The directions took Sierra to a small gas station on the corner of the highway. There weren't any other buildings around as far as she could see, and it sat at the intersection of two roads running between cornfields. There was one black SUV with the Viper logo parked there, identical to the one she'd stolen. It didn't look big enough for all the mercenaries to hide in. Maybe this was where they were getting their fuel?

It was still the only clue she'd found thus far, so she had to investigate. She pulled up and parked on the opposite side of the station as the other merc's car, then stepped out. In the high contrast lighting of the gas station against the blackness of the night, the two mercs at the door couldn't tell anything was off about her.

"Hey, what are you doing? Where's your squad?" One of them asked. "The rest moved on to the rally point half an hour ago."

Quickly, Sierra tried to remember some of that military jargon they used, and come up with a decent excuse. "Uh, they sent me back here. We need to move Masterson to an alternate extraction point." She said, trying a different, improved fake-man voice.

"Alternate extraction point? I don't remember anything about that in the briefing."

"This wasn't in the briefing." Sierra said. "They don't want her alone with the band. They think she'll try to bust them out."

"Huh. Listen, I'll run this by the sarge, make sure we're cleared for it." He said, fishing his phone out of his pocket.

Sierra's chest tightened. That would shatter the ruse. She reached for her holster and drew her gun.

"Shit! What are you-"

He didn't have time to finish his sentence before she dropped him with a clean headshot. The other merc went for his weapon but she was on him before he could draw, firing several shots into his chest. His bulletproof vest absorbed the impacts, but he was knocked back. When Sierra had emptied the whole magazine and the gun went click, she tossed it aside and rushed him with the wrench to finish him off.

She tackled him and they went through the front door. They landed on hard linoleum tiles and shattered glass. This time, she had the upper hand, fighting a man who had just had the wind knocked out of him by the impacts of her bullets. She managed to get him disarmed and in a head lock.

"Where's Masterson? Where are the Drama Brothers?" She demanded.

"Fuck you!" He spat.

"Listen, I don't wanna kill you, I just wanna know where they are! If you tell me, I'll let you go?"

"You will?"

"Mhm."

He struggled a bit trying to get free, but she had him pinned. She tightened her grip around his neck, persuading him to finally give it up.

"O-Okay. They're being held…at an office…on Birch Street. 2504! You gotta believe me!"

"2504 Birch Street?" She repeated back. The merc frantically nodded into the headlock.

"Okay."

She let him go and shoved him clear of her. "Now, don't tell any of your friends, alright?"

He looked at her. She looked back at him. For the first time she really got a good look at one of the men she'd been fighting, while he was still alive. He looked disturbingly ordinary. Like a lot of the guys she went to school with. He was college age at most, maybe went into this job straight out of highschool. With demand for armed security so high during the Purge, mercs couldn't be the grizzled special forces vets they once were. Any able bodies could be taken.

She turned away to get back to the truck, picking up her gun and reloading it. She was just about to put it in her holster when she saw the movement in her peripheral.

Sierra turned just in time to see the merc grab his gun off the ground and bring it up. He fired several rounds. They struck her squarely in the chest, and she went down. But her vest wasn't penetrated. She raised her own gun up, and put a shot squarely between his eyes. He fell to the ground with a dull thud.

In a fit of anger she tossed her own weapon at the ground.

"OMG you idiot! I let you live! Why would you do that? Uuuuuuuuuuugh this doesn't make any sense? Whyyyy?" She groaned.

Even though she couldn't begin to comprehend why someone would throw away their life so foolishly, she understood what it meant for her. She couldn't let the death continue to weight on her consciousness, she couldn't try to save anyone fighting her. They would kill her, if she wasn't more ruthless than they were. It made her sad and angry, that she couldn't just save everyone, even the people she was fighting, but she couldn't deny it.

She kicked over a stand full of danish pastries, miniature donuts and those brownies with little pieces of rainbow candy in them. It didn't make her feel better. It just made her feel sad for wasting perfectly good food. She stood it back up and put the smashed goods back as best she could.

