Hello faithful readers! Heres the next part of the chapter. I can't promise that things aren't going to get more harrowing for our crew! Let's see what happens!


Chapter 34:

Live Free: Part 2


"I'm not sure about this, kid. What if they spot your approach?" Cabe asked.

Walter was finishing buckling a tactical vest around himself. He had changed so his clothes were entirely black.

Happy was currently helping Walter outfit himself and set up a very small, hi-def button cam that was hooked securely over his ear. She was also outfitting him with several repelling cables and various tools she thought might be handy. She even packed a blood bag in a side pocket in case he needed to heal quickly from an unexpected injury.

Walter answered Cabe's question. "They're very unlikely to see me. By the angle of approach there are no windows that directly face up and in that direction. The ones indirectly facing have weather covers blocking the vision of anyone looking upward. Someone would need to be physically leaning out the window to see it where I'm going to be coming from."

Cabe knew better than to try and argue with him. "Ok, kid. Just be careful. I want Ralph and those kids safe as much as you do, but an AK will still do a lot of damage to you, no matter how durable you are."

"I promise I'll be careful."

"You'd better," was Cabe's response.

"Ok, let's get you up there," Toby said as he finished helping Happy.

Paige walked up to him as Happy finished wiring his vest. She looked scared, but carried with her strength and determination. Walter once again was impressed by her, in so many ways.

"Walter, I know you must be walking a fine line a lot of the time, but…"

Paige stopped for a second, hesitating. She looked like she was trying to decide if she should say what she wanted to.

She seemed to decide as she looked straight into Walter's eyes. She spoke with complete conviction and with all the underlying fury of a desperate mother. "Please, Walter. I know this might be a lot to ask, but don't you hesitate to do whatever it takes to get Ralph home safely."

"Paige…" Cabe said, his voice carrying warning for her words.

He looked back into her eyes, and he answered, adding the conviction of his own concern for Ralph. "Understood."

"But you also come back. Understand? Everyone goes home today."

She then gave him a hug, which he returned.

"We'll get him back, Paige," he promised.

"We're up and running," Sylvester announced. Walter could see the image from his camera displayed on the screen in front of Sly.

The sun was starting to set, which started providing some darkness to cover his movement. He approached the large pillar that stood outside the metal barrier, and jumped straight up.

About twenty feet up he grabbed onto the metal handholds on the side and continued climbing. Within seconds he was at the top. Once there he turned to the next pole down the line a few dozen feet away. He crouched down and made some calculations in his head, and jumped once more. He landed squarely on top of it. He repeated this maneuver until he was standing on one of the pillars with cables passing directly over the roof of the warehouse building.

"Ok, guys. I've reached one of the adjacent pillars," he whispered.

He took one of the bundles of repelling cord and looped it over the power line, creating a make-shift zip line. He jumped off and let gravity take him towards the center of the building.

When he reached is goal and he wanted to stop, he threw up his legs and wrapped his ankles around the cable to act as a brake. He ground to a stop and let go of one side of his cable so his arms would swing free.

He was now hanging upside down from the power line, dangling over the center of the warehouse's roof.

He heard an odd, lurching noise on the other end of the comm.

"What is that?" he whispered.

"Sylvester," Happy answered. "The camera feed you're providing is not motion sickness friendly, fyi."

Oh, oops.

Walter hooked the cable around the power line and gently started lowering himself gently to the top of the roof. Once he made contact with the surface he pulled one side of the cable to pull it off the line. He packed it in his vest in case he needed it later.

"I'm on the roof," he informed the team, although he was sure they could see that for themselves.

"Ok, now you have to make your way inside. Safely."

Using all of the supernatural stealth he possessed, he quietly traversed the roof to the side facing the ocean. He bet there would be less, if any men there to watch that side.

Sure enough, he heard only one heartbeat nearby as he looked over the side. He took some time to listen, and determined the pattern the man was patrolling back and forth across what must have been some sort of catwalk.

He was momentarily tempted to consider reaching through one of the windows and pulling the man through. But not alerting them and staying stealthy was still the primary goal.

He had another idea. He waited for the man to walk to the other side of the walk, then Walter lowered himself down and quietly dropped to grab the bottom half of the window. He was now hanging underneath it.

His drop made a slight noise, though, which he was okay with. He heard the man turn around and start walking towards the window to investigate. Walter focused his mind. He would have to do this quickly.

