Chapter 5: The Calm Before The Storm

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Seán Mcloughlin

We listened to the sounds of police sirens and helicopters up top searching the place, unbeknownst to them that we had just pulled off one of the most successful escape in history.

We were in total darkness, with the only light coming from the small holes on the manhole cover. The smell of raw sewage immediately came to our noses as we climbed down the ladder leading deeper into the sewers.

Not long, we found ourselves in knee deep waste. "Everyone alright?" I whispered.

"Yeah." Mark replied, bending a small green glow stick to illuminate the path.

I winced at the sudden light and so did Felix. "We did it. We fucking did it."

"But we're far from over, we have to go to Los Angeles—pay old friends a visit." Felix mumbled, anger and excitement in his tone.

"C'mon, let's get far away from here as possible before the police start suspecting again." Mark cut in, leading the way through the dark and damp corridors.

__________

We had been walking for hours, heading west, away from the search radius navigating through the maze-like structure of the sewers underneath the city of New Jersey.

At the end of the tunnel was an exit, leading back to the outside world. With no knowledge and bearing of where we were, we decided to just go for it and hope for the best that we had finally evaded the cops.

Upon stepping outside, the cold morning air brushed against my face giving me goosebumps. It was quiet save for the few cars driving on the road up nearby. The sunlight got into our eyes as it lit the sky in an orange hue. It was the wee hours in the morning.

I took a deep breath of fresh air, it was the first time in three months we had breathed air from the outside world. It was the exhilarating feeling of being free that kept excitement pumping through my mind.

"Thank God." Felix sighed, calming down from his nervousness.

"Let's go." Mark whispered, crouching while climbing up a sloped grassy surface leading up a road. It was a suburban area of the city, far away from the bustling streets we had previously been on.

Just across the road was a middle-class style house that had two stories. It looked peaceful given that it was on the less busy parts of New Jersey.

It's perfect.

"It's gonna have to do." Felix walked ahead of Mark, brushing sweat off of his thick beard clutching his carbine rifle tightly as he looked left and right to check if the coast was real. He motioned for us to follow him.

We quickly ran across the road and to the front yard of the house, going around the back in a single file still crouched. Treading the side of the structure, we listened for sounds inside.

Nothing. Not a single barking of a guard dog. It's either no one was home or they're still sound asleep.

Felix took out a small knife he had fashioned from his steel bed back at the prison and carefully slipped it through the bottom crack of the window, jiggling it towards the middle where the lock was. With little effort, he was able to unlock it by sawing through the screws that fastened the entire lock on the window frame.

He gently pushed the glass panel up and stuck his head inside, "The coast is clear." He said before bringing his leg in followed by his entire body. Mark followed next and I was the last.
The house was well maintained and filled with furniture, it definitely belonged to a well-off family, it had decorations, from small chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, to a candelabrum on the table.

Felix had already begun searching the house.

"Felix?" I called out.

Mark suddenly held my shoulder, "Hold up," Mark said, "...we're being watched." He pointed to a small camera mounted on the wall directly pointed at us, "I'm gonna find the surveillance room while you get into something less jailer-like."

"Okay." I nodded, "Don't break anything, don't touch anything except for clothes and some money. Leave no traces."

After that, we split up. I immediately found the bathroom that was just past the kitchen. Upon stepping inside, I went to the sink and stared into the mirror: I looked every much different compared to what I used to when I was doing YouTube videos. My green hair had paled, almost turning into a blondish hue merging with my original grayish brown hair growing out. I had also grown thick stubble. Beneath my blue eyes were thicker layers of eyebags.

I unbuttoned my jailer shirt and took it off. It was the first time in months that I was able to see my body in full, I was skinnier, almost comparable to a malnourished person. No wonder everyone in the prison thought I was on the brink of death.

The mirror was a medicine cabinet, which I opened and shuffled through the toothbrushes and bottles of medicine before finding an electric shaver. I took one last look at myself before subconsciously bringing the shaver to my thick hair. I felt the buzz on my head as thick masses of hair fell on the sink. I was going all the way, shaving my full head of hair.

In my thoughts were the events that happened three months ago. The rampage. The terror. And the betrayal. It made my teeth clench, the anger inside me grew like wildfire.

Glancing at my reflection showed a different Seán: no more green hair, as it was replaced by a simpler buzz cut. It was like a blast from the past seeing my natural hair color back on my head.

