Chapter Ten

Chuck's heart was beating fast as they strode towards the transportation van. He wasn't even sure that he was capable of escaping. He was a lanky teenager with the muscles of a five year old boy. The men that surrounded him were at least two hundred and fifty pounds, and there were about eight of them. This thing was serious. It wasn't one of his video games. Chuck wished it was. The more he thought about it being real, the more he started to shake and the faster his heart erratically thumped. His feet felt heavy, the sky was so shockingly bright and blue that his eyes narrowed in pain. He had no idea how long he had been inside that building, but he felt like a vampire longing for the darkness.

He noticed the way that the rather large man lumbering along next to him swung his grazed fists, as though he was ready for combat at any time of the day. Chuck suspected that he even slept like that. The more he studied his surroundings, the more terrified he became. They were about ten meters away from the dreaded (totally inconspicuous) black van. He needed to think fast but fear was overriding him. His breathing grew heavier, his body felt like it was being weighed down by bricks, every part of his body was reluctant, fearful.

Chuck quickly realised he did need to think that this was a video game. Hell, that's what he did for a living. The less vivid real life was to him right now the better. He needed to be a hero, the hero he had always dreamed about as a child, Charles Carmichael was the alter ego he created in his head as a child, he was mighty and powerful, he was charming and he was fearless, everything Chuck wasn't. Chuck was going to have to find his inner Carmichael and fast.

They were less than two meters away now. The two men who were holding Chuck's arms were practically carrying him, which Chuck thought was rather odd considering how heavy he felt right now, but more mentally than physically. "Do that thing!" He told himself. "Flash!" He blinked. Nothing. He was running out of time. Suddenly an image appeared in his mind of Sarah as he last saw her, her face, her eyes, gazing into his. It was as though he had been lit up like a Christmas tree, the hot surge in his heart flew up to his brain like an electrical charge. He was doing it. Chuck was flashing.

Leave Chuck Bartowski and enter Charles Carmichael. He did a sudden forward flip with his hands still painfully pulled behind his back, but he felt nothing but pure adrenaline, it was as though love had suddenly transformed him into this. Sarah was the key. At that precise moment he was suddenly facing the troop of men and was merely a few inches away from them. One moved towards him with a gun, without thinking about it, Chuck removed it from his hand with a perfect roundhouse kick and then returned his other leg in the opposite direction and clocked him agonisingly in the chin, he heard a sickening click as the heavy man slapped down on the concrete floor.

This time two more men approached him from behind, both were armed and gaining on him. As though someone else was controlling him, Chuck did yet another back-flip, disarming the men behind him and sending them down to meet the ground. He must have hit them pretty hard. He moved towards them with his back facing them, as quickly as he possibly could, he squatted down and grabbed the gun from the dark skinned man's unconscious hand and clutched it in his own handcuffed ones.

Chuck had to act faster than fast, he angled his clamped together hands so that his left hand held his right wrist to steady the bulky gun. He placed his right finger over the trigger. He was furiously walking backwards as the five men approached him, guns at the ready. Mere seconds were passing yet Chuck felt as though time was slowing right down because as they fired bullets towards him, he dodged each one like some kind of superhero. He didn't have a millisecond to acknowledge what he was doing, because if he did then he could collapse with fear. In the blink of an eye he angled his body so that he was facing them side on and his gun was pointed to them. He shot five perfect bullets with precision, unfortunately, from his low angle, he could only manage about crotch height. He watched with a mixture of awe and disgust as each bullet hit each bulky man precisely in their manhood area. He winced as he saw the sheer pain in their faces and then the girlish screams of pain.

"Ouch." He thought. He began to back away as each of them in turn, fell to their knees in anguish. Unexpectedly, the back of his head erupted in pain and he found that he was on the floor himself, his skull throbbed as he rolled over so he was facing the sky. An imposing figure leaned over him. Silver. He held a gleaming gun in his own hands and pointed it towards Chuck, his eyes like the portal to hell. Chuck's body exploded with fresh fear, but he quickly placed his legs between Silver's and parted them so that the agent lost his balance and momentarily stumbled back. Chuck continued to roll over, in search of his weapon. He found in impossible to get to his feet. He was tiring of this whole not-having-the-use-of-his-hands thing. Silver's forehead glistened as he approached again. "They never give up, do they?" Chuck thought as the man's thick set lips parted.