The man approached the window and was about to look over the side, where he would see Walter. Just before he did, Walter, with vampire speed, pulled himself up so he was eye level with the man.

"Don't scream. Don't make a sound," he ordered. The man stopped moving and obeyed.

"I'm not here. You can't see me. You won't use your gun tonight."

The man nodded, his expression slack.

Walter almost was able to start questioning the man about more details of the building's interior, but he heard a second heartbeat approaching.

Walter dropped back down under the window.

"Anything there?" the second man asked.

The man he compelled turned around. "Nothing here," he answered.

"I mean, that's really cool, but kinda creepy, dude," Toby stated over the comms. Walter imagined they were all getting a unique point of view of his abilities through the camera he was wearing.

Walter let out a slow breath. He waited until the second heartbeat walked away before pulling himself over the side of the window into the warehouse. The man he compelled gave him one look before contenting his pace back and forth, not caring he was there.

Quickly and silently, Walter jumped up to grab one of the metal rafters and froze so that he would be less likely to be seen.

From this vantage point Walter could see nearly the entire warehouse. There were catwalks around the edge and multiple pieces of random debris littered across the structure. Apparently this place hadn't been used in a while.

There were three other men he could see monitoring the other end of the structure, where any responders were most likely to be seen approach. In the dead center of the building was the school bus. There was no one immediately near it, but he knew the man on the feed must be inside with the children and Ralph.

What had him very worried, though, was the many steel drums of explosives that were set around the bus. They were all wired together, connecting to some kind of black electrical box set behind the vehicle, ready to explode when they received the signal to.

Walter pointed his head towards the bus so the team could see what he was seeing.

"Not good," Walter heard in his ear. "That's some powerful stuff, there. They seem to all be connected to the same source though. If we could disarm that box…"

Walter couldn't get down there without being seen. As he looked up to see what paths were available to him, he saw something.

"Sylvester, is this building's water supply functional?"

He received confirmation after a moment. "Yes, it is."

"Happy, what would water do to that box?" he asked.

"From what I can see it's pretty shoddy work. It would most likely short it out."

"Would that set off an explosion or prevent it?"

"Look at it again and let me see something."

He did as she asked.

"Ok, the components on the top look like they are only associated with receiving the signal. Anything to do with the explosive charge must be deeper in the device."

"So it would short out the receiver and prevent any signal from setting it off?"

"Most likely, yes. Even if you disable it though, they'll be able to detonate it manually."

That was a problem. He continued to study and analyze the scene before him.

"Remember the guy inside the bus too, kid. As long as he's in there, he's a threat to the kids, bomb or no bomb. He'll need to be lured out somehow." Cabe reminded him.

Walter continued analyzing. "Toby, what are the chances he leaves the bus if he realizes he can't remotely detonate the explosives, or if he starts hearing a confrontation?"

"Well, these are zealots. None of the body language I've seen indicates any fear or hesitation. They've decided their lives are going to end tonight. If he can't detonate the bomb, he'll likely run out and try to do it himself."

Walter realized he could kill two birds with one stone.

There were still many unknown variables, though. It all depended if he could get to the bus without being incapacitated.

There was one last problem. If bullets started flying, the children could be in danger.

"Happy, is there any place on that bus the children could be safe from gunfire?" he asked.

"Well, not the windows, of course. The lower down the better. The metal sides won't withstand a direct onslaught, but may deflect a bullet or two."

If he could somehow get the kids under their seats, they'd be safer.

He had an idea.

He removed one of the D-rings from his vest and with his strength, broke it and started straightening it out. He broke the ends off to expose the hollow tubing, and started squeezing and shaping it.

"What are you doing?" Paige asked him.

"Young children can hear frequencies much higher than adults. If I can make a whistle that hits those higher frequencies, I can send Ralph a message the adults won't hear." The other children would hear it too, of course, but they likely would think it random noise, since he doubted any of them knew Morse code.

He was nearly finished and gave his makeshift whistle a few experimental blows. Being a vampire, he could also hear the higher frequencies. Once he believed he and found it he produced several tones that spelled one word. RALPH.

"Guys, tell me if he reacts."

He waited several seconds.

"He just nodded at the camera! He hears you!" Sylvester yelled.

Walter smiled. He raised the whistle back to his lips, and sent his message.

