Ace Of Spades (Complete Raw First Draft, Unedited)

Fourty: Warning

The inside of the warehouse was dark, impossible to see properly, so, naturally, we made our way toward the source of light filtering underneath the door at the end of the hallway we were in, which, unsurprisingly, was locked.

"You think we could kick in it?"  I wondered, eyeing it, but Clyde shrugged.

"Maybe," he answered, studying the door.  "They might be on the other side, though, we'd be dead before we even knew what hit us."

"Sounds like a good way to go," I muttered.

"Not to me," he answered, pressing his back against the wall.  "Stand back."

We both pressed our backs agaimst the wall, and he raised his gun in one hand, side on, firing off two shots into the door.

My ears rang from the shots, but no more followed from the other side of the door, and the ringing slowly faded.

I glanced at Clyde who inched toward the door, listening, then gave me the thumbs up.

"On the count of three," I told him, seeing no point trying to remain subtle now that there were gunshots ringing all over the warehouse.  The Specters had made their presence known.

"One, two, three."

On three, I rammed my shoulder against the door, both of us stumbling as it gave way.  I threw a quick glance around the room we were in, my gun raised, but we were clear.

I blinked, waiting for my eyes to adust to the brightness from the floodlight, shining into a smaller room.  It was set into the wall, like some sort of storage room, the door left wide open.

I went over to investigate it, my breath catching in my throat.

"Where they fuck is everyone?"  Clyde demanded, his voice sounding far too loud in the emptiness, echoing over the distant gunshots.

"Check this out," I told him, gesturing toward the two chains left in the room, a padlock looped through a link, left open as well.  "You reckon they had them here?"

Clyde froze when he came up beside me, staring at the chains.  I knew he was just as horrified as I was about the idea of the girls being chained up like animals.  In the back of my mind, I'd been hoping this was all just a sick joke, and that Bonnie and Jenna would just be hiding somewhere safe.  Obviously not.

Clyde was about to respond, but we both jumped at the sound of a door being thrown open, the same one we'd just entered through.

I ducked into the room, dragging Clyde after me, a bullet chipping the wood right by his head.

"Fuck," we said in unison, pressing ourselves flat against the wall.

"You okay?" I asked him, and he nodded, leaning around slightly for a clearer view flinching back as another gunshot rang out, missing him by a mere few inches.

"There's just one," he murmured to me.  "Using the doorway for cover, I reckon we could cut him off."

"He's too good a shot," I argued, shaking my head.

"I'll duck out and run to the right," Clyde said, quiet enough that only I could hear, gesturing toward that direction.  "When he's distracted, you take the left, and we'll flank him."

"We're gonna get ourselves killed," I muttered, still shaking my head.

"You got a better idea?"  He demanded.

I bit the insides of my cheeks, frowning.

"No," I admitted.

"It's a shit plan, I know," he agreed, craning round the corner again, ducking back as another gunshot ripped through the air.  "But I've got nothing else..."