Chapter Twelve
"Ugh." Sam groaned a half an hour later, putting a hand to her throbbing forehead as she slowly picked herself up off of the floor. In her mind, the brown-haired, fiesty-demeanored was trying to remember what exactly had happened before she had blacked out. She remembered drinking the wine that Ed Deline had offered her, but that was it. A rare gasp escaped Sam as she finally opened her eyes and saw the unconscious forms of her friends lying around her. "What in the hell happened here?"
"Mr. D. drugged us." a groaning Mike replied as he also struggled to sit up. The bald, African American man glanced at his watch. "It must have been pretty weak stuff though as we've only been out for about a half an hour."
"Glad he made that decision." Nessa chimed in, not even bothering to get up. "My head already feels like someone's hitting it with a sledgehammer!"
Waking up to her friends' voices, Mary wondered what the mysterious weight that she now felt on her abdomen was. She slowly opened her brown eyes and looked down to see a foreign arm in a white plaster cast draped across her midsection. The red-haired woman traveled the arm with her eyes until she saw the owner's face.
"Danny?" she whispered curiously, looking at her best friend. Her worry rose when the brown-haired, above average looking man didn't stir upon hearing her voice. He obviously wasn't sleeping, yet Mary distinctly remembering that McCoy hadn't drank the wine along with the others, so he hadn't been drugged. Her voice rising in volume, she quickly sat up in the bed and started shaking the man's shoulder. "Danny!"
Suddenly ignoring any pain he himself felt, Mike struggled to his feet and hurried over to Danny's opposite side. After checking a pulse along his neck, Cannon grabbed both of the ex-Marine's shoulders and shook him violently.
"Danny!" the bald, jovial man said, "DANNY! Come on, man!"
"I don't think that he'll be waking up soon." Sam remarked, picking the syringe that Ed had used to drug McCoy up off of the floor. The brown-haired woman held it out to Mike for inspection. "Looks like Ed took care of him too."
"Damn." a frustrated Mike said, gently setting the still unconscious Danny back on the bed. He took the syringe gently in his hand. "This stuff's bound to be a little more powerful than what we got." He looked back at Danny. "He could still be out for awhile yet."
"What should we do in the meantime?" Nessa asked, getting to her own feet while rubbing her forehead vigorously in a futile attempt to clear the pain away. "I mean we obviously know where Ed and presumably Keller went." She sighed in disappointment. "Apparently, they decided that we weren't needed for this mission after all."
"I'll be damned if I'm going to let them go alone." a defiant Mike shook his head, trying to formulate some sort of plan. Suddenly, he headed for the front door. "You girls, keep an eye on Danny until I get back and keep trying to wake him up."
"Where are you going?" a curious Sam inquired.
"I'm going to go see what, if anything, Mr. D. and Jack left us." Mike replied, running out the door and slamming it shut behind him.
"You're positive that you should have left the second jeep there?" a curious Keller asked, looking at Ed from the passenger seat. The gray-haired, blue-eyed man kept his eyes on the road. "I mean, loaded up and all of that?"
"They'll be a target if they try to go back to the airfield, like I've instructed," Ed explained with a nod. "Or if they're dumb enough to attempt coming after us." Keeping his eyes on the road, he shook his head. "I'm not going to leave them unprotected."
"You really think that they'll come after us?" Keller wondered, turning his gaze back to the dirt road ahead of them.
"I'm almost sure that they will." Ed nodded in response. "That's why I drugged them; to give us time to wrap things up before they can even find us." He quickly glanced at his watch. "They should all be awake by now, except for Danny."
"And they should also all feel like kicking your ass right about now." Keller chuckled, leaning back in his seat and crossing his legs casually. As the jeep descended the mountain road, a lush green area began to envelope them and the road gradually switched from one of asphalt to one of rocky dirt.
"Well?" a curious Nessa inquired, turning her head as Mike reentered the room. The three women the bald African American man had left behind had surrounded the still unconscious McCoy on the bed.
"The second jeep is still here." Mike reported, putting his hands on his hips. "Completely loaded up." He shook his head. "It seems like Mr. D. knew that we weren't going to stay in this hotel room." "He wants us to go back to the air strip and find someone to fly us back to Vegas." Sam stated, holding up the note that Ed had written. "We found this just after you left."
"Not leaving me behind, Ed." a feverish Danny muttered, starting to wake up again. As he repeated the last words he had said to his mentor, the tall, brown-haired man's eyes twitched and his hands turned into fists. "Not after I've come this far!"
"Danny." a sympathetic Mary said, shaking her friend's shoulders.
"Huh?" a curious Danny inquired, relaxing his body. As he opened his eyes and looked at the people surrounding him, his curiosity intensified. "Guys? Where's Ed?"
"He's gone, man." Mike replied as Danny slowly got to an elbow. "He and Keller left about 45 minutes ago." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Seems like he wants us to go back to the air strip and go back to Vegas."
"Well, that's the last place that I'm going!" a determined Danny exclaimed, struggling to his feet. However, the minute he got to his feet, the world around him spun rapidly and the tall, brown-haired man fell back upon the bed. "Damn it!"
"Danny, you've just woken up from being drugged with God knows what." a gentle Mary pointed out, knowing how much her friend wanted to help Big Ed. "You need a few minutes to get that out of your system."
"No, we need to go now." Danny disagreed, waving off Mary's concern. He looked over at Mike. "Why don't you take these three downstairs and make sure that everything is ready to go? I'll be down in a few minutes."
"All right." Mike nodded back, motioning at the three girls to follow him. Sam and Nessa did so immediately, but Mary remained where she was sitting by Danny, who put his head in his hands.
"How are you feeling?" a curious Connell inquired, putting her hands on her friend's shoulders.
"The room's still spinning a little bit." an honest Danny replied, trying to shake the feeling off. However, he ceased upon realizing that he was only making things worse. "God, we don't have time for this. We have to go after Ed! We have to find him before something happens!"
"What if I helped you walk down to the jeep?" Mary suddenly suggested, "I mean, you'll definitely have enough time on the jeep ride to get your equilibrium back."
"Yeah," a grinning Danny replied, "But if I fall down the stairs, I'll probably take you with me."
"The point is not to let you fall." Mary fired back, slowly getting to her feet and grabbing Danny's hands. A wide smile appeared on her face. "On your feet, Marine."
"Yes, ma'am." Danny smiled back, slowly getting up from the bed himself.
To be continued...