CHAPTER 25 Running on Empty

"Owen! We've got most of the hostages in Alpha sub and four cages ready. Leon wasn't with them. They said he went back out for Claire. I'm sending the team back out." Zia called.

Owen paused and took a breath."Good. We're probably less than 15 miles out now. We need to pick up pace."

"Out" Zia responded and it went quiet.

Owen and the remaining team were quickly, but silently moving through the halls, trying to find any sign of the raptors or Claire.

He stopped. He could he quiet chatters. The team waited for his next move. He put his hand up to motion for them to wait as he tiptoed around the corner.

There he saw Charlie and Delta finishing what looked to be the remains of another hunt. Looked like a smaller group that probably got caught by surprise.

He stepped back and nodded. He held up two fingers. A handful of the team moved forward.

They moved quick and fired. Both Charlie and Delta reacted, both hit with darts. They had enough strength to start moving toward the team, who then fired a second round of tranquilizers.

The raptors finally fell quiet.

"Two teams of eight. Six to carry, two to guard. Go!" Owen ordered as the teams went to work. "Get them to the zone and caged up. The rest of you, keep moving.

They continued down the hall and found the lab area. It was obvious a massacre happened here. Owen made his way through the lab to the back room. When he opened the door, he was overcome with rage.

He could see where the cages had been before Zia's team moved them out. He saw the remains of what appeared to be Hoskins.

Then he saw the small cell where Claire was held. There was a small cot and an old dirty blanket. Nothing else. It was cold and damp in the room.

"Hoskins, if the girls hadn't done it, I would have killed you myself." he said, turning and walking out of the room. "No sign of them. Let's move back out. We're running out of time."

Lowery was frantically typing away in the office. Simon was coming in periodically with updates on military movement. He'd basically become central command.

"AHA!" he shouted as Simon once again entered the room. "I got it!" Simon looked at him confused, waiting on further explanation.

Lowery again put his finger up to Simon to give him a moment.

"Owen and Zia. I've managed to finally link up the new tracker to the system. You should be able to see Blue's location on your handhelds now."

Zia responded, "Perfect, we've got Charlie and Delta locked up and in the sub."

Owen piped up, "Where are we on time?"

Simon looked at Lowery. "Ten miles, there are ships already waiting on them." he said seriously.

"Owen, you got ten miles until the Fourth of July. And fireworks are ready."

"Got it. We're on the move." With that the comm went silent.

Lowery shook his head and dropped his head in his hands. This was not what he signed up for but he was going to do everything he could to give them a fighting chance. He looked up at Simon.

He was very solemn. "When they hit five miles, we need to abort."

The one call Lowery didn't want to make.

They were trapped. Leon froze, still holding up Claire, maintaining eye contact with the raptors who were in an attack position.

He heard Claire moan next to him, fighting to pick up her head.

"Blue." she managed very softly. The raptor relaxed slightly and lifted her nose in the air, chirping. Echo stayed where she was, ready to leap.

Blue slowly creeped up closer to them. Leon was shaking internally, but using every muscle he could not to show it. As she got closer, he watched as she sniffed and nudged Claire, who could only moan in return.

She chirped at Leon, who just stared at her, and slowly put his hand out. "Easy, girl. Easy. I'm trying to get her to Owen, Blue. She needs to get to Owen."

The heard the sound of more men coming. Blue moved so she was on the other side of Leon and Claire facing the noise, and crouching down. Echo moved up to her side as they waited.

They heard shouts and gun fire.

Before Leon could react, Blue and Echo took off to where the sound was coming from.

He started carrying Claire in the opposite direction, which was becoming increasingly difficult as she couldn't hold herself up.

"Come on Claire! You gotta stay with me!"

He heard more gunshots in the distance and what was definitely raptors screeching. He was disoriented trying to pay attention to where he was going, carrying Claire and worrying about more hostile confrontations. He felt something dig into his hip as Claire leaned on him.

His radio. Idiot. He had turned it off when he ran back for Claire so he didn't alert anyone. He had lost all his senses facing off with Blue and Echo.

He turned and made his way quickly down another hallway, taking out his radio and hoping to find Owen or Zia.

