Just seconds ago, he was completely exhausted and prepared to accept his death. However, he seemed to have regained his strength when he saw her come to his rescue in such a heroic fashion.
With that newfound strength, Christopher scrambled to his feet and got on the back seat of Winnie’s motorcycle.
Christopher was so touched that he teared up a little as they sped off on the motorcycle.
“Winnie, do you mind if I lean on your shoulder for a bit?” he mumbled weakly and rested his head on her shoulder.
Winnie frowned when she felt his warm blood flow onto her neck and shoulder.
“What happened to you? Why are you bleeding so much?” she asked worriedly while keeping her eyes on the road ahead.
Christopher let out a wry chuckle. “It’s just a flesh wound, nothing major. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine after I rest for a bit.”
Winnie furrowed her brows as she replied, “Then you’d better hold on tight! Don’t fall asleep, you hear?”
“All right. I’ll do whatever you say,” Christopher muttered as he wrapped his arms weakly around Winnie’s waist.
“How about we have a little chat? That’ll help keep you awake.”
“Sure thing. What should we talk about?”
“Oh, you can talk about anything as long as you don’t fall asleep. We’re going really fast right now, so you could easily fall off the motorcycle if you nod off!”
“All right. A lot has happened during my time here, but protocol requires me to keep everything confidential, so I can’t reveal any of that information. Let’s talk about what happened during my childhood instead. Would you be interested in hearing about my past?”
As they were going really fast on the motorcycle with people shooting at them, Winnie couldn’t quite hear what Christopher was saying. She could tell he was talking, but she couldn’t make out the exact words.
Even so, she knew she had to keep him talking.
“Yeah, sure! Keep talking; I’m listening!” she yelled.
Christopher was breathing heavily as he leaned against her shoulder. He knew Winnie couldn’t possibly hear him, so he decided to change the topic on the fly.
“I was completely shocked when I saw you at the Horton residence that night. Kissing you in front of Xavier was both a voluntary and involuntary act. I know it wasn’t right of me to take advantage of you like that, but I don’t regret it one bit. I wonder how things would’ve turned out if I had known you in Avenport first. I’m sorry, Winnie. I’m sorry for having such feelings toward you even though I knew you were married. I’m really tired… I’ll rest my eyes for a bit…”
The factory was short of manpower to begin with, so there weren’t a lot of people available to stop Winnie.
They stopped chasing after the two as soon as the motorcycle made it out of the factory entrance.
Winnie got a little anxious when she noticed Christopher had stopped talking.
She quickly turned around and yelled at him, “Christopher? Hey, Christopher! Can you hear me? Answer me, Christopher!”
“Don’t worry; I’m still alive. I got a little tired from all that talking, so I was resting for a bit. Where are we now?” Christopher responded after a few seconds.
“We made it outside!” Winnie slowed the motorcycle down a little as she continued, “By the way, what was that explosion earlier? Where are your men?”
Christopher started sobbing when he heard her mention his men.
“Harold caught me when I was trying to light the fire in the warehouse. He shot at me, and one of my men died shielding me from that bullet. The explosion was an accident. My other comrade wasn’t able to make it out in time because he wasn’t familiar with the terrain, so I was the only one left. Had you not shown up earlier, I would probably have died here as well. Honestly, I kind of wish my comrade didn’t take that bullet for me. There was no need for him to do that.”
Affected by his emotions, Winnie had to take a few deep breaths to recompose herself before saying, “Hey, don’t say that. I’m sure you would’ve done the same for your comrade if he was the one being shot at, right? Comrades are supposed to have each other’s backs, so he was simply doing his part. If you don’t want his sacrifice to be in vain, then pick up your weapon and do what you have to do! Complete the mission for all of them!”
Christopher burst out crying when he recalled what had happened earlier. “Yeah, I know that! I know I’m supposed to pull myself together and complete the mission! I shouldn’t be crying over their deaths, but when I saw them dying before my eyes, I just…”
As Winnie felt the warmth of his tears on her shoulder, she recalled her friend who died for her a few years ago.
Since she could relate to how he felt, she decided to stop comforting him any further. “Go ahead and hug me as tightly as you like.”
Christopher is on the verge of breaking down. I’d have given him a big hug if we weren’t on this motorcycle right now. Being his friend, I want to give him as much support as I possibly can.
Christopher fell silent for a few seconds after hearing that. She’s right! I need to regain my strength and make it out of here alive!
With that in mind, he slowly tightened his grip on Winnie’s waist and hugged her tightly.
Neither of them said another word as Winnie continued riding the motorcycle at high speeds. As the night was tranquil, the roar of the motorcycle’s engine and the noise from the wind blowing in their faces was all that filled their ears.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of multiple cars coming from the front.
“Those must be men from the Horton family. They’re probably coming to pick Harold up. We’re severely outgunned and outnumbered in our current state. Hurry up and take the small road on the side!” Christopher exclaimed urgently.
“Got it!” Winnie replied as she made a sharp turn.
Right as the two of them entered the woods, they heard the men from the cars behind yelling, “Over there! They’ve gone that way! Come on! We need to catch that traitor!”
“D*mn it! Those guys sure are fast! This is going to be a bumpy ride, so you’d better hold on tight!” Winnie shouted.
“Got it!” Christopher turned his head to glance at their pursuers as he continued, “They can’t follow us in those cars, so we should be safe now that we’re in the woods.”
“Oh, no… I wonder if those men ran into Xavier and the others on their way here. Harold is in trouble, so they’re bound to send lots of men over. Hmm… I think I know why they got here so fast. Harold is a very cunning man. He knows we’re unfamiliar with this place, so he deliberately took a long route when he brought us here. He must know a shortcut of some sort that’ll allow his men to get here quicker. Now that they know we’ve escaped, they can just intercept us on that path. Xavier and Professor White are on that same path, so they’re bound to run into those men as well. I can’t believe I didn’t figure their shortcut out!” Winnie exclaimed.
“What do we do now? They always put those sacks over our heads whenever they bring us here, so they have the upper hand when it comes to navigation. We don’t even know if we’re going in the right direction!” Christopher was starting to get sluggish due to excessive blood loss.
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