First Daughter

Chapter 2

"We have to find my Dad" he looked up at her voice, her words were laced with worry and he cocked his head sideways to consider the young woman,

"We have to get you out of here first" he replied and she shook her head,

"There's not time and you and I both know that there's hardly going to be anywhere else I'm going to be able to get out, and I'm not exactly small enough to be hoisted into a chimney or an air vent" she fired back and for a moment he saw the young girl who'd stood in front of him, hands on her hips, demanding that he be put back on her detail, after all no one else would play hide and seek with her and there was nothing like hide and seek with a willing secret service agent.

They were sitting in a small room they'd snuck down to, several rooms from where Connor had madehis climb to escape. He'd taken her hand, both of them still on high alert, listening for sound, any sound. He'd pulled her beside him, closest to the wall and they walked quietly until they'd reached the room they were now hidden in, one with plenty of storage things for them to lay low in.

"What are we going to do? I know that I'm probably just going to get in your way but I ….. well I could just…-"

"You're with me Abs" Mike said firmly knowing well before she did where her train of thought was leading.

"So what are we going to do?" she asked,

"First I want you to tell me everything you know, what happened, where you were?" she swallowed and he kept his eyes on her. They were sitting across from each other, her boxed in against the wall behind some shelving and him so that he could hide but have one eye on the door. Her voice was but a whisper in answer,

"In the grounds" he watched her as she remembered the events as if they were playing on her pupils like a movie.

"Around the back. Connor was upstairs playing some game. I went down, it was nice out took a book, did some school work. We were supposed to be out of the way for the Korean prime minister coming"

The sun had warmed her entire body. She'd walked for a good fifteen minutes down to the area she loved. Into the gardens. She'd set herself up there, offering the guys the food she'd thought ahead to bring,

"Then I heard this bang, it was a while away but the guys on the roof were yelling something and Mack, and agent Jackson and agent Riley my new security guys they wanted us to go inside. Nobody was that worried though and then it was just…everyone was everywhere. More guys starting running out to us, everyone had guns all of a sudden something came out of the roof" she put a hand to her head massaging her pulsing temples,

"Why weren't you evacuated?" Mike asked frowning,

"We were too far away from the gates but that was their plan, I wanted to get to Connor and Dad and everyone but they just kept pushing me to the gate. And then we heard the plane it got closer and closer and then suddenly there was just….screaming. And fire, and smoke and screaming. And guns, so much shooting, we had to change direction I had no idea where we were" her words were breathy,

They could see the smoke from where they stood. She could see more and more agents piling onto the roof. Everything was left behind, from her books to her shoes that she'd abandoned. Mack was running ahead of them, gun trained upwards. Jackson and Riley on either side of her pushing her faster, further,

"Everyone just started dying. The plane was above us and there was dirt everywhere, we couldn't see"

"Then the …" she stopped for a moment to swallow a lump in her throat,

"The …." She caught his eyes trying to find the words,

"Take a breath abs"

"The monument came down …..it just…the plane hit it I think, it was on fire and it just fell it was so loud. The plane …I don't know where it went, it must have crashed I…"

The smoke was thick and Jackson had almost forced his body over her own. They were still running. She coughed, heaving in a breath, everything tasted like smoke, tasted like blood. They moved passed a body…..a man, his white shirt stained red. Riley pulled on her arm but her head couldn't compute what they'd said. The building had been shot at….. parts were crumbling before her eyes….Connor.

"It all happened so fast…..but we thought it was over...it was so quiet after …it was…." She looked up at Mike who nodded encouragingly,

"They decided to go in, get Connor and me down together in a safe house. Then there was this huge bang" Mike remembered the bus explosion, he'd been standing outside the gates,

"And then everything really started" he remembered being thrown into the air, the men who looked like tourists heading for the gate, blowing it apart, his ears ringing, everything ringing. The world spinning.

"Everything just started exploding around us" he remembered the grenades, the bazookas.

"The fences just…weren't there and then Riley….I don't even know what happened to him but Jackson threw me sideways and then we were running even faster. We had to go to the house there was nowhere else to run. We couldn't see anything, everyone was screaming again"

Jacksons grip on her arms were vicelike but on the other hand she knew they were probably one of the only thing holding her upright. She craned her head back peering through the smoke as more agents surrounded them and it was then, just through the smoke, through the bodies she saw a group of people, masks over their head. A skeletal mask turned their way one with a smiling jaw that would be engraved in her mind forever and she was hurled forwards again, Mack pulling her forward. The gun shots were close. Her legs felt heavy, as if she were running but getting nowhere, as if the ground was moving against her.

"We ran for the back house, the green house bit. We got behind the concrete wall. I couldn't hear anything there were too many people. One of the security guys had been shot, I tried to fix it but I….it was too much blood and then they pulled me away from him and he just…" she shook her head,

She looked up and swallowed a scream as she was wrenched away from the building and hurled to the ground. There was a heavy body atop of hers but when she looked up once more the concrete had been obliterated and was just dust on the ground, dust and bodies. She was pulled up again and they ran…again…her lungs were screaming. It sounded as if there were missiles going off above them and the ground was cracking open to swallow the world.

