Roll the Dice - Chapter 7 (8/9)

[mangacat201]

Chapter Six

Jared knew something was up, but he couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Everybody else seemed oblivious to it, but he had spent so much time with Ackles in the last two and a half weeks that he was quite attuned to the man’s moods and tells. There was tension in his demeanour that was completely separate from what Jared was used to, and the closer he came to being able to shut down unhelpfully spontaneous sensory spikes, the more he was able to ascertain his observations. He didn’t continuously think about it, there were other pressing matters on his mind after all – get out of his head, out of his dreams, out of here – but it seethed in the back of his mind, ramping up a strange sense of anticipation that frazzled his nerves. Which is why he wasn’t at all surprised when he lay awake, bathed in cold sweat one night, and suddenly the door swished open quietly, and a shadowed figure stole into the room. He sat slowly, sheets pooling down around his waist and barely kept himself from throwing a punch when long fingers closed around his arm. Doctor Ackles’ face slid out of the darkness, and he signalled silence with a finger on his lips before throwing something down on the bed next to Jared and motioning at it with his hands. In the ever-present faint glow of the monitors, Jared could barely make out what it was, but when he touched it he immediately recognized the fabric under his fingers and wasted no time putting on the uniform. He followed the doctor, who had yet to utter a word, out into the grey corridors and easily kept the pace when they headed a way he had never taken before. An unobtrusive entrance, and an ID-check later, they stood in an impressive arsenal with the doctor stopping, seeming somewhat uncertain for the first time, biting his lip indecisively. Jared knew that whatever was going on, this was not the right moment to be asking questions, so he settled for taking in the unfamiliar appearance of the doctor with plain dark civilian clothes replacing his usual white armour.

Jensen felt sweat bead on his forehead as he took in the rows and rows of guns, trying to find the right rack in all the weaponry on display. He finally closed his eyes to make himself think, since this ridiculous escape plan had already worked about three steps further than he had dreamed to ever get with it, and it wouldn’t do to get caught out on the wrong choice of weapon of all things. He finally recognized what he was looking for and resolutely lifted one off the rack and thrust it in Jared’s arms, hoping to all the heavens that the other man would know what to do with it, before he pinned the ID-card to the uniform jacket. Now came the hard part.

“You need to go back up the corridor. Take three rights, one left and take the elevator up to the top level. Turn left, two corners, then relieve the guard post of his shift. Show the ID, but make sure that he doesn’t take too close a look at the picture; if there are any questions, tell them that you’ve just been assigned under orders 224-alpha/56, can you do that?”

“Sure thing. Mind telling me what all this is about while we’re at it?”

Jensen wanted to say everything there was to say, so badly, but they didn’t have time.

“I have to get you out of here.”

Jared looked at him with a grave expression for a few seconds, and then he nodded.

“I’ll meet you at the north wall of Building 624 fifteen minutes into the shift, that’s a 45° angle crossing right from the regular post. Now go.”

Jensen closed his eyes when he heard the soft swish of the door and started counting.

They say that your life flashes in front of your eyes in the moment you die, but for Jensen it was this moment in time, waiting in agonizing silence for the alarm to go off wailing or something, picturing Chris’ furious face, hoping that his best friend would be able to decrypt the message that he’d hidden on the tablet, however insubstantial and brief it might have been in case someone else got to it first. Jensen continued breathing, his head spinning about all the things, all the people and questions about whether it was worth it, but then he reached the count, and his feet moved without a second thought.

There was no going back now.

~*~

Jared felt his heart hammer against his ribcage and wondered for a fleeting moment if it was strong enough to beat out of his chest as he followed the doctor’s instructions and miraculously did not meet any of the quite frankly expected obstacles. He couldn’t believe that this was really happening, not that he hadn’t entertained plans about leaving this facility with a different destination than the higher-ups had in mind, but the way the doctor had facilitated this exit had come completely out of the blue. Still, the machine gun was a heavy and familiar weight in his hands, and the comforting sound of his boots on concrete helped him fall back into practiced motions and lines of thought in no time and did wonders to alleviate his nervousness. The final minutes of patrolling aimlessly and waiting, waiting for something wasn’t sure was going to happen, that was agony. When Jared finally heard steps, he was equally prepared to face either Ackles or as another tac team out for his hide. But it was a lone figure who rounded the corner and headed straight for Jared.

“We don’t have much time, but we have to be careful to avoid the camera angles on the way out of the immediate vicinity of the buildings. Here, take this and lose the gun.”

