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"Oh my God… no, no, no, no, NO!!!”

Voices… he could hear voices; they all seemed so distant, but slowly the voice became louder. Darkness still claimed him, but he tried hard to force open his heavy eyes.

“Don’t you fucking leave me… you’re gonna be alright…”

How he wanted to speak out and let them know that he wasn’t going anywhere, and that he indeed was going to be alright. He couldn’t feel much at the moment anyway, his body had probably grown completely numb to the immense pain, he was probably in shock. Either that or perhaps death would claim him soon.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen… I’m sooo sorry baby.”

Was that Kevin now? And why was he apologizing, saying this wasn’t supposed to happen? If anything, HE should be the one apologizing to all of them. The trip was his idea, and if it wasn’t for him, they all wouldn’t be out here in this situation. But, he would be dead soon, so it wouldn’t matter anyway; his apology would fall on deaf ears. Maybe the fact that he would be the first to die could be some kind of consolation.

“Just please, open your eyes for me… let me know you’re okay, please.”

They probably don’t know that they’re asking a lot of him right now. He’s on the brink of death and they’re asking him to open his eyes and let them know that he’s okay? His eyes are extremely heavy right now, but the desperation in their voice helped him force his heavy eyelids to flutter open, at least let them know that he would be seeing God soon and from there, everything would be alright.

“No… no… NOOOOOOO!!!”

The voice was now crying and screaming. He didn’t understand. Did he not just flutter his eyes open for all of them to see? He could’ve swore he saw both AJ and Nick hovering above him before he allowed his eyes to drift close once more. He decided to force his eyes open one more time, and only then did he realize the voice he heard this whole time did not belong to Nick, AJ, Howie or Kevin.

He trained his weak eyes on both Nick and AJ, who were staring back at him in concern. “What happened?” he croaked out, now feeling a sudden throbbing pain that coursed up and down his back and the back of his head. It hurt him to take a breath in, a weird pressure sensation wracked torso area. He tried to raise his head to see where he was shot, but AJ and Nick quickly prevented him from doing so.

Since they wouldn’t let him inspect his injuries, fearing he was far worse than he thought, he decided to let his hand travel upwards towards his chest where he felt the uncomfortable pain. Slowly, he dragged his hand up, preparing himself for the sharp pain he would soon feel for grazing his shot wounds, but he felt nothing.

Perplexed, he tried once more to raise himself up from the ground, to which he received help from both Nick and AJ this time. Once he was seated upwards, he quickly glanced down at his chest, both of his hands splaying across his shirt to find no entry wounds and no blood. He looked up to find to find James kneeling on the ground, cradling someone on his lap. His mouth fell slightly agape when he saw Adrianna’s blank eyes staring back at him, a trail of blood trickling down the corner of her mouth.

“Oh my god…” Brian whispered out. The three bullets that were meant for him had accidentally hit Adrianna instead. But he remembered being jarred backwards as well, convinced the impact of the bullets had surely flown his body back. But upon realizing who was beside him, he figured either AJ or Nick, or perhaps both, had knocked him out of the way, just in time.

“Baby girl, look at me…” James pleaded as he tilted Adrianna’s head, her lifeless eyes now staring back at him. He wiped away the stream of blood from the corner of her mouth and raked his hand through her hair, streaking her blood across her face. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry.” he cried, leaning down to kiss her pale lips.

Brian glanced around the room, noticing for the first time that they all were staring at the scene before them in shock, their captors not even bothering to wield their weapons out towards them once more. As he fixated his eyes back on James and Adrianna, it was only now beginning to sink in that he should’ve been in Adrianna’s place, laying in a pool of his own blood, his blank, lifeless eyes staring back at the four men he’s come to love and call his brothers. The throbbing pain that reverberated through his back and chest reminded him that it wasn’t from the three bullets he had thought entered his body, but from an individual or two who had tackled him out of the way, thus saving his life.

Still sobbing, James straightened himself up and placed his fingers over Adrianna’s eyes, closing them. He turned his hand over so that his palm was facing up towards him and stared at the blood that was now dried, caked to his hand like dried up paint. That’s when he remembered that he was staring at the blood shed by the one he loved, not by his victim. With that thought in his head, he slowly reached out to grasp the gun he had neglected when he had rushed over to Adrianna’s side. Placing Adrianna’s head on the ground, he pushed himself up and turned around, his eyes scanning the room, in search for the one he had intended on killing.

His eyes finally locked on Brian, who was still on the floor, situated between AJ and Nick. “Look what you made me do…” James growled out as he slowly stalked over towards Brian, who was now scrambling to get up. “YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!” he screamed out as he rose the gun, prepared to fire.

The sound of something sharp had sliced through the air like a hot knife through butter. Although the sound was relatively silent, it was enough for them to register it to be a bullet. They all looked around, wondering where the shot had come from and who it had hit. They found themselves looking back at James, who still stood there, gun aimed at Brian, but his face had gone slack. Not long after, a sea of red had spread across his chest like wildfire.

