Till the End of the Line

He groaned sleepily, his eyes opening instinctively. His gaze fell on Sarah's sleeping figure curled up against him, and he couldn't help but smile a little as he tightened his grip on her and pulled her even closer to him, savouring the feeling of having her warm body pressed to his. He smoothed down a few stray hairs of the dark, tousled mess that hung over Sarah's shoulders, and pressed his lips to the top of her head. A part of him wished that they could stay there forever; just the two of them, in that bed, in that bed, in that moment. But another part of him knew that they'd have to get up soon, and they would have to leave their sanctuary, possibly for ever, and that this might never happen again.
Sarah stirred in his arms, her hand suddenly closing around his wrist. She turned her head, looking drowsily up at him.
"Hey," she croaked, "is it time to get up?"
James gave her a small smile, muttering back: "Not yet."
Sarah grinned and closed her eyes again, nestling herself more comfortably against him. By the time she woke up again James was already gone.

James' duffel-bag sat on a corner of the kitchen table. They had decided they should take their belongings with them on their trip to get food, just in case they needed to get away. Returning to the cabin in case of emergency had not seemed like a good option. It'd be more sensible to take cover somewhere else, far away from the cabin, so they could always return to it. But this was all hypothetical: merely precautions for a worst-case scenario. Just in case.
When Sarah walked past the kitchen table to make herself a cup of coffee, she noticed a small, black notebook with a few coloured tabs sticking out between the pages lying between her laptop and the duffel-bag. She had never seen it before, and for a moment she halted and looked at it, wondering what James was using it for.
There was an uncomfortable knot in her stomach. She knew that there was very little that could go wrong today, and even if something did go wrong she'd be perfectly safe as long as she was with James. But the prospect of leaving was still daunting, and Sarah felt like she should do a few more rounds of shooting practice before they left to make her feel more confident.
Just as she was on her way out, gripping her gun tightly in her hand, James came in through the front door. He was a little out of breath, brushing his hair out of his face as he made his way over to her.
"Are you going out?" he asked, brushing his fingertips over the black notebook once he'd reached the table. She nodded, gingerly waving the gun.
"Just for a bit." He nodded comprehensively.
"You know…" he began after a second's hesitation, "it's still not too late for you to-,"
"James," Sarah interrupted, "let's not do this again. Not now."
They looked at each other until James, clearly forced to resign, gave a small sigh. He pulled Sarah to him by the arm and kissed her, and when his lips finally left hers he muttered into her ear: "Just remember to slow down your breathing, it'll help steady your aim."



