Chapter twenty
Breaking point
"Make sure they stay put." Said Baxter instructing men on the other side of the door.
The light from Marks torch suddenly filled the room, now able to see I ran on shaky legs to the door and banged my fists against the wood in frustration, my family.
"No, no, NO!" I said, this can't be happening, bang, it's all my fault! Bang, if I'd just kept my head down and not started all this Robin Hood stuff none of this would be happening! Bang, I can't deal with this.
"No." I said softly, warm tears rolled down my face and I rested my head on my hands on the door.
I felt Georges hand on my back, strong and comforting. I pulled away from the door and looked at the others, even in this lighting I could see all their faces were pale and frightened. They looked at me, their expressions asking what we did next. I dried my tears and bit my bottom lip in concentration, I had to think of something there was no way we could let Baxter get away with this.
"Mark?" I asked; time to be a leader "how long will it take Baxter to get to the farm?"
"Well it took us half an hour to get hear from Conner's, but the farm is fifteen minuets into the town so we've got approximately forty-five minuets." He said.
"Ok, so let's say we have forty-five minuets, if we take the back streets and short cuts to the farm we could make it their in thirty?" I asked a plan forming in my mind." Giving us fifteen to rescue Wendy?"
Will's head popped up at the mention of helping his sister.
"Robin did you forget were stuck in this room with no windows and the only exit, the door, locked tight?" Said Mark upon closer inspection we had now realised the room was in fact a broom cupboard Baxter had rigged for our arrival, and didn't expect us to get out of.
"Theoretically?" I asked smiling.
"Well sure theoretically" He admitted "but not logically, Robin?"
He asked confused, at his first three words I had began searching the room for anything that might help us, all I found was a chair.
"Will can you take a look at this door?" I asked Will who was very handy at that sort of thing.
"Sure." He said rushing forward to help; he began tapping on the door.
"It's not that thick" He said a few moments later "It's just the lock that's stopping us."
"John?" I asked.
"I'll give it a go." He said and began to shoulder barge the door, he worked on it for a while but the door didn't budge.
"No luck." He said apologetically.
My mind whirled again; I looked at the chair, perfect. George followed my gaze and immediately saw my plan.
He grabbed the chair and looked at me.
"Fight?" He asked.
"Fight." I replied. And he threw the wooden chair at the door and it shattered. The others jumped not sure what was going on.
"This is all your fault!" Shouted George rounding on me.
"My fault? My fault? Oh that's rich coming from you!" I snapped back at him.
"Guys! Coz this is the time to be arguing!" Said John confused as to why we were arguing now.
"Pack it in." Said Will rolling his eyes and sitting back down miserably.
"Yeah pack it in!" I said childishly staring at George.
"Stupid bitch!" He shouted back.
"Pompous prat!" I said laughing. We stopped and listened for noise on the other side of the door, when all we got was silence we carried on.
Jack cottoned on and joined us in our shouting.
"Im sick of you two! Shut up already!" She screamed, and winked at the others.
Smiling the others stood up and squabbled. The noise rose and John and Will started banging on the doors and walls, creating the impression of a fight. The door burst open when we were at screaming point.
"What's going on in hear?" Asked the lone senior officer; met by the image of the six of us standing together in a line weapons ready. He gulped and backed up slowly.
"Errrr help!" He said breaking into a run and fleeing from the room, we pursued elated by our freedom.
"Oi!" Shouted a small gathering of squad guys.
We charged into the on coming fray, the six of us on the three of them it wasn't all that fair.
"Robin, Wendy!" Shouted Will stood transfixed in horror at the TV screen in the corridor, we had to hurry.
"Let's go Will." I said.
"We'll hold them off." Said Jack as we ran past, giving Will a 'im sure she's fine' reassuring simile.
We headed down the aged factory stairs that lead to the basement; Will (the first one to reach the bottom) was met by a locked door.
"No!" He said and banged his fists on the door, I checked my watch, nine minuets to get out of hear. "Wendy!"
She coughed faintly on the other side of the door.
"Wendy!" Will shouted again and pounded on the door some more, tears ran down his face, his hands were red from hitting the door and he looked to have reached breaking point.
