-Chapter 22, Alice: Luck of the Irish-

Unlike the last time I ran with him, the Irishman – whose name I had yet to discover – gripped me tightly as we blurred through the forest. He let out soft huffs every time a jump or sudden change in direction jolted his body, but he seemed more interested in what was going on behind me.

And what was going on behind me was some scary shit.

"They're gainin' on us!" he shouted over the rushing wind, not knowing I could hear him perfectly fine. "I need my fuckin' rifle, ya' hear me?" I hissed but didn't answer and didn't turn around. I could hear the snarling and stomping behind me, the wolf-beasts practically upon us.

I made a hard turn around a large fern and darted back in the direction of the school. Just like when Bella and I had tested out her wolf form, these dogs had difficulty changing direction at top speed and promptly skidded through the underbrush as they tried to readjust their trajectory. That would buy me a few more seconds, but I couldn't keep running around like this with so many helicopters and soldiers in the area.

On second thought…

I sped up after I broke through the tree line and darted for the spot where I knew the Irishman had dropped his gun. There was a chance that, even if I couldn't reach the rifle, the sheer number of human soldiers would distract the hoard that was chasing me. I would be little more than a blur to their eyes, or so I hoped.

We were in luck: our little spat had drawn in what seemed to be the rest of the base's population plus a helicopter-full of armed gunmen. The group was mostly concentrated in the grassy courtyard where the helicopter had landed to take in Bella, so I looped around the multipurpose building and made a b-line for the trench our fight had dug in the parking lot pavement.

"What the fuck…" one of the soldiers cursed as I blew past him and scooped up the awkward rifle. I handed the thing back to the Irishman just as the telltale sound of screams and gunfire erupted near the tree line far behind us.

"Fuck yeah!" I felt him laugh against my shoulder and heard the click of the gun. "Hey…wait! Where're we goin'?"

"There are too many of those things even with your gun, and you still haven't told me where Bella is," I answered, bolting further away from the campus and toward home. I didn't want to freak out Angela's family more than they already were by bringing a giant soldier home with me, but I needed to find Bella fast and Edward could pick the answers out of his head if he didn't want to cooperate.

Edward, I thought as I began to close in on our property. I went over the recent events in my mind and hoped he could excuse himself from entertaining the Webers. They took Bella and I can't see where they have her!

The soldier squirmed on my back but he wasn't nearly strong enough to get free or aim his weapon around at me. I hissed at him over my shoulder and moved along the tree line that bordered our enormous back yard, running parallel toward a creek nearby. Angela's voice called out to Edward as I heard the front door open.

"It's Alice," he explained to his girlfriend. "She brought…someone with her."

"Bella?" she gasped and I gritted my teeth, knowing I couldn't just bring the soldier into the house with the other humans still inside, unaware of our true natures.

"No," Edward gritted out as I mentally shouted at him to hurry the fuck up and get outside. "Stay here," he ordered.

"Angela, what's going on?" one of her brothers asked. I turned and moved further into the forest, away from anyone who might want to wander away from the house looking for us. "Where's he going?"

I gripped the Irishman's rifle and flung him to the ground again, where he recovered more gracefully than before, and turned to wait for my brother to show up. "They took Bella somewhere in a helicopter," I snarled, mentally going over the fight with the soldiers and the encounter with the other infected in the forest.

"The wolves. They must be…" Edward trailed off, looking at me with surprise.

"Dead, yes. Probably. But Bella is still alive and she's God knows where!" I gripped my spiky hair in my fists. I need you to figure out what he knows; he won't tell me, but I didn't tell him anything about you or your ability, so it shouldn't be difficult to figure out where she went.

"I should hope you didn't tell him anything," he muttered under his breath, low enough that a human wouldn't have heard. He moved his focus to the tall soldier, who was back on his feet and glaring down at both of us like we were the scum of the Earth.

"Oh great, more of you bastards," the soldier sneered, eyeing his weapon in my hand. I hurled it toward the backyard and it sailed through the air like a javelin, smacking into some underbrush a quarter mile away.

Edward stiffened and hissed.

"What?" I asked, wide eyed. Had he seen where the Irishman's goons had taken Bella?

"He knows."

I snarled and went to attack the soldier again at those words. He had lied to my face. He knew. I wouldn't kill him—I couldn't afford to—but I would at least make him think about where she'd been taken. Then I would kill him. The soldier crouched down, bracing for the attack, but I was snatched up out of my lunge by Edward.

"No, Alice, he doesn't know that!" he hissed lowly and took a step backward while holding onto me like he was half-thinking about dragging me out of the forest. "He knows what we are!"

"What?" my mind blanked. "No. No, he couldn't have known what I was." I went over the fight in my head again. He had shot me with his rifle, which did nothing to me other than temporarily upset my equilibrium, and he had been confused. Stunned. He could not have known we were vampires.

"He does."

"Bella?" I asked my brother. He closed his eyes and bowed his head slightly.

"What are you cunts doing, eh?" the soldier spat. I could hear his knuckles cracking and his teeth grinding together. "Whole base's getting slaughtered and we're sittin' out 'ere, dick in hand!"

"He's not certain—he didn't know for sure—but…I keep seeing Seattle. Mercer Island," he opened his eyes and looked at me. "There's a base there in Seattle; it's their headquarters in this part of the country. He thinks that's where she had to have gone."

My body oriented itself automatically as I prepared to run in the direction of Seattle. I had wasted time—precious time. The helicopter had been going that direction when it landed and it made sense that wherever they were taking her would be near the largest city in the area; I could have already been gone after her. I wanted to go, but I needed to know what we were up against; Edward was right.

