Chapter 32
By the time Hayden had reached Commander Darabont, they were practically at the top of one of the mountains. And even from below, Angie could see what was going on at the top as she struggled to catch up. But even with all her struggling and exhaustion, all she could think about was Hayden and putting a stop to this madness.
But on top of the mountain, as soon as Hayden caught up with the Commander, the hybrid jumped on him and sent him to the ground where he used his dragon strength to hold him down. But when he did so, that’s when Hayden spotted something falling out of the Commander’s pocket. He couldn’t tell what it was at first, but as he examined it some more, he realized it was a button, most likely for another explosive.
But with his attention on the button, Darabont suddenly sent a blow to the hybrid’s face which knocked him off as the Commander hurried up and picked up the button. And when Hayden managed to get himself up while wiping the blood from his nose, he noticed that the Commander was standing back while holding the button up.
“Don’t come any closer” he warned, “If you do, I will push this button.”
“And what will that do?” Hayden demanded, “Will that set off another explosive?”
“Not just any explosive, I was saving this for the grand finale. Something to finish everything off once we were done with our work.”
“And what’s that? A bomb?”
The Commander didn’t say anything as he gave Hayden the look that answered it.
“Where is it?” Hayden commanded as he felt his heart beating in fear.
“It could anywhere up here. I can push this button whenever I want and it will activate it, and seeing how all of your friends are up here, we wouldn’t want them to get blasted into bits now, would we?”
Hayden clenched his fists tightly as he felt his blood boiling.
“What do I have to do to prevent that from happening?” he demanded sternly.
“You can let us finish our work” the Commander smirk “Although once we’re finished, you and your dragon family won’t even be here, so when you think about it, it doesn’t really matter if I blow this island up or not because no one will be here.”
“Oh,” the hybrid scowled “So you are still interested in taking us against our will just to study us and expose us to the world.”
“Never turn your back on money.”
“Well, I can” Angie suddenly appeared as she quickly used whatever strength she had to knock the Commander down as the button slid out of his hand. “Depending on what the job is.”
At that moment, when Darabont was still down, Hayden quickly picked up the button as Angie hurried to his side. But as the Commander started to get up, Hayden quickly pulled Angie away so they could talk.
“Angie,” he began “This button is supposed to activate a bomb that’s hidden somewhere here. Can you try to find it while I deal with this asshole?”
“I’ll try” she promised when she spotted something behind that caught her attention “Look out!”
She grabbed onto his shoulders and moved him out of the way of a bullet that was fired by the Commander’s handgun.
“Go!” Hayden ordered her as she dashed off with the button.
As soon as she took off, Hayden turned to the Commander who had fired another bullet at the hybrid. But when he tried to dodge out of the way, he felt the bullet grazing across his arm as he cried out in pain while clutching the wound. Without even hesitating, Hayden jump towards the Commander and knocked him down before he could fire another bullet.
And as Hayden took care of the Commander, Angie did her best to look for the bomb while being careful not to slip on the rough surface.
“Gotta find the bomb,” she told herself as she frantically searched for it “What does it even look like?”
She was convinced that it didn’t look like the other explosives, but at the same time, she didn’t know how big or small it was or if it even was hiding somewhere in the mountain. But just when she thought she could find it, she soon spotted something near an edge that caught her eye. As she carefully hurried down to it, she kneeled down in front of it and began to examine it. It didn’t look like the other explosives, it was about the same size, but Angie was sure this was the bomb.
“Okay,” she breathed “Now how do I disarm you?”
The bomb was quite heavy as she had to push it around to face the back where she spotted some wires. Thinking she needed to cut the wires, she tried to search for a sharp rock to cut the wires. But just when she found one, she suddenly felt someone snatching the button out of her hand as she gasped at the sight of Jackson’s father.
“I’ll take that” he spat “Now move.”
Just like that, he gave her a hard shove as she began to tumble towards the edge. Remembering how close she was to the edge, Angie quickly grabbed onto a crack on the surface which stopped her from falling off. But with her legs dangling, she turned around and let out a loud shriek when she saw how high she was as she dangled above the forest. If she were to fall, there was a high chance she could die and another high chance is getting badly injured. Either way, she had to hold onto the crack for dear life as she looked up to see the professor walking off with the button and not even turning around to help.
“Murderer!” she angrily shouted at him.
But just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, she noticed that the crack she was gripping was starting to crack some more as she felt a shift on the surface she was hanging on that made her heart stop. She couldn’t pull herself up because it would put pressure on the cracks. But if those cracks grew deeper, the part of the mountain would break off with her and she would plummet to her death.
“Oh shit,” she gasped with fright “Hayden, please hurry up.”