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Disclaimer: I don't own 'Red Eye' at all. If you honestly think that I do, please contact me. I have a great way for you to invest some of your money.

By the way, this chapter was written while I was under the influence of a strep throat, so blame my meds if it ends up going badly. Also, I have no idea if there are any caves in Tallahassee.

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For anybody who didn't see the note in Chapter 1, my story got taken down because of a TOS violation. So now I have reposted everything, minus all the reviewer responses. Sorry to scare everyone over that, but I wasn't even allowed to repost until two days ago. Anyway, the next chapter will be out as soon as I actually have time to stop working. Gyah…

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"This is the farmer sowing the corn,

That kept the cock that crowed in the morn,

That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,

That married the man all tattered and torn,

That kissed the maiden all forlorn,

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,

That tossed the dog

That worried the cat

That killed the rat

That ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built."

-"The House That Jack Built"

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Lisa had been riding in the back of the truck for what seemed like hours. Did it really take this long to get to Tallahassee, if that was even where they were going? And for that matter, why on earth were they going to Tallahassee in the first place?

Lisa glanced down at Jackson. He was still unconscious, even though they must have been on the road for quite awhile by now. Lisa looked over his various cuts and bruises, wondering how in the hell he'd managed to get all of them. She figured the bloody shoulder came from the incident with the beer bottle, and the rest most have been from the people who'd ended up kidnapping him. Lisa figured that all the cuts and bruises would probably end up being rather painful once he regained consciousness.

'Serves him right, bastard.'

A sudden bump in the road jolted Lisa against one of the large cardboard boxes, and she hit her head painfully. Lisa gritted her teeth, hissing from the sting. Getting hit by the butt of the gun had made her head extremely sore, and she could barely move her neck without sending jolts of pain coursing throughout her skull.

Lisa tried her best to look towards the front of the truck without moving her head. The man who had been there when she'd woken up had been there ever since he'd spoken to her. She'd heard him talking to the driver in muffled tones for awhile, but they'd been quiet ever since.

Lisa frowned. Who was that man? She'd thought that he must have been one of Jackson's associates, but then why kidnap Jackson as well? Maybe he worked for whoever had ordered the missile to hit the hotel. It would explain why he'd come after both of them, but she still didn't know what he wanted from them. If he wanted them dead, he could have just killed them outright. Why drag them to Tallahassee?

These questions were put out of her mind by a muffled moaning noise, and Lisa looked down to see that Jackson seemed to be stirring. His eyes fluttered open for a few seconds, then sprung wide open once he realized where he was.

Lisa merely regarded him cautiously. "Morning, starshine."

Jackson bolted up where he sat, then flinched in pain as soon as he did. Lisa figured he must've gotten hit pretty hard across the back of the head as well. Jackson writhed around, trying to stand up before he realized that his feet had been bound. He seemed even more upset to discover a gag around his mouth and a pair of handcuffs linking his wrists together in front of him.

"Ah, so Prince Charming has awakened as well."

Lisa turned her head (painfully) to see the man from before standing over them, a calm, eerie smile playing across his lips.

"Well, well, well, isn't this perfect? Little Jack Horner has finally awakened. And just in time, too. We were going to have to wake you in a minute or two anyway, so this works out most conveniently." The man looked down at the two of them, a small smile playing across his lips. Lisa looked over at Jack, who was staring at the man with an intense hatred in his eyes. The man, for his part, seemed not to notice.

"What's wrong now? No clever remark, no witty retort? Honestly, Jackson, you insult me. And here I was expecting more from you." The man continued to smile as Jackson gave a muffled response through the gag. Lisa wasn't sure, but she thought he had said 'Fuck you'.

The truck began to slow, and then it came to a full stop. The man glanced towards the front and grinned. "Well, it seems we have arrived." He paused and smiled a little. "I don't think I need to remind you what will happen if either of you don't cooperate." That being said, he made his way back to the front, and began speaking in hushed tones with the driver. Lisa frowned slightly. Something about that man seemed familiar. His face was unknown to her, but there was something about the way he spoke that Lisa recognized.

Meanwhile, the back doors of the truck flew open, and two men carrying semi-automatics climbed inside. Lisa dully wondered if they'd arrived in a different car.

One man stood above Lisa, his gun aimed straight at her head, while the other man did the same for Jackson. The man standing above Lisa began to speak to her with the air of an authority, as though she were a child who'd broken a rule at the playground. "I'm going to untie your legs now. If you try anything, I will have absolutely no problem shooting you on the spot. Do you understand?" Lisa nodded weakly, and the man looked over at Jackson. "Same goes for you." Jackson merely rolled his eyes.

