Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally.

Radio Signal

Chapter 4: Clarity

Austin sat alone in the communication room, still tied to the chair. He was hunched over, his eyes were squeezed shut. He must have been trapped in that room for no more than three hours. The Colonel had yet to return. No one had entered the room since he left. Austin had long since stopped caring about the Colonel's presence. Something strange was happening. The pain his head had increased not long after he was left in the room, but it had started fading over time. Now the pain was completely gone, but the voices changed.

The fog of the painful mess of jumbled voices started to lift. It was like the voices had switched to something new. He was starting to catch bits and pieces of what they were saying. There were multiple voices that were speaking. Maybe the Colonel was pulling one on him. He messed with the recording so it would eventually switch over to English, hence why Austin was beginning to understand it.

As more time passed, the more he understood. He was finally able to catch the gist of what they were talking about. They were all men, maybe mid forties, speaking about something that involved Uganda. Something told him that the people he was hearing were native to said country. They seemed to be talking about the country's politics. Something told him that people held a rather high status in their country.

He could understand all of it now. Every word, every phrase came in what he thought was perfect English. He couldn't even hear an accent in their voices. It was like they grew up in Florida just like he had. He understood all of it, even the slang. They were planning to invade a neighboring country called Rwanda and take it over. They wanted to expand their country and gain more power.

At least, that's what he thought they were talking about. For some reason they kept talking in circles, arguing over actually attacking. A couple of the men wanted to attack a country called Tanzania but the other men insisted they didn't have an army strong enough to take it over. Austin was confused beyond belief. He had no clue where the countries were, he was always bad with anything that involved geography. Now he wished he paid more attention in class.

Austin jumped when the headphones were suddenly ripped off of him. The Colonel was back and he was standing over Austin with an unhappy look on his face. He looked up the large man, shocked. He didn't even notice him come in. "Well?" The Colonel snapped impatiently.

Austin scrunched his face in confusion. "What?"

"What did the transmission say?" The Colonel spat angrily.

"Something about some country called Uganda fighting over whether or not to invade some other countries called Rwanda or Tanzania." Austin said frantically, not wanting to anger the man further. He was confused. Why did all of this matter to the Colonel? What were the mercenaries even going to do with information like this?

"What?" The Colonel said in shock.

"They were talking about an invasion." Austin repeated in a shortened version.

"Is there anything else? Did you hear anything more?" The Colonel demanded.

"That's all I know!"

Austin stared up at the older man in confusion. The Colonel's eyes filled with an emotion that Austin had never seen from him before. It seemed like a mix between shock and disbelief. Maybe even a little panic. Suddenly, the man grabbed at Austin's bloodstained shirt. The blonde gasped in surprise and terror.

"You better not be lying to me, Pretty Boy." The Colonel hissed.

"I'm not!" Austin shook his head frantically.

"If you are, I swear I'll skin you alive and throw you to the sharks. There won't be a scrap left of you." The man growled.

"I swear, I'm not lying! That's really all I know!" Austin yelled back in fear.

The Colonel growled something under his breath and threw Austin back in his chair. "Warren!" The man yelled.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Austin asked in fright. The Colonel ignored him, not even offering a sideways glance at the boy.

A man ran to the doorway. He saluted the Colonel; his body was stiff, standing straight like a true military man. "Yes, sir!" He barked.

"Untie this brat and start training him on the radio receiver. Teach him everything there is to know about every machine in this room and report to me when you've finished his training, but first I want you to get Hanson's ass to my office. Is that understood?" The Colonel commanded.

"Yes, sir!" The man disappeared for a few minutes, tracking down the man called Hanson, Austin assumed. He came back shortly after, stiff as ever. "Hanson is on his way to your office, sir!" He said.

"Good. Don't let this boy leave this room. Chain him to the wall if you have to, just don't let him leave." The Colonel said as he got up and left the room.

"Hey, wait minute!" Austin yelled after the Colonel. "What are you going to do? Why did you make me listen to that? Hey, what's going on?"

Warren punched him square in the jaw. "Shut up." He hissed

Austin winced in pain. Blood trickled down his chin, his scabbed over lip having busted open.

"Please," He pleaded, attempting to ignore the pain. "Just tell me why you're doing this. What's he going to do?"

