Wind whistled through the cracks in the run down building, the night was cool but she barely noticed. The concentration she was maintaining was numbing her to everything else. She could hear two men coming down the hallway, their foot falls told her that they wore heavy boots, and the soft slap of leather told her that they worse holsters. The next patrol was early. She shifted her wait, she could feel the butterflies in her stomach, and she would never get used to taking a life. Not when less than two years ago everything had been so much simpler. Back then the worst thing she had to worry about was whether or not she would get a job, now she her problems were more on the scale of whether or not she was going to make it to the next day. The boots grew closer, she had moved to the grip on her revolver, she much preferred the use of a fire arm. But this was neither the time nor place to use it. It would make too much noise and call too much attention to her, and the waste of bullets could potentially get her killed in the long run, she still had to make it out of this place. They were much closer now, just on the other side of the barrels she was behind, the lights from their helmets were illuminating the hallway now, as the first boot came into view she kicked out knocking the man off balance and snapping one of the daggers out of it sheath on her back and driving it into his neck as he stumbled into his partner. The other man started to raise the rifle he was carrying, before he had time to pull the trigger she launched off the floor leaving the dagger in the first man and drove her knee into stomach of the second. The armor he worse barley gave even with all the force that she could muster behind the blow, but he was taken by surprise and knocked slightly off balance. She started to turn grabbing the gun as she did and pulled him around with her. Forcing him to the ground under her, and as they fell she pulled the combat knife out of its sheath on his chest and did her best to drop all of her weight on his diaphragm to force the wind out of him. Because of the heavy plate that he was wearing over his vitals it didn’t seem to faze him much, as his knee came up and connected with the back of her head and dots exploded in her vision. She realized he was yelling, the panic from that gave her the little boost of strength she needed to drive his knife into the spot on his neck where his armor didn’t quite meet with his helmet, almost instantly he stopped moving and she rolled off him breathing heavily. She let out a soft chuckle to herself as she heard the crash of boots in the distance. No She would probably never get used to this style of life, but she had to keep going she was here for a reason. She got to her feet quickly hoping the adrenaline would keep her body from getting too exhausted to fast. She grabbed her dagger out of the first man and pulled the rifle out of his hand and started to move down the hall the way they had come from. Moving slowly her leather riding boots didn’t make much sound against the wooden floor, she could hear men yelling and running towards her. She needed to find a place to hide, there was no way she would be able to fight them all, she was a good shot but she knew there were at least ten other men in the building. Ahead of her the hallway split, she strained her ears to hear which way her would be attackers were coming from. Directly in front of her at the end of the hallway was a door, and she could hear that men would be down both sides of the hall. If she choose either direction her back would be to a group of them, instant death. The door was her only other option, but how much time would she have to open it without being shot full of holes. Probably none, the door looked really solid but she only really had one option, turning back wasn't it, she knew how to kick down a door but wasn't sure if she was strong enough to actually do it. Only one option, right before the hallway she was in ended, she launched herself into the air and turned so her back was to the door, the impact nearly knocked the wind out of her. For a split second she was scared that the door had held strong, but then she realized she was staring at the roof, she rolled to her feet hearing voices yelling for her to stop. She took a second to try and situate herself but nothing seemed to make sense, in the confusion she had completely lost her sense of direction. She looked around to take stock of where she was, the room was little more than a closet. It did have a small wooden desk and chair in it but nothing passed that. The sinking feeling of being trapped was starting to set in, it was over, nowhere left to go. She could feel the beginning of panic start to boil up in her, they were getting closer and she was going to die.
"If you die, so does he...” she muttered to herself. A vision of looking up into his hard grey eyes, and feeling absolutely safe flashed in her mind. "He would never give up on me, he would die trying."
She wiped her face on the back of her hand before flipping the desk on its side they would be ready for her. She moved the desk into the middle of the room and stood in the corner parallel with the door. She could hear them arranging themselves outside the room, as the barrels of their guns came through the door the muzzle flashes lite up the room as their bullets ripped through the desk and they moved a little farther into the room, the glass on the first man’s helmet exploded as the bullet from her rifle penetrated his skull. His partner took too long to realize what happened as the second bullet snapped his head back. The third and fourth guys retreated quickly, her third shot blew a hole in the plaster wall. She listened for what was coming next, there was a small click, and then a pinging as a small canister bounced into the room. She ducked pulling her head down between her knees and squeezed her eyes closed as hard as she could and covered her ears just as the flash bang ignited. When she opened her eyes everything seemed to dark and there was a load ringing in her head as the first man stepped into the room her hand shot to her revolver and the shot was off before he had time to turn. He recoiled out of the room, she couldn’t tell if she had hit him or not, her vision was too messed up. One of them dove into the room rolling across the floor, because of the flash bang she had a very hard time following him because it seemed like her eyes were moving too slowly. As he came to his feet she threw herself to the side narrowly avoiding the spray of bullets that would have torn her apart. She could feel a burning in her shoulder and neck where she had been grazed by a couple of shots. Nothing serious, is what her brain was screaming at her as the man approached her, she tried to roll to her feet but he kicked her in the stomach, hard. She felt the breath leave her body and that sinking feeling start to well back up inside of her, but she heard his voice, "you can do this". The guard kicked her revolver away from her and she was laying on the rifle. The first guy was beside his partner now, she could see that his armor was stained around the shoulder where he had been hit by her shot, but it was all a blur. She was gasping for breath, she could barely see and her wounds burned, the panic was back in full force. The wounded man kicked her, destroying what little effort she had been able to put into regaining her breath. Tears streaked her face but she couldn’t even sob, this was not how this was supposed to happen. She was supposed to sneak in, take out the guards one at a time and rescue him. The first man reached down and pulled her to her knees by the front of her shirt, even with his help she could hardly keep her balance, the flash bang must have messed with her equilibrium. The sudden movement sent the room into a blur and it took all the effort she could muster to not vomit between gasping for the much needed air.
