CHERUB:MADNESS
James Adams woke up on a small bed in unfamiliar surroundings. He tried to stand up as he did a pain worse than any other he had ever felt in his life shot through his whole body. He was wasn't conscious long enough to see a man rush over to his side, take out his phone, and call an ambulance.
Lauren Adams was sitting in her room, on her bed when there was a knock on her door.
"It's open!" she croaked, as she had been crying and her throat was killing her.
The door opened and Zara Asker walked in.
Lauren shot up.
"Any news?" she asked.
"I'm afraid not," replied Zara. "Ewarts been out looking for him but no joy."
"Oh…," said Lauren, as she sat back down on the bed.
"You know your brother, Lauren," said Zara. "He'll probably turn up within the next day or so, he always does." Just then, the chairwoman's phone rang.
"Some days I wish I could just throw this bloody phone out the window!" she said exasperatedly. Lauren grinned a little. Then Zara left the room leaving Lauren alone with her thoughts.
James was loaded into the back of the ambulance. The man got into the back with him. The nearest hospital was about half an hour away.
"Will he live that long?" the man asked one of the paramedics in the back of the ambulance.
"I hope so," the paramedic replied. "But it's not looking too good at the moment. By the way why was he stabbed?"
"I don't know," the man answered. "I saw him lying on the ground outside my house bleeding heavily. I thought he was dead but he had a pulse."
About five minutes later they heard engines roaring outside the ambulance.
"What the hell is that?!" the paramedic asked the driver in the front. Suddenly, there was a huge bang on the side of the ambulance.
"They're trying to run us off the bloody road!" the driver roared as the ambulance took another hit.
"Step on it!" the man shouted. "How long until we reach the hospital?"
"About five minutes if we keep this speed up," replied the paramedic.
"Sh*t!" the man raged. He had worked so hard to keep the kid alive and he wasn't just going to let him die.
"I have no idea who this kid is but someone wants his head on a bloody platter," the man said, solemnly.
After about an hour, Lauren decided that she should try and forget about the whole thing. Zara was right, James would probably show up the next day or something and he would be fine as always. She called Rat and he told her that they were all in Bethany's room so she went down to find them.
She found them all in Bethany's room.
They started watching a movie, but they'd all seen it before so they started talking and chatting. After a while there was a knock on the door. Lauren went to open it and was surprised by who was on the other side. It was Dana Smith, James' ex-girlfriend. They had broken up after Dana cheated on him with Gabrielle's ex-boyfriend Michael Hendry.
Gabrielle still hadn't quite gotten over the break-up and was enraged by Dana's presence.
"What the hell are you doing showing your face around here," she said. She wasn't shouting but her voice was filled with anger.
"I heard that James had gone missing and I saw you all come up here so I came around to see if any of you had heard anything," she said.
"Why would you care, you cheating b*tch!" Gabrielle said, her voice rising.
"Hey, I didn't come up here to get insulted by anyone," said Dana. "I just wanted to see if James was okay!"
"You'd better get your ass out of here pretty fast or I'm gonna break your face into little pieces," warned Gabrielle. Suddenly, Dana launched a kick at Gabrielle's stomach. She doubled over in pain as Dana grabbed her hair and started pulling. But Dana hadn't seen Kerry sneak up behind her and she pulled Dana into an extremely painful armlock.
"Get out of here or I'll break your arm," she warned. Finally, Dana gave in.
"Fine, just get your filthy hands off me!" she screamed, as she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
The ambulance was still being rammed by the time they reached the hospital. The man secured James to the hospital trolley. He pushed open the doors of the ambulance and when the vehicle stopped, he wheeled James out as fast as he could. But the criminals still had one surprise left.
A bullet whizzed past the man's head hitting the hospital wall behind him.
"They've got guns!" he screamed as a bullet hit an unconscious James' thigh. It was a one in a million shot and it could have hit anywhere. The pain and shock woke James up for a couple of seconds. All he had time to see was men firing guns at him and the hospital doors getting closer and closer.
"Holy sh*t," he croaked before passing out again.