Familiar Faces

"How though?" I questioned.

"That's the way business works Dan. No hard feelings, right?" Ben said with a wide smile on his face.

As soon as he said that I bolted out of the office. I knew Ben wasn't going to let me leave The Capital.

"Get the poor bastard." I heard him say calmly.

My heart was almost beating out of my chest. I was running to where me and Hunter agreed to meet. Instead of Hunter there were three guards waiting for me there.

I took a right towards the stores and restaurants. I felt an insane adrenaline rush take over my body. I almost felt like I was flying from how quick I was running for my life.

I saw Hunter sat with an old man talking to him.

"HUNTER." I shouted.

He didn't turn to look at me.

"HUNTEEEER." I shouted at the top of my lungs.

He turned around and waved me over to them. Then his expression changed and he left the old man and joined me in running as I caught up to him.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" He shouted loud enough for me to hear.

"IT'S COMPLICATED." I shouted back.

"WHAT?"

"IT'S GODDAMN COMPLICATED."

"IF YOU SAY SO."

Right before we reached the main gate, a huge metal piece came down from out of nowhere and blocked the gate off.

I started panicking because the guards behind us were catching up now.

"This way." Hunter said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me to a set of stairs.

A couple of gunshots went off but thankfully missed us.

"YOU DUMB CUNT. MASTER WANTS THEM ALIVE." One of the guards shouted.

We went into what looked like an apartment. There were people inside. I saw a couple of familiar faces, but I chose to ignore them because the guards would catch up to us.

"Daniel, wait." I heard a man call out from behind.

"If you want to talk then run after us." I shouted without turning around.

The voice was familiar, but the moment didn't make it easy for me to recognize who it was. I chose to not think about it now.

We reached the final room in the large apartment.

"The window." Hunter said as he opened it.

"I hate heights." I said in annoyance.

"Daniel, what the hell brat." I turned around to see Sergei, then Andrew followed him into the room.

"Can't explain, just follow me." I said as I jumped out the window after Hunter.

We continued running until we reached the stores section again. I began to lose hope in escaping.

All of a sudden I saw someone pull Hunter out of the street and into an alley to our left. I followed after them and so did Sergei and Andrew.

"In through the trapdoor." I heard a man say.

I didn't even turn to see who the man was I just climbed down the trapdoor as quickly as possible.

I took a seat on the ground next to Hunter who laid down face first. The chase was intense and tiring.

"You are safe for now." Said the old man who was talking to Hunter previously.

"Thanks mister. For saving our lives." I said.

"This idiot can't go a day without problems." The old man said as he pointed at Hunter.

"Uncle Henry, you were supposed to be the cool uncle." Hunter said.

"And you were supposed to be the nephew who wouldn't turn out to be a killer." Said Hunter's uncle. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Henry Smith. And yes before you ask, we do have a family history with the letter H in our names." Henry introduced himself.

I stood up to introduce myself to Henry.

"Nice to mee...." I was cut off.

Andrew grabbed me by my neck and pinned me against a wall.

"Tell me where the fuck you were for the past TWO GODDAMN YEARS." Andrew said very angrily.

"I can explain wait." I said.

"Brat calm down a bit." Sergei said.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP SERGEI. Your explanation better be good Daniel." Andrew said.

Hunter got between myself and Andrew and pushed Andrew away.

"And who is this dumb punk?" Andrew said.

"Lay your hands on him one more time, it will be the last time you have hands." Hunter said seriously.

"Just let me talk for god's sake Andrew." I said.

"WE WERE LOOKING FOR YOU THIS ENTIRE TIME DANIEL. TWO YEARS." He said as he put two fingers up.

"I WAS IN A COMA. NOW SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME." I said just as angrily.

"Oh." Andrew said as he took two steps back.

"I'm sorry you had to look for me this long. There was nothing I could do about it. I'm sorry." I said calmly.

"Don't be. It's alright." Sergei said as we all sat down on the ground.

We sat silently for a couple of minutes. Panting a bit, trying to catch our breath.

Henry brought us some water. Then he brought us some cookies.

"I baked these." he said as he gave each of us two cookies.

"Thanks Henry, for your kind hospitality." I said.

"Don't mention it. Anything for this little bug stomper." He said as he hugged Hunter. "There is a backdoor out of the dome. It's through my place. Come on let me show you." He continued.

We all stood up from the hard floor and followed Henry inside.

Henry led us through four different tunnels. Each one more confusing than the other.

At last he came to a halt.

"Here I must stop. You may continue on your own." Henry said.

"Any other thing we need to know?" Asked Hunter.

"Rats. A lot of them." Henry added.

"We don't have any other option." I said.

"Keep going straight in this tunnel. Don't take any left or right no matter what happens. There is a fog in there." Henry warned.

"Fuck." Hunter said remembering his past interaction with them I presumed.

"As soon as you climb the ladder out of the tunnel, you will be facing north. Just in case it's night time when you leave." Henry added.

"I can't begin to thank you enough Henry. Your help has been priceless." I said.

"It was a pleasure meeting you gentlemen. May you travel safely." Henry said as he waved us goodbye. "To better times gentlemen."

"To better times Henry." each of us said.