Operation: Marauder

After screaming herself hoarse in the small hopes someone would hear her, Zoey finally took a moment to think. The sun had long since disappeared and so had her interrogator. There was no way to tell how much time had passed, but it was long enough to think her new friends weren't coming back tonight. They were trying to scare her, let the hopelessness of her situation sink in, before they came back to ask their questions again. At least that was what her experience with movies had told her. 

She wouldn't give them what they wanted. Not while they used scare tactics anyway. She feared if they escalated to torturing her, she'd break. So you better make sure it doesn't come to that, eh, Zoe?

She nodded to herself, feeling her resolve return. At this very moment, there was nothing to be scared of. She was alone. They hadn't hurt her--not in ways that would hinder her anyway. Now was the perfect time to slow down and think. 

First thing's first: she couldn't look around for an escape if she couldn't get her hands free. She felt around the chair behind her, testing her restraints and the steel they were bound to. After a few tugs, she discovered that neither the zip ties or the chair's steel were going to give way to her strength. She peered around the room, looking for anything that could help her leverage the ties enough to break them. It was empty, aside from the table and herself. The walls were brick, the floor concrete. As she looked around, her chair squeaked.

She'd recognize that kind of sound anywhere!

A loose nut!

She couldn't tell which nut, but there were only so many nuts on a simple chair like this. If she jostled one free, it would ruin the structural integrity of the entire chair and she could free herself!

She wiggled, making the chair move as much as possible. She moved until she was spent and saw no signs of the nut loosing its hold any time soon. If teetering wasn't going to help her, maybe brute force would. Awkwardly, she leaned forward and stood, her steel companion butting right behind her. Very glad no one was around to watch her cumbersome struggle, she made her way over to the wall, stopping short a couple feet away. Before she could talk herself out of it, she threw herself at the wall, angling the chair in a way where it would take the brunt of the force. 

She fell, landing painfully on her shoulder. The backrest of the chair smacked the back of her head. For a moment, all she could feel was the ache in her head and see a flash of white. Once the shock of pain was gone, Zoey noticed that the chair felt lighter. She rotated and saw that the backrest had broken off from the seat. With a little more wiggling and contorting, she managed to tuck her hands and the backrest under her legs and bring them forward.

Progress.

Her mind went to Jack and her dad--you know it was desperate times when she thought of him. They'd be proud of her for keeping so level-headed through this. For being resourceful. Not that they ever expected her to be in this kind of situation.

All right. One obstacle down, a few more to go.

Her next task was to free her hands from the backrest; it would only weigh her down if she had to run. Just by looking at the weld points on the supports, she knew that wouldn't be a hard feat; they were hastily done. Holding the backrest with her hands, she smashed it into the wall until the support her hands were tied to broke and fell between her palms to the floor.

Before letting herself feel an ounce of hope, she listened for any sounds of her captors coming to check out the awful racket she'd just made. When she heard nothing, she crept to the door and listened through the steel for any signs of them. Still nothing.

Here she thought that vampires had super hearing. Huh. Well, she wasn't going to argue and pushed forward.

There was nothing in the room for her to cut her ties, but that was only a small inconvenience. She tried the door handle. Low and behold, it was locked. This was an easy fix, courtesy of her rebellious years. She pulled a bobby pin from her hair and worked the lock. It sprang free after a few attempts. With a silent victorious fist pump, she opened the door an inch and peeked through the gap. The hallway, as far as she could tell, was empty.

After a sigh of relief, she edged the door open a little bit further, until it was fully ajar and she was free. She didn't have to go far down the hallway to hear voices. They sounded distant, in a large room, judging from the reverberation.

She pressed herself against the wall and listened. Well, she tried to, but she couldn't make out a single word; the language they spoke was foreign and swift. However, that didn't stop her from getting information.

There was only two of them--unless the others were silent. One of them seemed particularly more irritated than the other. His words were curt, followed by a heavy sigh, while his companion dragged out his words, seeming more bored than anything. She'd be bored and annoyed, too, if she was stuck with guard duty.

