Nolan never liked horror movies. The creep factor just never appealed to him. Now he was walking through an abandoned concentration camp. Well, abandoned despite the flocks of armed terrorists wandering the halls trying to hunt him down.

He and Grace were tiptoeing down yet another corridor, when Grace stopped.

"Do you hear something?" She whispered.

"More soldiers?"

She shook her head. "It's like...scratching, or something." She pressed her ear to the nearest door. "It's in here."

They exchanged glanced before making sure their guns were ready and opening the door.

It was dark, much like their previous prison, and six people were chained to the floor. They hardly had any room to move and each one was lying flat on their back.

Nolan saw that two of them were women, the rest men. They all stared at Nolan and Grace with wide eyes, but didn't speak or even move.

"Hi," Grace said awkwardly, kneeling next to the nearest prisoner and examined their chains. Oddly enough, they weren't old like the ones Grace and Nolan had been kept in. They were modern, but each pair was nailed directly to the floor.

"We're here to rescue you." Grace explained, fishing out the key from her pocket.

The prisoners exchanged looks.

"I'll keep watch." Nolan said, positioning himself outside the door.

How long had they been there?

He listened for any sounds of footfall, but all was silent despite the clank of handcuffs falling to the floor.

For a brief second he closed his eyes and allowed a slight groan to escape his lips. His forearm was beginning to feel like fire crawling up his skin and every breath felt like there were rocks crushing his chest.

How had they survived this far? He knew they were alive for a reason...but what? What could he do against a superpower such as Colossus? He'd joined the operation to clear his name; to start a new life. If he failed...he would only make it blacker.

Did he think he was a hero? Who was he to step up and save the world?

Footsteps.

Nolan straightened himself.

"Hurry up, Grace." He whispered.

"Trying."

Long shadows rounded the corner and Nolan raised his gun. He had extra clips stuffed in his pockets—apparently AKs were popular among Egor's employees.

Nolan peered through the scope and kept his limbs relaxed. He did a quickly calculation of a man's height and waited for half a second. The soldiers came into view and Nolan's crosshairs were already trained on their head.

One.

Two.

Three.

Their bodies dropped without as much as a twitch. Nolan was about to turn away, as he always did after he killed someone. He hated seeing their faces. But he looked back.

One man had a strange marking on his jaw. Nolan stepped closer to get a better view. It was a tattoo. Made of black ink, the mark depicted tiny Russian script. To the free world.

Nolan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He'd heard that somewhere before...

"Nolan?" Grace called. "A little help in here."

Nolan stood up and re-entered the room with a cautious glance behind him. All of the prisoners were standing up except two, who were beat up pretty bad.

Grace was carefully hoisting up a woman who was half-unconscious and surveyed the remaining four people.

Nolan assumed the other person lying on the floor, a middle-aged man, was to be put in his charge. He exchanged looks with Grace and continued on to speak to the rest of the group. "This isn't going to be easy," he said to them, "Those of you who are able need to get some weapons to give us more cover."

"Do you have any?" A woman in a ragged business suit asked.

"Yeah, they're right outside the door." Nolan replied, bending down to lift the wounded man.

The woman quickly peeked around the corner. "I don't see anything...just...bodies." She said warily.

"Yeah," Nolan grunted under the man's weight as he lifted him up, "Get the guns from the bodies."

He stood up in time to see the group's horrified expressions.

"What?" He asked.

"That seems a little...wrong..." A man said uncomfortably.

Nolan shrugged with his free shoulder. "Okay, fine. You want to go out there without a weapon?"

"No."

"Then get the guns from the bodies."

Without a word, they went out and gathered the weapons from the fallen Colossus soldiers.

Nolan happened to look over and saw Grace staring at him with a grin.

"What?" He asked, frustration biting his tone. He wasn't exactly angry...his body was just broken and the weight from the other man reminded him of his pain.

Grace just shook her head with a small giggle.

Nolan rolled his eyes and adjusted the man leaning on his shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yes." The man whispered.

"Can you walk at all?"

"Some."

Nolan carefully made his way out the door. It was all he could do not to collapse on the floor.

The other four people had retrieved ammunition and a gun, except one man who had to settle for a pair of knives.

"Let's go." Grace said with a worried glance at the woman all but hanging off her shoulder. They moved as a group, but Nolan and Grace began to lag behind due to the extra weight.

They moved up the stairway carefully, trying to be as silent as possible. Nolan noticed that everyone was beat up, but not necessarily malnourished. They must have been captured recently.

Going up the stairs with double Nolan's weight proved to be very difficult with broken ribs. What would he do if enemies decided to take the same route?

A they neared the top of the stairs, Nolan silently prayed, Please be clear, please be clear...

They were finally out of the deep basement without a sign of armed soldiers.

Yay.

Although they were aboveground, they still had no idea which way was out. They stood in a long room that sent chills down Nolan's spine.

The bedframes of at least fifty wooden bunkbeds lined either side of the dark walls. The room itself spanned at least eighty-five feet long and the air was damp and moldy. It was pretty dark, except for the yellow light coming from the exit on the other side.

Everyone paused in the doorway, silently taking in the eeriness of the space. The exit waited on the other side as they continued.

"Let's hurry up." One man said in a hushed tone.

Nolan knitted his brow together. Something was off. If Egor had any plan whatsoever, he'd have men stationed in every room, every exit.

He pulled ahead of the group as they murmured among themselves, watching, listening. He made eye contact with Grace, who shared the same worried expression.

"Can you guys shut up?" She hissed.

The others immediately quieted down.

They moved forward slowly.

