Alcingeria

Chapter Two: The Heist

Chapter Two The Heist:

Monday June 21st 1690

There was the quiet murmur of our voices as we filed out of the door. Robert and Don took the lead while Macalister and I walked behind them.

"Redmond, Macalister, are you clear on the plan?" Asked Don.

"Crystal."

"Yes."

We continued walking through the woodlands, our destination set for Relin. I rehearsed the plan in my head.

We walked for a little while, probably an hour or so. I looked ahead and I saw Robert hold his hand up, signaling for us to halt. We all stopped walking and waited for Robert to give us an order. Robert then thrust his hand forward, pointing at something. I looked over his shoulder and saw the border guards through the trees. There were four of them sitting at the opening to a great wall that wound itself around the province of Relin. All of the big cities had walls around them, but there was a grand forest that was in between all of the provinces, in the middle of all of them. This grand forest spread for a few squared kilometers.

"Ready?" Robert hissed.

Everyone was silent with anticipation. The guards were fifteen feet away, through the break in the trees we could charge them and be over halfway to them before they even realized what was happening, let alone ready their firearms.

"On the count of three, we charge. Don't stop for anything." Robert cautioned.

Robert waited a few seconds.

"One."

I could feel everyone's anticipation building.

"Two."

I could see the border guards walking around their posts. Robert waited until he was sure they were to be caught off guard before calling it.

"Three!"

With that, the four of us charged out of the thicket. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my dagger. As I predicted, we were around seven feet into our charge when the guards turned to face us. They saw that we were hostile and they all took defensive positions, cocking their muskets and shouldering them.

The four of us each took on one of the guards. We had the advantage not only because of surprise, but because the muskets were long. We were able to wrench them out of their hands before, God forbid, they got a shot off.

My guard tried to pull his pistol rather than his sword, this gave me time to plunge my dagger into his gut. I heard the squelch of tearing skin and muscle as the steel blade of my knife sank into the man's stomach. I heard the man yell out on pain. I twisted the dagger, forcing the man to double over. He collapsed and blood was spilling from his open wound. The man was either dead or about to die. I felt no remorse for killing him, he was an obstacle in the way of our objective and he had to be removed. I had 'removed' plenty of obstacles in the way of an objective before, I was used to it.

I looked over and saw that the others were dealing with their opponents. Robert's was competent, having drawn his sword and was swiping and thrusting at him. Robert grabbed the musket off the ground, seeing how futile fighting a sword with a dagger was. The guard saw this and closed the distance between them, preventing him from readying the musket. In response to this, Robert flipped the musket sideways and used it to block the sword. Robert stepped back, baiting a wide swing out, where he used the musket like a bat and smacked the guard across the head, sending him reeling. Another few and the man was unconscious. From there, it was a simple matter to slit the man's throat and kill him.