Once her feet were untied, Lisa realized just how stiff her legs had been, and she had some trouble standing up. She leaned her shoulder against the stack of boxes for support, and stood up weakly before attempting to walk. Jackson seemed to be having even more trouble, since he seemed to be putting too much weight on his right leg for some reason. Lisa didn't quite understand why, until Jackson started limping out of the truck. It was then that she noticed a blood stain on the fringe of Jackson's pant leg, and Lisa figured that he must have been injured in the calf or the ankle somehow.

As she exited the truck, guns pointed at her head the whole time, Lisa was surprised to see that it was still dark outside. But that made sense: it had only been about 6:30 in the evening when she'd been in the alley with Jackson. It was probably pretty late by now.

Lisa looked around, and saw that there were a two other cars parked next to the truck. Not only that, but there were a few scattered people standing around, chatting with each other. Upon spotting Lisa and Jackson, one of them turned to the rest and made some sort of clever remark, causing the rest to chuckle. Lisa frowned. Why were all these people here? What exactly was going on?

The men led them into what seemed to be a suburban house. It seemed strangely out of place, since there weren't any other houses to be seen nearby. As they walked through the doors, Lisa noticed that there seemed to be absolutely nothing inside the house. Not a chair, not a table, not even a stray piece of paper littering the ground. In that case, Lisa wondered what the point was. Why were they being taken into a completely empty house?

The men led Jackson and Lisa down a flight of stairs to a dank, empty basement. Lisa tried to peer around, but there was absolutely nothing to see. There didn't seem to be any lights or any windows, and the whole room was pitch black. The only light came from the doorway leading to the stairs.

Once they reached the end of the staircase, the men led Lisa and Jackson to the other side of the room, where it was harder to see. One of the men grabbed Lisa roughly by the shoulders and shoved her to the ground, and she let out a small cry upon hitting the floor. Judging by the thud she heard a second later, Lisa figured that they had done the same thing to Jackson.

The man began retying Lisa's ankles together, using tight, complicated knots. Lisa obeyed without a word, and was surprised to notice that Jackson didn't seem to be putting up much of fight when the other man began to retie his ankles as well. Then again, maybe he figured he'd earned enough bruises for one day.

When the two men were done, they walked quietly back to the stairs without even a word to their captives. Once they had disappeared up the flight of stairs, they shut the door, closing off the only light source they had. Lisa glanced around her, and could see nothing but pitch black, and part of her felt frightened by the smothering darkness.

After the men had left, Lisa could hear the sound of muffled grunting coming from her left. Jackson had been left about ten feet away from her, and Lisa wondered what the hell he was doing over there. After a few minutes, the noise stopped, and Lisa dimly thought that he must have given up.

That was before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She nearly cried out, but Jackson clapped a hand over her mouth before she even had the chance. Lisa's eyes widened and her first instinct was to struggle against his grip, but Jackson held onto her firmly. Quiet enough that Lisa could barely hear him, Jackson hissed at her, "Don't you dare scream. Not if you want to make it out of here alive. Do you understand?" Lisa dully wondered how he'd gotten rid of the gag.

His tone was dead serious, without a hint of condescension or humor. If Lisa hadn't known better, she would have thought that Jackson sounded…rattled, in a way. But that was too out of character for him: Lisa always thought of Jackson as too collected to ever be shaken by anything. Slowly, she nodded, and Jackson removed his hand from her face.

Lisa heard some shuffling, and the next thing she noticed was Jackson breathing down her neck. Lisa was about to protest, but that was before she felt his knuckles hitting against her wrists as the knots around her hands began to loosen. Lisa realized he was untying her, and before long, she could feel his knuckles working around her feet.

Once her feet were free, Lisa opened her mouth to speak, but Jackson silenced her. He hissed quietly to her again. "Don't say a word. I don't care what you have to say, just don't say anything yet. Alright?"

Again with the almost panicked tone. Lisa nodded, though she wondered if Jackson could tell in the thick darkness. Perhaps taking her silence as the affirmative, Jackson grabbed Lisa's wrist and began leading her to another part of the room, and Lisa dimly realized that he must've untied his ankles somehow.

After about a minute, Jackson stopped walking and let go of Lisa's wrist. Lisa heard some light tapping noises coming from a few feet away, and after a few seconds the tapping sounded more hollow. After a few of these hollow taps, Lisa heard a shifting noise, and suddenly she could see Jackson's silhouette against a tall, dimly lit opening. Lisa realized that Jackson was holding a panel from the wall in his hands, and the opening led to some sort of tunnel or cave. Lisa's eyes widened, and she looked over at Jackson. He merely gestured for Lisa to step into the opening, a hint of urgency in his eyes.

