Tale of The Broken Sword

Chapter Forty Four : A Given Chance

20th February, AD 2057

Advanced Research and Development Commission Headquarters

Downtown District, Detroit

I hunkered behind a crumbling wall. A trail of bullets wheezes past me, missing me by a fraction of an inch. Then, there was silence, only to be broken by a few shouts. I hurled my body behind a crumbling brick wall and stood there. An eerie silence falls over the battleground. Bursts of gunfire echoed from a distance, but I’m sure it wouldn’t stop any sooner. Then, several detonations puncture the stillness.

I held my breath, hoping that it would stop for a moment for me to dash out from here. Then, silence reigned again, as if they were luring me out. I turned to the other side of the wall and peered from the ragged edge of it. There was no one.

Satisfied, I quickly got up and dashed towards a corner. Someone screamed and they started shooting. It the corner is not an inch closer, I would be a goner. Now, I felt their presence. They’re converging on to my position. This place is not safe.

Then, a grenade flashed in front of them. Someone swears. And it’s nobody from my own side, but that doesn’t mean that I’m safe. Warren rushes past me, grabbing my arm and half-yanking me to the ground before I managed to regain my balanced and ran alongside him.

“You’d better move on,” Warren said, breathing heavily. “Got to get your head in the game.”

“Yeah,” I responded to him.

It was Training Session, a mandatory self-defence training course for the employees of the commission. According to the higher-ups, it was solely reserved for the wellbeing of their employees, just in case some smart guys wanted to take down a government building managed to even enter into it, and its also being used for people like us, who are constantly ordered to venture into the dangers of being outside of the city. Generally, it’s a type of training, a simulation during a battlefield and a full-blown war zone minus the casualties, unless one would consider loss of dignity counts in as a casualty.

I’m up to my ankles in sweat and pure frustration when I could be at home, sleeping and gleefully enjoying the day with any worries. I didn’t have any breakfast though, and it makes it harder for me to do things that kept me alive to this point.

Well, for indirectly being in countless types of encounter with dangerous people and various places that can be taken in as a battlefield, this training session would be an easy one.

That’s what I thought an hour ago. And I’m starting to regret saying it.

The whole ‘battlefield’ of building rubbles, buildings, countless brick and concrete walls, and a car park they’ve constructed was supposed to make things even more challenging, but I’m using it to hide away from potential dangers. It helped brought me up to this point, though, and I have no qualms about it.

We passed behind a massive boulder, and Warren slowly inching closer towards me, trying to get a view of what’s on the other side of the boulder. I slowly edged my head towards the side of the boulder, then a round of bullets hurled towards us.

“They’d found us!” I bellowed, drawing my arms closer to avoid become more of an easy target. “We’ve got to flank them!”

“Mind?” Warren pulls another flash grenade from his belt, and flipped its safety pin outwards. He waits for a few moments before tossing it across the boulder sides and landing in front of the attackers.

“Knock yourself out,” I said, before the grenade detonates, leaving the attackers’ vest inactive and sending them out of the battleground. “And with them gone, that makes this sector clear.”