"I need you, kid, so I ain't gonna kill you. But I can hurt you very badly so that you'll be begging me to. And for this little stunt, I'm gonna kill you're pretty little girlf-" Suddenly his sentence was cut short and his evil eyes were wide as he fell towards Chuck. Chuck rolled over as Silver's bleeding head collided with the road. He looked up in confusion and saw a slight, long legged figure looming over him clutching yet another, would you guess it, gun. But the gun went limp in the shadow's hand as it came closer to him.

"Sarah! Sarah! Oh My God, Sarah!" He said, the words rushing out of his mouth like a waterfall. Her face and her shirt were covered in blood. Chuck searched her face again and noticed a huge searing cut along her hairline, blood dripping down her cheeks and onto her clothing. "You're hurt!" He said, his heart aching for her.

"Chuck, come on, we don't have time!" She commanded. "Turn over." He turned over so that he was face to face with the ground. He felt her fiddling with the lock on his handcuffs, within seconds, his hands were free. He felt sweet release as his hands separated. She really was a master with locks. He pushed his palms to the ground and in an instant he was on his feet. He wanted to kiss her, the way he felt right now overrode everything, his heart took control of his mind. Her eyes searched his, so layered with depth and emotion, sprinkled with light relief and a little something that mirrored his.

"Thank you." He breathed. Breaking the moment, the heavy steel door on the building swung open and a heard of agents dressed in black were flying towards them.

"CHUCK! Let's go!" Sarah yelled, her own heart racing with fear, pulsating so fast that it sent waves of adrenaline through her body. She took his hand and all at once they were racing ahead. Chuck's legs were moving so fast and his feet were coming in contact with the ground so hard that he felt as though he was going to fall over, but he kept moving. Sarah was insanely fast at running, her long lithe legs stretched out in front of her at lightening speed, she was practically pulling Chuck along.

"The van." She said suddenly, remembering her hair pin. She glanced to the side and he nodded. She didn't have time to look behind them, they flew towards the van and they tumbled in together. Sarah quickly jimmied the lock, forced the car into gear and slammed her foot down on the accelerator, the van surged forward and they were off. Chuck glanced at the review mirror in panic and saw the agents running along behind the van, but even they could see it was useless. He spotted a car a few paces behind them and knew it would only be a matter of moments before they caught up with them. Sarah too glanced and the mirror and her eyes met Chuck's briefly, she knew they had little time. She pushed her foot as far down as it would go and they made it onto the gravely road, the car squeaked in protest as she took a corner clumsily due to the speed making her inaccurate.

"Sarah we're screwed!" Chuck whispered, his voice fueled by panic.

"Don't freak out!" She said, surprising him with the level of calmness in her voice. "We just have to lose them." As she said this, she realised she had no idea where they were or where the nearest highway was, she had only passed her driving test a few months before, she didn't even own her own car and now suddenly she was driving at way over a hundred miles an hour. Blind. She was scared, she was absolutely terrified to her core. Yet she knew Chuck was a very empathetic being, if she panicked, he would. She knew he felt the need to protect her but for once she was going to protect him. Knowing they were very soon about to be followed she needed to put as much distance between the halo agents and herself as possible. She was aware of her and Chuck's labored breathing as she sped along.

A forty-five minutes a several miles later they came to a roundabout.

"Which way do we go?" Chuck said, his voice shaky.

"I don't know, I'm just going to go with my gut." Sarah replied, she circled the roundabout and took the fourth turning.

"I guess there's a one in four chance they'll pick the right turning." His stomach was churning.

Sensing his discomfort, she placed her hand over his, his warm skin calmed her, the panic and fear momentarily dispersed as he gently moved his thumb back and forth and her skin sparked from his touch. Her body trembled slightly, she needed to she needed to focus on getting them both out of this, so she patted his hand gently and put hers back on the steering wheel. How did he elicit such sensations from her that she didn't even know that she could produce?

They continued to move at a lightening pace over the next few minutes, Sarah knew that their time in this vehicle was limited and she told Chuck as much.

"What are we supposed to do?" Chuck wondered, eyeing the cars passing them on the highway, they still had no idea where they were and didn't recognise any of the place names.

