T.N - Chapter 89

“Whoa!” shouted someone as they turned the corner.

“Laura it’s us!” said another as they halted beside their companion.

“John? Eric?” Laura asked, looking between the two of them. “How-“

“No time to talk,” John said. He had a couple of slashes, one tracing his across his cheek and his lips, the others scattered along his arms and stomach.

“Graham’s hurt. Bad,” Eric added. He looked in better shape, but his knuckles were bloody, and there was dried blood under his fingernails. 

Laura’s face clouded, and her eyes flicked between us and them.

“How many of you are together?”

“It’s just us two, Graham, and a couple of the other guys,” Eric said. “Terry and Terry still haven’t reached us, and none of our communications are working in this building.”

Her posture slumped as she brushed a strand of hair away from her face. Her hands tightened into a fist and released, kneading her fingernails into the base of her palms.

Wolfgang reached out with his free hand and placed it on Laura’s shoulder. “Go with them, Mom. We’ll be fine.” He paused. “You won’t lose me, I promise.”

Laura hesitated, then smiled and patted Wolfgang’s hand. “Stay with the group, ok?”

“Ok.”

She straightened up, and motioned towards the Shark. “We’re taking him with us, we’ll find somewhere to deposit him for now.”

John and Eric rushed over. John took my place and I backed away, feeling the tension in my shoulders release a bit. They started leading him away, and Laura took a few steps to follow them.

She stopped suddenly, and walked quickly back. She unhooked the holster from around her waist and held it out to me.

I looked up at her, and she jerked her chin towards the gun. I slowly reached out and took it from her, feeling the heavy metal settle in my hand. She gently placed the holster and belt into my hands as well.

“You’ll need this.”

“But why me?” I asked.

“Because you’ll know when to use it, and when not to.” She reached out and puts her hand on my head, ruffling my hair a little bit. She turned to catch up with the others.

“Which way should we be going?” Wolfgang called out after her.

She looked behind her. “Take a left, then head straight until you get to a set of stairs. You want to get to the second floor, and then it should be easy to find the third floor stairs from there. Got it?”

Wolfgang gave her a thumbs up and an encouraging smile. Laura returned the gesture briefly before running after John and Eric.

We stood there and watched as she disappeared into the dimness. I took a deep breath and wrapped the belt around my waist, securing it tightly before putting the gun in there. The weight felt strange on my hip, and I tried adjusting it to sit better, but to no avail.

“All of us are going to need weapons now, huh,” Dennis said.

“That would probably be a good idea,” Wolfgang replied.

“Let’s go grab those guns from the people back there!” Heathcliff proclaimed.

“Another good idea,” Wolfgang said.

We headed back over to where the corpses were. The guys set themselves upon carefully rummaging through the bodies. They all looked a little pale doing so, but they were thorough and respectful.

They came back out with several semiautomatics, along with ammunition and packs to hold everything in.

Dennis held two blades in his hand, the same ones that were in the Scorpion’s hands when she died. The metal had been wiped clean, and the shined menacingly in the dim light. After giving him a questioning look, he shrugged and said, “Just in case.”

We took a minute to reload the guns, all of us fumbling a little bit with it. Soon enough, we were prepared to go.

Following Laura’s instructions, we made our way to the stairs and clambered up. The stairway echoed with our footsteps, no matter how much we tried to stay quiet. We quickly made our way

The second floor opened up before us, and it seemed much more straightforward than the first floor. We looked down the hallway straight in front of us

“The main rooms must be up there,” Dennis said.

“Come on, we don’t have much time to waste,” I urged them to run.

“Now just hold on a fucking moment there,” said a gruff voice from behind us. We slowly turned to see a roughly shaven man. His jacket was flung haphazardly open, and the rest of his suit was in similar disarray.

I recognized the man. The Cougar, a warlord with a trigger happy finger.

He was waving his signature gun around. Under the dim light, it was beautiful, coppery pink with inlaid ivory in elegant carvings. It glinted as he waved it, aiming casually towards each of us alone.

“The boss said he wasn’t going to be disturbed, especially not by kids trying to play soldier.” He grinned. “You obviously have no fucking clue on how to use those. How long did it take you to even load those motherfuckers anyways?”

We stood in silence, hands gripping around our weapons even tighter.

The grin disappeared. “Drop the guns and we can talk.” He trained the gun on Heathcliff. “Otherwise….” he made the sound of a gun going off, mimicking the gun going off.

There was some clatter as the guys dropped the guns onto the floor. I slowly placed my arm in front of the holster on my hip, hiding it carefully.

“Now kick them away,” the Cougar said, and the guys complied.

“Really?” the Cougar laughed, kicking at the blades that had rolled from Dennis to his feet. “You brought a knife to a gun fight?”

Dennis glanced over at me, and I tightened my grip on the gun, pulling it out from the holster.

The Cougar followed Dennis’s line of sight to my hand.

“Come on, girly, drop the weapon.”

I knew I should have done that.

“Are you fucking deaf?”

Would have had more chance of survival for everyone that way.

“Theo, come on,” urged Dennis. “We’re out of our league here.”

But I also knew that it would be game over as soon as we were powerless. No chance of finding the Dragon, no chance of finding Grandfather.

“Drop the motherfucking gun!” he growled. The Cougar stalked his way towards me, a fevered glint in his eye.

I could feel the panic rising in my chest, adrenaline blurring the edge of my vision to whiteness. My heartbeat reverberated through my fingertips, and I couldn’t hear anything else that the Cougar was saying above it.

Instead of dropping the gun, I pointed it towards him.

I didn’t realize that I had pulled the trigger until the kickback happened. The jolt ran through my arm, jerking the gun towards my shoulder. Heat emanated from the barrel, and the sharp smell of gunpowder brought the picture back into focus from the adrenaline rush.

The Cougar was on the ground, blood starting to pool beneath him. The bullet had pierced through his jugular, and presumably to his spine. There was a surprised look on his face, eyes wide in shock.

I was going to be sick. My shaking hands dropped the gun, which had become as heavy as lead. I placed my hands on my face and rubbed, trying to make sense of what happened.

I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and pull me in for a hug. Hands started rubbing my head gently, soothingly pressing circular motions against my skin.

“It’s ok,” Wolfgang murmured.

“I shot someone,” I said, more to myself than anyone, testing out the truth on my lips. “I killed someone.”

“You saved us. You knew when to use it.”

Laura’s words echoed in my head. She had trusted me with the gun because I would know when to use it. And here was Wolfgang, repeating it.

I took a deep shuddering breath and gently pushed Wolfgang away. He let go, and gave me a nervous smile. I forced myself to smile back.

I stepped towards the stairs.

“We’re here at the Dragon’s lair,” Wolfgang remarked.

“No turning back now,” Dennis added.

“Not when we’ve come this far,” Heathcliff concluded.

I looked at all three of them, and nodded.

And we turned to head up to our finale.