#SaveDeception

It was trap. Kay should have known it wouldn’t be this easy. The building didn’t have a single person in it; they’d walked right in. And the place was too clean. Too picked up, too abandoned. She was the agent, she was supposed to be thinking about these things. Not that Cameron wasn’t thinking on his feet just as much as she was, but he’d had less experience. She should have seen these signs and realized there was something wrong. But she didn’t— she was too focused on the end goal.

Which means that everything that happened afterwards was her fault.

They were searching the warehouse, trying to find evidence that this was indeed the location their terrorist group was using as their hideout. They were trying to find evidence of plans, of weapons, of discussions or possible identities, even. Anything they could garner…they’d been closing in on this group for the past week and they were nearly certain this was the building in question. If not, they had to claim yet another failed search. It’d join a very populated list. By this point, the sheer frustration was making her impatient. That added on another layer. That helped to distract her, too.

Cameron had been the one to set off the trip wire. He had been walking farther down the hall; she’d stopped to see if she could check in with Mike over the radio. The first thing she heard was his yelp and stumble. She looked down the hall in just enough time to see him straighten up again and recover. The second he started to turn around and look at her though, there was suddenly a loud hissing noise. They both stiffened and whirled around to see a cloud of gas start flooding the halls. It was coming from everywhere— from under the doors and from the air vents, the smoke-like cloud was rolling in like fog. It swarmed so fast, she barely had time to see Cameron’s eyes, huge with shock and terror, lock with hers before the smoke was obscuring him from view.

Kay stumbled backwards, sucking in a sharp breath to try and yell out to him. “Ca—!” She broke off in a hacking cough as her throat suddenly started to burn. “Cam— …get out!” It was all she could choke out. She wanted to tell him not to breathe in, she wanted to tell him to close his eyes and cover his nose; she wanted him to run to her so she could grab his hand and they could stay together. But she couldn’t breathe in the smoke. She had to just hope he knew. She screwed her eyes shut tight and rushed down the hall towards where he’d been, feeling with her free arm blindly, struggling to find him. She couldn’t feel him.

Her lungs were burning already. She forced herself to use air she didn’t have and scream one last time: “Cameron!” There wasn’t a response. She could hear him coughing and hacking. She ran towards the sound and briefly, she found a sleeve. She grabbed on and tugged him hard. Her fingers slipped and she fell away from him, and when she tried to grab him again, all she found was empty air. She had no idea where he’d gone— she could hear him coughing still and she kept trying to grab out towards the noise, but she always failed. Her lungs were burning more and more. Everything in her wanted to breathe; she knew she couldn’t. But she was getting desperate. She had to go.

Everything in her was wanting to make absolutely sure he was following her, but after a couple more seconds of floundering blind, she turned and started to stumble back down the hall, running for where she thought she remembered the exit being. She had pulled Cameron in this direction. Hopefully he had the foresight to run back, too, and follow her. She could still hear him coughing— that meant he was behind her, right? That meant he was trying to get out too?

She felt along the wall, since she couldn’t see. She struggled to push down her panic and retrace their steps. Every so often she was forced to take in a breath and suffer the consequences of the pain and coughing just to get the tiniest bit of oxygen again. She wasn’t sure what kind of toxin it was in the smoke but whatever it was, she couldn’t wait around in it. She ran as fast as she could and thankfully it only took her a little more than a minute or so to stumble into the door. She felt blindly for the handle and shoved her entire body against it. She broke out into the fresh air but still forced herself to hold her breath as she half-sprinted, half-fell as far away from the warehouse as she could.

She ran a few yards before her knees gave out from under her. She collapsed, finally sucking in as deep a breath as she could. Her lungs burned even more when she finally got the air she needed; she started to choke and hack, struggling to get everything out. She was dizzy and her fingers were tingling. For a couple minutes all she could do was crouch on the ground, coughing and spluttering hard. Her throat stayed hurting, but eventually she got her ability to breathe back, even if it was still with an audible wheeze. Feeling started to return to her fingers and legs. She started to calm down.

But her relief was short-lived when she realized she was alone.

Her head snapped up, and she whirled around. The door to the warehouse was still open— the fog that had been set up to go off was still spilling out into the air a little bit, clearing out of the building little by little bit. Cameron wasn’t with her. Was he still inside!? She shoved herself up to her feet, staggering a little as her head spun. Her voice cracked against her throat when she yelled: “Cameron!?” She waited for an answer, but there wasn’t one. Her heart started to pound against her chest. She screamed louder, her voice cracking in half this time. “CAMERON!”

Still, nothing.

She started to breathe faster, waiting tensely. Any second now, surely he was going to run out of the warehouse just like she had? But no. A minute passed, and then another one, and there was still nothing. The smoke was dissipating…there was probably still toxins in the air, but eventually she couldn’t stay standing here. She yelled and screamed his name, hoping he’d hear and run towards her, but that didn’t seem to be doing enough. She shook her head and tore it. She sucked in a deep breath and prepared herself, before she forced herself to run back inside.

