Storm Brew

I was just getting my legs stretched—walking around—close to the tent. Nate and Anna were still inside—Aric had fallen asleep in the car when it was his turn to keep watch.

My arms suddenly went limp and my mouth opened, as I stared, dumbstruck.

Silver Lexus were filling up my horizon like flies on top of sugar.

Following instinct, I ran towards Nate's Mustang beating a hand on the window furiously. Aric jolted, banging his head on the headrest.

"Mel—" I grabbed his collar when the window rolled down.

"Aric—look!" I pointed to the beginning of the road. "Aric… what do I do? What do I do?" I hurried, voice going high pitched. I was losing an enormous batch of self control.

Aric's eyes became sleep ridden in a whisk.

"Wake them up, we have to go." He barked with the hardest tone I'd ever heard him take. "Go, now!"

I scrambled towards the medium tent, tripping as sand caused me to slip. I thrust headfirst into the opening, landing on top of my best friend, who's breathing became frenetic. Nate rose from his slumber quickly, taking us in with disoriented eyes. Doing my best to recover, I rolled over, earning a glad sigh from Anna.

"What's up… princess?" he yawned, leaning for a kiss. Nate looked startled as I pushed him. "Is this because of yesterday? Melissa—"

"This has nothing to do with that. We need to get out of here—now!"

They asked me what was going on and I just yelled that we had to go, over and over. I got out in a haste, and heard the Mustang purring powerfully, ready to take off.

"Oh crap…" Anna muttered following Nate's gaze. "How did they find us…?"

A little voice whispered about that dry-cleaning-girl. Tommy was in with The Order, she was too, probably. How else would they know where we were? We were in a desert! There wasn't a human soul for miles—the how wasn't important, though—they were already here.

"Doesn't matter, we need to go." Nate pulled both of us along, shoving me into the front seat beside Aric. "Pull the top down," he told his brother before shutting the door.

I wanted to say it wasn't a good time to enjoy tanning, but Aric was doing exactly what Nathaniel asked, no questions. For the first time since riding in Nate's convertible, I was actually inside it with the roof down. Too bad I couldn't enjoy the view or beautiful day.

There was a rapid clunking, someone rummaging the trunk. When I looked over my shoulder, I gasped.

I'd suspected Nate had more weapons—it couldn't just be a gun and knife—but that… those things were big and complicated. He gave one of them to Anna who skillfully handled it, as if she'd been born checking for ammo and telescopic aim.

Nate jumped inside settling on his knees in the backseat just like her. He placed the sniper-riffle on top of the seat, preparing.

"Ready?" Aric called. I noted the urgency under the calmer voice.

"Go," Nate yelled once he had checked on Anna.

The tires screeched, making sand fly high; we left a dust screen in our wake. That was good, maybe some of them would lose control of the cars… One could always hope.

I glanced back at our abandoned tent. My heart felt a little sad for leaving it. That place was where me and Nate had our first moment; he'd worried about me being cold and had shared things about my parents, right before we'd fallen asleep glued to one another.

My eyes fell to the lump in my jeans. The pen drive—it was still inside my pocket. I sighed relieved, for a minute I thought I'd dropped—

A shot jump-started my nerves. Did we shoot or did they?

I struggled to keep my head under the headrest, but at the same time to peek at the chase. No car had fallen behind. They were coming faster—six of them—I gulped, feeling my stomach scrunch in doubt.

It wasn't long before my eye caught a man perched on a window, pointing a gun at us. Nate's finger pressed the trigger on his riffle. I held my breath as I watched The Order member flay a bit, then grab for his arm.

"You didn't kill him," Anna argued quietly.

"Shooting while moving is a little hard, okay?" he muttered, clearly recalculating the aim. It felt like he was shooting ducks.

I turned to the front as Aric stepped on the gas pedal full force.

"Aric?" I asked hating myself for possibly distracting him.

"Yeah?" he whispered, eyes never leaving the road or rearview mirror—checking on our followers.

"Where is this road taking us?" I slid a little further into the seat as a new set of fire rumbled behind us.

