First Daughter

Chapter 3

They moved silently down the hall. He'd instructed her to keep her head down, avoid the camera's, and they'd pulled her hair inside her jacket. The lights had gone down making it near impossible to tell who was who. Her lungs stung with each breath of smoke and blood. She stayed close to him, barely steps away, as he led her through the white house – through the building she spent a good portion of her time in - of her life in. Her knees felt shaky as she held herself up on them. Her heartbeat still loud in her ears. Her knees felt shaky – but not as much as her hands – her fingers clenched tightly around the small pistol as if it would stop them from trembling.

Her eyes were down, only catching Mike's continuous glances up and down the hall from the corners of her eyes. She would have preferred to have looked up…studied the ceiling. Closed her eyes. Down was blood, and unmoving bodies. Down was red smeared walls and stained carpet. Down was empty vacant eyes and white mottled skin.

Mike patted down the bodies they moved around, and over. She simply focused on getting over them without tripping over and without looking into their eyes or trying to identify them, or deciding if she knew them, or had seen them. She realised Mike had stopped and her heart accelerated once more. He crouched by another body, secret service, bloodied white shirt on bloodied cream carpet. She caught the movement of his shoulders tensing and his head bowing just slightly. His hands were spread on the mans chest and she closed her eyes for just one moment before looking up and down the hall – paranoia now a reality and a necessity. She recognised the fallen man as a long time member of her Dad's detail. Her chest seared as she thought of her Dad once more – hopefully safe, safe in the bunker. There was no way to get in after all. No way to breach the bunker…right? And they would have gotten him there, surely?

Still...only hours beforehand she wouldn't have believed any of this nightmare was a reality.

Mike's breath quickened, and became laboured and she watched him glance up at what she knew to be a security camera above them before back towards her. It was darkness that surrounded them but she could see the fire in his eyes, the anger, the betrayal. He stood and reached a hand towards her. She grasped it quickly and squeezed tightly…unsure if it was support she was offering or taking. They moved fast through the halls and she realised that her former secret service had decided his destination. It was much easier to move with him as her anchor.

They moved down another hall, one she'd rarely ventured, and it wasn't long before he pushed her into a slight crevice in the wall. He placed a finger over his lips and she nodded wide-eyed. There was a dim panic setting in, was he leaving her there? Hadn't he told her it wasn't an option he would consider? Hadn't he said no?

"Wait here a moment" he said, his voice less than a whisper, so quiet she didn't dare answer vocally. He squeezed her shoulder before gripping his gun tighter and moving into a room down the hall.

A moment later came another sound that she could add to the array that would never be forgotten, never be erased from her memory. No gunshot….she supposed he'd opted for something quieter. It was a horrible metallic sound, steel sliding into a body. She could hear the mans muffled cries with each stab and her entire body stiffened almost contracting with each cry – as if it were her that the knife was sliding into.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven….

He couldn't survive surely. It was only then that she remembered that the aim was for him to not survive. There was no better option, no best case scenario. It was kill or die. A fight for survival at the most basic….kill for survival. By the time he returned she found the blood on his hands….similar to that on hers. She averted her eyes to his face and he cocked his head sideways questioningly. She simply gripped his hand others blood mingling and he pulled her towards the room. She noted two more guns tucked into his pants – she could still feel her small pistol clenched between her free fingers.

It was only as they rounded into the room that she realised what her eyes had fixed upon. They were wider than ever and she simply reached forward to pluck it out of his pocket. Within seconds Mike had spun back around but she simply turned away from him to stare at the small squares in her hands. Two faces smiled up at her. Two faces, Two children. Connor and Abigail Asher. Her and Connor. Her and her brother. The president's children. Questions built fast, too fast for her mind to catch up…

Had they been after them? Why did they want them? Ransom? Bargaining? What would they have done to them? Would they ever have gotten back? What would her Dad had to have done to get them back? Would they have died anyway? Would they have killed Connor first…or her? Would they have hurt them? What would she have done?

Mike spun her around and gently pulled the photos from her shaking fingers startling her from her thoughts once more. She started up at him and he curved his spine to look into her eyes,

"He's safe Abs…you and I know that. He's safe he's okay, he's out. And you're going to be fine, we're going to be alright – that's all that matters right?" she almost had to lean forward to hear his words but she nodded – dazed but feeling his words slowly sink in. Her brain slowly interpret them as if they were another language.

She allowed her body to lean heavily against the wall as he pulled away. Her eyes skittishly moving between Mike and the door. What if more of them came, what if they were watching them now. Mike was moving fast yet silently, her eyes were wide but she couldn't work out what he was doing. She focused on the screen above Mike's head and her eyes widened even more as she looked at the small windows on the screens she knew belonged to the many surveillance cameras planted around the house. She looked at the damage, the devastation, the bodies.

"They've taken away our eyes so let's take away theirs, hey?" She looked at the man beside her only then realising she'd managed to take several steps towards him to see the screen better. She nodded and watched as the screens began to go black one by one. She felt a wave of satisfaction wash through her –even if it was just for a second – a small victory.

"Okay let's go visit your Dad's office then" she felt her throat tighten, but nodded. She felt safe in this room, she'd be happy to just shut the door and stay there forever. It was better than alternatively wandering through the halls waiting to run into someone. Connor's face flickered into her mind and then her Dad – she had to get to him, or more to the point help Mike get to him. She couldn't hold him back, couldn't slow him down. She had to do it for Connor – he couldn't lose his Dad, not as well. Her little brother had barely known their mother – Abby's eyes prickled for a moment as her blood turned icy. She knew the part she'd played in causing her brother to lose his mother so young, she'd done that, so now she had to make sure that he would at least still have his father. She was pulled from her thoughts as Mike moved, tugging her by the hand. She followed behind him her neck craning to look over her shoulder – her heart in her throat.

I'm baaaaack. Hope you guys enjoyed the update -sorry it's a bit short. Thank you so much for everyone who has sent me a review since the last chapter and to those who have followed this is for you! xx