Look out for the <>!

I woke up about eight in the morning with the sun pouring into the family room. I was laying on the couch with a blanket over me. I didn't remember falling asleep here but I must have. I didn't want to sleep alone in one of the bedrooms so this is where I must have ended up. I laid on the couch for a couple minutes thinking about today. It was the day that Alice would be coming, at least if my plan worked accordingly. I was nervous. It was eating me up.

I got up and walked into the kitchen to see Trevor there making breakfast, eggs and bacon. I smiled, he always made the same thing for breakfast when I spent the summers here. "Morning."

"Good morning to you too. I made breakfast."

"Thank you, it looks great." As much as I had sour memories here, I had good ones with him and Nan. They made this place so much better than it was.

"Do you want to wake up John for this?"

He needed to get up to prepare but we were all up late last night. "I'm going to let him sleep."

"That's fine. Is everything ok?"

This whole situation wasn't ok. Of course I wasn't ok. I was being targeted. "I'm scared to think of what will happen, to this house, to us," I said to him honestly and sat down on a stool.

"War is never pretty but sometimes it's impossible to avoid." He nodded as he put the food on the table. I got up from my seat and moved to a seat at the table. I then dished up some eggs and bacon as I felt my stomach grumble.

After I was done I got up and said, "I'm going to start boarding up the windows." Our minute of peace was over, and now was time to hunker down and prepare.

"Do you need help?"

"No, I want to do this on my own," I said as I left the kitchen, needing time to think about everything that would happen. I needed to prepare myself for every situation but I knew that was impossible.

I walked into the back yard and started to pull out boards that were just as old as the house. I dragged them to the front of the house and started to work.

Before I knew it, the ground level windows were boarded up. I looked at my phone and saw that it had taken a good three hours to do. I wiped my dirt covered hands on my pants then walked back into the house.

There was John working on the last little bomb in the family room. I frowned as I saw the bags under his eyes. He looked just as tired as me and I let him sleep in. "Afternoon," I said to him, causing him to look up at me from his task.

"Afternoon."

Out of all the scenarios I came up with, the one that seemed the most likely was that Alice would over power us in the house. If that was the case, I needed John to take Trevor and run, leaving me behind. I at least wanted them safe. "I want to show you something John."

"What?"

"Follow me," I said as I turned around and walked out of the room. I walked up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms with a huge fireplace. I waited until John was right beside me when I pushed a small button on the side of the fire place. A second later, a small door popped out of the woodwork. I smiled I used this passage way too many times when I was younger. "This is it. If it gets too hot here or if I say to get out then take this route. It'll take you about a mile away from here."

"It won't get that bad," John said as he put his hand on my shoulder.

I frowned at him. He didn't know what she was capable of. I barely even knew myself. "You don't know that." I took a step back, making him drop his hand.

"No I don't, but I like to think on the bright side."

"I've never been good at doing that. Life has disappointed me a few too many times to think that way."

John didn't say anything back as I pushed the little wood door closed.

There was one thing that I needed to tell John before we lost time. It has been floating around in my head for the morning but I never found a good time to address it.

"John, when I tell you to run and get out, don't try to help me, take my word and run. I cant drag you down with me." Before he had time to respond, my phone rang. I pulled it out of my back pocket and answered with a, "hello?"

"The final step is done. Just be ready. I have a strong feeling that she will be there in a few hours," Sherlock's voice said on the other end.

"We will keep our eyes open for her. Sherlock?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for helping." I never really thought about it but he helped me, without any convincing or thinking of the consequences, he just trusted me and did it. Even if he did drive me insane some times there were some good qualities that he had. I don't think I could have worked with a better person.

"You're welcome. You've put up with everything I have done, this is the least I could do."

"Well thank you. I owe you one."

There was a small chuckle and he said, "No you don't. Now finish this up and get home safely."

"I will," I said and hung up my phone and put it back in my back pocket and turned back to John. "Now it's time to wait."

<><>

I was looking out through one of the cracks in the boarded window about two hours later to see if I could see anything out of place. It was cloudy again and it looked like it was threatening to rain. The clouds that had come in had forced the sun to retire early. The clouds had made everything look darker and more gloomy then it already was. It was absolutely dismal out which only brought extra tension into my mind.

I tried to calm myself but I was nervous, terrified even, but of course I let anyone know about this. I acted cool and calm even though my hands were sweating. I don't think I had ever been so nervous in my life. Just the waiting was setting me on edge.

