Flying in a helicopter was fun and all. But falling out of one was even better. There was no rules or surprise as to where you were going. Plumaging head first towards the earth was definitely the best bit. But that didn't last for long, I didn't exactly want to 'make out' with the ground. The blurred lights of the factory became closer. I pulled the strap of the parachute and with an uncomfortable jolt I was safe for landing. Avoiding trees, I steered the parachute to an opening where the team was.

As soon as my feet hit the ground, I wanted to repeat and go back into the helicopter. But we had a job.
I unbuckled the straps and gracefully threw it on the ground.

"Ha! You totally have the hots for me." James forcefully whispered and smiled at me, removing his own parachute.

I put my hands up in a prayer and looked at the sky. "God why couldn't he have had no parachute on when I punched him out of that plane. Why? It was the perfect opportunity!"

"Guys stop flirting, Ashleys already in. Get in positions."
I rolled my eyes and focused on the task at hand. James ran past me snd muttered "I would hardly call 'punching someone out of a plane' flirting but okay."

Everyone had a job. Aaron was our pilot, our ride here and back to HQ. Ashley was in the security room, disabling doors and looking out for possible threats. She was the eyes in the sky. Ethan checked the file rooms for any law cases related to past accidents. James was to take the ground floor with the delivery and supply areas to see what was being shipped in. And I was to take the ground floor to analysis the computer labs.

To say the least, the factory was huge. 'Callax' factory not only supplied and made the drugs but also shipped things here too.

I split off getting the small macanic box from my pocket. I rushed towards the gate that followed the whole perimeter of the factory. But just as I was about to make contact with the fence,  a small beep in my left ear was heard. Looking to the left side of the gate, cameras were seated all over the gate.
Bringing my finger to my ear I brushed my fingertips against the centre to enable to talk.
"Guys are you seeing these cervailence cameras, pretty much everywhere." I said.

"Ow shit. Guys don't touch the fence. It's electric." James said in shallow breaths.

"You can say that again. There's four guards at the opening of the gate. Theres also about five more around the southern gate as well. What kind of pharmaceutical company would need heavy duty 24/7 guards protecting this place?" Ethan said.

"A pharmaceutical company that has something to hide." I said.

"James can you you take care of my cameras why I discretfully knockout these guards."

"I don't think you can do that discretely but yes I can." James replied. I walked out from around the tree and grabbed my gun. Getting ready to put a bullet through there security.

Ashley cut in. "No need to worry about the cameras here. The power will be cut off in 3, 2, 1."
And sure enough every single light went off. And it was pitch black, not even the moon was near to give a little light. I reached in the belt and got my flash light. Shining it I walked towards the gate. I reached up and climbed over it, holding it with my hands I flipped off the gate and landed on my feet, sprinting soundlessly off towards the door.
I kicked open the door, and as soon as I did flashing lights shone at the entrance and an alarm went off. With my gun out, I shot the alarm, shards of glass shattered everywhere.

"That was the backup alarm Alex, sorry I didn't see that in the wiring."

"Its fine, just focus on the task." I replied.

I entered the factory. It was earily quiet, nobody was here. Machines were stationary and wrapped in plastic. Boxes and boxes of drugs were stacked in piles. I jumped slightly when my torch shone over loads of mannequins. They were spread around in, what looked like a safety set up. Freaky as hell.
I heard footsteps and instantly turned my light off, engulfed in the darkness.

A radio sound. "Yeah we have a 2413. The powers out completely. Backup generator should install itself in 5 minutes, over."

I slowly creeped along the wall, soundlessly. I steped on a rock and picked it up, rolling it in my hand.

"Effective and immediately secure and check the area. Lock all doors from sector 1 to 10. Is there any sign of a perpetrator or is this a blackout, over."

I threw the stone, hard to the other side of the room.
"Who's there?!" The guard shone his light to one of the mannequin behind him. His arm shook, he was terrifyed. I slowly walked towards him and tapped his shoulder. He turned around and I quickly punched him right in the temple, successfully knocking him out.
"Do you come in, over."
I picked up the radio from the mans belt.
"Ah yes this is sector-"
I looked around a sign was plastered to the wall with the "rules and regulations of Sector 7."

"7, everything is clear here. Permission to proceed to sector 8? Over."