Warren grabbed him by the jaw, squeezing at his sore bone. "That's none of your concern. You just translate what you hear and report it to us, nothing else." He growled.

"Let me go home, please? I won't tell anybody about this, I swear, just let me go home." Tears poured down his cheeks, mixing with the blood on his chin as their paths met. Austin fought to hold back sobs, exhaustion and terror tearing at his insides.

He yelled out in agony when Warren struck him again, harder this time. "Shut up!" He repeated, angrier than ever.

Austin couldn't stop the pained cries that escaped his blood-covered lips. He let his head loll onto his chest, exhausted by everything that was happening to him. His face was scrunched up in an agonized grimace, every move was torture to him. He tried to ignore the clanging sound of a chain as Warren pulled it from somewhere in the room. Austin refused to look up and watch the man chain his leg to something metal, somewhere in the room. He felt it wrap around his ankle. Warren pulled it tight, making sure that the beaten blonde had absolutely no chance of escape.

Warren laughed as he finished chaining the teen. "You're not so tough now, are you pretty boy?" He teased.

The comment, for some forsaken reason, sent him over the edge. White hot rage suddenly coursed through, furious and terrified of everything that was happening. Austin spat a bloody wad of saliva at the man, hitting him in the collarbone. "Go to hell." He croaked, angrily. His voice was hoarse and weak yet it still had a bite to it.

The older man wiped the saliva off in disgust, his face red with anger. "You filthy brat!" He lunged forward, throwing his fist at Austin's face. The blonde screamed in agony as Warren's fist broke the bridge of his nose, the bone and cartilage crunching under the man's tight hand. "Don't you ever do that again, You here me! If you ever do, I swear to god, I'll fucking kill you!" Warren roared, throwing punch after punch into Austin's already thrashed frame.

Warren didn't stop until his knuckles were raw, the flesh torn down to the bone. He stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut and leaving Austin battered and bloodied and still tied to the chair, the Colonel's previous orders falling on deaf ears. Austin's lip was practically ripped open now, one of his eyes was swollen shut and his entire upper torso was now colored black and blue. It hurt to breathe, his bruised ribs expanding every time he took in a raspy breath. Tears drenched his cheeks, but he didn't sob. He just let them fall.

He could hear people running about outside the room, screaming and shouting at each other. Austin didn't really care why they were so riled up, he didn't really care about anything right now. All he could think about was the pain that coursed through every fiber of his being. Every time his heart made a beat, his whole body pulsed with it.

"Set course for due south east!" He heard someone scream outside. It was muffled by the door and the ringing in his ears. "I hope you packed everything you need boys, cause we're not stopping until we reach The Gambia!"

There was more yelling, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. The ringing intensified and he felt himself getting heavy. Black dots danced around his vision, making it harder for him to see. He sucked in short, shallow breaths, wincing every time. He felt dizzy; he couldn't focus on anything. The yells were just muffled background noise now, he could barely hear it. Pure blackness covered the edges of his vision. He was blacking out and he knew it. He didn't try to fight it, he let himself go limp. The last thing he heard, was the sound of boots kicking the door open.

Police tape blocked off the Moon home from prying eyes, police cars were parked in the driveway. All of the neighbors watched from the safety of their own home with sullen looks. Cars drove by, slowing when they saw the police tape, wanting to know what was going on. The cops shooed them off, telling they had no business in the premises. They scoured the home for evidence, taking samples of the lamp, bagging Austin's phone, and getting molds of the tire tracks found in the ally. They looked for fingerprints, finding only Austin's and Mimi's when she touched the lamp shard. The only fingerprints they found on Austin's phone, aside from his, were Mike's.

Mike and Mimi Moon watched in disdain as the police searched their house. They were broken, tired and scared out of their minds. So far, the police had not received a ransom, They hadn't received anything from the kidnapper. Only silence. Ally, Trish, and Dez were all sent home to get some rest. They had all been crying the entire day. Mike and Mimi would have laid down as well, but their home was full of police and their bodies were too strung up with worry.

The lead investigator walked up to them, a sullen look plastered on his face. "Did you find anything?" Mimi pleaded.

The officer shook his head. "No, not yet. We're sending the tire tracks to forensics but the broken phone and the lamp shards are practically useless. With both of you having touched them, they won't do us any good. It would be considered a miracle if we got a liable print." He said.

