Agent 38: I Never Forgot You

Chapter 35: No Good

     "Where are you?"
     Those three words were the only thing going through Sarai's mind for the past four days.
     She had made no progress on finding out where Alex was. All she knew was that Gabriel had taken him, that they were either at his base or at the spot 143 klicks southwest from it, that she had sat around doing nothing but staring at a map and talking to the Splatoon for the past four days, and that the door seemed to be growing more tempting to run out of each time she looked at it.
     Fun times.
     Sarai had given Pearl a call to ask if she'd seen anything from her brother recently and explained her situation; the Inkling responded with a simple no, but she'd be sending out a search party soon for the last search party that had been sent for the one before it. Turns out Pearl had sent 4 groups already and none of them had come back, so she was having trouble finding willing volunteers.
     "I can be a part of your next party," Sarai had said, practically pleading. "I'm tired of sitting around and waiting for something to happen. Count me in."
     "Great!" Pearl had exclaimed. "I only need one more person, then. You think anyone else on the Splatoon would volunteer?"
     "Actually, Pearl," She had lowered her voice although no one else was in the house. "I think I'll be the only one. Do you mind not telling anyone about this?"
     The phone had gone silent for a second or two, then, "I really don't care. But if I get in trouble for this, it's on you. Got it?"
     "Yeah."
     "Good. The team leaves in two days. Does that work for you?"
     "Absolutely."
     "Great. See you then."
     "See you."
     Fantastic. Now, with that whole thing dealt with, all that was left to do was try to catch the train to Splatsville.
     *Two days later...*
     With her duffle bag over her shoulder, Sarai stepped off the train. The air felt thick and humid, the sun beating down on her skin. In a matter of seconds, she was uncomfortably hot. How did people live like this?
     She made her way towards a new shop called Hotlantis; Pearl had told her to wait for her there.
     After around 10 minutes of waiting, she saw the little Inkling coming and waved.
     "Hey, Pearl. Long time no see." Sarai greeted. Pearl wore a baby pink hood, white shoes with a platform of at least 5 inches, and two small crown clips in her hair. She looked both happy and worried.
     "Yeah, no kidding." Pearl said, putting her hands in her pockets. "You ready to do this?"
     "Absolutely."

