Hello, everybody. Sorry for taking so long to update. Due to traveling, a crashed computer and a total lack of ideas, this was the hardest chapter I've written. Also, many thanks to omg-KITTENS for their advice. Read and comment!
"!" screamed Amy and Zai as they plummeted toward the sidewalk hundreds of feet below. I guess this is it, thought Amy sadly. I never got to say good-bye to Dan, or Nellie, or Uncle Fiske, or anyone. I hope Grace would've been proud.
Suddenly, Amy jerked to a stop. She looked up. Zai was holding onto her wrist with one hand, and holding onto a flag with the hotel's symbol with the other hand. The flag was attached to a metal pole that jutted out between two windows on the 13th floor. And it was half-ripped from the pole.
"Ungh...can't...hold...on..." gasped Zai. His fingers were slipping. Amy was swinging dangerously below him. Can't let us die, he thought, I can't be responsible for Amy's death, too! The flag ripped a little more. "Gah!" Zai gasped again. He felt Amy's hand slipping. His knuckles turned white from holding on. Amy's face was ghostly white, and she was hyperventilating. Then, another Vesper leaned far out the window and began to cut the flag.
"HE'S CUTTING THE FLAG OFF!" screamed Amy. Her voice was full of terror, a feeling Zai knew very well. These could my last few minutes, he thought. Any regrets? Plenty. But, maybe death will bring me closer to the people I lost. Zai was just getting lost in thought when the cutting stopped. He looked up. Then, someone punched the Vesper in the head. The Vesper whirled around. He started fighting with someone, but Zai couldn't tell who it was.
Then, that someone kicked the Vesper in back of his neck and grabbed him by the collar. It was Elias! The Vesper struggled, but Elias shoved him toward the window.
"EEEEEP!" the Vesper screamed as he stumbled out the window. Amy shut her eyes, waiting for a horrible splatting below.
The splatting never came. Suddenly, Amy and Zai were jerked down. "AAHH!" They both screamed. The flag was hanging on by a few threads. Amy looked down. The Vesper was holding on to her shoe. Amy kicked. Her shoe came off.
And then, the flag ripped completely.
Meanwhile, Nellie, Alana, and Elias were outside the hotel.
"Where are Amy and Zai?" asked Nellie as they ran into he underground parking.
"Last I saw them, they were hanging from a flag on the 13th floor of the hotel." replied Elias nonchalantly.
"They're WHAT!" yelled Nellie. "You just LEFT them like that? You're SO IRRESPONSIBLE! Do you have ANY IDEA what I'll do if something happens to them?"
"Who, the Blushing Bookworm and Wonder Boy?" asked Elias, rolling his eyes. "I think they can take care of themselves."
"If AMYTHING happens to them, I will personally make sure that you never see the light of day again." Nellie growled.
"Oh, put a cork in it, lady." Elias said.
Nellie looked ready to murder someone, but before she could decide how, Alana spoke up.
"We need a mode of transportation, some way to get out of here."
"How 'bout that?" asked Nellie, pointing to a very large, black Hummer parked at the end of the lot.
"That'll do!" replied Alana. They rushed toward the Hummer. There was a man crouched by one of the wheels, picking up some keys. Elias tapped him on the shoulder. The man looked up.
"Surprise!" said Elias, slamming his fist into the guy's nose.
"UFF!" the man groaned, slumping onto the ground.
"What do we do with this one?" asked Nellie.
"Put that piece of garbage where he belongs." replied Elias.
Nellie dragged the man and shoved him into the Dumpster in the garbage disposal room. He would be in for a surprise when he woke up.
"Now, I'm gonna rescue Amy and Zai." Nellie told them, and started running off.
Don't forget about Amy and Zai. The Vesper was holding onto Amy's shoe, and she kicked, and her shoe fell off, and the flag ripped, and they all fell.
"YAAAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAhHHHAAAAA!" They all screamed as they fell. Once again, I am about to die, thought Amy. Oh well, at least we tried.
Amy and Zai waited to hit the cement. It was surprising how time seemed to be creeping along like a snail caught in a puddle of frozen honey.
Amy and Zai just fell, waiting for their doom. Then, they hit the ground. I must be dead now, she thought. But strangely, she felt herself sliding slowly. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and she was too afraid to open them.
Suddenly, she felt herself falling again. She landed on a hard surface. So this is what death is like, thought Amy. I never thought it would be so painful and bumpy.
"Amy?... Amy?" she heard someone calling her. She was afraid to open her eyes and look at them.
Who could possibly want to talk to me right now?
"Amy! Open your eyes!" said the voice again.
Now Amy was really scared. Suddenly, she felt someone shaking her.
