Slowly, Claire began to regain her consciousness. As if she was listening from a distance, a sound of a revving engine only got louder.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. Just like a while ago, her vision at first was blurry, unclear, but she felt as if she was held by someone.
And then, she heard a voice. "Did we lose them?". I took her a second to realise that the muffled voice was actually Gabriel's.
'Did we lose who?...' Claire thought to herself but gave up thinking moments later after pulses of pain hit her head. As a reaction, she scrunched her brows.
Gabriel must have sensed her movements as his attention moved to Claire. "She is waking up again.". A pause followed. "Claire? Claire?? Can you hear me?".
She briefly nodded her head before closing her eyes again. She found it harder to keep herself awake. And then, her head descended against this chest.
Gabriel's eyes widened ever so slightly as his gaze stayed on her. "Claire?" He called out gently. When he saw that she gave him no response, he placed his index finger right under her nose. He kept his finger there until he felt a rush of air being exhaled by her.
And it was then that he let out a slight breath of relief. A breath that he didn't realise he kept within him.
He took another deep breath before turning his head to the other person that was in his van. He kept his eye out the back. Then, he turned ever so slightly.
Such action made it obvious that he too held some sort of worry for Claire. "How is she?".
"I think she is exhausted. But, she gave me a nod to tell me that she is okay..." Gabriel replied as he once more looked at Claire in his hands. Without his notice, a small smile formed on his lips.
The soldier nodded to Gabriel's words.
"Are they still behind us?" Gabriel inquired again, not noticing the disappearance of his smile from his lips.
The soldier nodded. "They are," he began, looking at Garrett's truck. "They are gonna turn very soon as we continue through the valley.".
"This old bridge that I heard Garrett mention... are you sure that we'll be able to cross it?" Gabriel inquired.
But to his question, the soldier remained silent. "It should.". A pause. "We have to make it. It's our only way out of here.".
---
Claire heard the noise of muffling as she once again regained her consciousness. She began to open up her eyes as a silhouette moved towards her. "Claire??" she heard a voice. Naturally assuming it came from the person who stood above her. Upon the person calling out her name once more, "Claire?!". Only then did she realise who it was.
When her gaze began to clear up ever so slightly, she saw the person, instead of the silhouette. Her assumptions were proven correct. The person who stood above her was actually Gina.
Gina was sat beside her, as she kept her eyes on Claire.
From there, things slowly began to come back to Claire. She looked back at Gina, and only then did she see light surrounding her. And then, she realised that it was daytime. 'S-since when was the sun up?'.
Just as she tried to delve further into her thoughts, like before, the pain that hit the back of her head and caused her to abort all her efforts, her attempt to think.
In reaction to the ache she felt, Claire furrowed her brows, sealing her eyes shut.
"Claire?" Gina called out gently. "Are you okay? Can you hear me?".
Moments later, only when the pain decided to desist ever so slightly did Claire reply with a nod. Opening her eyes once more, her gaze was met by Gina. By that time, Claire's vision has cleared up and it was then that she noticed something strange. Gina was covered in dirt. Not only that, but Claire also noticed a few cuts on Gina's face.
She widened her eyes ever so slightly, swallowing whatever was in her mouth before she spoke out. "W-what happened?". Claire's voice was more croaky than she expected.
It took Gina a moment to realise what Claire was implying with such a question. It was only then that Gina looked down at her body and noticed what Claire saw. She froze for a moment. "The dirt?..." she questioned. "It's an old building, Claire. There's a lot of dirt here and there, you know?". She knew that such an excuse won't suffice, but in the short time she had, it was the first one she could have thought of.
Just as Gina expected, Claire furrowed her brows at her words.
"B-but what about... what about those cuts?..." Claire inquired. "I-I can see cuts on your face...".
It was these words of Claire's that Gina did not expect. She froze. She froze because she forgot about the cuts.
And then, Gabriel's words flooded back into her head. 'No matter what, when she wakes up, she can't find out about the attack. I don't know how she'll react.'. Slowly, fear began to swirl in the pit of her stomach. She ran out of excuses.
"I-I fell... I fell down a hill, Claire," Gina began. "I had to help out the Captain while you were unconscious. We reached a hill, I twisted my ankle and I fell.". A pause followed. "You don't have to worry... I am okay. I didn't want you to worry about me," a pause followed as a small smile appeared on her lips. "Turns out there isn't much one can hide from you.".
