Join Me In Paradise ~Samuel Drake~

Chapter Eighteen.

 Suddenly everything went pitch black. Ellie's hands clenched into fists as the emergency lighting came back on, and her eyes immediately went to the place where Sam was standing before. He was gone, and so was the cross. She let out a breath and noticed Sully already going towards the exit calmly. Ellie wasn't exactly briefed on what to do after this, she knew that she had to meet up with them somehow, but it was more challenging as she didn't want to make Rafe suspicious of anything.

"The cross-it's gone!" Someone shouted, and there was a collection of murmuring as people looking all around, confused. Rafe turned on his heels and noticed Sully walking out, the door closing behind him.

"Hey! Stop that guy!" He exclaimed, pushing his way through the door towards the door that was now covered by two guards. "What are you doing?! Stop him!" Rafe waved around the paddle with his bidding number on it.

The guards didn't react at all, one of them pointing a gun at Rafe, ordering him to stop. Rafe threw the paddle down on the ground, obviously looking pissed off. Ellie's eyes surveyed the room and found that there were now guards blocking every single exit, and Nadine noticed it as well.

"Shit." Nadine muttered, seeing Rafe still yell at the guards to let him pass but it wasn't working. "Rafe is going to go ballistic, that was his only lead." Ellie nodded, crossing her arms. How the hell was she going to get out of here and meet up with the other three?

"Do you have an idea who did this?" Ellie asked carefully, acting as calm as she could. She turned her head towards Nadine, looking for an answer but the woman shrugged and shook her head.

"Honestly? I don't know. I only care enough because that cross is the way for me to get paid. So either way, we are going to find out who it is." Nadine answered. "Anyways, I better check and make sure Rafe isn't going to have a heart attack." Nadine walked off, leaving Ellie alone in the crowd.

She heard the crackle of sound in her ear piece and walked as far away as she could from Rafe and Nadine. "Got it?" She asked, still glancing around the room as she leaned against a wall, close to the stage.

"I got Saint Dismas right here, wanna say hi?"

"Yeah we really kicked the hornet's nest down here. Ballroom's locked down and security is scrambling." Sully reported, luckily he was outside already unlike Ellie who was still inside of the ballroom.

"Yeah no shit, they are covering all the exit's and I got no way out." Ellie sighed, seeing a door behind the stage. "I think i might have it covered, but it's gonna take a while."

"Okay, get on that. Victor, where's our getaway?"

"The driveway out front, just follow the spotlights. I'll bring the car around." Ellie stood up from leaning against the wall and walked towards Rafe and Nadine.

"I'm going to try and talk to one of the guards here so we can leave." She told them, and Rafe looked up at her. He squinted his eyes a little bit and cocked his head to the side.

"So you can suddenly speak Italian?" He asked and Nadine trained her eyes on Ellie. Ellie swallowed hard, but regained her calm composure.

"I'm sure I can figure out something, Rafe. Would you rather stay in here for God knows how long then get out now?" She asked and he let out a small laugh. It was humorless and cold.

"Fine, I expect you to be back."

Ellie and nodded and turned around and disappeared into the crowd, going towards the stage door, it probably lead to back stage that might have an uncovered exit. That was her hope anyways.

Ellie closed her hand around the handle and turned, but it didn't go very far. It was locked, as always. Fortunately, this one wasn't electronic. Ellie kneeled down to the handle's height, pulling a bobby pin for her hair. Ellie carefully pushed it inside of the lock, working on it before hearing that click. She didn't realize that she had been holding her breath while unlocking the door.

She got back up and opened the door, closing it behind her. The room she was in was definitely a backstage, seeing a bunch of sound equipment and some cases of prized possessions that were going to be auctioned off before the blackout. Ellie tore her eyes away from and saw that at the end of the room was a door with the exit sign, of course in Italian.

She briskly walked towards the exit and pushed the door open and was out on some walkway. She looked up towards the rooftops, seeing guards patrolling up there. Ellie looked around the pathway, seeing a few lights that were bouncing reflecting from the pavement. Ellie drew in a breath and went in the other direction, following the lights like Sully said.

Ellie walked as far as she could until a gate stood in her path, and just beyond that gate was the driveway. There were clusters of people rushing to cars, speeding away. The gates were open, and most of the guards were going towards the ballroom.

"Shit." Ellie groaned, sighing as she slumped her shoulders a bit. On the side was a ladder that had been kicked down, maybe Sam and Nate went this way before. The ladder didn't go too high up thankfully, since Ellie had this weird thing about heights.

She began to ascend the ladder, climbing all the way to the platform. Once she stood up and peered over the edge, the ground seemed to sway a little bit at her feet. Ellie averted her eyes away from the ground and went forward, going doing the ladder on the other side.

The driveway wasn't much further, but the multitude of guards that were now crawling all over the driveway didn't ease her nerves. She walked along the darker parts where the light didn't hit. There was a courtyard, and then behind the gate and along the road was the driveway. There was an enormous fountain that was in the middle of the courtyard.

Without warning, gunshots began to go off in the building behind her, which meant that Nate or Sam, maybe both were not far away. Ellie learned that the sound of gunshots or yelling was usually where the two were.

There was a guard that was coming around the corner where Ellie was hiding. Once he came close enough, Ellie put her hand over his mouth and grabbed the gun that he was holding, bashing him in the side of the head. The guard was knocked out and Ellie let him hit the floor.

The door busted open and a few guards went in but hit the floor as Sam and Nate came running out, brandishing guns. The hid behind two columns, Sam was right by where Ellie was.

He looked down and smiled. "Ellie!" He threw her a lopsided grin before emerged out from the column and shot down some guards. "Great! Help us get rid of these bastards!" He tossed a assault rifle at her and she grabbed it, taking out a few guards on her own and covered the boys as the descending down the stairs.

"Where the hell is Sully?!" Ellie yelled over the sound of gunshots.

"No clue!" Nate called back, ducking as a guard sprayed bullets at him. Ellie ran over to where they were and took cover, reloading.

"Still got the cross?" She asked Sam who nodded, popping back up from where he was leaning against and shot some more down.

"Sully, it would be great if you-" A car broke through the gate and slid across the grass, Sully throwing the door open for them.

"Come on!"

The three made a break for it, sprinting across the courtyard and just barely got in the car and slammed the door shut before bullets impaled themselves in the door. Ellie leaned back in the seat, it being big enough for the three of them to sit. Ellie was crammed in the middle though, being the smallest out of the two.

"Well," Sam breathed out, his breaths were heavy along with the other two as Sully sped out of there, going towards their hotel. "That was fun, right?" He beamed, pulling out the cross and tossing it to Nate who caught it, turning it over in his hands.

"If that is your definition of fun, then you need to go to a water park or something." Ellie chuckled, shaking her head a little. She was in a good mood, sure she felt out of breath and her feet were killing her from being in heels. But it was so worth it.

"Sully, after this, I want you to take us to the world's best water park." Sam leaned towards the front seat, looking at the old man.

"Are you paying?"

"No..?"

"Then settle for a rainy day, kid."