They were about halfway down the hall when Nolan heard the faintest of sounds; like material being rubbed together. He held his hand up and everyone came to a stop. He silently handed off the man he was carrying to someone else and took a step forward.

"Nolan..." Grace whispered.

Nolan gave a wink before going forward. He positioned his gun against his shoulder and came about twenty feet away from the exit before stopping again.

He couldn't hear anything.

Had it been his imagination?

From the corner of his eye, he caught the flick of a shadow behind the wall on the left. He lifted his gun to peer through the scope. He spied the silhouette of a hand holding something round.

A grenade.

Nolan quickly adjusted his position, set the crosshairs of the scope where he wanted it, and fired.

The bullet shot through the door just as a distinct click! was heard as the pin was pulled from the grenade.

The small bomb exploded, shattering part of the wall and sending pieces of shrapnel everywhere. A piece of metal pierced Nolan's side and he dropped to his knee with a curse, clutching his stomach.

The dust began to clear and Nolan added two more bodies to the casualty list.

Grace was by his side in an instant, having handed off her burden also.

She dropped to her knees in front of him wordlessly, looking over him intently.

"I'm fine." Nolan muttered, although hot pain raced through his abdomen.

Grace carefully moved his hands away from his stomach and lifted his shirt roughly.

"Ow!"

"Shut up." She peered closely at the wound and nodded to herself. "The entry point didn't hit anything important, but it looks like you still have metal in there." She looked up at Nolan, and then gave a tentative glance at the group behind them. "You think you can walk?"

"Yeah."

She helped him up gently and gave his arm a squeeze before going back to lead the group forward.

Nolan moved along with everyone else, out the exit door. They skirted through a long, empty hallway when they passed by a room that caught Grace's attention.

She slowed her pace to a stop and allowed the woman she was helping to be passed to someone else.

Nolan gave her a questioning look, but she waved them forward. "I'll catch up."

They hurried down the hall and were surprised when the next door led outside. Nolan supposed he expected some sort of lobby or something.

They stood near the brick wall and stared out into the night sky. Grace opened the door next and came out with a bundle of things in her arms.

Nolan took in their surroundings. The building was encircled by barbed wire that was looped in wide arcs at the top. He could tell they'd emerged from the side of the camp because there was a long railroad track down the front to the left. Although what was beyond the concentration camp was masked by darkness, Nolan could faintly make out a tree line.

Everyone jerked their heads up as footsteps were heard above them. They held their breath as the steps came to a stop.

Of course they'd have guards up there. Nolan thought dismally. They'd just have to stay there until—

The door next to them suddenly burst open and terrorists emerged from the other side.

Nolan was standing closest to the door and swung around to shove the stock of his gun into the head of the first man.

"Run!" He shouted, firing a few shots.

The group took off at a sprint, everyone trying to support those who couldn't walk while keeping a significant pace. They headed down the railroad tracks.

Nolan prayed they had enough sense to watch their backs.

He heard shouts coming from around front. Clutching his bleeding middle, Nolan pressed the barrel of his AK into the forehead of the next soldier and fired, dodging out of the way of the next round of bullets.

It was strange. After so long, he rarely saw faces anymore. Just targets.

He took off after the group, straining his torso around to provide cover fire. He aimed at the roof and pulled the trigger twice.

Thankfully the group ahead was also firing behind them. A hail of bullets rained around Nolan as about fifteen soldiers fled outside to take aim at them.

Nolan squinted through the scope and went to fire, but he was out of ammunition. He swore under his breath, legs pumping, as he fished around in his pocket for another clip. His breaths came in short rasps as his entire torso screamed in pain. His hands shook and his knees were weak.

Grace came beside him and shoved her shoulder under his armpit. She helped him along, twisting around every other step and giving return fire.

"C'mon, we have to go faster." She panted.

Nolan willed his legs into a run. He suddenly felt hot and cold at the same time as nausea clouded his vision. He didn't stop, however, and no bullet found its way into his body by some miracle.

He could see the opening at the end of the railroad track.

Keep going, keep going...

The other group was farther ahead and seemed to be doing a good job of keeping the terrorists at bay.

Nolan couldn't see what happened, but the woman in the business suit gave a scream and fell to one knee. Nolan first assumed she'd been shot, but quickly realized that wasn't the case.

It was one of the injured people that had been hit.

"Leave him! Just go!" Grace cried desperately.

Nolan ground his jaw and kept going. They were so close...

Twenty feet...

Ten...

Five...

Grace stumbled and dropped her gun. Nolan almost fell with the sudden weight, but Grace quickly righted herself.

"I'm okay," She gasped before Nolan could ask.

They made it.

They were out of the concentration camp.

They didn't stop running until they were far into the woods, and even then continued on for another thirty minutes. Dark oaks were thick in the area, and once they were sure no one was following them, they decided to stop for the night.

Some people were too wounded to go on, anyway.

Nolan slumped against a tree, his chest heaving. He watched as Grace opened her jacket and dumped tons of medical supplies onto the leafy ground.

So that's what she went back for...

She pointed at a younger man. "Go get some wood and start a fire."

"I-I don't know how..." he said.

Grace glared at him. "And I don't know how to operate on someone." She gave Nolan an apologetic expression. "But it looks like we'll both be trying something new tonight."

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Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading! This was kind of a quick chapter, but I hope you liked it ^_^

~What are your thoughts on the chapter?

~ Why do you think the hostages were captured?

~Poor Nolan XD I believe Grace is going to have to do some cringey things in the very near future =P

Thank you again for reading! Remember, if you have any critiques, or if anything was confusing, let me know! ^_^ {Don't forget to comment, vote and share!}