"Granted. Report if necessarily. Over."

"Roger that." I breathed out, I had to locate where the tech labs were.

"How's it going guys?" I made my way up the staircase to the next level. The map that we anylised said that the tech rooms are in the next floor up.

"I'm looking through these filing cabinets and theres nothing here Alex, every simple accidental experiment is so air tight. They have some good lawyers. Callax have no tracks here." Ethan said frustrated.

"Keep looking. Backup generators are back on in 4 minutes. Can you handle that Ashley?"

"Already on it." She replied straight away.

"Just an update, we have 10 minutes and 11 seconds remaining."

I reached the stop of the staircase and this looked almost like a hospital or sick bay kind of area. A few wheel chairs were lined up neatly. I kept walking fast, until I reached a computer room, where I'm hoping they kept all there raw data from experiments, where no lawyers have touched the results. Finding the room labeled "Lab1" I opened the door. Four high tech computers took up the whole room. I sat down on the far right one, were I would be shelted from the other computers if someone came in.

Taking out the metal box I took out the USB and began attaching it to the computer. The screen went blue and awaited my command. Typing in the codes and numbers I didn't even hear the door shut, engulfing me in darkness once again. I swear to everything, that if a mannequin jumps out, I might have a heart attack. I looked behind me with my torch and my light shone against nothing but the door. I heard another quick set of footsteps and turned around to it. The wheel chair laying on its side, one of the wheels were spinning slowly. I got up from my chair with my gun.

"Quit playing games, come out." I said slowly but forcefully.

Suddenly a hand snaked it's way around my waist and mouth. Someone's was breathing down my neck. They locked down my arms with their elbows and my knees were kicked to a bent possition. The persons body behind me was strong, sort of like a warm rock. The persons lips slowly brushed from the base of my neck to my ear lobe. I struggled against the person. Once there mouth made contact with my ear, a silence fell over the room.

Then really quietly in a really terrible Darth Vadar impression the person behind me said "I am the Manequin." Are you serious! I elbowed the person behind me and they started laughing, turning me to look at them.

"Are you serious James, this is no time to joke around!" He was laughing so hard. I went to slap his face but he pinned my hand down to my side. So I kicked him as hard as I could in the shin. He buckled to the ground in a mixture of pain and laughter.
"It was too good, this place is creepy AF, I couldn't miss that opportunity." He said, running a hand though his hair, trying to hold in his laughter.
"You have to admit you were scared right?"

"Not really, the only thing that really startled me was when I turned my flash light on and you were here. Your face usually scares me."

"What! Okay, one: that would have scared any human and 2: my face is to die for. Just admit you were scared.
"Yeah well your a wimp, so I'm not surprised if you got scared." I laughed slightly. He laughed too.

I sat down in the chair and started going though the files that the hardrive had detected. James sat beside me.
I glanced at my watch.
"7 minutes and 23 secinds remaining." I spoke into the earpiece.

The computer beeped, signalling that it had found a pattern.

"Hey look here, those are ingredients that are put into the syrum." And it was, James was right. In the computer it was labelled 'manchona'. Underneath it was signed off with the same signature. Sicano Motaghic.

"That name is not Harvy Tradson." I spoke my thoughts.
"He's getting his supplies from this guy Sicano Motaghic." James said.
"Look he's signed off on all of these supplies from this company that i'm assuming, is owned by Sicano Motaghic." I said.

"Have you ever heard of this, manchona?" I asked James.

"Yeah I have, they put that crap in most modern drugs these days. It's what makes the medicine so addictive."

"You didn't find the liquid did you?" I asked curiously.
"We would not be here if I had Alex."

"We'll we've got something, Harvy Tradson doesn't have the drug here, he can't be arrested but he's not exactly innocent."

"Wait, click on that, there's recent experimental footage."
I clicked on the video and a woman that looked in her 20's was talking with a doctor. Someone in a white lab coat wrote on the board behind them.

"Test trial 5, day 10."

The woman stood still while the doctor injected her with a purple filled syringe. She winced but was smiled kindly at the end and left.
"Why is she doing this?"

"She must have some form of sickness or she's getting paid to be one of there guinea pigs." James said disgusted.