"They were all just dead.

"Jackson grabbed me and was pushing me inside and then he fell….he was heavy, and there was so much blood, they shot him in the throat and the thigh, must have caught an artery because…so much blood. He was heavy, I pushed him off me and tried to run inside there were people everywhere, screaming. Another agent saw me, he was inside and he ran out and he just …they just shot him, he was just gone….because of me"

"Hey" he whispered fiercely, sitting up on his knees so he could crouch closer to her,

"You listen to me that's our job, alright, we took this job, this is not your fault, Abs that was not your fault"

"But if he hadn't been coming bac—"

"Abby everybody's dead" at his blunt whisper she froze knowing…knowing it was true. She'd stepped over the bodies herself, carried Connor over them.

"Not one of those deaths are your fault do you understand me" she held his gaze for several moments before nodding slightly,

"I got up to Connors room but he was coming down the hall, we started running towards the panic room, Connors security were still there and Mack and some others and then….then the windows… they just shattered. Someone tackled us to the ground and Connor was under me and Micks face…" she shook her head once more,

"What happened next Abs?" he asked distracting her from the image he had no doubt was violent and gruesome,

"There was so much glass everywhere, and smoke" Mike looked down at her feet, still bare and bleeding. He wondered if she would feel the pain then but she was yet to say anything. He supposed it was the shock and the fact that her mind had many other things that demanded its attention each second. There was no room to feel pain, he understood that. The agent noted the need to find her some shoes.

She left Mick behind, what was left of him anyway. Connor's eyes had landed on another ghastly sight and he'd frozen leaving her to grasp his arms and drag him forward with all her strength. Two men were shouting for them further up the hall and she pulled Connor. With every movement her sidescreamed with pain but there was no time to check, not when more glass was exploding around them. Not when the walls were crumbling, not when people around them were dropping and not getting back up. The walls were stained and speckled with red, with dripping handprints, and were peppered with holes. Finally they made it to the end of the corridor although how they had she'd little idea. Connor was pulled into the arms of another man while she was collected by two others and they began to run once more. She wanted to stop, she had a burning stitch and her side was screaming…and wet. It was quiet for several moments, seconds, how long she didn't know. It was still loud but in the distance, as if she were underwater, as if she were drowning. She could hear the men around her, ones she'd not seen before, speaking fast and purposefully into their sleeves.

And then all of a sudden the masks entered her vision. At the end of the hall two of them were in front of them and the shooting started. Both she and Connor were thrown backwards and hit the ground hard as the others all but created a wall in front of them. A wall that would ultimately fall.

One of the men continued to push them backwards,

"RUN" he roared towards them and followed just behind them. Too soon though he fell his hand hitting the back of her leg on the way down. She gripped Connors hand hearing heavy footsteps behind them and then suddenly she was tugged sideways by her little brother. They escaped into a room and then Connor was quick to pull a cupboard open and they slid behind another wall. She'd not known about this one. Her chest was heavy as she kept her brother behind her. They were going to die.

"We stayed in there for…..I don't know…it felt like forever. There was banging everywhere, things exploding, yelling. We just stayed there. And then all of a sudden it got really hot, really hot" she said and Mike nodded at her,

"I opened the door and the room was on fire, we had to get out" We headed towards the south wing and went through the kitchens. We agreed to go to the Lincoln bedroom"

She'd pushed Connor behind the pantry as she peered around the entrance. There were bodies everywhere. She locked eyes with one of the men whose body lay over another woman she recognised to be Amanda who worked in the kitchens. His eyes widened as he laid eyes on her and he reached towards her. She moved swiftly across the room towards him,

"Abigail you need to get somewhere safe" his voice was rough, he was gasping for air. She nodded,

"Take your brother try to get to the safe house, don't stop for anyone okay, someone will find you I promise. Don't try to go outside though okay, stay inside, stay hidden" she nodded as she placed a hand over his chest,

"I'm okay...I want you to go now" she nodded her eyes unfocused, unfocused on him too focused on the blood that was escaping him….painting her hands.

"Abigail" his voice called her back but it wasn't until there was a hand on her back that she startled spinning around…Connor. His eyes were wide and trying to stay focused on her face. She stood in front of him, moving her own body to block out the ghastly view he was too young to see. He pointed to the door where they had come in and fear began to poison her blood as she realised what he was so scared about.

"Go the both of you go now" the agent behind them ordered and she nodded towards him grabbing Connor and running. Two corridors later they heard the single deafening shot and his cry of pain.

"We got to the bedroom….there were already people dead in there…two agents and one of the guys in a mask" Mike watched her carefully, despising the haunted look of her eyes,

"I stayed at the door watching for anyone while Connor opened the wall" her voice was so quiet he almost had to lean forward and he watched her hands begin to shake, her shoulders tensed and raised.

"I thought they were all dead Mike" she looked up at him her eyes wide, in the moment once more and he shuffled forward and placed a hand on her knee,

"What happened Abby?"