Sierra sighed and grabbed a couple bags of Hays chips and a some Creamy Way bars, she was starving and she would need the energy for the fight ahead. And waters bottles. She knew from going to a lot of concerts how important it was to hydrate.

Once she had enough food for the trip, she left a twenty dollar bill on the counter before leaving. It was the purge, and she was a murderer now, but at least she wasn't so savage that she'd just rob a small business.

In the front seat she munched on a bag of chips until her hunger was sated. She remembered the address he told her. 2504 Birch Street. She punched it into the GPS and sure enough, it was nearby. Just on the outskirts of Winnipeg, maybe half an hour away. She wiped her hands clean on her vest and then started the SUV up, then began driving.

As she started getting close to her destination, the countryside receded and the suburbs emerged. At first she passed through many blacked out, barricaded houses. A few roving bandits glanced her way, but upon seeing the mercenary logo on the side of her vehicle they scattered into the alleys.

Nearer still to her destination the houses gave way to rows upon rows of identical offices and apartments. It looked like the right place. About a block away from the address she was given, she stopped and pulled her vehicle into the alleyway.

"If he was telling the truth, then there's probably a lot of other guys there. Don't want go rushing in." Sierra said. People said she was weird for talking to herself like that. They said she was weird for a lot of reasons.

Keeping her gun at the ready, she kept low and quiet as she crawled through the alleyways. Not only did she have to be on the lookout for a heavily armed band of mercenaries, she had to worry about regular purgers out to cause chaos as well.

She made it to the top of a building across the road from 2504 Birch Street, where she could get a clear picture of everything going on. At least a dozen mercenaries like the ones she'd encountered earlier were out front, unloaded large boxes from black moving vans with the Viper logo emblazoned on the side. There were at least enough SUVs in the adjacent parking lot for two-dozen people to be in the building, if all of them had their seats filled.

These men had a variety of assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns. Sierra took one look at her dinky little pistol, and shook her head.

"No shooting my way into this one." She said. "Gotta think. Hmmm."

With sentries posted in the top floor windows, she had to be careful getting off the rooftop unseen. Ultimately the plan she decided on was the simplest one- walk in. She was wearing their uniform, they looked plenty busy, maybe she could just blend in long enough to find Masterson, and she could guide her to Cody.

As casually as she could, she climbed the fire escape back down to ground level, crossed the street, and strolled into the group.

"You! Stop standing around and help us get this ammo inside." One of the mercs barked.

Sierra quickly complied and grabbed a crate, following the next person with the crate to find out where to put it. Her gawky height of 6'4" had been a curse growing up among her peers, but here it allowed her to seamlessly blend with big, strong fighting men with minimal effort. If anything, she still stood out as a tall one even in a group this physically well built.

"Man." One of the mercs said. "Bet those studio guys are gonna be pissed when they find out we hijacked their precious boyband."

"Yeah. Hehe, I bet the ransom money will make us all millionaires." Another one said.

"Think they'll give us free tickets to their concerts as part of the ransom deal?"

"Dude, going to boy band concerts? That's so gay! Of course you'd be into that."

"I just think they make good music. Yeah it's corny, but that shit gets me pumped for my workout."

"Hey guys, you hear that? Corporal Mullen gets pumped listening to teenage boys sing!"

"Gaaaaay!"

"Homo! Homo!"

Sierra bristled at the frat boy humor. There was nothing gay about the future father of the dozen babies she would make. Still, it at least gave them a distraction, so that she could slip into the office unnoticed. She made it past the lobby and into the first floor, where she soon came face to face with another merc.

"You lost?"

"Uh, they sent me to get Ms. Masterson. Something about an interrogation."

The merc leered at her skeptically. Sierra's gaze darted between his weapon and his eyes, trying to gauge his reaction. Her hand not far from her holster, her legs ready to bolt out of there.