It took several minutes, but when he was done, he finished with a query if Ralph understood.

"He just nodded again," Sylvester reported.

Good.

They had a plan. The only thing left was to try and implement it.

"How are you planning on setting off the sprinklers? Sorry but I didn't pack you a lighter. Is there anything in your vicinity that would help?" Happy queried.

Walter started looking around for such as thing, and he found it.

The sun hadn't fully set yet.

An extremely thin stream of sunlight came through a loose panel next to him.

"I have an idea," he said.

The team no doubt saw him remove the ring from his finger and place it in a pouch on the front of his vest.

"Kid, I don't know about that. The fact that it'll hurt you aside, you could draw attention to yourself. They could see you and start shooting," Cabe warned.

"I'm aware, but it's the only choice we have."

No one could argue with him.

Walter took a deep breath to prepare and held his hand out to the thin beam of light as it quickly faded as the sun finished setting.

It took only a few seconds for his exposed skin to light on fire. He held back any cry of pain and quickly held his hand up to the sprinkler system. It took several painful seconds for the sensor to kick in, but with a sputter, the system went off. Water rained down in the interior of the building from the sprinklers, causing many shouts of surprise from the men inside.

It extinguished the flame on his hand and when he looked down, he saw the signal box spark for a second, then several lights on the top went dark. It had worked.

"Look! Up there!" he heard one of the men from the floor yell.

True to Cabe's prediction, the light of the flame had drawn eyes to him. He immediately started moving through the rafters as fast as he could as water sprayed around him, followed closely by the sparks of numerous bullets from the automatic weapons.

*****SVD*****

The team huddled around Sylvester's laptop, watching Walter's movements through the camera over Walter's ear. They let out short cries of triumph when they saw the water disable the remote trigger.

But then they heard the sounds of the bullets.

They heard cries of surprise from the children in the bus at the sudden noises, and they watched as Walter moved inhumanely fast through the rafters, attempting to outrun the bullets that were now chasing him. It was like watching the most terrifying first-person video game ever.

It got more terrifying when they heard several dull "thuds" and Walter cry out. The view from the camera was then impossible to follow as it seemed to be spinning very quickly. It suddenly stopped with a clear view of the ceiling, although the camera would occasionally be splashed by water, making it hard to see.

It was clear what just happened. Walter had been hit and had just fallen from the rafters. By the distance, he likely landed on one of the catwalks, and not the ground floor.

The sprinkler system then stopped, having not sensed any smoke or fire for a time.

The gunfire had ceased, likely because the shooters thought he would be dead either from the shots or the fall.

Walter let out a cough and a groan and seemed to roll to his side, and try to sit up.

When he did, the camera faced downwards, and the team was able to get a glimpse of his injuries.

Toby had leaned closer to try and assess what he was seeing.

"Ok, buddy, talk to me. I'm seeing at least three gunshot wounds to your torso."

Walter coughed again. "Four," he corrected.

"Ok, keep looking down and let the doctor take a look," Toby ordered.

Walter did as he asked.

"What's that splash of blood on your right side there? Another wound?" Toby asked.

"No," Walter said before several more coughs. "The…*cough*…the blood bag Happy gave me in case I was…*cough*…injured."

Oh. Not good.

They saw him try and stand up but collapse again to the ground.

"You need to get up, kid. Get moving! You're a sitting duck!" Cabe yelled at him through the comms. Bullets weren't supposed to be able to kill vampires, but they were sure dozens of them would definitely stress that theory.

Walter didn't get a chance to obey Cabe's order, though.

"You! Don't move!"

One of the men approached Walter. They saw Walter's head lift to focus on the man pointing his gun at him.

"How many of you are there? Are you with the military? Are they here?" The man asked, no doubt trying to see if their plan still had a chance of success.

The team heard Walter's struggled breathing first.

"Please. Don't…" they heard Walter beg.

They all felt helpless. They could only watch.

"There's no use in begging. You're going to die. It just depends how quickly. Answer my questions!"

"Please…" Walter repeated. They saw him push himself up on his knees, then look back up at the man. They could actually see down the barrel of the gun.

There was nothing they could do to help Walter.

"Please…don't watch this," Walter finished saying, and they realized he was actually talking to them, not the man threatening to kill him.

Then, as they heard a roar and a scream through the comms, they realized that in that instance, Walter didn't need their help.


*evil grin*