Reprisal

(17)

Chris POV

The buff and grisly man with the eyes of the devil grasps my neck and throws me down the stairs. I get up and run up the spiral stairs and smash the guard's head into the bannister. I jab him with my fist mercilessly. He grabs a knife from his pocket. This is it I think. This is the end of the world.

I dodged the first swipe and then the second as if I was dancing around the bloke. I grab his wrist and kick him in the groin with full force. He falls to the ground like a sack of rocks. I grab the knife and lunge the knife at his chest. But I pause. I reluctantly drop the knife and knock the guard out instead.

I run up the stairs and look around for a library. But all the rooms are locked by an eye scanner. I grab the guard's body from the stairs and bring him to a random door. A quiet beeping sound follows as the door clicks open. I rush inside and it appears to be some sort of storage room. Not a library.

I try a few more doors on the other idea of the hall. Consistently slamming a guard's head into a fancy eye-detecting panel multiple times, never gets old.

I finally find what looks like a library. The room is illuminated in a bright yellow. There isn't anything that bad in here. Apart from the creepy books. I fumble around and accidentally open something. The secret room Skyler mentioned ages ago. It opens like a secret vault in an 80s film.

I walk in and the entire room is a bright blood red. Someone else has been in here because they have left the light on. I switch the light off to save my eyesight. I notice something under a desk. A little hatch. Not little enough, however. I notice a camera on the side and I grasp it with speed. I crawl in the hatch.

All there is. Is nothing. A deep and dark black void of nothing. I crawl out of the hatch and turn on the light. I slither back into the hatch with a few painful groans. It is too tight for my build. But I can probably still make it. I notice a hatch door in front of me. I push on the handle and above me is another desk which is hiding me from Alex. I crawl forward just a little more. I'm under this desk now. Staring at a man with no mercy in his heart.

A random young man who is probably 22 years old, is chained by his wrists to the roof. I spot a security camera in the corner. It takes a few seconds for me to realise it is not a security camera. It is a broadcasting camera. Alex is broadcasting his kills.

Alex grabs a wrench and says something to the man. I don't know what. I couldn't quite catch it.

I take a picture but the camera flashes. I panic in a frenzy and Alex turns around. He doesn't spot me because I have already crawled out of the vent. I rush out of the mansion and a guard points his gun up at me.

This time I really am in the shit.

The guard stokes the trigger and aims his shot. I duck behind a pillar. Multiple shots rip and skim the edge of the pillar. Anointing me in quartz dust. I run to another pillar and a bullet whistles past my ear. My right ear rings. I hold it for no purpose at all. It won't help cease the ringing pain. Luckily the bullet didn't hit.

The guard runs around the corner and fires a few more rounds at me. All silenced. No one will hear me scream out here. One bullet skims my arm. The adrenaline numbs the pain. I run around the corner of the house and break open a window. To my luck, I end up in a kitchen. I grab a large kitchen knife and duck behind an oven when bullets fly through the window.

The gun clicks. He has run out of ammunition. I turn around and a guard headlocks me. I stab his hand and lunge into his stomach. I grab his gun and carefully manoeuvre. I exit the mansion and shoot the guard with an empty mag in his hand. I run away back to my car and throw the gun outside. I step on the gas and drive out of the forest. I park up somewhere safe.

The photo that has ejected out of my camera is smeared. Severely smeared. It will be no use. I groan in distress. The wound on my arm looks pretty bad. I put pressure on it to prevent blood from leaking out of my arm. I grab my phone and call an ambulance.

My hand becomes soaked in blood. Before I know it. My vision becomes blurred and I fall asleep.

An ambulance arrives and its blue lights illuminate the street. The sirens wail and become muffled. An ambulance crew assisted me out of the car and into an ambulance.

"It's just a flesh wound. You'll be okay. Gary! I need the bandages and disinfectant!"

"Bringing them to you!" Gary replies to the crew members carrying me on a stretcher.

They patched my arm up and put me in the ambulance.

"Good thing you ain't badly hurt. How the hell did you manage to get a flesh wound?" Gary sterilises my arm.

"Someone shot me." I cough.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Gary wraps the bandage around the flesh wound.

"I don't think so." I groan in pain.

"Nicholas. Check him. See if he has taken severe injuries." Gary demands.

"Yup," Nicholas replies. He rips open my T-shirt and checks for any more wounds.

"No, we are good."

"Driver! How long until we reach the hospital!?" Gary asks with a worried voice.

"Six minutes."

Six minutes would soon pass by. We would be parked at the front of A&E. The crew put me on a stretcher and carried me to Skyler's ward.

I lay on the hospital bed next to Skyler. The doctors leave me to rest.

"When do you get out?" Skyler asks.

"Tomorrow." I look out above the town.

The moonlight shatters across the roofs of many buildings.

"You got hurt? Are you okay?" Skyler begins to irritate me.

"I'm not Skyler! I've just been shot and injured while trying to conclude your stupid conspiracy theories!" I growl.

"You believed me before? Why not now!" Skyler sits up and this time doesn't groan in pain.

I look back outside.

"I don't want to. That's the truth. I haven't told you this. But. Alex was hurting someone. I found a hatch. Leading to a Red Room." I stutter.

"Did you get a photo?"

"Just blur. That's it. He almost caught me because of the flash. That's when I ran outside and got shot." I sigh under my breath.

"We go tomorrow. With Katie. With Lydia. With you. And me." Skyler turns the bedside lamp off.

"And do what?" I return.

"Kill him. Make it look like he did a suicide. That simple." Skyler recommends.

"Leave no fibres or fingerprints. The only way we can do that is to poison him. So when do we do this? How will we get Lydia involved?" I query.

"We meet her at The Momentum Cinema," Skyler answers. Suddenly there is a long pause.

"Christopher Brooke. We have a few questions for you." The sergeant arrives with his hands in his vest.