His teeth ground together, "I don't know," my hands flexed in anticipation. "But that's a good point, luv. We better get somewhere useful—like an airport. You and Anna need to get on a plane to Washington. ASAP."

You and Anna, he's said. The plane I agreed with. Just me and Anna? No way.

"Me and Anna?" I deadpanned, abstracting myself from a strong left. In the back there were groans of displeasure. "Don't you mean the four of us?"

"No, I meant what I said." He froze the words with another rash turn, throwing even me into the car door.

"Oh, so you hate each other—but you agree to go on a suicide mission together? I can't believe this!" I sighed, frustrated with Nate's last night's decision to follow Aric into a revenge frenzy.

Aric groaned, "Mel this isn't the time—" a trembling came and went, more shots ricocheted through the air.

"Head down, princess." Nate pushed my lurking head down.

I would've yelled at him—scratch that—I did. In fact, I think I lost all sanity. I rose from behind the seat, staring into his brandy eyes with a definite disapproving glare.

"Well, I can't go with Anna because…" think of something you idiot, come on, think of a credible excuse… "I have a thing about flying!"

Nate released the hold on his sniper weapon slopping down the seat, taking me down as well, pushing my head again. The fire ceased for a minute and I was able to catch the infuriated gaze.

"And I have a thing about bullet wounds—keep the hell down!" He growled scaring the hell out of me. "Can you do what I say for a damned minute? We can talk about this later—when we're both safe and alive."

Okay, so he was correct and I was wrong. This wasn't a good time for arguing, and my excuse… it had been super poor. Not that I knew if I liked flying, I'd never tried it.

Sliding down, my gaze fell to the glove compartment. I could check the map to see where we were. Reaching slowly, I unfolded the map and laid my eyes on the final red dot—near where we'd just been.

"One down!" Anna called with a cheer.

"You're supposed to aim for the tires," Nate told her. "Not the heads."

"Right," she dragged out the word. "How's that working out for you?" she poked at his ego.

Nathaniel said nothing for the next five minutes. My shoulders drew in as the shooting kept blasting back and forth. I was struggling with the map, it was flapping everywhere, trying to fly away.

"Son of a—"

My fingers numbed when I heard him call out enraged and… hurt. The map did fly away, I couldn't care, though. Nate was more important than some piece of paper.

"Nate," I closed my fist when I saw blood trailing down his forearm. "Nate…" I whispered again, wanting to reach him, comfort him as a wince crippled his features.

"Crap, that's just fucking evil…" my heart was pounding so hard I felt it in my mouth.

My hand grasped Aric's arm.

"Pull over," my voice was shaking. "Pull over somewhere, just do it. I don't care what happens—I need to check on him. Please, Aric." I begged softly hearing another car crashing.

Aric's emerald irises befell me, then the rearview mirror. I knew he didn't like this, but complied all the same. Was it because I was asking him, or because he was worried about Nate—I didn't care. We accelerated another few feet until Aric kicked down the brakes, doing a nearly perfect 360º circle. Then the car marched backwards, hiding behind a rocky fortress.

Aric's seatbelt came undone, he jumped over the car seat—

"What the—it's just a scrape!" Aric said with a incredulous face, pushing Nate closer to me, so I'd see the faint trail of blood running down his arm.

"Huh?" Nate's gaze flickered to the injured arm. "Oh, that, I hadn't even seen that."

My eyes blinked in desperation.

"Then… why the bloody hell did you scream?" Aric bellowed, beating me to it.

Like a switch had been clicked, Nate lurched to the side of the car, cursing under his breath.

"They shot my headlight," he grunted with anger.

His love for this car was… outstanding and quite frankly annoying. It was a car! We were getting shot at and… and he was worried about a light?

"You dumbass!" I slapped his head. He flinched, frowning. "You're worried about a car?"

"It's my car," Nate shot. He took over the wheel when Aric took over the weaponry. "Mel," he said after starting the car and speeding off from our temporary safe haven. "Grab the wheel for a minute."

