Dead Days

Chapter 10

     Dale looked at me, his eyes saying he  was sorry. From over his shoulder his automatic rifle was being pointed into the hanger. Everyone stood still, the room was silent. So silent you could hear the breathing of every single person in the room.

     "Okay, shitheads," a deep Russian accented voice came from behind Dale. "You will all listen to me now. If you don't, well..." he butts the stock of the AR hard into the nape of Dales neck. He winces and falls to the ground holding the back of his neck. I take a step forward and the AR is trained on me in seconds. "Uh, uh, uh, mister, Stanley." The Russian says with a sneer.

     "Who are you and how the fuck do you know my name?" He completely ignores my question and turns his head to the left, eyeing Cassandra.

     "You sure have stirred up a lot of trouble." He walks over to her and Cassie. Cassie stands up and blocks the path to her mother. The Russian stops and looks her up and down. He slaps her. It happened so fast that I hardly seen his arm move. It was just a blur and Cassie was falling to the ground, her face red and blood dribbling from the corner of her mouth.

     Anger rises in me. I rush him. Without even looking at me he unholsters a pistol strapped to his thigh and fires. A stinging sensation flares on the right side of my face. I hold up a hand to it and blood is leaking from a graze wound. How the fuck? He didn't even glance at me.

"That's you're last warning, Jack." He warns, his accent starting to annoy the fuck out of me. Dale gets to his hands and knees, a knot starting to bulge from the back of his neck. The Russian grabs Cassandra by her hair. She whimpers, "now, before we were so rudely interrupted," he looks back at my with a familiar smile, the smile of a killer. "You're coming with me, all of you. If you resist, you will be killed. It's your choice."

"That's bullshit, you can't just come in here and tell us..." the guy that was screaming about the alarm is cut off by a gunshot. He stands there for a few seconds, his arm still raised in protest before he falls face first into the ground. Blood pooling from the gunshot he suffered to the head. The room goes wild, people scream and cower.

Two more gunshots go off, but into the ceiling. "Shut the fuck up and get outside. You have two minutes or another one of you is dying." I wipe the blood from my face and look towards Dale. He looks back and nods his head to the Russian while he has his back turned.

I mouth the words no and nod my head. Dale smiles, winks and charges towards the Russian. God dammit, Dale! I think to myself as I charge also, I can't let him do it on his own. Dale reaches the Russian and rips the holster from his thigh and throws it across the room. The Russian twists and turns until dropping an elbow into Dales back. Hard. I heard the vertebrae pop. Dale falls to the ground wincing. I wind my arm back to throw a hook as I'm closing the distance to the Russian. He looks at me and I swing. I hit him so hard it hurts my entire hand, his jaw dislocates and teeth in the back of his mouth comes loose.

Dale gets to his hands and knees once more. The Russian starts laughing, he looks at me and jerks his jaw. It snaps back into place with a loud pop, he spits the teeth at Dale. He grabs me by the back of the neck and uppercuts me in the stomach so fast I have absolutely no time to react. My vision blacks out for a few seconds as my feet lift from the ground. It felt like being stabbed by thousands of knives simultaneously. I double over holding my stomach, my vision slowly comes back to clarity. Holy shit.

The Russian knees Dale in the face and he falls onto his back. He struggles to get up but the Russian kicks him hard in the head. I stand up, the warrior inside giving me strength. I swing a left hook, he ducks, I send a right uppercut his way but he dodges. I try to straight jab him but he dodges to the left and counters with a strong right hook. The room begins to spin. Blood starts to fill my mouth.