A sheepish smile appeared on Claire's lips as she listened to Gina's words. But she couldn't help feeling a strange feeling in her stomach and moments later, Claire blushed the feeling off.
Then, reciting Gina's words in her mind, the smile on Claire's lips began to recede. "I was unconscious?" she questioned.
Gina's eyes remained on Claire as the relief she felt began to go away ever so slightly. 'Was I supposed to mention such a thing?'.
Claire propped herself onto her left elbow before she tried sitting up. With a slight push, she managed to do just that. But as she sat, she felt slight pain spread through her forehead, it caused her to lower her head into the palms of her hands.
"Claire??" Gina moved a step closer when she saw Claire react in such a way. "Are you okay?".
As a reply, Claire nodded.
Regardless, Gina turned her head before she spotted a jug of water and a glass beside it. "Would you like me to give you some water, Claire?".
Hearing such words, Claire rose her head from her palms before nodding. "Please, if you can. Thank you so much.".
No more had to be said, Gina did as she offered and she poured Claire a glassful of water before handing it over to her.
"Thank you. Thank you, Gina, so, so much," Claire replied.
Another smile appeared on Gina's lips. "You are very welcome. Now drink up. You'll feel better.".
Within seconds, Claire drank the water before she placed the glass on an old drawer beside her.
"You were brought into here, unconscious," Gina said.
And upon hearing her words, Claire kept her eyes down on her legs before they widened ever so slightly. It was moments later that the words themself triggered something within Claire, they caused snippets of what happened hours ago to come back to her.
And then, when that one thought crossed her mind, she looked back at Gina. Before she started speaking, Claire swallowed whatever was in her mouth. "My brother is here, with the Captain? He is with us, right?".
'H-her brother?' Gina thought. "Wait, did you-" but before she could have finished her sentence, the door - that was adjacent to Claire - opened wide. There, Gabriel walked into the room.
Upon seeing Claire on the bed, sitting up, relief flushed through his body.
He was about to say something, but Claire bet him to it. She inquired him the same question she asked Gina only moments ago. He knew the question would come, but he hadn't had enough time to prepared himself to face it.
"Where's my brother?".
---
*A few hours back*
The soldier in the truck was on the lookout as Gabriel held Claire in his arms.
Then, a gasp from the soldier caught Gabriel's attention. "W-we're being followed! There's another truck following us.". Gabriel leaned over ever so slightly only to see the vehicle the soldier was talking about.
Then a shot was heard.
It caused Gabriel's and Garrett's vehicles to sway from side to side ever so slightly.
"Shit..." Gabriel hissed under his breath. He looked down at Claire before gently placing her down right where he was sat only moments ago. Then, he moved to the soldier, taking his gun out of his holster. Next, he propped himself beside the soldier. "We have to take them down before they cause us shit.".
Just as he said such a thing, another truck appeared behind the one that was already following them. And then, another shot was heard.
Again, the vehicles swayed from side to side ever so slightly, but such an action almost resulted in Gabriel losing balance and falling onto the floor of the truck. "Fuck!!" he cursed as he held himself up with his hands.
Once he managed to get a hold of himself, he send his sharpened gaze up at the trucks. He saw from which truck the shots came from. So, with his pistol that he held in his hand, he pointed it up before shooting a few shots at the truck. Most of the bullets left no effect on the truck, but the one or two other bullets shot caused one of the front tyres to burst.
Almost immediately, the vehicle lost control before it began to sway left, right and then left before taking a sharp right turn and vanishing into the wall of trees that lined the sides of the road.
"One down..." Gabriel muttered under his breath. But just as he said so, yet another truck joined the three other trucks left. "And who knows how many more are left.".
And then, shot after shot came from the trucks. Most of them managed to get the trucks, with some ricochetting somewhere else.
"We need to get these fuckers..." Gabriel said to the soldier right before they both held up their weapons and sent a few shots back towards the trucks. Just like Gabriel's last attempt, most of the shots did very little, to no damage. But two of the shots managed to get the driver in one of the closer trucks.
Just as Gabriel sighed a breath of relief, he saw the door open before the dead body got discarded from the vehicle. A person from the passenger seat got into the controls of the truck.
