Free Web NovelChapter 14: Not Yet
The migraine was still drilling between my eyes, and every pulse felt like somebody had shoved a glowing nail straight through the middle of my forehead and left it there on purpose.
My hearing had mostly returned, but my vision still smeared whenever I blinked; even the corridor lights seemed too bright and too sharp for the shape my head was currently in.
I leaned against the wall and forced myself to breathe slowly, while Tikki’s claws stayed buried through my jacket and into my shoulder like he had absolutely no intention of letting me drift off anywhere stupid.
[The one time I actually need the magical bullshit...]
The awareness still wasn’t back, meaning no convenient little ten-meter bubble telling me where every idiot with a weapon was standing.
Just me, a whole lot of ordinance, and a building full of idiots.
Somewhere deeper in the corridor, movement echoed faintly toward the staircase, and I immediately pulled a grenade from the inventory and threw it toward the far end.
-BOOM-!
The hallway shook under the blast, while dust rolled across the floor and concrete fragments rattled off the walls.
Then everything went quiet again.
No screaming followed the explosion. No clue appeared to tell me whether anybody had just gotten shredded.
[Good enough...]
I turned toward the nearest apartment door on my left, raised the shotgun, and blasted the lock apart with a single shot.
-Dich-!
Wood splintered outward, and I kept my back against the wall while I drove my boot straight into the door.
-BAM-!
The door flew inward hard enough to bang against the inside wall, and I waited beside the frame for a second before moving in, in case an armed dude inside fired at the door blasting open.
But nothing came through the opening, so I stepped inside.
The room smelled like sweat, cigarettes, and panic, while the cheap furniture and stained mattress made it obvious that nobody in here had ever lived here.
A fat middle-aged man stood beside the bed, completely naked, while a naked woman stood in front of him with both hands half-raised and her whole body trembling.
The man had his arms around her shoulders and was using her like a shield, which told me everything I needed to know about him immediately.
"Come here," I said, keeping the shotgun pointed at his face.
He started crying immediately.
"Please, please, I didn’t do anything wrong! I’ll pay you! I’ll give you whatever you want!"
-Thard-!
The pistol shot cracked beside his head, the bullet punching into the wall inches from his ear.
And the scream they both let out pulsed my migraine harder.
"Shut up!"
They shut up.
Funny how well that worked.
"Get dressed," I pointed toward the woman, "Get out of the city, and run west."
She stared at me in complete shock, while her shaking hands hovered in the air like she had not yet decided whether the words were real.
I did not have time to help her decide.
I walked forward, and grabbed the man by the hair and dragged him out of the room, while he whimpered and choked the entire way like a creature that had only just discovered consequences.
Once we reached the corridor, I faced him towards the stairs, shoved the pistol into his back, and leaned close enough for him to hear me clearly.
"Run now, or die here."
The man bolted immediately.
His heavy feet slapped against the tile floor, while his breathing echoed through the corridor, and his fat body thundered down the hallway with all the grace of a terrified penguin.
He made it past one door. Then another. Then another.
And just as he reached the fourth door down the corridor, the doors exploded outward with two concussive shotgun blasts.
-THARD-!-THARD-!
The door burst open in a storm of wood splinters, and half the body of the fat man damn near exploded into bloody smithereens under the impact before slamming into the floor dead.
I clicked my tongue softly.
"Knew it... and I don’t have time to clear every room...."
The man behind the door apparently thought he had just killed me, because a second later, he stepped into the corridor while reloading a double-barreled shotgun like an idiot.
-Thard-!
The 1911 took him through the face before he even finished stepping out.
His body hit the floor hard, and I was already toward the doorway.
Crouching beside the entrance, I pulled another grenade from inventory and chucked it inside.
-BOOM-!
And the apartment vanished under dust, broken drywall, and the smell of burnt fabric.
I did not wait around to admire the results, because the corridor still stretched ahead of me, and I still had a basement to reach.
The left side of the hallway ran almost the full length of the building, while apartments lined both sides, and at the far end, there were the stairs leading up.
There was a larger intersection midway between the stairs and me, connecting to the main entrance corridor.