The next shot was cut and the same woman  sitting on the bed. She looked ansy this time, like she was forcing herself to be calm. She seemed to be lacking hair in certain parts of her head. The doctor smiled at her and injected her with the same thing.

"It's not Liquid X, so what is it."

I clicked on the last link and the board read
Day 38.
The woman was sitting on the bed and twitching, most of her hair was gone. As soon as the doctor opened the door she ran to him and attacked him. Chocking him against the wall. She grabbed the syringe and stabbed herself. The rest of the video was of her being wrestled down on the bed by more people in white lab coates. Then the video cut out.

I looked at James. "What the hell is that stuff."
"I dunno, but whatever it is. We're a step closer to finding out where this stupid liquid stuff is."
"If what they just injected into that poor girl was only part of the ingredients in liquid X, then imagine what it can do all together."

Just as I was about to reply, Ashley spoke frantically in my ear. "Alex somethings up, the backup generator isn't shutting down. The wiring is connected with somthing a lot bigger that I can't explain quickly right now. But 10 guards are forming and walking towards the west wing in the factory. They're coming your way."

"Okay I only need 2 minutes to download this file. Ethan you there."

"Loud and clear babe." He replied.

"Ethan I need you to gather what you've got and get to the south wing and get on the helicopter. Take the zipline."

"Gotcha."

"Ashley cover up your tracks and shut everything down from the west survalance cameras and replace the real footage with a previous night where nothing happened. Then get to the plane."

"Alright."

I turned towards the screen again, starting the download.

"And James,  just get to the plane. We need someone to flag down Aaron when he lands the plane to tell him it's safe."

"No way. Nothing good happens with a person being left behind."

"Would you just go, we don't have time. Stop being cliché, nothing will happen. I've got three minutes after the downloading is finished to get there."

"I don't like this." He tugged on his hair and grunted. "Fine, but don't do something stupid." He ran out the room with the torch.

57% downloaded, 1 minute and 27 seconds remaining.

Suddenly there were footsteps, two sets and they weren't James. I turned the computer on sleep mode and got under the desk, turning off my flashlight. I put on my black face mask also.

"I'll take this floor." Said one of the guards. The door creaked as he entered the room. He slowly walked around the room, checking each computer. I sat still,  steadying my breathing. He was on his way out of the room when he saw the blinking light of the hardrive sticking out of the USB port. Dammit!
He walked towards it. Moving his hand over the mouse, the screen lit up, showing him my intentions.

"What the hell, guys someone was trying to downl!-" I kicked him hard in the shin, so he fell to the ground. I straddled him and put a hand over his mouth and a knife to his thoat. Silently telling him to shut up. The other guards walked past yelling his name. When they passed I elbowed the guy in the head, he was unconscious. I checked the computer.

96%, 15 seconds remaining.

"Freeze."

I put one my hands up, the other on my gun. This man wasn't dressed like the other guards, he was wearing a black suit. He looked like he should be guarding the president or something. He looked like he had a title, some power maybe.
"Take the USB out of the computer and walk towards me slowly." I hooded my face from him, hiding my identity.

The screen flashed.
100%, 0 seconds remaining.

I grabbed the USB out and quickly turned my gun on the man, the bullet skimmed his ribs. I jumped over the desk. He flinched a little but turned the gun on me shooting the air as I dodged it. He hid behind the desk but not before I missed shooting his arm.

"Alex where the hell are you. We need to leave in 2 minutes and 23 seconds." Ethan frantically spoke into the earpiece.

"I'll be there. Just hit a bit of an obstacle."
The man was blocking the door, but there was a window next to me. It looked like a long way down. I needed to get to the door.

The man kept shooting at me, but I was hiding behind the wall of the window. I heard the click of a misfire in his gun, he had run out of bullets. I took this time to shoot and make my way to the door. Just as I was about to make it, I turned my back to run out of the room. And that was my biggest mistake, a knife was pulled around my neck.

"Who do you work for?"

There was a low probability of this working but I don't have time for this. I put the gun to his head.
"Which would be faster, you slitting my thoat or me shooting your brains out." I said in a low voice that sounded a lot like batman. I couldn't get caught.

Taking the chance I clicked off the safety on the gun, he loosened his arm slightly. Probably thinking that I wasn't bluffing. I took that oppotunity to slip under his arm.  It almost worked, I felt stupid. But when someone's pointing a gun at your head its in your human nature to want to do everthing in your power to escape.