“What? No, I can’t just…”

“It won’t be of any help with what we’re about to attempt. On the contrary, if we’re spotted and happen to be ARMED I don’t have to tell you it will be shoot first, ask questions later. Besides, we can’t afford to take anything that weighs us down.”

Jared was reluctant to relinquish his hold on the fickle protection, but if his idea of what they were going to do was anything close to accurate, he knew it was the right thing to do.

“How far?”

“How far what?”

“How far do we need to go tonight?”

The doctor shot him a glance over the shoulder before hurrying on in a carefully placed zigzag around the buildings.

“We need to go straight North to get past the fence and find transportation that’s been left for us.” Hopefully, “It’s about 35 miles.”

Jared felt the blood drain from his face, but he couldn’t let his step falter.

“What kind of terrain? Straight up desert, or nasty surprises?”

Ackles fiddled with his watch for a moment before answering.

“There’s some canyons and rocky cliffs on the way that we have to be careful with, but no mine fields or the like. They believe inconspicuousness is the better kind of protection for our kind of operation.”

Jared calculated the path in his head and figured that there was no way they would make it before daylight, but if they kept up a steady pace they could cover a considerable amount of ground, and the further away they got, the more thinly spread the search divisions were going to be, so there was a chance they could slip through the grid even after the sun was up. Having a civilian with him though, someone not used to this kind ordeal and recently injured to boot, was a whole different can of worms. But they didn’t have a choice, it was either go forward or retreat to the bunker to face whatever horror  had driving the doctor to this kamikaze mission in the first place. The desert it was then.

“It’s not going to be all that easy to navigate that kind of terrain in the darkness though.”

“Yes, now would be kind of a good thing to switch on the night vision, don’t you think?”

“Ha, you’re joking, right?... Right? Wait what? I can do that?”

“I doubt you’d be able to learn it on the fly, so I brought these.” Jared got a pair of goggles shoved unceremoniously into his hands. “but theoretically…”

Jared didn’t even deign to glorify that with an answer. Instead he followed the doctor out of the shadow of the last building and into the cold dark night.

Jensen concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, ignoring the incessant burn in his thighs or how the straps of the backpack seemed to cut into the flesh of his shoulders like steel wire. They had been walking a steady, but gruelling pace for about seven hours now, and the sun had just risen completely above the horizon. It was not yet scorching hot, but Jensen knew that they wouldn’t have much time before the temperatures would be rising exponentially, and they still probably had a good eight miles to go. Jared had taken the lead a while ago, long legs widening his stride, and instincts more familiar with the movement on desert terrain, and Jensen only double-checked that they were still on the right track from time to time. He saw Jared tense and turn his head sideways occasionally, but from the lack of panicked scrambling for cover, he assumed that, whatever might be happening, it was far away from them. He figured that under the best of circumstances the absence of the guard post hadn’t been noted for about three hours, until the required check-in time, and then it would have been still more time, before the staff realized they were missing. But Jensen had no illusions about the fact that there would be people hot on their heels a lot sooner than he was comfortable with. He and Jared hadn’t exchanged many words since they’d left the compound, but he knew that the other man had come to the same conclusion. Jensen longed to talk to him about his reaction to the whole scheme, but he couldn’t find it in him to find a thread of conversation to broach the subject. Besides, he didn’t really have any breath to spare for talking.

Oh, but it hurt to breathe.

A sudden rush, and an abrupt change of altitude made Jensen dizzy, the very tall silhouette of Jared blurring in front of his eyes. He felt a floating sensation for a moment as if he’d left his body behind and wondered if he’d stepped into an unexpected dip in the terrain when a pained grunt reached his ears muffled and distorted. Huh.

When Jared heard the thump and groan, it took only split second for him to turn around, but he already found Ackles on his knees, tilting like he was three sheets to the wind and about to fall flat on his face.

“No, no nonono, don’t do this too me, come on, get up.”

Jared knelt in front of him and tilted the other man’s head up, slapping his hand against Ackles’s cheek. He should have known that Ackles was faltering, he should have paid closer attention.

“Can’t…”

“Yes, you can, come on, drink this.”

Jared held a water bottle to Ackles’ lips and watched him sip carefully, until the last swallow went in the wrong way and had him spluttering and coughing all over the place, crying out in pain. He raised his eyes up to Jared’s face, bright and desperate, before he spoke.

“You have...to get.. going.”

“What? No, I can’t just leave you out here.”

