Half of this is the same as another chapter but I'll put in big bold caps where it's different so just scroll until you see black haha.
Disclaimer: I do not own R5, Bradley Simpson from The Vamps, 5 Seconds of Summer, Dan Howell (danisnotonfire), Joe Sugg (ThatcherJoe), Caspar Lee or Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) - all rights go to Hollywood Records, Virgin EMI/Mercury/Universal Records, Capitol Records & YouTube!
Chapter 29
We Failed
Riker, Ellington and Rocky were running and were coming up to the garages where the Wranglers were kept – Harvey was still chasing them and Rocky was firing his gun at him as he ran, but he kept missing due to him trying to focus on shooting Harvey down and making sure he didn't run into a door or wall.
Rocky stopped running whilst Riker and Ellington continue "Guys! Go in there and find a Wrangler that's petrol tanks full or pretty much full!"
"Got it!" Riker called back, before he and Ellington ran through the door where there was a literal sea of Wranglers.
As Harvey came forwards to punch Rocky, he ducked and punched Harvey and kicked him to the floor. He stood over him and as he was about to pull the trigger to shoot him, Harvey kicked him in the crotch so he bent over and Harvey was able to drag him to the floor easily.
This was when Luke and Ashton got into the hallway to see what was happening.
Harvey got the gun off Rocky and pulled back the hammer – which was when Joe, Caspar and Dan came through another door from where they could hear this commotion.
Joe looked where he seen Luke and Ashton coming towards Rocky to help him and he turned round where Harvey was about to shoot Rocky. "HEY NO!" Joe shouted.
And to everyone, it was though the next part happened in slow motion.
As a natural instinct, Harvey looked up and wound up pointing the gun in the direction the voice came from – having already fired the gun which meant the bullet was heading in the voices direction.
BANG!
It was heading for Joe.
"JOE, NO!" Ashton shouted, about to push him out the way and take the bullet himself at the same time as Dan.
"ASH!" Luke shouted, grabbing him and pulling him back so he didn't.
Caspar outstretched his arms to try and stop Dan, but Dan managed to push Joe out of the way and Dan was the one who wound up getting shot. "DAN!" Caspar shouted.
"NO!" Joe shouted, catching Dan as he fell backwards to the floor.
As Rocky had pretty much gathered what had happened, Harvey was still looking in that direction, so Rocky raised his legs and kicked him in the stomach, making him lurch over. He grabbed his arm and flung him back to the ground, stomping on his wrist so that he let go of the gun and Rocky took it back, staying stood on Harvey's wrist so he couldn't move. "You know what, I'm not going to shoot you dead, I've just thought of a better and more painful way you can die." Rocky said, smiling at him angrily.
"Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, breathe, stay with us." Joe said, tapping Dan's face as he had him laid on the floor and Caspar pressed his hands on top of the wound so it would help to stop the bleeding.
Dan breathed heavily and quickly, obviously trying to breathe again but it wasn't working very well.
Luke and Ashton went over to them. "Get him up, try and get him to the hospital unit. See if Samara, Rydel, Calum or Michael can help him. They're hiding in Ross' room." Ashton said.
Joe and Caspar tried to move him, but he screamed in pain and kept doing so every time they tried so they just left him to lay on the floor and Caspar returned to keeping his hands over Dan's wound to stop the bleeding.
"Luke! Ashton! Come here and keep hold of him whilst I go get some wire to tie him up with." Rocky said. The pair quickly ran over and grabbed hold of Harvey as best as they could whilst Rocky ran into the garage.
"Rocky! We found a jeep that's petrol tanks full!" Ellington said, from where he and Riker were stood a short distance away.
"Oh, er, what number is it?"
Ellington looked on the bonnet "51."
Rocky looked at the wall where there was a load of keys hanging on it, he looked for the key to that Wrangler and took it down. He ran over to where the two boys were and gave the keys to Riker "Use this to get yourself home and to safety, alright? Don't do anything or go out of the house until one of us comes and sees you. And make sure once you're in LA you hide the Wrangler in your garage or something."
They both nodded. "Alright, good luck." Riker said, getting into the car with Ellington.
"You too. Both of you."
Ellington got into the car and Rocky ran back over to the wall as the engine started up to press the button which opened up the garage door and he waited until the boys had driven the Wrangler out of the garage until he shut it again.
That probably being the last time he would see them. Ever.
After he walked over to the work bench where there was some wire and he took it before going back to where Luke, Ashton, Harvey, Joe, Caspar and Dan were. He got to Luke, Ashton and Harvey and started tying Harvey up in the wire whilst Luke and Ashton held him down.
