Taking Ross to the bottom floor, the supposed enemies had the same idea. Two other GMC Yukons pulled up which only spelled bad news for the trio in transport. The Ford Ranger was close by as they stepped onto the asphalt. It looked like Athena wouldn't be having a very smooth extraction after all. Pushing his head down, Athena held up her MP5, stock against her shoulder and squeezed the trigger in bursts to provide suppressing fire as she shoved Ross into the back seat of the truck. While Ellie and Ross climbed into the car, she took cover behind the bed of the truck to keep the tangos off while the truck got ready to get going. 

Feeling the truck move, she moved accordingly, strafing with the truck as she continued to lay down suppressing fire. As soon as her magazine emptied out, though, she abandoned suppressing fire efforts and moved to get herself in the truck as well. Letting her sub-machine gun hang by its sling, she pulled out her pistol and fired off a few more rounds before she dove into the backseat, shutting the door behind her as the truck took off. Taking this moment, she pulled the charging handle back and changed out the empty magazine with a new one. Ensuring the magazine was seated in the gun, she slapped the charging handle into place and got ready to shoot at the pursuing Yukons.

Slowing down her breathing, she wrapped her MP5's sling around her arm to keep herself stable as she sat completely backwards in the backseat. Once the Yukon was in view, the man next to her opened fire and she had to follow suit. The rear window went completely, leaving both Athena and Ross completely vulnerable and in the open as the Ranger bobbed and weaved in and out of traffic. Once she got a good shot, she squeezed off a burst, watching the bullets collide with various parts of the front of the car. Taking more bursts, she was intending on spending this entire magazine on the car. The 9mm was not going to do much, but maybe it would've been lucky enough to hit the driver or disable the engine. 

Something must've hit, because the Yukon dropped back and soon they were in the clear. Once Athena felt it was safe, she took the magazine out, which had about five or so bullets left in it. It was moving to the back of her magazine rotation as she inserted another one inside, keeping it ready just in case someone else decided to show up. Looking behind her, there were a lot of shells and empty magazines on the floor of the car. It was going to be hard to clean up... if they were going to clean this car up. She sighed a breath of relief, and took a proper seat in the car, keeping her profile low to avoid easy headshots. 

[hr]

Meanwhile, in the hospital, Michael had just finished up barricading up Kimberly's room with kevlar and whatever else he could find that would provide her with as much protection as possible. He even went so far as putting kevlar vests all over her body to make sure nothing would get hit. There was going to be a lot of gunfire, which was why this wing of the hospital was isolated. An order from the private security firm had moved everyone that could be moved out of that wing of the hospital. Better safe than sorry. That was also why Maria, Michael, and Athena's vest had "SECURITY" sprawled across the back. Once the police got here they wouldn't be shooting them by accident.

Taking defensive positions behind tipped over hospital beds, they were listening for footsteps as they held their assault rifles up in the hallway in front of them. The only way to that room were through those hallways, and there were guns pointed down each hallway. It was a funnel of death. It was nothing but silence, until the faint sound of footsteps and moving guns were heard in the background. It was almost go-time. It was almost time to let loose. 

Seeing the first person emerge from the corner, they were holding fire as they walked down menacingly, a submachine gun in hand. Michael was holding fire until they got closer. He could see them, but they couldn't see him. Just a few more feet... and the first shot was fired from his SCAR. Hitting him in the chest, every single one of those suits scrambled for cover behind whatever measly desk they could find. However, he had the bigger gun with the bigger cartridge. Seeing one mook emerge, he adjusted accordingly and took him as soon as his head poked out. The process was repeated with every person that was dumb enough to try to go up against the seasoned Navy SEAL. He knew every move they were going to make before they made it. Attempts to suppress weren't going to work since his bullets were going to be able to go through whatever they had taken cover behind. 

On the other side, Maria was handling things splendidly. It was like shooting fish in a barrel as mooks started to flood in and were mowed down as soon as they came in. Cops were probably notified with all the gunfire, and soon enough this situation would be settled and contained. But for right now, defense was the name of the game. Bullets were being fired, and Michael and Maria were at no risk. These mooks were just outmatched... even though they were outnumbered. Soon enough, sirens could somehow be heard over the gunfire which meant that this little defense was going to end very soon. 