My eyes doubled in size. I did not just hear that. Nate couldn't… couldn't be for real. I glimpsed at his face. To my dismay, he was dead serious. Oh sweet baby Jesus.

"But… but…"

"Just do it," he called sharply, taking out his iPhone dialing a number.

My fingers latched onto the leather covered steering wheel, my body scooted a bit onto his lap.

"What are you doing—"

"Not now," he bit with impatience. The crossfire behind us was more than evident, and my boyfriend was on the phone—was he going crazy? "Reed, hey!" Pause. "Oh, us? Well you know, we're just driving through a desert in Phoenix, being shot at—the usual stuff." There was a loud yell causing Nate to hold the phone away. "Yeah, yeah, she's fine. She's driving the getaway car, actually. She's gotten quite—okay, okay, I'll get to the point." I rolled my eyes.

Why did Nathaniel feel the need to piss people off? Even when we could die at any given second?

"We need a helicopter, and soon. How soon? Huh… ten, fifteen minutes—tops. We're driving around the Sonoran desert, trying to head back to Phoenix. I think it's pretty easy to spot us—Mel, make a turn!"

"Huh, but it's—"

"Do it!"

I yelped when a bullet zapped past me. Nate's arm tugged me closer, but he didn't show any more concern, still talking with Reed about our escape plan. I made the turn he wanted. It had Aric and Anna sliding around, making them lose their aim.

"Will do, just hurry." Nate dropped the iPhone not caring where it landed, taking the wheel back. "Nice job," he winked. I blushed retreating to my seat. "Reed's sending a chopper. It shouldn't take too long for him to call in a favor nearby. At least, I hope so."

"Great," Anna called. "Who's he bribing this time?"

"Does it matter?" Nate did another random turn. "He just said we should stall them. I don't think they'll have trouble finding us from up there."

"So… we're all going, right?" I asked.

Nate spared me look.

"For now." He wasn't giving up on helping Aric with his revenge. Oh well… I had more time to persuade him of otherwise.

"We're leaving your car?" I patted the leather of my seat.

Nate's grimace was enough to let me know how much he hated the idea of it all.

"Don't bring that up, please." As if sharing his sadness, the Mustang made a choking noise, trembling a bit in the front. Damn. It was like the car was sobbing or hiccuping—wait.

That wasn't normal… is it?

"Nathaniel," Aric's voice floated. "You're car's dripping gasoline."

There wasn't enough time for a verbal reaction; Nate slammed the brakes making the car halt brusquely.

"Out of the car!" He grabbed my arm, soon I was over his shoulder and we were rolling in the ground, then running.

Aric and Anna were behind us, holding the weapons. We ducked, almost hitting a cactus; just in time to listen to the car explode like a hand grenade in war zone. It was brutal—black scraps sailed the air, burning rubber shot everywhere, my eyes were covered by Nathaniel's fingers.

When the imminent danger passed, I was able to look where Nate's precious Mustang had been parked about four minutes back. A sudden sadness came over me, the gloom of loss assaulted my heart.

Nate's car had been blown to pieces.

And all our things were gone, too. Our memories, too, not just material stuff. Things we'd bound over... Nate's iPod, the art things he'd bought me, the red sweatshirt—I drew a breath in form of a gasp.

"My Mom's photo…" I whispered to myself. The only photo I had of my Mother—the only thing she'd left for me… was gone.

"I'm going to kill them." Nate's voice shook with deep anger.

"Look at the bright side," I heard Anna peep from my side. "It lasted longer than that Kia."

Nate flared her with a glare. "That wasn't my car—"

"Stop talking about bloody cars!" Aric yelled, their useless banter having breached his patience. "We're sitting ducks out here and there are still four cars coming at us—I don't think we want to know how many blocks are inside them!"

Nathaniel threw the remaining of his car a fleeting, pained, glance before pulling the silver gun from its holding place.

"You guys shoot distance," his hand curled around mine. "We're going to scout, find a better hiding spot."

