Operation PHOENIX

Armed and Ready

After about 15 mins, I saw Kiara come out of the kitchen with 3 cups of coffee. She passed one to me and crashed on the couch next to me. She had mischief in her eyes, but before I could ask anything, she interrupted me. "So how did the green dress work out," she started giggling. I finally realized what she was trying to do. As much as I wanted her to set me up with Serena, it was not a good idea. I can't afford to have any distractions. It can very well cloud my judgement. Not that I have prior experiences regarding these things, but even a trained assassin like Ezio Auditore got distracted by Sofia.

I came to my senses when I saw Serena walk into the living room, now in black denims and a red top. Damn, this woman is a goddess. How can someone look so good in everything. She was looking a bit confused. I enquired if something bothered her. "Actually I just checked the corpses and found something strange." Kiara's face drained at her parents being referred to as corpses. Serena continued, "Its been more than a day since their deaths and the bodies are not decomposing. Normally, the whole house would have been stinking by now." I knew there was something weird, but didn't everything about the situation qualify as weird?

We were all packed up and ready to leave. I gave each of the girls a knife and kept one for myself. "If we really want to survive, I think we should get some real weapons," suggested Kiara. We agreed and I googled the nearest arms store. There was an arms store just a mile down the road. We stepped out onto the street and we started walking down the road. I led the way while the girls flanked me. It was just like a scene from Call Of Duty, with knives instead of guns.

As we reached the arms store, I realized how we humans neglect the things that do not concern us. I must have driven past this road like a million times before, but I never knew that there was an arms store here. It was a large shop with "GUERRERO ARMS & AMMUNITION" written on the billboard. It was wide open like all the other shops in the city. We did not need to break into it. We entered the store, still in our battle formation, and found the owner lying lifeless behind the counter. I checked the remaining store for hostiles and relaxed when it was clear.

The girls started to look around while I started to search the cabinets on the left. I found her in the 3rd cabinet, just sitting there in all her glory. I couldn't move for a few seconds. I gripped the handle in my right hand and gently took it out of the cabinet. I slowly pulled it out of the sheath. The dim light in the store reflected off the metal and the blade shone like a thousand stars twinkling in sync. It was neither too heavy nor too light, the balance was just perfect. I observed the blade carefully, the different layers of steel folded over each other in a beautiful pattern. It was not just an ordinary weapon, it was an exquisite piece of art. It was the Katana, the love of my life.

"OK, that is beautiful; but aren't we here for guns and stuff?" asked Serena. "Nope, guns make too much noise. They will just attract more of those 'things'. We will have to stick with traditional weaponry," I explained. I gave them both short swords from the previous cabinet, like the one Christian Bale used in Exodus: Gods and Kings. While they were examining their weapons, I searched the other cabinets for something useful. I found a few pistols and ammo in the next cabinet and took one for each of us, just in case.

Just when we were about to leave, something caught my eye. I opened the right cabinet and found a bow and 5 arrows in it. It was a simple bow, no carvings and no designs. But it still looked beautiful. I was contemplating taking it with me, as it would be extra weight. But it could be useful in emergency situation. I went with instinct and slung it around my shoulder. We were armed and ready for battle.