Dusk is up at seven the next morning with the other trainees.
She's paired up with Ida this time when they spar, and she lets herself get knocked down and beat up too many times to count, but she gets up again and again.
"You're pretty stubborn," Ida comments, lashing out at Dusk's head.
Dusk barely sidesteps and wipes blood from her mouth. "I need to be to fight you."
Ida laughs and punches her again, throwing her down. Dusk slowly rolls up to her feet and kicks out at the other girl. Ida doesn't expect it and Dusk hits her in the stomach.
She stumbles back with an oof. "Dang! You got power!"
Dusk snorts. "Thanks." She grabs a cloth from the chair and wipes her face and hands. "You done?"
"Yeah." Ida grabs the second cloth and steps out of the ring. "See you at dinner."
Dusk waits until she's gone, then hurls herself at the punching bag, letting out all her pent-up energy.
After ten minutes of killing the bag, she stops and cleans herself up at the sink, then exits the gym.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Get up! Get up! Emergency at stakeout 240!"
The cry rings in Dusk's ears and she's instantly wide awake, throwing on a fresh T-shirt and running out of the barracks. "What's going on?" she shouts.
Ida runs passed her. "Fire at stakeout!" Then she's gone.
The stake out that she'd been to yesterday? Dusk doesn't know the answer as she finds Jason in the crowd and fights her way to his side. "What the heck is happening?" she demands.
"Some idiots from one of our rival gangs thought it would be a good idea to burn the building down with the info inside." He throws her the rifle she'd used yesterday and she catches it, slipping it over her shoulder. "We have to go there, now!"
She just nods and follows him as he runs through the halls. So it is the building they'd been to yesterday. They burst through the doors and out into the night. It's two or three in the morning. They run all the way. Dusk starts to hear the roar of the flames and then there's an orange apocalyptic glow in the air and on the buildings around them. The roar gets louder and the air's getting hot and dry. They round a corner and she's met with a crazy sight. The big building is completely engulfed in flames, the roar almost unbearable, ash flying everywhere, and smoke rising in a swirling spiral into the sky. There's no one in sight.
"Get it out!" Jason's shouting, wildly pointing at the building. "Save the information box!"
"But boss! It's gone, there's no way..."
Jason whirls on the guy. "Do as I say! We cannot lose that box!"
The guy gulps and the whole group runs toward the building. The heat is unbearable, there really is no way they can get to the information. Dusk could go in, she has high pain tolerance and she's been trained to hold her breath for a long time but...
Suddenly, there's a shot and one of the Guttermouth gangsters falls-Grimmy, she thinks. Jason gives a surprised shout and the whole group scatters like a pack of frightened sheep.
Dusk closes her eyes, instantly recognizing the report of the gun that just fired. Deadline. She quickly retreats, the Guttermouthers too occupied to notice, taking the rifle with her to the nearest rooftop. She scrambles up the fire escape and positions herself on the edge, looking down.
Some of the gangsters are hiding in the shadow of a building not in flames, others stand frozen in shock. There are more shots and the quick pop-pop-pop of machine gun fire. More figures fall.
Dusk scans around and sees him, the person who fired the weapon. Shade. He's kneeling in an alley, scoping through his sniper rifle. There's a girl next to him Dusk doesn't recognize, a new Deadline member apparently. Does she know what life she's getting into?
Shade takes out another gangster with a shot through the throat. Then he's on the move, sneaking across the open space to another corner. There's a shot and it hits Shade along the arm and rage boils up in Dusk. She swings the rifle around and looks through the scope, searching for the source of the shot that injured Shade.
Jason.
She clenches her jaw and fires without hesitation, hitting him in the chest. He goes down. Dusk glances at Shade and she sees him swing around to look at the roof she's on. She jerks away from the edge. He can't see her, not yet. She has to get back.
She shimmies back down the ladder and rejoins the Guttermouthers on the ground, in a dark alley a ways away from the burning. There are only three left, not counting herself. Ida, and two other guys she doesn't know.
"Where's Jason?" Ida demands, looking around at them.
Dusk shakes her head. "He's dead. He got shot." She puts a stricken look on her face and looks down at the pavement.
Ida stares at her for a long moment, then turns on her heel and they go home, nothing else to be done. Guttermouth failed.
YOU ARE READING
Nocturnal Gale
Action"Ow," Dusk complains, picking herself up and brushing her hair out of her eyes. Jason is good, and he's not holding back. "Oh come on," he taunts, "That didn't even hurt." "Easy for you to say," she gripes, stepping up again. She mirrors his raise...
