Takeover || (Completed)

Running Out of Time

It was beginning to become a common occurrence for Luke to wake up in an unfamiliar environment, only to realise its a hospital. Luke sat up and examined his surroundings, a routine that he had repeated so often that it had now been conditioned into his memory. He was almost sure that he only had a few years left, what with being hit by bombs and other large objects. The room was relatively bare except for a few stands, his bed and an ECG to his left atop a stand. The walls painted a mix between blue and white, which made the place seem strange to Luke.

Luke knew the drill by now with these occurrences: a doctor would eventually come in, tell him whatever had happened and then would let him leave in a few days. This time, however, it was different. The man who walked into the room was not a doctor, at least he wasn't dressed like one, and had a surgical mask that covered his mouth and nose. Luke could tell by their eyes who it was. Luke's fears were confirmed when they took off their mask, and for a brief second Luke could see them formulate an expression of regret on their face before Luke passed out from shock and fell into the abyss once again.

Luke was in the same room that he had been in many weeks before. The same hieroglyphics on the wall, the same slimy, moss-covered floor and the same tiki-style torches. The only thing missing was the table and the wrinkled old man that accompanied it. Fortunately for him, the lack of a table and man meant there were no vials of poison. On the flip side, however, a film of glassy and viscous substance began to rise from the floor. Luke's feet began to feel wet. Then his knees. Then his waist. Finally, the substance moved above his mouth and Luke could no longer breathe. He swam up so that he could take another breath before the substance fully consumed him. There were no visible exits, no way out and no escape. Luke was going to die.

Luke woke up calmly. Fortunately for him, he was still in the hospital, meaning that they hadn't taken him away as they had done before. The doctor - the proper doctor - came in just a few minutes after he had woken up from his slumber and was holding a clipboard as he walked into the room.

Luke was released from the hospital just three days after he had woken up. He was picked up from the hospital in a white 4x4, the driver being their chauffeur, William. The drive took under an hour, which was enough time for Luke to devise a very basic strategy for how they could defeat Germany or at least gain the high ground against them. However, the plan was very risky and could cause the downfall of everything they had done.

After the bombing at the palace, they had to relocate their base of operations to somewhere else. They decided to relocate their HQ to a small manor in the countryside that was an hour's drive from Paris. It was made of stone and rose three storeys high, the emerald-green vines covering a large amount of the windows. The porch outside was cracked and had an entrance into the basement. Despite all its disadvantages, the place had WiFi and heating, so it would be home for the next few months, or years. Luke walked haphazardly into the house, where he could already see messy piles of clothes thrown to the sides and a myriad cables lining the floor. However, he was tired from the journey and walked straight to the nearest vacant room, where he dropped his suitcase onto the floor and leapt into the bed.

When he woke up, the door was open. Only slightly, but different from what it had been when he had fallen asleep. It took him more time than he had expected to notice that Caryna was in his room, staring absent-mindedly out of the window. Her hair was flowing freely down her back, a change to the pony-tail which she seemed to constantly have her hair in. Luke didn't move for a few minutes and just watched her silently. They hadn't talked much throughout the entire duration of the plan - in fact, Luke hadn't really talked to anyone apart from Daniel and some other people since it had started - but he had begun to develop feelings for her. Ever since they had talked to one another at the beach in Tristan da Cunha, Luke had been attracted to her. It had been exponential. Eventually, Caryna turned around and Luke did his best to impersonate someone who had just woken up, an act which was pulled off relatively well. Caryna laughed as Luke reached out to get his phone off the dresser, which had 80 new notifications when he had fallen asleep. He looked through them, eventually tapping on a Gmail from a person who Luke didn't recognise. I can probably get someone to trace them, thought Luke as he slowly read the email.