A/N: I just want to say a HUGE wow at the response I got from my last author's note! I was not expecting anything like the response I got from you all. So THANK YOU so so so so SO much for telling me that you still like this story. I can't believe that you're still interested in it after the long delay. I had seriously lost interest in this story and kind of in Gilmore Girls too (shock horror I know) but with all you guys encouraging me to continue and the fact that Gilmore Girls is coming back on tv here on Monday, RIGHT FROM THE START (eg Tristan!) I have been motivated to write another chapter. I'm not entirely convinced that it's my best ever work so tell me if I suck ok.
Right, enough with the rambling, on with the story and I hope you all like it .
Cherie
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The morning dawned bright and early, but locked in their underground prison, the teenagers were none the wiser. Jake was the only one who had managed to get any sleep but even he was just dozing. Curled up in a ball on her side, Rory could not think of one place on her body that didn't ache. Even her teeth hurt from clenching them in fear all night.
Movement above them brought the four corners to life as Jake woke and the others slowly sat up. Rubbing the back of her neck Paris looked at the floor above them as chairs scraped across it and the unmistakable smell of bacon filtered through the gaps.
"Guess it's feeding time." She frowned.
"Do you think they're going to feed us?" Tristan wondered aloud, gaining a scowl from Paris that in the darkness he missed.
"Doubt it. Why would they care if we lose a bit of weight."
"If they're aiming to kill us I'd rather they just shot us." Rory whispered in case they heard her and got ideas. Despite the current pain she was in she had no desire to die any time in the near future, although depriving her of coffee and food was a kind of death in itself. While Paris didn't seem to be particularly worried, the boys apparently had the same attitude as Rory when it came to food.
"If I had of known this was going to be an all-nighter I would have brought provisions." Jake grumbled only slightly louder than his stomach.
"What do you think's going to happen to us now?" Rory asked, looking blindly around the area.
"Well I doubt they're going to just let us go, they'd think we were just going to go straight to the cops." Paris said.
"Which we would." Rory jumped in quickly.
"What if we promised them that we wouldn't?" Tristan suggested.
"Do you really think they'd believe that?" Paris scoffed, "I mean they're not the sharpest tools in the shed but I don't think they're that dumb."
"They might be." Tristan shrugged, "What do you suggest we do then Paris?"
"Well first of all, could we meet in the middle of this hole? I'm getting sick of talking to nothing." She asked in a tone that left no room for argument.
They soon found out that meeting in the middle was going to be easier said than done, as none of them had the faintest clue where the middle was. After several minutes of crawling around in the dirt Tristan and Rory were the first to make contact.
"Ow." Rory rubbed her forehead while Tristan did the same.
"Sorry, didn't see you there." He smiled at the vague figure in front of him.
"That's alright, just don't let it happen again." She scolded, Tristan's light mood caught and Rory realised that by joking around the situation seemed less real, less serious and less deadly. Paris of course didn't view this as a good thing.
"Would you two get over here and concentrate? Unless of course you would like to die in the saddest excuse for a basement in Connecticut."
Still giggling, Rory and Tristan moved in the direction of her voice and a moment later when Jake reached them, the four huddled closely where they could all see the shapes of the others.
"Rory shut up!" Paris snapped and when Rory failed to stifle her laughter, Paris only grew angrier, "I'm serious Gilmore, shut up or do I have to slap you?"
"Oooh, chick fight!" Jake grinned earning himself a punch in the arm from Tristan,
"Don't give her reason to kill you." He hissed before turning his attention to Rory and Paris, "Is she delirious?" he asked the latter.
"Not yet, but I think she's getting there." Paris frowned. "Rory, I need you to be calm ok? Can you do that?"
"Sorry." Rory put all her energy into focusing on Paris' words and stopping the giggles. She'd been listening to them talk and when Tristan said 'delirious' she had started to panic a bit. None of them could afford to go off the rails and frankly Rory was disappointed in herself for being so weak so soon in the game. "I'm good now." She nodded to Paris who smiled patiently and addressed the others.
"No one else is going to break down on me are they?"
