Fighting (24 page)

I
instinctively took charge.  I ordered the kids to stay hidden in the room, and
told Brooks to have my back.

"No,
you stay with the kids," Brooks argued.

I
gestured to his bleeding shoulder and the cut that was continually gushing
fresh blood into his eyes and disrupting his vision.  "You're injured. 
I'm not.  You stay."

He
wiped at his eye and said, "It's not as bad as it looks."  But he
took my bag and ushered the kids away from the doorway.

I
knew I couldn't let the gunman get too close and he had to empty his clip, so I
had to give him something to shoot at.  I took the gun Brooks handed me and
crept closer to the door.  I crouched down and swiftly rounded the doorway to
fire off a warning shot before swinging back almost immediately.  The gunman
took two shots at where my head would have been if I were standing.  Needing to
distract him more, I stood up from my crouch, took a deep breath, communicated
my intentions to Brooks and flipped across the hallway, blindly firing two
shots, stopping just inside the waiting doorway, ducking inside and taking
quick inventory of my body.  No holes. 
Huzzah
! 

Also,
he wasted three more shots, one of which took out the overhead light between
the two doorways.  That worked to my advantage.  Now I waited quietly,
controlling my breathing to the bare minimum, thinking beyond the resounding
beating of my heart echoing in my ears.  I unsheathed a knife and played it
between my fingers while trying to control the pace of my thoughts.

To kill or to maim?  That is the question.

I
didn't want to kill anyone.  It was a permanent solution to a temporary
problem.  No take-backs or do-overs.  Was he a good person?  Did he have a
family?  Did he think he was on an honorable mission?  All I knew was that I
could not let him get to the kids I had to protect.  That made shooting at him
easier.  Wait a second, he was
shooting at kids
, of course he wasn't
honorable! 

I
stood still, waiting patiently, knowing it was inevitable.  There -- I heard
it.  He was changing the clip in his gun.  I sprung out of hiding and crouched
in the hallway to whip my knife toward him, aiming just shy of his heart so
that I could take him down without killing him, as it was the quietest and least
gruesome way to end this.

Having
been standing still and focusing on his gun, his eyes whipped to my moving form
and raised his gun to fire, but he missed his target.  I didn't.  He cried out
and fell to his knees.  He dropped the gun and as if in slow motion, brought
his hands to the handle protruding from his chest as if to yank it out, but
only got so far as caressing it before I rushed forward and kicked his face so
he fell to his back, unconscious. 

Wasting
no time, I kicked the abandoned gun toward Brooks and crouched down.  Brooks
tagged the gun and covered me while I placed two fingers to the guy's neck to
feel his thready pulse.  I straightened my legs to plant one foot on his
sternum and push down while grabbing the knife handle and pulling with my hand
to dislodge it from his chest.  I ignored the blood and the sounds it made as I
cracked one or two of his ribs.  Having leaned down close to his body, I
noticed a bag of zip ties protruding from his vest pocket.
 Oh, those are
handy
.  I lifted and laced them through my belt loops while I searched for
extra clips on his person.  I wiped the blood from the blade on my gray shirt,
constantly scanning the hallway for potential threats.

I
slowly retreated to Brooks.  He was leaning against the doorway facing my
opposite direction, armed and ready to take out any oncoming threats.   I
sheathed my knife, pocketed the two extra clips and motioned with my hands to
Brooks that the coast was silent and clear for moving out.  Brooks led the
group down the hall while I followed, walking backward with my gun at the
ready, bringing up the rear of the group as we crept along the wall to the
nearest exit. 

Spencer
hesitated by my side, wanting to stay and help me, but he was unarmed and I
didn't have another gun to give him.  He opened his mouth to speak just as two
more intruders rounded the corner with guns already raised.

"Go!"
I ordered.

One
man aimed his gun at Spencer, knowing full well he was unarmed.  I threw myself
in front of him and shot at the men but we both missed each other.  I glanced
at Spencer to see his eyes widened with disbelief as he undoubtedly saw just
how close he came to getting shot.  The rest of the crew began running flat out
for the safe room exit while I returned fire.   I hit one guy in the leg and
missed his head by two inches, but it was close enough for both men to run for
cover and the kids to successfully reach the safe room door.  I shut us inside
and locked the door from the inside as the others ran to the exterior door. 
Brooks ventured outside cautiously, leading the kids to the surrounding forest
and away from the threat.  We waited until he called an all clear before
exiting the building single file.  I watched as they headed for what appeared
to be to a tree in the dense forest but turned out to be the entrance to a
hidden escape tunnel.

