Chapter Text
Everything was getting out of control. Running down the corridors of the hospital, Mac couldn’t stop the cold, frustrating thought that the more he tried to fix the situation, it worse it got.
Riley got injured, and, despite how he didn’t want to, he had to ask Bozer to take her away.
Splitting up was a terrible idea, even Riley told him that while fighting the pain coming from her fractured leg, but Jack was still somewhere inside the building with a prototype explosive ready to be set off and destroy half of the city, and there was no way the soldier would have been able to do anything about it.
“I’ll find him and take care of the explosive. You two get as far away as possible from the hospital,” he told Bozer and Riley and they both started complaining at the same time, about not wanting to leave, and how stupid it was to split up, and all Mac could do was look at Riley’s injured leg and yell at them, “JUST DO AS I SAY, GO!” before running away, looking for his friend.
And he was still looking, hearing gunshots from all around.
As fear started to get a hold of him, he turned a corner and bumped into someone who instantly grabbed the collar of his shirt and smashed him against the wall. Mac grabbed the arm, ready to fight back, just to recognize Jack a second later, both of them slightly relaxing. “Where’s the prototype?”
Jack took a deep breath and let him go, “They took it.”
“What? How?” Mac asked and then noticed blood under Jack’s leather jacket.
“That’s how,” Jack nodded, covering the wound.
“You got shot?”
“We have to leave.”
“Let me see–”
“Are you listening to me?” Jack angrily pushed him away, against the wall again, “We have to leave.”
“I’m not leaving without the prototype,” Mac said, walking past him.
Jack sighed nervously, “Damn it… Mac!” he barked, following.
“We both know how dangerous that thing is. We can’t let them have it,” he said without stopping.
“There’s no time! Rile’s–”
“I sent her and Bozer away. They’ll be fine.”
“We’ll get that bomb back, but now there’s nothing we can do.”
“We can catch up to them. If they’re not coming downstairs it means there’s a plane– a helicopter waiting for them on the roof? Maybe it’ll get here to–”
A gunshot echoed in the corridor, and Mac flinched at the sound, but also because something hit him in the back.
Confused, he stumbled another step forward before vaguely moving an arm towards his back, his breathing stopping for a second as pain started spreading all over his upper body.
He turned around only halfway, watching Jack’s cold expression as he lowered his gun. He’s not hurt…Where are they? Mac’s thoughts started spiraling, Did he- shoot me? A second later, he crashed on the floor.
As it was getting hard to breathe, Mac tried to call for Jack, but the soldier just looked at him for another moment before turning around and walking away.
Blinking fast, Mac groaned, feeling the fabric of his shirt getting wet with blood– his own blood. I got shot… Jack shot me in the back..? He… Why…?
Gasping for air, Mac felt confusion mixing with anger. Why did Jack shoot him? Why did he leave without a word? What was going on?
Mac slowly turned around, lying on his stomach, dragging himself on the floor to follow his friend– because Jack was his friend… Right? Then why…?
“J-Jack…” Mac called, barely seeing the soldier’s silhouette down the corridor before he was gone, turning a corner. It was then that Mac stopped, feeling tears burning in his eyes.
Why? he kept screaming inside his mind– all that came out from his mouth was a cough and a ragged, fast breathing that hurt more and more with every breath he took.
Furious, he dragged himself for another while before his body started shutting down, the world becoming a blurry mess of cold colors before turning to black, and he felt himself sinking into that darkness, unable to escape.