Joe was on the brink of tears "Come on Dan, you've got to let us move you. Please."
"No it hurts too much." Dan said, through groans of pain.
"But if you don't let us you'll die!" Caspar said, trying to stay calm but it was beginning to fail miserably.
"Better me than him." He said, referring to Joe.
Joe sighed "Why'd you do it? Why didn't you just let the bullet hit me? Why did you have to take it?"
"'Cause… I p-promised you that yo-you would survive this… even if it k-killed me," He said, where Joe shut his eyes as a tear rolled down his face "at least your daughter has a Father that's coming home now."
That was the breaking point for Joe as he slowly began to sob, realising why he took the bullet. Just so his daughter, Jenny, would have a Dad and wouldn't grow up without any parents due to her Mother already being dead. "Take good care of her." Dan said.
"No, Dan, don't do this. What about Phil?!" Joe asked, not wanting him to die hence why his voice was beginning to raise in frustration.
Dan shrugged as best as he could "I love him like a b-brother and everything but… he'll be alright."
"You can't leave him without saying goodbye!"
Dan let out a small laugh "I've already said it," He said, which made Joe furrow his brow "1959."
Dan breathed deeply and Joe could see he was turning pale and his eyes were slowly starting to shut. "What… What about Samara, Dan?" Caspar asked, sounding upset.
Dan opened his eyes again "Fuck, get me to that hospital unit." He said, holding up his arms as best as he could.
Quickly, Joe and Caspar grabbed an arm each and pulled him up from the floor, putting his arms over their shoulders so they were supporting him as he tried to walk, even though by the looks of things they were going to end up dragging him.
Rocky, Luke and Ashton had finished typing up Harvey and they looked over to Joe and Caspar to see them carrying Dan as best as they could, obviously to try and get him to the hospital unit in the hope Rydel, Michael, Calum or Samara could save him before it was too late.
"Let's find Ross and Brad and get rid of this one." Rocky said.
Rocky and Luke kept hold of Harvey as he was tied up whilst Ashton walked to lead the way.
With the plan Rocky had to get rid of Harvey, he would for sure suffer greatly after everything that he had done along with Priscilla and Maxwell. And if they caught Priscilla along the way, she could suffer too.
But little did he know his plan would also make one of his best friends suffer.
Ross chased Priscilla in the direction she ran whilst Brad had gone in the other way in the hope they'd ambush and capture her so they didn't have to hurt her.
She ran through some double doors that lead to the stairwell and ran down them. As Ross ran down them after her, he pretty much jumped down them, missing a few steps, which made him gain on her and he became that close to her that he reached out and grabbed her arm which she was using to hold onto the banister of the stairwell.
Priscilla let out a yelp and turned round, slapping him. Ross let out a small scream of pain but grabbed her other arm and wrapped his arms round her tightly so she couldn't move.
That was when Brad came up the stairwell "You caught her!"
"Don't look so surprised! Jesus Christ, she's wriggly!" Ross said, holding onto her as best as she could as she attempted to wriggle out of his grip.
"Priscilla. Priscilla!" Brad raised his voice, until she stopped wriggling and looked at him "It's over. Maxwell's dead and I imagine Harvey's not that far behind. It's done. It's over. You've lost."
Joe and Caspar had carried Dan as fast as they could to get him to the hospital unit. They had finally reached the hospital unit but as they entered, Dan's legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor, taking both Joe and Caspar with him. "Dan, don't you dare give up on us now. We're pretty much here, all we have to do is find the room, Michael, Calum, Rydel and Samara are in." Joe said.
Dan's breathing was the heaviest it had ever been and he laid flat out on the floor, sweating and being pale as though he had no life left in him at all – he was done in. And even though Joe and Caspar didn't want to believe it, just by looking at Dan and the way he was… they could tell that he had met his end and it was the end of the road for him.
Dan shook his head "No, guys… this… this is it… I can't…" Dan said, weakly and breathlessly "just… leave me…" He said, with his eyes half shut.
Joe and Caspar looked at each other as they were unsure as to whether or not they should grant him this wish.
"After all this… I… I didn't think a bullet would… be the end of me," Dan said, letting out a small laugh but gasping for breath and in pain at the same time "but hey-ho… there's only so many times you can… risk your own life before… you… you run out of… times."
"Can't you at least try and make it to the room for Samara and Phil? Or one of them?" Caspar asked, trying to bribe him into ways of getting up and letting himself having a chance of surviving – even though it was obvious he had now ran out of chances.
