The Resistance

Chapter-12

For a moment I was back in the BMX fighting my way out of the place. I let the memories take over me as I explained what had happened. I had developed a plan. 

I trusted Rachel to take out the power supply. Then we parted ways. I went to the fourth floor, the next floor. The fourth floor was a food court. The shopping part was widened and it was filled with food stalls. There was a huge area for tables and chairs. The end Aisle-4 was more or less useless and it only served as a passage way from the gaming area which occupied the super complex to the food court. The shopping part was surrounded on one side with railing, the side which overlooked the main aisle on the ground floor. Directly beneath it was the shopping part of the third floor-Macy.

I reached the food court. Oddly, I wasn't afraid anymore. Though the adrenaline kept pumping in my veins, probably due to excitement. The people were sitting on the stairway leading to the gaming complex. There I spotted George.

George with his blazing red hair and porcelain skin sat there, hands tightly clutching his hair. That gave me a moral boost. I held my rifle tightly and kept counting time. At the end of the countdown, the lights would go out. I had 52 seconds left.

I looked around me, surveying every detail that might give me an advantage. The plan needed to be perfectly executed. I absorbed in the number of the soldiers and their positions. I devised tactical positions to strike them down before reinforcements arrived from the other floors. All in 52 seconds. 

Three...Two...One...Zero, I almost leapt into action. But I realized that the lights were on. My heart skipped a beat and my breathing heaved. Had Rachel failed? Then after the longest five seconds of my life, the whole floor went dark. I wasted a second getting dazed.

Now came the time for bending human reflexes. I lifted my Glock and shot the nearest soldier. I didn't need to see because their positions had been imprinted in my mind. As I did so I gave a shout to attract attention. Then slowly I crept away from the body as other soldiers came rushing to sound. I hid behind a cashier's desk.

By the sound of the footsteps I deduced that five soldiers were currently running towards him. I deduced the directions by imagining the marked soldiers' places. Then I took out my rifle and ran towards the body.

Any human would assume that when a person killed another person he would run away from the victim. I took that to my advantage. As I ran towards him, they would assume me to be another soldier rushing in to aid. I went there and shouted, "What happened?"

Someone replied, "I don't know. He was shot." Then I went to the crowd sitting on the steps. There was a lot of whispering around. I remembered George's position. I walked up to him and removed helmet. Then I whispered in his ears, "George, don't ask any questions. I'm Jason and I need your help."

George said with bewilderment, "Jason?! What are you doing here?"

"No time to explain. Follow my lead."

I handed him a handgun. "What? I cannot shoot!" he managed.

"You don't have to unless things go south. Better have it and not need it, eh?" I said with a smile. He looked at me with a puzzling expression but nodded. 

The advantage of the 'killing a person and then shouting-distraction' was that the people would accumulate around him, enabling us to take down most of them in a single place. I aimed my rifle and closed my eyes. I imagined the position of the soldiers by their sounds, adjusting my aim accordingly. Then I said, "Hold on to my belt."

Then I pulled the trigger. I used the very faint shilloutte of the soldiers to figure out their movement and kept shooting. The sounds of bodies hitting the floor confirmed that the bullets were finding their mark.