She held her breath and closed her eyes again. She tried to hear his coughing, tried to find out where he’d gone, or if he’d gotten lost. Every so often, she risked squinting her eyes open for just a second, to scan the area before she closed them tight again. The smoke had cleared enough so she could see clearly again, and thankfully, she finally caught a glimpse of him. She saw him stumbling— she heard his breathing. It was audible, weak wheezing, just like hers had been, interjected frequently with harsh coughs. She sprinted towards him and when she ran into him, she threw her arms around him. He immediately clung to her, and she grabbed his arm and hauled him back the way she’d come.

He coughed and choked behind her, and he was staggering more than he was actually running. But she got him out. She ran a few yards away again, and again, she ended in a collapse. She gasped in hard, the pain in her chest from holding her breath subsiding with every hyperventilation and cough. Her vision was just the tiniest bit warped, but the smears were minimal. Still, they were streaming and burning in pain, just from the small collection of seconds she’d risked opening them.

She looked over at Cameron and despite everything, she was shaken with relief. He was coughing much harder than she had, after breathing it in for so much longer. But he was alright. He was crouched on his hands and knees, choking and spluttering. His eyes were struggling to stay open, streaming much more than hers were. She couldn’t imagine the way they were burning; hers could only squint open, and she hadn’t even had them open for a long time. She gave him a while to get as much of it out as he could, before she spoke.

Her voice was still just a rasp against her throat. “It was a trap,” she croaked. Cameron still didn’t say anything. He’d gotten his eyes to open more, but now he was staring at the ground like he was a deer in headlights. Sympathy shook her. She remembered the first time she’d walked into an ambush as bad as that one. It was scary. He just wasn’t used to it, just like he wasn’t used to seeing dead bodies. She moved to sit on the ground instead of crouch, shaking her head. “I should have realized…I’m sorry…”

Still, he said nothing. He was blinking faster and faster. He was starting to breathe faster, like he was panicking. She frowned, moving to put her hands on his shoulders. “Cameron— we’re okay.” Her voice was so shot it was only a whisper. Cameron didn’t react; he just kept gasping, harder and harder. She bent to try and catch his gaze. “Cameron, it’s fine!” His head snapped up. She was surprised to see how wide his eyes suddenly were, despite how red and painful they appeared. His eyes looked absolutely terrified. But…they looked blank, too. And when he looked up, he didn’t meet her gaze. He was staring just off to the side of her. “Cameron?” she pressed, her stomach starting to drop. “…Cameron calm down, everything’s fine, you can—”

“I— I can’t see!” he croaked, his voice just as shot as hers. But his was cracked with horror, too. Kay’s eyes went huge, her heart freezing over. At her shocked silence, Cameron just weakened with even more fear. “I can’t see anything!” he yelled. Kay was shocked for a moment, taking in his blank stare and coming to a horrible understanding. The fact she wasn’t replying was making it worse. Still staring off to the side, Cameron fumbled through the air before he grabbed onto her arms, his fingers digging into her with desperation. “Kay, I can’t see anything!” he repeated, even more scared. “It’s dark! Everything is dark I can’t see!”

Numbly, Kay reached up and waved her hand through his line of vision. He didn’t even blink. His eyes were huge and horrified; they’d already been streaming from the smoke, but she could tell that now he was trying not to cry. She waved in front of him again, she tried to bend to catch his eyes, but there was nothing.

He was blank.

He was blind.

Her eyes had only been open for about twenty seconds in it, and her vision was smeared.

How long had he had his open?

Cameron was beginning to crumble. His voice was shaking and his words were beginning to rush together as his panic built. “Kay I can’t see anything you have to help me you have to do something why can’t I see why can’t I see anything why can’t I—!?”

“Hey! Hey, shhh! You’re fine!” She finally got her words. Kay held back to his arms, just as tightly as he was to hers. He weakened but at least he stopped rambling. He stared desperately, still not quite at her. She moved for him, so she could look him in the eyes even if he couldn’t tell. “Listen to me, you’re going to be fine, Cameron— okay?” He was still gasping, but when she forced hardness to her voice, he gave a tiny set of nods. “You’re going to be fine, I’m right here. Okay? I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

He held even tighter to her, still frightened.

“You’re going to be fine, I promise,” she pressed. The look on his face was breaking her heart. He looked so confused and lost and terrified, blinking fast but never seeing an improvement. Before she could think about it, she suddenly changed to hug him. She held him close, squeezing him as tight as she could, to try and offer him any kind of comfort. He kept staring wide-eyed over her shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, it’ll work out Cam I promise.”

He didn’t say anything. He stayed gasping in fear and panic.

But she felt him hug her back. She felt his arms and the desperation in his cling. She felt how he was shaking. She could feel all his fear, his doubt, his shock. Those same emotions were swarming in her chest and breaking her down, but she was doing her best to be stronger for him. To stay as collected as she possibly could.

She was struggling to push it all down and just close her eyes.