Thank you again for the positive feedback! I'm loving all these Logan Lerman fans :) I have discovered two things about my writing I love writing dialog, however my descriptions of things are lacking. I'm working at it, maybe it will improve I just hate describing scenery. (Blah so boring :P)
"Gus?" Hayley said with shock clearly seeping through her voice.
"You thought I forgot didn't you? No, me and my friend the Doulos will never forget." Gus clasped his teeth together with a sneer.
"We defeated the Doulos." Felix said to Hayley and Jake asking for agreement. Both stared back with blank faces.
"That's where you are wrong. No one can defeat the all powerful Doulos, he is with us as we speak." As he spoke one of the walls in the cave shook and pebbles and rocks rolled down just missing the troop.
"Gus, the Doulos isn't your friend, we are." Hayley said trying to bring Gus back to his senses. "How were you able to escape?"
"My friends I don't think so. They're not my friends." He pointed to Jake and Felix. "They're your friends. I thought you were, but you turned your back on me. The only true friend I have now is the Doulos, he helped me escape."
"I didn't turn my back on you I was trying to protect you from that creature." The Doulos growled at Hayley's comment. "I know you're not like this he's getting in your head and you can't control it. That's why you tried to come after us, the only choice we had was to stop you."
"It's so sad I was really beginning to like you. I mean really like you." Gus went to push a strand of Hayley's hair behind her ear. Jake immediately pushed his hand away.
"Look what do you want from us?" Jake said with a clenched jaw, shooting daggers with his eyes.
Gus gave him an equally evil look. "I don't want anything from you. I am willing to give Hayley another chance and I think you might be able to speed up her thinking process." He grabbed a tiny vial from his pocket and poured it on a small pocket knife. He then took the knife and jabbed it furiously into Jakes arm.
"Ahhhh…" Jake cried and covered the wound with his free hand.
"Jake!" Hayley yelled.
"Alright let me tell you the rules of the game." Gus placed the lid back on the vial. "Your friend here has just been poisoned."
"Why you…" Felix jumped forward clawing at him, but one of the winged creatures held him back.
"He has five hours to live. During those five hours you have time to consider staying here with me or letting both of your friends die starting with Jake." Gus said very much unfazed in Hayley's direction. "If you choose to stay then this antidote is yours." He dangled another small vial between his fingers. "The choice is up to you Hayley." Gus looked in the direction of the winged monster as it shape shifted back into Mr. Clayton. "Tie them up here to give them time to think." He grabbed some rope and tossed it at him. Right as he was about to leave he stopped and turned back to the troop. "Oh, one more thing, don't try to escape it really is quite rude of you and is just a waste of time. Be back in five." He climbed on the flying creature and flew up through the small hole above the cave. As the creature took off Gus gave a maniacal parting laugh. The wall shock behind them, as though a creature was climbing to follow.
The troop was tied up with Hayley in the center and Jake and Felix on each side. Jake was fighting, but you could tell he was in pain. Hayley looked down sad telling herself Jake's discomfort was mostly her fault.
"You're not considering it, are you?" Felix gave Hayley a straight forward look.
Hayley let out a breath of air she had been holding in for who knows how long. "Felix, it's the only thing I can do. I can't let you guys die on my account."
Felix leaned forward, closer to Hayley. "Look we're not going to die. We're going to get out of this."
Hayley brushed her emotions aside. "Jake I'm so sorry."
Jake looked distracted by the ropes tied around his wrists. "We're gonna be okay if I can just get…ouch…Gees this really stings…just a little…Wechaw! Finally." Jake slid the remaining ropes off his body.
"How did you do that?" Felix asked dumfounded.
Jake started to untie Hayley flinching at his hurt arm from time to time. "If I told you I practice tying myself up and freeing myself would you be totally weirded out?" Felix' raised eyebrow was answered by a crooked smile. Jake untied the last knot in the rope around Hayley's wrists. When freed they both started uniting Felix.
"How are we going to get the antidote?" Hayley presented her first concern.
"Well we know Gus has it, but we have to distract the others." Felix thought out loud.
Hayley noticed Jake grimaced from the pain of his arm. His forearm was bleeding uncontrollably between his wrist and the bend of his elbow.
"Jake, we need to wrap up your arm." Hayley's female intuition kicked in and because it was Jake it kicked in, in over drive.
"I'm fine right now"
"You're bleeding really bad. Here." Hayley took the headband out of her hair and unwound the scarf that was wrapped around it. When it was free she handed it to Jake.
"The first thing we need to do is find a way out of this cave and fast." Hayley interjected referring back to the task at hand.
Jake tried to tie the scarf around his injured arm, but couldn't complete the job with only one hand. Seeing him struggle Hayley reached for it and adjusted it properly around his arm. A couple of times she had to stop herself from enjoying the feel of the firmness of his arm. 'Stop it, this is a serious situation. Jake is in danger of… gulp…' she couldn't even finish the thought.
Felix starts to circle the cave veering his gaze downward. "I noticed when we were coming in that there was a small opening close to the place we came in. Felix found the small opening. "Ah Ha the only reason I noticed it…" He knelt down to look through it. "…was because I kicked it with my foot when I was coming in and banged my shin." Felix rubbed his shin. "Still sore by the way." Felix laid on his stomach looking through the opening. "You guys like spelunking?"
Hayley knelt down starting to crawl through the whole. Jake was about to follow her, but Felix stopped him. "Hayley can't hear. Tell me truly are you okay?"
"I'm scared and I'm not gonna lie it hurts like heck man." Felix patted him on the back. They both knelt down and crawled through the whole following Hayley. The small tunnel wasn't very long and they were soon able to exit the cave.
Hayley looked down at her watch. "We don't have much time. How are we going to find them and what are we going to do when we find them?" 'Too many questions not enough answers.' It took everything inside Hayley not to just cry. She couldn't even keep her thoughts straight.
