Caitlin stopped the car and we all jumped out, John had been giving her directions.
"I know you didn't have to save me, too.
Thank you" Reed said stopping Marcos as i rushed past.
"Thank us when we're home and safe.
Right now, you need to get out of these clothes, and we need to move.....They'll be hunting for us" Marcos replied before joining us. John and Lorna were pulling dust sheets off a couple of cars.
"These cars aren't traceable, right?"
"New plates, no record. They're good" John assured him.
Marcos leant in to the car and grabbed a bag that had some clothes in and passed it to Lorna "Thanks babe" she smiled pulling out a jacket and pulling it on over the prison top she was wearing.
"Im so glad your okay Lorna" i finally had a chance to say to my friend, she smiled and we quickly hugged.
"Im glad you stayed with the team, i did wonder if you would take off...."
"Nope I'm here to stay I'm afraid" i laughed with her.
"We gotta talk" John said to Marcos and Lorna "When we were out there, when we lost our powers..."
"Yeah, what happened? What did they have?" Marcos asked looking concerned.
"It was Pulse. He was there with Sentinel Services"
"What?" Lorna asked with wide eyes.
"That's impossible.....He died" Marcos said looking at John like he was mad.
"Marcos, I saw him. He's alive" I added backing John up.
"No, he hated Sentinel Services. He protected all his people in Macon..."
"They raided that station" John told Marcos shaking his head, he didn't want to believe it either but we couldn't deny what we'd seen.
"No...No, he'd never work for them" he shook his head in disbelief, but the sadness on Johns face must have convinced Marcos it was true.
"God, if they can turn Pulse, then they can....." Marcos started saying but stopped when John held his arm up, his hand in a fist, army signal for stop. I looked at John as he closed his eyes and started tracking what it was he could hear.
"Sentinel Services drone coming in.
We got to move, now. It'll see us soon" he said opening his eyes.
"I'll draw it off, try to take it down" Marcos said heading to one of the cars.
"Okay, I'm coming" Lorna told him.
"You just got out of prison, Lorna"
"You go, I go" she stated using her power to open the door, he smiled at her knowing he wouldn't win this argument. "We'll meet you at headquarters. Go." He said to us before jumping in the car and speeding away.
We waited until we saw the drone follow after them before getting in the second car with Caitlin and Reed and heading to headquarters.
"Can you see anything following us?" John asked taking his eyes off the road for a second to look at me quickly.
"No, nothing..... they must still be on Lorna and Marcos" i said looking out the window.
"Good, we don't want to be leading them back to headquarters!"
"I'll keep checking..... if i see anything i'll fry it" i assured him moving my side mirror to get a better view behind us.
"I hope Clarice and the others got out okay....." i said suddenly, i was worried about my friend.
"She'll be fine, she could get out if she had to"
"I know" i nodded "but i'll feel better once i see shes okay".
***
Walking into headquarters we were met with a load of talking, it was so loud! We looked around and there was just so many new people! Everyone talking over each other....they sounded panicked. "Shatter!" John called seeing one of the regulars walking towards us.
"Hey"
"What are all these people doing here? What's going on?" He asked leaning on the bannisters looking down at him.
"More like what isn't going on.... you need to talk to Sage" he said before rushing back to his task.
"Johnny whats going on?" I asked looking up to him.
"I have no idea, come on lets go talk to Sage" he took my hand and led me through the crowd of new arrivals.
"How long has it been like this?" He asked Sage once we were in the command room.
"A while. Soon as you hit that convoy, Sentinel Services hit back" she told us
"How hard?"
"Raided every place there were even suspected mutant sympathizers.....no warrants, they are out for blood"
"We got our hands full, and we can't move anyone, not with this kind of heat"
"I'm manning the scanners, trying to keep our people off the grid"
"We need to keep listening. If anything comes up on the radio, we have to know about it".
Sage nodded and went back to monitoring the police scanners.
Suddenly we heard raised voices from out in the hall
"What do you think you're doing here??" A man yelled, i didn't recognise him.
"Let's talk about this....." Reed said trying to calm him down
"We ain't got nothing to talk about!" He shouted before disappearing before our eyes, Reed doubled over from the impact if the punches this guy was throwing.
"What's going on? Stop it!" Caitlin cried out.
"You nearly got me killed!" The man yelled as Reed's family cried out for the mutant to leave him alone.
"That's enough!" John yelled with an authoritative tone catching the mans fist in his before it connected with Reed again. The man became visible again and looked at John strangely.
"What are you doing?....How about protecting us?" He snapped before turning to address the room "Just so y'all know, last time I saw this son of a bitch, he was working for Sentinel Services"
The crowd that had gathered all started murmuring "Everyone, just calm down" John told them.
"Calm down? This dude's job was locking up people like us!"
"Just listen" Lauren spoke up for her dad
"My dad prosecuted mutants, okay? He did. But when he found out about us.....he stood up to Sentinel Services"
"Yeah, by wearing a tracker into my bar!" The man yelled again.
"Hey, back off my dad" Andy stepped forward in an attempt to protect his dad.
"Andy" Reed shook his head and stepped forward "I was doing what I had to do to get back to my family.....I realized I was wrong...."
"And I'm sorry....That-That's it, right?"
"Hey, just hear him out!" John snapped stepping towards this angry man. We heard a man cry out in the distance and Caitlin stepped forward "Okay, stop.
There are injured people here. Why are we attacking each other?"
"You go, You help them. Take Andy and Lauren with you. I'll work this out"
"But he's saying that....." Lauren started to say but the screaming got louder.
"Caitlin, I need you in here now!" I heard Clarice yell and felt relieved that she was okay.
"What he's saying is true" Reed admitted "You go.....I can handle this, Let's work this out" Reed said to everyone.
"Come on, i'll come with you" i said leading Caitlin through to where Clarice was. Harry was laying on a table bleeding out, Clarice was stood holding gauze against his wound.
"What happened?" Caitlin asked
"He was shot.....I don't know, it won't stop bleeding" Clarice told her stepping away to let her deal with him.
"Hey are you okay?" I asked Clarice giving her a quick hug.
"Yeah I'm fine, are you okay?" I nodded with a smile "yeah I'm good".
"Hi. It's Harry, right? Harry, I need you to listen to me. I'm gonna take a look at your wound"
"It hurts"
"I know.....I need you to be strong for me" she smiled kindly, she turned to face Clarice and i "I need clean gauze. Towels will work, too. And painkillers....
Dilaudid, fentanyl, even codeine, anything you can find"
"Okay" we both said before taking off down the hall to the supply room.
