Towering above them was two of the men, both with angry expressions on their faces. One of them raised a base ball bat seemingly out of no-where and completely smashed the window in one fluid motion. Sharp shards of glass rained down onto the two agents. Steve, on impulse, shielded Claudia from the hard fall of the glass. They both stood up within seconds and moved backwards a few feet away from the newly broken window.
"What the fuck is this?" The guy with the baseball bat spat at them. He jumped through the window followed by the other 3 men. They spaced out in front of Steve and Claudia, making the two of them feel slightly intimidated.
Steve took a deep breath "Look guys we don't want any trouble, we just want Mr. Killner's ring here" he slowly pointed to Max, trying not to look or sound threatening so as to provoke them too much although at this point, they kind of already had.
"Like hell are you getting this ring, you know what this thing does? You take one more step whoever you are and I'll turn you into a fucking puddle" Max threatened Steve.
They were in a tight spot; these guys were too difficult to negotiate with and were not hesitant to cause trouble. Claudia's Tesla was in her bag, she mentally cursed herself for not keeping it in her back pocket like Myka usually does. She couldn't make a move to retrieve it as the men might react. On the other hand, if she didn't do anything, who knows what would happen? Then she remembered, her mini Tesla, concealed down her top! How could she have forgotten? Her eye wandered to Steve's back pocket. There was his Tesla, surely once Claudia made a move, he would catch on and shoot too?
"We don't go after people, we go after artefacts, that ring is one of them. It's dangerous if you keep it" Claudia said "All we want is the ring, then you can go and we won't call the cops" She raised both hands slightly to impose no threat. Any excuse to getting her hands closer to her Mini-Tesla.
"Shut up bitch, who the fuck are you to tell us what to do?" Max pointed his finger with the ring on at her and took a step closer towards the young agent. That was enough for Claudia; she felt angered by his insult and her body reacted to it without thought or hesitation. She retrieved her mini-Tesla in the blink of an eye and fired it straight at Max's chest. He collapsed onto the ground in a heap. This got rid of the danger from the artefact but didn't get rid of the new danger of the three now even more angry men remaining. There was silence for a whole second, during which Claudia heard Steve whisper her name in warning. The silence broke. There was a roar of outrage from the largest of the men, he pulled a shotgun from his back pocket and fired just as swiftly as Claudia had.
Steve reacted to the loud bang of the gun and Tesla'd the guy, who dropped his weapon and fell next to Max. Steve's ears rang so badly from the pulling of the trigger that he didn't hear Claudia's agonising yelp of pain from behind him. Still pumped on adrenaline, Steve Tesla'd the other two men before they could even react to anything. They fell simultaneously to the ground. Steve ran forward, pulling out an artefact bag as he did so and bagged the ring. It sparked only slightly and Steve sighed in relief.
"Oh God" He heard from behind him. He spun round to see Claudia sat on the dirty terrain clutching her left thigh, her face creased in pain.
"Claudia!" Steve ran to her.
"Jinksy...help me" Claudia's voice cracked.
Steve dropped to his knees beside her and looked down at her thigh. Even though Claudia was wearing black skinnies, he could still clearly see a dark stain already spreading across the material.
"Alright, Claudia" He looked at her pain stricken face and said "We have to keep pressure on it, ok? It might hurt a little bit"
"Oh, really? More than it already does?" She replied sarcastically through clenched teeth. Steve pressed his hands hard down onto Claudia's wound, she moaned in pain and squeezed his shoulder. She looked up at the sky, now much greyer, and felt a raindrop land on her cheek. Then another. And another. "Argh man, this is so not the highlight of my day. And now it's raining" she added.
"We need to get you out of here. Quick, before they wake up" Steve said, "You ready to stand?"
Claudia inhaled deeply. The pain was intense, her leg felt heavy and she wasn't sure if she was able to stand but Steve was right, the guys would be waking up soon and they had to get away from the run down farmhouse quickly. "OK, on three yeah?"
"On three" Steve replied
Claudia took another deep breath "One"
Steve wrenched Claudia up from the ground onto her feet and she shouted in pain and surprise. Her leg screamed at her and she shut her eyes hard, as if that would help. It didn't.
"Steve!" she hardly ever called him by his first name. She was not thankful for what he just did.
"It's better this way"
"You said on three" Claudia huffed.
"Sorry Claud, but we really have to get out of here" Steve replied as the rain suddenly became much stronger. Claudia placed her arm around Steve's shoulder for support and he helped her along with his hand around her waist.
Each step was agony, he leg felt like it was on fire and with each movement the fire burned more viciously. Claudia bit her tongue to stop from crying out. The rain lashed down now, causing her red hair to plaster itself to her face also soaking her through, making her feel freezing.
They had made it about half way, Steve encouraging her to keep going. Claudia's breathing was heavy and she was beginning to feel tired just from walking thirty odd meters. She knew it was because she was losing a lot of blood and it spurred her on in thinking that if they didn't get out of here soon then she could lose even more blood and she didn't want to think about what would happen then.
She could see the prius about twenty meters away now, getting a good cleaning from the rain.
"Come on, Claud, nearly there...come on, keep moving" Steve said gently into her ear
Claudia tried to respond but all that she managed was a low groan. She turned her head to look at him, drops of water running from the end of his nose she then noticed he was bleeding on his neck from several different cuts.
"Steve your neck..." was all she managed to tell him before a fresh wave of pain came over her and she couldn't help but let out a sharp gasp but Steve still knew what she was trying to tell him.
"Don't worry about me...come on get in" They had reached the car. Steve opened the door to the back seat and helped Claudia inside. He looked at her now very pale face and knew she needed medical attention. She was losing too much blood and it was already taking its toll. Claudia rested her head against the seat and closed her eyes in an attempt to block out the world of pain she was in. At first when the bullet had hit, it didn't seem to hurt at all compared to what she was feeling now. She felt faint, her breathing was heavy despite the fact that she was now sat down and she was shivering with cold from the rain.
Steve made sure Claudia was secure and got into the driver's seat. The rain hammered against the roof of the car as Steve turned the keys in the ignition. The car hummed into life and he put his foot down, accelerating fast. His worried gaze once again flicked towards the level of gas that remained.
Not a lot.