Felix pulled out his Troop Tracker 3000. "Well good news they didn't take my tracker. If I can calculate it to pick up all readings of the Doulos and those other monsters which from what I've read are…
"Corflyers." Jake intervened.
"You read the papers Mr. Stockley gave us?" Hayley asked rather shocked.
"No, they're in the comic book I was reading on the plane."
Suddenly the tracker starts to beep. "They're within a mile radius." Felix announced as he pressed buttons on his hand held device.
"I figured they would stay close by to make sure we didn't escape and to await our decision." Hayley stood with her hands on her hips.
Felix noticed the arrow on his device pointing left. "I'm picking up a signal from this direction." He pointed in the same direction the arrow was.
Above the sun was beginning to rise in the direction they were designated to go making it difficult to see. They continued to walk through the woods and Jake began to drag a bit. Finally his legs gave out and he fell to the ground. Hayley realized his stumble and helped him up. "Felix he's getting weak."
"I'm fine." Jake shoved at her helping hands.
Hayley looked down at her watch. "We only have three hours left. Are you sure your tracker is working right?"
"We're almost there." Felix stayed focused on the way they needed to go. "They seem to be in an area that has a lot of rocks." Felix informed the two as they kept pressing on.
Hayley took one of her hands off Jakes shoulder to point ahead. "Look there's a cliff up there."
"That must be it, that's where the tracker is pointing. Seems we're going to have to climb."
As soon as they got to the bottom of the hill they noticed the steepness of the cliff.
"It looks like there's another way up from the side." Felix said encouraging his friends.
"Good thing, I don't think I would have been able to climb that with two good arms."Jake snorted trying to rid of the tenseness of the moment, anything to keep him and his companions going.
"What's our plan when we get there?" A thought came to Felix and he added. "We don't have our blasters."
"I guess we will make it up as we go along." Jake stated with his usual cockiness. "Oh, I forgot I have a hand held blaster in my holster." Jake tried reaching past his sore arm to retrieve the gun. As he did so a shot of pain surged up his arm causing him to grimace. He then looked over to Hayley with pleading eyes and asked. "Can you get it Hays?" She grabbed the blaster from the holder making sure she didn't bump his arm. When she retrieved it she placed it in his good hand. Jake looked down at it for a short while then tossed it to Felix. "Here, Felix. I won't be any good with it." Felix smiled amazed at Jake's willingness to allow Felix and Hayley do the fighting.
The Tracker started beeping crazily. Felix checked the device, tapping and shaking it. "It says we're right on top of them."
Hayley stared to the sky. "I don't think we're the ones on top of them." Jake and Felix followed Hayley's gaze upwards. The Corflyers were circling the sky above.
A thought hit Felix. "Where's Gus?"
"I told you not to escape. Do you realize how annoying it is?" Gus called from a higher part of the cliff. One of the Corflyers then swooped down just missing them, making them duck.
Jake stepped forward. "Look she's not going to go with you, so just forget it."
"I wouldn't be saying so much remember your days are numbered or in your case hours." An evil laugh erupted through his lungs.
"Why are you doing this?" Hayley pleaded.
Felix grabbed Hayley by the arm stopping her from continuing. "We've already tried reasoning with him. It's not him now it's the Doulos."
"It looks like you have two hours left, but I think we're gonna have to cut that short considering the circumstances. Made a decision Hayley?" Hayley looked down weighing her options.
Hayley was about to speak when Jake cut her off. "She doesn't have to we've made it for her." He then ripped off the tie around his arm and grabbed the blaster out of Felix' hands firing a shot at Gus, but missed. Felix knew Jake's 'let the others do it' attitude wouldn't last long. The Corflyers swoop down again and knocked Hayley over, Jake went to help her up. Felix then noticed Gus running away with the leaves on the trees moving behind him, he ran after him. Jake then went to fire a shot. He hit one of the monster's wings causing it to crash to the ground, but the other monster swoops down and knocks it out of his hand. Hayley then picked it up and fired another shot killing the one Jake already wounded. She then took a shot at the other monster, but missed. The monster then knocked one of his claws into her chest causing her to billow back and slip on a rock making her fall from the cliff.
"Ahhhhh…" Hayley screamed, but Jake then leapt forward and grabbed Hayley's arm with his good hand.
"I've got you." Jake consoled her. The monster still loomed above. Hayley quickly handed Jake the blaster she still had in her hand. Jake took it with his bad hand and shots the monster to the ground. He then threw the blaster aside and grabbed her other hand. Jake tried to pull her up, but was too weak. Pain from his arm was starting to travel up his neck.
Jake laid his head down keeping his eyes, eye level with Hayley's. "I can't pull you up Hayley." The strain and fear showed clearly in his face.
Hayley glanced down, than reverted her gaze back to Jake. "Just let go."
"Are you crazy? I would never let go of you Hayley." He tried once again to pull her up. Hayley slipped her hands out of his grip and fell. "Hayley!!!" She then caught herself on the side of a ledge lower down, but scratched up her arms in the process. "Oh my gosh, don't ever do that to me again!" Jake scolded her.
Hayley's worries were still on Jake. "I'm ok you need to go get the antidote you only have an hour left."
"I can't leave you on a side of a cliff Hayley." Jake stumbled over his own feet a bit.
"Just go Jake I'll be fine." Blood started dripping down her bare arms.
"Here." He detaches a thin rope from his utility belt and tied it to a large rock from above. Then he tossed the other end to Hayley. "Tie this around your waist."
"I've got it." She grabbed the rope and tied it around her waist. "Go find Felix and Gus."
Jakes looked down to her regretfully then left quickly, but still hunched over from the pain that seemed to spread through his entire body.