"Hey! I did not break down!" Rory's defences immediately went up, "That was not a break down! Trust me if I broke down you'd know."
"It's ok Rory." Tristan said sympathetically, lightly touching her arm.
"Don't condescend me Tristan, I'm not a baby and I'm not about to break down in tears and refuse to get up ok!" she snapped wrenching her arm out of his reach.
"I wasn't implying that you were."
"Good, don't."
"Ok, so obviously we need to get out of here." Paris interrupted before Tristan could reply and make it worse.
"Obviously." Rory repeated, "But how are we meant to do that? I saw the padlock they've got on that trapdoor; I'd say they're not looking for us to escape anytime soon."
"Yeah, I noticed that too but I've been thinking about it and I have a couple of ideas." Jake joined the conversation now that he deemed it safe.
"Such as?" Tristan pressed.
"Well if we hide in the corners and wait for them to open the door, then they won't be able to see us and we'll be able to attack them without warning and get out."
"That plan has so many problems that it's not even funny." Paris said immediately.
"Such as?" Jake asked offended.
"Well, one; how do we know they're ever going to open the door? They've shown no signs of intending to feed or check on us so far, what makes you think they're going to suddenly start caring now? Two, they have a gun. Three; how exactly do you intend to attack them? Yes, we outnumber them but we're in an extremely confined space and I doubt they're going to get in this hole if they can't see where we are. And even if they're dumb enough to do that then have you seen the size of them? Ballerinas they ain't so they won't both fit at once so one will have to go first and if we attack him then guy number two isn't going to come down here, let us jump on him and escape is he? Four; they have a gun. Five; it's impossible to sit still on this ground let alone sneak up on someone who is looking for us and six; they have a GUN!"
"Ok, so it needs a little work." Jake sulked as his plan was torn to shreds before him.
"It needs a whole new concept." Paris rolled her eyes, "Does anyone else have any ideas?"
Tristan and Rory sat in silence for a moment, each waiting for the other to speak. With neither coming up with a brilliant plan and Paris become more impatient by the second, Rory spoke quietly and to the ground,
"We could dig?"
"Yeah," Tristan mimicked her pose and tone, "A tunnel."
"With what?"
"Our hands?" Rory still spoke to the dirt under her knees.
"That would take months, we'd starve before we got outside the building."
"We could dig fast." Tristan suggested.
"Hopeless." Paris threw her hands up in frustration as they knew she would. Her hand hit the floor above them and splintered, rotten wood rained down for a moment. "Ow." Paris shook her hand and put her finger in her mouth where it was beginning to bleed.
"Oi! Quiet down there!" a gruff voice yelled from above, accompanied by what sounded like a metal pole being banged against the floor. Rory cringed and hid her head as yet more splinter fell but when she looked up a moment later, Paris was smiling.
"What?" she asked suspiciously.
"I know how we can get out." Paris grinned, "We just have to wait a while.
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It was several hours later that Paris' plan could finally be put into action. The heavy footsteps above left and the van outside could be heard starting. After it spluttered into life and the noise of the engine faded, Paris made them all stay still and silent for a further five minutes before she gave them the ok to begin. They had spent a good deal of time after discussing the plan at length, looking for the best place for it to carried out. Eventually they had decided on an area close to the corner Tristan had favoured on their arrival here. The wooden floor was almost entirely rotten here and several 20 cent piece sized holes had already appeared. Rory and Paris crouched nearby while Tristan and Jake lay on their backs under the selected space.
"Ready?" Tristan asked.
"Yeah." Jake nodded raising his legs, "One…Two…Three!"
On two, both boys bend their knees and when Jake yelled three, they kicked upwards as hard as they could. Wood showered down on them and they covered their heads with their arms while Rory and Paris attempted to grab the larger bits before they could do any damage.
"It's working." Paris smiled, "Keep going."
Rolling back into position Tristan and Jake repeated the action two more times before the hole was big enough that they could pull the rest down with their hands. Like crawling in the dark, the reality was harder than the theory and it took several minutes for the four to remove enough of the shattered planks to allow them to climb through.