     A short time later, Sarai was introduced to the rest of the rescue team (which consisted completely of Inklings). A pair of siblings whose third piece had been taken while defending herself, a middle-aged mother and father whose son Nicholas was kidnapped during a raid, Nicholas's older brother, a quintet of angry people who were just tired of seeing their people vanish. And herself, whose partner had been stolen during a personal attack.
      They all piled into the back of a cargo truck and set off. She sat in the corner, silenced her phone, and braced herself for the two hour drive.
      Over the trip, Sarai noticed she had recieved an odd amount of glares from everybody on the team. Slowly, surely, she felt her confidence shrink, her eyes focus on the ground, her frame grow smaller. Why were these people so angry with her already? She was going to help them save their relatives, and all she got in return were dirty looks?
     After around fifteen minutes of playing off the glares as nothing but a coincidence, she stood up and moved aside the curtain that led to the front, sliding it shut behind herself. Pearl gave her a quick "hi" from the top of her perch on the booster seat as Sarai sat down.
     "What's up?" The little Inkling kept her eyes on the road and took her earbuds off.
     "I'm sorry to cut to the chase," She started, keeping her voice low. "But why is everyone looking at me like I took their family members and not Gabriel?"
     "Oh, um. I dunno." She said offhandedly.
     "Pearl."
     "I don't know!"
     "You couldn't lie to save your life. Tell me the truth."
     "I don't kn-"
     "Pearl."
     "Ugh, fine!" She groaned. "I wasn't thinking before I said it, and I accidentally told them our next volunteer was the guy's sister."
     "You what? Pearl!" Sarai caught herself and lowered her voice.
     "I'm sorry," the Inkling muttered. "They asked if I knew you and I said yeah, and I wasn't really paying attention so when they asked why you were joining, I told them small bit of your situation. I caught myself before I told the whole thing, though." She paused, then added, "and I could totally lie myself out of death, for the record."
     "God, no wonder they hate me." She buried her face in her hands with a groan. "Do you mind if I sit up here, then?"
     "Do what you want," Pearl said. "I don't care."
     Sarai crossed her legs and watched the road for a while. Pearl put her earbuds back in (at a disgustingly high volume, so much so that she could hear the music) and continued in silence.
     At some point, she must've fallen asleep, because she blinked and then her surroundings looked completely different. There was no longer any road, her body was angled towards the window, and she felt significantly warmer.
     Sarai pulled her phone out of her pocket. There were 17 missed calls.
     She cleared her notifications and turned to face Pearl, who was glaring out the windshield with an angry look on her face.
     Sarai cleared her throat. "What's wrong?"
     She glanced at her, then took off the earbuds again. "What?"
     "What's wrong?" Sarai repeated.
     "Oh. Stupid grass's too tall for me to see," Pearl explained. "Map says we're close, but I can't see anything and I don't wanna crash into anything." She sighed, stopping the car and pulling the keys from the ignition. "I'll tell the team."
     Sarai patted herself down, making sure all the daggers were still on her, then stretched and opened the door.
     The air was thick and hot, clogging up her throat, and the sun felt like a raging mess against her skin. She wouldn't be surprised if she got a tan from standing out here for more than a minute.
     She walked around to the back of the truck and immediately recieved a glare when she turned the corner. Sarai looked down and edged closer to Pearl.
     "Alright, everyone." The Inkling began. "I'll distribute the weapons in a sec, but right now, I'm going to run down the plan again." She pointed to Sarai. "You will be at the front of the formation. The siblings will be behind you," She spun and pointed at the mother and father with one hand, gesturing to the brother with her other arm. "You three and I will be behind them. The rest are behind us. Grab your weapons and we'll head out."
     Everyone returned to the truck and opened a large chest, each pulling out their own weapon. When they were done, she peered over the edge of the chest and smiled.
     Pearl reached in and grabbed a pair of rose gold dualies. "I left the brush for you," She said.
     Sarai picked up the Inkbrush, feeling its familiar weight in her hands as a longing feeling grew in her chest. Oh, how she wished she could return to a time when things were so much simpler. Where the scars weren't everywhere she looked and her partner wasn't kidnapped, where her brother wasn't a psycho and where she was happier than ever. A lump formed in her throat and she swallowed hard, forcing it back down.
     Just find Alex.
     Pearl tapped her shoulder and placed her phone in Sarai's hands. The screen showed a map with a red dot a small ways away.
     "Everyone in formation!" The Inkling barked. She looked back at Sarai. "Lead the way."
     The brush was high, and the sun was strong, but after cutting her way through the forest of dry plants, she finally saw the structure.
     Her hearts sank into her stomach almost instantly.
     It was abandoned.
     The cars were no longer lining the fence, the gate was wide open, and the motorcycles had been removed. It was as if they'd never even been here in the first place.
     "Pearl," Sarai called, pivoting around. She threw and arm out, gesturing at the empty buildings. "Nobody's here."
     Her features quickly fell, and she went silent for a moment. "It's... it's fine. We'll search it anyway, they could still be in there."
     Sarai nodded and kept moving.
     She heard faint whispers from the group as she slowly pushed the gate open a bit more and walked through. The dry ground crackled beneath her feet as she went, looking around and hoping she'd see any sign of life. Part of her knew they wouldn't be here, that they'd already moved. And the other was screaming, sobbing, praying that they hadn't left yet. That he hadn't left yet.
     Sarai made her way through the maze, the others following her. She could hear one of them asking somebody why she knew where to go and suddenly realized how incredibly suspicious she seemed right now.
     She stopped at an intersection, unsure of where to go next. Pearl came up behind her.
     "What's wrong?" The Inkling asked.
     "I don't know where to go from here," She responded, looking side to side down the halls. "I haven't been here in a while and even then, I never went far in."
     "So you've been here before!" Someone from the group cried in a very accusatory tone. She turned to see one of the siblings pointing at her. "You're in cahoots with that bastard, aren't you?"
     Sarai glared at him. "I came to get him to stop."
     He scoffed, loud and unconvinced. "Uh-huh. That worked real well."
     "It's not my fault he's my brother!" She said, temper flaring inside her chest. "If I were any other Octoling, you'd be fine with my presence, wouldn't you?"
     "Yeah, because any other Octoling isn't helping some idiot steal my family!" He shouted. "You're only here to kidnap us, too!"
     She stormed up to him, staring dead at his eyes. "I'm here because he took my partner, and I'm going to get him back."
     The Inkling crossed his arms. "Psh. Sure."
     "Rai." Pearl interjected strongly. "Stop it."
     "No," Rai said. "I wanna know why she's here and not in some camp training some more Octolings to become kidnappers."
     Sarai raised her brows. "You wanna know?" She yelled. "I'll tell you; I'm here to help you save your damn family from my psycho brother because I don't wanna see anybody else be torn away from their relatives. I'm here to help make sure your sibling is alive and safe," she spun to the mother and father, "to make sure your son is alright," she pointed to the quintet. "and to make sure your friends, not mine, won't be kidnapped anymore." Sarai turned back to Rai. "So I suggest you zip it and trust me so we won't have to waste anymore time arguing about why I'm trying to help you!"
     The Inkling opened his mouth to respond, maybe to shout something back at her, but then a small voice echoed down the hall.
     "Hello? Is someone there?"
     A quick glance went around the whole group, and they all ran towards it.
     Sarai sped to the front. "Hello? Where are you?"
     "In here!" A chorus of voices shouted, each from different rooms. She heard banging on several doors.
     "Hang in there," Pearl called, catching up to her as she stopped in front of a room. "We're going to get you all out."
     "Stay away from the door," Sarai shouted. She stood in front of it, braced herself for the impact, and slammed her heel into the door, a few inches away from the lock. A loud crrrrack! sounded all around, and the bottom hinge busted open. She kicked it again, harder this time, and the top hinge toppled off as the door fell.
     Inside were three Inklings; a male certainly over thirty, a young teen no older than sixteen, and a small girl who looked maybe ten. Their faces collapsed with joy at the sight of so many people here for them, and the girl instantly began to cry.
     "Get them out," Sarai said, turning to the group. "I'll get everyone else."
     With every kick came a yell, not of fury or anger or sadness, but sheer longing. With every falling door came another dissapointment as she eagerly surveyed the faces inside. Please be here, She prayed. With every body that wasn't his, every pair of eyes that weren't familiar, came another ragged tear to her hearts.
     Sarai smashed down that final door, bursting at the seams with anticipation. He had to be here. He had to.
     But as everyone flooded out and the room was left empty, as the tears burst from her eyes and her hearts broke one by one, the only person Sarai was left holding was herself.

This took me so long omg 😭😭😭😭😭😭
sorry dudebros
ily sm have a good one!!!!!
sorry for any typos/grammar errors
ily!!
Word count: 2265