Before stepping outside, I took a tube of black hair dye with me. Then I was greeted by Felix who was waiting, "Here, try this on for size." He handed me a complete set of casual clothes, "It's the smallest ones I found that may or may not fit you."

"These better not be a woman's blouse!" I joked, letting Felix go past me to use the bathroom, "Thanks."

"No problem." He smiled before shutting the door, "Damn, Seán! Did all of these come from you?" His voice echoed inside.

"What? I haven't had my hair cut for five months!" I scoffed, "And not all of it are from my head."

"I figured."

And I just roared with laughter.

Then I got changed into the comfortable clothes; black denim jeans, dark green shirt, and a dark grey jacket.

Mark Fischbach

I reached the second floor trying to locate the room where all of the live video feeds of the cameras were. The doors were to my left whereas to my right was a balcony overlooking the living room down below.

Suddenly, the nearest door to my right creaked open. Me, a man who gets scared easily, jumped and pointed my gun at it. It was Felix.

"Fuck, man. You're gonna give me a heart attack!" I sighed, clutching my chest.

Felix rolled his eyes, "It looks like no one's home." He shrugged.

"Cool." I said. He then handed me a complete set of clothes to change into.

"The room you're looking for is in the last door on the left. You can thank me later." Felix advised, as he had already scouted the area. "Disable the cameras, then we leave in half an hour."

"Thanks." I nodded, watching him go down the stairs.

As I walked along the hallway, I couldn't keep my mind off of Rebecca. God, I miss her so much. Tears once again began to roll down my cheeks, wishing I could hold her in my arms again.

The room was filled with monitors; each had an assigned portion of the house to display. I sat in front of it, deciding to take my mind off of the past events that had occurred and I cracked my knuckles, "Okay, let's get to work."

I reached for the knob that was just beside the keyboard to rewind the recorded footage. Upon turning it, all of the monitors froze; turning it more began reversing it. I saw myself talking to Felix and going backwards down the stairs and rejoining Seán near the window we got in, then it showed a video of the front of the house with us walking back to the other side of the road. With all that selected, I deleted it.

While it did its duty, I leaned back on the comfortable office chair and explored the place with my eyes, looking for various things that could be useful. Suddenly, I remembered the days that I was recording YouTube videos, saying hi to the fans all over the world through a single camera pointed at my face. I was living the dream.

Until that fateful evening...
Everything went to shit.

I shook my head and focused at the matter at hand. This mission is for them, for all of the people we've lost. This was a quest for revenge and redemption.

"Hey Mark." Seán's voice came from behind me.

"Hey Jack." I spun around on the rotating chair to face him, "WHOA!" I was taken aback upon seeing him. He had shaved off his thick hair leaving only a short buzz cut. "What the fuck happened to you?"

"It's called a disguise, Mark." The Irishman chortled, "Catch." He tossed me a tube of black hair dye, "You either have to dye your hair or shave it."

"I think I'll color it, I can't risk shaving off this sexy hair." I ran my hand through my red hair as if I'm a hot model posing for a picture.

"Suit yourself." He took a seat beside me, "You alright?" He placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Y-yeah, what are you talking about?" I smiled.

"I know when you're upset, Mark."

I buried my face into my hands and cried, "I miss her, Seán, I miss my Rebecca."

He put his arm around my shoulder to comfort me, "It's okay, bro, we'll get through this. Once we find him, we'll make him pay."

I giggled, Rebecca's words echoing in my head, "Looks like someone's got their dick stuck in a mousetrap." I scoffed, glancing at Seán.

"That was a clever line, though." He grinned then squeezed my shoulder before heading out, "You better get changed, man."

"Will do, bro." I replied, looking back at the screens and continuing my search for useful objects. I was able to gather two pairs of headsets, a radio, and a few dollars.

Felix Kjellberg

A woman was standing right in front of me, dressed in a bikini. She was smiling, looking at me through her large sunglasses. She was gorgeous, her long brown hair swaying with the wind.

"M-Marzia?" I stuttered, gazing upon her figure. Marzia just smiled and reached out her hand. My eyes itched, tears began to stream down my face. I just went for it and held her in my arms, feeling her soft and warm skin and her scent of lilac, the perfume she always wore. "I missed you."

Yet she did not reply.

"I love you so much." I whimpered. Then I felt dampness on my chest. I gasped upon looking down.

Blood. It was coming from Marzia. Bullet wounds began to appear on her chest.

"PLEASE GOD NO!" I wailed, holding her in my arms as her head slumped backwards. Her eyes were staring into nothingness; her face was stained with her own blood. "NO!"

