I jumped off my chair and leapt down off the roof while multiple shots were fired at me. I was super lucky none of those hit me as I dodged and weaved out of the way. I bursted through the front door and took cover as I slammed it shut. Multiple bullets flying in through the wood and windows. Shattered glass littered the ground as more lead was pumped through. I went behind the couch where Jesse was sitting.
“How many are there!?” She frantically asked me.
“There are around one hundred of them out there.” I told her.
“What!?” She screamed.
“Is everyone else safe?”
“I don’t know.”
Bullets kept coming flying through but I took a chance and booked it into Alice’s room. I barged through the door and looked around for Alice. I spotted her in the corner hunched over and holding her right arm. I noticed the blood trail coming from the bed and trickled down onto the wood floorboards. She was sobbing nonstop and screaming. Then the horror sunk into me.
Alice was shot.
I rushed over to her side and inspected her gunshot wound. It was directly into her shoulder the bullet was lodged in there. It entered through the back of her shoulder, so someone shot from the other side, which confirms that we are surrounded.
I picked her up off her feet and cradled her in my arms. “It’s going to be ok.” I kissed her on the forehead.
At the time I was too busy focusing on if Alice was ok, that I didn’t notice the anger fostering inside of me. It hit me as I stood there and more gunfire started barraging in.
These fuckers are going to pay.
I ran out of the room where everyone was huddled around in different places of cover. I hunched down with them. It’s infuriating because we all couldn’t peek out and take a couple of shots, if you were I’d doubt you’d even do a little bit of substantive damage to their numbers.
“What happened to Alice?” Nancy asked me.
“She’s been shot.” I said.
“Oh my god!” She ran out from her cover and over to us. She examined Alice’s wound and hugged her. “Don’t worry baby, we’ll have this patched up.” She started crying.
“Let’s move to the basement!” I heard Fred yell. “It’s underground, no stray bullets will travel down there.”
“Good idea!” Jesse said.
Collectively we all sprinted down the steep staircase to the basement as more bullets rained in. Explosions started to go off, they were blowing up the house itself. I clutched Alice in my hands as the entrance to the basement was now covered with rubble and the remains of the house.
Little crumbs of stone started to fall down from the top of the basement as we took shelter behind some of the shelves. Dust fluttered down and into the air, clouding the whole room. There was still shaking from the ongoing explosions but the gunfire had ceased.
We all hushed and kept quiet as we heard footsteps and mumbles of conversations from the attackers upstairs. It was very faint but I swear I heard someone say. “Are they dead?”
I heard them move around pieces of rubble, trying to search for our bodies. There was crackling of flames still burning wood, bit mostly shuffling of peoples feet and the tossing of various materials of the wreckage. We all kept quiet so as to not alert them, though it was kind of pointless because sooner or later they’ll figure out that there’s no body. But there’s always that slightest chance, even if it’s not even a single percentage chance, I still gotta pray.
“We can’t find anything!” A male voice screamed.
“Check every last crevice!” A familiar sounding voice yelled back. There’s no way we didn’t kill em’.” It was Henry’s.
Alice started to whimper loudly and I covered her mouth and whispered into her ear. “Everything will be ok.”
“Did you hear that?” A female voice asked.
“Yep, sounded like someone whimpering.” Henry responded. “There must be a basement or bunker somewhere. Go find it!”
“But sir there’s so much wood and stuff it’ll take a lot to go through.”
“I don’t fucking care! I’m making sure I see that bastard’s body myself! I don’t care if you get burned, or bleed, just show me his body!”
“Yes sir.”
I heard them rummage through more of the carnage. We all kept our best to keep quiet, but Alice bit down on my hand. I guess she had to use something to endure the pain, like soldiers chewing on rags to endure a bullet wound. My finger started to bleed and I winced when she broke my skin.
I gave a little bundled up piece of dirty cloth that was laying on top of a box. The least thing I’m worried about right now is the germs, we just have to keep quiet and hope they just give up or the piece of rubble blocking the entrance is too heavy to move. There was some knocking at the entrance.
Fuck!
Looks like they found the thing obstructing the entrance. Please let it be too heavy to pull up! Please! I don’t ask much for you god but just this one time, do anything just for them not to get in here!
Alice needs medical assistance now, we all can’t die down here. Kill me first, just let her live! Even if it’s the most torturest and painful death that could ever be inflicted on a human being, I don’t care. If it means she’ll live, it’ll be a fitting end to all of this.
Then out of nowhere, like my prayers have been miraculously answered. There was the sound of helicopter blades spinning. It took me off guard as it did everyone else on the surface.
The blaring noise drew nearer and nearer until it was unbearably loud. Then machine gun fire started going off, mowing down tons of people. People could be heard screaming, but that was overshadowed by the thunderous machine guns. It went on for a good minute or so I couldn’t remember. All I did was hold Alice closer and covered her ears. Whoever these people were, they have the biggest firepower out of anyone I’ve ever met in my life.
