Chapter 4:
Lois quickly made her through back out of the air-vents. She didn't care if she did it quietly or not, she had already been discovered – thanks to her big mouth, again.
'Way to go Lane!' she thought, 'just for once couldn't you keep your mouth shut? And who was that guy? And how did he know I was in there? It doesn't matter right now I just need to get outta here in one piece so I can warn Smallville!'
With that in mind Lois moved as faced as humanly possible through the tight air vents. Good thing she had military training otherwise it would have taken her forever to get out. She finally did and managed to divert a large number of security guards by constantly changing directions.
Now all she had to do was focus on getting to her car without being caught, she knew that once she turned on the engine of the car she was home-free.
She crouched behind one of the boulders located in the roof-tops, and scanned the area for any guards. She saw them, yet they still hadn't seen her. There were two. And they were approximately 50 ft away and getting closer. By her calculations, she could slide down the pole quickly and hide behind that truck that was directly under the building.
Lois couldn't remember the last time 5 seconds had felt like a lifetime. It seemed to take an eternity to get down from the building but she finally managed.
She ducked behind the truck and surveyed her surroundings.
'O Crap', she muttered to herself, as she saw an extra 4 guards rush out of the building, obviously they were now looking for her.
It was just then that she realized how vigorously her hands and legs were shaken. Well obviously she was afraid – but no to the point where she had to get all hysterical and all.
'Get a hold of yourself Lane!' she scolded herself in an attempt to calm her nerves. Yet despite her fear she had this really odd sensation of confusion. What confused Lois more than what she had just heard to her surprise, was why she had this overwhelming sensation of fear. It wasn't fear of her own life she knew that. She knew that if it were just merely her life at stake that she wouldn't be as frightened as she was now. She was panicky because she had just learned information that just might hurt one of her closest friends and his family in danger.
As much as Lois tried to deny it she truly cared for Clark and considered him her best friend, next to Chloe of course that is.
'Okay Lois, just calm yourself down and try to focus. Your car is 200 ft away parked behind those little trees outside the fence. It isn't that far away – you should consider yourself lucky that they still haven't found it yet, then again the Luthor's body guards weren't really the best and tracking, they were more of the nigh-club bouncer type. Max power almost no-speed whatsoever!
Now focus, there are two guards that keep pacing in a horizontal line, blocking your way to the getaway car, all you have to do is just wait and till they cross each other's path and start walking away from each other – causing a sort of red sea thing – then you run like you've never ran before to the car. It's that simple!' Lois mentally prepared herself for the daunting race to her vehicle.
She waited silently for the right moment…
'Wait for it… wait for it… A little bit more… Almost… OKAY! They've crossed go NOW!' she yelled to herself and ran straight through the guards.
It seemed to have worked… CRUNCH
'Who the hell leaves a packet of chips out in the middle of nowhere? Oh that's my packet of chips – OOPS!"
At the sound of the crunch the guards turned to see Lois hurry into the bushes.
"HEY WAIT" yelled one of them.
But Lois didn't of course and fumble with her small purse in search for her keys, yanking them out as hard as she could she opened the door jumped into the driver's seat.
Without even putting on her seat belt, Lois started the car and took off like a crazy woman, almost running the two guards over before they jumped out of the way.
"Oh thank God, that was close… OH O!" looking through her rear view mirror, she spotted two cars in hot pursuit after.
"This is not good… THIS IS NOT GOOD" she kept repeating to herself as she reached the main highway. Normally Lois would never go over 40 mph, however this was no normal situation. She was brought out of her little mental analysis when she realizes that one car's wheel back wheel mysteriously explodes, causing the car to veer off the road.
"Well that was lucky…" she smiled briefly to herself before concentrating her thoughts back at the situation at hand. The remaining car was closing in on her and fast. There were no turns in the road for miles.
'C'mon think Lois, THINK!' the car had now made it's way up next to hers. However she couldn't see anyone from inside cause of the tinted dark windows. Suddenly the passenger's window slid and Lois saw the barrel of the gun being pointed at her. Before the shot can be fired Lois ducked.
BOOM
"AAAAGH" she let out a high pitched scream as the car window shattered all over her back.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM
The shots were fired in quick succession. When they stopped coming Lois sat-up straight to see what was happening, and to keep the car straight of course.
It seemed that the man with the gun had run out of bullets. Lois smirked and stuck her tongue out at her assailants. This served to anger them even more as she suspected but never would have guessed what they would do next. They began to attempt ramming Lois' car off the road.
With each thump Lois could feel her control on the car slipping.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
'One more ram and I'm gonna be knocked off of the road for sure, OH CRAP HERE IT COMES'
"AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Lois let out a ear piercing scream.