The scene suddenly changed, I was still holding her in my arms, but we were kneeling on the asphalt road surrounded by people. Bright flashes of red and blue blinded me as two pairs of arms pulled me away from her.

"LET ME GO!" I struggled, watching two other people carry her dead body on a stretcher. "MARZIA!" I yelled on the top of my lungs while the men dragged me away from her.

Then I opened my eyes, I was sitting on the bathroom floor with my face buried on my knees, letting the water from the shower rain down on me. Near my feet were thick masses of hair, floating in the foot-deep water.

I pictured us walking together along the shore, wearing wedding rings. But that was the dream that would never ever come true. I bowed my head, closing my eyes tightly to squeeze out the tears I have left when something caught my eye; it was a tattoo on my arm. A tattoo I got from prison. It was her name.

Staring at it further sparked anger that was coursing through my veins. This is for her; this is for everyone we've lost. I thought. I pulled myself to stand and walk to the mirror. I had shaved my thick hair down to a skinhead, but I left my thick beard untouched.

Mark and Seán were waiting for me outside; both of them had gone through a makeover: Seán had chosen the shorter buzz cut while Mark dyed his hair back to black and shaved off his scruff.

"Lookin' good there, Heisenberg." Mark joked.

"I feel old." I laughed.

"So how do we do this?" Seán asked, putting the duffel bag of weapons around his shoulder.

"As I've heard on the news back in jail, our marked man has been placed under the witness protection program having pointed out our hiding place the night we were caught." I recalled.

"That's a fucking problem right there. God knows where he's hiding." The Irishman scratched the back of his head.

"The next best thing to do is to locate his accomplice." Mark suggested.

"Exactly!" I balled my hand into a fist, "The best place to begin looking for him is back in Los Angeles."

"We need to leave now before the entire city gets put into lockdown by the police." Seán explained, "They don't know who escaped, but it won't take them too long for them to find out."

"Best be off then. I'd set a delay in the video feed, it'll start recording again in less than five minutes." Mark said, leading us to the garage where there was a four door sedan. "We're taking this car."

"You sure the owner won't mind?" I hadn't the slightest thought about that.

"I'm sure they won't. We'll only be using it for a brief moment." Seán interjected, having a grin on his face.

All of us hopped in along with our bags of weapons and tools. Mark took the driver's seat, "I'm driving," he said, glancing at the Irishman, "—not after that police chase."

"Hey! I got us away, right?" Seán defended, "You have no idea how hard it is to drive a large as fuck prison van... On second thought, have fun; I'm a little tired after all that." He said, taking the passenger seat.

Then we zoomed out of the garage and began our drive to the west coast. Luckily enough, we were able to leave the city before the said police lockdown.

___________

Midnight. Our forty-one hour journey to the city of angels has come to an end as we could see the bright lights of the US Bank skyscraper growing nearer and the huge green sign pointing to Los Angeles.

"We're almost there." Mark said, taking a left up a sloped road leading up to a house. Almost as identical as Mark's own that was a few ways from where we were now.

We parked behind a tall billboard just beside the house to remove any signs of our unexpected visit. We moved quickly towards the house using the darkness as cover, going into hiding each time when a car passed by.

"He's not yet home." I said, noticing that there were no cars parked outside.

I led the group again and went to a window on the side of the house. Using the same tactic I did back in the house in New Jersey, we gained easy access in the house. Once we were in, I shut back the window panel behind us.

"What do we do now?" Seán whispered.

"We wait." I said, taking a seat on the couch and wiping my rifle with my shirt.

"He's here." Mark said, peeking through the peephole on the front door. He and Seán ran into hiding while I didn't move from the spot.
The front door creaked open as light seeped inside. I gripped my weapon tightly, waiting for him to come walking in the living room. His heavy footsteps echoed in the hall as he played with his car keys.

He turned on the lights and jumped the moment he saw me.

Through my gritted teeth I said, "Hello, Aaron."

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END OF PART ONE.

ObsessedWithY0uTube
&
Smosh_Migz

That completes the first half. The World's Most Wanted 2: The Marked Man will return on April 24, 2017. This is because Smosh_Migz, who is writing this sequel, has been busy since November and will be, until April.

So stay tuned for the conclusion of the Unholy Trinity's journey and see if they will be able to exact their revenge on their marked man.

Thank you so much for checking out this story, it means so much to us that you have followed us (especially ObsessedWithY0uTube) since the first book, we hope to see you again in April!

To be continued...