It was dark. Ava walked towards the lit-up house (more like castle...who was she kidding?) with Luna at her side. She was wearing her blood red dress, the same one she'd worn last time. She wasn't really sure why she had kept it. Maybe it was to prove that not every mission gets blown. Luna was in a royal blue dress, and she kept fidgeting with the knot on the side.
"Just breathe," Ava instructed. "Whichever one of us gets to the office first looks for the hard drive."
"How do you know that's where it'll be?"
"I don't, but it seems the best place to start."
Luna didn't say anything else. When they reached the door, music was pulsing out of it like a rave. Ava lifted her dress a little to reveal some leg when the guard looked at them, and he gave her an appreciative smile and checked them out all over before moving to let them in. She looked over at Luna, who rolled her eyes when they were out of sight.
Men.
...
Gunner kept catching himself holding his breath. They couldn't risk the girls getting caught with any sort of ear piece, so they were blind to what was going on inside. This had really set Lee over the edge, and even Toll seemed perturbed over it. Caesar, Mars, Doc, and Thorn were in place, waiting for orders. Gunner pressed his eye into the scope of his sniper rifle, scanning the area. The night vision illuminated people walking around outside.
"Steady," Barney's voice said over the comms.
"They could get killed in there, and we wouldn't even know it," Lee's voice said, irritated. He did care a little. Gunner knew he couldn't help himself. His fear just always came out as anger.
"How long do we give them before we go in after them?" Toll asked. There was silence. They all waited for Barney to say something, but it didn't appear he had an answer.
"How do we know Ava isn't in on this?" Lee asked. "What if she takes out Luna and alerts the others that we're here? Pretty convenient that this job came along right after she came around."
"Shut the puh-huck up," Doc said.
"I thought you were sleeping for that?" Caesar asked.
"I appear to be doing a lot of things and am not really doing them," Doc replied.
"You better be really aiming a gun at that castle," Barney warned.
"I'm insulted," Doc said. "I never pretend to kill anyone. I'm pretty sure the bodies I leave behind can attest to that."
Gunner tuned them all out. He searched the windows for the girls. He wished one of them would stand near the glass and signal that they were all right.
"This don't feel right," Toll said on cue.
"Would y'all just give it a-" Barney started. Bullets cut him off, and Gunner saw people coming out of the building screaming and running.
"I told you-" Lee tried.
"Finish that sentence and you'll be drinking out of a straw for the rest of your life," Barney threatened. Lee shut up.
"Barns?" Toll asked, waiting for the green light.
"Move in. Now," Barney ordered.
No one needed to be asked twice.
...
Everything had been going fine until Ava had to kill the man who was trying to rape her. She had pulled the penknife out of the man's throat and let him fall to the floor with an ominous thud right as another guard walked in. They stared at each other for a second until the guard whipped out his gun and aimed it at her, firing quickly. Ava jumped over the desk, sliding off and hitting the floor hard. As luck would have it, someone had stuck a gun under the desk. She pulled it off and made sure it was loaded before firing back.
Once he was dead, more kept coming. She hoped Luna had gotten out. She yanked open the drawers on the desk and searched with one hand while shooting at her attackers with the other until she found the hard drive, which was really lucky. Obviously this guy was arrogant enough to think no one would enter his castle and steal it.
Then she started to plan her exit. The window looked like a good place to start. When there was a pause for reloading from the guard, she shot and killed him and then shot out the glass. She ran to it, barely escaping the new round of bullets from the next guard who came along shortly after. She climbed out the window only to find herself standing on a very small ledge.
She swore. It was a long way down, and she was a sitting duck up there. She fired her last shot at the guard who came to investigate, killing him instantly. She kicked off her shoes and started to climb down after sticking the hard drive between her teeth. She'd tossed the now empty gun. Bullets whizzed over her head, hitting the bricks. Ava figured this was the end, but she wasn't too worried. She didn't really have much to live for anyway.
Then, the bullets stopped, and she figured the Expendable team had come through for her in the end. When she got to the bottom and started to run for it, a jeep came roaring towards her.
"Get in!" Gunner shouted. She yanked open the door and jumped into the backseat. The door shutting narrowly missed her toes.
"Thanks for the assist," she commented as bullets pounded the jeep. Gunner sped off, and she located her bag. She was trying to find her gun when the explosion happened. She hugged her bag tight as the jeep went flying.
Then it was dark.
...
Luna hadn't seen what was happening. She hadn't gotten caught, but once hell broke loose, she decided to try and help Ava. She knew Ava had gone upstairs, but when she got to the top of the stairs, a guard saw her and started shooting at her. Luna wasn't sure what made him realize she wasn't just a guest. It might have had something to do with her clenched fists and the glare she'd given him.
She got hit, and it hurt bad. She got hit a second time in her gut, which hurt even more. She moved out of the way before getting shot a third time, her hand pressed against her abdomen to stop the bleeding. That was going to leave a mark. She was unarmed, and she had no idea where Ava was. She might have already left. Luna did what she knew she had to. She went looking. She got into a fight with an armed man, who whacked her in the head hard with the butt of his rifle. She fell, hitting her head again off the coffee table and stunning her.
It looked like the end for her when the armed guard stood over her smiling. Then, someone shot him right before her eyes.
"I got her!" a voice shouted, and arms picked her up. She wasn't sure if he was a friend or foe until he said Barney's name into his comms. She let her eyes close as whoever had picked her up ran with her outside.
"Toll? Is she hit?" another voice asked.
"Yea. Bad. Let's move."
Toll had her. That was good to know. He was sturdy. He'd get her to safety.