"I want t-to but… the pain… I can't… It's unbearable…" Dan breathed deeply to catch his breath one last time "just… watch out for Phil a-and look af-after… S-Samara… She ha-has a habit of g-getting hers-self in-into… tr-trouble… don't… don't know if you've n-noticed…"
Joe and Caspar laughed softly. "We will, don't worry." Joe said.
"And also… tell the o-others… i-if they d-d-don't… save the world… I will haunt their ass so b-bad… they'll need a priest." He said, again making the other two boys laugh. And Dan was happy that the last thing he got to see was Joe and Caspar smiling/laughing instead of being sad and crying – even though they were sad and there were tears stinging at their eyes or there were tears streaming down their cheeks slowly. But Dan liked to think that because they were laughing and smiling at what he had just said they were happy.
Dan smiled contently at them before it faded and his eyes shut.
Caspar frowned, fighting back his tears, and Joe began to shake as he could feel the sobs beginning to wrack his body.
The boys didn't have to check his pulse to know that Dan Howell had passed.
Ross and Brad were searching for Luke, Ashton and Rocky with Priscilla, having hold of her but she was now handcuffed as they had found a pair of handcuffs on the dead body of a guard's belt. As they were walking, the three came into their path with Harvey tied up in wire. "Hey, fancy seeing you two here, you caught her?" Ashton said, as they all approached one another.
"No she willingly put herself into these handcuffs." Brad said, sarcastically.
"Where did you catch him?" Ross asked.
"In the technician unit before I helped Riker and Ellington escape and go home in a Wrangler, they got caught in the woods and got brought here, and after he shot Dan." Rocky said.
"What? Is he alright?"
"He should be if Joe and Caspar get him to Rydel, Michael, Calum and Samara in time."
"Right, so… Maxwell's gone and dead, yeah?" Brad asked.
Luke nodded "Yeah. Now all we have to do is deal with these two. This is pretty much it. It's done. It's over."
"Well, what are we gonna do with them?" Ross asked.
"Rocky has a pretty grim idea." Ashton said.
"You know the two bombs Luke and Michael have set to go off in HQ within about fifteen or so minutes?" Rocky asked, Ross and Brad nodded "lock them in there with the bombs as it goes off. It'll kill them both slowly and painfully. If they live through it, I doubt they'll be recognisable as a person or better yet, be mentally and physically alright." Rocky explained.
"I'm down for that." Ross said.
"Alright then, let's go." Rocky said, smiling satisfied.
When the five boys got up to HQ, Ross and Brad undid Priscilla's handcuff – handcuffing one end to a radiator and the other to her hand so that she couldn't move whilst Luke, Ashton and Rocky tied Harvey to a chair with the wire he was in.
Rocky waved at the pair of them as the boys left HQ "Farewell friends, and I'll see you in hell." Rocky said, shutting the door behind him as they exited the area.
The boys all ran from HQ before them bomb would go off, even though they had plenty of time to get away.
Brad breathed deeply "Well, I'm glad that's over with." He said, as the five of them came to a halt in the hallway on the floor below HQ.
"Same." Rocky said.
"Wait. Hold on, that's it. It's over with." Ross said, slowly becoming relieved and happy.
"Yeah, and?" Ashton questioned.
"No more Priscilla, Maxwell and Harvey… No more grandchildren – that's if Bailey, Renzo, Ryan, Ashley and Landon have got and killed Mariah and Isaac – and more importantly… no more warheads. We did it. We saved everyone." He said, laughing in relief.
Luke took a deep breath of relief "Well, thank god for that. I thought it was never going to end." He said, wiping his face.
Ross sighed happily "I am so happy right now." He said, smiling – the others were happy too, but they weren't showing it as much due to the fact that they were tired.
"Wait, who killed Maxwell if he's dead?" Rocky asked.
"I did." Luke said.
"Really?" Ross asked, Luke nodded "oh, you fucking hero." Ross said, grabbing Luke by his face and pulling him in where he kissed him on the lips. He pulled away and Luke wiped his mouth, feeling uncomfortable after that and slightly disgusted.
Ross walked over to Ashton "Thank you for helping him." He said, grabbing his face and kissing him on the head.
He turned to Rocky.
"It's called incest, illegal and a one-way ticket to a punch." Rocky said, just in case Ross thought about kissing him too seen as though he seemed to be on a roll.
Instead, Ross patted his shoulder "Thank you." He said, before turning to Brad.
