Beautiful Crime ※ DogNut

five

Sitting in the front seat, Adelaide had a first-hand view of what was going on in front of her. She saw hundreds of kids desperately trying to run towards Lambeth Bridge to escape the fire but in all the chaos and confusion, some kids were going the wrong way or stopping in the middle of the road to look where to go.

Watching them, she couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty for being inside the safety of the truck while kids far younger than her were outside and left to fend for themselves. The truck was just about to make its way onto the bridge but came to a halt when the bridge was a chaotic mess of fleeing kids and abandoned cars.

Adelaide watched as David's boys forced kids to move cars while Ed tried to assemble a team to hold back sickos that were coming up the road behind them. Her fingertips glided over her gun as she watched the pandemonium unfold in front of her, unsure how she should react.

After watching David harass other kids, Adelaide knew she'd had enough of sitting back and watching the action from inside the safety of the truck.

"I've had enough of this shit," Adelaide muttered under her breath, grabbing her gun and opening the door. "Keep going, I'll catch you up!" Adelaide told Brooke and Justin, jumping out of the truck and slamming the door behind her. She ran through the confusing crowd of kids, being careful not to push anyone over as she ran towards Ed.

Ed turned to help a little girl but stopped when he saw Adelaide. "Addie! What the hell are you doing? Get back in the truck!"

Adelaide shook her head, taking more steps forward. "I want to help!"

"DogNut's going to kill me if you get hurt." Ed sighed, his hand rubbing over his face.

Adelaide stopped for a moment at his words. Had he made a deal with DogNut to ensure her survival? He must have done, DogNut basically admitted to her that he liked her and he didn't want anything bad to happen to her – it made sense that he would make a deal with Ed to make sure that Adelaide was unharmed. "Fuck him, he's not here! And I'm helping whether you like it or not."

Ed would've protested but he knew that there wasn't time for it – they needed to do something to fight against the sickos, and they needed to do it now. Ed ran towards the fighters, leaving Adelaide to help kids in the right direction to safety.

Deciding that now wasn't the time to argue, Adelaide reluctantly agreed before realizing the kids weren't as dumb as they seemed and actually knew where they were supposed to be going. Leaving the kids to find their own way to safety, Adelaide jumped on top of a cab to get a better view of what was happening; the fighters were losing and needed help quickly but nobody would help them. She looked down at the gun in her hands and it all became clear of what she needed to do.

Take a deep breath, Addie, drown out every other sound that's around you, they will do nothing but distract you. Just pretend it's a video game – you're not Adelaide anymore, you're Zoey from Left 4 Dead; and this is your final checkpoint before you can escape to the next level.

Focus on your target and squeeze the trigger.

Adelaide opened her eyes and gripped her gun tighter. "Everyone, get down!" she screamed, aiming her machine gun at the sickos in front of her. Ed repeated her words, making sure the kids were down before she started firing. Her aim wasn't perfect but she was able to hit a sicko with almost every single bullet that left the chamber. She heard someone screaming, it took her a while to realize that she was the one who was screaming, her throat hurting a little from how long and how loud she was screaming. Once the last bullet left her gun, there were at least twenty bodies of sickos with bullet holes in their heads, puss and blood seeping out of them.

Adelaide placed down her gun, jumping off the cab and ran to be beside Ed, almost completely breathless but forced herself to smile. "Did I do good, cap?"

Ed gave her a tired smile back, a hand resting on her shoulder. "You did good."

Their relief was short-lived as another wave of sickos came their way, causing the pair to look towards the small group of fighters. Adelaide pushed Ed towards the group. "Go! I'll catch you up, I just need to put this back."

Leaving Ed to face the sickos, Adelaide sprinted back to the truck, forcing the door open and throwing her gun inside before slamming the door shut again, assuring Brooke that she would return. Watching the truck slowly move on, she picked up a discarded sword from the ground, twirling it in her fingers before looking back up to the road ahead of her to see sickos slowly making their way towards her.

Taking a short breath, Adelaide began walking through the crowed of panicked kids, her eyes fixed on the small army of fighters trying to fight back against the sickos. Her walk slowly turned into a jog.

Then a run.

Then a sprint.

With a loud battle cry, Adelaide raised her sword and slammed it down into the chest of a mother, watching blood and puss seep out of the open wound in her chest. The mother let out a shriek and lunged at Adelaide, her nails scraping against Adelaide's cheek before she had a chance to duck. Growling, Adelaide raised her sword again and slashed at her neck before moving onto her head and finally defeating her.

Blowing a strand of hair out of her face, she looked up to see the familiar dark hair she had grown used to. DogNut. She couldn't help but smile a little when she saw him, her heart melting like butter on hot toast. "DogNut?"

At hearing his name from her lips, DogNut's head snapped up to see Adelaide. He couldn't stop his heart from skipping a beat inside his chest seeing her not only on the other side of the army of sickos but fighting – something he'd told Ed to keep her away from at all costs but it was clear she was too damn stubborn to listen to him. "Adelaide?"

Adelaide dropped her sword and ran towards DogNut, almost in tears, her hand reaching out to his. Just as her fingers were about to touch his, she was pushed back and fell backwards, hitting her head on the street below her with a little too much force for her liking.

Cringing at the pain, she forced herself to her feet and tried to fight her way through the crowd to get to DogNut. She realized that she didn't want to go with Brooke – she wanted to stay with DogNut. She also realized that the feelings she had for him were a hell of a lot stronger than anything else in her life, now she just needed to tell him.

But after the battle, of course.

She felt arms around her, pulling her backwards, towards the truck and away from DogNut. She tried to fight back and scream but nothing seemed to work, the arms around her weren't going to give up. Tears blurred her vision as she slowly stopped fighting and allowed the arms to force her back into the truck, her eyes fixed on DogNut's face.

The last thing she saw of DogNut and the rest of the group was the boat floating down the Thames before the van moved around the corner and she could no longer see him or the rest of the group.

END OF PART ONE...

Note

ADELAIDE WITH A MACHINE GUN IS MY FUCKING ASTHETIC – FUCKING SLAY ME MOM. I basically just had a whole load of Skrillex playing while I wrote this so that probably explains most of the badassery in this.

The next part will take place during The Fear (aka my death) and I can't wait for you guys to read it!

I know things aren't 100% correct in this but I'm tired and drunk on chocolate mousse and sushi so leaf me alone.