Intervention | NaNoWriMo 2018

Chapter 35 - The Confrontation

Marie turned and walked away from the door, her hands running through her hair. She rounded the table and picked up random items on the table, observing them in silence as she bit her lip and stared off into the distance.

"Marie, it doesn't mean this is the end of the road," Lincoln finally said as he approached the table.

Marie looked up and gently set down a wrench on the table. "No? What do you call that?" she said and gestured towards the double-doors with her hand. "They're not going anywhere. We can't go through there. Can we go back? No, not really. Lincoln, we're stuck. I'm stuck!" Her eyes teared up as she spoke.

"Don't worry, I have a plan," Lincoln said, his hands raised as he walked over to the table.

"A plan?" Marie said with skepticism in her voice.

"Yes. You wait here, I'll backtrack and create a diversion. While the soldiers are busy attending to my diversion, I'll come back, and we'll get you out of here."

"You realize that sounds a lot easier than what it will be. What kind of diversion?"

Lincoln opened and closed his mouth twice while gesturing slowly with his hands. "Could be anything," he said after a few uncomfortable moments. "A fire? I don't know yet."

"So your plan is to leave me here and figure it out on the go? That might have worked on Earth, but this is different. How can you even be so sure those two would even move?"

Lincoln was about to protest when the doors burst open and the two guards Lincoln and Marie had spotted moments ago entered, their weapons drawn.

"Don't move," the first soldier tried to yell, his voice faltering. "Move, and we'll kill you." The soldier's wide eyes darted back and forth between Lincoln and Marie, the muzzle of his gun following the movement of his eyes. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and his breathing was rapid and shallow.

"Ok, ok," Lincoln said, his hands in the air, pretending to stumble backward. Marie, across the table and immediately to the left of the soldiers, followed his example.

"Don't move," the first soldier repeated. "Gordon," he said over his shoulder, "Report our discovery to command."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Lincoln said and took a sideways step towards the table and slightly forwards.

"Why not?" Gordon said. "Our orders are to report any suspicious activity."

"That's my point exactly," Lincoln continued while he gave Marie a long stare. "We're not doing anything suspicious."

"Oh yeah?" the first soldier said and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "You shouldn't be here. That's suspicious."

"We shouldn't be here? We're part of the maintenance crew."

"This section locked down, no-one is allowed in here. Gordon, report it already."

"Benton, I'm trying, I'm trying, the bloody radio isn't working again.

"Oh, so that's what the alarm was all about?" Lincoln said, his eyebrows raised, feigning surprise. He pointed towards the access panel they had entered the workshop through while he took another step towards the soldiers. "We've been cleaning the access ducts for the last few hours. Comms are terrible in there too, lots of interference."

Gordon and his colleague both turned and looked in the direction Lincoln pointed at the same time. Lincoln jumped two steps forward, took hold of the rifle with both hands and kicked Benton straight in the gut while he pulled on the weapon. The man grunted as he let go of the weapon rifle and stumbled backward towards Gordon. They both collapsed in a heap on the floor.