"Don't even think about it." Brad said, stopping him before he even got close enough to touch him.
"Alright… Let's just wait here for a while until HQ blows up before we go find everyone else and then celebrate. But you're staying away from me." Luke said, pointing at Ross.
Bailey and Renzo were dragging Isaac's unconscious body around as they were trying to find everyone else before he woke up – even though with the collision he had with the spanner round his head, he may not wake up for a while long. "Has everyone just disappeared off the face of the Earth?" Renzo asked, loosening his grip on Isaac which made him drop him.
"Renzo!" Bailey screeched, almost going to the floor with him.
Renzo grabbed hold of him and Isaac started moving – as a signal that he was waking up. "Oh, shit, no! Come on!" Renzo said, where he and Bailey picked up their pace as fast as they could whilst carrying Isaac.
Brad, Ross, Rocky, Luke and Ashton were waiting for the bomb to explode in HQ before they went off to tell everyone it was safe and they could come out of hiding, just in case on the off chance Priscilla or Harvey or both escaped or if everyone came out whilst the bomb was still counting down and they wound up in HQ not knowing – 'cause then the wrong people would die along with the right people. The boys themselves were a fair distance away from HQ so they were safe and the most they would feel or get from it would be the backlash/vibrations from it.
Luke sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall "You have no idea how long I have been waiting to sit down like this. And you have no idea how much I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight."
Rocky groaned "Oh man that means I have to go back to sharing a room with you both."
Ashton raised his brow "Excuse me, you wanted us to share your room with you on the last night in 1969 'cause you were scared it was going to be the last time."
"Yeah, well, it obviously wasn't."
"You say that as if you were hoping it was." Brad said.
"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Rocky said, making Luke shake his head and Ashton laugh a little.
"Should we go check with Ryan, Bailey, Renzo, Ashley and Landon to make sure Mariah, Abasi and Isaac are dead or at least captured?" Ashton asked.
"Abasi's dead. Michael killed him, but it wouldn't hurt to try see if Mariah and Isaac are." Ross said.
"Ah, speaking of one of the devils." Brad said, seeing Renzo and Bailey coming with Isaac knocked out in their arms.
"Is he dead?" Rocky asked.
Renzo shook his head "No, Bailey hit him round the head with a spanner and knocked him out – but he's about to wake up!"
Brad took Isaac from them both and kept tight hold of him so he couldn't move or try to escape when he does eventually wake up. "What should we do with him? We don't have anything to kill him with otherwise he would've been dead." Bailey said.
"Why don't we put him with Priscilla and Harvey?" Ross asked.
"Will we have time to?" Brad asked.
Luke checked the time on his watch "We should do," he stayed silent for a short while, staring at his watch, not knowing if he should be concerned or confused or both "well that's funny."
"What?" Rocky asked.
"Either the bombs haven't gone off or they have and they were very silent."
"What do you mean?" Brad asked.
"They should have went off by now. Two minutes ago if we're being exact."
This made the five boys confused, as well as worried, until they heard a smirk which was coming from Isaac. "Considering you've just woke up, I doubt you should be finding anything funny." Brad said.
"I've been awake for a while." Isaac said, his voice croaky and he looked deranged.
"If you were awake why didn't you do anything to me and Bailey whilst we were dragging you up here?" Renzo asked, confused.
"Because I knew this would happen."
"What? That you're going to die?" Ashton asked, not seriously, but in a way that implied Isaac was stupid slash a nut job – even though he was, it was obvious and didn't really need implying.
"Yeah…"
"Why haven't the bombs gone off?" Rocky asked, assuming he knew the reason seen as though he knew this was going to happen.
"Before Mariah was killed by your little friends, Ashley, Ryan and Landon – don't know if you knew that already, I found her dead in the warehouse – she found both the bombs up in HQ. The one on the boiler and the one in one of the offices. So… She made them so that they would freeze. Don't worry, the bombs will go off but they have to be unfrozen and unfortunately the person who unfreezes them will be joining myself, Priscilla and Harvey in the afterlife 'cause one of them is stuck on five seconds whilst the other is stuck on one minute. Once one blows up, it'll trigger the other to go off no matter which one of you unfreeze first."
"Well it's simple isn't it. You can unfreeze them." Rocky said.
Isaac laughed "Do you really trust me to unfreeze a bomb that's going to kill me?"