Finally, he nodded. "She's where we left her, down on the basement. You know the place right?"

"Uh yeah. I got it."

She walked off like she knew where she was going.

"Basement this that way dude." The merc corrected her, pointing down the opposite hallway.

"R-right. Thanks."

"Ugh, rookies." He grumbled as he walked off. "This dumbass company will hire anyone…"

At the end of the hall there was a stairwell, and at the bottom of the stairwell was the basement. The first thing she noticed in the basement was that it had a huge, unguarded stockpile of weapons. Crates full of guns and ammunition were packed into every corner, it was a full sized arsenal.

The second thing she noticed was that there was no Ms. Masterson anywhere among the piles of weapons.

"Think, think. If I had to hide someone I kidnapped in here, where would I put them?" She asked herself.

Her first idea was the broom closet. She found it and tested the knob. It was locked. That was a good sign she reckoned. Usually you locked someone up if you didn't want them escaping. She grabbed the wrench off her belt and lifted it with both hands, testing the arc of her swing a few times in slow motion.

She drew it back, and with a psychotic scream she smashed the handle. The thin plywood door and the wimpy sheet metal handle didn't stand a chance. It broke off with a loud snap and clattered to the floor. Surprisingly, nobody came down to investigate the noise, and Sierra was able to proceed inside the closet with no interruptions.

It was about two or three meters deep and lined with various cleaning supplies on two sets of shelves. And sitting at the end on an old bucket, was a brunette woman in a black business suit. Sierra was pretty sure she had the right person but, it was hard to remember after the flurry of violence and terror she'd been through over the past few hours.

"Are you Ms. Masterson?" She asked.

"I'm not speaking to you until you have my producers on the line." She said. Her expression was firm, but wary.

"No no no, I'm not with them. I'm here to rescue you!" Sierra explained. "I'm the Drama Brothers number one fan! I was there on the bus with you, remember?"

The brunette raised a brow. "You'll have to be more specific. We take on a lot of groupies between tour stops."

Sierra's brow furrowed. That couldn't be right. Cody would never. She was special to him, she wasn't just another face in the crowd. What could she do to make this woman see that?

Memories of Mr. Garcia's last words flickered in her mind, and she remembered the card she gave him. She fished it out of her pocket, and held it out towards the woman.

"Here. The other manager guy gave this to me and said to find you."

She took the card, and as she peered at the bloodstained picture her expression softened. "Poor Jonesy. I guess the worst happened to him, huh?"

Sierra nodded.

"Then yes, I am Ms. Masterson." She sighed. "Although, I'm not very proud to admit that right now. Seeing as I'm partially responsible for all of this."

"You are?"

"Mhm. I got nervous about moving the band through purge night with only light security, so when I got a call from my boss saying we should hire some extra help…well, I got ahold of these Viper guys."

"Do you have any idea why they attacked us?" Sierra asked.

Masterson shrugged. "Guess they wanted to take the band hostage, hoping the studio would give them ransom money to get them back. As long as the kidnapping takes place during the purge it's completely legal, even if they don't get paid until after."

Sierra gasped. "OMG that's horrible, we gotta save them. Do you know where they are?"

"I think they took them upstairs, to the top floor. You're not seriously thinking of going up there, are you?" Masterson asked. Sierra was already turning around, and she followed her.

"I'm not letting them take Cody from me." She said as she began to rummage through the weapons for something with more bite than her pistol. There was plenty to choose from.

"Whoah, woah, slow down there uh…" Masterson grabbed her by the shoulder. "What was your name again?"

"Sierra."

"Well Sierra, I say we wait this out. Corporate's bound to send some people here to negotiate our release, then we'll all walk free without any trouble. They have money set aside for these things."

"No way!" Sierra said, looking quite happy with a submachine gun she'd found in a crate. "What if something goes wrong, and they start killing hostages? We can't just wait around while Codykins is in danger, we have to do something."

"Ugh, this isn't some action hero adventure movie." Masterson facepalmed. "Those people out there will kill you if you mess with them."