Brooks,
that sneaky bastard.

I
stationed myself just outside the edge of the open doorway and watched as
Brooks directed the kids inside the tunnel.  He turned to usher me inside only
to look back and see me still thirty yards away, pressed against the wall by
the door of the building.  He motioned for me to book it toward him but I shook
my head in the negative and peeked back through the door before returning to
the wall, holding my position. 

Brooks
ran back to me and grasped my arm to drag me to safety.  He most likely thought
I had an indignant desire to exact revenge, but the thing that was consuming me
wasn't pride or anger ridden revenge, although I could almost promise that for
my near future.  No, what I was feeling was need.  I had an almost unreal need
to get to Ethan.  Knowing he was alone somewhere inside, most likely still
trapped in his room, just waiting to be killed or taken, was eating me alive. 
My skin crawled and was marinating in a nice and disgusting sheen of
perspiration.  This hint of freedom tasted gritty in my mouth without him.  I
simply had a single minded goal to bring him out alive and I was
not
going
to fail.  With the safety of the others entrusted to Brooks, I knew I had to go
back inside.  There simply was no other option.

Brooks
tried his best to divert my attention but gave up after I whirled on him and
shoved him against the wall.  I pressed my forearm against his throat and my
elbow against his knife wound uncomfortably, only just hard enough to both
catch his attention and slow down his effort.

With
my eyes and gun trained on the open doorway, I said "I'm retrieving
Ethan.  You cannot stop me.  Get the others to safety, we'll be close
behind."  Brooks started to argue so I said "Sorry Teach, not in a
talking mood right now."

And
with that, I released him and put both hands back on my gun and silently edged
closer to the door. 

"Damn
it woman, you better succeed or I'll kill you myself," he half-snarled at
me.

"Yeah,
yeah, you can't live without me.  Go!  Now," I said. 

I
was sure I'd get chewed out later for disobeying him or issuing him orders but
found I didn't care all that much.  Or at all, really.

I
crept along the wall inside the room we had just vacated, walking softly across
the carpet on the outer rims of my feet, making my way cautiously but swiftly
enough that I wasn't wasting time. I would subdue who I could and kill the
rest, knowing I would regret it otherwise.  Kill or be killed was the name of
the game.  This may be war, but I didn't exactly want to audition for the role
of grim reaper, either.

Most
of the rooms had interconnecting doorways like a joint hotel room would have. 
Avoiding the open corridor, I made my way to the doorway that connected to the
room next door and slowly entered, making sure my finger wasn't on the
trigger.  I traveled two more rooms across, traversing through a darkness that
I navigated from memory before approaching a doorway that opened up to the
deceivingly silent corridor.  I crouched down and peered out and saw the two
men I previously shot at approaching the door I locked them out of. I noticed
they took the time to wrap the leg that I managed to shoot, and the guy was
limping.

Good. 
The bastard deserved it.

Debating
my next move and knowing if I did nothing and simply moved on, it would come
back to bite me in the ass, I watched as they slowly entered the room with the
injured guy going last.  I couldn't afford to let any witnesses go free until I
got Ethan out.  I stealthily advanced and ruthlessly kicked the bullet wound I
created in his leg and wrenched his arm behind his back, shoving him face first
into the wall while kicking the door shut to cage in the other mercenary and
jabbing a key to arm the keypad and lock the door from the outside. It would
only hinder him, not stop him, but come on, I wasn't one to take the easy way
out and simply put a bullet in his brain.  Not at that particular moment, at
least.

I
brutally forced upward the arm of the man I trapped against the wall until I
heard a loud pop from his shoulder dislocating and he dropped to a knee in
pain.  He managed to sink his other elbow into my stomach and I hissed in
pain.  I clenched his good arm in my hands and wrenched his back down flat to
the floor.  I stabbed him in his good leg right above his knee to hinder him
limping anywhere at all, and kicked his head unconscious.