The knife sliced very lightly down my neck and semi deeply underneath and above my colar bone. I screamed with my mouth shut and headbutted, using the back of my head to knock him out. I grabbed his knife with my blood on it and bolted. I just held my neck and sprinted down the hall. Blood was pouring all down my arm, but the amount of padding u was wearing nothing would hit the floor. Running up flights of stairs, non of the security guards were there. Ashley had removed all footage from the security cameras so I didn't have to worry about being spotted. I made my way to the roof. My vision was hazy and everything looked dull.

I made it to the final flight of stairs and entered the roof. I found the zipliner and quickly strapped myself in. It wasn't a huge distance away, but far away that the guards wouldn't see the helicopter. I got in and pushed off. The pain in my neck should have been a lot more painful but the adrenaline was keeping me focused. The wind was cold against my skin as I glided down the zipline. Nearing the bottom I braced myself for landing. Not being strong enough, I collapsed but I forced myself to stand again.

I could see the helicopter, it had already started. Aaron was in the front seat, he stopped eating his sandwich when he spotted me. His face panicked and he yelled at the crew in the back of the plane. I kept running, I felt as if I couldn't breathe.

Weak. Your weak with out. I heard a voice in my head.

Ethan opened the door and James ran out of the chopper. I don't know why he was dramatically running towards me, I was doing great. That is until, I tripped on a stupid ditch. I felt cold, but warm hands picked me up.

"What did I tell you Alex! Nothing stupid."
He lefted me up in a bridal position.

"Na ah, I may be in agony right now." I tried to wiggle out of his arms.
"B-But there is n-no way you are holding me like I'm some damsel is distress."
James just ignored me and kept running,  I gave up struggling halfway there. I was in too much pain.
We finally arrived on the plane, James layed me down with my head on Ethans lap. Ashley and Ethans faces looked worried. But they didn't look so great either, they each had scratches and bruises over their faces.

"Baby what happened?" Ethan said holding my face, trying to examine my neck.

"You should see the other guy." Ethan smiled weakly at my comment.
"Can we go Aaron." James said putting a very thin blanket over me.
Aaron nodded and took off.

"Well t-that was a s-uccess." I stated with a shaky laugh, shivering. James walked over to me with first aid supplies. He didn't look at me, his expression was hard and stony. Ethan stroked my hair.

"Did all of you get information with-" I asked.
"Dammit Alex! Why didn't you just let me stay with you." He looked at me, his blue eyes looked like storms.

"I wasn't trying to be dramatic. I just wanted the mission to succeed. Plus I got the hardrive with all the evidence."
They nodded in approval.

"We're supposed to stay together." James replied quietly, choosing to ignore my good news. I winced when James grabbed my neck gently and lifted it up. With one hand working on my wound. His other hand, was running his fingers traced up and down my jaw and neck in a soothing matter. I breathed out, his fingers distracting me from my neck.
There was a silence for about a minute. Ashley was helping Aaron at the front of the plane. James was busy cleaning my wound and I was trying hard to pretend like it didn't hurt.

"On the plus side, that slice is gonna give you a pretty bad ass scar." Ashley walking in from the front of the plane. Ethan and everyone laughed. James did not. I smiled at Ashley.

"Yes! And they could call you Scar. You would have the best back stories."
Ashley was laughing so hard.

The rest of the ride back to HQ was filled with imaginative story and situations that made me look like a badass with a huge scar on my neck. But in reality it was probably going to leave a tiny scar on my neck.

James wrapped a bandage around my neck. My eyes were drooping, slowly fallling unconscious with the medacation he gave me. Just as he was about to get up, he grabbed my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. We made eye contact and I gave him a small smile. He winked back, dropping my hand and sitting in his seat.

I looked outside the window, at the twinkling city lights. The song 'as time goes by' playing loudly in my ear. Slowly the city light colours blurred together and my eyes shut.
_________________________________
Dun dun dun
No joke, I finished this at 1:57am. I wont be able to feel my face in the morning. Like the weekend.
No regrets tho 😌 :)

Just out of pure curiosity, where are you guys all from?

Vote and comment :)

©Alrak- Just your Average Teenager
#JYAT