Three more days had come and gone since the incident. Despite all the previous excitement, though, the next few days were entirely uneventful, making them even more torturous for Layla. She was already dead-set on acting out her plan, but security was far tighter around the base after the second attack. Her only option was to wait and bide her time, no matter how much it annoyed her. Finally, though, Layla's time came, and she was as ready as she would ever be to do this.
Dressed from head to toe in black, she crept out from the base into the parking lot where her car sat idle, ready to take her through the threshold- the point of no return. The engine sputtered and spurred to life, and Layla slowly pulled out and away from the base, turning her headlights on as soon as she got onto the main road.
As she continued driving, her eyes fixated on the small beam of light illuminating the road in front of her, Layla felt the adrenaline begin coursing through her body. The weight of the stress she felt was finally getting to her as she realized this would only go one of two ways, and the odds weren't in her favor.
"Just hang on, Dad," Layla murmured. "This'll all be over soon." That much was a certainty to her. This was going to end tonight.
As Layla drove into the downtown area, her mind started replaying the moments that led up to where she was now- the first attack, the phone call, talking with the doctor; all of it was an unfortunate run of bad luck. After this, it would be smooth sailing- she hoped it would be, at least. Layla smirked slightly as she drove, realizing the irony that she was more nervous about what she was about to do than either of the times she was in actual combat.
Layla's eyes flicked down to the passenger seat, where her M9 sat unloaded. She had no intention of using it, and she almost didn't bring it at all, but desperation won her over. Besides, she reasoned, it would be better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. If she had it and did need it, though… Layla chose not to think about that. She was getting close to the pharmacy, and she needed to focus.
Fortunately, there were hardly any cars out, which worked to Layla's favor. The last thing she needed was witnesses complicating things. She just had to sneak in, grab what she needed, and sneak back out before anyone saw her. Then, she'd wait a few days for things to settle down and sneak the medicine to her dad. Her dad would make a full recovery, she'd be able to focus on the war, and nobody would know. After all, what harm would one little secret she took to her grave be?
"Alright, Layla. You can do this," she assured herself as she pulled into the pharmacy's parking lot. "You can do this. You can do this. You can do this." She cut her car's engine, and after waiting for a minute and building up enough courage, she opened the door and stepped out.
Since Layla had never broken into a building before, she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, but playing it by ear seemed to work out for her well enough up to this point, so she went with the first idea to pop into her head. A year back, the pharmacy had a drive-thru added to the back of the building. This was Layla's target. She kept herself crouched down as she hugged the wall, praying no late-night passerby spotted her.
'Just once,' she thought to herself. 'Just once, let me do this without any complications.'
She wrapped around the corner of the building and crept a few more feet until the window to the drive-thru was directly above her. She looked around, squinting through the darkness that was both her greatest ally and her greatest enemy. Once she was sure nobody was out there, she stood up and looked at the sliding window that was sealed shut. She gently pressed her hands against the glass and tried pushing it open. For a split second, the window looked like it was going open without any trouble, but then it stopped with a resilient click. Layla scowled. It made sense that the drive-thru window would be locked, but it still annoyed her.
Layla had no other plans to get inside, but she wasn't about to give up after one failed attempt. She started pacing around the building, hoping some idea would come to her. She suspected that she could probably find something heavy like a brick to break the window open with but quickly decided that would be a last resort. If she could, she wanted to leave little to no trace that she was here.
A bright flash off in the distance, in the corner of Layla's peripheral vision, caught her attention, and Layla spun around to see what it was. A crack of lightning lit up the sky miles away, and the low rumble of distant thunder followed close behind. She needed to get this done quickly. As Layla's head swiveled back toward the pharmacy to focus on her original goal, she noticed something: a row of windows along the wall, resting a few feet above the ground. At first, Layla didn't think much of it, but then a realization struck as she squinted through the darkness at the panes of glass. These windows could slide open, and they couldn't be locked. She found her way in. Now, all that was left was finding a way to get up to them.
"Come on. There's gotta be some way to get up there," Layla muttered as she started pacing in front of the windows. "Think, think, think." Her eyes drifted across the parking lot, hoping she might get an idea from her surroundings. "Maybe…" she mused as her eyes stopped. "I can pull the car up to the window and climb onto it." A moment later, she shook her head upon realizing her car would be too short.
Another flash of lightning lit up the night sky. This time Layla could see it crack and curl clearly. The storm was growing closer, and she needed to hurry. Luckily for her, though, as her gaze returned to the pharmacy window, she finally found her way inside; a dumpster around the corner of the building. Layla smirked as she hustled over to it.
'Finally,' she thought. 'Things are actually going my way for once.'
Layla positioned herself behind the dumpster and got ready to push. It took every muscle in her body that she could put to use, but after heaving forward with all her might, she managed to force the dumpster to scooch a few inches. Her chest rose and fell as she panted heavily, sucking what little oxygen she could back into her lungs as she braced herself to push again. Bit by bit, she inched the dumpster along, silently questioning how it was so heavy. It was also far from quiet, which only amplified Layla's fear that some passerby on a late-night walk would spot her. The fear only made her push harder, and finally, she made it to the corner. Unfortunately, rotating the dumpster was far more challenging than Layla expected. Every so often, she'd scan the darkness as best she could, praying there were no unusual silhouettes cloaked just beyond her sight.