She peered down the hallway, the opposite direction from the vampires. It was dark, with no light to guide her, save the moon's light shining through the window. At the end, she could barely make out the outline of a door.

Did she go towards the vampires and try to sneak her way to the exit they were undoubtedly guarding? Or did she check this door out and hoped it'd eventually lead to an exit?

Deciding Lady Fortune was already on her side, she took her chances with option number two. Carefully, she tiptoed through the door. The room was even darker here, not a wink of the moon shining through the skylights. At the very least, she could see the stars and, as far away as they were, they provided just enough light for her to navigate her way through the shadows. 

This warehouse must have been recently closed. The air was dry, but the dust wasn't thick yet--thankfully, or she'd be sneezing up a storm. Pieces of machinery were still installed; as Zoey passed by one, she caught the scent of rust, and made a mental note to get a tetanus shot after this. However, if the machines were left behind, it was likely there were tools lying around. She slowly made her way over to what looked like a table and blindly felt around for anything that might cut her zip ties. Her grasp slid over something familiar, tin snips, which somehow eased the anxiety building inside of her. She quickly put them to work, cutting the ties easily, then she groped around some more, looking for a weapon. Unfortunately, the most harmful tool they had was the pair of snips and she doubted she'd get the chance to use them against her abductors.    

Abandoning her search for a weapon, she went back to hunting down an exit. In a room this size, there couldn't be only one door. 

After stumbling on loose metal and running into damn conveyer belts, she finally made it to the other side of the room, and, as she followed the length of the wall, she found another door. Very faintly a fire exit sign stared back at her.

Her heart leapt in her chest. This was it!

She pushed it open.

An awful screeching alarm went off above her.

Swearing, she shoved passed the door and ran outside. A field laid out before her, flat and easy to traverse, which was both good and bad. She decided to focus on the good--the fact that she could run across the field uninhibited towards the main road where she saw headlights flashing as cars drove by--and not the bad where if she wasn't fast enough, the vampires would easily see her running and catch her before she got to the road. 

Having skipped dinner and drinking any water since she and Josie parted ways, her body screamed for her to stop. Her legs were on fire and her lungs gasped desperately for reprieve. She pushed herself, unsure when the vampires would find the door she'd escaped from.

Before she knew it, she was barreling onto the road and almost ran right into a car passing. They laid on their horn as they raced on without looking back. She didn't want a ride with that asshole anyway. There were plenty of other cars on the road, one of which slowed to a stop beside her. Heart hammering in her chest, she put her hands on her hips and leaned backwards, taking in as much air as her lungs would let her.

"You look like you could use a ride," a friendly young woman observed. Once Zoey stopped seeing black spots, she regarded the woman with straight, strawberry blonde hair. She looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. In that moment, Zoey honestly didn't care how she knew her. For the time being, she had escaped the vampires. 

●●●

Zoey's journey back home was long and arduous. At least, that was what it felt like. Thankfully, her new best friend didn't ask any questions. She took her straight to the airport, as requested, half-heartedly offered her a ride to the hospital, then left when Zoey declined. She was exhausted by the time she pulled her Honda Civic into her driveway, but she wasn't done yet. She grabbed her phone's charger from her bedside and sat at the kitchen island, impatiently waiting for her phone to power on. Once her home screen lit up, she ignored the fact it was nearly four in the morning and dialed Jack's number.

Straight to voicemail.

Before she could panic, she had to remind herself that he often didn't have his phone on when he was on a mission. There was another way to contact him if it was important. 

She dialed the base. A bored man answered the call. "Connaville Army Base, how can I help you?" 

"I need to talk to Jack Somner," she spoke without preamble. "He's overseas right now, but it's important."

He yawned. Couldn't he hear the urgency in her tone?? "Who's calling?"

"His sister, Zoey Adams. I'm in his contacts."

A sigh. "Can I put you on Hold while I look you up?"

Zoey wanted to growl and demand he just transfer her over, but that wouldn't get her anywhere, no matter how badly she wanted to throttle this man. "Yes."