“I’m slowing.. you down, chances .. are they’ll get us both that way. They .. don’t want.. me.”

Jared knew that wasn’t true. There were always consequences when you pulled shit like this, especially with the people they were up against.

“That’s bullshit. You have no idea what will happen to you if they find you.”

And what if they don’t.

Jensen tried to breathe slowly through the agony and simultaneously concentrate on forming a striking argument.

“Doesn’t matter. I have.. to get you.. out. Get going, Jared.”

The use of his first name clearly startled Jared. Jensen had been referring to him by it in his mind, but not to his face, and that Jensen had held on to the information seemed to surprise him. But the shock lasted no more than a couple of seconds, before something gleamed in his eyes, and his expression turned as hard and stubborn as flint.

“You have to kno…”

“No. No man left behind.”

And with those words he dragged Jensen up in one staggering swoop and hooked Jensen’s right arm around his shoulders while wrapping his arm securely around Jensen’s hip, dragging him into a painful, stumbling walk.

Jensen felt that had no choice but be along for the ride.

Jared felt his breath go in and out, heart beating strong and steady even as sweat was pouring down his back from navigating himself and most of Jensen’s dead weight through the desert under the scorching sun. He concentrated on those simple biological mechanics while his feet ate up the miles, even as all those precious seconds ran through his fingers, and detection became more likely by the minute. He was so focused on monitoring his and Jensen’s breathing that he almost missed it, but the soft thump thump thump tickled something in the back of his mind, and when he made the connection his senses came online with a sudden clarity that almost brought him to his knees.

“Oh fuck.”

The swish of the razor sharp rotor blades was unmistakable now, and for once he didn’t fight the world tilt and the stream of calculations and measurements flooding his blue tinged vision. From the vicinity of his collarbone he heard Jensen protest weakly against their suddenly increased pace as Jared struggled to lead them safely over the rocky ground, scrambling towards an empty riverbed. He watched the pebbles roll down in front of his feet as he slid into the niche of an overhanging rock and prayed to all that was holy that they didn’t look too conspicuous from up in the air. Back pressed against the rough stone, he dragged the doctor down into a crouch with him. Jensen roused and began to mumble, but Jared leaned close and covered his mouth as fast as he could while he hissed under his breath:

“Be quiet.”

He could see the moment the other man began to hear it too, glassy eyes blown instantly wide, and breath catching against Jared’s fingers. They stayed that way, frozen, just inches away from each other while the patrolling helicopter raced right over their heads, and, in that moment, for the first time since he had woken up… Jared felt grateful to be alive.

He waited until the sound of the patrol had turned faint even to his heightened senses and then coaxed Jensen out of his hunched over position, grimacing alongside the other man when the move aggravated his aching ribs. The reason that they had just narrowly avoided being spotted turned out to be the fact that the fence was just a few hundred yards away, hidden by a jutting cliff. They both blinked owlishly at it for a couple of seconds and then Jensen went off in a sudden burst of adrenaline. Jared followed suit, and with little effort they cut an opening into the wire mesh that let them both through. Jensen checked his watch with a glance, tapped at it a couple of times and then was off to the left without another word. Jared still spotted it first though, a jeep, cleverly disguised with tarp and local shrubbery in a suspiciously military fashion. He grabbed Jensen’s arm and dragged him over to the vehicle, dragging away the cover quickly and finding the doors unlocked. He looked over to the passenger side where Jensen was holding onto the roof of the car with a white knuckled grip, but the other man finally managed to open the door and scramble into the passenger seat under his own power. Jared folded himself behind the wheel and found the keys stuck in the ignition, but then, they were fifty miles away from the middle of nowhere. Who was going to steal a car parked here? His attention reverted back to Jensen, who was trying to open the glove department with shaking fingers. He reached out, dragging the latch open and took out the little leather pouch that was tucked in there. Its content felt firm and square, papers, documents perhaps.

“No, not… the CD, take…”

Jared’s eyebrows crept up as he stared at the cover.

“We’re in the middle of the Great Escape, and you’re in the mood for the ‘Best of Mullet Rock’? Seriously?”

“No, jackass, put it in.”

Jared complied, still feeling a little sceptical, but once the disk had vanished into the slot, it whirred for a moment, and then the built-in GPS-system booted, started calculating and spewed out precise instructions.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

A triumphant grin spread over Jensen’s ashen face.

“You should see what I can do with a toaster. Now, drive.”

Epilogue