I had to do something. I tried the handle and pulled back my hand in pain, ouch that was hot! And that didn't look good for Wendy. Will still banging looked at me sadly, I felt like crying at the pain in his eyes and was immediately reminded of the cruel fait Baxter had in store for my family.
"Right!" I said my face hardening and time to taking charge "your the DIY expert what do we do about this door?"
Will looked at me blankly; a big, swelled tear fell from his chin.
"You work at a builder's yard don't you?" I asked my emotional friend "Tell me what to do."
Will just shook his head and turned away after catching a glimpse of the TV screen ( I can't believe he put one down hear) behind my head. Robert Baxter was beyond sick. I put my hand on his shoulder and turned my best friend gently to face me.
"Will come on, you can do this, it's only a door tell me how we get past it." I said softly "Wendy needs you."
Will sprang to attention and began examining the door.
"This one's thick" He said tapping it "very thick"
He ran his finger down the far side of the door.
"The hinges are weak though; we could easy break them or even unfasten them." He said and with no further ado he took out a single arrow and began to unscrew the nails as if using a screwdriver. I followed his lead and soon we were done.
With the hinges gone we kicked open the door. A rush of hot air sped past us strong enough to have knocked us backwards, we ran in.
"Wendy?" Will asked quietly kneeling down by his sisters chair.
While Will tried to rouse his sister I took care of the boiler. I'll be honest with you; I had absolutely no idea how to turn the ting off. So I winged it, lives were at stake hear.
I opened the boiler door and was immediately send backwards onto my backside, well there was the problem; the fire burning in the grate was on the levels of extremity. The tank above me shook violently, it was way too hot in there, and the old rusty metal couldn't cope with all the steam.
"Will this things gunna blow!" I said panicking. Standing up and looking around the room I franticly searched for something that would help us. No such luck.
"Robin." Will said with Wendy in his arms as the boiler gave another earth shattering shake. This time however it didn't stop the boiler shuck and slid across the floor, we had to get out of here.
"Will let's go!" I said running to help him with Wendy.
"But the boiler." He said giving Wendy the fireman's lift.
"Now!" I shouted as the noise coming from the boiler raised the room temperature doing the same. We ran for the exit and just as we reached the door a hole burst in the tank, steam filled the room, me, Will and the unconscious Wendy headed up the stairs to the next level.
Running down the corridor we found the others still locked in combat with the squad members.
"Time to go!" I shouted heading towards them.
"Huh?" asked George knocking back his attacker.
"We need to get out of here." Said Will, his words were followed by a large boom from the basement, the guys needed no more persuading and outlaw and squad member alike were fleeing for the exit.
"What have you done?" Asked Mark as we navigated through the corridors.
"We haven't done anything!" I said slightly offended "just move!"
We soon reached the exit and well and truly ran for it to get as far away from the factory as we could. Half way back towards the gate the ground shook and smoke gushed out from the open doors and windows. We stopped and surveyed the scene, it was quite extraordinary.
Bent over panting we watched as the smoke cleared.
"Wendy?" Will asked, as his sister spluttered and coughed. We all fell silent and watched anxiously as a brother comforted his sister.
"Will?" She asked, Will sighed in relief and hugged his beloved sister with tears in his eyes. The rest of us were close to tears as well, Jack watched fondly as Will clutched his sister, George smiled gratefully breathing heavily and Jhon and Mark collapsed on the ground in exhaustion and relief.
But this emotional night was far from over, Baxter was still out their, with a plan up his sleeve. I was anxious to leave and get to my family, but we couldn't just leave Wendy here, now I understood how Will had been feeling and could appreciate how much it ment to him to have his sister safely in his arms . Mark called for an ambulance with arrived (much to my appreciation) in about five minuets, which left us half an hour to get back to the farm.
The ambulance arrived and we backed off, there would be too many questions if we stayed here, and Wendy didn't need that right now. We watched from our van across the street, I looked at my friend.
"You can go with her if you want you know." I said reading his face.
"No I can't" He said turning away to look at me "you helped me get Wendy back; I think the least I can do is help you save your family."
I smiled and hugged my dear friend, what would I do without him?
"Robin, you know were with you too right?" asked George from the front seat and as all my friends around me nodded in agreement and placed comforting hands on my arms I felt my eyes tear up.
"Let's go John." I said softly, we set off. Picking up speed we headed back to the motor way. Let's just hope we get there in time.