The Herd

Chapter 5

P.O.V. Antonio
It was 8:36pm and there I was, driving a small delivery truck through the city. In the back, Kap jammed to his radio with his dog and James in his get-away vehicle. I was up here, trying to cut off another truck. So boring. I guess I couldn't complain, considering my mission was going to get a lot more important.
When I made it to a "T" in the road, I parked, boarding off both sides. I leaned back and waited. The buildings around were dark and quiet. No lights were on inside, and no noise were coming from any of them. Just the distant sounds of cars in traffic and the wind.
I shut off the lights of the truck, letting the darkness shroud us. The only lights are from the stars, and the distant parts of the city that weren't asleep. The lamppost closest to us was shattered and broken. No light to offer.
     "Waiting for the truck." I said as I pushed the button on my earpiece.
     "Good. He should be there in a few minutes." Noah replied in my ear.
I wasn't currently wearing much. Just jeans, a pair of reading glasses, and a sleeveless tee, along with a bullet proof vest, but I didn't have much of anything else. Noah wouldn't even let me bring a gun. Something about being less conspicuous. Not that I don't know what that means, I just didn't see the point.
I propped my feet on the dash, and started to play games on my phone. Didn't have much of anything else to do while I waited. I was alone with my thoughts. Dark place, I'll tell you that. Not as dark as someone like Noah, or Kap's though.
It was a minute or so until Kap himself called to me over comms.
     "Hey, what's the hold up?" He said. "Where we at?" I could hear his music in the background.
     "Still waiting on the damned truck."
Before I could get a respond the opposing truck stopped by our side, unable to get by. "Finally." I mutter to myself. I quickly told Kap to tell James to come out.
"Hey!" The driver dropped out of his vehicle. I opened my door and stepped out as well. After walking around the truck, I rose my hand and waved.
     "Hi, sir." I said. Conspicuous. Whatever. I could fake out any dumbass in this city and still have a gun bulging from the side of my pants.
     "What's the meaning of this?" He said. He walked over to our truck and looked up and down at it. "This to 122 Brocket Streer?" He asked, naming the address of the warehouse. "I'm supposed to be making this delivery."
     "Sorry for the inconvenience." I said, keeping my smile on him.
     "Inconvenience my ass. You're gonna get a real-" His head suddenly smacked against the metal of the truck and he crumbled to the ground. James stood behind him patting off his hands.
     "Nice." I said.
     "Thanks." James said as he picked up the delivery guy.
     After we propped him up in the passengers seat of his truck, I unbuttoned his shirt and threw it on over my vest. His name tag read: "Johnson"
     "Better get goin', John." James said as he climbed into the drivers seat. "Don't want to be to late."
     "Yeah yeah." I said climbing down from the truck and shutting the door. I ran over to my vehicle and climbed inside. I reversed until the road was clear and James could drive by. I followed him up until he made a left, away from our destination. He was taking the truck and it's supplies to the house, and prep the driver for... uh... "interrogation."
     I didn't have to drive much further to spot the sentries around. Snipers on the roof, and people undercover as civilians on the walkways. I was driving up on the left side of the building, so any sentries on the right side, of which is the side Ben and Cam should have already gone through, would have less people. Since they would've took them out, of course.
Oh, shit. I thought. What if they know that driver? What if he's the usual?
     I was tempted to call Noah and ask if he knows any records about previous shipments, but I had already pulled up to the warehouse. To late now, I guess.
     "We're here. Hang tight." I said into comms before pulling it away from my ear and before Kap could reply. I quickly dropped it between the seats before anyone noticed.
     The guards outside the building were closing in, one waving their hand at me. Before I stepped out of the car, I pulled off the name tag and threw it inside. I grabbed the clipboard, and closed the door.
     "Hey." Said one of the guards. He wore a black tactical suit, and a helmet that covered his whole head and face. So did the other four outside guards. He looked around, a bit confused. "What happened to Johnson?" He asked.
Motherf-
     "He couldn't make this shipment," I said. "Something about the boss and his work ethnics."
     I could feel the tenseness of my body as the guard stared at me for a long moment. Then he nodded his head. "Yeah, sounds like Johnson. Surprised he wasn't fired a long time ago. Let's open her up!" He exclaimed.
     "Uh," I intervened. "Sorry, but your boss has to sign this first." I said as I raised my hand with the clipboard and papers.
     "You serious?" He asked. "I guess since your new, I can't really argue."