Here goes, she thought to herself. She slowly forced one eyelid open.
She was sitting on some sort of sidewalk, with people crowding around them. Everyone was pointing and shouting. She was pressed up against something. Something warm.
"A-A-Amy!" she heard someone wheeze in a choked voice, "C-c-can't...get...any...oxygen!". She opened her eyes all the way. Zai was next to her. He was close. Very close, in fact. With a start, Amy realized that her hands were wrapped tightly, very tightly around his neck and her face was pressed into his shoulder. He was gasping for air.
"UUHHH!" Amy stammered as she jumped up. Her face was so red, it looked like it could catch fire.
Zai was taking deep breaths. He tried to shrug it off. It didn't work.
"How? Why? Wha-?" Amy started blubbering.
Zai gasped in some air. Breath in...breath out. Breath in...breath out. Do not stop breathing. You will not suffocate. "Um, I'm guessing you're talking about why we're not scattered in a million pieces all over the sidewalk right now?" He wheezed. The color was returning to his face now. He pointed above them. There was a large, red awning over the front door of the hotel.
So that's what we landed on, thought Amy. No wonder I felt that sliding. Amy felt pretty stupid. One, for thinking she was dead, and two, for almost squeezing the life out of Zai.
She looked around, trying to shield her eyes from the cameras. Wait, Cameras? There was a crowd of people around them, and some were snapping pictures. Oh, no! This is going to be all over the news? Amy hated being the center of attention. Zai didn't look any more comfortable than she felt, and he was nearly strangled. Then, she heard her cell phone ringing. She checked the caller I.D. Nellie.
"Hello? Nellie?" she said cautiously.
"Amy? Is that you?" Nellie's voice blared into her.
"Yes, it's me." She replied.
"WOOOOHOOOOO! YOU'RE ALIVE KIDDO!" Nellie screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Yeah, we're alive, where are you?" asked Amy.
"We're in the underground parking lot, next to the gigantic Hummer. You can't miss us."
'
Amy and Zai hurried around the corner to where the underground parking was. There was a guard in front of it.
"Stop, Cahill!" he commanded, pulling out another pistol. Amy was seriously getting tired of those things. She pointed her watch at him and pressed a button. Just like under the hotel, a tiny dart flew out of her watch and buried itself in his shoulder. He groaned, then slumped to the floor. "Nice aim." Zai commented. Amy blushed slightly at the praise. They ran into the lot. Immediately, they saw what they were looking for: a GINORMOUS, black Hummer with a big, red 'V' on top. Amy was also getting tired of seeing big, red 'V's.
"Zai! Amy! Over here!" Nellie called to them. She was sitting in the front seat, along with Alana, while Elias was in the back. Amy and Zai ran to the Hummer and got in. Amy got in first, so she was next to Elias. She put as much distance between herself and him as possible. Elias sneered at her. Amy mustered a lot of courage and sneered back. Zai chuckled.
"Alright, dudes! Let's goooooOOOOOoooooooOOO!" wailed Nellie, peeling out of the parking space and zooming out of the lot.
Just then, Zai's phone rang. He took it out of his pack. Amy looked at it. It was black, with a greenish design on the back. It was touch-screen, with a small button on the bottom. The phone read Zai's fingerprint and turned on. He answered it.
"You betrayed me! And after all I offered you?" came Elizabeth's raging voice over the phone.
"Well, duh!" replied Zai. "You actually thought I would trust a worm like you?"
"Why you ungrateful, impossible, untrustworthy little trog! Do you-!" Zai clicked her off.
"We'd better get moving." said Zai. "Elizabeth's got Dan and your uncle, and my guess is she's taking them out of the city!"
"But we don't even know where they are." said Amy dejectedly.
"How about right there?" asked Nellie, pointing to a giant black Hummer, identical to the one they were in, pulling away from the hotel.
"Follow them! We can't let her get away with her prisoners!" commanded Alana. Nellie took action. She pressed the pedal against the floor. The huge car surged forward.
"Let's GOOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOO!" screamed Nellie as she pushed the Hummer to full speed. People were screaming and diving out of the way. The black Hummer that Elizabeth was in was also gaining speed, though.
"Have they seen us?" asked Zai. "No, don't think so!" replied Nellie. "We've got a worse problem!" said Elias, pointing behind them. A police car with the siren blaring was now in pursuit of them.
"Don't worry about it!" replied Amy, "The police in Hong Kong are all Vespers, anyway!"
Elias sat back. "That's so reassuring. Oh, and Zai?" he reached into his backpack. "Here are your swords. I found them in the hotel room."
"Uh, gee, thanks." replied Zai.
Nellie tore up the road. People were generally staying out of their way, so there wasn't much danger of running anybody over. Elizabeth's black Hummer was about 100 feet in front of them. Zai looked out the back window.