I advanced carefully while keeping my breathing even, and just as my steps caught some stability in their rhythm, two men rushed around the right-side turn near the leading to the main entrance with pistols out and panic on their faces and-
-Dich-!
The first one’s face disappeared into blood and buckshot.
The second one instantly backed off around the corner.
I did not bother chasing him; I simply pulled another grenade and threw it after him.
-AHH-!-BOOM-!
A scream cut through the hallway before the blast drowned it out, and then silence returned.
[Grenades are carrying this entire operation....]
I reached the intersection a few moments later and leaned around the corner.
The main entrance corridor looked empty for now, and so did the staircase further down the corridor I was in.
"Okay..." I muttered. "Let’s secure the stairs first..."
I started forward, keeping my eyes locked on the staircase, while my vision remained blurry and my migraine continued pounding through the center of my skull.
That was why I missed the movement to my left.
-BASH-!
Something slammed into the back of my helmet with enough force to explode my vision into white.
Pain shot down my neck instantly, and I hit the floor on all fours while Tikki tumbled off my shoulder and onto the tiles.
The shotgun skidded away from my hand, while a large man with a hammer screamed something incoherent and kicked the shotgun farther down the corridor before raising the hammer again.
[Fuck!] Instinct moved before thought could catch up, and I swept his leg out from under him, and he crashed onto his back hard enough to rattle the floor.
The axe was already in my hand by the time I was on my feet.
He saw me coming, teeth bared in a primal growl, and his whole face changed.
"Wait!"
Both of his hands went up.
"Please!"
"I’m sorry!"
"I swear I’m sorry!"
-Tlirdh-!
I shoved the axe deep into his skull, and he stopped moving immediately. And before I could even take a single breath-
-Thard-!
Something punched through my right side before I could even breathe in, and my body lurched forward, and even the axe slipped from my fingers, and my hand flew toward the warm wetness that was spreading across my waist.
I looked down, and I found my hand drenched in blood.
A lot of blood.
"Fuck!"
My head snapped toward the stairs, and there stood a man halfway up them with a bolt-action hunting rifle.
He was already working the bolt and preparing another shot, while a German Shepherd charged down the stairs beside him at full sprint.
And before I could make head and tail of the situation, the dog was only a few strides away, almost on top of me.
I ripped the pistol from my chest plate and raised it at the dog, knowing full well the bite was imminent.
But Tikki launched himself first with the sort of furious commitment only a cat could produce, and slammed himself into the damn mutt, giving just enough time to-
-Thard-!-Thard-!-Thard-!
And the dog collapsed before it reached me.
But the rifleman had already finished cycling the bolt and had already taken aim again, and before I could take aim.
-Thard-!
The bullet hit my chest dead center.
The level four plate stopped the penetration, but the impact folded me forward so hard that every ounce of air vanished from my lungs at once.
The world disappeared, so did my breath, thoughts, and balance. All overpowered by the sheer shock and the piercing pain that devoured my consciousness.
"He’s down!" the rifleman shouted as I fell hard on my back.
Through the blinding agony, I vaguely saw him chambering another round.
And I also vaguely saw Tikki launch himself at the man’s face with a feral MEOWW.
"Fuck!" I heard the man scream, "What hell is that! MY EYE!"
The rifleman lost his balance and toppled backward down the stairs. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
I still could not breathe properly, but I got the pistol up anyway, while my hand shook violently and my vision kept wobbling at the edges.
And I just fired once.
-Thard-!
Through sheer utter luck, the bullet ripped through his head.
[Fuck! He shouted I’m down! FUCK!!]
I crawled backward until my spine hit the wall, and then I sat there with the DDM4 in my hands, while my chest hurt, my side burned, my vision stayed blurry, and my migraine kept drilling through the center of my skull.
I could hear the boots getting louder now, echoing from just about every direction.
[Is this it?]
The thought surfaced by itself.
I turned my head slowly and saw Tikki beside me, tail puffed, body arched, ears flat, and eyes locked on the staircase like he was ready to bite the next thing that moved.
"Nah... cough!" The chuckle turned into a cough halfway through, "Not yet."