"Uh, duh." Sierra rolled her eyes. "How do you think I got these clothes?"

Masterson was taken aback, only now piecing together how the groupie might have gotten her hands on the fatigues and bulletproof vest. She'd just assumed that she snuck into a locker room or some other more subtle way. Seeing her ready to rush into the jaws of death for some boy she just met today, the violent option seemed all the more likely.

"I'm going to rescue Cody or die trying. Life without him isn't worth living." Sierra said. "You can come with or stay here, but you aren't stopping me."

Such bravery stirred something in Mastersons cold, managerial heart. For so long, she had run the band as a business, as a commodity to sell to the crowd. Purge Night was just a particularly dangerous day of otherwise ordinary work at her job. Seeing this girl, so determined to save them, truly believing they were the most important people in the world…it reminded her of a time when she too could believe in something so sincerely. She wanted to believe again.

"Fine. I'll go with you." Masterson said.

Sierra's eyes lit up. "Eeeeeee! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! Let's go get my hubby back!"

Before she could run for the stairs, Masterson grabbed her by the hand and stopped her. "But first we need to prepare. I'm not going up there without my own bulletproof vest, and you're not going up there without learning your weapon."

"Wait, you know how to shoot? I thought you were just the manager." Sierra asked.

"The manager of a very famous band that loves to do concerts before Purge Night. Let's just say, everyone wants to get rid of their boss during the purge, and I've learned how to be very hard to get rid of."

There were of course, plenty of extra sets of armor and uniforms among the stockpile. Masterson didn't quite fit into the men's sizes as well as Sierra did, even the ones cut for shorter guys looked baggy on her. It was better than walking into an office full of heavily armed dudes in casual clothes.

With her new companion now suited up, their attention turned to the weapons. Masterson took Sierra's submachine gun she'd found, and gave it a quick look over.

"Looks like you've got an MP5. Here's what you need to know. Magazine catch is back here- press it when you're out of bullets, it'll drop out and you can put a new one in. Charging handle is up here on the front, give it a good slap forward and you're ready to shoot. Got it?"

Sierra nodded, practicing the motions a few times to make sure she had it down. It was a lot heavier and more physical to have it in her hands like this, than seeing it on a screen floating in front of her. She'd used this gun so many times in the virtual world that having it here in front of her didn't seem real.

"Good. Looks like you have room for about twelve mags in those vest pockets. Now be careful. 360 rounds sounds like a ton of bullets, but you'll burn through it in a minute if you spray wildly. Short bursts, three to five rounds at a time. Hold it tightly, aim, and fire."

"Wow, you're really good at this." Sierra nodded.

"Like I said, not my first rodeo." She grabbed an M4 tactical shotgun out of a box, tossing two bandoliers of ammo over her shoulder. "That's why I'm taking this bad boy. Oooh nice, slugs."

"Slugs? Ew, slimey."

"No, not that kind of slug. It's a type of bullet. Basically like hitting someone with a miniature cannonball." Masterson chuckled as she loaded a couple into the tube. "Now, since we're all wearing bulletproof vests, try to go for headshots, and don't stick your head up if you can avoid it."

"Right. Uh, anything else I should know?"

Masterson shrugged. "Thats about it. I guess, try not to die?"

They were armed to the teeth and all suited up, but Sierra still felt terrified. Not of dying, because her psychology didn't register the threat of imminent death as something to worry about. She'd just met the love of her life, and now she was afraid of losing him, of letting him down. If she wasn't his biggest fan, what was she?

She'd spent her whole life being a fan of all sorts of things. Of movies, TV shows and cartoons, but the Drama Brothers were always her real passion. She had no goals or prospects that she could see outside of that. As far as she was concerned, she was already dead, and once she finally fell into Cody's arms she could live again.

Sierra cracked a thin lipped smile. "I've made it this far right? I got this." She motioned for Masterson to follow. "Come on. Let's go get our boys back."