I wanted to protest, my mouth wasn't working with me, though. My mind still reeled from losing that precious photograph.

"Take care of her, or I'll hurt you later." Anna said before setting herself in position to shoot a couple more bullets at the enemy.

I was pushed ahead, Nate covered me while we ran. I was going numbly, not feeling my feet hit the hard, heated soil below. There were tons of cacti, he had to pull me aside before I became covered in their spikes. With another shake in a different direction, we were falling, tumbling somewhere.

With a slow wince, I shook my head, then rubbed my eyes to get rid of dirt.

I glanced up noticing we were under shade. A wooded structure was above our heads. It was probably a small bridge—like Bow Bridge in Central Park—only no water ran under it. Instead, it was just more dirt.

"Princess," he grasped my elbows sitting me upright. "You okay? Are you hurt?" He checked me over before I did. His fingers brushed along the side of my wrist. I felt something burning—something sleek. "It's a little cut, you'll live."

"Nate," I breathed feeling his chest under my palms. We were covered in dust; his clothes were dirty, so were mine. "Huh…" I had to get over this. I could be sad and shocked later—right now, I had to stay alive or I'd lose more than a piece of paper. "You were hurt—your arm, it was bleeding." I exposed the scrape, lifting the torn sleeve. "It could get infected,"

He smiled wiping my hair as clean as possible.

"I've been in worst conditions," he assured. "Besides, the chopper will be here soon. I'm sure they'll see the smoke from the car."

Right—we were going to be saved soon, nothing would happen because we'd be rescued. It wouldn't be bad, everything would be over.

"We need to tell Anna and Aric." I tugged his hand so we'd climb up the short hill. "Nate!" my body was pulled backward into hiding.

"I'll go, you stay here—understand?" Nathaniel's voice was commanding, all business.

I knew better than to argue with Nate when he was like that. It didn't stop me, not this time.

"No. I want to go with you." I pushed at his shoulders to get past him. "I'm not letting you go out into the crossfire alone. I don't want that."

His complexion was going from golden to red. Livid.

"Melissa," he whispered my name. "This isn't up for discussion. I'm telling you to stay here. Not as your boyfriend, but as your bodyguard. Stay here." Nate growled out the last word, getting dangerously close to my face.

I didn't back down from his intimidating stance.

"Tough luck, you're not my bodyguard anymore—Reed demoted you. Anna is the one appointed to protect me. So," I drew the word by grabbing hold of his wrist. "I say I'm going with you."

An emotion rolled across his brandy eyes, captivating me. For a minor second, it made me lose the want to argue with him on the safety issue.

"I don't want anything happening to you. Why do you have to make it so hard?" a choked laugh left his chest. "You've been spending way too much time with me." A smile nearly broke through.

"Yeah, guess so." Right now wasn't the moment for long mushy dialogue. "Let's hurry,"

He nodded letting me trail behind him, since the danger was coming from the front. When we stood a little straighter, we caught sight of Anna retreating behind Aric, holding his black gun.

"We found a sheltered place, come on." I called above Aric's riffle shot.

Anna was the first to draw to our side.

"That one ran out of ammo," she nodded to the discarded large weapon. "I grabbed Aric's gun, but his is running out fast, too."

Aric reached our side slowly, never turning his back on the enemy. I noticed the cars were no longer running, they'd stopped; some of them were using the doors as shields, shooting continuously. I could see at least two bodies on the ground, blood pooling from their heads.

"Where's that chopper?" Anna asked glancing up to the sky—

A shot got fired and a groan rang.

"Anna!" I screamed, falling back to help.

My eyes popped wildly as her leg became a fountain of blood. She'd been hit—Anna had been shot. It wasn't just a scrape—she could die.

Oh God!

I looked to the side ready to call for Aric, so he'd help carrying her to safety, but there was no Aric. My eyes caught him dodging behind a low rock, and staying there as the shots didn't drummed on.

"Nate…" I called coming short when he was busy wrestling an Order member that had gotten the slip on us—not just any Order member—Riley.

You had to be kidding me.