"I think we're going to need to dump this van somewhere, they could be tracking it for all we know." She said, taking one hand off the steering wheel and touching her forehead, she had, for a moment forgotten about her deep cut which she acquired whilst trying to escape.

"You know, you're really good at this whole 'kidnap' slash 'runaway' situation." He admitted.

"Says you, Mr Kickass?" She smiled, despite herself.

"It isn't me though, it's this thing inside my head." He said deflatedly, checking behind them again in the review mirror.

"You can do anything Chuck, I've seen you in action. You're amazing on you're own, you're.." She didn't take her eyes from the road, worried in case if she looked at him she would chicken out and not say what she wanted to say. "-smart, kind and funny. Anything you wanted you could have." Her eyes strayed from the road and met his, they were glistening in a way that caused hundreds of butterflies in her stomach to suddenly form a tornado, swarming around her heart and enveloping her with warmth.

"You're not so bad yourself you know." He put his hand on her knee and she lapped her fingers around his.

"Thanks." She turned back into practical Sarah."There should be something station coming up along here soon.. hang on look there's a huge sign." They both paused from the conversation to look at the large sign that spelled the words 'Oklahoma'.

"Oklahoma?" Chuck exclaimed. "How the hell did we get here?"

"Blame the halo agents." She looked behind them again.

"Look! A Mcdonalds! What the hell are the odds of that?" He grinned at her, a smile that made her want to float up into the clouds without a care in the world. "Let's ditch this thing in the car park." Then his face darkened. "We don't have a penny to our names, what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"We'll worry about that later." She said. "We need to focus on now. We're going to need to be hitchhikers for the afternoon."

"Hitchhikers? How the hell are we going to know whose car we're going to be getting into? Or if a car will even stop for us?" He noticed that he sounded like a little girl. "Man up, Bartowski." He told himself angrily.

"Well I don't think we're going to meet anyone more evil than those halo agents. Besides, you have that flashy thing going on." She said as they pulled into the restaurant car park.

"Good point." He realised that the intersect worked because of Sarah, so if it came to her life being in danger, he knew he would flash.

They got out of the car, their legs feeling relief of being straightened again after being in the vehicle for such a long period of time. Sarah walked around to Chuck's side of the van and one minute she was looking into his eyes and the next minute he was kissing her up against the hot metal, burning her neck slightly, but she didn't care. The mixture of adrenaline and the relief of still being alive radiated through their lips, their bodies growing hot with want. The intensity increased, the hot fire that burned within them grew to new heights and exploded as their hands roamed one another's bodies. Her hands running desperately through his wild hair, his hands around her waist, pulling her closer, as close as he could get to her. The proximity between them added fuel to the fire, the world around them ceased to exist. The heartbreaking moment when they had to break away to breathe was when Sarah remembered they needed to get out of here and fast.

"Come on Chuck!" She said, her breathing frantic. She hadn't a clue what had come over her, but her heart had yet to return to earth, he smiled his cute, if a bit sheepish, half smile at her and grabbed her hand as they raced off down the long country road, their legs somehow carrying them although they hadn't had a moment of sleep, or a crumb of food to fuel them, but somehow, they ran.

Fifteen minutes later when their running had changed from jogging to walking, they decided between them that this was the place to stop to hitch a ride. All around them were fields and fields of emerald blades and the endless road stretching in front of them. The sky was a dull, cloudless blue, the air was dry and not a car was in sight.

A further hour or so later, a car had not passed, they were beginning to grow thirsty, as the absence of clouds provided and endless stream of sun to parch them.

"Well this is fun." Chuck said weakly. Sarah shot him a look, and was about to say something when she heard the faint grumble of an engine in the distance. He heard it too and looked hopefully at her. They stuck their hands out as the Crown Victoria approached them. To their delight the ocean blue car stopped and a rather large man with short, messy brown hair and humorous blue eyes looked out at them.

"Where ya goin'?" He grunted slightly, a grunt that should have warned Chuck and Sarah off of him, but they sensed a warmness beneath that, something about this man made them want to trust him.

"Wherever you're going." Chuck spoke up.

"We.. just need to get out of here." Sarah added.

The man shrugged. "Okay."

"I'm Chuck, by the way, and this is Sarah."

"My name is John Casey, get in."

So is this John Casey just an ordinary nice guy.. Or does he have a secret too? Thanks for reading, and if you can spare a moment please leave a review!