A scream that was heard by two people
Back at the Talon
Clark, Chloe and Lana were sitting at their table. Chloe was filling in Clark the time where one of the football jock's had tried to pick-up Lana and failed miserably.
"Laannaaa, I can't believe you kicked the poor guy in the…
"GROIN!" both Lana and Chloe answered simultaneously. And all three started laughing even harder.
"Well… he had it coming to him…. I… tried to…. warn him…. that I had eyes… for only… one… man…., but he didn't… listen." Lana managed to choke out along with a stream of laughter.
Clark then reached for her hand under the table and then squeezed it.
"Now if you'll excuse me I need to go get a drink all this excitement has gotten me really flustered!"
"Don't take too long Clark" called after her.
Lana just looked by and smiled warmly at him.
'He's so cute' Lana thought to herself.
"So…" Clark began "Chloe how's t.."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" the shriek of Lois' cry pierced Clark's ears with vivid force, casing his hands to shoot straight up to cover his ears.
"Clark, what's wrong?" asked a concerned Chloe.
"It's Lois. She's in trouble!"
"Well Clark what are you waiting for? Go. I'll handle Lana. GO!"
"Right." He said before speeding off leaving Chloe momentarily alone to think of an excuse that Lana would buy.
"Where's Clark?" asked Lana, forcing Chloe at her concentration.
"Clark? O' Clark! Yeah! Um… Clark got a call from his dad. Yeah. His dad needed help fixing a tractor asap so Clark told me to tell you goodbye, then he took off!" Chloe weakly explained or at least tried.
"Okay? Chloe are you sure everything was all right?" asked a confused Lana.
"I hope so!" Chloe whispered to herself as she continued to stare at the entrance of the Talon where Clark had took off in attempt to find Lois. She secretly hoped that this would not be one of the times where Clark would get there five seconds too late.
Back at the Highway
The car was pushed off the road, crashing violently into an unseen ditch. The car flipped and turned. Her windshield shattered on impact. Her airbags explode protecting Lois' face and skull from hitting the steering wheel and dashboard with full force. She sees her purse go flying straight through the front of the car where the windshield glass once was. Had she not managed to strap her seatbelt around herself during the pursuit she would have surely followed.
The car continued to fumble and flip. Every collision with the ground forming a new dent in metal of the car. With every thump Lois was rattled some more, like a pin-ball in a pinball machine being whacked about to and fro, like mouse in a cage whose cage was being attacked viciously by a hungry predator.
Lois could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness. With every bang, every whack on the head caused by the impact of the car hitting the hard ground beneath her sapping some more energy out of her, she didn't know how much longer she could hold on but she tried so badly to remain awake, as she could swear she could feel the car begin to slow. It was either that or she had begun to hallucinate.
By the time the car had come to a complete stop Lois was vaguely conscious, and totally oblivious to the oil leaking from her engine outside her upside the down truck.
Her two pursuers tracked down her car. Looking pleased with themselves one of them takes out a match and sparks it alight.
"Nighty-night precious!" he sneered before throwing the match onto the car. As they ran off to their car satisfied with their work, neither realized the blur that was fast approaching their direction.
All they took note of was the BOOM that was accompanied by the vigorous flames consuming the car.
As the chain-reaction took place, Clark at superhuman speeds made his way to the driver's seat where Lois was and pulled her out as quickly as he can. He managed to shield her from most of the blast, but some pieces of debris slammed Lois in the head causing a severe concussion and lack of breathing.
When the flames died down, Clark took his first real look at Lois and was shocked. She looked exactly the same as in his nightmares the past couple of days.
"Lois?" he began "Lois? Please God no…" hoping for a response
"Lois… why? Why… did you do this for?" he pleaded hoping that somehow his pleading would wake her up. She seemed so fragile so lifeless and totally un-Lois like.
"Lois… Lois?" he was about to scream when he felt a presence behind him. Looking around he was looking up at a person will vary similar features to himself.
"Wh.. Who are you?" Clark tried to mask his fear.
"You need to get her to a hospital quickly" the stranger replied smoothly. "She has a major concussion two broken ribs and some bruises here and there. If you can get her to a hospital she'll be alright but you have to do it now" he explained in all calmness. Seeing that Clark still refused to move the stranger began again "Kal-El…" causing Clark open his eyes in shock at the sound of his Kryptonian name "… you wish to save her, get her to a hospital"
Clark nodded, and turned to scoot up Lois very gently in his arms.
"How'd you…" Clark began but as he turned the man had disappeared as quickly and as swiftly as he appeared "know that name?" he finished to no one. He then looked at Lois and was determined to get her safely to the hospital.
"Just hang on Lois you'll be alright. You have to be!" he said before rushing off for the hospital.