"Anna, I don't know what to do… I mean, is this... is this really bad? I…" What did I do? Did I drag her along with me or would that make the bleeding worse? Didn't they say not to move a person when she was hurt?

Anna's forest eyes met mine, I was afraid of that moment. I wondered what was crossing her mind, was she going to gave me a weak look and die? I couldn't picture that, I couldn't deal—but when I saw her eyes, there was the tough girl I'd always known her to be.

"I don't think it hit a major artery. Actually..." she glanced down, breathing a bit deeper. "I think it hit my bone worse than blood vessels…" She moaned pressuring it.

"Can I move you…—" The rest of my words were drowned by machinery, something powerful. It sliced the air and atmosphere around us—above us.

Our eyes shone with a batch of relief as a black chopper hovered above our heads. I hoped it was acquitted with missiles or whatever—to my dismay, the only thing being lowered was a rope ladder.

"What is it?" I took Anna's annoyed face.

"It's a commercial helicopter." Huh… the ones that only carried merchandise and transplants? The ones with zero fire power… "Mel, climb!" She reached for the ladder dangling above our heads. "You need to go first, hurry." She pushed my back wincing when I moved from supporting her weight.

My jaw grew tight and I glanced around for a single second.

This was all because of information—information, I now possessed. They were here for the flash drive. I couldn't just destroy it, then they would have no reason to spare us. We would be dispensable and their numbers were bigger. I couldn't destroy it because I wanted to make justice. I couldn't be the one to go on the chopper—Anna had to go first because she was injured. I couldn't be the cause of her death—I didn't want my best friend to die in my arms, or anywhere else, for that matter.

This chopper probably had a first aid kit.

Nate and Aric wouldn't make it on time, already the pilot wanted to fly away because he hadn't signed up to be shot at for this long—he was an innocent person and he could get killed.

There was only one thing I could do.

"Hey!" I screamed retrieving the black flash drive from the depths of my pocket. "This is what you want, right?" I shouted after curling a hand around my mouth, hoping to amplify it.

Riley and Nate kept fighting until he got tripped and landed with his back on the ground making a pained face—Riley held him head-down, looking up.

Her moss irises glittered like an eagle's when they found their prey. Bingo.

"Give that to me and no one needs to get hurt—no one needs to die." She cooed softly after shoving Nate to the ground, keeping him still. He struggled against her hopelessly as she dug a knee into the small of his back. "I'll even forgive you for what you did to Nolan."

Yeah, right. I was buying all that because I was that stupid.

"I'll take my chances," I smiled sardonically, shoving the little thing into Anna's pocket and hoisting her up to the ladder, she was complaining and I didn't care. I kept pushing her up, telling her to go. That it would be fine—because apparently I seemed to have a plan, or half of it.

"Melissa—"

"You're my best friend and I love you—but this time shut up and do this!" I sighed from relief as she didn't jump to the ground like her stubborn mind was probably telling her to do. "Go, go…" I kept yelling hoping the pilot would take the hint.

"This isn't good—"

Her voice didn't ring for long in my eardrums. Another sound came. It was vicious, annoyed—I was thrown to the dirt and reacted on instinct from what Aric had taught me. My hands latched onto Riley's shoulders, putting a brief distance between both of us, enough for me to kick her off, sending her soaring.

I scrambled to my feet. The chopper was going, Anna was almost inside, too. My mind spun with what I'd just done—the choice I'd just made.

Nate... Aric... I searched to see my boyfriend getting up only to be tackled down once more—my breath caught as a gun was placed to his back.

"Stop," Riley's voice floated from behind.

As I took her in, I saw Aric punching a guy—then another one jumped him—the woman from Tommy's photograph! She threatened to slit a clean cut across his neck.

"Change of plans," Riley spat a bit of blood. "Restrain them, no killing. Someone just made our lives a lot more complicated," she shifted the sneer into a growing smirk. "And way more fun."

I wasn't the same Melissa from four months ago—I could put up a fight. What I couldn't do, was see behind my back.