Kingdom Gone

EXODUS

I heartily chewed my piece of the pizza.

Leather Jacket looked up at me from the couch, ice pack on his head. "You must be getting off on this."

I smirked, sitting down beside Circe on the couch opposite. "Even though I didn't deliver the finishing blow, yes I enjoyed that very much." I looked at Circe. "You've got skills, Lightning Gal, I'll give you that much."

Sam walked into the living room with her backpack, similar to Circe's, except her's has a Tricorp logo on the front. "I'm ready! Let's go."

I'm about to say something sarcastic when the hairs on my neck stand up. I closed my eyes, focusing my senses.

Kitchen's empty. Same with all the bedrooms and bathrooms. No one's in the four car garage either. I only heard four heartbeats: mine, Jason's, Sam's, and Circe's. What put me on high alert then?

That's when I heard it. Multiple engines coming up the street, heavy vehicles, probably armored. Shit.

I stood, jumping over the couch to the kitchen counter, donning my quiver, bow in hand. "We got company."

* * *

"How many?" I ask, assault rifle in hand as I peek through the windows.

"Five cars, each with 6 guys. All armed." Nijah already has an arrow knocked back, aimed at the door.

I see the armored SUVs park on the front lawn and driveway, dudes bearing shirts with blue skulls on the front piling out. Looks like they got LMGs. "Damnit."

"Friends of yours?" Circe asks, peeking out the window too.

"Probably not anymore, seeing as I bailed on the plasma rifle job to smuggle you out of the First Kingdom. Guess their gang got tipped off that I was in town."

Sam looks up from her phone. "We have another problem. Look."

She holds up her phone, the front page of the New Tokyo Times on fullscreen. The headline reads KINGDOM LEADERS AGREE TO SHUTDOWN HOLOTRAMS IN AN EFFORT TO DEMOBILIZE KIDNAPPER OF GOVERNOr'S DAUGHTER.

Not good.

"Guess you're dad's getting desperate, kid. What's our play, Mr. Bulletproof?"

I shake my head, weighing our options. "We need to get to the Eighth Kingdom. We're gonna have to cut across Lake Lake." I turn to Sam. "You and Circe head out the back and commandeer a boat. Nijah and I will hold them off and meet up in a few."

Nijah grabs my arm. "Did you forget about the Eighth Kingdom's private military? Funded by the rich and powerful who live there? If we come within ten miles of their shores we'll get blown out of the water."

I shrug her off. "We'll deal with that when the time comes. But right now it's our only option." I turn to the other two. "Go!"

They look at each other, then run down the hall, probably heading towards the garage. Nijah gives me a look.

"What?"

She shrugs, back against the door. "Nothing. Let's kill these fuckers."

* * *

"Jason! I know you're in there!"

I wait a few seconds, then open the window and slowly peek through. "Daveral! Hey buddy, what's happening? You aren't still pissed about the rifles are you?"

The leader of the Cobalt Skulls smiled about a fakely as I did. "We needed those guns, man. And now, because of you, I've had delay some of my. . . business ventures."

For a gang leader, he was surprisingly collected, and no doubt had big dreams. "Hey, look I'm sorry buddy, I really am. Something came up that I had to deal with."

He chuckled. "Yeah I seen the news, heard you kidnapped the Governor's daughter. So now I came to collect." I aims his light machine gun at me. "As in collect that reward money." I drop down, bullets tearing through the window, shredding the couch and chipping the kitchen counters. I look at Nijah and nod.

The Blind Avenger kicks open the door, releasing a volley of arrows at Daveral's guys, dropping three. The Cobalt Skulls take cover behind their cars, a few sprinting to the side of the house.

"I got these guys, go say hi to the ones trying to flank." Nijah says, shooting an arrow at Daveral before he ducks behind an SUV.

I vault over the couch, cutting through the kitchen to the balcony. In the distance I see Sam arguing with an old man at the end of the pier, pointing at his sailboat while Circe looks back at me, probably with a worried expression. I walk over to the edge and look down, seeing four guys creep around the side of the house.

"Justice!" I yell as I vault the railing, landing on top of the guy in the front. I kip up and bat the end of the next guy's gun away, roundhousing him in his chest. All the air in his lungs comes out as an oof! as he flies into the third gang member. The last one raises a pistol and fires, his bullets dinking off my jacket. He stares in horror as I laugh, then tries to run away but I quickly catch him and slam his head against the side of the house until his knees buckle and ends up on the ground with the rest.

I suddenly hear a huge crash inside the house, then see Nijah run out the back door, firing an arrow inside, turning to me. "They just drove through the front of the fuckin' house. It's time to go."

I nod and sprint with her across the lawn, down the beach, and along the pier. Sam's still arguing with the old man, so I pull out my sidearm and point it at his head. Without another word he let's us on, and soon we're sailing away from shore.

Sam gasps, pointing back to shore. We all look back and see her mansion go up in flames, gang members staring at us from the beach. I put my hand on her shoulder. "You have insurance. It'll be okay, Sam."

She nods, still staring back until we could no longer see the shore.