Dog Tags

Chapter 15

A/N Hey guys! So, did you ever wonder what their names mean? I researched my characters names very closely. Hagan and Sloane. Look up their meanings. It's really cool!!! Sadly, this may be a very short short short short short chapter. I've got one part planned, but other than that it's just coming off the top of my head. 

Chapter 15

Liam tossed a pebble at the road, cursing under his breath. His eyes were red and angry, after having cried for an hour on end. Nova wandered a bit behind him, carrying Ryder's lifeless body. The kid weighed next to nothing. 

Aaron was nowhere to be found. 

Liam let out a shaky breath, turning around to face Nova. "Should I take him?" He asked, eyeing Ryder. Nova frowned. The last time he'd began to get so angry that tears poured from his brown eyes. "Come on, I'm okay now."

There was the hint of doubt that made Liam's voice crack, and he gulped slightly. Nova slowly handed the bloody beaten puppy over to his best friend. Liam took a steadying breath, his eyes covered by the shadows of the trees. 

Nova took the lead, shaking his head at his thoughts.. Sometimes he wanted to stick his middle finger to the world and scream. His fingers tightened around the trigger. 

There was a slow rustle in the undergrowth beside them, causing them to glance into the black forest. The sun had set hours ago, when they were trying to decide how to get Ryder back to camp after his life had bled out of him. Nova raised his gun to the forest.

Something knocked him to the ground, and he lost connection with the FAMAS. It flew out of his hands and into the night. The mass smacked him in the jaw.

Nova kneed him in the stomach, before rolling over and pinning the figure down, slugging him in the nose. "Who are you?" 

"Nova?" Aaron's voice asked. "Get off me, you great lump!" 

Nova stood and helped a bruised Aaron up. He brushed himself off before glaring at him. "You might have popped my jaw out of place, idiot."

"You might have broken my nose, moron." Aaron chuckled, wrapping him into a hug. "God, I thought I'd lost you all."

Nova's throat grew tight, as Liam stepped out of the shadows. "Aaron." Aaron's head whipped around, his smile bright. He went patted Liam on the shoulder before turning to the both of them. He was looking for someone. 

"Where's Ryder?"

Nova caught Liam's glance at the mass in his arms. Either Aaron was blind or he wasn't ready to accept it yet. Aaron was close to all the members of his troop. It wouldn't be a shock if he didn't take it well.

"He's dead, Aaron."

Aaron flinched at the sound of Liam's tone. It was angry, serious, and not like Liam. Liam was usually the clown of the group. Ryder was the beaten puppy, Liam was the clown, Nova was cocky, Aaron was strong and strict, but loving, Gunner was protective and mysterious, and Sloane was the determined younger sister.

There was an awkward silence as Aaron took the mass from Liam. It took a moment, because he wouldn't let go. They glared at each other while Nova stood in agony. "Sloane and Gunner."

Aaron and Liam gave a brute nod, after they'd finished their stare-off. "We'll rescue them."

"Tonight." Liam said, his voice cold. "We're not losing two more." 

~!~

Sloane

There was nothing for me to do when they dragged me to a big room, one much larger than the interrogation room and the place I'd been kept for the past two weeks. Salazar held my arm tightly, before he threw me into a chair nearest the end. 

People with fancy uniforms started to pour in, filling seats beside me. One man had a neatly trimmed white beard, another with a smoothed go-tee. He glared over in my direction, before lowering himself in a chair beside mine. 

I could see this was not going to go well.

Clearing my throat, I nudged Salazar. "What's going on?" He rolled those evil blue eyes, before turning to face me. 

"We're deciding what the hell we're going to do with you." His voice came out as a hiss. "Since we don't know how to get information from you."

I frowned, crossing my arms and propping my feet on the table. A ton of angry remarks headed my way made my bold, cocky feeling come back. I stuck my tongue out at them. Just then, Vernas walked in. Everyone in the room stood and saluted him, while I let out a high-pitched laugh. 

Salazar knocked my legs off the table after everyone was seated, but I only kicked him in the gut and put them back up. His face earned a slight greenish color. After that, nobody seemed to care what I did or didn't.

Vernas sat at the head of the table that seated 24 men and I. He started mumbling junk like how happy he was to have each of us there. He named a few, which they acknowledged with a small nod. When his eyes fell on me, he grinned his famously evil grin and started to pace the room. "Salazar has come into acquire a special little girl."

"Hell, I'm not little!" I shouted. Their gazes fell on me, before soft mumbles spread within the group. Vernas shot me a look that made me chuckle internally. His face was starting to get red with anger. I couldn't resist laughing aloud. 

"Hush!" He called, his voice echoing around the room. It fell so silent you could hear a pen drop. It took Vernas a minute to regain his speech. "She's got information that we need to destroy the U.S."

I started noticing the other people weren't Cuban. A paler man raised his hand. "Ah, Ivankov. Have you any methods to torture the information out?" 

His stunning electric blue eyes fell on me. "Why don't we drown her?" 

"Because I'm good at swimming." I said, before I laughed again. Ivankov burrowed into his seat, his eyes closed. That's when I got it. These people wanted the U.S. destroyed, left with nothing but the remains of dead bodies. My face grew hot. 

The man beside me growled. "Why don't we just kill her boyfriend?"

I lunged for him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and picking him up. He was too stricken to move, his eyes as wide as quarters. I threw him against the wall behind him. "Touch him and you're dead." I hissed through clenched teeth, before slamming his head against the concrete. His eyes rolled back in his head and I let him drop to the floor. 

Turning around, I sat down in my chair where everyone was staring at me like I'd just killed the President of the United States. I shrugged, propping my feet on the table again. 

"We can't...um... hurt him, because he's already being tortured with nightmares that we've poisoned him with."

"You did what to Gunner?" I snarled at Vernas. Salazar stood, knocking his chair over in the process, before he picked me up by my neck. 

"Permission to take her to see the boy?" He asked formally to Vernas. The black haired, black eyed man nodded and Salazar dragged me by my neck, hissing and scratching like a feral cat. 

As we rounded a hallway, he threw me into the prisoner room. "You've got three hours, maybe less." He snapped, slamming the door in my face. I sat there for a while, pounding on the door. 

"Sloane?" I heard, and turned to face the voice. Gunner was sitting there, propped up on an elbow. His eyes were hazy like he didn't believe I was really there. His hair was messy and longer, and he had a cut on his lip. The rest of the lacerations were healing nicely. 

I stumbled over to him, trying to find something to tell him that would make him remember what was real and what wasn't. Finally something popped in my head.

"We're all just chasing sunsets that fade before we get there." I whispered, and his face lightened like the sun. He wrapped me into a massive bear hug that I started choking from lack of air. He'd missed me. He'd really missed me.