THE BELOW PART IS DIFFERENT THE BELOW PART IS DIFFERENT THE BELOW PART IS DIFFERENT THE BELOW PART IS DIFFERENT THE BELOW PART IS DIFFERENT THE BELOW PART IS DIFFERENT
Nobody responded as they knew that was true. You wouldn't send someone to set something off that they know fine well is going to kill them when they don't want to or have no intention to die.
So that meant Brad, Ross, Rocky, Luke or Ashton were going to have to do it and die along with him, Priscilla and Harvey – but they also knew that as soon as one of them volunteered there would be arguments.
"Well it's even simpler," Brad said, making everyone look at him "if one bomb goes off and it's going to trigger the other one to go off… Unfreeze the one that's frozen on a minute, leave Isaac in there and get out – once that blows up, it'll trigger the one to blow that's set to detonate in five seconds." He explained.
Isaac's face fell as that thought never even crossed his mind, even though it was Mariah who froze the bombs on them numbers. Rocky laughed at him "Aw bless, you didn't think of that did you? You really aren't that smart."
Brad nudged him in the direction of HQ "Come on then." He said, beginning to take him.
"Wait, are you sure you know how to unfreeze a bomb? Do you want me or Luke to do it instead?" Ashton asked.
"I'll be fine." He said, leaving with Isaac and taking him up to HQ.
"You know, I'm surprised they all actually got this far." Luke said, thinking about Mariah, Isaac, Abasi and Oakley's conjoined stupidity, questioning everyone's intelligence and just how far everyone they were trying to kill would go to protect and for the people they loved – taking Luke himself killing Oakley for almost and attempting to kill Brad and Ashton as an example.
He never thought Luke would do that did he? He thought that he would be mad and upset.
Ross scoffed "Giving the circumstances and the things we've all got ourselves into these last few years – I'm surprised we've got this far."
"Brad, don't bother," Rydel said, where Brad stopped and turned to face the voice as well as the others "it's over."
Everyone stayed silent as they were confused what she meant by that. She was stood with Michael!Brad, Calum and Samara and every single one of them looked down. "What do you mean?" Ross asked.
"We've failed." Calum said.
"How? There's no more warheads left and we've pretty much killed everyone that needed to be." Rocky said, being confused by this.
"We only sent Kyle, Nate and Alex down to the vaults to see if there were any warheads… Don't you find it weird how they never came back to find us and tell us if there were or weren't?" Samara asked, with sadness in her voice and making a complete dreadful silence fall.
"I went down to the vaults to find them but they'd been knocked out along with quite a few warheads that were missing cause they'd been detonated." Calum said.
"Well, we chase them and stop them!" Luke said, being determined to make sure that this wasn't the end.
Rydel shook her head as Joe and Caspar started coming down the hallway "No, we can't. We don't know where the warheads were sent to – they could've been sent anywhere in the world. There's not enough of us to chase after how many warheads that are currently in flight."
"Where are Alex, Kyle and Nate now?" Rocky asked.
"I gave them my wrist-epoch so they could transport themselves home to be with their families as the world ends," Calum said, where everyone looked like they had, had every single bit of life sucked out of them "plus… if we had saved the world when we thought we did… me, Rydel and Michael should've phased out of existence."
Ashton became and looked devastated "We lost…"
"Nobody won." Samara said.
"What's going on?" Joe asked.
"We failed." Ross said, his voice cracking.
Brad shook his head "What… N-no… We can fix this. We always fix it."
"No. Not this time." Rocky said, after a short silence of hope that one of the five boys would come up with something.
Priscilla sat on the floor still handcuffed to the radiator in HQ, awaiting her death, when the door opened and in entered Brad and Ashton, making their way down the hallway. Ashton walked into the room where one of two of the bombs were to disarm it whilst Brad walked over to Priscilla and un-handcuffed her. "What are you both doing?" She asked, surprised and yet somehow relieved they'd obviously had a change of heart to kill her.
"He's disarming the bombs." Brad said numbly, and looking as though he'd lost all emotion and was feeling nothing. Even Ashton did as he came out of the room and walked over to the boiler to disarm the last bomb out of the two – and normally he's full of joy and everything good.
Something was seriously up.
Priscilla was released from the handcuffs and Brad went into the room where Harvey was to release him. "Why are you releasing us and disarming the bombs?" Priscilla asked.
Brad and Ashton looked at each other and back at Priscilla:
"We lost."
Next: Be A Little Proud
shit son. hope you liked it. the last 3 or 4 chapters are completely different to the original storyline now so yayyyyy no more having to skip through the story to try and find whats different haha.
Please review to let me know what you think etc. & if you would like to see the rest of the alternate ending. :)
