Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. Well, some of them are. But the important ones are all property of MTM and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this . . . . Blah, blah, blah. You know the drill.
Final Countdown
By Nicky
Chapter 8
I could hardly believe it
when I heard the gun shot ring out. It
seemed like it came out of nowhere. But
in one split second, the Director was dead.
A bullet right between the eyes.
And my father was holding the smoking gun. Before anyone could even blink, he had turned the gun on Jarod
and fired a second shot. The look in
his eyes told me that he wasn't finished. He still had someone else he wanted
dead. The gun starts to turn her way
and before I know it, I hear another gun shot.
And then a blood curdling scream from her.
"Parker!" I
scream back. Although I don't know why
I'm screaming. The room was deathly
quiet after the gunshots. I'm sure she
could hear me. "Are you
alright?"
She was covered in
blood. And it took me a minute to
realize that it wasn't her blood. It
was Jarod's. She wasn't hit by my
father's third bullet. Because he never
had the chance to fire it. I stopped
him. Looking down into my hands, I
finally realize what the hot, heavy weight was that I had grasped in my shaking
fingers. I drop the gun and run over to
my father. He's dead.
I look around and she was
at Jarod's side, pressing her hand into the new hole in his leg. He was barely conscious, but alive
nonetheless.
"Parker, are you
okay?" I ask again. I can see that
she's fine, but I needed to be sure.
"I'm okay, Lyle. I wasn't hit," she cries. "But Jarod was. He's bleeding so much."
"You stay there and
keep pressure on the wound. I'm going
to call for an ambulance." That's
all I could think to do. I hoped it was
enough. But I didn't expect
resistance. Unfortunately, I had
forgotten that there was one other person in the room who escaped the rain of
bullets.
"I don't think that's
a good idea," a raspy voice says from behind me. I feel the tip of a gun pointing in my back, so I have no choice
but to put the phone down and turn around.
Very slowly.
"What's this about,
Raines?" I ask. I'm very curious
to know just what's on his mind. And
just how exactly did he get my gun? But
then I remember that I dropped it before.
He must have gotten it then.
"I'm tired of you
Parkers," he gasps slowly.
"You two get out. Leave me
with Jarod."
"No way," my
sister yells from her spot next to Jarod.
"I'm not leaving him."
"Very well
then," Raines says chillingly.
"If you won't leave on your own, then I'll have your brother here
drag your cold, dead body out." He
gives her an evil smile before turning the gun on her.
"No," I say as I
step in front of the gun. I don't know
what's come over me. Call it a moment
of bravery. Or sheer stupidity. But in any case, I'm now between this madman
with a gun and my sister. "Parker,
let's get out of here," I plead with her.
"Go," Jarod
whispers, obviously in pain.
"I can't," she
sobs, pulling him up into her arms.
"I don't want to leave you."
"I know," he
says with a resolved smile. He knows
his fate. But he won't let it be
hers. "But you have to."
For a moment there,
they're both quiet. Not saying a
word. Only staring at each other. But for some reason, I got the impression
that more was said in that one second than anyone really knew. And for the first time, I really was able to
see the depths of their love for each other.
"Let's go,
Parker," I say again, this time while gently pulling her from off the
floor.
"I love you,"
she whispers to him, almost with a smile.
I just hope that her love will be enough for him to fight for.
We get out into the
hallway outside the conference room and find Willie there waiting for us, his
gun drawn.
"What happened in
there?" he asks frantically.
"I heard gunshots from down the hall."
"My father. He had a gun and shot the Director and
Jarod. He was about to kill Parker
until I stopped him," I explain quickly.
"You killed
him?" Willie asks in amazement.
And all I could do was nod. I
still could hardly believe what I had to do myself. It's not that I couldn't handle making the kill shot. But I never expected to have to kill my own
father. Even if he was a lousy one.
"Is she going to be
alright?" Willie motions with his head towards my sister. And I must admit, she doesn't look
good. Kind of pale. And really quiet. I think she wants to cry, but is trying hard to hold it in.
"I'm fine," she
finally manages. "Or I will be
when I get my husband from that psychopath."
"Raines got a hold of
my gun and forced us from the room. He
wanted to be in there with Jarod . . . alone," I tell him.
"That's not
good," Willie frowns. "I
found something in the lab. The one
Raines always works from. Just some
loose wires and stuff. But they look
like the kind you'd put in a bomb."
"A bomb?" Miss
Parker cries as a sob finally escapes her lips. "He doesn't want to just kill Jarod. He wants to kill us all!"
"Sis! You have got to calm down," I say,
grabbing her shoulders firmly, but not so that I'd hurt her. "I don't want
to see you back in the hospital. The
three of us should be able to come up with some sort of plan."
"He's right,"
Willie agrees. "It's okay. We'll come up with something. But first, you need to get out of
here," he tries to persuade her.
But I could see that she didn't plan on moving.
"There's no way I'm
leaving Jarod," she insists adamantly.
"I'm not going anywhere without him."
"At least go
someplace else, away from the conference room.
I don't know how much explosives Raines has in there," Willie
pleads with her.
"Probably enough to
level Blue Cove," she says quietly.
A tear starts its trek down her face, but she wipes it away quickly
before her Ice Queen shell starts to melt.
"How about you and I
go and warn Sydney and Broots," I suggest to her. "We'll have Broots start a backup of
the computers . . . in case something happens."
"What about
Jarod?" she whimpers.
"Raines will kill him
if you go in there," Willie surmises.
"But he doesn't suspect me.
I'll go in and try to talk him out of there. You guys make sure this whole building is cleared to be on the
safe side."
"Are you sure about
this?" I ask him. He's putting his
life on the line for a man that he's never seemed to care about before. What was so different now?
"I've actually never
been more sure of anything," Willie says, sounding surprisingly confident
of this fact, even to his own self.
"It's just a feeling I have.
And it's making me do this. I
can't really explain why. Jarod said
earlier that circumstances beyond our control have tied us together forever. I have to find out what he meant by
that. Maybe he knows something about my
past that I've been searching so long for.
I don't intend on letting him die before he tells me."
"Whatever," I
say to him. If Willie wanted to bust in
there and play Russian Roulette with his psychopathic mentor, then who was I to
stop him. The only thing I was
concerned with was getting my sister to safety. I'll let those two bozos try to handle Raines.
"Come on, Sis. As you can see, Willie's got things covered
here. We should go." She's still reluctant, but I pull her down the
hall anyway. But deep down, I have to
convince myself that his is the best thing for her. What if everything didn't work out in there with the bomb? What if Jarod was in there dying as we
speak? Would she ever forgive me for
taking these final moments she could be sharing with him?