"We're close." Owen was watching the dot on his hand held, following the signal to where he'd find Blue. He could see she was far down the next hall and around a corner.

As they started to move again, headed to turn down the next hall, when Owen threw his fist up to hold them. He heard voices. He gave a look to the team as he creeped to the edge of the corner to look down the hall.

There looked to be about thirty remaining mercenaries discussing the massacre they were standing in the middle of.

He made hand motions to signal "30" and the team nodded. He made another series of silent hand motions, indicting they were going to take them out by surprise. They nodded.

He started slowly to the corner. He gave a motion and they all started moving and firing.

Once the mercenaries realized what was happening, they started firing back. Owen and the team ducked back to avoid fire. One of the guys got hit in the leg.

"Somebody take him back!" he shouted over the crossfire. He had about twenty left with him.

All of a sudden he heard screeching from the other end of the hallway and the men screaming and firing.

Owen took the opportunity, knowing their backs were likely turned to come back out firing.

"Get tranqs ready!" he yelled as he continued to fire. Some of the men realized they were still being fired at from behind while fighting the raptors in the front.

The mercenaries were mostly wiped out and now Blue and Echo were now facing off with Owen and the team.

"HOLD! Easy girls! We got you. Easy. Let's get you home." He said while clicking and reaching his hand out. He slowly approached Blue. Echo backed up, slightly crouching.

Blue stared at Owen as he placed his hand on her head. She sniffed him and chirped, then stepped back. She continued to move backward and Echo followed, eyes still on Owen.

He wasn't sure what they were doing as they continued the motion, like they wanted him to follow.

Before he could think about it, he motioned for the team to fire. They were running out of time.

They immediately moved in to collect the raptors and move them to the rescue zone.

"Lowery! We've got Blue and Echo! Zia, teams are coming your way! Get the cages ready! No sign of Claire or Leon! I'm sending most of the team back to the zone! We're running out of time and there's not much left alive in here!" Owen hollered into his comm.

"Owen! You're almost at the five mile mark! Simon's gonna call the abort!" Lowery frantically responded.

"Dammit Lowery, buy me time!" He cut off and turned to the handful of guys left with him.

"Look, I'm not leaving without Claire and Leon. You guys can go back. I will not force you to come with me and possibly disobey orders."

Grant, one of the team members spoke, "We're with you Owen. No one gets left behind."

If he had time, Owen would have cried. "Beers all night on me. Let's move!"

"Lowery!" Leon called on the radio as he was now dragging Claire. He could feel the heat radiating off of her. She was incoherent with fever. Despite the cool air if the vessel, she was sweating profusely.

"Leon! Where have you been, man! We're at the mark! Simon's about to call it!" Lowery responded in a panic.

"I have Claire!" he replied.

"Get to the zone NOW! Owen's out looking for you!" Lowery shouted at him.

Simon walked in after hearing Lowery's raised voice.

"Leon has Claire." Lowery said to Simon quickly.

"She's so sick Lowery! I can't move any faster. I'm practically dragging her!" Leon cried out.

"Stay where you are! I'll get Owen and the team to you!" he responded.

Simon watched the exchange and made a decision. He got up and left the room, saying nothing.

"Owen, Leon has Claire!"

Owen breathed a short sigh of relief, "Are they on the Beta sub?" He asked hopefully.

"No, they're still out! Leon is struggling carrying her!" Lowery responded.

"Shit! Where?!" Owen was so close. She was right here.

"Leon said they just left Blue and Echo a few minutes ago going in the opposite direction."

"Got it!" And with that Owen took off down the hall where the raptors had come from. The team followed quickly behind.

They ran through what remained of the earlier crossfire and turned the corner.

"LEON!" He was running full out at this point. "LEON! CLAIRE!" He ran passed a hallway and shadows caught the corner of his eye.

"OWEN!" Leon shouted from the other end of the hallway.

Owen stopped and turned, running down the hall to where he could make out Leon and Claire on the ground. As he got closer, he was frantic. He dropped and slid on his knees when he was close enough, grabbing her from Leon and pulling her to him, briefly just holding her and burying his head.

He looked at Leon and nodded, tears in his eyes, as he immediately got up, carrying her bridal style and started running back to the Beta sub.

"MOVE!"