It all came to a stop, including the helicopter blades. I thought it was all over, like a drive by killing. But by who? Was the government alerted to what was happening down here? Or was it-
“Lee Pulpis!” My thoughts were cut off by a deep male voice heard from the entrance of the basement. “We are with Runasi Haruhiko. We do not want to harm you or cause you any more additional pain. If all of you comply by putting your weapons down and hands in the air, we’ll get you out of there with no trouble. Please yell back if you heard me.”
We all looked at each other. What does Runasi want with me now? Does he finally want to fight? “I hear you loud and clear.” I dropped my gun on the ground and signaled everyone else to do the same. “We’ve put our guns away!”
“Stand back from the entrance.” He warned us when an explosion went off and blew away all of the debris blocking our path. Little stone pieces and dust went flying down the stairs. “Come out around the corner very slowly. We won’t hesitate to shoot if you make any sudden movements. All of you come out in a single file line. We want to see your hands in the air. Except for you Lee, we know you won’t let Alice go.”
How the fuck does he know that? There’s no way in hell he would have that information. That’s when it struck me, those things that the thugs were spouting on about before they raided our camp. ‘There’s not only a camera in your eyes, but also sensors in your nerves as well. They know what you’re holding, touching, eating, smelling, and hearing.’ I didn’t even know if that was true but it didn’t seem to be out of the realm of possibilities either, now what he said confirms that. To be honest I thought it was all crazy talk. Because there’s no other way he would have known I was carrying Alice.
Jesse slowly creeped around the corner with her hands in the air. The guy commanded her to go up the stairs and for the next person in line to come out. William stepped out and then Nancy, Fred, then finally me.
I held Alice tightly in my hands as she whimpered more at her wound. I didn’t even look up when I rounded the corner as to who was even carrying out these orders. When I did I was confused. It was a fully armored soldier with his face covered by a helmet. He had a weird looking rifle in his hands. It was all black with a suppressor attached to the barrel, also it looked really heavy and hard to hold.
I remember in history seeing these guys in the textbooks they gave out. These were fully advanced and highly trained soldiers who fought in the Mountain Peak War. It was a battle fought in 2080 over the Himalayan mountains. China was rapidly expanding its military to the point where they were building bases on the outskirts of their borders and they were intruding onto India’s territory. So India declared war on China over the mountains. But India could have never expected the technological advances that China had.
They constructed the strongest armor ever used in combat, the DS80 Power Armor; it was able to withstand any caliber of bullet. This single piece of technology only placed on a small platoon of soldiers won them the war and made India surrender the mountains to them. It only lasted a few months but the armor made its way around the world after ten years of perfecting it, now every single nation has it. But only people in an elite task force can wear it, so why are they even here? Why couldn’t they send out regular soldiers with helmets and single vests? Do they really have nothing better to do?
“Walk up the stairs now.” He commanded me.
I hugged Alice tight as I slowly stepped up the stairs, cradling her in my arms.
“Give us the girl. We’ll treat her wound.” He said.
“You better not do anything else or I swear to-”
“Trust me, I wouldn’t do anything stupid like that to lose my job and get myself killed.”
“You gonna inject that magical healing stuff in her?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, the bullet is lodged in there. I know what that stuff does and I don’t want it reforming around it. Can’t you just take it out?”
“Obviously, I got the tools needed.”
“You guys really do come prepared.”
“Runasi knows everything that happened here, which makes our job way easier.” Another guard handed him some plyers and a syringe. “This shot will numb her arm when we pull out the bullet.” He injected her quickly in the shoulder and I felt her nails dig into my skin to deal with the pain. I patted her on the head and held her even tighter.
He pulled open the wound just a little to get the instrument in and slowly inserted it. I saw him with perfect precision navigate inside her shoulder and carefully pull out the bullet. It took him a good five minutes of pure silence except for the still fires burning the house still. Some people came by with extinguishers and put the flames out.
Once he was done with the procedure, he threw the bullet away on the ground and put the plyers back in the bag. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out the syringe, it had a yellow liquid. I couldn’t recall what color it was when I had my stab wound healed, but I had to trust it.
He slowly injected her and flushed the liquid into her system. I saw the amazing process happen in front of my eyes again, her shoulder’s muscle and bone formed back together. It still amazes me how this technology even exists. If you are able to give this to your soldiers, then surely you can hand it out to the public. Yet again, you do want the population to die out.
“Runasi has ordered us to take you to Willtown to meet him in person.” He explained as he packed up all of the medical equipment. “And he’s taking all of you as well.”
“What does he want?” I asked aggressively.
“I do not know sir. I’m just given orders.”
Probably wants to fight me or something. That has to be it, but this soon? I guess it was a matter of time.
“Also.” He began speaking again. “Runsai wanted to give you something special.” He waved his hand to a couple of other soldiers and they dragged someone over here.
I saw their face, it was Henry. He was handcuffed and squirming around as they attempted to restrain him further.
“You can do whatever you want to him. Kill him, torture him, mutilate him, or nothing at all. It’s all up to you.” He said as they held Henry back. “Think of it as a way to apologize for all the trouble he caused. We could’ve stopped it earlier but there were unexpected delays getting here.”