"I was watching the door –

Her eyes were trained on both halls, they could come from anywhere. Her eyes, her ears strained to see, to hear anything at all that a fierce headache was beginning to erupt in the temples of her head.

She turned to see Connor struggling slightly, his nerves getting the best of him,

"Quick Con" she encouraged and he nodded his eyes never leaving the latch. It was as she turned back to the door she caught the slight movement. The man on the floor slumped against the wall, a sheen of blood behind him staining the white wall causing her stomach to flip. His head hung forward, mask still firmly hiding his face and a pool of blood, almost black on the carpet beneath him…but his hand…his fingers twitched and her heart stopped. She watched the gun that lay listlessly in his hand raise and point….for a millisecond her eyes followed its path and her heart jumped out of her throat while colour erupted behind her eyes.

She fell to her knees, feeling the glass embed itself in her skin before her hands reached for the closest agent….reached for the gun in his hands, the gun….her fingers closed around it and there was no time. No time to second guess, no time to panic that she was holding a gun in her hands, a real one, no time to think about how she was holding it, no time to line up a shot accurately, no time to think, no time to breathe, only time for her fingers to find the trigger and pull. Two shots went off.

Her eyes welled within seconds making the room, everything become blurred.

"Abby…Abby" Connors hysterical voice was the only thing to breach her silent mind. She looked to him and she could see his shock. Past him her eyes found the hole in the wall….from his gun. She looked down at her hands, still painted red, now holding a gun, clenched between her fingers. Her eyes flicked up only to see the man now slumped further down – the pool of blood growing, his fingers weren't moving. Her breath caught in her throat,

"Abby come on…please" Connors voice of reason pulled her up. She didn't let go of the small gun, taking it with her as they climbed into the wall. As she pulled the latch back behind her, her eyes caught sight of the man once more…the disgusting mask still in place but not hiding his vacant eyes. A shot of anger fired through her veins as the loathing set in – at him….at him for making her pick up the gun, for making her pull the trigger, for daring to point one at her brother. Her eyes narrowed as she fixed the wall in place and for the moment she allowed her anger to soothe her shock, her panic, her fear, and distract her from the impossible question of what to do next.

She looked up at Mike whose eyes were on her own. There was no anger anymore, not in her, it was just heaviness now.

"You saved his life Abs, you saved Connor" from his tone Abby decided that Mike had enough anger for the two of them, though she knew it wasn't aimed at her. She gripped his hand for one momentattempting to take comfort in his words. She respected the man, trusted him…with her life…with Connors and her Dads. Hell, as weird as it sounded he'd practically been her best friend since she was 5. Her only friend.

"Abs remember what I said about you and I getting through this okay…we'll deal with everything when we get out of here but for now we need to stay focused right" she nodded pulling herself back into the present.

"I'm fine" he smiled,

"You always are"

"What's the plan then?" she asked her hand still gripping his own. She watched his eyes flicker continuously from her face to the door and back again,

"Well since they've taken our eyes away" he said gesturing to the fact that they were sitting in the darkness,

"Lets go take away theirs and see if we can find out where these assholes have set up" he stood nodding at her and then turned as he readied himself to pull her to her feet a serious look on his face,

"Don't you repeat that word Abigail, it's a bad word" he said as he used to years before when she came up only to his waist, she rolled her eyes and pushed him slightly only to have him grin cheekily at her.

"Alright Abs listen up" his voice was still a whisper as he looked down at her,

"I want you to take this okay" he said and she realised he was holding the gun he'd taken off her what seemed to be hours ago now. She frowned,

"I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure you don't have to use it Abs, but if it comes down to it and someone's pointing a gun at you I don't want you to hesitate ok" she looked up at him and swallowed the lump in her throat,

"Abs I need your help okay…to keep you alive and to get all of us out of here" she nodded at him but was still unsure of how or what she could possibly do to help him,

"Ok"

"I want you to stay behind me and don't look up at the camera's okay…I know you know where most of them are that will help us out"

"Oh and you don't, secret service?" She asked disbelievingly and he smiled,

"Alright then let's go. And Abs" he turned back to her seriously,

"If something happens to m-"

"Mike don't" she interrupted him, shaking her head which was quickly held still by his large hands,

"Abby if something happens to me, take your gun, shoot anyone and everyone – don't give them a chance to hurt you. I want you to get to a bunker or a safe house or somewhere and hide. Take my phone and they'll talk you through everything" the scowl that contorted her features only deepened at his words,

"You priority isn't to save my life right now Mike, you have to stay alive so that you can save my Dad and at this rate probably the whole of America" she stated fiercely. He simply chuckled lightly, although there was little humour,

"No pressure then right kid?"

Thank you so much to everyone who followed and favourited the story. Particularly to NGArmyWife, Mascota, Dreamsb223 for reviews! THis one's for you.

Really hope you guys enjoy this chapter, working on the plan for this story, if there's anything anyone really wants to see happen let me know and I'll try to fit it in somewhere!

Thank you for reading!