T.N - Chapter 72

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I could barely comprehend the sight of Kent holding John hostage, never mind focus on his demands. His mouth moved, but all I could hear was a roaring silence as thoughts flittered through my head. Kent...he’s betraying us? It couldn’t be...

I felt someone tug at my hand, pulling me towards the back of the truck where Graham was. I stumbled along and noticed that everyone, except for the two at the cockpit, was all piled in the back. “I’m sorry,” breathed Wolfgang into my ear as he squeezed my hand.

“What are you say—“

“I already said, no talking,” said Kent, cutting me off. He gently pushed the muzzle of the gun right against John’s head.

“This is just a clever trick, a way for us to focus on solving the problem instead of bickering by providing extra crisis! Like we’re going to crash in a few moments and we couldn’t figure anything out and so this was your way of helping, right?” I knew I was babbling, but I didn’t care. “You couldn’t possibly betray us, you’re Kent, you’re like family, you helped us so many times, you—“

A gunshot ran through the air, and I winced as I heard the shattering of glass. John was shaking, and clutching what was left of his right earlobe. Blood trickled through his fingers, running down his arm, and started dripping onto the floor.

Kent shot John. Kent shot John. Kent betrayed us. Kent betrayed us!

“If you would be so kind, Mr. Gable, please silence her before she becomes a hazard to John’s safety,” said Kent. “I’m afraid she’s close to hysterics, which makes delivery to the boss a little bit more difficult.” Wolfgang let go, only to clamp a hand over my mouth and wrap his other arm around me in a restraining embrace. I hadn’t realized until then that I was hyperventilating, and that tears were running down my face.

“Now then, Graham, I do assume that you’re finished preparations for landing?” asked Kent. “Otherwise, I’m not certain if we will be able to get out alive.”

“Done,” replied Graham. “Though quite respectfully, we won’t be able to open the back door with the vehicle’s systems down...”

“That is of no consequence at the moment,” replied Kent. He ushered John towards the pilot’s seat. “Now then, I’m going to turn the manual system on, meaning that you’ll be able to land us and the doors will be able to open.” He turned towards us. “If any of you try anything, and I do sincerely mean anything, I will blow John’s head off.” He pointed the gun back at John’s head and smiled.

The Terries growled, but didn’t move forward. I could feel Wolfgang tense up and pull me in even closer. Laura, calmly and coolly, said, “We understand.”

Kent pulled a small hard drive out of his shirt pocket and plugged it into a port on the dashboard. He then quietly pressed a few buttons, and the lights on the dashboard came back on. “That should do it,” he said, sounding satisfied. “Now John, if you could do the honour of landing us.” He glanced at his watch, “I hope to be on the water’s surface in one minute. I’d hate to be late.”

John’s ear was still bleeding, but he stopped compressing it in order to take control of the wheel. The nose of the vehicle started to dive down even more rapidly than before, and I could see the glittering blue Pacific Ocean coming closer and closer...

John suddenly pulled up, and the vehicle jolted and bucked as it met the water’s surface. He pressed one of the lit buttons on the dashboard, and the back door of the truck swung open. Water started rushing in at an alarming rate.

Graham quickly pulled a cord on the life raft, and as it expanded, he pushed it onto the water. Kent, escorting John, climbed in first, followed by everyone else. Heathcliff was hesitant, but as Wolfgang walked past with me in tow, he grabbed Heathcliff’s arm and hauled him in. The raft started floating away from the quickly sinking truck when I noticed someone was missing.

“Where’s Kyle?” I asked, panic creeping into my voice.

“Still inside,” said Kent. “He already fulfilled his role to me and the boss, he’s just deadweight now.” He smiled. “He made a good proxy villain.”

Kyle was only a proxy. Kyle was innocent. And he was going to die.

I wrenched myself out of Wolfgang’s grip, and before Kent or any of the others could do anything, I whipped off my glasses and dove into the water.

It was so numbingly cold that my breath was nearly taken away. Without my glasses, everything was blurry, and the salt water stung my eyes. I made my way towards the dark shadow that was the truck. I swam into the truck, and found Kyle still strapped in. Despite my fingers going numb, I managed to fumble with the seatbelts and free him. His limbs were still bound, but I was running out of breath. I grabbed Kyle around the waist and started to kick upwards towards the surface. Oxygen deprived, black spots started dancing in front of my eyes, and I could feel my mind turning fuzzy. I held onto Kyle even more tightly, refusing to let him sink. The black spots had multiplied until I could only see a tiny splotch of the daylight above, but even that was disappearing. The surface was so far away...the thought occurred to me that perhaps I wasn’t going to make it.

Suddenly, I felt a solid surface push up from underneath me, lifting me up to the surface. As soon we reached air, I gasped for air, filling my lungs with oxygen again. My mind cleared, and that’s when I noticed that the solid surface, the one I was pushed up to safety by, was a huge submarine.

Super long chapter to make up for the fact I was back for more than a week and hadn't posted anything...hope you enjoyed villainous Kent as much as I did!