Satisfied
that he was sufficiently subdued, I flipped him onto his front and zip tied his
wrists and ankles and migrated to the next doorway, waiting for the caged man
to escape the darkened room through an interconnected doorway he would surely
soon discover.  I had to wait mere seconds before I heard the light squeak of
the hinges.  I raised my knife in preparation.  He exited the room, gun raised
in hand.  I used my free hand to squeeze my fingers around the two pressure
points closest to his wrist.  When I applied the pressure ruthlessly, his hand
had no choice but to loosen and he released his hold on the gun enough for me
to yank out of his grip.  He fully entered the hallway and knocked the blade
from my hand, and I didn't hesitate to strike him in the face with a strong
one, two punch. Not blocking him fast enough, his fist connected to my face but
I dodged his second swing, grabbing his wrist with two hands, wrenching them in
opposite directions to break the bones. Good luck shooting with that hand now. 

He
managed to muffle his cry of pain and sicced his other hand on my throat while
I was busy ripping his mask off of his face.  I hefted my foot up to his torso
and pushed off with all of my body weight and twisted, escaping his hold and
landing on a knee with my back to him.  I jumped to attention and whirled
around, round house kicking his ribs with everything I had, slamming him into
the nearest wall.  He pushed off the wall to lunge for me once or twice more,
landing another hit, but I dodged him every other time and made a note to thank
Ethan for allowing me to hone that particular elusive skill. 

Following
a punch that swung too close to my face for comfort, I ducked and stayed bent
at the waist to slug him in the kidney twice before I twirled behind him, back
to back with him, and kicked the bottom of my right foot against the pressure
point of his back calf, causing pain and upsetting his balance.  He grunted in
pain and dropped to a knee while I drove my elbow down fiercely to dig in the
nerve at his collar bone.  His face contorted in pain and as soon as I pulled
back, he lumbered unsteadily to his feet and grabbed at my arms, spinning me
around and pulling me back against his chest.  I freed an arm, reared my elbow
back to spear his ribs and headbutted his face with the back of my head.  He
released me and I spun on my heel to face him again and proceeded to shove my
palm roughly against his nose. Instantly, blood gushed down his face.   I
thrust both of my hands forward and slammed my palms against his ears and
grasped his head, my palms covering his ears and my fingers curling around the
crown of his head. I dragged roughly downward and set a stabilizing foot
slightly behind me while slamming my knee into his face, twice.  He fell limp
and I released him, breathing hard and watching his body tumble to the floor.

I
took a mental picture of his face.  I'd rather have a bloodied face to recall
later than be blind to future attacks from this particularly persistent
bastard.  I zip tied his extremities and retrieved my blade from the floor. 

I
left them behind as fast as I dared down the length of two more hallways before
I heard approaching footsteps and darted inside the nearest room, checking its
contents first to insure its emptiness.  I waited silently just inside the
doorway, under cover of darkness.  I heard the two of them speaking quietly.  I
had no idea who they were or just how big of an invasion this was, so my best
chance of survival was to draw as little attention to myself as possible.  I
peeked my eyes just beyond the door frame slowly, and noticed one man had a
silencer on his gun.  Man, these guys came equipped with an arsenal of shit I
could use.  Good thing I was a thief.

I
tucked my gun away, and silently drew my knife out of the sheath.  I took a
calming breath and peeked out again to watch them separate. One stood a few
feet from me, waiting with his back to me and the other man began walking down
the corridor in the opposite direction, on the path to Ethan's room.  He wasn't
taking much care to mask his footsteps so though I moved silently, I had his
abominably loud steps to cover my movement.  He rounded the corner right as I
ghosted up behind the man stationed closest to me.  I whirled in a circle,
gaining momentum, and aimed a high kick with my foot, whipping his head
severely to the side.  He stumbled forward and to the side and turned to raise
his gun unsteadily, but I knocked it out of his grip before he fired.  I used a
hand to grab his hand and yank it backward as hard as I could while my other
forearm slid under his armpit.  I shoved my shoulder against his back, using my
entire body to slam him into the wall, bashing his face against it while
pulling backward with my arms, yanking his arm straight and thrusting his elbow
upward, breaking his arm under the force of his own body's momentum.   He
yelled and staggered back from the wall and attempted to rush me, but I
clotheslined him, slamming his back to the ground, where his head bounced on
the hard wood floor with a satisfying thud.