"We're so sorry. If we had known sooner, we would never have-" Mimi sobbed.

The officer held his hand up, cutting her off. "It's alright miss, you didn't any better. How could you possibly have known this was going to happen?"

"I should have known. I should have done something to prevent it. I shouldn't have messed with the lamp. Mike should have left the phone on the floor. We could have done so much." Mimi's lip trembled as tears poured down her cheeks.

"This isn't your fault. There wasn't a complete chance that the kidnappers prints would have been on the objects, anyway. Don't worry, we'll find him. We've solved cases on less." He reassured her.

She continued sobbing, burying her head into Mike's chest. "My baby boy," She wailed, the officer's reassurance having no effect on the distraught mother. "He's gone, he's gone." Mike stroked his wife's hair, his silent tears falling onto her head.

The cop watched with a clenched heart. He hated watching distraught parents cry over their lost children, never knowing if they would ever see them again. He could never give them a 100 percent reassurance that they were going to find their child and that's what made watching them cry so painful. He bit his lip and gave them a quirk nod. He shuffled away, hating this particular investigation already.

A news reporter ran up the officer, coming out of nowhere. He didn't even notice a news crew show up. She shoved a mic in his face, seemingly oblivious to the distraught expression on his face. Questions upon questions poured out the woman's mouth, her eyes wild, hungry for a story. The officer waved her off, angrily spitting out that she was hindering a private investigation.

He shooed the news crew away as best as he could, they wouldn't leave but they got off the property. The Moon's didn't need this right now. They're just coming to accept what has happened to their son, they don't a bunch of reporters shoving microphones their faces. The officer cringed at the thought. Austin Moon was a star, his was known world wide now. There was no way he was going to be able to shield the grieving parents from the greedy reporters. He sighed as his heart clenched, this never should have happened to that boy.

~0~

News of Austin's kidnapping spread like wildfire. It was all anyone was talking about now. It was on the local news, national news, it had even gone viral, getting posted on practically every website known to man. They were calling it the "Tragedy of The Century". Everyone already seemed to have a theory on why he was kidnapped and by whom.

It didn't take long for Ally to get overwhelmed by all of it. She shut off her T.V. and powered down her phone and her laptop, unable to handle all the media about her best friend's disappearance. She hated how everyone kept calling it a tragedy, like he was already dead. Why did they have to use that word? Why couldn't they use something else? Even as they skepticized that it was for a ransom, they continued to speak about him in past tense, like he was already gone. She couldn't stand it.

The only good part was when there were websites and news anchors that started demanding answers, wanting Austin to be found. They pushed for a search party, insisting that everyone step up and do their part. As Austin's kidnapping became international, more people became fired up. It was like the whole world was begging for him to be found. They still treated it as tragedy. In a terrible way, Ally thought, it still was. She just hated the way they talked about him.

Austin was kidnapped just over a day ago and already the whole world knew. Ally forced herself to keep her hopes up, repeating to herself that Austin was going to be found. He had to come back. She already missed him so much to the point that it was painful. Ally wanted so badly to hug him again, hear his voice in her ear as he sang next to her on the piano bench. She wanted to see his smile again, live and in the flesh and not in a picture of him that was being broadcasted everywhere.

It was still early, Austin hadn't been missing for that long. They had yet to receive a ransom but was still early. Everyone was looking for him. The very idea that he wouldn't be found was absolutely ridiculous, she told herself. A famous pop star just doesn't disappear, not without people demanding answers. No, she shook her head, removing all doubt that dwelled within her mind. Austin was going to be found and she was going to see him again. The police would bring him home, the media would get their taste of the story, and then everything would go back to normal. It would be like it never even happened.

Ally took in a deep breath, wiping away her partially dried tears. She stood up from her bed with a new found confidence. She couldn't help Austin by sitting in her room and crying, she needed to do what they were saying to do on the media. She needed to go out into the world with her chin held high and a confidence about her, showing the world that she wasn't going to give up on her best friend.

Austin was going to be found. She, her friends, Austin's parents, and the rest of the world needed to get that through their thick skulls. If they couldn't be strong, than she would. She had to be. She had to be strong for Austin. That much was clear to her.

Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while. This chapter's a bit shorter than the others but that's how things kinda played, so here you are and enjoy.