Death After Death (#2)

Chapter Forty-One

"There they are!" A guard boomed from the other end of a long corridor.

Max and the group hadn't made it very far before encountering The Brotherhood, who now stood before them, a six-strong armed hurdle, blocking their freedom.

Han backed up sharply, instinctively shoving Max and Dawson back around the corner they had just rounded. Bullets whizzed past their ears and embedded into the stone walls with a zipping crunch.

"Is there another way around?" Max spluttered desperately.

"This is our shortest route," Han replied. "If we turn back now, we could get stuck between two groups of them, then we really do have no chance."

"Give me a hand with this!" Dawson ordered, tearing a thick wooden table away from the wall to their right.

Max grabbed the table from the centre, and Han from the far side, heaving it towards the corner and their enemies before sliding it out into the open.

Bullets cascaded against the table top, splintering the wood devastatingly, but it just about held firm.

Dawson leapt forwards, ducking behind the relative safety of the table to the thumping chorus of metal versus wood. She poked her gun around the far edge of the table, firing blind shots back at the guards, causing them to retreat slightly.

Max and Han took their chance to follow Dawson's lead, storming around the corner and firing at the flustered guards who were now scurrying behind a wall of their own.

Max's bullets carved through the air, slamming into the leg of one guard as he was finding cover. His screams filled the corridor as the gunfire settled down.

Dawson thrust her hand forward in the direction of a nearby adjoining hallway, indicating that she was going to push them back. Max and Han rattled covering fire against the far wall, ensuring that the guards wouldn't be able to see, yet alone hit, the rushing Dawson.

Once she was in position, Max and Han ducked behind the table to reload, offering the guards the chance to take the upper hand, which they gleefully took.

One guard popped out from the safety of the stone wall, hammering the wooden table with bullets in an attempt to break it down. While his attention was fully on Max and Han, Dawson emerged from her hiding spot, popping a bullet between the man's eyes like an expert marksman.

The guard's neck snapped back, as blood spurted from his forehead and his lifeless body flopped to the ground with a soft thud.

Driven by rage and adrenaline, three of the remaining guards stormed down the corridor, firing as they went, but still unaware of Dawson's presence.

Max and Han could only desperately shimmy their way back around the corner as the table obliterated around them. Wooden shrapnel and metal bullets filled the air like a deadly hurricane, leaving them no chance to return fire.

The guards continued to push forward, as Dawson slowly backed into the shadows of her corridor, waiting patiently for her moment to strike, but painfully aware of the fact that every passing second could mean a bullet for one of her friends.

Finally the guards stampeded past the adjoining hallway, blissfully unaware of the impending carnage behind them, as Dawson emerged like a deadly assassin.

Dawson held the rifle up to her eye, dispatching the three guards with three brutal headshots. The stomping of boots and rattling of bullets instantly cut to silence.

Dawson breathed a sigh of relief, "Is everyone oka-"

Before she could even finish her question, one of the guards who had remained at the far end of the corridor fired a single bullet, which flew through the air towards the concerned Dawson.