Ah! Okay guys. I need some serious feedback now. This is the last chapter, but there will be an epilogue, which will hold a lot more closure than this chapter does. It hasn't been edited very much, but I was having a hard time putting the scene I wanted into words. Please, please, please let me know what you think. And enjoy!


Chapter 26

Alive

Fili

When Fili regained consciousness again, it was to find himself in an entirely different situation. He was now lying on his side in the back of what seemed to be a van, gagged and with his wrists tied together. If his head had hurt before, it was nothing compared to now, and he could barely see out of his left eye, which was clearly swollen shut.

Groaning, the blonde sat up just in time to see a garage door open up, right before the van began moving. Now he could see Sabine, who was driving the van, speaking quietly with Jared, and though he wanted to be as distanced from them as possible, he also wanted to hear what was going on. So, without the other two noticing, he got up onto his knees, and somehow managed to get over into the backseat of the vehicle, thankful that they had been stupid enough to tie his hands in front of him and not behind.

The two seemed deep in conversation as they left the building, and they both glanced about nervously as they spoke.

"Don't know how they found us," Sabine was saying, turning the wheel of the car to direct them onto the interstate once they hit the entrance ramp. "It's a good thing we have inside resources, otherwise we would've never known."

"It doesn't matter," Jared replied, not looking nearly as worried. "They won't find us now."

Fili felt a leap of hope in his chest, realizing they were talking about his family. Somehow they'd managed to hunt these two down, and if Fili was really lucky, they'd be able to find and rescue him.


Kili

Had Kili not been entirely focused on Fili, he would've been terrified for his own life.

Thorin drove like a mad man all the way down the interstate, going nearly 20 mph over the 80 mph speed limit and swerving in between cars, receiving more than a few rude gestures. He was blind to it though, focused entirely on the road in front of him; the stretch of asphalt between him and his son.

As they hit the exit off the interstate, Thorin slowed, not wanting to alert anybody to their presence, since the warehouse was supposed to be a very short distance from the exit.

Sure enough, as soon as they were off the ramp, it only took about a minute to find the warehouse at the snail-crawl speed they were going, and they were just in time too. Kili watched with eyes like a hawk as a garage door opened on the side of the distant building, and an old, white van began emerging. Thorin had luckily turned off his headlights, and they all sat watching, holding their breaths, as the vehicle in question began to pick up speed and head towards the interstate they had just come off of.

"It's him!" Kili suddenly exclaimed, spotting their missing blonde as he crawled over a set of seats awkwardly, hands bound in front of him. "Follow them!"

Thorin nodded but waited a few more moments before tailing after them, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. The last thing he wanted was for them to begin speeding and start a dangerous car chase on the interstate.

As they pulled back onto the road, Balin could be heard in the backseat on his walkie talkie, asking for any able officers on duty to start heading their way. If they were lucky, the two criminals would simply pull off the road and surrender if they had on a herd of cops on their tail, but none of them were expecting it to be quite that easy.

After about five minutes on the interstate Thorin had finally caught up with the white van, and they followed directly behind them, faces masked with innocence. Thorin had met the two one time, when they had gone to take Fili from their house, and he was slightly worried that they would recognize him with a simple glance in their rear-view mirror.

The minutes ticked by, and with each tick of the clock, the tension within the car grew tenfold. If things remained this way, the cops would catch up to them and take over from there. It was the best option, and Kili held his breath, checking behind them every few seconds, hoping to see a set of flashing red and blue lights.

Kili had his head turned, looking out the back window, when suddenly the speed picked up.

Snapping his head to the front of the vehicle again, Kili saw with horror that the van had begun to speed up at an alarming rate and was switching into the left lane, and although Thorin followed them with ease, he no longer looked so calm.

"Balin!" he shouted, his deep voice resonating throughout the car. "How much longer will they take? Tell your officers to hurry."

"I assure you they should only be seconds behind us now," the white-haired man replied, but spoke into his device once more, urging his officers to turn on their lights and come faster.

Kili gripped onto his seat, pure fear overtaking him. The last thing he needed was to be part of a car chase, wondering if it was possible to become even more terrified. It was only a matter of moments before he passed out, no matter how much he focused his attention on the car ahead of them.

Thankfully, it was only seconds before the sound of sirens could be heard, and Kili spotted flashing lights in the passenger-side mirror. The smaller, white cars sped past them and Thorin slowed, though not all the way down to the speed limit. Everyone wanted to be there for Fili the moment he was out of that car.


Fili

They'd been on the interstate for a few minutes when it happened.

"Shit!" Sabine cursed, suddenly accelerating at an uncomfortable pace. "They are right behind us!"

Fili twisted in his seat and let out a loud gasp, spotting Thorin and Kili in the front seat of a large SUV right behind them. They had found him! He was going to be rescued!

