A/N: TRIGGER WARNING - heavy violence, blood and death

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Sixty minutes into the train's route felt like an infinity. My stomach ate itself, regurgitated itself and then ate itself again. I fucked up bad and I knew it. One, I didn't have Jake and two, I didn't have any identification on me. We'd be at the east border in less than four hours. I didn't know if I should risk getting off or not. There was still no way to contact Jake. What if he didn't hear my message or didn't think it was meant for him? Did he think I abandoned him? That I betrayed him?

I couldn't take it any longer and got out of my seat, pushing past the stranger that had the nerve to sit next to me. The train had just stopped briefly at a station, but I was staying on. I needed to wash my face or maybe puke into the toilet. Something to clear my head a bit. Being an express train, it thankfully had a couple of bathrooms at the middle of the train. One was empty so I didn't hesitate in taking up refuge in there.

Just as I stepped across the threshold a hand covered my mouth and I was shoved into the small stall. The door behind was slammed shut. I panicked as I realised I hadn't been paying any attention to my surroundings. I had no idea who my assailant was. I panicked that I had somehow caught the eye of a rapist.

"You have some fucking explaining to do!" a familiar male voice cursed in a hushed voice in my ear. "Tell me why I shouldn't rip those pants off of you and have my fucking way with you."

Jake spun me around and slammed my back against the window just as the train started moving again. His eyes were fiery. To say he was pissed was an understatement.

"Is that meant to be a threat?" I bit my lip as I shifted my legs uncomfortably.

"Are you seriously turned on right now?" he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Yes?" I practically whimpered.

He pulled his mask down and kissed me so forcefully I thought I was going to die. When he pulled away he left me gasping for air.

"And you call me the sick one," he mocked. "You're such a whore."

"Only for you," I smirked. His eye twitched so I knew I was breaking him down.

"Explain or I'll leave you tortured," he threatened emptily.

"Jessy sent me a message," I sighed and looked down. "They're- they're looking to release Richy early because of his good behaviour."

"Let them," Jake replied with such a dark tone that I was forced to look up again. His eyes were wide and psychotic. "Let them release him so I can fucking gut him."

"Jake," I muttered out of fear.

"Have you forgotten, MC?" he laughed sadistically. "I kill anyone who tries to kill me."

"Jake, no, this is different. That would be revenge, not self-defence," I pointed out.

Jake was about to say something, but stopped and turned his head as if he was listening for something. "Did you hear that?"

"No?" I questioned.

Jake pulled out his gun from behind and pulled his mask back up. Then he pushed me to stand on top of the toilet as he crouched down with the gun pointed at the door. Suddenly the door snapped open and shots were fired above Jake's head while he fired back. I covered my ears and held back screams. Jake stood up and grabbed my arm to pull me out of the bathroom stall. I nearly tripped stepping over the bodies of two armed men.

"Come on! Hurry!" Jake ordered as he grabbed one of their assault rifles.

Jake opened the door to the next car and we ran through towards the back of the train. The passengers jumped up and watched us in confusion, but they must not have heard the shots from the other car. Jake, holding the rifle low and close to his body, opened the doors to move to the next car, then suddenly pushed us to the side. Bullets flew past, narrowly missing me as I crouched down. The passengers behind us started screaming and running towards the front. Jake took aim and returned fire with the assault rifle he had acquired. More agents dead and another car full of panicking passengers.

"Go on, get out of here!" Jake yelled.

He gestured for the civilians to run to the car in front. We stepped to the side to let them pass. Jake shoved the assault rifle in my hands and took his backpack off to pull out his laptop.

"Wait, I can't use this!" I exclaimed.

"Point and shoot at anything coming towards us. It's not hard," he shook his head. "Use one of the seats to brace yourself. I'll lock the door as soon as I can."

Jake put his laptop down as it was turning back on. Meanwhile he pulled out a screwdriver and removed a panel beside the door. I got knelt on one of the seats and rest the rifle onto the seat back. I kept an eye on the door while secretly praying I didn't need to use it. Jake plugged his laptop into the open panel and started typing away faster than what seemed possible. Movement in the previous car caught my attention. I could see through the window more armed agents carefully walking towards our car.