Lisa hesitated, then walked into the opening cautiously. It was about six feet tall, so she fit inside fairly well. Jackson followed her inside, closing the wall panel firmly over the opening behind him. Now that they were out of the basement, Lisa started to speak. "What the hell-"

"Shh!" Jackson's hand found it's way over her mouth once again, and Lisa felt slightly irritated. "Not now. Once we're further away, alright?" Lisa nodded, and Jackson sighed at let her go. Lisa noted that he seemed to be irritated with her as well.

They seemed to be in some sort of a cave, with the only light coming from a wide opening in the far distance. Lisa could hear her footsteps echoing off of the cavern walls, along with Jackson's heavy limping from behind. In her head, Lisa marveled at the cave while wondering why anyone would make a passage to it from their basement.

After a while, Lisa could see the cavern opening coming closer and closer in her field of vision. She made her way toward it eagerly, with Jackson behind her the whole time. As soon as they reached it, Lisa glanced around fervently, curious to see where exactly the journey had led them.

The cave led out to a woodland area, and right next to the opening was a run-down SUV. The trunk of the car seemed to be packed with items, and Lisa peered at it. It almost seemed like the sort of trunk someone would have had while preparing for Y2K, with bottled and canned food items lining the bottom, along with a sizeable amount of batteries. The interior of the car seemed bare and neat, providing an odd contrast. She turned to Jackson, who was looking around in an almost business-like manner.

Jackson noticed Lisa watching him and he sighed. "You can talk now, if that's what you're wondering."

Lisa shrugged. "It wasn't. But now that I can talk…"

Jackson rolled his eyes. "Here we go…"

Lisa ignored him, and continued her spiel. "What in the hell is going on? And where are we?"

"You know, I'd have thought you'd be more grateful, considering I've essentially saved your life."

Lisa blinked, not quite comprehending what he said. "What?"

Jackson cocked an eyebrow. "You didn't figure that out?" Lisa noted that some of the old condescension remained in his voice, but for the most part, he just seemed irritated. "What did you think, that they just knocked you out and tied you up for kicks?"

Upon hearing that, Lisa tried to appear angry, although his words had really only made her anxious. The thought of being murdered rattled her, but she didn't want Jackson to see that. "Well, how am I supposed to know what's going on? I don't know where we are, I don't know why I'm here, I don't know why you're here, and I don't know who these people are that came and got us." She eyed Jackson for a second. "Though you seemed to know them pretty well."

Jackson sighed. He glanced at the cavern that they had just come through, then looked at Lisa. "The man from the back of the truck is my boss. Or, rather, he was my boss."

Lisa blinked. "Your boss? But why would he…"

"…want me dead? Simple, Leese: that's the price for failure in my business. I ought to know, I've carried out enough failure sentences to realize that. And, by the way, it's always the price for screwing up a job, even if you aren't an employee. Hence your presence, Leese."

Lisa frowned a little. "If that's the case, then why aren't we dead yet? Why kidnap us and drive us around for hours first?"

"Because they don't want anything to seem suspicious. If the two of us wind up dead, then there'll be a major investigation, considering our involvement in the Keefe case. They don't want it to look like they had any hand in our deaths, so they'll set it up so that nothing looks fishy. That's why they drove us out to Tallahassee, where Jim Crane supposedly lives."

Lisa thought to herself, remembering what the investigator had told her after she'd been questioned. What had he said?

'From what we know, he's some sort of loner from near Tallahassee…'

Well, the police got that much right.

Lisa continued her questioning, somewhat calmer now that she had a basic grasp of the situation. "Then what's this…place? Why is there a cavern leading out of the back of the house?"

Jackson seemed to smile a little, but not at Lisa. "Jim Crane was an ardent comic book fan, and when he built the house, he was thrilled at the idea of having his very own hidden Batcave, so he had the house built right on top of it. He kept the panel in the basement a secret for his own amusement." A pause. "Not that he really had anyone to tell about it, anyway."

Lisa was slightly confused. Why did Jackson keep referring to Crane in third person? Did that mean that he was a real person, and not just some alias Jackson had used? Lisa considered asking Jackson, but decided against it, given his current state of annoyance.

Jackson looked back at the car. "But the cavern is also a useful to me, since this is where I keep my backup plan." He indicated the car. His smile faded, and he looked back at Lisa, seeming somewhat calmer than when they'd first set out. "When you have a job where you're constantly facing life or death, it's generally a good idea to have several routes of escape in case of an emergency."

"And does that work?"

"Rarely." Jackson noted the worried look on Lisa's face. "Better a slim-to-none chance than no chance at all, Leese."

Lisa could feel some panic beginning to swell inside her. The whole thing seemed insanely bizarre. It seemed like a setup from the movies: the heroine is chased by the evil gang of killers, before she recovers the crystal that will save the Martians from the Tralfamadorians. Even if she tried to pretend none of it was real, she knew there was no point in denying it. Here she was with a man who'd tried to kill her and who she'd tried to kill, and he was telling her that, in all likelihood, they were going to die.

