*~*~*~*~*~*Chapter 4*~*~*~*~*~*

The girl stepped round the corner and looked around. There were no traces of the third man. He was gone. She realised that there were no time to lose. He could either have gone to warn his companions or he was waiting for her somewhere. She took a look at the door. It wasn’t as strongly built as she had expected, but she still needed the keys. She bent down to the dead men and searched through their pockets for the keys. But they had none. She sighed.

Then she had to do this the hard way. Once again she digged through her bag.

When she lifted her hand she held a small hand-grenade. She walked up to the door and knocked.

Nick stood up and pressed his ear against the door. Was it really a knock? That was almost comical. Who would knock on the door? He couldn’t even open it.

But there it was again.

"…He…hello?" he said hesitantly. He felt his heart racing, maybe someone was to help him out.

"Mr Carter? Are you there?" a female voice asked. For a second Nick thought that it was Sandra, but she was dead. The voice was heard again. He answered.

"Yes, please help me out" he pleaded.

"Step back from the door, as far as you can. Now" the voice said. Nick did as he was told, a bit slowly, he was afraid he was going to pass out.

The girl pulled the cotter out of the grenade and backed a few steps away. Then she threw it.

A loud bang was heard, and Nick covered his ears. A few seconds later, the door was opened. The light shone in and blinded him for a moment. When he was able to see again someone was near him. The sweet scent of a perfume reached his nose and he realised that someone really had found him. The person helped him walk out of the cell. Nick looked at the person. It was a girl! She had long black hair pulled up in a ponytail, black eyes, red full lips and a soft, round face.

She was wearing a black cat-suit and black sneakers. She looked at him and brushed his dirty, blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Are you ok?" she asked. Nick stared at her, then at the dead men at the floor.

"…yeah, I guess so. Did you kill them?" he asked. She smiled.

"No time for mourning now, we’ll take that later. We have to get out of here" she said, grabbing his arm and started pulling him towards the corridor. He followed, but he soon realised that he couldn’t continue. He was too weak. Insufficient with food, the abuse and the fact that he hadn’t moved in a couple of weeks all caught up with him now. Karl and his friends had known this, that’s why they did that to him. Suddenly, footsteps were heard and a man appeared a few metres away. The girl dropped Nick on the floor and mumbled "sorry Nick" before she shot the other man. Then she helped him up again.

"I’m sorry, I can’t, I’m too weak" he mumbled as he sunk back on the floor. The girl sighed and bent down to him.

"Look, do you ever want to see your family again? Do you want to perform for thousands of screaming fans again? Do you want to LIVE, Nick?" she asked.

Nick nodded lightly.

"If you answered yes to any of these questions, then get up and keep walking" she mumbled. He managed to get up and she practically dragged him towards a door. They got out and she started walking towards the car, but a noise stopped her.

"What is it?" Nick asked. She hushed him. A couple of seconds passed, but to Nick it seemed like hours. The girl turned around, and so did Nick.

A man who Nick identified as Karl stood in the shadows a couple of metres away. The girl started to raise her weapon but Karl did the same, but faster.

"I wouldn’t do that if I were you" he said and smiled. Nick suddenly felt that the world got colder and he shivered. The girl seemed pretty self-confident, she just stood there, measuring Karl with the eyes. Nick glanced at her and gasped. She smiled! What is this, he thought. She wasn’t afraid, that much he realised.