The only Hope

Hope’s pov:

“Or just shoot me now. Like you wanted in the very beginning.” He was crying now.

What!? Why would I…

Suddenly I had a flashback. The very beginning… Gerard. Me, pointing a gun at him. Mikey, who saved him. Then I saw everything we went through. Gerard helped me, I helped Gerard. He made me feel like no-one else had ever made me feel before. I loved this man, what was I doing?

“Hope…” Gerard woke me up from my thoughts.

I lowered my gun and let out the breath I was holding. Gerard wiped away his tears.

“Let’s go.” He whispered and took my hand. I squeezed his hand and nodded.

I followed Gerard down the stairs. We entered the fourth floor. There was nobody there.

“I don’t trust this…” I sighed.

“Me neither.” Gerard was still holding my hand.

We entered a dark room. When Gerard turned on the lights I recognized the chair and the screen in the corner. I gasped. There was some blood on the ground, Gerard saw it too.

“Shit…” He rubbed his forehead. Then he saw the pictures. He let go of me and collected them.

A shiver went down my spine. I didn’t want to be here.

“Gerard, let’s go.” He got up again and nodded.

Suddenly we heard another explosion. We both looked at each other like we understood. We ran down the stairs until we were on the ground floor again.

Gerard saw Ray sitting in a corner, Frank was still shooting at Dracs. “Ray!” He ran over to him – avoiding getting shot – and I followed. “Holy shit…”

I gasped when I saw what had happened. One of Ray’s eyes had a huge piece of glass in them. It was bleeding a fucking lot.

“Shit, Ray…” Gerard took a good look at Ray’s eye. “What happened, man?”

“Fucking Dracs.” Ray smiled. Gerard returned the smile, but he could see Ray wasn’t feeling well.

“Let’s get you to the car, can you walk?” Gerard started looking around to find a safe way out.

“Yeah, think so. I’m just really lightheaded…” Ray tried to get up. Gerard and I helped.

Once Ray was standing I grabbed my gun. Gerard looked at me.

“What? Someone has to cover your asses and can’t carry Ray, so…”

Gerard nodded. “On three. One… Two… Three!”

Ray and Gerard headed towards the front entrance. I followed with my back turned to them, shooting at Dracs, which tried to chase Ray and Gerard.

I hit every one of them. God it felt good. Fighting for something, someone to be exact.

Frank came running towards me. “Hope! Where are Gerard and Ray?”

“They are heading for the car!” I yelled. “Where is Mikey?” I suddenly realized I hadn’t seen him here yet.

Frank moved backwards and ran through the front entry. “He’s already in the car. He brought some girl, she was trapped here as well.”

I froze immediately. “What?”

Frank stopped and gave me a weird look. “Why are you stopping? Keep running!”

Frank grabbed my arm and ran towards the car with me. I kept shooting behind us, but I missed a lot. I was too confused about what Frank just said. What girl?

When we got to the car I saw the Japanese woman sitting in the back. What was she doing here?

“Hope! Get in!” Gerard yelled.

I got in the car next to Ray. He was sitting next to the Japanese woman, she greeted me.

“I know how this looks, but she needed help.” Gerard said while buckling up, he was in the passenger’s seat. Mikey nodded, this time he was behind the wheel. I guess they trusted her, but I didn’t.

She never even looked at me. She would always help Korse torture me, humiliate me. And now… She was in the car with us.

Frank stopped shooting and sat down next to me. I could barely move. “Mikey, drive!”

Mikey just started stuttering. “Uhm… G… Guys?” He pointed in front of him.

We were all looking now and saw an entire army of Dracs coming at us.

“So that’s why most of the floors were empty…” I mumbled.

“Wait!” Ray suddenly sat up. “Look!” He pointed at a small road that went around the building. “Maybe it leads back to the main road, so we can leave this shithole.”

Mikey immediately took off and drove around the building. Ray was right, in no time we were back on the main road and left Battery City. A bit too easy if you ask me…

“Ye-he-heees!” Frank yelled and clapped. “Nailed it!”

Everyone was laughing and cheering, but I just couldn’t join them. Just like the Japanese lady. Her face was awfully dull for someone who just got rescued from a dreadful dictator.

But I guess it was okay, we all had our memories and trauma’s… Gerard was cheering and high-fiving Mikey. I still felt so, so guilty…

“What about Korse?” Ray suddenly asked. Gerard and I looked at each other.

“He got away.” I muttered. The car was quiet for a while, but Frank wouldn’t let that get us down.

“Hey!” He shouted. “We just did a pretty good job if you ask me, so what?” He was right and we all started laughing about Frank’s enthusiasm.

Suddenly I saw the Japanese lady move in the corner of my eye. I turned to her and from that moment on everything happened in slow-motion.

She had a gun and pointed it at the back of Gerard’s head, who was sitting in front of her. She just looked at me and smiled. Panic filled my entire body.

“GERARD! NO!”

Notes