The only Hope

Gerard’s pov:

“She’s gone!” I bashed in the door.

“Wait, what?” Mikey got up immediately.

“She’s gone. I checked the barn and she’s not there! If I had only gone there earlier… Fuck!” I blamed myself more than ever. I had waited for at least an hour. When I got to the barn the doors were open and Hope was gone. My heart dropped when I saw that.

“Shit, bro.” Mikey ran his hand through his hair.

I grabbed the car keys from the table. “Wake up Frank and Ray, we’re leaving.”

“Gerard, you don’t even know where she is. It’s been an hour, she could be anywhere!”

Mikey desperately followed me around the room, while I was collecting my gun, jacket and other stuff. “Gee, just listen! She came back the first time, why panic now?”

I turned around to face Mikey. “Because she told me she was planning on leaving!”

Mikey took a step back, shocked from how upset I was.

Suddenly Frank and Ray came running downstairs. “Holy shit guys, what’s all the fuss about?” Frank rubbed his eyes and looked at me. Ray walked right passed me and grabbed his jacket. He knew…

“Hope is gone.” I sighed.

“I knew you shouldn’t have left her there.” Ray mumbled.

“Hey, she told me she needed some time. That she’d be here in a minute!” I got even angrier now. Ray just shook his head.

Frank grabbed his jacket. “Shit, man… Any idea where she could have gone?”

“No, that’s the problem.” Mikey hissed.

I narrowed my eyes. “Look, she’s on foot and we’re by car, okay? We will find her!”

“Hey, less fighting more searching!” Frank suddenly yelled. He was right.

I nodded and went outside. When I got to the car I noticed the door wasn’t fully closed. Had she been inside the car?

Mikey saw me staring and went over to the other side. He opened a door and looked around.

“Fuck. Gerard?”

“What?” I lifted my head. Mikey’s face looked worried.

“What!?” I sneered. Frank and Ray walked up behind me.

“The map. It’s gone. A… And so is my spare gun… And the flashlight.” Mikey dropped his eyes.

“Fuck!” I slammed the car door and saw Ray.

“Ray, you took a good look at the map, right?” I walked up to him and Frank.

“Yeah, why?” Ray loaded his gun and looked at me.

“Did it say where Korse is hiding?” I had my fingers crossed.

Ray sighed. “Uhm, yeah. Problem is: he isn’t hiding. He’s at his headquarter in Battery City.” I knew the guys wouldn’t agree with this.

I walked back to the car. “I know where she’s going and we’re going there as well.”

Frank quickened his pace. “Gerard, that’s suicide!”

I remained silent and got behind the wheel. I didn’t care what they were thinking. I needed to save Hope. I needed Hope, period. God, how stupid can a person be to just leave someone they love? I left her, it’s my fault she’s gone!

“Fine, if you don’t want to come along… Then don’t!” I started the car. Suddenly Ray, Mikey and Frank jumped in.

“Hey, I said it’s suicide, not that I wasn’t coming with!” Frank grinned.

We took off. Guns loaded, ready to attack, but no map… Suddenly I saw a light coming from the hills. Hope?

We got out of the car – our guns ready – and headed for the source. All we found was our flashlight and a pool of blood. She had been here.

“Whose blood do you think it is?” Frank rubbed his forehead.

“Not Hope’s.” I said while judging the pool of blood.

“How do you know?” Ray sneered. He was definitely worried.

I pointed at the sand. “Because over there there’s been a struggle, but the blood is over here. Besides, Korse wouldn’t just shoot her out here in the desert. For all I know he wanted her alive.”

“Plus she had the spare gun.” Mikey mentioned. I started looking around for it, but it was nowhere to be found. Korse must have taken it. Shit, then he knows she was with us.

“We need to leave. Korse has her.” I gestured the guys and they followed.

We knew where she was, but we still didn’t have a map… Causing us to get to Battery City after taking some wrong turns. BLI had changed the infrastructure completely, just to “clean up” the desert.

We parked the car under a bridge and looked up at a giant building. We were here.

“So what now?” Mikey yawned.

“We wait.”

“Wait for what?” Frank leaned forward.

Ray took this opportunity to answer. “BLI always shuts down the power in their buildings around 2 am to save energy. If we wait until that happens they will never see us coming.”

“Exactly.” I kept looking at my watch and at the building. We had been here before, but this time it was going to go differently. God, I wanted to go in there and have Korse his head.

He will pay. He will.

Notes