Storm Of Pain

chapter 22

We've landed about half an hour ago here in Mexico without any encounters with Jennifer's father's men. It was a huge relief when we managed to get back onto the jet without anyone asking questions or giving us odd looks whatsoever back at Portugal, I don't think the two kids could take any more excitement today. We managed to get food, water, and enough fuel in under an hour before we took off. I must say that I'm disappointed that I couldn't get to see my family, but I knew it was for the best, I didn't want to put them in any sort of danger.

"I know I should've asked this earlier, but why Mexico specifically, Jennifer? Please don't tell me it's because of another family member we'd rather have buried six feet under," Erick asked her with a pleading look.

"No. You'll see. It's the only place that I know has a big enough system to track Phillip without him knowing and the only place where he wouldn't know where we are,"

"How are you so sure about that?"

"Because this time we won't be hiding in a safe house under a house he built," She answered as we continued walking towards a forest,

"Sissy, where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe, bud."

"Are we there yet?"

"Angelique, please, I am begging you, don't ask me that every five minutes. We're not almost there, we're still a while away and we have to walk fast to get there before dark."

"And why's that?" General Maree asked,

"Do you guys seriously not know what animals the Mexican forest has? There are numerous predators out here that will not hesitate to kill us," Calleb informed the rest of us. Of course, I knew there were predators out here... not.

The kids looked at each other and whimpered, starting to walk faster and stayed in between the group. Jennifer glared at Calleb to which he just shrugged and mumbled under his breath.

"Jennifer, my guess is we have about two hours before it's dark, how far are we?"

"Three and a half,"

"What!? But how are we going to get there-"

"We're stocking up first and then we'll have to run. We'll just have to carry the kids," She said just as she stopped at a massive tree stump that's been cut down. She bent down and wiped a few leaves away, revealing a keypad and fingerprint sensor. She entered a code quickly and scanned her thumb, letting the stump shoot open. She lifted the stump and got three backpacks out, along with guns and knives, she even gave us four grenades to hold while she took out a solar-powered laptop.

Opening the laptop she started typing random numbers and letters, letting it open up to a server screen. She typed in some more stuff, getting a beep and a message saying 'ALL CLEAR'. Jennifer sighed in relief and packed the laptop away, closing the stump and covering the keypad with leaves again,

"Okay, we've got tranquilizer darts and guns in the one bag for when something does attack us. We will not shoot to kill. Then in the other bag, we have water and a first aid kit. I bought enough food for us to hold us for as long as we need to stay there. We'll need to start running though, we've wasted enough time as it is already,"

"How is it that you're so prepared for all of this?"

"I knew that Phillip would want to kill me someday. It was just a matter of when amd who was going to get in the cross fire," She smiled sadly but got up and was about to pick Angelique up when I stopped her.

"Calleb and I can carry the two. You, General, and Lieutenant can carry the bags. Is that fine with you?" I asked General Maree and Lieutenant Black, looking over to Sergeant Erick,

"Will you manage or..."

"Honestly if we're going to run, I'll try but..."

"I'll carry you. Jennifer, would you take this?" Lieutenant Black gave the bag to Jennifer and gently got Erick onto his back with little difficulty. Erick winced and groaned but other than that he just clung onto Lieutenant Black, watching Calleb and I as we got the kids onto our backs as well. Jennifer and General Maree go the guns and bags secured safely as we started running, Jennifer in front.

It was hard to keep up with her, climbing over all the massive roots and dodging trees and other obstacles, but we managed to stick with her. No wonder she's so fast when we go running, she's used to running out here probably.

We ran for about an hour and a half, sprinting before the sun started to set, "How far are we still?"

"If we keep up this pace, we'll only run in the dark for half an hour, we'll be fine," She gasped out, still running, with us following close behind her until she abruptly stopped forty minutes later.

"Shh!"

"What is it?"

"I said shut up, listen..." Jennifer took out a torch and a tranquilizer gun, loading it. She switched the torch on and moved it around slowly to look at the surroundings, all of us tense and ready to run when needed. Jennifer stopped moving the torch and eyed the spot, aiming the gun,

"We're about ten minutes away. If you keep heading northwest you'll get there. You need to run as fast as you can. There's a rock-," She whispered over to us,

"What? We're not leaving you here!" I whispered yelled back at her, as I stared at the yellow glowing eyes that's staring us down,

"Yes, you are, for once in your life, listen to me, please. You're not dying out here,"

"Neither are you," Just then the animal jumped out of the bushes, lunging at us. We barely made it out of the way when Jennifer shouted at us,

"GO! Eight, nine, zero, seven, ten!" She looked at me with pleading eyes, pulling a flare from her back pocket and lighting it, successfully taking the jaguar's attention to her. She gave us one last look before she turned and started sprinting, the fastest I've ever seen her run.

"Come one! Before something else shows up, we don't want her having to do that for nothing!" General Maree told us. He was right, Jennifer is risking her life for us now, we needed to go,

"She said to head North West. We're about ten minutes away, come on," I said and started running, ignoring the kids' yelling for their sister and their please to turn back. My heart broke for them, really,

"I can't believe we just left her!" Calleb shouted at us,

"Calleb, she most probably grew up in this forest based on how she knows what to do and where to go, she'll be fine, she has to be," I told him and continued to run,

After ten minutes of running I stopped and stared at the water in front of us and the rocks to our right, Somewhere in the distance I heard a waterfall, but I turned and looked around the place for something until I remembered what Jennifer said, something about a rock before I cut her off,

"Look for a rock that's out of place or something," I told them. We searched for about five minutes when the twins gasped and giggled. I walked over to them and saw a small tiny rock against the bigger ones that we first saw. They were playing with it as it continued to sway from side to side. I moved it a bit and saw something similar to a keypad.

"Does anyone have the code?"

"She yelled something earlier before she ran off, what was it?"

"Eight, nine, zero, seven, ten," Erick told us. I looked at him and quickly pressed the numbers, letting the boulders move, giving us access to a dark room. The moment we stepped in, the boulders shut behind us and a red, dim light went on. When we looked around the tiny room, we saw another door with another keypad, but the code didn't work.

"Looks like we need to wait for Jennifer to come back for that one,"

"What if she doesn't come back though, then we die in here?"

"Don't you dare think like that! She'll come back, just give her time,"