Standing up through the gap they'd created, Tristan breathed what felt like the first breath of fresh air of his life. He noticed that the sun was up and judging by the length of the shadows had been for hours.
"C'mon, let us out." Jake said impatiently and Tristan hoisted himself up onto the floor. Standing, he bent down and took Rory's outstretched hands. Jake boosted her from below and Tristan easily pulled her up and onto her feet. Paris climbed out in the same way but Jake was tall enough to be able to manage it on his own.
"Let's go." Paris nodded towards the back door and moved towards it followed closely by Rory. They pulled it open and were about to step out into the sunlight when they noticed the boys weren't following.
"What are you doing?" Paris hissed, "Hurry up."
"In a minute." Tristan held up a hand as he rifled through the kitchen cupboards and drawers. Jake was doing the same in the cabinets next to the single beds.
"They kidnapped us and locked us in a hole in the ground, the least we can do is steal some of their stuff." Jake explained.
"No the least we can do is go to the police." Paris frowned, "If you steal their things then you're just as bad as them."
"Call it insurance." Jake held up a glistening gun, checking that it was loaded before tucking it into his belt.
"You are not taking their gun!" Paris exclaimed in disbelief.
"If we have it then they can't use it on us." Tristan justified his friend's actions. "Anyone hungry?"
"Yes!" Rory ran towards him, reaching for the full packet of biscuits he held. Sitting on the floor she began quickly devouring them. Crossing the room, Jake pulled a box of some kind of breakfast cereal from the cupboard and poured it into his mouth before moving to the fridge in search of milk. Eventually Paris' hunger won out and she begrudgingly took the food Tristan offered her. There wasn't a lot of food in the house and the ravenous teenagers managed to consume almost all of it before the van crunched up the driveway.
"Fuck!" Tristan exclaimed dropping his container of ice cream.
"Out the back!" Paris instructed, ushering the other three towards the door before pulling it shut behind herself seconds before the front door opened and Al stepped into his trashed house.
"What the fuck!" he yelled crossing to look down through the destroyed floorboards into the hole. "Oi Tom! They've fucking gone!"
"What d'ya mean gone?" Tom followed his accomplice into the house, swearing at the sight that awaited him.
Behind the house there was no where else to go. The bush was impenetrably thick and the space that ran along the back of the shed was less than a metre wide.
"Now what?" Rory whispered, breathing slowly and deeply to try and delay the panic she felt rising.
"Follow me." Tristan took the lead and lead them around the side of the building. The going was painfully slow and every window they passed had to be crawled under. When they eventually reached the front, Tristan turned to face them, "When I tell you, run as fast as you can straight into the back of the van ok?"
"We're stealing their van now?" Paris sounded almost as close to panic as Rory was feeling.
"Yes." Tristan nodded, "Stay here until you see me wave ok?"
Without waiting for consent from the others, he began working his way down the driveway towards the front of the van. Keeping to the trees he circled around the front in a suicide dash across the open plain of the driveway. Once safely in the shelter of the thick growth of the other side, Tristan raised himself up to see through the driver's side window. The keys were dangling from the ignition. Tristan smiled to himself but movement from inside the house raised his heartbeat even further. Checking quickly that neither man was looking outside, he ran towards the van with his head down. The vehicle hid him from the others but once he was inside they could see the van moving slightly as he shifted his weight.
"C'mon Tris, what are you doing?" Rory whispered as much to herself as to anyone else. Apparently today was the day that hell had frozen over as she found herself worrying about the safety of Tristan DuGray. The thought had barely occurred to her when the back doors of the van were thrown open and Tristan waved wildly at them to come. The distance across the clear driveway couldn't have been more than 10 metres but to the three targets sprinting across it, it could have been a million miles. An angry shout from within the house told Tristan that his friends had been spotted as he jumped into the driver's seat and gunned the engine.
Paris was first into the van with Rory and Jake diving in less than a second behind her.
"Drive!" Jake yelled looking behind them as Tristan obeyed and Al and Tom ran after them in vain. Once Tristan managed to get control of the swinging van, Jake detangled himself from the girls and pulled the double back doors shut before sinking to the floor. Maybe he would just go home after all.