Not a killer

Chapter 18

Since security was probably going to be very tight at the garage entrance, we decided instead to go in through the back exit: the alleyway.

We parked the vehicles a couple of blocks away, and walked trough the maze of alleys until we finally found the small door that would take us downstairs.

"Right" said Stuart "Here's the plan: We get in by here, down the stairs and then sprint across that floor to another flight of stairs, leading to the training gym. I figured that we should start by the gym because that's where most of these guys will be, at this time of day. Once we get that over with, more than half the job will be done, and then we just need to work our way up, floor by floor. Understood?"

Everyone agreed.

"Barry, you take the lead, since you're the one who knows the base better than any of us. You two" he said, pointing at two of his men "You take the rear. Now, most importantly of all, be brave"

Everyone cheered, and then we set our explosives beside the door, detonated them, and charged in.

Down the stairs we ran. Down, down, down. The group finally arrived at floor minus two, where the dorms were. Thankfully, there was no-one in sight. Barry then sprinted across the hallway, us at his heels, and we made it to the second staircase, leading to the gym.

"Are you ready for this?" asked Barry.

"Of course I am" I said, cracking my knuckles and taking out my UZI I had been given earlier.

"Okay then. Try and stay by my side"

I grinned, and then marched down the stairs.

We burst into the gym, catching the few men at the door by surprise.

Stuart's men shouted and charged, spraying bullets everywhere.

Bullets. Guns. Screams. Here we were again.

A killer ran straight at me, but I was too quick. I fired, and he fell to the ground.

There was now a steady flow of killers coming straight after us, but we kept advancing forward. I saw as one of Stuart's men got shot in the chest and collapsed, but there was nothing I could do. Barry was on my right, I was still keeping track of him.

I dived behind a crate. Then, every few seconds I would turn round and fire. There were a few direct shots, but most of them missed. I had to say, the sides were even. Thankfully, the advantage that we had was that we had caught them by surprise, so their weapons were fewer.

Finally, after a while, the noise started to die down, and the battle was practically over.

We stood there for a few moments, catching our breath, but then Stuart spoke:

"We may not rest now, the alarm has probably been raised that we are here, so we must not let them be prepared for the next part. Yes, we have lost a few, but we must go!"

"He's right" agreed Barry.

"I'm ready" I said wearily "But just give me a second to reload. I'm running kinda short on ammunition"

A minute later, the men that were left, along with me, Barry and Stuart, left the gym and once again climbed the stairs. We easily defeated floor minus two.

"Okay men" said Stuart "This is the last part. We're almost finished here"

"Yeah, just the control room left" said Barry "C'mon"

I frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"Everything's gone quiet, haven't you realised? I get the feeling that they are waiting for us, just in there" I said, pointing towards the set of double doors leading to the control room.

"Ah, well I have come prepared. I have just the thing" said Stuart, rumaging in his bag.

He then took out a strange object, with the shape of a tube and a ring at the top.

"What's that?" I asked.

"A smoke grenade he answered "This'll blind them for a moment, giving us a chance to get in. But it will be for nothing if we don't have a strategy. How about we split into two groups: one goes to the left and the other one, to the right"

"Good idea" agreed Barry "I'll go to the right"

"Me too" I said

"Good" 

We split into two groups.

"Okay, I'll throw this thing, and then on the count of three, we go in" said Stuart.

"Do it" said Barry.

And he did. I opened the door a crack for him, and he tossed it inside. There was an immediate hissing sound.

"One...two...three!"

We burst through the swinging doors.

"Good luck!" shouted Stuart as he turned to the left.

We turned right. The smoke was in our face. We couldn't see a thing! All we did was fire towards the centre of the room. We knew they were there.

After a few seconds, the hissing stopped and the smoked cleared. We then saw people there. And lots of them, too! I pulled the trigger to fire but nothing came out. Ah, I was out of ammunition! So I then threw the UZI down and ran towards the killers. I was going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.

I shouted as I pounced on to the shoulders of one of the killers, and started to hit him in the head.

Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! He fell to the ground, unconscious.

Another one came at me, but I caught his swinging arm and bent it backwards. He fell to his knees, screaming, and to finish him off I gave him one more punch to the cheekbone.

I heard a sound behind me, and I turned to see that it was Barry, physically struggling with another killer. Had he run out of ammunition too? But without waiting for a second longer, I went over and finished the job off for him, kicking the killer in the legs, which then swooped under him, causing him to fall and bang his head on the floor.

"Thanks" said Barry.

But then he caught me by the arm and dragged me over to one side of the room, away from the fight.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Dude, have you seen Antonio anywhere?" he asked.

"Eeh, no"

This was true. I had completely forgotten about him. 

"Well, we can't let him escape!"

Suddenly, something caught my attention. It was Stuart, he had fallen, and was being beaten by one of the killers.

"Stuart!" I shouted.

I then inmediately grabbed a gun off one of the killers, aimed and fired at the man beating Stuart to death. It was a direct hit. The bullet was driven straight into his skull, ad he fell to the ground.

"Well that  felt good" I thought.

Barry gasped. "There he is!"

"Who?"

"Antonio!"

I spun round, and then I saw him. He was walking into the lift. When I caught his eye, he waved at me politely, and smiled maliciously, seconds before the lift doors slid shut.

Barry growled. "He's trying to escape, the little coward. He'll probably be making his way towards the garage, about to grab a vehicle, no doubt"

"Well, there's only one thing left to do, then" I said.

Barry grunted.

"Let's go get him"

"Okay