     A glimmer of hope opened in my chest. This guy was decent enough.
     "Of course, the boss wouldn't be to happy about it." He said. "I could just... shoot you." He said as he pointed his rifle at me.
     Remember that glimmer of hope? Yeah, it, uh, fell somewhere in my lower intestines.
     "I'm just kidding. Follow me." He turned around and walked for the building. I sighed in relief and followed him. That was close.
     The building was much bigger in person than just some diagram on the Room's table, but looked just like any "abandoned" warehouse should look. Most of the outside light was from the bright lights emitting from the open garage. Hopefully Ben got in already, and is waiting for me.
     Some of the guards gave me weird looks, but no one did anything. They were probably just confused that I was I different man than Johnson. Thank god I had thought of that and took off the name tag. Don't know how I could have talked my way out of that one.
Oh, that guy? I would have said. Yeah, we have same names... and then there would be distant crickets chirping.
     Yeah, thanks Noah. Almost got my ass killed just then. His almost flawless plan had a small flaw that could have caused chaos in the entire street.
     I followed the guard inside, to find exactly what would be expected. A warehouse. It wasn't so open like most, considering it was a three floor building, but all the shelves stacked with boxes and forklifts scattered across the area was as typical as a typical warehouse could get. There were about half a dozen guards walking around or driving the lifts.
     "Anybody wanna take this guy up to the boss?" The guard who took me in asked.
     Only one raised there hand and walked over. Good. Ben made it in.
     "Here you go." Said the guard. "Take him straight to the boss."
"Yes, sir." The guard said, rooting his hand on my shoulder. He shoved me towards the stairs, and I reluctantly obeyed.
"Don't get used to this." I whispered over my shoulder.
I could hear the guard chuckle behind me. "Whatever." Ben's voice was unmistakable. He was my guy. He wore the same suit and helmet as every other guard, and held their automatic gun as well.
"Hey, wanna gimme that pistol?" I said, nodding at the handgun on his hip.
"And let you walk into the boss' office with a gun. Hell no." He said. "He'll know something is up."
"It'll be behind me." I assured.
"No." He pushed. "You won't need it anyway."
We finally reached the third floor, and walked through the hall. A guard or two passed by, but no one spared a second glance. The hall split off a few times, and other room doors littered the walls, but shipment boxes took up most of he space. What were in them, I couldn't tell you.
We made it to our destination soon enough, though.
"Should we knock?" Ben asked, stepping up to the door.
"Depends." I said. "What's his attitude like?"
"Hell if I know." He looked at me. After a moment of silence, he nodded and knocked on the door anyway.
"Come in." We heard from behind the wooden door.
Ben opened the door, and I walked in, him following shortly. The office wasn't to big, nor to small. Just big enough to hold a 2 by 4 foot desk, a cabinet, and a couch on the far right side. The man sitting in the desk instantly struck me as a weapons dealer.
He leaned back in his black leather chair. His black hair was combed backwards, with a gray groove on the right side. He wore a red suit with an orange tie, and a pale yellow dress shirt. He wore a gold chain necklace, and every finger had a ring except the pinkies. Why? Beats me. His red jacket was pulled tightly around his muscle. He was a large dude.
His thick gray eyebrows curved when he saw me. "Oh," he said. "A new guy, eh?" He smiled at Ben. "Well, that can't be right. Johnson is always our man."
"He says Johnson got fired, sir." Ben said behind me.
"Oh, did he now?" The Exterminator was pleased by the words. He talked with a cocky smirk, and a tone like he knew everything before it was told to him. My gut felt like my lungs were trying to push me out of the room.
He knows. I thought to myself.
"Well, I'll have to have a word with his boss. Especially since I bought him off, along with his entire company, months ago. Makes no sense for him to fire our best man..." he leaned forward and smiled. "Does it?"
Shit.
The door opened behind us and men walked in. Not the boss' guards, but different guys. They each wore different jackets and pads, but they all had orange tees and red bandanas wrapped around their right biceps. They all slightly whistled the same sing-song tune. Something I didn't know if existed as a real song, but definitely something I was familiar with.
Fuck.
The Jocks. The only gang in the city that gave us a hard time. They constantly tried to ruin our days by trying to prove that they were on the top of the food chain, instead of us. The public still saw us as number one, but, whether we like to admit it or not, they were a huge threat to us. Their whistling stopped, but continued by one last member who strolled in. Curt Yi-Lang.
Shit fuck.
"Wanna hand me that pistol now?" I asked Ben.