Sarah felt like her hart had stopped. She could actually hear the blood pumping in her ears while she watched the men in black close in on her and James. Most of the men had difficulty getting a clear shot at them as they tried to manoeuvre their way around the surrounding trees, which grew very close together, but at least four rifles were trained soundly on the pair of them.
The man Sarah had shot earlier, who lay whimpering against a tree trunk, now seemed to have regained some strength. His eyes were fixed on James, who looked warily around him, his jaw clenched. "Look, soldier," the man started, putting a delicate stress on the word, "you're either gonna come with us, or they'll shoot your little girlfriend."
Sarah shot a look at James, but his eyes were locked on the man, who now had a small, smug smile around his lips. "I'm going to count to three," the man continued, raising a hand and flexing his fingers, "and if you don't drop your weapon," he paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes with a kind of savage pleasure, "that pretty face of hers will be scattered all over the trees."
While the man spoke James glanced at Sarah over his shoulder. His expression was tense, and he barely moved his lips when he mouthed at her: "When I say 'go'." Sarah gave an infinitesimal nod, then he turned his face back to the man.
"One," the man started to count. Sarah's eyes scanned the area frantically. Three of the surrounding men were close enough to get her and James in scope, but only one of them, who was making his way around a tree on Sarah's left, would actually be able to hit her. Almost automatically, Sarah's finger slid over the trigger of her gun in anticipation. Whilst closely watching the guy on her left from the corner of her eye, Sarah heard the other man continuing to count.
"Two…" he said, still glaring at James with narrowed eyes. James slackened the grip on his gun, holding it out with his right hand while he slowly bent over to put it on the ground. There was a short pause, as James put the gun down, his outstretched hands hovering a few inches above the weapon.
"Now get up," the man said quietly, a hint of anxiety in his voice. James didn't move a muscle. His head was still turned to the man, his fingers still splayed and his gun still out of reach. But then.
"Go!" Sarah heard him whisper, just loud enough for her to hear. Without thinking she dropped herself down onto the leaf-strewn floor. As she hit the ground, she immediately rolled over, grasping her gun with both hands, and fired at the man closest to her. All hell seemed to have broken loose at that point. The air was filled with the deafening sounds of gunshots, screams and shattering bones. She had hit her target: the man collapsed, and she quickly shuffled on her hands and knees towards the nearest tree for cover. She could hear the man who had found them cursing and bellowing instructions at the top of his lungs while she reloaded her gun, breathing fast. She glanced around, trying to see what was going on, but she couldn't get a clear view of James from where she was hiding. She tried to make herself as small as possible, telling herself that James would still be alright as long as the other men were still firing and yelling.
She suddenly heard a shuffling noise beside her, and turned her head sideways to see one of the armed men making his way towards her from between the trees. Sarah braced herself, clenching her jaw and prepared to take aim. The man halted, and she twisted herself around to the other side of the tree trunk immediately, narrowly missing a hail of bullets. Gun still clasped in both hands, Sarah leaned her back against the tree, trying to steady her breathing. There was another crunch of leaves in-between all the noises coming from where James was still fighting, and Sarah looked around wildly. She couldn't see anyone, but she knew she had heard someone move. Her head was spinning, but she tried to calm down. She tried to think what she had to do next. Get back to the truck.
The grunts and gunshots from James' end seemed to be fading away, until, after one last anguished moan from someone who sounded as if their windpipe was being squashed by an iron fist, silence fell among the trees. Sarah hardly dared to move, let alone breathe, as she kept her ears peeled.
"I'm going to ask you one more time, you son of a bitch," Sarah heard James say in a low growl that still carried loud enough for her to hear the spine-chilling fury in every syllable, "where do you report?" When no reply came she heard the sound of a slap, after which she heard James hiss something inaudible. While she tried to listen, still too shaken and too scared to move, there was a sudden, sharp click.
Sarah turned her head and stared straight into the mouth of a rifle. Everything seemed to have gone numb. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think. Suddenly the gun in her hands felt like it was just a worthless piece of plastic; a cruddy toy. Her eyes flashed between the man right in front of her and the one beside him, trying to figure out what to do. The man closest to her kept his rifle aimed at her, while the other one relaxed slightly and bellowed: "Sir, we've got her!"
Before she knew it, Sarah was being dragged to where the apparent leader of the Hydra-pack was still slumped against a tree. She had just enough time to see the bodies of the other men strewn all across the ground, before she was forcefully slammed down. James had been crouched over the pack-leader, but straightened as soon as Sarah was brought over. Sarah tried not to flinch as the man holding her pressed his weapon to her head. James' eyes were moving fast between Sarah and her captors, his hands balled into fists.
"No one else needs to get hurt," the first man said quietly, sounding slightly short of breath, "as long as you comply." On the last word, James' expression seemed to harden, but he didn't take his eyes off of Sarah. There was another click and, this time, James quickly looked down over his shoulder to see the man aiming a gun at Sarah too. Sarah could tell it was James' gun, figuring he must've dropped it when he was trying to interrogate the man. James looked back at Sarah, and she could see he was thinking hard.
"I can tell why you like her," the man said, a malicious, taunting glee rising in his voice, "pretty, young thing like that.. Knows her way around a gun… Although I bet that's because you taught her a thing or two, right?" James kept his eyes on Sarah's, still thinking. "But you see," the man went on, "I don't give two shits about that trigger-happy bitch." Sarah saw the man's face momentarily contort with anger as he steadied his aim on her. "And I promise you: if you don't come quietly, I won't have any regrets when I kill her. I'll do it gladly."
James turned his head over his shoulder to glare at the man. Sarah saw them look at each other. "Choose, soldier," she heard the man mutter maliciously. James' back was still turned to her. His fists were trembling slightly, and he was clearly still trying to figure out his next move, but then the man's eyes fell on Sarah again. There was a loud bang and Sarah felt pain, excruciating pain, like she had never experienced in her life, shooting through her body. She collapsed. Everything around her seemed to fade as she screamed and clutched her right shoulder with her free hand, her fingers quickly covered in her own warm, gushing blood. She heard James yelling something, followed by the sounds of more fighting. Her ears rang with the cacophony of noise surrounding her. She felt herself being pushed and pulled without really knowing what was going on, until she found herself pressed against the door of a large, grey van. One man was pushing her head down, forcing her into the car and she could see even more newly arrived Hydra-thugs holding James down on the ground whilst trying to strap his metal arm tightly onto his back.
"Where are you taking us? What are you going to do to him?" she managed to utter when she finally sank into a seat in the back of the van, clenching her teeth through the pain. But the man slammed the door in her face before she could finish her sentence.