“Fuck you Lee!” Henry screamed at me. “You motherfucker, you would’ve been a dead man if it wasn’t for these cocksuckers! I had the most perfect plan, I was even lucky enough to en mass this whole army! There would’ve been no trace of you left, you would’ve been wiped off the face of the earth!”
One of the guards put tape over his mouth to shut him up but he was still shouting, but he was muffled.
“If you want to use one of our weapons to deal with him, that’s fine. But please note that the attempt to cause harm to anyone besides Henry here will result in immediate extermination.”
“Lee.” Jesse caught my attention. “You don’t need to do anything. Let’s just leave here.”
I peered back and forth between Henry and Jesse. Very contrasting expressions they both had, he had this look with just pure anger. Pure fire in his eyes as he stared me down viciously. And Jesse, pleading with me to just move on. But I looked down at Alice and the choice was obvious to me.
I slowly walked over with Alice in my arms. Jesse first looked relieved, but I held out Alice to her. “Hold her for me.” I asked her.
“Lee please.” She begged me as her relief turned into fear. “This won’t make anything better.”
“I’m asking you. Hold her for me. I’ll make it quick.”
She sighed. “You better.” She extended her arms and snatched Alice away from me.
I patted her on the head one last time and turned around to face Henry. I slowly crept forward with him, every step I was stomping my foot into the ground. He started wiggling around until he fell on his back.
“Give me a knife.” I demanded. The soldier quickly pulled out his combat knife and handed it to me. “Take the tape off of his mouth.”
The one standing behind him followed my orders and ripped the tape off of his mouth, taking some hair with it.
“Fucking son of a bitch.” The first words he uttered when he had the chance. “Cocksucking piece of shit!” Like earlier he just started hurling insults to the point where I completely drowned them out. It started to annoy me, it felt like constant white noise and static flooding my ears.
I clenched the knife and rammed it into his right shoulder. It penetrated all the way through the muscle and bone. It went all the way through the other end. He screamed out in pain and fell down to the ground.
“Lee!” Jesse screamed out at me. “You told me it was going to be quick-”
“Shut the fuck up Jesse.”
She recoiled back in shock and didn’t speak up.
“You went and collected all of these troops to take down just one teenager and a kid. You’re fucking pathetic.” I started my rant. “All because you wanted to avenge your beloved sons that you cared about so much, that you left them at night school unattended by you. Anyone in the world could have killed those fuckers easily, it so happens to be that my own brother took their useless lives.”
“You don’t understand!” He yelled. “I was working two jobs just to support them! I would do anything for them! Once they were gone I lost everything. My house! My job! My whole family was gone, they were all I had left! Everything I worked for crumbled underneath me, I had no other purpose.” He started sobbing as he bent his back over and laid his face on the ground.
I ran up and kicked him in the stomach. He flopped all over the ground, ultimately landing on his back. “I don’t give a single shit about your little sob story you motherfucker. Let me make sure you get this for the little time you have left on earth. If you ever decide to fuck with me and my family, I will kill you mercilessly.” I grabbed him by his injured shoulder and stabbed him in the stomach. “Even with all of those men and women coming to charge at our house. I would’ve fought them all, so much blood would have been shed that you would think it was a slaughterhouse. Doesn’t matter if all of my limbs were torn off, I would’ve chewed my way to victory. I would’ve destroyed you.”
“You talk such a big game, for someone who was saved by their fucking godfather Runasi.” He started coughing up blood. “If he wasn’t here to intervene your body would be burning along with the remains of your house.”
I twisted the knife in his gut making him splurt out more blood that landed on my pants. All I wanted him to do was just shut the fuck up.
“You couldn’t even respond to that!” He started coughing. “You know what I’m saying is true.” He started wheezing. “Very funny, me and you aren’t really that different. We both just fight to survive.”
“That’s just everyone. Every single person fights for that reason.”
“Yeah, but don’t you think mine is more noble? Fighting to avenge my sons. While you only fight just to survive to live another day. No future planned, no working until you’ve reached your breaking point, just passing by every day and things just happen to you.”
I started chuckling underneath my breath. “You’re actually not that crazy as I thought. You’re actually right.”
“Glad you finally caught on.”
“I’ve been thrown around my whole life by people, being forced to constantly move and not being able to have a stable home. And you’re just another one that gets in my way.” I took the knife out of his stomach and slit his throat. He started gargling up blood and fell to the ground. “I’m tired of everyone getting in the way of my life and trying to control it. Runasi Haruhiko, those random thugs in the sewers, and you. All I want is to just live in a house with all of my family, that’s it. I’m not asking a lot yet I still get fucked over again and again. If I have to kill everyone that gets in my way, then that’s how I’ll do it. Runasi wants to fight me, let’s go right now! I’ll fight him and kill him and end this whole nightmare.”
Henry died out slowly on the rubble of the broken house. A blood puddle trickling out from him and reaching my feet.
“Let’s get going. I’m done here. Take me to Runasi, whatever he has to say to me I don’t give a flying fuck about. I finally have a goal in my life, to take care of my family. I won’t stop until I achieve it.”104Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV1RBNoqFhv
