'd ever seen.
Rage clouded his judgment as a guard approached his hiding place. He stabbed the man and, without a scream he fell to Lovino's feet dead.
He was about to go out, to just throw himself in there to get to Antonio when a hand pressed over his mouth with a cloth and everything started to go fuzzy.
"No... Antonio... I need to get to..." he mumbled before everything went dark.
Matthew backed out of the garden carefully, Lovino slung over his shoulder, unconscious. Once he was in the car he signaled Francis and Gilbert and soon the sound of a helicopter could be heard all throughout the Fei-Zi establishment.
With their original plan gone bad, Matthew, Gilbert and Francis had decided that the best course of action would be to attack the Fei-Zi establishment and quietly retrieve Lovino before he was found out.
Matthew sat in the back seat of the car, Lovino still unconscious next to him, handcuffed, as explosions and gunfire could be heard coming from the enormous property.
Matthew's lips quivered and he prayed that they would all come out of this mess alive.
Noise raged all around him and fifteen minutes after he had gassed Lovino, the man awoke.
Lovino blinked and took a little time to regain his senses, to remember everything that had happened and to turn his eyes on Matthew.
"How could you!?" Lovino screamed in agony. "Why didn't you let me go to him!?"
His eyes were filled with rage, sadness and hate.
"I-"
"WHY? WHY?" he screamed.
"Lovino I couldn't let you-"
"BASTARD! TAKE THESE CUFFS OFF OF ME! LET ME GO!" Lovino raged.
The anger in Lovino's eyes made Matthew quiver.
"I can't." he said as tears started to flow freely down his face.
Lovino started to cry too, screaming all the while, thrashing about wildly. He pushed his wrists into the handcuffs so much that they started to bleed.
"Lovino stop!" Matthew implored.
Lovino stopped.
"Don't worry. Gilbert and Francis are going to get Antonio." Matthew said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
Lovino said nothing. He bit down on his lower lip to keep himself from crying and screaming.
"They will make it. I promise." Matthew said.
Lovino's teeth pierced his lip, his mouth becoming bloody. They both waited, torn with worry and in Lovino's case rage and grief.
Francis felt the adrenaline rush hit its peak inside his body as he sprinted through the corridors, taking down anyone in his way. He checked the virtual map on the tracking device one last time before heading down one more hall.
This hall was packed full of guards.
"Oh fait chier!" he cursed as the bullets started to fly.
Francis pulled a small smoke bomb from one of the many pockets that adorned his black clothes and threw it in front of him.
He slipped by quickly, but just as was about to make it to the huge wooden doors at the end of the hall he felt a bullet penetrate his leg.
He winced but carried on, pushing open the doors in time to see Han Fei-Zi escape through an underground root under the floors lush blood stained carpeting.
Francis shut the doors behind him.
Antonio lay on the ground in a pool of blood and Francis could not tell if he was breathing or not.
BZZZT, BEEP, BZZZT, BEEP! The walky-talky buzzed.
"Francis listen, there are reinforcement on their way. Gonna have to bomb the place. Get Antonio and get out of there now. You have four minutes." Gilbert's voice crackled.
"Fine."
Francis scooped Antonio into his arms and, before he went out into the hall again, dropped a bomb down the hatch from which Han Fei-Zi had escaped.
Francis ran, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, before the impact of the bomb hit.
Another bullet hit him, this time in the arm.
A man stopped him in his tracks and swung with a bludgeon at his head.
Francis barely managed to dodge before another hit came his way, this time aiming for Antonio.
Francis blocked the blow with his arms and a fraction of a second later a sickening crunch of bones was heard.
Francis screamed in agony and shot with his broken arm, a bullet lodging in the man's leg.
This left just enough time for Francis to run.
BZZZT, BEEP, BZZZT, BEEP!
"One minutes left. Hurry!" Gilbert warned.
Francis ran, finally making it out of the building. The sound of swishing helicopter blades resonating from above.
Gilbert landed in front of Francis who climbed in and promptly blacked out.
Matthew and Lovino's tension was broken when a huge explosion sounded, shaking the car.
Matthew gulped back the bile that had slowly risen in his throat and after the sound died they waited, still as stones.
Soon after the buzzing of a helicopter could be heard. Matthew looked up to see their helicopter.
The walky-talky in his pocket sounded.
"Drive. Don't stop till I say so. I'll follow from a distance."
"Fine. I'll drive west from here."
The walky-talky sounded off.
"Lovino, we are going now." Matthew said before climbing into the front seat of the car and speeding off.
Gilbert followed the car from a good distance, flying much higher than regulation so as to not be spotted so easily. He looked back for a second, spotting Antonio and Francis.
Gilbert's heart squeezed. He wanted to help them, to see if Antonio was alive and to see how badly injured Francis was, but he couldn't.
If he stopped moving now they would be caught, either by local authority or by Han Fei-Zi's men, or at least what remained of them. They needed to be as far as possible away from the Fei-Zi establishment.
Lovino sat unmoving in the back seat of the car. All he could think of was one thing; the image of Antonio, covered in blood, body marred by bullet wounds.
Antonio and his brother were the only people Lovino had left in the world.
He couldn't lose him. Not when he should have been the one to die.
Antonio was good, why did he have to die?
"Lovino." Matthew said.
The image flashed in his head again.
"Lovino!" Matthew was louder this time.
Lovino inhaled a breath, jerking his head up to find that Matthew had stopped driving and that the engine wasn't running anymore.
"Is Antonio here?" Lovino dared to ask.
Matthew nodded and pointed to the landed helicopter.
Lovino got out of the car, slipping and falling; landing face first in the dirt, screaming as he was inhibited by the handcuffs that still bound his hands together.
Matthew also got out, unlocking the handcuffs.
Lovino stood and sprinted for the copter.
Once he had clambered in he saw Gilbert hunched over in front of a body. Antonio's body.
Gilbert sat up all of a sudden, confusing Lovino, and started giving compressions to Antonio.
"Lovino. Help me. Check his pulse" Gilbert said his voice hoarse.
Lovino bolted forward, grabbing Antonio's limp, cold hand.
Nothing.
He started to cry as he kept trying to find Antonio's pulse. To feel life from him. Everything was a blur around him; the only thing that was clear was Antonio.
Antonio's body was battered, blue bruises blossoming on his blood tinted skin, bullet wounds and cuts adorning him.
"Come on Antonio! Come on!" Gilbert screamed as he pumped Antonio's heart.
Lovino gave Antonio two breaths and went to check his pulse again.
Nothing.
Gilbert was sweating.
"Lovino take over."
Lovino gave compressions.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Two breaths. Check Pulse.
Nothing.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Two breaths. Check Pulse.
Thump, thump.
A pulse. A faint pulse.
A breath.
Lovino cried tears of joy.
"Antonio is alive." Lovino whispered.
Once Antonio's pulse and breathing had stabilized Matthew informed Lovino, Gilbert and Francis that the bullets needed to be removed immediately.
Matthew would operate on Antonio.
"Morphine." Matthew demanded.
Gilbert gave him the required dose and Matthew injected it into Antonio.
Once the morphine kicked in Matthew started removing the bullets.
Fifteen bullets covered in blood lay on the metal floor of the helicopter. Francis's broken arm was in a sling and the bullet he had taken to the leg was also gone.
Lovino was sitting, watching a still unconscious Antonio breathe.
Matthew and Gilbert were holding each other close.
It was finally over. Their whole ordeal with the murderous Han Fei-Zi was over.
Or so they hoped.
So that's the end of that chapter. I will post the next one soon :)