She drummed her fingers on her quartz countertop and waited. Waited. . . . Waited. Forty-five minutes passed, and she'd whipped herself up a quick snack, before the man came back. "You have clearance, but you're going to have to call another time. He's unavailable."

"What does that mean?" Did that mean they couldn't contact him or had they reached him and he turned the call away? Was. He. Okay?

"It means he's doing important work for his country and is too busy to talk to you." The line went dead.

She waited forty-five fucking minutes to be hung up on. Frustrated, she threw her phone across the room. What the hell was she supposed to do if she couldn't warn him?

Take a deep breath. Calm down then think.

Nodding to herself, she went to the bathroom and got herself cleaned up, ridding herself of all the grime and dirt that had accumulated during her time with the vampires. Her blood ran cold when she saw the bruising bite mark on her neck. She could almost remember what it felt like to have Sid's fangs pierce her flesh. A shudder ran down her spine at the thought. 

Thankful the weather called for it, she dressed in a long sleeve shirt to hide the wounds on her forearms then in her hoodie, which hid the bite mark with the oversized hood. By the time all the evidence of her night was washed away, the sun was up and she was supposed to start work in an hour. 

Hah! Work. That was the last thing on her mind, but she at least owed Carlisle an explanation before she disappeared for a little while. 

She walked to Joey's Diner to pick up some takeout then made her way over to the shop. The crew were just in their Monday morning meeting when she walked in. They barely looked back at her, unbeknownst to her rough night. If they knew. . . Well, if they did know, they'd ask for names and a description, but she didn't even really know what she was doing. To ask for their help. . . it would only put them in danger. She'd rather the danger stay locked onto her than for other people to pulled into her mess.

Carlisle paused in the middle of his morning pep-talk when he saw her. He went from Boss to Papa Bear in two seconds flat. "Zoey?"

She swallowed nervously, glancing at her coworkers who, now that they had a better look at her, mirrored Carlisle's concern. Did she look that bad? "Can we talk?"

Carlisle dismissed everyone and took her to his office. Feeling the weight of her night catching up with her, she took a seat; the chair used to be the backseat of a 1967 Chevy Impala, but he reupholstered and retrofitted it into a pair of arm chairs for his office. The blue leather was the only splotch of colour in his office.

He didn't sit behind his desk; he moved in front of her, arms crossed, and leaned back on his desk, regarding her carefully. He wore blue flannel today, which made the gray in his eyes pop out more--made him look more fatherly rather than an intimidating tatted up shop owner. "What happened?"

"Nothing." It was a horrible lie and they both knew it, but she'd be damned if she was going to bring Carlisle into this. He had kids, a loving wife. She wouldn't let the vampires take him away from them. "I-I think I need to take my vacation early this year."

A hard, murderous mask fell over his face; he looked like an entirely different man, and Zoey was grateful she hadn't seen this side of him until now. "Tell me what Dean did to you."

"It's not Dean." The last thing she wanted was for him to hunt him down; her ex was in a gang, who thankfully didn't operate in Connaville, but she feared what would happen if he threatened him. "I'll be fine, Carlisle, I promise. I just need some time off."

He looked like he wanted to argue, maybe even fire her just so she couldn't request a leave of absence, but in the end, he gave in and nodded. "I hope you know what you're doing, Zoe."

"I hope so too." She rose to her feet, feeling a little better knowing that she'd be taking all the danger with her, away from the garage. She paused at the door and looked back at him. "Thank you for everything, Carlisle. I don't know where I'd be without you."

She meant it from the bottom of her heart. In case things didn't go well for her, she needed him to know how much she appreciated him putting up with her. He had done more for her than any boss had any right to; she couldn't ask for a better mentor.

Carlisle offered her a sad, pained smile. "It's all you, kiddo. I just let you be you. Call me when you're ready to come back."

Zoey had promised herself she wouldn't cry when she said goodbye. To make good of her promise, she stole a deep breath, clenched her jaw, and marched out the garage. Now wasn't the time to get emotional. Someone was after her brother. She was about to show those pale, over-sized leeches what happened when you fucked with Zoey Adams.