Lisa shivered a little. Jackson looked over at her coldly, obviously not feeling very sympathetic. He sighed out of frustration.

"Lisa, listen to me. Just pull yourself together five minutes, alright?" Lisa looked up at him and nodded, trying her best to quell her panic in front of the man she hated. Jackson continued talking, using the same tone he had used with her on the plane.

"Considering the way that this situation has unfortunately unfolded, we're going to have to get out of here as soon as is humanly possible. They probably haven't noticed we're gone yet, since it's going to take them a few hours to set everything up."

Lisa opened her mouth to ask him 'Set up what?', but the cold look he gave her made her keep quiet. Jackson continued as though nothing had happened.

"Here's the part that I know you're going to hate, and, let's face it, I'm not exactly thrilled either. But, given the circumstances…" Jackson sighed, obviously frustrated by something, though Lisa couldn't guess what.

"What?"

"…I'm going to need help getting out of here."

Lisa blinked, not quite sure she heard him correctly. "What!"

"Don't get too excited, Leese. As it is, you're going to need my help as well. All in all, a fair deal."

Lisa was still having trouble comprehending this. He had to be kidding. "You're not serious…"

"Leese, if I didn't think it was absolutely necessary to bring you along with me, do you think I would have bothered to untie you and bring you here?"

Lisa considered this, and she had to concede that he was correct. "No."

"Exactly." Jackson clutched his shoulder, wincing slightly, and Lisa couldn't help but take some childish pleasure in the pain he was getting from having set her up. "My point is, neither of us is going to make it very far without some help."

Lisa cocked an eyebrow and smirked, mimicking Jackson's usual condescending expression. "And why do I have to help you?"

Jackson, undeterred, merely reciprocated Lisa's look. "You're a fugitive, remember? Which reminds me: the police alerted the media about their little runaway murderess, so your face was plastered all over the evening news last night. If you show your face in public, it's only a matter of time before someone recognizes you from your photo on the front-page news."

Lisa's temper boiled, and she had the strong urge to reach out and slap him across the face. However, she resisted that particular impulse, remembering the marks on her arm from the last time she'd tried to hit him. "If I'm in jail, then at least I'm safe from your buddies back there."

Jackson laughed a little. "You try and tell them that. I'm sure they'll be very convinced, right before they blow your brains out."

Lisa seethed, and she hated Jackson for being such a damn asshole. But, assuming he was telling the truth (and he probably was), then she really didn't have much of a choice in the situation. Not if she wanted to go on living, anyway.

Jackson seemed not to care that Lisa was inwardly raging at him, but his voice did seem to level off, and he sounded calmer. "As it is, I've still got my hands caught in this wonderful device…" he showed her the handcuffs, still clamped around his wrists, "…so I won't be able to function as easily as usual, which is going to be a hindrance. And at this point, neither of us can afford to be delayed." Jackson's gaze was composed and collected, and he seemed to have good grip on what to do. Still, it was unnerving for Lisa to hear him tranquilly discuss such a dire situation. "In any case, Leese, it's in your best interest to come with me. I've got a car," he nodded towards the SUV, "which will make things go a lot faster. Much more so than wandering around on foot, in any case, which you'll be doing soon if you decide not to come."

Lisa looked at him, mentally balancing the pros and cons. Granted, she hated Jackson with a vengeance, but not enough that she would be willing to die rather than go with him. But she wasn't sure if she could trust him. He may have told her once that he never lied to her, but she knew that wasn't true. Or, at least, she was pretty sure.

Jackson, almost as though he was reading her thoughts, spoke sharply to the ambivalent Lisa. "Leese, my upper arm is shredded. I can't walk without limping severely. And, if you hadn't noticed, those men tied me up and gagged me, just like they did to you. I have no reason to lie to you, and even if I was lying, two of my limbs are injured. I really can't put up too much of a fight."

Lisa sighed. She had to concede that point as well. "Do you have some sort of plan for getting out of here?"

"Yes, I do. Now, are you coming or not?" He stared at her coldly, and Lisa knew that he was dead serious about everything he'd just said to her.

She stared at him for a few more seconds, thinking everything over. Finally, she exhaled sharply, and replied. "Fine. I'll help you. What do we do?"

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"We could be perfect one last night

And die like star crossed lovers when we fight…

This riddle of revenge

Please understand that it has to be this way and

Stand

Up fucking tall

Don't let them see your back and

Take

My fucking hand

And never be afraid again…

Oh, how wrong we were to think

That immortality meant never dying"

-My Chemical Romance's "Our Lady of Sorrows"

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