"Go faster," Jared spoke, turning to also look out the back window. That was when he noticed Fili.

"When the hell did you get up here?"

Fili didn't respond, and when Jared reached back to try and grab him, he darted out of the way, and the older man growled before climbing into the back seat also, pulling a pocket knife out of his pants as he went.

Fili panicked and pressed himself up against the car door, shrinking as far away as possible from the weapon.

"Get them to stop," Jared snarled, pressing the knife against Fili's throat, who could only whimper through the piece of fabric in his mouth.

The blonde shook his head, mumbling, trying to convey that he wouldn't, even if he could. He had no way to even contact them.

"What was that, boy?"

Fili mumbled again, trying to speak, but Jared seemed to give up on his patience and pressed the sharp blade a little more firmly into his skin. Fili felt a hot bead of blood slip down his throat and disappear beneath his shirt.

"Jared!" Sabine exclaimed, her patience also wearing thin. "Don't kill the boy!"

Snarling, the man reluctantly backed off, and Fili seized his chance. As soon as the older man's head was turned away from him, Fili kicked out as hard as he could, causing Jared's head to slam against the window in the car door opposite from Fili, knocking the man out cold.

Sabine shrieked with rage. "You're lucky I can't hurt you, boy! Just wait until we get out of this car."

Fili breathed heavily and sat back up to stare out the back window again. They were now being trailed by a handful of cop cars, but he could still make out the black SUV just behind them. Sabine's words meant nothing to him. She'd never have the chance to follow through with her threat.

Suddenly he felt the car jolt as Sabine pressed her foot to the floor, urging the car to go as fast as possible. She had also begun to start drifting towards the median that divided the east bound and west bound sides of the interstate. He had a feeling that she was going to attempt to cross over, which was dangerous for them and could potentially kill a good amount of people.

Fili glanced around, thinking as quickly as he could, and time seemed to slow.

Without truly realizing what he was doing, Fili threw himself forward, in between the two front seats, and reached for the steering wheel, eyes targeting the thinning forest that was off to their left. It was the only idea he had, and without giving himself a moment to allow for hesitation, he simply grabbed the wheel as well as he could, with his hands still bound, and pulled it hard to the left.


Kili

Words completely failed him. Kili wanted to say something, anything, but as he watched the van in front of them suddenly jerk left and spin slightly before rolling over, he simply couldn't make his voice work.

Thorin shouted and he distantly heard Bilbo screaming something in the backseat as they pulled over to the side of the road, trying to find a good place to stop the car. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, and Kili couldn't take his eyes off of the rolling vehicle. It was only seconds, but he counted: once, twice, three, four times it rolled before it crashed into a tree, ejecting Fili's doll-like body through the backseat driver's-side window.

And suddenly Kili found his words again.

"No! Thorin!" he shrieked, tears already steadily making their way down his face. "Thorin, stop the car. Stop the car!"

As soon as the car came to a halt, just off of the road, Kili was on his feet and running, pounding over the dead grass towards the blonde, sobbing and praying that he wasn't dead.

"Fili? Fili!" he called, more loud than necessary, as he finally reached the boy, who was completely still, eyes softly closed, and dropped to his knees. "No! No, no, no, no…"

What he saw was nothing good. The most minor of injuries were the tiny cuts across his face and arms from going through the window. None of his other injuries were nearly that nice; there were multiple lacerations covering his body, from his legs, where the glass had cut through his pants, to his arms and chest, and even one that extended from his hairline, down the side of his face, to the bottom of his ear. Bruises were already blossoming across his visible skin, and Kili couldn't imagine what he looked like under his clothes, and one of his legs was definitely bent at a wrong angle. He also had a very swollen black eye and it looked like his nose had bled a lot, but those seemed to be older injuries.

So much had happened in such a short amount of time.

Sobbing loudly, Kili quickly began to undo the small rope that was tying his wrists together and untied the piece of fabric that was gagging the blonde. He hesitated for a moment before placing two fingers over one of Fili's wrists, in search for a pulse, and nearly screamed with joy when he felt the soft thump of blood moving through the blonde's veins.

"He's alive!" he shouted, to anyone who would listen. "He's alive!"

It wasn't long before Kili found himself surrounded by paramedics, setting up a stretcher to take Fili away. Letting go of the older boy was the last thing Kili wanted to do, but he knew it was the only chance at keeping Fili alive, so he reluctantly released the hold he'd had on Fili's hand as they lifted him and wheeled him away, cop car lights still flashing in the distance.


How did you guys like it? Please leave a comment and some kudos if you enjoyed it, and if you didn't, that's okay too. Let me know where I could improve, what you think should've gone differently, etc. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with me throughout this whole story, and I promise the epilogue is on it's way, plus I will be writing some small add-on pieces to go with this story later.
Love you guys!