Chapter Twelve: De Do Do Do De Da Da Da

I was up a very well known creek without an equally well known paddle. Crouched down behind a rusty piece of some sort of machinery, I focused on keeping my breathing steady and quiet. Despite my best efforts, it still sounded like it was playing through a loud speaker.

A woman with thick red hair in a tight plait reaching halfway down her back skulked across the other side of the room. She was calmly and methodically tracking back and forth, slowly coming towards me, her grey-blue eyes searching for any hint of movement. Give her five minutes, max, and she'd reach my hiding place.

I was looking around, judging the pros and cons of making a dash for the stairs, when the woman shrieked and started firing her gun. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my ears started ringing. I was no stranger to the sound of a gun being fired, but the near empty, relatively small building made the sound seem a hundred times worse.

Peering out from behind the machine, I saw a flash of grey dart across the middle of the floor. A grin crept onto my face. A mouse. Tough, lady honcho was terrified of a little mouse. It was all I could do not to fall on the ground in hysterical giggles. The stress of the situation was really starting to get to me.

There was the clatter of feet on metal and some small part of my brain registered that there must be a sheet of the stuff outside the side entrance.

'What? What happened?'

'Gloria! Why were you shooting?'

'You ok?'

'Did you find one of the little meddlers?'

The babble of voices washed over me and my vision swam for a second and I swayed, gripping the machine for support. My head foggy, I tried to sift through my mind. There was something I had to do…

'Stupid girl,' snapped a voice.

'Who, me?' I mumbled groggily.

Gloria's plaintive, whining voice protesting barely registered. The sounds of people leaving, the clatter of metal once again, didn't hit home either. Background noise, nothing of importance.

With a sigh, my grip on the machine loosened and I swayed again, ending up lying on the floor without much clue as to how I got there. For a few minutes, I drifted in and out of consciousness before I slipped into complete darkness. The clatter of shoes on metal was the last sound I heard before silence.

Hex was faced with a dilemma. One the one hand, he could stay where he was, in relative safety in the far corner of the building. On the other hand, he could make a run for it, although even though the guy had suddenly and mysteriously vanished, Hex still wasn't completely certain he'd gone for good. On another hand, he could try and get into the building next to him, because there was a good chance that one of his friends could be caught in the fire. On yet another hand, the gunshots that he'd heard across the compound were also worrying. Groaning, Hex sidled out of the cupboard, making a beeline for the back exit. He'd get out first, then worry about where his priorities lay.

Outside, it was clear to see that their pursuers had left. Why? Hex frowned, highly suspicious. A trap? For some reason he doubted that.

The crackle of fire behind him made Hex forget all about the people who'd tailed them. One of the buildings was ablaze, with flames licking all up the walls.

'Hex!' Paulo was running towards him, horror written all over his face. As he reached Hex, Paulo looked at the building.

'Please tell me that neither Li nor Amber are in there,' he near begged, knowing that if they were there was nothing they could do.

'I- I don't know,' Hex said, trying to remember. Who had gone in that direction? Paulo had gone down towards the southern end of the complex, right? Then Li had-

'Li,' Paulo gasped, noticing Hex's expression. His gaze darted to the building. 'No. No way.' He took a step forward but Hex grabbed his arm.

'What do you hope to achieve?' Hex bit his lip. 'Look at-'

'Hey guys!' Li's cheerful voice floated towards them as she skipped out from behind a skip. 'Boy am I glad to see you two!' She got closer and narrowed her eyes, noticing Amber's absence. 'Where's Am- Ah!' Paulo grabbed Li and gave her a huge hug, nearly suffocating her in the process.

'You're ok?' he asked, pulling back and staring at her critically.

Li, her expression amused, nodded. 'Right as rain.' She turned to Hex. 'Where's Amber?'

'That's what I'm going to find out.' Hex spun on his heel and hurried across the car park, hoping that he was wrong and Amber was ok.

A sheet of corrugated iron lay down outside the door clacked as Hex ran inside the building, Li and Paulo at his heels.

'Amber?' he called. 'Amber?' His eyes widened as he saw an arm poking around the corner of a huge machine set near the back of the room.

Li saw the arm at the same time and raced towards it, Paulo following. The three friends reached Amber at the same time, sliding to a stop.

'What's wrong with her?' Li gabbled, her voice high. 'Has she been shot?'

Paulo came to a different conclusion, grabbing at the belt pouch strapped around Amber's waist. 'Does anyone know when she had her last injection?'

'No,' Hex said in a rush. 'But it won't matter will it? If you give her another dose, I mean.'

Not bothering to answer, Paulo pulled one of the needles from the pouch and jabbed it into Amber's thigh. Putting it away, he sat back on his haunches and watched anxiously as Amber continued to lay still.

Woah. What the heck happened? I felt like I was swimming up from the depths, each stroke moving me closer and closer until-

I retched, rolling onto my side and blinking rapidly. Gosh, I felt awful.

'Idiot,' someone hissed. I rolled back onto my back and looked at where the voice came from.

'Hey, Hex,' I said cheerfully. Two more anxious faces appeared. 'Li. Paulo. What's happening?'

Woops. Wrong thing to say. 'What?' Hex exploded. 'You stupid, stupid idiot.'

'Hey,' I protested feebly. 'That's not very nice.'

'When did you last inject your insulin?' Hex's face was still thunderous.

'Ah…' I thought back. 'Late afternoon?' My voice sounded weak and unsure, so I repeated myself. 'Late afternoon.'

Hex ground his teeth together. 'Well-'

I cut him off, suddenly remembering why I felt so groggy and I'd passed out. Yeah, it might have been helped along by my lack of insulin, but colliding with that wall back at Jasper's hadn't been as harmless as I thought.

'I hit a wall when I tripped over the mat,' I admitted. 'I've probably got a mild concussion or something.' I started to sit up, felt woozy and lay back down again.

'Maybe you should rest for a bit,' Li suggested.

What was it? What had I forgotten?

'Yeah,' Paulo added. 'Just a few minutes and then-'

'What's the time?' I struggled into a sitting position, ignored my thumping head and grabbed for Paulo's wrist. The clock face made no sense so I gave Paulo his arm back. 'Tell me,' I demanded.

'Elevenish.' Paulo shot me a funny look. 'Why?'

'We need to get to the new mall.'

Li laughed. 'It doesn't open until tomorrow, Amber. I think that's "getting in early" taken a tad too literally.'

'No,' I snapped, frustrated they didn't immediately understand, that I had to waste precious seconds explaining myself. 'It's Jasper. He's going to blow up the mall.'

Hmmmm. That chapter didn't really turn out as good as I hoped, but it's the best I could do. I do seem to be in a bit of a rut lately, but hopefully that is just due to me being lazy and not writing regularly and will be cleared up for the next chapter. Toodles!