Brandon

"Jon Luke, if you love me, you won't die on me! OK? OK?!" she begged Big Luke's unconscious self.

"Brittany, don't say that. Don't set yourself up for more pain. He's fighting just as hard as he ever has," I tried to say but my voice quaked as I spoke.

"Shut up, Brandon!" she yelled at me for the second time today.

Whoa, whoa. OK, I'll back up a bit.

KATE moved like a rocket sled on rails. . . pun intended. All four wheels straddled both sides of the train tracks. The train in front of us had the back door open. On the straightaways, we could see a bigger version of the bomb. Probably designed to punch through all the concrete and dirt above to collapse the Empire State building. The timer was just about to turn to 30 seconds.

"I need to get on that train. Now," thought Big Luke out loud. Then he turned towards me. "Gimme those pliers."

"No," I answered.

"No?" Big Luke asked like he was starting to get pissed off. "Gimme the damn pliers so I can finish this."

"No. There's not enough time. It's gonna blow up," I told him.

Big Luke undid his seat belt. "KATE, retract the front windshield and take over as pilot. When I get on that train, you put it back in place and you slam on the brakes. You hear me?"

"Yes, Jon Luke."

The front windshield retracted and Big Luke pulled himself out onto the hood. KATE dropped the transmission a gear then pressed a little harder on the gas.

"Wait! What do we tell Mathew if you don't make it?" David asked from the back seat.

The train came closer and Big Luke jumped, ignoring us completely. He didn't jump far enough though and he had to grab hold of a wall.

"Fuck! I knew that was a terrible idea!" I yelled in frustration.

I had a strange urge to pull my M9 and stop Big Luke from killing himself, but I held fast. He was able to haul himself into the train. We just saw him draw his Ka-Bar and moving towards the bomb. The timer just turned to seven seconds before the windshield dropped and the wheels locked up.

Momentum threw me into the seat belt. KATE came to a complete stop and I was thrown back into the seat again. The train and Big Luke left us in the dust.

"Don't worry. Big Luke will be-" BOOM!

David's words were cut off as the bomb went off. A huge fireball came around the blind corner and David and I instinctively took cover behind the dash and the seat. All the windows were up but the temperature still rose a little bit inside the cabin. I only sweat more from it.

The fire eventually extinguished and we were able to look out the window.

"Holy fuck. Look!" David pointed to the outside wall of the blind corner. There, sticking out of the square tile, hilt-deep, was Big Luke's Ka-Bar. It was high up on the wall, too high for even Big Luke to reach without standing on KATE's hood or something.

I tried the door but it wouldn't budge. "KATE, open the fucking door, now."

"I don't think you should go over there," KATE suggested.

"Fuck you!" I barked, still yanking on the door handle.

KATE gave up and I was able to open the door. I stood up behind it, but I didn't walk forward just yet. KATE flipped the driver seat forward and David climbed out and stood behind to the door as well. We didn't hear anything on the other side of the corner but it did look a little brighter. Probably because the bomb punched a hole in the ground above.

David started shaking his head. "No. He had to of made it out. No doubt about."

I was still shocked that the bomb actually went off. What did that mean? Why were we still standing here? I shut the door on the Charger and started walking towards the corner. David did the same and followed. KATE coasted behind us, for moral support or something. I wasn't exactly sure why, but I drew my M9 from my hip. I pointed the weapon at the edge of the wall and rounded the corner.

There was a huge hole in the ground above. It didn't look like a building was under the bomb, I could see blue sky. The subway train wasn't there either. Like none of it. I expected to see a blown out shell but there was no shrapnel or anything, mostly just boulders from the street above.

Nice thing about tunnels: they echo. Up around the next bend I heard someone cuss and cough. I raised my M9 again and kept walking. David pulled his MP7 from his holster and shouldered the stock. We tried to keep our feet quiet in the tunnel and it was only easier with the continued coughing from around the corner.

We found the scorched ass-end of the train but the man sitting on the lip was certainly not Big Luke. He was wearing a subway conductor's uniform and had a graying beard.

"Who the fuck are you?" I asked, pointing my M9 at his face.

The man put a hand up as he continued to cough. I looked up as another man walked up behind him. His tan plate carrier was covered in soot and he had a couple scratches on his arm after David cut off his BDU sleeve. Big Luke was alive.

"Put your gun down, Brandon," he ordered coldly. "Excuse me."

The old conductor scooted aside for Big Luke to jump down. He pushed past me and kept walking around KATE. "Nothing like nearly getting blown up to make you consider a career change."

He didn't seem like he was talking to anybody in particular. He double-tapped the fender with his knuckle and KATE put herself in Reverse. She slowly backed up along side him as they moved back towards his knife in the wall. I looked over at David like Can you believe this guy? He just shrugged like I don't know, Man!

