A shriek came from behind the man.
Portia looked over his shoulder and saw the Generate leader racing towards them with a knife in its hand.
The man turned around calmly, spun the axe in his hand and waited for the Generate to draw closer.
It continued to shriek as it came.
The man raised the axe, held it for a second then threw it. The axe spun through the air and came to a stop inches deep in the Generate’s face. It crashed to the ground and began to flop around. He ran over, put his boot on its neck and pulled the axe out its head, then for good measure swung it hard and planted it one more time in its face.
The Generate leader made an unintelligible sound, its body twitched for a few seconds before becoming still.
The man retrieved the axe and walked back to a stunned Portia. Using his long sleeve he wiped the blood off.
“You’re quite handy with that thing,” Portia said.
“This thing is amazing, you can’t really find them anymore. They’re called a Proof of Life axe, I don’t think that name fits, I call it my Proof of Death, as you can see,” he joked while motioning with a head nod to the dead Generate. He reached around to his back and pulled out a canteen, “Thirsty?”
“Yes, thank you,” she said taking the canteen and gulping most of it down.
“We got reports that a slaver truck was on the move south, we were going to ambush it but these fucking savages ambushed you first. By the time we found the truck you were long gone. From the attack we could tell it was Generates. Luckily for you, we knew this tribe had an encampment up here.”
“We could have used you earlier, but nevertheless, thank you,” Portia said handing the canteen back.
A woman walked up, she was adorned in heavy leather combat gear and was also holding an axe. Her thick hair was pulled back into a series of braids and across her face she had three dark blue stripes going diagonally from left to right. Attached to her vest was a frag grenade painted pink, with the name SALLY, written across it. She gave Portia a quick look, then faced the man and said, “No survivors."
“Thanks, Leigh,” the man said.
“Who’s this?” Leigh asked.
“A survivor from the slave truck,” the man answered.
“Then it wasn’t a total loss,” Leigh said.
“Go gather the team, tell them to post a watch while the others look for anything of value; weapons, ammo, etcetera. We leave in ten.”
“Sounds good boss,” Leigh said and marched off.
“I suppose I should introduce myself, my name is Jacob, I’m Leviathan.”
Cal unloaded his magazine into the door. When the bolt locked back, Kyle used that as his cue; he stepped forward and kicked the doors. Unlike before the doors didn’t budge.
“He’s put something in front of them,” Kyle yelled. He stepped back out of the way.
“What do we do?” Cal asked.
Kyle looked around, when he spotted the fireplace an idea popped in his head. “We’ll smoke him out.” Kyle ran to the fireplace and turned it on. “Grab me those papers and the waste basket near the desk.
“What are you guys doing, hurry the hell up!” Tommy said. All around him pieces of the door and frame flew as gunfire hit all around him. “I’ve been lucky but luck will soon run out!”
Cal didn’t move.
“What are you doing? Go get me what I need!” Kyle barked.
Cal walked over to Eric’s dead body, reached inside of his jacket and removed a few items and held them up. Will these work?”
Kyle stood up and walked over to Cal, he looked at the items and said, “You had a smoke grenade, a CS grenade and flash bangs?”
“Eric was a demo guy, I suddenly thought he might have something on him.”
Kyle smiled and asked, “We’re in business.” He grabbed the flash bangs and walked to the door where a two inch opening was left from him trying to enter before. He pulled the pin on the flash bang and pushed it through the door.
Hollering came from inside the room followed by a loud explosion.
“What was that?” Cal asked.
“That my friend is a flash bang or stun grenade,” Kyle laughed. “Where the hell did Eric get those?”
“I have no idea,” Cal answered.
Moans came from the other side.
“Let’s do another for good measure,” Kyle said pulling the pin on the grenade. He pushed against the door giving him another inch of space and tossed it inside. “Oh, they’re going to fucking hate that one. A double fucking whammy.”
Screams and groans came from the room.
“Time to go in,” Kyle said as he started to push. “Help me.”
Cal got next to him and shoved hard. Slowly the door opened. With a foot opening, Kyle climbed over the dresser that blocked the door and into the room. On the floor he found Cisco rolling around in pain, blood coming from his lower abdomen. He picked up his weapons and asked, “Where’s Barry?”
Cisco pointed towards the bathroom.
“Thanks,” Kyle said then struck him in the head with the butt of his rifle knocking him out. He didn’t want him killed until he was sure Barry had the information he needed.
Cal made his way into the room and saw where Cisco pointed, he was on his way there with Kyle just behind him.
They reached the door, “Hello, Barry, its Driver Eight…”
Bullets ripped through the door missing them both.
“Barry, I’ve got a fucking real grenade here, I’m going to blast you out of there, now tell me where you sent my wife,” Kyle said, lying about the real grenade but anything to get Barry to come out.
“Fuck you,” Barry answered and shot again until he ran out of rounds. “Shit,” he cried out when he noticed he was out of magazines.
“Barry, I’m giving you one last chance. Just tell me, I won’t kill you, in fact I need you alive in order to get out of here,” Kyle said making an offer he wasn’t supposed to make.
Cal scowled at Kyle, “That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“Well, the deal has changed,” Kyle said.
No response from Barry.
“Barry, we’ve killed your people, your guards, no one is coming for you,” Kyle lied. It was a bad lie because Tommy was still miraculously holding off the guards from the doorway.
“I still hear the gunfire,” Barry hollered.
“Fine, you leave me no choice,” Kyle said taking a step back and raising the rifle.
Cal smiled hoping Barry would get struck by a bullet.
A thought came to Kyle. Why hasn’t he shot back? He let that simmer for a second and made a rash decision thinking he was out of ammunition. He lowered the rifle and kicked the door. It burst open.
Barry jumped into the shower.
Kyle raced into the room with Cal just behind. He ran up on the shower, raised his rifle and said, “Got ya’.”
“Don’t shoot, I’ll tell you where she went, just don’t shoot.”
“Tell me now!” Kyle yelled.
“No, then you’ll kill me.”
“I told you I need you to get out of here,” Kyle replied.
“No.”
Kyle grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him out of the shower.
“That wasn’t part of the deal. Any second longer he’s alive is another second he has a chance of escaping. I won’t risk that.”
“He’s our bargaining chip on getting out of here,” Kyle said pulling Barry along with him.
“Kyle!” Tommy yelled.
“Coming,” Kyle hollered back.
They exited the bathroom. Kyle looked over and said, “Check on Cisco.”
“Will do.”
Kyle and Barry exited the room to find Tommy still engaged with guards but using on one arm. “You alright?” Kyle asked.