Luckily, Layla wouldn't have to worry for much longer. After what felt like at least half an hour of endless heaving and pushing, she finally brought the dumpster beneath one of the windows. Just as she predicted, standing on top of it allowed her to reach just high enough to slide the window upward, opening with no issues. Layla let out a much-needed sigh of relief and gripped the ledge as tightly as she could, pulling herself up and through the window. She was finally inside. Now all she had to do was press on to the pharmacy and grab what she needed, utterly oblivious of the silent alarm she had just set off.
As Layla set her eyes on the pharmacy, though, she cursed under her breath upon realizing she now had another problem: the employee's door into the pharmacy- the only way inside- was locked. She walked up to the door, looked at the red light on the ID reader connected to the lock, and scowled. Slowly, her hand lifted up to grasp the door handle, but she withdrew it upon realizing she didn't want to risk angering any sleeping security measures.
"Shit!" Layla whispered as she started pacing around the carpeted floor. "Alright, think. There's gotta be a way in." She thought back to the jobs she worked when she was younger. None of them were at a retail store like this, but maybe the computer systems- there she had it. The computer at the cash registers. They hopefully had a way to open the door.
And so, Layla set off to complete the next step of her plan- her plan that was less of a well-thought-out idea and more just her winging things as she went along. Although, Layla decided to give herself some credit for getting this far. She just needed to see things through, and as she powered up the computer at the front of the store, she felt that much more confident that things were finally going her way- until she saw the screen asking her for a password. She then spent the next five minutes looking all over for any clues. Perhaps it was fate or just pure luck, but as Layla opened a drawer on the counter, she saw a small sticky note giving her just the information she needed.
As fast as she could manage, Layla logged on, fingers a blur as she maneuvered to the part of the software she needed to open the door. The distant red hue from the pharmacy door's lock turned green, and she broke into a full sprint toward the door.
Once she was finally inside the pharmacy proper, Layla took a moment to catch her breath. "You're almost there," she assured herself. "Just gotta get the meds and get out."
The pharmacy was far larger than it looked on the outside, and since Layla had no idea what to look for other than the name on the bottle, it took longer than she liked to actually find the medicine. After everything was said and done, though, she had the meds- the key to her father's life. It was in her hand, and all she had to do was walk out with it. That's when she noticed something off in the distance. Her senses of sight and sound honed in on the quickly growing presence- police sirens.
The flashing blue and red got sharper as the distant wails grew closer. Layla felt her heart rate spike. She needed to get out of here- now. Quick as she could manage, she shoved the medicine into the backpack she brought with her and pulled out the pistol and magazine. She didn't want to use it, but if it meant saving her dad, she'd do what she had to.
She heard the main doors to the building open, and a voice called out through the darkness. "This is the police! We know you're in here. Come out with your hands up!" the man ordered.
Layla's eyes darted around the room. There was no getting out the way she came, so she had to escape from here. Then, her gaze rested on the drive-thru window, and for a moment, it felt like she could actually breathe. Keeping herself low to the ground, Layla crept up to the window and undid the lock holding it in place. A quiet sigh of relief left her lips as it slid open, and she crawled out. All that was left to do was get to her car, which sat in the parking lot on the other side of the building. She crouched down and kept herself pressed against the wall, only breaking from the building to get around the dumpster that had been her salvation just a few short minutes ago. Then, just around the corner, she saw the last obstacle before her. Only two police had responded to the intrusion- one was sweeping the building for her, and the other was standing in the parking lot, watching over their cruiser and Layla's car.
Layla's fingers gently switched off the safety on her pistol, and she placed the crosshairs firmly on the cop's chest. It was a clear shot. She could kill the man from here- her military training had seen to that. Yet, she couldn't pull the trigger. This whole time, she'd been telling herself she would do whatever it took to save her father. Now, though, as she sat just a muscle twitch away from ending this man's life, she couldn't. At least with the Eruseans, she could hide behind the thin veil that they were the aggressors, and she was just protecting her country, but this was one of her countrymen, and she couldn't kill him.
Layla put the safety back on and put the gun back in her bag. The only chance she had now was to make a break for it. She took as many deep breaths as she could, but it didn't change the fact that it felt like her heart was about to break free from her ribcage. Eventually, she got herself to quit stalling and got into the best sprinter's stance she could. Layla took one more breath for good measure and ran like hell.
It didn't take long for the second cop to notice her and start chasing after her, but she didn't care. All that was on her mind was the path in front of her and the face of her dad, whose life was dependent on getting this medicine. She ran around the corner of another building, hoping to throw off her pursuer, but not only did he follow her with ease, but he was closer than Layla thought. The thunderstorm that was once far off in the distance was now pelting rain against her face as lightning cracked overhead. Her feet and lungs were begging for her to stop, but her heart and mind demanded she keep running, so that's what she did. For an ever-so-brief moment, Layla thought she was going to make it. She thought that she might succeed and save her father. Then, she felt herself fall to the ground, getting pinned by the officer chasing her.
"Get your god damn hands off me!" she snarled.
She had to do something. She had to get away. Her father's life was in her hands, and she couldn't disappoint him. In the end, though, she was helpless to do anything but squirm under the man's weight as she felt the grip of cold steel against her wrists.