"Ava," she tried to say.
"Gunner's got her," the second voice said. Doc's? She couldn't tell.
"Hard drive," Luna tried to say next.
"Save your energy," Toll told her. She mumbled something nonsensical, and then she passed out.
...
Ava opened her eyes to see that she was now on the roof of the jeep. Gunner was still unconscious and strapped into the driver's seat. Everything hurt, but Ava knew they couldn't stay there. She stuffed the hard drive into her bag before she crawled to the front with everything aching and screaming in pain and found his knife in his bag next to him. She pulled it out and cut the seat belt. Gunner hit the roof hard, and she winced.
"Hey," she said loudly, reaching to smack his face. The fall hadn't disturbed his slumber, apparently. "Wake up!"
"Urgh," Gunner groaned, his eyes slowly opening. "What?"
"We gotta go," Ava urged. She could hear shouting in the distance and knew the men would be coming to find them.
"What happened?"
"Rocket," she answered. "Come on, Gunner." He shook his head and coughed, getting his wits about him. He grabbed his bag a moment later and crawled out the broken passenger side window after her. She was still bare foot; the idea of running through the jungle like that was unappealing, but she didn't have time to change or find her boots in her bag. They had to go now.
"Come on," she said again. Gunner loped after her quickly, and they disappeared into the jungle right before the search party arrived.
...
Barney was panicking. Gunner was missing. Ava was missing. Luna was bleeding out. Lee was glaring at him. The others were anxious and yelling at each other. Amidst it all, he thought of Tool. He pictured his friend's face as his lips moved, saying things that Barney couldn't comprehend. It felt like a bad tape being rewound and played in slow motion over and over again.
"ENOUGH!" he finally bellowed, making the others grow quiet. They had made it to a safe house, but Barney didn't know where to go after this. He wasn't about to leave anyone behind.
"You got a plan?" Lee asked wryly.
"Shut up," Barney ordered. He had to call the person who organized this mission and tell them what happened, but he didn't want to.
"Luna didn't get the hard drive," Toll offered. "Do you think Ava did?"
"We don't know, do we?" Doc asked, answering for Barney. "No one asked her."
"I still think..." Lee began.
Barney reached and clobbered him in the face mid-sentence, causing Lee to stumble backwards and fall into Caesar, who had been standing behind him. Everyone stared at Barney in shock, but Barney didn't care. He was tired, so tired.
"She barely got out of there alive. I saw that with my own eyes," Barney said to him. "If she was in on it, they wouldn't have been shooting at her. I sent Gunner to pick her up. Now they're missing. They're together, so there's hope. We are going to find them, and we are not going to make anymore assumptions about anything. Got it?"
"Loud and clear," Lee answered in a growl, spitting a bit of blood out onto the ground and wiping his mouth with his sleeve. He turned away from Barney, moving to lick his wounds and bandage his ego. Barney had never hit him like that before.
"What's the plan, Barns?" Toll asked. Barney looked at Luna and knew they had to get her out of there. She was holding her own thanks to Doc, but he knew she needed medical attention sooner than later. He looked at Caesar, who appeared to be having some flashbacks of his own. Barney recalled quite vividly the time they'd had to haul him home to the hospital and almost lost him.
"You and Lee take Luna home," Barney answered. Lee's head shot up at this, but he had the sense to stay quiet. He knew how to fly a plane after all.
"She'll make it that far?" Toll asked.
"She can't get medical attention here, not with them looking for us. It's a risk we gotta take. You're roughly nine and a half hours to get there. Doc, she'll be hooked up to IV?"
"Yea, I'll get her hooked up. She's packed to stop the bleeding. She's stable for now, but you gotta go fast."
"No exit wound, right?" Barney asked.
"No," Doc answered, shaking his head. That wasn't good, but he couldn't go digging for it here. Too risky, and he knew it would take a lot more than he could do by himself.
"Alright. You guys go," Barney said to Toll and Lee. "Now. Hurry."
"And us?" Doc asked, gesturing to Mars, Thorn, and Caesar.
"We find Gunner and Ava."
"Okay," Doc agreed. Barney could sense Lee had a problem with this, but he still said nothing. Barney moved to step outside. He needed air. He had to call Tool and tell him things had gone to shit. He had to call the orchestrator of the mission and tell them he may or may not have their hard drive. He breathed in through his nose slowly before exhaling out his mouth slowly.
He just wanted to go home.
...
Tool thrashed awake to the phone ringing. He'd been trapped in a dream where he was fighting off some unseen force trying to kill him. Oh, the irony.
"What?" he asked after answering it.
"I'm sending Toll and Lee home with Luna. She's been hurt," Barney said. "Gunner and Ava are missing. We're gonna go look for them. Just wanted to let you know."
"All right. Thanks," Tool said, clearing his throat. He wanted a smoke suddenly.
"You okay?" Barney asked.
"I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yes, Barney," Tool said impatiently. "Just come home in one piece, all right?"
"Will do."
They hung up, and Tool sat there looking out at the darkness around him. He felt cold. He did his best to get comfortable and go back to sleep, but nothing worked. He eventually got up and started reading. He had decided to face his enemy rather than hide from it. The stuff he was reading was informative, but it scared him. It just reminded him of everything he was going to go through, and that was not helping him right now. After a few failed attempts to read, he sat in his chair, smoked his pipe, and tried not to think about anything at all.
Perhaps it's unrealistic, but since they brought Caesar home wounded from an 18 hour trip from Somalia to New Orleans in the third movie, I figured I could do the same for Luna lol. Thanks for reading. Hope you're all still enjoying!