"Mercer Island," I spoke icily, but loudly enough for his human ears to hear clearly. "Tell me about the base there."

"Ha!" he laughed. Laughed! "How'd ya' work that bit out, lass? That's s'posed to be a secret, y'know?" His dialect grew harsher—more Irish than American—as his irritation seemed to grow from underneath his tickled façade. Edward growled and flitted over to the man, lifting him off the ground by his armor.

"Who are you?" Edward demanded. "Who's responsible for this disease?" He paused and looked into the man's eyes. "You don't have to talk," Edward smirked, showing his teeth. "That's right…Deacon."

"Bloody mind rapist twat, you are, boyo," the man, Deacon, cursed. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply; his thudding heart slowed down from its racing cadence. "Fine, then; I see I ain't got a thin' that's supposed to be safe that is, so go ahead and ask. I'll answer yer fuckin questions, but be quick about it; them hunters be 'bout finished chewing up the grunts back at the base."

"Good," Edward lowered him to the ground and backed up. I closed the space and met my brother halfway, still staring Deacon down. "Now…who—"

"Mah name's Deacon Connolly, as I'm sure some of you already know," he sent Edward a superior look. "No rank and no branch on paper—I don' even come up on Google, if you can believe tha'. Got a team, too; we're goddamn fuckin' Jedi of the civilized world, mate."

"We know you're a soldier," I hissed, pulling my lip back. "I want to know about the base you took Bella to; I want to know why you took her!"

"She's a priority target, she is—Eve is what he codename is and she's a sick, strong bitch. Tore through Phoenix and the boys in the tanks—and them ones in the helis—couldn't do a thing to her." He paused and took a breath, looking as though he was recalling a memory as popped his jaw. "See, Hunters I can scrap with and Walkers ain't nothin' but target practice. But Runners, man…" He shook his head. "No."

"You've thought that before," Edward supplied. "Runner. What is it?"

"A fuckin' codeword, you ponse!" Deacon cursed, rolling his eyes and looking very much like he wanted to punch Edward in the face. "It's the monster parading around wearing that girl's face that has no problem throwing tanks at soldiers and punching holes through buildings. Hives are the biggest and Monarchs are the smartest, but Runners are the fuckin' king of the jungle."

"What about vampires?" I hissed, internally smirking as he recoiled.

"Alice..." Edward warned.

"What do you think you know about us?" I baited. I was being stupid and petty, but I didn't care. I wanted to go but I needed to stay and listen and learn. I couldn't go in blind…well, more blind than I already was without my visions to guide me.

"Everythin', you stupid cunt," he spat, chuckling as the spittle sprayed against my sleeve. I snarled and gripped his jaw, bringing his head down to mine. He braced his hands against my shoulders, but his strength barely registered. "What's a matter? You a bit put out that you fell for my act? Look up in the sky, you halfwits. I trust you know what outer fuckin' space is, yeah? We got satellites up there takin' pictures down here and we got nerds on computers, too. You're not the masters of yer' domain like you thought you were; sorry to burst your little bubble."

"Who else knows about us?" Edward asked.

"Enough of the wrong kind of people, boyo," he answered with a shrug, like it was no big deal. "As for the base on Mercer, I don' really know, Lass. I been there once, but that was only the top level, yeah? Your friend is prolly down below—better assume the last subbasement to be safe. Fuckin' suicide tryin' to get down there on yer own—fer a human, anyway."

"Thanks," I let out a breath, relieved that I had some semblance of an idea how to get in there and find Bella. "Edward?" I asked, mentally asking him if he was coming with me.

"I can't, Alice," he shook his head. "I need to protect Angela and…we need to find out more about what Deacon knows—vampires and this virus."

"You need to take everyone and leave," I argued back. "Head for Denali or across to Asia. The humans know about us already—the secret's out—there's no point in hiding what we are from Angela's family."

"And you?"

"I need to get her back first; we'll meet you later on."

"No way in hell, short stuff," a deeper voice came through the trees behind us, accompanied with the sound of footsteps. Emmett and Rosalie came through the underbrush and joined our group. "Esme sent us out here to see what was going on," he explained to Edward. "We're coming with you to get Bella back."

/*document highlight subject:EMA*/

[!-Fucking log in doesn't work; I need to ask Ryan about this whole "internet" thing.-]

[div class="ambr_log_entry"]I was so fucking stupid to go to them about my work. Of course they took it! Took everything. Mostly. The pigs didn't find my log book or the floppy I have been storing this stuff on. If they didn't take the virus itself this would have set them back but no! Fuck fuck fuck fuck.[br /]

Not helpful, I know. I kept some of the junk proteins that weren't binding too. There's enough here for me to start over with but I need to go away for a while to do it. Can't have them tracking. The phone was crackling when the guy down the hall called and it had not done that before. I think they are watching me.[br /]

By the time they are back from Idaho I should be long gone. I'll tell Ryan goodbye but I can't tell him where I'm going yet.[/div]

End notes: Lots of stuff was revealed in this short chapter and we've added an original character to the mix. He's part of another pair of characters I am going to be using in a new story I am writing.

So what the fuck is up with that strange stuff at the end of the chapter? What's that about anyway? I guess you'll just have to wait a few more months to a year to see! I know; I'm so sorry about being sluggish with updates. You'll get over it, though; if you've read this far it would be a waste of fucking time to quit now.

Next chapter will be back to Bella's POV. I hope the switch over to Alice helped illuminate the happenings of the military occupation in Forks a bit better.

And I am usually sarcastic; it's my default state, confused reviewer.