"There are 3 police cars in pursuit. Each car has 4 agents in it. If they catch us, they'll kill us."
"Then we'd better not let them catch us!" replied Nellie. She swerved to avoid squishing a BMW.
"Nellie, I think you're driving on the wrong side of the road again!" screamed Amy as a 18-wheeler barreled towards them.
"Oops! Right, sorry!" exclaimed Nellie, jerking the massive car to the other side of the road. Now, they had a smoother run toward Elizabeth.
Suddenly, the tailpipe of Elizabeth's Hummer spewed out a thick cloud of black smoke, covering the car. "Ugh! Smoke screen! Can't see where I'm going!" Nellie exclaimed. She flipped on the headlights. It illuminated the area immediately in front of them, but it wasn't enough to penetrate the cloud. Nellie started swerving.
"What are you doing?" asked Elias. "I'm trying to clear the smoke, what does it look like I'm doing?" replied Nellie. "If I move the car back and forth, it might clear the smoke up a little!"
The car swerved across the road, and the smoke started to dissipate a little. "Awesome! I can see Elizabeth's car again!" exclaimed Elias.
Then, the license plate of Elizabeth's Hummer folded up, and a stream of thick, gray, viscous, slime-like liquid oozed out, causing them to slide all over the road. Nellie slammed down on the emergency brake, but the car still skidded forward. Nellie then threw the car into reverse, but it still wasn't enough to stop the humongous Hummer from sliding forward at a dangerous rate.
"Alright, this is getting annoying." muttered Nellie.
"What's that screen?" asked Amy, pointing to a rectangular screen on the dashboard. "Hmm..."Alana touched it. It lit up, and an automated voice said, "Which feature would like to use?" Then a list appeared: Gatling machine gun, slime trail, heat-seeking missiles, smoke screen, mines, ejector seats...
"Whoa. Mines?" asked Nellie, as she swerved the car dangerously over the slippery road. The slime trail ended just in front of them.
"I think... THATS A MINE RIGHT THERE!" shouted Zai, pointing to a little, black circular thing in the road.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" screamed Nellie, jerking the steering wheel to one side. Now, they were crossing onto a bridge.
KAAAA-BOOOOOOM! The mine blew up about 10 feet behind them.
"Elizabeth tried to blow up the bridge!" screamed Amy, "If we'd hit that mine, the bridge would've collapsed and-" "No," whispered Zai pointing out the windshield, "That was a remotely detonated mine. Elizabeth will try and destroy this bridge, along with us."
Suddenly, an explosion rang out directly behind them. Nellie sped up. Another explosion, this one closer than the last one. Then another. Now, it was about 8 feet behind them. "Nellie, we're not going to make it!" screamed Amy. "Yes...we...will!" grunted Nellie, flooring the pedal. Another explosion rocked the Hummer. Everyone screamed (again). Then, an explosion tore the bridge apart right beneath the car. "HANG ON!" yelled Nellie. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHGHG!" everyone screamed as the Hummer flipped end over end across the bridge. They all tumbled around inside the car. It felt like being in a washing machine. Amy thought she was going to die. The bridge was completely destroyed.
Suddenly, the car stopped rolling. Everyone was still. Nellie was the first to react. "Is everyone okay back there?" she asked in a quivering voice. "Uuunnnggh..." came the collective groans from everyone in the backseat. Amy sat up. "How did we all survive that?" she asked dazedly. "Vesper Hummers, virtually indestructible." replied Elias. "Look, there she goes!"
Everyone looked out the front window. Elizabeth's Hummer was just turning down a side street about 300 yards in front of them. "We'll never catch her." said Amy dejectedly. "Yes we can." said Alana. "I live here in Hong Kong, I know this city inside out. If we want to catch her, we need to take a left at the next intersection." "But," started Nellie, "that's going in the opposite-"
"Do it." interrupted Alana. Nellie gritted her teeth and turned down the intersection.
"Now turn at the second right." instructed Alana.
"Now turn left."
"Now keep straight until we hit the freeway."
Nellie followed Alana's instructions, and sure enough, when they emerged onto the freeway, Elizabeth's Hummer was only about 30 yards in front of them.
"Whoa. Thanks, Alana." said Nellie as she sped up again. Alana smirked.
The Hummer slowed down for a moment.
"What's she doing?" asked Elias with a hint of alarm in his voice.
"Uh, guys?" said Nellie nervously. She pointed out the window. A large 50 cal. machine gun had risen out of the ceiling of Elizabeth's car, and it was now aiming at them.
Well, that's that. I've got some pretty cool ideas for the next chapters, so stay tuned!