The Guadeloupe Squadeloupe

Chapter XXIII: Guad

"[He] is quiet till something needs said. He's fearless and goes where others don't tread."- Harris

I knew it.

At first it is hard to tell where the footsteps are coming from, but once my eyes adjust to the light, I can see a doorway across the bunker.

There is a dark figure walking out of it.

Diana's breath hitchs and I know she saw it too. Out of the corner of my eye I see her pull a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

"We need to leave," I says, stating the obvious. "That's Delgato's insigna on the floor, the same one we have on our fingers from the rings." And Delgato's probably the one coming down that hallway, I think.

No one says or does anything, like they don't care that their lives are in danger.

"Guys!" A voice comes from down the hall. It's the person coming towards us, and the voice isn't Delgato's. "It's me! Finn Ashton! You guys are in a major twist!"

To my surprise, everyone goes forward to greet him.

"What are you doing?" I scold. "It's probably a trap!"

"Calm down, Guad," Ashton says in a soothing voice. He steps out of the darkness and into our only light source. For someone who maybe has been down here for a while, he looks pretty clean.

"Why are you here?" I ask, ignoring him.

"I was trying to find you guys."

"And tell us about how you gave us a bugged car?" Perry snaps, suddenly angry.

"I didn't know!" Ashton protests, his British accent revealing how frantic he is. "Anyways, don't you know this bunker belongs to-"

"Me."

Ashton moves up against the wall on the side we came from in an instant, and so do the rest of us.

Delgato moves out of the shadows as if he simply appeared there. He's flanked by two of his nefarious henchmen.

It's hard to tell how much of our conversation he heard, but all I really care about it getting away from him. Or more importantly, getting him away from Bob.

"Did you think," he begins, "that I don't keep security cameras inside of my bases?"

I reach for the switchblade in my pocket. It found it's way into Delgato once before, and it'll have to do it again. I flick it open.

The desire to kill Delgato overruns me. I want to shave off his mustache and slice off his smirk.

"Do you think you can hurt me with a petty pocket knife?" Delgato taunts.

"I don't know." I smirk. "It almost killed you a little while before, and to be honest, you didn't look so high and mighty when it was in your stomach," I growl.

Fear flashes over Delgato's eyes for a moment and I feel the squad stand higher next to me for a second.

"I have two armed soldiers with me. I'd watch out," Delgato says with his teeth gritted.

"No," Ashton suddenly says. "You will watch out!"

Suddenly, he reaches into his pocket and has a gun pointed at Delgato's head in one swift motion.

Both of the henchmen cock their rifles and aim them at Ashton. I begin to feel pathetic with my small knife the same way Delgato said.

"Finn Ashton," he laughs, regaining his confidence and not the least bit fazed. "You've 'helped' the 'squad' quite a bit, completely beraying my organization, supplying them with a car. But you've made a few slip-ups along the way and this has to be the most interesting by far."

Ashton gulps, his hands beginning to waver as they hold the pistol. The tip is shaking, like any bullet that comes out won't find its way.

"Here you stand, putting all your new friends in danger," Delgato cooes. "Good thing we want them alive. But you, however, are disposable."

Ashton, realizing what's about to happen, leaps to the side just in time to avoid any fatal wound, but as he falls, a shot goes cleanly into his arm.

One of the girls screams and then something else happens.

Bob runs away.

"Bob!" I yell.

Not looking back, he sprints down the hallway that Ashton first came from.

My heart begins to race and I can start to panic. I can't lose Bob. I can never lose Bob.

So I run after him.

"Guad come back!" I hear Perry yell behind me.

I ignore him as I follow the twists and turns of the hallway, barely keeping Bob in my sight.

I become afraid when forks begin to appear in the path. The squad's going to follow me and get lost, I think frantically.

But I keep running.

Not paying attention to the burning fatigue searing through my body, I move along.

Until Bob stops running.

At the end of a hallway, he yells, "Guad! Guad stop! You're going to-"

I don't stop in time. A ringing fills my ears as I crash into the wall and knock myself out.

...

I have the dream for the first time since the day I got mugged. I'm back in all white, about to fight for hours.

This time I'm in a place I've never been before. I'm standing ontop of a wall in a giant underground maze.

I gaze around and see the cloaked man a few feet ahead of me on another wall.

Instantly, I launch myself forward, hoping I can knock him into the maze.

Chuckling, the man steps to the side and lets me fly ahead. With a painful thud and a grunt, I find myself clinging to another wall behind him.

I scramble to get myself on top and the man jumps over and joins me.

I swipe a kick at him legs and he jumps, punching me in the face.

Blood freely flowing from my nose, I regain my footing and swing a blow to the side of his head, connecting my fist with his temple.

Begining to understand that I'm gaining the fight, I left my leg up and kick him in the stomach. The man stumbles back a few feet.

I grin and grab his shoulders, throwing him over the edge into the maze.

His body dissapears into darkness.

Exhausted, I fall onto the narrow ground and wheeze. I won. I've never won before.

A familier voice echoes through the maze. "Guad, wake up."

The scene around me begins to blur. I blink my eyes open and see a worried Bob, staring at my face intensly.

"Are you okay, Guad?" He asks.

I nod, standing up. No more time on the ground, please.

Alice and Diana stnad around Bob, looking at me with concern.

"Perry and Janis are gone. We don't know what happened to them," Bob chokes, pain clear in his eyes. Janis, I think.

"Guad," Diana speaks up. "We're, we're stuck in an underground maze."