Into the Shadows

Chapter 5

Mazo POV

Six against two huh. Looked like it was going to be a fun fight. Dawn had already taken care of four. My arm was in an immense amount of pain and I was barely able to stand on both of my feet. There was no way I was going back to prison. Either these guys were going to die, or I'd be the one the vultures would pick apart. 

"You got my back right," Dawn said while scanning the remaining figures, looking for an opportunity to strike.

I let out a weak retort, "When have I never had your back." 

"6 times... the last time being when you were supposed to catch me when I jumped off a radar tower and you said you were at the bottom."

I shifted my attention to the figure closest to my right. "That time does not count... you forgot you harpoon for your gun"

As if taking that as a sign of weakness, one of the figures jumped out and began to attack, "You are such a dumbass. I shot the harpoon at the guy who was about to kill you. And then when I jumped you were below the wrong tower and I fell 75 feet." She grunted as she knocked back her attacker.

Two more guys to my left jumped in and took an opportunity to swing at me. I got my bad arm up just in time to block their strikes. "Maybe if you jumped farther I would have caught you." I grunted while holding in sheer amounts of pain. 

I took the opportunity to pull out my knife and slice one of them across the forearm. Their blood gushed out and it looked like I had cut an artery. Just had to wait him out until he died of blood loss. However, my reaction time was too slow and the second guy took his moment to land a severe blow to my stomach. I folded to the ground and begin to cough up blood. I took four more punches to my jaw and pretty soon I could barely see anything but red. Ready to take another punch, I saw a shadow from out the corner of my bloody right eye take down my attacker.

"You still have yet to learn that blocking with your face doesn't work." I could hear Dawn's voice laughing at me between the ringing in my ears. My face hurt like hell and my nose was gushing blood. My left eye was swollen shut and I struggled to stand to my feet. Every breath felt heavy and more painful than the last. I managed to see through the blood covering my eye and noticed that we were alone... well as alone as one could be with a few dead bodies. 

I coughed up what little words I could, "What happened... to the... rest of them..." There were 7 bodies, but I definitely remembered there being more than that.

Dawn took off her shirt and cut it into 3 pieces. My eyes widened as I tried to get a sneak peak at what I could. She scoffed and lighted tapped me on the shoulder. She wrapped one around the cut on my leg, she used another as a sling for my bad arm, and the third she wiped as much blood off my face as she could and had me keep pressure on my nose. 

"I took care of a few, and the rest finally decided they had enough, especially the one that broke that pretty face of yours. I don't know how you are ever going to repair it." She found my pain amusing since I always seem to be in it. However, her expression quickly grows cold as ice and her voice is quiet but pierces through my skin. "And when we get back, you are going to tell me what the hell you were doing out here by yourself and why all these men were trying to kill you, and also why the fuck are you wearing a stripper outfit." Her voice started to return back to normal during those last few words.

"I promise I will explain everything when we get back to the hideout. But for now I think we both need to get a chance of clothes and get out of here. Oh... and thank you for saving my ass out there. I owe you one big time." I say as I pull off one of the cloaks from the mysterious figures. "Here. Now grab one of these and lets get out of here. The streets will be flooded with guards any minute now."

She takes her own cloak and is now hiding that skinny toned body of hers once again. "You owe me more than that hotshot. I'm just glad we were in the bar across the street when the commotion started.

"Are you fucking serious... the bar across the street" I said in disbelief.

"Yes dumbass! And I was meeting with a very important client about some very crucial information and they are now nowhere to be seen thanks to you." She lightly smacked me upside the head as we walk away from the scene.

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I spent the next hour apologizing between the quiet time we spent in the shadows trying to make our way home. Well home was an understatement, it was more of a hole in the wall that had some secret underground compartments and that is where we stayed. We did not want to make our way to the Creed's outpost because there was no way my legs were going to make it. I spent the last half mile clinging onto Dawn's shoulder just trying to stand upright.

We finally made it back to the place we called home and slid underground. There were four cots and not much space but we made due with what we had. Dawn dragged our things to the corner of the room before helping me onto one of the cots. She brought over some fresh bandages for the ones I had already soaked in blood. She gave me a cloth and told me to bite down hard. She pulled out some old whiskey in the corner and took a swig before drenching my injuries with it. My body began to shake from the pain and I screamed into that cloth wishing the pain would go away. 

She continued to hold me down as I tried to claw away, "You have lost a lot of blood Mazo. I'm worried you won't survive long without proper medical attention. We need to get you to a hospital or the Creed and I already know what you are going to say and the answer is no. We are not going to see him. You know what happened the last time we met up with him for an emergency... it meant me busting you out of a detention facility and having to erase you from the database."

I tried to lean up against the wall in my cot but the pain was too great and I hissed out in pain. "Yeah I know, but he can really help us and he is my best shot at surviving this whole ideal." I looked down at the blood already starting to pool on my clothes and sheets. "If he can't help me then no one can."

Dawn stared right into my eyes before letting out a sigh. "I swear this is going to be the death of us. We will do this but you need to get some rest for a couple of hours because you can barely walk and the guards are still on high alert. I'll stay up and wake you when it's safe to go."

I nodded in thanks and laid back on my cot. Exhaustion overtook me and I quickly fell asleep.