Gunpoint Avenue

Chapter 34: Blackout

"i dɔn tek wan awa. Seni en Mista Graves no kam bak yet. Wetin dɛn de du? (It has been one hour. Seni and Mr. Graves are not back yet. What are they doing?)" My mother says in frustration.

I do agree with her, what are they doing? What is taking them so long? We have not heard anything from upstairs; no gunshots, no talking, and no footsteps.

I do not know if they stopped the shooter or if something worse happened. I do not want to think about the negatives, I have experienced too much negativity. All I want to know is if Seni is doing alright. Besides my family, she is the person I care about the most. I hope that the shooter did not kill her. If she dies, my heart will never be fixed. I trained her and treated her like she is my sister. She is family to me.

I hope Agent Graves did not lead her to her demise. I still find it suspicious that Agent Snipe would invite him back to World of Agents without any training again. Plus, I feel like he is trying too hard to get involved and look like the hero. His old habits have not died since he was trying to make Seni and me look incompetent. I do not trust him whatsoever.

But I need to stay optimistic. Maybe, he stopped the shooter and saved the day. Or maybe, Seni and he are coming up with a plan to stop the shooter. Honestly, anything can be happening upstairs.

"wetin wi fɔ du? Wi nɔ go ebul fɔ de na di bɛsin fɔ lɔng tɛm de wet. Wi nid fɔ go ɔp di os ɛn si wetin de apin. (What should we do? We can not be staying in the basement for hours waiting. We need to go upstairs and see what is going on.)" My father gets antsy. It is odd hearing my father speaking the Sierra Leone Krio language. He was born and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone, so he knows how to speak the language. But usually, my mother is the one that speaks the language the most out of our family. But things get serious when the rest of my family speaks the language.

"a de angri. I dɔn te naw a nɔ it ɛnitin. A kin fil taya ɛn a kin wik. (I am starving. I have not eaten anything for a long time now. I feel tired and weak.)" Amie cries, seeing my little sister cry breaks my heart.

"aw wi ol go opstayd en stop dis shota? (How about we all go upstairs and stop this shooter?)" Kadie suggests. That is the worst idea ever. It is dangerous for my family members to stop the shooter. I do not want to see any of them hurt or killed. I do not want to see more children getting hurt.

"yu de trai fo mek dem kil wi? (Are you trying to get us killed?)" Yamba asks, shocked that she would even suggest such a thing.

"a no se i denja, ba wan shota de en seven pipul de na di behsment. Wi kin izi fɔ tek dis pɔsin we de shot dɔŋ as wan yunit. (I know it is dangerous, but there is one shooter and there are seven people in the basement. We could easily take this shooter down as a unit.)" Kadie says, trying to convince everyone to side with her.

"a geht wetin yu min, ba dat no go wok at ol (I get what you mean, but that will not work at all.)" I tell her.

"How so?" She asks.

"wi nɔ gɛt ɛni clue if na wan pɔsin nɔmɔ de shot. Sɔntɛm mɔ pipul dɛn go de we de lurk. As pɔsin we bin de spay trade, i denja fɔ tek ɛnitin. Wi nid fɔ no ɔl di ditil dɛn fɔs bifo wi strik. Plus, a no mi famili memba dem geht involv wit di akshon. A nɔ want mɔ pikin dɛn fɔ gɛt bad bad tin igen. A gladi se Julian in pikin sef ɛn a want mek una ɔl de sef bak. (We have no clue if there is only one shooter. There might be more lurking. As a former spy, it is dangerous assuming anything. We need to know all the details first before striking. Plus, I do not my family members to get involved with the action. I especially do not want any more children getting hurt. I am thankful that Julian's child is safe and I want you all to stay safe as well.)" I tell them.

"wɛl, wetin wi fɔ du da tɛm de? Wi nɔ go jɔs ebul fɔ de ya sote go. (Well, what should we do then? We can not just stay here forever.)" She asks.

"a go go opstayd bai mi sef en chek wetin de go. If i tan lɛk se ɔltin sef, a go mek una ɔl kam ɔp. If a nɔ kam bak fɔ pas wan awa, kɔmɔt na di os tru di bɛsin domɔt ɛn go fa frɔm ya. Kɔl di lokal polis dipatmɛnt fɔ sɛn ɛp na dis os. Dɔn gɛt am? (I will go upstairs by myself and check what is going on. If everything seems safe, I will let you all come upstairs. If I do not come back for more than an hour, leave the house through the basement door and get far away from here. Call the local police department to send help to this house. Got it?)" I ask if they understood what I am telling them.

"Yes," they said, besides Julian's son, he stayed silent.

"tek tɛm! (Stay safe!)" My mother tells me as everyone except Julian's child hugs me. It is upsetting that he is not hugging me, but I do not blame the child, I did kill his father. So he holds a lot of resentment towards me. It is sad, but I can not do anything right now to fix it. I need to see what is going on upstairs. They stopped hugging me and I headed upstairs.

I walk carefully up the stairs so that the shooter can not hear my footsteps. I pull out my gun, holding it tightly. I made it next to the door. I pray to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit real quick.

"Dear God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit... Whatever happens to me after I open this door, make sure that Seni, my family, Julian's child, and all the spies do not get hurt or die. I suffered way too much in my life and do not want more bloodshed on my hands. Keep me safe as well. All I want is to stop this shooter and stop the person putting my life through hell. Protect me! In the way, I praise your holy names, amen!" I prayed to myself silently.

I am ready to open this door now. I open it slowly, peeking through the open space to see if there is anyone there. All I see is a lot of bullet marks, blood, and items destroyed. They messed up this house.

I open the door fully and step into the living room. Closing the basement door behind me, so that my family and the child can be safe.

"Is anyone in the living room, kitchen, upstairs, or outside?" I ask, talking through the walkie-talkie. No one answered and I hear no other walkie-talkie echoes.

This is strange that no one is answering. Just an hour ago, there was a lot of gunfire and action happening. Now, there is no one in sight. I have to do more searching because I refuse to believe that everyone magically disappeared.

I carefully check the living room and kitchen to see if any spies are hiding, I even check the bathroom. There is no one in the living room or kitchen. I check outside and the only person I see is Agent Leon's dead body. Just seeing his body rot is making me sick and sad. I wish I could take his dead body to the hospital or somewhere else to bury him, but there's still a shooter out there.

I head upstairs to check every room. There is no one upstairs. I am getting frustrated and worried. Where did everyone go? I doubt that the shooter killed all the agents because there were a lot of them with weapons. I doubt that the agents left because no agent should leave without letting everyone know. So where could they all have gone to?

I have not checked the backyard yet. Can not believe I almost forgot about that. I head to the backyard door. Before I could open the door, I see a reflection of a person wearing a black mask behind me. I was about to strike until everything went black.