“You think we are going to go easy one you after what you’ve done?” he asked, clearly sneering behind the reflective visor. “This is going to be the worst day of your life.”
“Even as beaten up as she is, she’s still attractive enough.” The second man said, his voice was deeper and with a northern accent. “We should have some fun with her before taking her down to see her boyfriend.”
“Or we could take her to her boyfriend before we have the fun with her, play with her right there in front of him.” The first guy said laughing viciously. Picking her up easily by the front of her shirt so her feet were barely able to touch the ground, he clicked the button on the side of his helmet that made his visor retract. He was an attractive man, but the look on his face was the most vicious, disturbing look she had ever seen in her life. This man fully intended to rape her, in front of her husband. The thought of it happening didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the image that passed through her mind of Andrew watching as these two men did that to her. She started to struggle against his grip with all her might, and much to her surprise she broke free from his grasp, as her feet hit the floor she reached for the dagger sheathed on her back, pain exploded across her face as the second man punched her and she was sent spinning. She landed on her back and once again found it incredibly hard to breath, in seconds the second man was on top of her with his face inches from hers.
“Try to escape again and…” He stopped in surprise mid-sentence. She had slammed her dagger into his chest in his arm pit where there was no armor protection. He slumped down on top of her, the weight was almost unbearable. She felt something digging into her hip, to her surprise she had landed on her pistol. She wrapped her hand around the grip and shifted her weight enough to pull it out from under her, she only had one shot, and if she didn’t kill him with the first shot she knew that the last man would kill her.
“You bitch, you’re not going to even live long enough to see that piece of shit boyfriend of yours now!” The last man yelled pulling his friend off of her and immediately kicking her, repeatedly. She felt several of her ribs give out under the force of the blows, she thought she was going to die to this. Then all of a sudden it stopped and he grabbed the front of her shirt with both hands, ripping it in one smooth motion from neck line to hem, his hand slid hard into her pants. Her pistol whipped out from under her and shot. Broken glass and blood rained down on her and he went limp his helmet slamming into her stomach, she felt the broken visor cut her as she pushed him off of her. It was over they were dead, she was alive. She wasn’t sure how she managed to get so lucky but she survived, and as far as she could tell Andrew was alive as well. She laid there for a few minutes catching her breath, which was getting increasingly difficult once she realized that there were still six more men in the mansion.
“Come on Jenn, you have places to be.” She muttered to herself. She started to push herself to her knees and realized one of the cuts on her stomach was bleeding a lot. She pulled the ripped shirt out from under the crossed belts that held her daggers and her pistol, and waded it up and looked for something to use to fasten it to her mid rift. She grabbed one of the rifles and unclipped the shoulder strap and tied the make shift bandage to herself as tightly as she could manage, her cracked ribs screamed at her for doing it but at least she wouldn’t bleed to death before she reached him. Then she began rearming herself, she strapped one of the rifles to her back, and found two more flash bangs and what she only hoped was an actual grenade on the other men. Then retrieved her dagger and reloaded her revolver with bullets from her belt pouch. Andrew had told her a hundred times that she should be using a semiautomatic pistol, but this one had been her fathers and she refused to give it up. It fell heavily into its holster at her hip, it felt easy there like it had been there all her life.
