Now or Never

Chapter 19

Sid regained consciousness. While, he didn't remember when he'd passed out, he did remember the cause. That excruciating pain of being "cared for" by a nurse who was instructed to treat him without any sort of numbing agent. Still, it wasn't as bad as seeing the worry on Lila's face as he drifted in and out of consciousness that night.

He winced and pushed himself into a sitting position and noticed that Lila was sleeping on the ground next to him. The fact that she'd stayed with him all through the night like that filled him with determination. Sensing the shift in Sid's position, Lila quickly sat up.

"Hey," Sid said, as if his wound was nothing more than a bee sting.

"Sid! You're alright." She said. "I was so worried, you were running a fever last night and I was afraid you would make it."

"Nothing's gonna keep me from our date." He said hoping to get a smile out of her only to fail.

"I am so sorry about all of this." She said, tears running down her cheeks as she brought his hand up to her chest, hugging it, fearing that he would slip away were she to let go.

"Hey, please don't cry." Sid said, whipping the tears from her face. "You wanted to protect my family. I get it. You didn't have a choice." He said softly.

"But I could have gotten you killed." She said. "It was a stupid decision." She admitted.

"And if you didn't make it then you wouldn't be here talking to me right now. And I wouldn't have a family to get back to." He said. "We all knew what we were getting into when we signed up for this mission."

"He's right." Stinky said. "Besides, the fact is, we are all still alive."

"Someone's coming." Bella said and the group fell silent only to hear the sound of footsteps as they came closer to their makeshift prison.

"It's me. I want to make a deal." Dr. Cooke was standing just outside the tent and from Sid's angle he could see that the doctor was on the phone. "I want three times as much as you paid for the football headed one for each of them." There was another pause. "Yeah, well that was before I had to go on the lam." Another pause. "Excellent, I'll send you my coordinates. See you soon." He said and ended the call.

After a few minutes Dr. Cooke entered the tent and was surprised to see Sid standing up, still wearing a defiant look. "I'm surprised you made it through the night." He said.

"It'll take more than a shot in the arm and an infection to kill me." He said.

"One can hope." The doctor said, "No matter, at least I'll get a hefty sum of money for you." He continued past Sid's cell and stopped in front of Bella. "Come with me, my sweet." Dr. Cooke unlocked her cell. "I have a special mission for you."

"What are you planning on doing with me? I don't know the location of the Green Eyes." She said. "You might as well leave me here."

"I am not interested in the Green Eyes or their ridiculous treasure." He said, then drew a gun from the waistband of his pants. "Don't make me ask you again." He said, pointing the gun at Sid. "Because I can assure you, he won't survive this gunshot." Lila gasped but Sid gave her a gesture that told her to stay put. He wasn't about to let her take a bullet for him.

"You're a bastard!" Bella said then followed the doctor out of the tent

Arnold stifled a yawn with the back of his hand, as predicted he didn't get much sleep the night before. And although his dreams were filled with Helga, they were far from pleasant. Instead, they were filled with gruesome images of her being killed in front of him. The dreams got so bad that he'd eventually given up on trying to sleep.

When dawn had arrived, Arnold made his way toward the water's edge to refill the canteens so that they were ready to face another day in the sweltering heat. After filling the second canteen he set it aside. He dipped his cupped hands into the water and took a long refreshing sip. A twig snapped behind him and he turned around to see Helga standing there.

Sunrays filtered through the canopy and cast ribbons of light all around her, making her look angelic. Her hair was loose and flowing freely over her shoulders, her blue eyes were still hazy with sleep. He felt a blush creep onto his face and he quickly dipped his hands back into the water, only this time it was to splash cold water on his cheeks.

He had sort of hoped that, after seeing the real Helga, he would be rid of those thoughts of her. Their past was rocky but their friendship had since grown and she was her favorite author, but that had always been the gist of it.

"Are you sure they went this way?" Arnold tensed at the sound of Eduardo's voice. Crap! He'd forgotten all about him.

"I'm an expert tracker. This is why you hired me." Mick said and suddenly, both he and Eduardo came through the trees. "See, what did I tell ya?" Mick said to Eduardo before turning to Arnold, machete in his hands. "hello boy." He pointed the tip of the large knife at Arnold and smirked. "and look you made a new friend." he said, referring to Helga. "Where are you meeting all these beautiful women?"

At that Helga cringed, the way Mick studied her with his eyes made her want to shower and that was after spending the night covered in river water. Helga clenched her fists at her sides, this guy only had a knife, she could take him. She took a step forward but was stopped as two large arms grabbed her from behind. She struggled for a moment until she felt the pressure of a gun against her temple.

"ah, Jose, there you are." Mick said. "Nice try, little girl. Know your place or I'll have to punish you." He laughed, "Who knows, perhaps your boyfriend will enjoy the show."

"You're after me. She has nothing to do with any of this. Let her go!" Arnold ordered, he wasn't about to let last night's dreams become a reality.

"Hey, I'm a reasonable man." Mick said and lowered his machete but didn't put it away. "All I want is that key." He nodded toward the pendant Arnold still wore under his shirt. In all the chaos of yesterday Arnold had completely forgotten to return it to Bella.