Taking a few more shots, the gunfire was soon stopped. Bodies of many mooks were on the ground. But, more footsteps were heard. Either it was LVPD making their way up the stairs, or it was another wave of mooks. Michael and Maria both had to be careful about how they were going to go about this. Once the footsteps got louder, Michael saw a barrel poking out. He got ready to shoot if he needed to, and so did Maria. Luckily, though, the barrel turned the corner and as it turned out, it had belonged to LVPD SWAT. Putting his gun down and standing up, he put his hands up as the police officers identified themselves. Maria followed suit. Hopefully the police knew they were the good guys and that they did what they had to do to protect their asset. 

[hr]

While the ordeal had been happening, Ellie was busy cowering in fear. She had never ever even been to a gun range, now she was dodging bullets and holding one in her pants. What the fuck was going on? After the gunfire had settled, she needed to know what the fuck was happening. Ross was a good friend of hers, but there was no excuse for what had just happened. Everyone's lives had just been put into danger. Michael's story had done little to make sense of what had happened. 

Seb was rightfully pissed, and so was Ellie. Their life had been put into so much danger just now. Just a few hours ago they were thinking that they were going to be enjoying some drinks in Vegas, and now they were on the run from criminals. Ross was going to go on a soliloquy but one thing didn't add up to her. "Wait... daughter-to-be...? How...? What?" Ellie was very confused. Kimberly didn't look pregnant at all the last time she saw her. Certainly not pregnant enough to figure out the gender of their baby. What did he mean by daughter-to-be? He wasn't the type to have an affair. Ellie wasn't that good at math, but even she knew it didn't add up. 

"Kimberly's pregnant. Very, very early. It's what saved her life." Athena butted in, before turning back around to look out the back of their truck.  "O-Oh. Oh. Congratulations, but Ross, it still doesn't take away in the fact that you put me and Seb's life in danger!" She gestured to the shells rolling around on the floor of their truck, "Are you not seeing these shells? There were bullets flying around in this truck! Just a few hours ago the only flying around we did was on the slope, and now we were literally inches from death!" She rubbed her head, before listening to Seb's take on the issue.

Everything he said had made sense... but seeing the problem that Ross had gotten himself into - it was something that Ellie couldn't leave alone. As much as it was stupid to go back right into something that could get her killed, there were a lot of things that she did regularly that would get her killed as well. From another perspective, it was probably just another day on the job only instead of snow and heights it was guns and bullets. Tuning out of whatever Ross was saying, she was going to have to think it over as they drove to Arizona. 

In the meantime, Athena received a text on her phone, sighing in relief as she read the message. "Kimberly's okay. Maria and Michael defended her just fine and now LVPD is involved. She should be having the last of her surgeries very soon. According to the doctors she's ahead of schedule." Ellie sighed a breath of relief, before a thought had poked into her head. "So, another baby, huh? How's that make you feel, Ross? Your hands are going to be very full in a few months."

[hr]

A few hours later, the truck had finally arrived in Phoenix, Arizona, more specifically at the trailer that Ross had mentioned earlier. Parking the truck quite a distance away, the group of four had finally made it to the trailer with all of Seb and Ellie's gear on their back. It was the least the group could do to return the favor to the unwilling Europeans. Athena was the first to go inside, followed by Seb. But before Ross could go in, Ellie put a hand out and pushed him aside with a surprising amount of force. She coerced him to the side of the trailer and took a seat on the ground. It was a long day, and Ellie wanted answers to her questions.

"Ross... what the fuck, man? What were you thinking? Why did you get me involved in this shit? This isn't the kind of stuff that me OR you should be getting involved in anymore. Sure, when we were kids, getting chased out by a store owner was regular shit. But that was when we were kids. When we were kids... hell my hair was brown!" Ellie said, before sighing, "I never would have thought that I'd be standing here in Arizona hiding from criminals. It's something out of an action movie, almost." 

"Look, I don't know if I should help you or not. It's not a question of if... it's a question of should. Should I be helping you? I don't know. You tell me."