Pessimism (Book One)

Chapter 22: Surrounded

We were all laid out on the floor resting. It was probably midnight around three in the morning. I couldn't fall asleep and I didn't think the others were asleep either. I sighed. I saw a figure standing by the window. I slowly got up. He was staring out the window. I crept closer to him. I grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. It was just Ethan.
"Dude, you nearly gave me a heart attack." He said as he pushed my arm away from him.
"What are you doing up so late anyway?" I asked. He ignored my question and continued to look out the window. He seemed a little off. I couldn't understand what he was feeling. "Ethan?" I patted my hand on his back for comfort of some sort.
"I'm fine. Like I said, I'm okay." I cleared his throat. I didn't take his word for it.
"Forgive me if I don't believe." He stayed quiet. What was he staring at? I looked out the window. There was nothing.
"I'm going back to bed." He turned around and headed to the laid out blankets. I stayed up for the next thirty minutes just watching the window. Something was wrong.

I woke up the next morning and stretched. My back felt horrible. Everyone was awake except me.
"Rise and shine Aurora." Kaitlin mocked. I was too tired to laugh. I scratched my head and looked around. I got up. And went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I heard the doors unlock. I came out and looked who it was.
"Where are you three going?" I asked Kaitlin, Ethan and Elaine.
"We need to stop by somewhere and get some supplies. We will be back in a bit." Elaine answered. After they left, the entire house fell silent. Grant was cooking up burnt eggs and Almery was playing cards with himself. I was so bored. The heat from outside was incredibly hot. I was sweating and so were the rest of us. The mornings shouldn't be this hot.
"Is it hot in here or what?" Grant flipped his egg.
"A little too hot." Almery got up. I could see the sweat. What did he mean by too hot? "Does their house have a ventilation system?"
"Probably- Oh no, you don't think?" Grant shut the oven off.
"Think what?"
"We were followed." Almery answered. He looked out the window. "Three mysterious black armored vans on three separate blocks. They weren't there when we came here."
"Damn it." Grant took a Mac 50. "It's too hot in here for this." I took a grenade.
"They are coming." Almery shut the blinds. "There are twelve of them. Each with rapid fire machine guns." These walls were wooden. Those shots will just fly through.
"Ian, when those two get near the back door, throw your grenade."
"The back door? That's our escape route."
"No time to complain Ian. Just do it." Grant told me. I pulled the hold of the grenade. I threw it and the two men saw it and ran. The explosion sent them flying twenty feet away.
"Now is our chance." Before we could even run, bullets started to fire in every direction through the walls. "Get down!" Almery yelled. We dropped to the floor and covered our ears. The guns went flying everywhere. This wasn't good, if they throw a bomb in here, the ammo will ignite. After the bullets stopped, we slowly got up. Lowry took a sniper rifle and ran upstairs. He was going to take them out, but I don't how long it will take before they notice we are armed.

Grant and I went to opposite sides of the house. We smashed a window and started firing.
"Get down! Get down!" We heard them say. They hid behind cars firing at us. After they were done, we blindly shot back.
"I'm out of ammo." Grant said as he pressed the magazine release of his firearm and reloaded it with a full magazine. I tried to make up for Grant as he came back in the game and started firing again. We won't be able to hold them back for long.
"I have an idea." Grant told me.
"Well, whatever it is, you better make it snappy because I have a feeling even if we make it out of this, Kaitlin is going to kill us." Grant chuckled. He started moving.
"Follow my lead and whatever you do don't slip up." He rolled to the other side of the room, near the back exit. "If these guys are from the government, they'd have back up, strangely enough they don't. Just who are these guys? And how's they find us anyway?" I was thinking the same thing. Grant pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
"Hey Almery?" I looked at him in surprise. He brushed me off. "Do you see that red Hyundai at the southeast of the building?" He waited for his reply. "You think you can cover us until we get there? Perfect." Grant shut his phone.
"When did you?"
"Don't ask." He cut me off short. "Once Almery starts firing, that's our cue, got it?"
"Then how will he get out of there?" I stopped.
"We will meet him around the back and he'll jump on." Grant pulled me. "Come on, that's our cue." We heard gun shots from above. The men turned to the roof and took cover. We started out the back door and ran as fast we could to the street. It was a bit farther than we thought. We fired at the men to keep them from firing back at us. When we got to the car, Grant smashed the window and unlocked the car.
"What are you doing? Our car is over there." I reminded him.
"We don't have time, it is three blocks away, remember?" He got in and hot wired the car. The engine started. "Get in, we gotta go!" I reluctantly got in. Grant stepped on the gas pedal and drove past the men. He drove past the house too.
"What about Almery!?" I looked back.
"Don't worry about him. Just keep your head down for a bit." Grant made a U-turn, drifting cleanly back towards the direction we came from. He accelerated again and we started to drive right at the men.
"Umm, Grant?" He continued driving. "Grant we're gonna crash."
"Get ready to jump Ian." He unlocked his car door and I did the same, hesitating.
"Oh god."
"Now!" Grant leaped from the car. Just when I was about to, my car door was jammed.
"Shit, open!" The car was still on drive. It was going to crash right into their vehicles. "Open!" I slammed the door and barely made it out. As I rolled to the grass, I watched the car zoom at the yelling men. Almery fired at the car with a bomb. It exploded as it crashed not the other vehicles. Almery ran around the building atop the roof and slid down from the ladder. He ran towards us.
"Let's go." He took my hand and I got up.
"Ian! I told you to jump!" Grant yelled at me.
"It wasn't my fault." I sighed. "Next time, just tell me the plan." Almery laughed.