Hostages

Lorraine woke up on Ren's empty bed with a little bit of drool hanging from her mouth. She wiped it off and stood up, groggy, and headed out into the kitchen.

She looked, but Ren wasn't anywhere in sight.

After looking in all the other rooms and restrooms, she began to get a little worried until the front door swung inwards to reveal Ren on the other side.

Ren was covered in sweat and dust.

"Where did you go?" Lorraine asked.

"I went out for a little run," he replied.

"So how do you feel?"

"Weak, and every now and then I blank out, but I recover pretty quickly."

"Ren, you need to rest." Lorraine warned.

"Yeah, well... never mind. Did you eat anything yet?"

"No, I actually just got up."

"I'll fix something for you."

Ren and Lorraine enjoyed a nice breakfast and then relaxed together until a couple of days went by.

Ding!

Why does your phone keep going off?" Ren asked.

"I asked Ms. Croft to text me every hour, just to make sure they are doing alright." she answered.

"So they are alright then?"

"So far."

Ren was concerned. He had to admit, though, that it was nice just to relax.

Ren stood and went into the restroom and after relieving himself, he lifted his shirt up to inspect the white spot.

"I swear that it's getting bigger."

The white spot was growing upwards towards his armpit very slowly.

'That can't be good."

Another day passed and Lorraine began to realize that text messages stopped coming in.

"Ren, I'm getting worried." Lorraine stated.

"What for?" he asked.

"I stopped getting text messages from Ms. Croft."

Ren's frowned at this and began to worry as well.

Ding!

"Oh wait, never mind. That's her."

Lorraine looked down at her phone and he eyes grew wide with shock.

"Ren we have to go, now!" she turned the phone so Ren could see the screen. A single word was shown: help.

Ren shot up and immediately contacted a place that rented out cars. As soon as it arrived, Ren retrieved his mask and they both jumped in the car and took off towards Texas.

Halfway to their destination Lorraine received another text, but this time a picture was included. In the picture was Ms. Croft, Eric, and Ms. Carter all gagged and cuffed down onto chairs. The text included read, "Want your friends to live, we want the Core Soldier. Send him in alone."

"Damn!" Ren slammed his fist on the car door in frustration. "Go faster!"

"I'm going as fast as I can without trying to attract any cops attention," Lorraine explained.

"Just drive, we will deal with the cops if they show later!"

Lorraine slowly pushed the pedal to the floor and began to zoom past the other cars on the highway.

Unfortunately, they did pass a cop. As soon as they passed the cop, the police sirens sounded.

"Ignore it! Keep going!" Ren ordered.

"I have an idea!"

Lorraine rolled the window done, stuck her arm out, and began to lay down a layer of ice on the freeway as she drove.

Not only the cop, but the other cars behind them began to slip and slid, clashing into one another and run off of the road.

"Nice job!" Ren laughed.

"Too bad the other drivers got caught up in it." Lorraine sighed.

"The important thing is we got away."

They continued on until they arrived near the coordinates Ms. Carter had left with Lorraine when she left.

"Where in the world is it?" Lorraine asked.

"I think that's it." Ren guessed as he pointed at a very small on story building with a fence built around it and six guards surrounding it.

"That can't be. It's too small."

"It may be underground. Anyway, you stay here."

"No, I'm coming with you!" Lorraine protested.

"No, you're not. They only want me. If they see you, they may kill them. Leave this to me."

Ren opened the car door and stepped out and put his mask on.

"Do you have a plan?" Lorraine questioned.

"Nope."

"Promise me you'll come back alive." Lorraine demanded.

Ren hesitated, "I don't know if..."

"Promise!" Lorraine glared at him.

Ren gave in, "I promise."

With these last words, he walked towards the building. As he neared the building the guards noticed him.

Two red dots showed up on the forehead of his mask.

"Wow, they have snipers too." Ren thought.

He quickly raised his hands as a gesture to let them know he wasn't going to cause any trouble.

They opened the gate and one of the guards radioed in. Ren couldn't make it out.

"Stop," demanded the guard in front of him. "Don't move."

Two guards stepped behind him and placed very thick steel handcuffs on his hands as well as on his ankles. The chain was long enough so that he could walk normally though.

"Remember, Core Soldier, if you do anything out of line, we will kill your friends," the guard warned.

The guard turned and led Ren into the building with three other guards following behind. In the building was a table and some chairs, then behind those was a single elevator.

They entered and the elevator button panel listed twenty numbers to their corresponding floors.

"Dang, it's that deep huh?" Ren thought to himself.

The elevator door opened to the sixteenth floor, where even more guards where there to meet them and continued down a series of hallways.

In the middle of one of the hallways, Ren stopped suddenly.

"Not now!"

His vision went black and his body began to tremble.

"Hey! What are you doing? Keep moving!" one of the guards yelled.

The guard was about to hit him with the butt of his gun, but Ren's head turned instinctively and glared at the guard.

The guard immediately stopped as this frightened him.

"Come on. What's the matter? Get moving!" another guard spoke.

Ren regained control, then continued to walk again.