Task Orientated

Part 2.5

Piet's nine millimetre was painfully loud down here.

My rifles much larger eight-millimetre cartridge, well, I was hesitant to find out.

I dropped to a knee and threw the muzzle up to the ceiling.

Crack!

The one round I squeezed off made a mockery of my ear protection. My ears rung like someone had taken a jack hammer to the inner ear. I was dazed and disorientated, but Douglass pressed both his hand over either ear or had crashed into the wall.

I was aching, but I had maybe four seconds at most to act.

I ripped Piet from the ground, and dragged him by his arm past Douglass. Eventually he staggered onto his own feet and ran for it. Shouted for him to, keep going. Thankfully he listened, and made for it, finally, like his life depended on it. Douglass got to his feet, faster than I would've guessed. Fuck.

I'm going to have to stop him.

Not keen to fire my rifle again down here, I didn't exactly want to shoot this guy either, so I slung it over my shoulder and slammed my hip and shoulder into his torso. Douglass slid backwards onto his left foot, he rocked forward lashing out with his right hand to grab my harness at the left shoulder strap.

He pulled me into a gut punch letting me stagger back for a moment just to pull me back in and do it again. The second hit was worse knocked the wind out of me and left me gasping. I pivoted on my right foot, bringing my left leg up and knee first into his chest. It was enough to get him to let go.

Douglass didn't waste a second, breaking away from me to tear after Piet.

I dived for a grip, only to land belly down on the cold stone floor.

Douglass just barely slipped through my grip, as well. Shit.

I got up and ran after him. He went right suddenly, almost flying up a steep stair well. Right at the top I kicked off a door frame to dive through him again. Wasn't a clean impact, as I bounced just past him disturbing the dirt and kicking up a cloud of plum dust.

My eyes strained to readjust.

A blue smudge managed to climb up the side of a trench further ahead, and make for a tree line. Keep going Piet.

Douglass launched from the ground, stepping forward into a straight jab with his right hand. With one hand behind the other I managed to push the fist off to my side. He turned quickly, dragging his left foot through the dust scrapping up a cloud, shifting his weight with a downward swing with his left elbow.

I hopped backwards, letting it hammer down just Infront of me.

Thought he'd thrown himself off balance, instead he charged forward headfirst into my gut. The Skinwalker drove me into the wall of a trench, quickly up righting and throwing his left elbow at my throat. The move pinned my head, and flattened me out against the wall.

"Give up!" Douglass said, plunging the first punch into my gut.

I repeatedly slammed down either side of his neck. Eventually he broke away, and the two of us collapsed to our knees for a moment.

The pain was making me feel nauseous. I couldn't focus my breathing, even it out to get a grip of myself. Douglass the clever fuck, had battered my diaphragm. All I managed was buying Piet a couple of minutes at most.

"Neither... of... us... have to... die," Douglass wheezed. "

Douglass got up and carried on after Piet.