Yet, James still stood there, gun still trained on Brian. He wavered a bit, and began to gurgle on the blood that seemed to flood his mouth, but his shaking hand still fingered the trigger. Another shot had whizzed past, hitting James in the chest yet again. The second shot had been enough, for not long after, James’ knees had buckled, causing him to crumble to the ground.

The other men had quickly scrambled about, wanting to make their way to the nearest exit. “Don’t get up.” Nick voiced, not wanting any of his brothers to get up in fear and get caught in the crossfire.

Rick was the first to walk out of the lodge, to which he rose his gun and began to wave it around in the air, “I’m an officer!” he exclaimed, hoping they would let him go.

But that gesture only resulted in getting shot at. The force of the bullet hitting his arm caused his body to spin around. He immediately fell to the ground and grasped at his injured arm, feeling his own blood surge from the wound.

Bobby, Gene, Richard, Dennis and Zach had tried to escape the lodge as well, but were greeted by a swarm of uniformed SWAT officers who had moved in on them.

“GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND!!” one of the officers bellowed as he brandished his assault rifle.

Quickly, the five of them dropped to the ground, moving their hands up and placing them on the back of their heads in surrender. Meanwhile, the rest of the SWAT officers had moved into the lodge to apprehend any other armed men. There was only a group of five men huddled in the parlor area along with two dead bodies.

Nick held his hands up and tried to stand up, but was quickly stopped by the officer. “DON’T MOVE, GET ON THE GROUND!” the officer exclaimed as he aimed his rifle at Nick.

“Please don’t shoot!” AJ pleaded, coming to Nick’s defense, “We’re the hostages!”

Gun still trained on Nick, the officer glanced around the room, taking the five men in. Three of them showed visible signs of injury. He looked over the two dead bodies, immediately recognizing the one they had shot down. When he realized that they five men weren’t armed, he slowly lowered his gun. “Get a paramedic in here!” he shouted as he made his way over towards the corpse to retrieve the weapons.

Sighing heavily, Nick allowed himself to sit back down on the ground, glad that this was all finally over. Two male paramedics rushed in, immediately making their way towards Nick and Brian, to which Nick waved them off, “Please, check on my friend over there first. He was shot.”

Upon hearing that, one of the paramedics made their way towards Kevin while the other insisted on checking Nick over. “It’s nothing more than a bump on the head,” Nick stated as he shied away, “just please, work on my friend first and I promise I’ll let you guys check me over out in the ambulance.”

Reluctantly, the paramedic gave a slight nod and left to join his partner in aiding Kevin. Sighing heavily, Nick glanced over towards Brian, “How you holding up over there?”

Brian, who was seemingly in a phase with all that had went down, snapped his attention to his younger friend, “Huh?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Brian finally replied with a quick nod, but deep down, he really wasn’t, he knew they all weren’t. He had brush death quite a few times during this traumatic ordeal, they all had, and he just couldn’t shake that thought from his mind. “Just… glad this is all finally over. I can’t help than to think back to the moment our trip took this drastic turn.”

“Tell me about it.” Nick groaned out, “How’s your stomach?”

Brian shrugged, poking and prodding at his stomach to see if he felt any pain, to which he only summed up a dull throb, “It’s fine, just bruised a bit… it’s my back and neck I’m worried about, I swear, for some reason it feels like I was hit by a freight train or something.”

“Well, this freight train saved your life thank you very much!” AJ voiced as he lightly slapped Brian’s leg. “Which, as much as I’m glad you’re still here, I kinda regret doing that solely for the fact that the room won’t stop fucking spinning. Besides, Nick made the first move in getting you out the way, but I decided I wanted to be a hero and at the time it had looked like fun having Nick and I tackle you. Which is why your chest and back probably hurts by the way.”

Brian rolled his eyes, “I figured that much out.”

With Nick’s help, Brian pushed himself up from the ground and then made their way to AJ to help him to his feet. They slowly sauntered over towards Howie and Kevin, who both looked as equally relieved as them. “How you doing big man?” AJ asked, looking Kevin over.

Kevin winced as the paramedic fixed a temporary bandage over the wound, “I’ll be doing a hell of a lot better once they get me to the ambulance, they’re gonna give me a good dose of morphine.” he said, causing them all to chuckle, “But, the gunshot wasn’t an exit wound, so I’ll be going into emergency surgery once they get us to the hospital.”

“We’re dealing with Superman here, not even a bullet can keep him down!” AJ smiled bitterly, remembering how James had told him that the bullet lodged in Kevin’s shoulder was intended for him, and that it was his fault that Kevin was injured. “How about you D?” he pressed on, trying to shake himself from the negative thoughts, if only for a moment.

Howie glanced up at his younger friend, a look of sheer exhaustion etched across his face, “I just wanna get us outta here.”