The Second Brotherhood

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

He walked forward, flashlight shining. The bright beam made the muck glint. I checked my gauntlets. If he tried a run for it, I could use my wrist-mounted blades and stab him, although the chances of that attack being successful were about 50/50. I tactically evaluated my decisions, believing that I had made the right ones. The man still looked like I'd scared the living @#!*% out of him, which I decided should be normal, as it had been 20 minutes ago when I'd slammed him into that chair. His eyes always came back to me. He noticed my strange gauntlets and the hooded sweater, giving myself mystery. Obviously he didn't know what to think about me, so he was scared.

"What's the matter, Hadrian?" I asked as if I were a concerned friend.

"Nothing," he responded irritated.

The sewer we were trudging through went back to tense silence, aside from the dripping of water and the noises of the mud. As we began to reach dry areas, our footsteps were less of splashes and more of crunches. That was the time Hadrian decided to run.

He turned unexpectedly and broke into a furious sprint. His legs pumped, their length helping him to run faster. I sighed. Hadn't he learned by now that I would catch up in a matter of seconds? Apparently not. So, I ran after him. Hadrian made it about 50 feet in the amount of time I let him run. He was quick, but I, as always, was quicker. As he attempted to make it to the ladder, I jumped on him, knocking him on his face. He fell down with a screech of pain as I landed on him. The air left his lungs. I let him stand. He drew a knife and attacked.

His blows were practiced like that of a professional knife-fighter. He stabbed upward. I dodged with total ease. Then everything seemed to slow down for a moment. I had needed to figure out how to defeat him without killing him. I knew now.

I grabbed his bicep and wrist and threw him towards the wall. Yet another bad experience for the man. I punched him hard in the spine as he attempted to rise. He fell, subordinate. The knife clattered to the floor and I picked it up. At this point, Hanna had caught up to the two of us, so I threw it to her.

"Another knife," I said. "Time for me to search him."

After the search, we had come up with 3 knives, two new hidden blades, and a single, integrally suppressed handgun. I looked at Hanna, who was still holding her grudge. Her face wasn't red anymore, but I could tell she was angrier than the God of the Pit, Tartarus himself. I slugged him hard. He fell back, breath knocked away. "Now answer me this, you pitiful fool. Why were you carrying these?" I gestured toward the hidden blades.

"They were used by the leader of the Brotherhood of Life," he wheezed. "He is considered an international terrorist, so I killed him. These are his."

"YOU SON OF A @#!*% !" I raged. That had been the one person I could ever relate to, and the only Brotherhood member I could trust, and this puny man had killed him.

"Believe what you want, but deep down we both know that son of a @#!*% deserved it. He was a terrorist, and so are you. If you hadn't caught me off guard I would've captured both you and your @#!*% ."

I delivered another punch to his arm. "AUDITORE WAS A GREAT MAN!"

"That barely human beast was a swine! He never deserved these blades." At that, I punched him hard to knock him out. I totally disarmed Hadrian. Now I turned to the Grandmaster's blades. I was unworthy of these, but I knew someone who was.

"Hanna, I think I owe you for putting up with my arrogance. Here. Take these." I tossed her the wristblades. She stared in awe at them.

"For me? You're giving me your comrade's blades?" she asked.

"Yes," I told her. "I will teach you to use them, have no fear." She grinned ear to ear, that old grin I remembered so well.

I smiled back and said "We need to wake him up. Do you have any smelling salts?"

"Yes." Hanna said, and retrieved them from her backpack. I put the smelling salts under his nose, and he woke with a start. His face was red with anger.

"Terrorist!" he screeched. I hit him again. He stopped screeching.

"Now, Mister Lecter," I told him in a stern voice, "You may lead on."

After about another two minutes, we found the stash. I was an old maintenance crew room, full of guns, food, swords, axes; anything we would want.

"Hanna. Get weapons. I'll get the food." She nodded, and jogged over to the weapon wall.

We looted. Hanna came back with a tomahawk, a cavalry saber, and two semi-auto rifles with a lot of ammo. I held the weapons. Tested them. The  saber felt better in my hand than the unbalanced axe. "You take the tomahawk, I'll take the saber. We'll leave the rifles. I've got maybe 2 weeks' worth of food. C'mon. Let's get out of here before..."

A bullet whizzed over my head. I fired my own handgun, taking down my assailant. The shooter fell with a screech. Then I heard the moans. "Get ready, Hanna," I muttered. "Here we go again..."