"Jake!" I started to panic.

"Almost got it," he assured me.

My hands started shaking. There was no way I could hold this gun steady enough to make decent shots. "Please, Jake!"

"Got it!" he cheered.

The armed agents pushed the button for the doors to open, but the doors didn't budge. They looked confused as they tried again. Jake had successfully locked them out.

"Ok? Now what?" I asked.

"Now, wave goodbye," he hit enter on his keyboard and put his laptop down.

Suddenly the agents were moving away from us, or rather we were moving away from them. I glanced out the side and realised we were slowing down while the other cars continued on.

"You uncoupled us?" I questioned while still stunned.

"Yup," he turned towards me and grinned.

"Jake," I paused. "They... they opened fire with innocents around."

"Yup," his expression soured. "Acceptable collateral damage. Just wait until they pin it on us. It'll be all over the evening news. 'Nightmare shoot out with terrorist hacker results in 4 dead and dozens injured.' No one cares whose bullets actually hit them. It's easier to just blame the monster."

I lowered my head as my heart broke for him. How many crimes was he forced to carry because it was just convenient? My gaze drifted down to the bodies on floor and I froze. So much blood. So very much blood. Flesh I didn't recognise and flesh I did. Brains. I felt sick, so very sick, but I couldn't look away.

"Hey, we need to go," Jake took the assault rifle and slung it over his shoulder. Then he put his hand out for me. "Take my hand. Focus on me, ok?"

I took his hand and he helped me up out of the seat. Carefully I stepped around the bodies, trying to keep my stomach where it belonged. My foot slipped on the blood, which caused my knee to land right beside the head of one of the agents. Well, what was left of his head.

"Are you ok?" he asked as he helped me back up to my feet. I nodded nervously. "You're doing well, all things considered."

Jake kept his arm around me to help me to the end of the car. He leant me against the wall so he could pry the door open with the panel he had removed earlier. As soon as he got it open, he tossed the panel aside and stepped through. He jumped down onto the track below and turned around with his arms up to help me as I jumped down after him. I looked around and realised there was nothing but wheatfields around us. Jake led me off the tracks and we pushed into the middle of the fields. Not 100 paces in we heard a helicopter approaching. We ducked down low in the hopes the reeds would cover us despite the heavy winds caused by the copter.

"Shit," Jake eyed the aircraft as it slowed to hover over the abandoned train car.

"What are we going to do?" I shook.

"We need to get to cover," he sighed. "They haven't seen us yet, so stay low, run in a straight line and don't stop until you find something."

I took off running thinking Jake was following close behind. I heard gunfire behind and I screamed, but I kept running. It wasn't until the helicopter crashed to the ground to my left, I realised Jake had lied. I turned around and saw him with the assault rifle in his hands standing proud of his victory over our airborne pursuers. He removed the clip of the assault rifle to check it. Judging by his disappointed reaction, the clip must've been empty. He shoved the clip back in and tossed the rifle to the ground.

"I don't recall telling you to stop," he glared as he caught up to me.

"Did you just use me as a distraction?" I frowned.

"There was a problem and I dealt with it," he evaded the question as he walked past.

"Ok, fine, but now what? Won't there be another one?" I asked out of concern.

"Most likely. The next one will also likely be more heavily armed," he answered honestly.

"So where do we go?" I stressed as I started moving again.

Jake turned around and continued walking backwards. "What else? We head to Duskwood."

"Wait, really? I thought you wanted him out," I raised my eyebrow.

"No, I decided I'd prefer him to suffer his full sentence in prison first. He doesn't get to taste freedom again before Hannah," Jake replied determined. "But on the off chance he does get early release, I will be there to help him meet his maker."

"But we'll never get there in time at this rate!" I pointed out

"Not with that attitude we won't!" He shook his head and turned back to the front.

I took a deep breath and took a moment to reflect on what we had just survived. Maybe Jake was right. Maybe we had a chance to reach Duskwood in time for the parole hearing. Honestly, I would've been happy if we managed to reach the border without any more mishaps.