Not even a second passed before another wave of bullets was sent their way. Gabriel took cover but then a loud groan caught his attention. Moving his gaze up, he saw the soldier gripping his arm. "Shit!!" Gabriel breathed under his breath. The soldier got shot.
And then, before he could tend to the injured soldier, the revving of the engine of the truck behind them caught Gabriel's attention. The truck has approached so quickly that before he could have had the chance to look out again, the truck behind rushed and crashed into the back of Gabriel's truck.
It caused anyone who wasn't on the floor, to find their place on the floor of the truck. Because of the truck that pushed into Gabriel's vehicle, Gabriel felt the truck rise up from the back.
Gabriel gritted his teeth before he crawled to the back of the truck. Upon reaching the edge, Gabriel went to get his gun but only to realise that it wasn't in his holster. Sudden worry filled the pit of his stomach and then looking around, only then did he see his gun. But it was too far out of his reach.
Then... "Captain!" he heard the soldier's voice. Looking up at him, he saw the way he offered his gun to Gabriel. Taking it, Gabriel leaned over the edge before pointing his gun at the vehicle that was right in front of him.
But before he got the chance to press the trigger, four shots ripped through the tense air.
Each one of them managed to get the enemy vehicle right under Gabriel's truck. It caused the enemy truck to slow down drastically before letting the back on Gabriel's truck down on the road again. With this, Gabriel took his chance and shot 3 shots out towards the driver, each one of his shots hitting the driver.
The vehicle yanked itself right before it missed Garrett's truck by a centimetre and crashed into the other enemy vehicles. One explosion led to another as clouds of smoke rose from the damaged trucks.
And only then did Gabriel let out a proper sigh of relief.
From there, they followed the road ahead of them that would lead them to the bridge. Taking a peek behind them, Gabriel and the soldier saw that Garrett's truck was no longer behind them. They had taken their turn.
With that, slight sadness descended upon Gabriel as he turned around and looked towards Claire, that was when he realised she was on the ground. "Shit!". Quickly, he made his way to her. At first, he checked if she was okay, and after seeing that no injuries were present on her body, he had her back in his arms.
Then, his gaze moved to the injured soldier who kept his gaze out of the truck. Clearing his throat, he spoke up. "Are you okay?".
The soldier looked down upon himself before giving Gabriel a nod. "Yes, Captain.".
And just as Gabriel allowed himself to take a minute's break, something caught his eye. Two more vehicles speeding towards them.
"There's more of them..." Gabriel sighed under his breath.
And as if Lieutenant Doyle managed to hear him, he pressed harder upon the gas pedal. They were on their way to reaching the valley, approaching the old bridge.
Very soon, the trees that surrounded them changed to the stone of the mountains that seemed as if they'd cave in on them at any second.
By the driving wheel, Shorty has his eyes out ahead, looking at the road that changed from asphalt to dirt. They were getting closer and closer.
And then, the bridge came into view.
Behind, Gabriel and the injured soldier both had their eyes out, looking for when the enemy vehicles would come into view.
Their truck was only seconds away from reaching the bridge. From the small vent that connected the front of the truck to the rear, Shorty shouted out, "We're approaching the bridge, hold on tight!!". And with that, he pressed the pedal twice as hard.
As if the vehicle couldn't go any faster on the terrain present, it managed to speed up.
With a slight turn, the front wheels of the vehicle came into contact with the bridge and milliseconds later, so did the rear wheels.
The bridge was a length of no less than 500 meters. And once they reached the first quarter of the bridge, they felt their weight as the bridge began to bend downwards. Doyle pressed down the gas pedal seconds after releasing the pressure, hoping it'll give them enough speed to reach the other side of the bridge.
They managed to reach the halfway point of the bridge when Gabriel caught the sight of the bad guys reaching the bridge. Being told by Garrett that the bridge would barely hold them, he knew that it was near impossible that they'd make it off the bridge if the enemies were to also drive onto the old structure.
Gabriel's truck continued making its way across the overpass before the enemies too drove onto the old, wooden bridge.
To Gabriel's and the enemy's oblivion, the ropes on both sides of the bridge, which helped it stay up, were stretched, pulled. Very soon, the fibres in the rope began to rip. One by one.
