The Cumberbottom Incident: Rhett and Link

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Great Escape

Rhett's POV-

I continue to follow Mike with Link close behind. Alex helps Stevie walk and keep up with the rest of us. Whatever Marcus gave her was pretty strong.

 Mike interrupts my thoughts with an excited breath, "Guys!" he pauses in his tracks and turns around. "I think we found the entrance..." He points to a beam of light that is peeking through what seems to be a window at the end of the hallway. Link puts his hand on my shoulder and I can hear him let out a hopeful sigh. I think we're actually getting out of here. It's about damn time.

Link's POV-

The hall is still dark, but our eyes slowly adjust to the growing light at the end of the hall. We still try to remain quiet, but so far we haven't heard anything that seemed to be a threat. Now that my adrenaline is tapering off, I can feel my stomach pang with hunger. Rhett nudges me with his elbow as we walk behind Mike down the corridor. 

"Link.." he whispers, "This whole thing is crazy, isn't it?"

I chuckle slightly under my breath and look at the ground as I speak, "Yeah..it's like a weird dream or something.."

When we make it to the end of the hall, and we are met with loud yelling noises from around the corner. Mike motions to Rhett toward an open door, while he backs into another room with Alex and Stevie right across the walkway. Rhett pulls me from the back of the arm into a small room that appears to be a broom closet. He shuts the door in front of us and presses his ear up against the door. The noises grow closer and all I can hear is...Marcus?

"PUT ME DOWN!"

"...no."

"I'LL DOUBLE YOUR DAMN PAY! I'LL-" 

The hallways turns silent, but I can hear the heavy creaking of feet  on the aged wood of the floors. 

"Rhett?" the low familiarity of Doug's voice sounds from the opposite side of our hiding place door. Rhett looks at me and I can see his confused expression in the dark.

Rhett's POV-

I open the door slowly and I am met with Doug smiling almost stupidly, with his unconscious and unusually small employer slung over his shoulder. I can see our crew members slowly entering into the hallway.

Four other burly men walk up to me from behind them, I'm almost frightened until one of them outstretches their hand toward me:

"Maxwell. But you can call me Max."

I hesitate, but Doug nods for me to take his hand, "Yeah, that's Max. He's the intern. He wouldn't hurt a fly." I shake Max's hand and smile, "Well, hi Max. I'm Rhett. Your boss took me and my friends here as hostages for what I assume to be around a week." Max furrows his brow. 

"Doug was partially lying," he says with a slight frown. I can see Link raise an eyebrow in confusion. "I did kill a flea once. I had to take desperate measures." I am about to respond when Doug places a massive hand on my shoulder. "These are my co workers..er..friends.." He motions toward the three other men. Still some of the largest men I've ever witnessed. "Olaf, Constantine, Herb, and..uh..Maxwell. There are more of us, but the others are...uh..sleeping. " They nod in greeting, and I begin to assemble a list of questions in my head. How did he pull this off? 

As I am about to blurt out a series of questions, Link's voice cracks with exhaustion from behind me: "Doug...how exactly did you do all of this?" He gestures toward Marcus, who is flopped over pathetically over Doug's shoulder. I just now notice that he is not wearing his usual hat, and by the sight of his bald spot, it's pretty obvious why he wore a hat at all.

"Well.." Doug starts, "Getting a hold of Marcus was not the hard part..it was the rest of the crew." Olaf interrupts him, his accent was particularly thick and I assumed it to be Russian. If there was one thing Marcus was capable of, its hiring cliche bodyguards. "We fought them. Then...sleep."

"Sleep?"

"In short, Marcus has way too many tranquilizer darts laying around," Max laughs, "and with the help of many unconscious secretaries' fingerprints, the computer system was hacked like a breeze."

"This story is riveting and all, but we'd like to leave." Stevie retorts from the other side of the hallway. No one criticizes her harsh remarks because frankly, we all feel the same way at this point.

Doug points toward the large double doors around the corner, "The van is that way."