Before I could react, more people came in and started to shoot at the killers. They shot back. Amongst the confusion I managed to dive behind a box, and so I crouched there.

Gunshots echoed in my ears. There were shouts and screams as men got torn about. Gosh, what a fight. I had not expected this. Suddenly, a man collapsed down beside me. I recognized him as one of the killers, but he was barely moving.

I grabbed for his pistol, but he was too quick. He pushed me away, while trying to get up. I also was soon up again on both feet. He swinged a punch at me, but I ducked it and then tackled him straight in the stomach, and we both fell to the ground.

He screamed as I whacked him again and again in the face. I soon got tired and stopped to catch my breath... and then I realized I had knocked the poor man unconsious. Gosh, all that training at the base had really toughened me up.

I then rolled over and lay back on the floor, puffing.

The noise had now died down almost completely, and soon the last shots were fired. Then, silence.

All of a sudden, a figure loomed over me. It was a man that looked like he was in his mid-thirties. He had black hair and a scruffy beard. There was a revolver in his hand.

"Looks like we've missed one" he said, pointing his gun at me.

"Wait, what?" I said in shock "I'm not one of them, I'm... a prisoner!"

"Nice try" 

He loaded his weapon, ready to fire.

"Wait!" said someone. 

Another person came into my view. It was Barry.

"He's with me" he said "What he says is true"

The first man then lowered his weapon. "Alright"

"Barry" I said, completely amazed.

"Hello, Zack" he said smiling, while giving me a hand "Boy, am I glad that you're still alive"

"I say the same for you. How on earth are you still standing here in one piece? Antonio, the others and I had given you for dead"

"So had I, Zack, so had I" he laughed "But I was lucky. Very lucky indeed. When Antonio shot me, the bullet missed my heart by only a few centimetres. So I lay there for a while, the blood spilling out of my body. I soon saw the killers come back, but this time, carrying you. I feared the worst, but they ignored me altogether thinking that I was dead."

"And then what happened? How did you get from that to... this?!"

I signalled with my hands at his body, which looked perfectly fine at first sight.

"Luckily, some random guy found me and phoned an ambulance. I was unconsious at the time, so I woke up in the hospital, connected to all types of machines and wires. And so I stayed there for weeks. I thankfully made a speedy recovery, which was pretty surprising, and the hospital let me go, after I convinced them that the reason I had been shot was because I had been involved in a mugging gone wrong"

Barry then took off his shirt, to reveal a bandaged area in the middle of his chest.

"Wow" I said.

"It still hurts a little when I move too fast, but I can just about manage. Anyway, after coming out of hospital, I was determined to get you back out of the criminal gang. That's when I remembered that Antonio's dad was in there, locked up (yes, I had known that for ages). So I researched a little and contacted his friends. With them, I hacked into the computers at the base and found out when and where your mission was going to be. And that's about it, I suppose. All we had to do was break in here and come and rescue you, basically."

"Oh. Interesting. I suppose Antonio's father's friends are these guys, then"

"Yep"

"Hello, Zack. I am Stuart, nice to meet you" said the man with the black hair, though he didn't smile "These are my friends"

"So, were you willing to get me out of here?" I asked Stuart.

"Ah yes, well your good friend Barry here has promised that if we rescued you, he would return the favour and help us bring Antonio's gang to an end, and also get his dad out of there too. It's as simple as that"

"Right. Sounds fair and square" I agreed.

"Yeah. Now we need to get in the base"

"Ok. What's the plan?"

Suddenly, there was a piercing scream coming from the other side of the room, followed by a gunshot. We turned round to see that one of Stuart's men had been shot in the leg, by one of the killers.

I ran over to see who it had been, and who else but Wade himslef was there, sprawled on the floor. He looked as worse as ever, with blood dripping all the way down his face and on to chest. He also had a black eye and a big gash across his cheek.

Someone then managed to kick the gun out of his hand, but just as they were about to kill him for good I stopped them.

"Wait!" I said, for I had seen something.

In Wade's other hand, he was once again holding that cursed button. Gosh, I had forgotten all about it, after the battle was over.

"What's wrong?" asked Stuart.

"He's holding... that" said Barry, pointing at the button.

"Oh"

They obviously all knew what it was.

"Wade" I said "Please don't do this. The fight is done. These guys are about to tear your whole organization apart. It's over"

"Yeah, you can say whatever you want" sneered Wade "And even if you're right, the last thing I want to see in my life is watch you die"

"No!" I pleaded "Don't push that button, Wade!"

This wasn't going to end well.

"Goodbye, Zack. Sorry if you're life has been a little short"

"No!"

He pressed the button. Someone fired a gun, and Wade collapsed to the ground, dead. But it was too late; the damage was done.

I felt what was like a miniature explosion go off in my neck. Whatever it was, it hurt like mad. I fell to the ground with pain.

"Zack!" shouted Barry "No!"

I now felt dizzy, as if all the blood had drained out of my head. Now practically feeling the poisoned liquid flow through my body, I knew I wasn't going to last long.

It was hot. Oh wait, no, it was cold. I couldn't even tell the difference, my body was just acting downright weird. Breathing started to become more difficult. In, out, in out. Keep calm, stay alive. The sweat poured off my body and I started to tremble fiercely.

"Zack! Are you ok?" asked Barry again and again "Stay with me!"

But by now his voice was sounding very muffled, and I couldn't even distinguish the words coming out of his mouth. In fact, this was complete torture. I just wanted it to end. With one last effort, I spoke once more.

"Thank you Barry. Thank you for... everything"

And with that, everything went black.