KATE stopped six inches shy of the wall and Big Luke climbed up onto the deck lid. He had to put his boot up against the wall to yank his Ka-Bar from the tile, nearly falling backwards when the blade finally came free. He jumped off on the driver side and walked up to the door. KATE popped it and he pulled it open.

"You guys coming or what?" Big Luke asked.

KATE popped the other door and flipped the seat. David walked up and climbed in. I did the same. The next thing was the weirdest thing that had happened in two years.

"That bomb wasn't heading to the Empire State building," David concluded from the back seat.

Big Luke and I both turned around and looked at him.

"Since when did you become the one to put things together?" I asked because that's normally my job.

"While you were busy nearly blowing off the conductor's head and you were busy recovering from nearly getting blown to leatherneck soup," David explained, pointing at Big Luke and I. "I was putting two and two together. That bomb didn't do nearly enough damage to take down the Empire State building. I mean, that thing is fucking huge. On top of that, I don't think we are anywhere near it anyway."

"So. . . what are you saying?" asked Big Luke. "That John was going after us without us knowing it?"

"Exactly," David replied, a big smile on his face like Yeah, I'm not as dumb as I look.

KATE started the engine and Big Luke stuck the transmission back in First. "I'm going back to finish it all. You two should go celebrate with the rest of camp."

"No way," I replied. "John tried to kill us too. I'm in it too."

David nodded in agreement then KATE started her engine.

"You got any more surprises, David?" asked Big Luke as he turned around to go back wards. The tunnel wasn't wide enough for KATE to turn around so we just backed up until we found a wide spot.

"Nope. I think that's all I got," David replied.

We got out of the subway and started heading back towards the building that John and Kyle were held up in. After my adrenaline settled, I tried to think like John. If he truly thought that we were dead, he wouldn't expect an attack. Although, he would probably want proof of that. He already knew that we had taken out the Apache so he couldn't use that to get a visual on us. He would have to send someone else to look. He may had changed locations just in case.

I looked over at Big Luke. You could still see the bruises on his face from Gregor's interrogation and the bandage that Brittany placed over his temple through the soot. His head was rocked forward away from the headrest like he was fully engaged. It didn't slump back onto it like it would if he was tired. His gloves were riddled with holes and he had lost his eye protection. He didn't have to say it, but I could tell what he was thinking.

"What are you going to tell Mathew?" I asked him cautiously, knowing that he looked like a ticking time bomb.

"She's not dead," Big Luke replied. "Have faith, Bro."

His words were casual but stubborn. They sounded so confident, like those people that think they're right all the time and will never change their opinion. He was so closed minded. So irrational. So in denial. Quite frankly, it was scaring the fuck out of me.

"Do you think maybe they switched locations?" I asked him.

Big Luke rocked his head to the side and thought about it. "Probably."

"That sounds like something John would do. To throw us off. You know? Like if we survived or something?" David put in.

"So, then where do we look?" Big Luke questioned. "KATE, can you scan for Brittany anywhere?"

"It would be comparative to finding a needle in the Atlantic or winning the Powerball," KATE responded.

"So not impossible. Start it," Big Luke ordered.

"Yes, Sir," KATE replied. She never called him "Sir." She must have picked up on the whole denial thing.

We hopped over the gate and bounced back up the steps. Just as we dropped down onto the sidewalk, two brown Humvees drove past us. We didn't get a good look at any of the passengers but we figured it had to be John and Kyle. Big Luke's gaze fixed on the back of the second Humvee and his foot pinned the pedal to the floorboard. I was pressed into the seat as we swung back onto the pavement.

"Um. . ." I started. "Don't you think that we should wait to see where their going?"

"Don't worry. I got a plan," Big Luke replied as he grabbed third as we started to really gain on the trucks. "KATE, I need you to switch gas caps. Tracking device, please."

David and I both turned around in our seats to watch the gas cap on the driver side of the car sink back into the quarter panel. As soon as it was gone, a new one was back again. We couldn't read the text on the top, but we were sure it didn't read "FUEL." Big Luke asked KATE to roll down his window which she did as he drew his 1911. He held the steering wheel in his right hand as he leaned his head out the window with the handgun in his left. Two seconds looking down the barrel and one pull of the trigger later, the passenger side mirror on the second Humvee exploded.

Big Luke put his foot harder on the pedal and we shot passed the truck. The exhaust was so loud as the tachometer rose that it drowned out the noise of the thump of the tracking device magnetically sticking itself inside the wheel well. Big Luke grabbed the next gear as left the convoy in the dust. They tried to catch up but there was no way. Once we were out of sight, we looped back a couple blocks and Big Luke pulled up along side a curb.

As if it was pre-planned, a blue map materialized across the windshield and the route that the Humvees were taking was highlighted in yellow. The line weaved around for a spell like they were hunting us until they turned off and headed for a very tall building. Over twenty floors, at least.

"Well, there it is," Big Luke concluded. "That's our new target building."