Ace in the Hole

Ace:

"Strange," I think, seeing the museum's back doors wide open. Looking down, I see two guards lying on the floor. Quickly checking their pulses, I grab and drag them so they're out of the way. Gently placing them against a wall, I then walk through the back doors.

Carefully and quietly walking through the almost pitch-black museum, I hear a loud crashing sound. It echoes throughout the whole museum, causing me to jump slightly. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out a metal ace.

While looking around for what causes the sound, I hear footsteps. Fast footsteps, and from more than one person. Not knowing who is coming, I pocket my metal ace and step into the shadow.

"Shoot," I think, looking down at my new suit's sleeves. It was white and made it difficult to bend in with the shadow. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope no one sees me.

A few seconds later, I see a man with wrinkled skin and messy black hair running down the hallway. Running right past me, thankfully not noticing me, I watch as there's a loud bang, and the man falls to the tiled floor.

"Ahhh," he yells. Turning over, the man is holding his leg. He's screaming and shouting as he starts crawling away. Hearing more footsteps, I turn and see another man in a pitch-black raincoat. He has his hand out, and in his hand is a smoking handgun.

Thankfully, this man also doesn't notice me. He walks right past me and to the crawling man.

"Mick," the man in the raincoat says, stomping on 'Mick's' leg. Mick screams and cries when he does this. "You're not getting away from me that easily."

Still screaming and gripping his leg, Mick looks at the man in the raincoat.

"Who are you," he yells. "What do you want with me?"

"I want revenge," the man answers, his voice echoing throughout the whole museum. The man grabs Mick's throat and starts choking him. Mick grabs the man's hands and tries to pry them away but it's useless.

I'm still not sure what is going on, but I know I can't let that man die. I reach into my pocket and pull out a metal ace. About to throw it from the shadow, I stop when I hear sirens. The sirens are followed by flashing red and blue lights, and someone speaking over a microphone.

"This is the LAPD! We have the place surrounded! Come out with your hands up, or we will use force!"

Hearing this, I quickly step back into the shadow. The man in the black raincoat also stops when he hears the police officer. He slams the floor with one of his hands before looking back at Mick. He is still trying to pry the man's hand but he isn't moving as fast as before.

"Fine then," the man shouts, letting go of Mick. "You don't deserve this anyway. You deserve something worse. Something much slower. And more painful. And I know exactly where."

With Mick too bother gasping for air, he can't do anything when the man raises his foot and stomps on Mick's head. The man knocks Mick out cold before dragging him away. While the two disappear through the back door, I turn my head toward the inside of the museum.

"Thrill Rider," I think. "Where is Thrill Rider? I didn't see him run out. We need Thrill Rider. Where is Thrill Rider?"

Hearing even more footsteps, heavy footsteps, near the front of the museum, I realize it must be the SWAT team.

"I have to move fast."

Stepping out of the shadow, I run into the museum as fast as I can. While running, I try to keep a low profile, making sure the SWAT team can't hear me as I try to find Thrill Rider.

I first check the sea life exhibit and when I see nothing out of the ordinary, I go to check the next exhibit. This time, as I run into the fossil exhibit, I see something very out of the ordinary.

"Is that...a hand?"

I was here earlier, and earlier, right in the center of the room, was a fully, built tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Only now, it's gone. The entire dinosaur skeleton is in pieces, and there, half-buried among the pieces, is a hand.

"Oh no. Oh no! Oh no!"

Running to the pile of fossils, I jump over the velvet rope and onto the display. Grabbing the hand, I start to push away the fossils.

It doesn't take long before I hear someone coughing, and then, they grip my hand. Clearing away some more fossils, I almost cry when I see Thrill Rider coughing. Dust shoots up as Thrill Rider coughs.

Moaning as Thrill Rider pushes himself up, he sees me and jumps away.

"Ahh," he screams. "Who are you?"

Thrill Rider:

Despite what I can only assume are broken bones, I still painfully raise my baton at the person.

"Ouch," I think. "That hurts. A lot."

"Easy," the person says, raising his hands. "My name is Ace."

"Ace?"

Wiping the dust from my eyes, I look more closely and see a black ace symbol, like the ones on poker cards, on the person's chest. Whoever this person is, he's wearing a white hoodie and a mask with long pants.

"I'm here to help you," Ace says.

"Oh no," I say, backing up. "The last time I got a partner, he threw me into the T-Rex skeletons. How do I know I can trust you? What do you want?"

Before Ace can answer me, we hear footsteps and turn our heads. A few seconds later, we see beams of lights shining all over the museum's hallway.

"What I want is your help," Ace answers. I roll my eyes when I hear this.

"Go figure," I say.

"And to get it, I have to get you out of here. Can you walk?"

Biting my tongue, I slowly and painstakingly pull myself up. The whole I do, I hear my bones break even more. Honestly, I'm not even sure how I'm standing right now.

"Ouch."

"Okay," Ace says, nodding. "You can walk, but can you run?"

Breathing in and out, in and out, in and out, I take a step, and almost immediately, I feel all the nerves in my left leg set ablaze. The fire in my leg spreads throughout my body and I have to hold my breath to keep myself from screaming.

"Ouch. No. No, I cannot run."

"Then we have to stay as quiet as possible and move through the museum."

"Oh no," I say. "Stealth. I have to be stealthy. A little head-up, Ace. Stealth is not my strong suit. I mean, the only reason I even made it in here stealthily is because the building is empty. If I have to it now, with a building full of police officers, while I can barely walk. Then, to put it mildly, we're screwed."

Ace turns and looks at me. Despite wearing a mask, I can still feel his gaze.

"Uhhh, just shut up and do what I said?"

"Yes," Ace says.