She peaked around the corner, no one seemed to be around. After all that had just happened it seemed to quite, and the humming in her ears was almost deafening. She had lost her barring’s in the fight and didn’t know which way to go, she chose to go left. She didn’t know why but her first instinct was left, so she went. The wind was cold on her skin, she wished she had brought her bag so she could have a new shirt, but it was just as well. She didn’t want to wreck another shirt, but she was starting to get goosebumps as the wind blew in through the broken window at the end of the hall. Then it dawned on her, the wind was blowing from the west, which means she was headed west. She was going the right direction. She got to the end of the hall it turned to the right, she peered around the corner. This hallway continued on for about fifteen feet and ended in a door, she could see under the edge of the door that there was a fire lit in that room, the flickering light looked strange with her vision this impaired. She kept close to the wall as she slowly made her way down the hallway, if there were people in there why hadn’t they come to the aid of the other men. She put her ear to the door to try and hear what was going on in the room, but all she could hear was the humming in her head. She wrapped her hand around the grip on the rifle and slowly turn the knob on the door with her other hand, like her dad had taught her she was off to the side of the door when she flung it open. There was no one there, maybe the men from this room where the ones she had already killed. That would be a relief, nothing would make her happier than to have the rest of this little mission of her go smoothly. She crept slowly into the room the stock of her rifle pressed firmly into her shoulder, another thing she was happy about was the fact that she didn’t have to fire her weapon. Just holding it in her shoulder like that was painful, she didn’t want to imagine how it would feel when the recoil hit it. She stopped short, putting her foot down slowly, the string that was pulled tight across the middle of the room was so thin that she could barely see it. Maybe if her vision wasn’t messed up she would have seen it sooner, but at least she was still alive. It was no doubt attached to some sort of explosive. She stepped over it easily enough and continued her journey to the door on the other side of the room. When she reached it she pressed her ear against it and listened again. This time she did hear a voice.
“No you dolt, if she was she would have set off the trap by now.”
“She was flash banged you moron, she can’t see shit.”
“Well… she managed to kill the others after that didn’t she?” Then the sound of someone being punched. She assumed it was the man who was arguing.
She slowly slid the pin out of one of her flash bangs, and held it tight as she cracked to door open and then tossed it inside as soon as she closed the door bullets started smashing their way through it. She thanked her father again for showing her how to do things properly, otherwise she would be full of holes twitching on the ground. The second she heard the flash bang go off she took a step out and kicked what was left of the door down it was a lot easier than she had expected, having been shot to pieces already. No one was there, they had probably retreated down the stairs. She started to follow slowly, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. One that wasn’t from being kicked repeatedly, it’s a good thing the stairs led straight into a hallway, they couldn’t flank her on either side. That helped the feeling a little but it still wasn’t better, she would have nowhere to hide once she hit the bottom. Luckily for her it seemed they had retreated farther down, at the very least around the corner, so she hugged the wall the was on the same side as the corner was and made her way slowly up the dark hallway. She had a small thought, it was too dark down here, with her vision the way it was she could barely see at all, how could she fight in this. Moving forward she kept her concentration on the corner ahead, her finger was hovering so close to the trigger it itched. The fear of what was waiting for her around that corner was mounting the closer she got she was maybe four feet away when a head peaked around the edge. Her shot was off before she even realized she had pulled the trigger. She heard the body crumple to the floor, she hoped it was the smarter of the two men she had heard through the door. There was at least one other man around this corner, and she doubted he was dumb enough to give her another easy shot like the last one. When she reached the corner, she took a deep breath and pivoted her body around it coming into the next hallway in a crouched firing position trying to minimize the hit size of her body. This hallway was empty as well, except for the man she had shot already. At the end of this hallway was another door. This one had a square hole cut in it about three quarters of the way up with a sliding metal plate in it. It was only about six feet from her. She took a few quick steps, her heart rate rising, she had to be close now. She heard a click about halfway down the hall and threw herself to the floor, she heard a rapid succession of thunking as several things hit the door in front of her. As she peered up towards the door she could see two dozen arrows either stuck in it or littering the floor in front of it. She had gotten careless and that had almost put an end to both of their lives. That is if the second man she had heard wasn’t already with Andrew, her heart began to race and she stood quickly she had to get to him. Because she stood so fast the rifle she had brought for him, when she knelt to pick it up she heard the whistling of another volley of arrows and them crashing into the door as well. She thanked the fates quickly that she was so clumsy sometimes and sprinted to the door, throwing it open and slamming it closed, her weapon was at the ready almost as quickly as it took her to take in the situation in this hallway. Running down both sides of the dark wide hallway were cells, metal bars running from the ceiling to the floor, from what she could see there wasn’t even a bench in any of them. Just the cold hard concrete, it was an odd moment to have the thought that, that had most definitely not been good for his back. But the thing that immediately caught her attention was the two men about half way down. Andrew, his clothes ripped and haggared, his face was swollen and body was bruised. He was bleeding from more places than she could count. The second was a man in the same white armor as the rest, his arm wrapped around the neck of the man she loved with a pistol to his head.
“If you want him to live…” The shot left her weapon before he could even begin to negotiate.
�Feel free to leave some friendly criticism, I know its not perfect, it is a rough draft. Also the next portion will be written by my best friend. As soon as its complete I will post it as well. We will continue to post them on a regular basis, if we get some decent feed back.