<>

"Do you want something to eat?" John asked as he came up to me holding a box of crackers and cheese on a plate.

"Sure," I replied even though I wasn't hungry.

"Time is seeming to go so slow," John said as he sat by the window with me and gave me some crackers.

"I know." I took a bite of it even though my stomach was in knots.

For a while we ate in silence, not really knowing what to say to the other but I didn't mind the silence. It felt like only 30 minutes went by but I think it was longer when my phone rang. I didn't even have to answer it to know what was going on. That was Trevor calling to say that they were here. That was our code sign.

I got up from the floor and looked out the window to see two black cars coming down the long drive. I looked at John as he got up and ran to his gun. It was show time.

I ran up the stairs and looked out the window to get a better view. I watched from the window as about eight people dressed in black come out of the two cars. I had my hand on a switch to blow up the car that we drove here. I rested my finger on the switch and waited until two people came to the car to look into the windows. The rest of them were close enough to hurt. I flipped the switch and watched the car go up in flames and those two guys dropped down, dead. A few others fell to the ground but quickly got back up.

I heard shouts then a gun fire then another man dropped down. Trevor had good aim for an old man. I looked out the window and saw some men trying to ram open the door. John was down there by himself. He needed backup. I ran out of the room and down the stairs to help him.

As I met up with John I heard another blast. They made it through the front door. I frowned. They were going through obstacles faster than I thought.

"Ready for this?" I pumped my gun as I took a breath and let it out slowly to calm down. All the nerves seemed to have disappeared and were now replaced by adrenaline.

"Of course."

I took cover behind an old dresser that was in the family room and waited. Within a minute I heard gunfire then I saw a man come into the room. I aimed and shot him in the arm. I frowned. That was a lousy shot. He cursed at me as he aimed with his other arm and tried to shoot back at me but missed and hit the wall beside me.

I was about to say something cocky until I felt someone kick the back of my knees and I went down. I looked up to see a girl maybe as old as me smiling down. She then pistol whipped me in the side of my head causing me to smack the floor. With my head spinning I didn't wait a second before I grabbed her feet and tugged as hard as I could, causing her to fall to the ground beside me. In the commotion I was able to take her pistol from her hand and straddled her waist as I aimed the gun at her head.

I hated guns, but I wasn't going to take a knife to a gun fight. It was either me or them.

"Drop it," someone said behind me in a deep rough voice. I looked over my shoulder to see the man I shot aiming a gun at me. "Shoot her and you're dead."

Without even saying anything I started to put down the gun until I heard gun fire and the man pointing the gun at me dropped to the ground, dead. Coming out of the hall was Trevor as he loaded his gun.

"Nice shot." I turned my attention to the girl getting ready to pull the trigger.

"It's not worth it," Trevor said about the girl, referring to me killing her.

"Fine." I hit her with the pistol hard enough to knock her out. He was right. I wasn't God, I didn't have a right to kill her in cold blood. I had never killed before and I wasn't going to let that be my first one.

"How many more are left?" Trevor said as I got up from the ground.

"I don't know, maybe three?" I said as something was tossed into the room that we were in through a hole in one of the windows. I looked at the small grenade. Before I had to say run it exploded causing bits of debris to go flying, some hitting me and Trevor.

"We need to split up."

He nodded and then ran out of the room. I walked into the kitchen and saw a man starting to walk out the back door. I aimed my gun but before I had time to fire John came out of the pantry and punched him in the face and the in the knee causing him to fall to the ground. John then pulled out some rope from his pant pocket and tied him up. He then tossed him into the pantry and locked the door shut.

"How many more?" I asked john.

"One more?" and as soon as John said that I heard a gun fire.

"Or maybe no more," I said and looked a John, evaluating what type of shape he was in. He had a black eye starting to form and he was holding his arm rather oddly. "Are you ok?"

"Fine. You ok?"

"Fine," I said even though my body was already aching.

"We need to find Trevor."

so good chapter yeah? well I'm supper excited because I am going to France the end of this summer to work and I am flying into London and staying with some family! I love that town so much! Hopefully I'll be able to see some Sherlock sights this time!!! that would be so awesome! I would love that!!!

oh and I'm going to post a challenge, 8 votes so I'll upload sooner! lets see if this happens. :)

well I'll talk to you later because I'm really tired, it's my bed time.

sleep well my friends!

Darla