The cracks that were present on the wooden platforms of the bridge only enlarged with each passing moment that the trucks spent on the old bridge. The wooden poles that the ropes were tied around began to bend inwards from the weight load on the bridge.
And then. Rip. Rip. Rip.
In a few places where the two pieces of rope stretched across the bridge - on either side of the overpass - the rope began to tear apart. The structure wouldn't last much longer.
Unless Shorty managed to get the truck across the bridge successfully, their fate was to await them at the bottom of the deep ravine.
Very soon they reached the final quarter's length of the bridge, and it was from here that things began to go from bad to worse. The rope only kept getting thinner and thinner as the fibres poped and tore apart.
And then... only metres away from reaching the end, a snap was heard. Somewhere in the middle, right where the enemies were, the rope ripped into half. At first, it was only the rope on the right, which caused the floor of the bridge to turn at an angle of more than 90 degrees. Such a thing caused anything that was on the bridge to free-fall down, hurl towards the floor of the valley.
But, before the violent turn of the bridge managed to reach and affect Gabriel's vehicle, they - just about - managed to make it to the other side of the old, collapsing structure.
Gabriel held Claire, unconscious, in his hands and watched out as the enemy's trucks raced down towards the pit of nothing but rocks that waited for them. The bridge managed to stay intact by the other strand of rope. Very soon it too gave way, and just like a piece of ribbon that was cut into half, the bridge followed the path of the enemy vehicles.
---
They spent about half an hour driving on a dirt road before they turned onto an asphalted road.
From there, Lieutenant Doyle headed straight before a turning was seen. It was that turn he took.
Claire was propped onto a row of wood that acted as a bench for sitting. Since Gabriel felt the chill of the weather through his top, he looked down at Claire before unzipping his top and placing it like a blanket over Claire.
Then, looking up, he approached a small, slideable compartment.
Moments passed before Doyle heard Gabriel's voice, "Are we almost there?".
"Not yet..." Shorty replied. "Although, we should arrive in about half an hour.".
Gabriel replied by nodding his head, and then something out the windshield caught his eye. Though it was still night - very early morning - he saw a glow of orange. Sharpening his look out the window, he realised that it was a plumb of smoke.
His eyes widened ever so slightly. "What's that over there?... Why is there a plumb of smoke?".
When Shorty got a chance, he looked at what Gabriel was talking about. And just like Gabriel, he had to sharpen his gaze that bit more, concentrate his sight to see the plumb of smoke. And when he did, his reaction was just like Gabriel's. Shorty widened his eyes as fear accumulated in the pit of his stomach. "That better not be the camp..." he replied as his eyes returned on the road.
Throughout the remainder of the journey, Gabriel kept his eyes on the plumb of smoke the continuously rose into the sky. The glow of the orange only grew more luminous the closer they got to the camp.
Slowly but surely, their fear was beginning a reality.
"Looks like there's a massive fire..." Gabriel commented, gluping in unease.
Only when the reached the camp did they realise how the fire came about, the camp was bombed. There was an ambush.
---
Carrying Claire out of the van, Gabriel rushed to place her somewhere safe. But whichever way he turned, he was faced with fire. With debris and people screaming in agony. He knew he has to place her down fast and help out the others.
"Captain!?" he heard a woman shout. Turning around, he recognised the woman to be Claire's friend. Gina.
Instantly, she saw Claire, unconscious, in his arms. "What happened, Captain??".
"It's a long story, but she's okay..." he paused as he looked down at her. "Thankfully...".
Gina noticed the small smile that formed on Gabriel's lips.
And then, as if he kicked himself out of his trance, his eyes looked up at Gina as the smile on his lips slowly faded away. "Can I ask you a favour?...".
He didn't even have to continue, Gina knew what he was going to say. "There are a few free beds in one of the rooms that still remained intact. Either way, help is on the way. They are going to transport the survivors to another camp close by.". A pause. "Until then, and even after that, I can take care of her, Captain.".
Gabriel gave her a nod and a smile of gratitude. "Thank you.". A pause followed before he continued, "No matter what, when she wakes up, she can't find out about the attack. I don't know how she'll react.".
Then, they were interrupted by a shout as their fellow soldiers walked by, carrying another injured soldier in a stretcher. Gabriel looked over and almost instantly, he recognised the soldier. It was Lieutenant Mason.