The Clandestine

D-Day

Ears deafened by the explosion and smoke infused lungs, a pool of blood collected under her back. There were one of two things coming her way. Either an ambulance or to put it subtly, death. 

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Ari woke up to her 4 y/o Labrador licking her face. Oscar's paw dug into her shoulders as his happy tail kept hitting the pillow beside him. That tail was known for its rather notorious demeanor of knocking over lamps and whiskey glasses. Ari spent the rest of her afternoon sipping green tea by her windowsill, watching people on the street or the ones strutting in and out of her 7-storey apartment building. She could hear the faint sound of her parents conversing over politics, war and the slow downfall of the world. 

The gloomy weather took over what started as a warm sunny day. Ari succumbed to her desire to sleep and took a midday nap. Her blissful sleep was interrupted by a sound resembling the crack of thunder. She jerked awake, thinking she imagined it. But then she heard it again; bolts of lightning piercing through the sky. Only it wasn't that. Ari could recognize that sound anywhere. After all, she'd spent over a year at the gun range, feeding her fascination of firepower. It was the sound of a fully automatic AK-9 assault rifle with Russian origin. In a frenzy, she bolted out of her room to find her parents. "Stay put", she told her father as she walked to the main door. The ricochet of the bullets got louder as she opened the door, trying to comprehend the situation. The sound of her parents calling her back inside was drowned out by the ear-splitting screams of the residents in the building. Utter chaos was unraveling, people running, children wailing. Ari realized the next door dog only quit barking when a bullet went through his body, leaving his pristine white coat of fur tainted with blood. With panic stricken eyes, Ari ran from that sight to the staircase that twirled through the length of the building. Standing on the fourth floor, she looked upwards and saw debris falling from above. 

After a keyboard was flung down, then came the young guy who lived in 6B, thrown right over the banister.  She let out a horrified scream as he fell before her eyes and landed with a splat. She leaned over to have a look but regretted it the second after she did. Not because of the mangled body or the pool of blood under his face but because of the rifle pointed right at her. 

A tall burly man in a black suit adorned with a bald head stood on the third level, his rifle all but a few meters away from her face. Her eyes widened in fear and the next 60 seconds ensued in slow motion. Her body turned slower than she would have liked it to. The big man let his hand linger over the trigger but pulled it a second too late. Ari ducked and ran towards the wall away from the staircase. But the man didn't entirely miss. The bullet grazed her arm and tore through the ceiling instead of her flesh. She felt the blood trickle down her elbow, staining her Iron Maiden t-shirt. She whizzed through the hallway amidst the shots fired her way, back through the door she came from. Her parents were ridden with hysteria in those 3 minutes she was outside. 

"We're locked in, the men with guns have taken over the building. We're going to have to find another way out." Ari said with exasperation. "What about the fire escape?" her dad suggested.

He was right, they hadn't blocked that. 

Ari heard yelling outside the apartment door. 

"Nyati yego!" a man with a raspy voice yelled out. ordering his men. 

Now, Ari dabbled with a little Russian because her instructor at the gun range was from Moscow. He'd yell at her when she'd miss an easy shot and in her time there, she picked up a lot of the foreign language that enthralled her. What he said meant 'Find him'.