He wanted to keep the Green Eyes safe but Helga was in the most immediate danger, so he didn't have a choice. As he took those few tentative steps toward Mick, he removed the necklace. Once Arnold was in reach, Mick grabbed it and kicked Arnold hard in the knee sending him to the ground.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you." Mick said as he brought up the machete into the air, ready to slice Arnold in half.

"No!" Eduardo shoved Mick away, earning him a slash in the arm. Eduardo tussled with Mick, they fell to the ground, rolling in a fury of fists and curses.

Jose removed the gun from Helga's temple and instead took aim at his two partners, swapping the target of his shot from Mick to Eduardo and back again, unsure.

Somehow, Mick managed to pull himself to the top of the fight, he pinned Eduardo beneath his large frame and began punching him mercilessly.

At the same time, Helga dropped her weight and kicked Jose in the shin in order to get away. He dropped his gun and Helga quickly dove for it, scooping it up before aiming it at Mick. If Bob Pataki was good for anything it was this: Target practice, once a month.

She fired, grazing Mick's right shoulder. He let out a cry and clasped his left hand over the wound, seething as he looked in her direction.

"My father said never aim a gun at someone unless you intend to kill, so consider yourself lucky because I'm giving you a chance to walk away." She said.

Mick grimaced, his machete was only a few inches away from him, but he knew he wasn't fast enough to kill Helga before she shot him dead. He stood up slowly and Eduardo scooted away from the burly American. "Doesn't matter, this is where you die anyway." Mick said. "That volcano is going to erupt at any moment, and since we are taking the jeep, good luck getting out of here before that happens." He sneered, before heading toward the jeep in the distance with Jose in toe.

As the jeep took off, Arnold knelt down next to Eduardo, his face, despite being bludgeoned didn't look too bad, at least his eyes weren't swollen shut. "Why did you do that?" he asked. "I thought you were with them."

"I didn't want to be." He said. "I loved your parents, we were a family." He said. "I know you must think I betrayed them but I didn't." he said.

"What do you mean, you didn't want to be? You didn't look like a prisoner to me." Arnold said.

"That's because I wasn't, not really." Eduardo said. "You see, your parents went missing and I hired Mick to help me find them." Eduardo said. "I didn't know how ruthless he was until it was too late."

Eduardo continued, "turns out he'd heard about my encounters with the Green Eyes and before long I was trapped in an agreement with him. I never intended to help him find the Green Eyes."

"A lot of good that does us now that he has the pendant." Arnold said.

"No, he doesn't." Eduardo said, shoving the pendant into Arnolds hands. "I managed to get it from him." He said. "I know you have no reason to trust me but if you have a way out of this jungle, please take me with you."

Arnold thought for a moment, this whole adventure was just one betrayal after another but he was a strong believer in second chances. Plus, it all came down to what he could live with and he couldn't live with condemning a man to death by volcano. "Alright."

"Arnold." Helga said. "You can't be serious."

"He saved my life." Arnold said to her then turned to Eduardo, "but I am keeping a close eye on you."

Suddenly, Bella came rushing through the foliage. "Arnold, Thank Goodness I found you." She panted. "Your friends…They're in trouble."

Dr. Cooke shoved Lorenzo down to his knees and stepped back to look at his handy work. Arnold's friends were bound and lined up, on their knees, in a row in front of him. It was so nice to have this power over people. "Look alive." The doctor said, "The buyer is on his way." And no sooner had those words left his mouth than did Scheck's convoy pulled up, crushing any trees in their path as if they were tooth picks.

The lead car stopped and Scheck stepped out, his thick black books hit the ground as he made his way over to the doctor. "Good." He said. "Very good."

"As you can see, they are all here." The doctor said, sweeping his hand out over his captives.

"They are the perfect bargaining chip." Scheck said, mostly to himself. "But there's only one problem." He said, removing a gun from the holster on his belt.

"What's that?" the Doctor asked.

"Your army works for me and I won't be keeping my end of the deal." Scheck smirked, firing his gun at the Doctor, who dropped dead before he had a chance to protest. The blood pulled from the Doctor's forehead like a small stream being released from a dam.

Sid wanted to look away but he couldn't. He'd never seen death this close before. Then it hit him, how close he'd been to suffering the same fate. He pictured himself lying there, dead, nothing, null, and the world moving on around him.

Pressure against his side pulled Sid back from his thoughts, Lila leaned against him to bury her face in his shoulder, obviously distraught. The action reminded him that he had to keep fighting for her sake.

"As for you." He turned toward Arnold's friends, gun in hand. "I am done playing games."

He paced in front of them and admired his gun. "I will give you five minutes to tell me where Arnold is. For every minute after that I will start executing you one by one." He said then came to a stop, pointed his gun at Lorenzo. "Who wants to tell me?"

AN: I am so so so sorry that this is so late. Last year was just really crappy. I hope you guys can forgive me but I want you to know that I will be finishing this story. I hope you guys have a wonderful day.

E-Rose