Aurae #3
“Thank you goes out to the documentary crew filming there this week. Oh?” He paused. “Yes… we have new information on the daring late morning prison break at the Federal Penitentiary in Sheridan, Oregon. It’s being reported that murderer Joel Kirby Miller has escaped along with…”
All three women gasped.
Theo turned off the volume, kneeled down, and eyed all three women. “There is no contact from Simo, Eleni, or Jessie. Locators are offline. Xander’s too…”
Halo’s hands shot up to her mouth and her eyes widened in shock. She felt her phone vibrate and quickly grabbed it. Looking at it, she expected to see Xander’s number, but a number she didn’t recognize was calling. She held it up to Theo and he nodded.
“Hello?” she hesitantly said.
“Halo? Get out of your house now! It’s Johnny! Jessie warned Xander already! Oh shit… I think they just took Jessie, the Ukrainians warned us something was going down. Are you out?”
“Johnny we made it to my safe room!” Came her reply.
“Thank God… oh fuck me they found me…”
“Johnny?” She heard some loud muffled noises and the phone went dead. Halo hung up then desperately dialed up Xander. It rang without being answered. Then the tears came. “It was Johnny, he said to get out of the house!”
Theo hit the emergency alarm and turned on the house cameras. “Chen is heading over and Alabama will arrive at Ari’s bunker with your parents.”
Athena pointed to the monitor. “Uh Theo… why are those men hanging out of that helicopter?”
Theo spun to see a helicopter rising up the canyon behind Halo’s house. “Ach!” Theo yelled and pushed all the women down onto the floor covering them with his body.
Halo heard the loudest boom she had ever heard in her entire life… then the whole room shook like they were in a massive earthquake.
“FUCK!” She yelled as she hung onto Athena desperately.
“Another rocket!” Theo yelled and another blast shook them hard, nearly deafening them, leaving them all with ringing ears.
Halo opened her eyes and peered from under Theo.
She saw most of the monitors were dead but the front one showed Chen running down her driveway with a big automatic rifle in hand.
“Look! It’s Chen!” They all turned to see Chen firing his machine gun, apparently at the helicopter.
They watched him drop magazine after magazine, as he continued to empty them.
Then they saw him sprint off toward the side and a huge explosion where he had just been.
They watched Chen come to his knee, and start firing again.
A black Escalade burst through the black smoke billowing in her driveway and lurch to a stop. The door flew open and Gunnar was out, firing a huge machine gun. Suddenly they both stopped firing and Gunnar ran to Chen and helped him up.
“Shit!” Theo yelled and pressed his ear. He listened for a few moments, then stood up. “We are on fire. The helicopter, maybe is down…” He looked at Halo sadly. “Your house is mostly gone. I am sorry.”
Halo held her hand to her mouth. “Where, where is Xander?” She choked out.
“We don’t know… emergency vehicles are in route. We be ok in here.” He stood up and placed his hand on the ten inch thick, steel door and nodded. “It is little bit warm.”
JJ hugged Halo as she held on to a shaking Athena. “Athena, you OK?”
She looked up at JJ with sad eyes and nodded.
“We should have let Xander kill that asshole!” Halo yelled.
Theo nodded. He pointed to the screen. “Firemen. Gunnar left to cover Ari’s house.
They watched as the firemen began pouring water toward the house. Chen was pointing toward the location of the safe room. Then all the firemen with hoses began spraying in that direction.
“Fire is long time to control. Chen say that we will be in here for a long time. Lot of damage… hard to get to us and too hot.”
“We have to find Xander!” Halo shouted in near panic.
“We will.” He held his hand up, then looked down and to his earpiece. “Shit… Ari’s house is getting hit… machine gun fire from the helicopter. Strafing house. Gunnar returning fire.”
“Oh no! Are my parents…”
“Everyone is safe inside bunker.” He held up his hand again. “YES!” Theo yelled and looked up to them. “Ari shot down the helicopter with Light Anti-tank Weapon!”
They watched Theo’s expression go from elation to dread. “Ari is very angry…” He pulled out his earpiece momentarily, then with a wince put it back in. “He say to stay in here. Gunnar to stay at Ari’s, me to stay with you. Ari, Chen and Becky to try and find Simo and others.”
“A—Ari is going?” Athena asked.
Theo nodded. “Ari is angry. Is bad thing when he is angry like this. He will burn down Los Angeles looking for these people who do this.”
Halo swallowed hard at hearing this. She tried to call Xander again and got nothing but ringing. She turned to Athena. “You better call your mother and tell her you are OK.”
Athena made the call, then turned to Halo with worry on her face. “Mom said someone called early this morning, said they were from my school and were asking if I was there at her house… then they broke in while she was at work. She’s relieved I was safe in here with you. She says thank you again.”
Halo squeezed Athena tightly and kissed her forehead. Turning to JJ she whispered worriedly, “Here we go again…” and wiped a tear away.