The clack of a gun being chambered.
Opening the door as carefully as he could, Felix pulled it open a centimeter at a time. Getting it past two inches he peeked in through the gap.
Two men and four women were pressed up to a wall in a defensive huddle. Not far from them were three men and a woman who were clearly the aggressors.
They also had the gun.
“Just give them to me. It’ll be easy. And then we can both go our separate ways and act like nothing happened,” said the man with the gun.
“No. I already told you. Just leave, you don’t have to do this. It doesn’t have to be like this,” said one of the men in the defenders’ camp.
“But it does,” said the man with the gun, raising it up to eye level.
Chapter 29 - Never Again -
Goddamnit. If he pulls that trigger every idiot nearby will know something is going on here.
Taking a firm grasp on the blade, Felix thought furiously.
He wanted the gun. He wanted to stop this before it got out of hand and brought every fool down on them nearby that thought they could benefit.
He also wanted everything these people had on them, and anything in this building he could claim. Being after midnight, his points would hold until tomorrow night.
If he built up a big enough value, he could eek something out.
First, the gun.
Even if he never fired it, having it would help level the playing field. At the least, it’d be an intimidation factor.
Then we’re resolved. We take the gun.
Miu would tell me to take out the one least likely to be missed, and move on quickly. If I do this right… I can drop two before they realize. Maybe three.
Doesn’t have to be perfectly clean, just enough to drop them.
Incapacitate them.
A quick inspection of the area got him a chunk of brick, and a small rock.
Taking both up, Felix transferred the brick and knife to his left hand, taking the rock in the right. Gliding forward, he hefted the rock twice to get a feel for it.
“What now then? Huh? Hand ‘em over. Or I’ll just kill you, take ‘em, and get out of here before anyone comes to check,” said the man with the gun.
He was clearly enjoying his moment of power over these people. Hopefully he would be too caught up in that to notice Felix.
Amazingly, or perhaps not considering how hard Miu had trained him, Felix closed within two feet of the rearmost enemy. He was a man of short stature and seemed distracted. Felix flicked the rock to the far side of the building. He’d been aiming for a space that would take all the eyes off his targets.
Before anyone even reacted, Felix switched the knife to his right hand, and brought the chunk of brick up into the back of the man’s head.
There was a solid clunking sound that Felix ignored immediately.
Flowing forward, Felix drew up alongside the woman and drove the brick into the back of her head as well.
The sound of the first man collapsing drew the second man to start turning towards Felix.
Leaping forward, Felix buried all six inches into that man’s throat. Ripping the blade to the side, Felix did his best to continue on towards the gunman.
Only to find that man was already starting to lift the gun towards Felix.
Eva’s fist crashed into the man’s jaw, turning his head to one side with the force of the blow. The man fell to his knees, his head clearly ringing with the strike.
Moving in quickly Felix brought the brick down on the man’s forehead. Chasing the man to the ground as he went, Felix brought the brick down twice more in rapid succession. Tossing the brick to one side, Felix scooped up the gun, rolled to one side, and came up with it aimed on the other group.
The men and women were staring at him unmoving.
“Keep an eye on them while I finish the others,” Felix said, looking to Eva.
“Do we have to?” Eva asked plaintively.
Felix didn’t respond to her, and instead went to the man he’d stabbed in the throat.
He was bleeding out fast and was already slipping into unconsciousness.
That one’s done.
“Seriously, do we have to?” Eva asked again.
“What would you have me do?” Felix asked, moving over to the woman. “Do you want to tie them up? Let them go? Try to talk them onto our side? Hm?”
“Actually, wait,” Eva said. “Hey, what territory is this? Where are we?”
The collective response from the huddled mass was jumbled and confused.
Felix got down on the woman’s shoulders, pinning them down with his knees. Her face was covered in dirt and small cuts. She had the look of someone who was probably pretty, but had seen the ugly side of war and was coming out the other side changed already. She was breathing, and if he didn’t miss his guess, she’d probably be mobile within an hour or two. Though still with the giant goose egg he’d given her on the back of the head.
“Where. Are. We. Who owns this block?” Eva repeated.
Felix put a hand behind the woman’s head and grabbed a fistful of her black hair. He tilted her chin upward to get a good line at her throat.
“This is Skipper’s turf,” said one of the men.
“Wait, Felix! Don’t kill her. If this is Skipper’s territory, doesn’t that mean you could take them as slaves? Yes?” Eva said.
“Nothing to bind it with,” Felix said, pressing the bloody blade to the woman’s throat.
“Wait. We can make this work. You gave me that one, didn’t you? I could make that one work,” Eva said, pleading. “I can use magic, throttle it out for two months, and use that as the binder. Lily told me all about it. Said it didn’t take much if it was a blood oath to slavery. It’s how the Pit works.”
The woman beneath him cracked her eyelids open slowly. Her green eyes were rolling around in her head as she tried to focus on him.
“Mmmauuuhhhh,” she gurgled beneath him. He must have really brained her.
Felix looked up at Eva. He wanted to do right by her, but this was foolishness.
Foolishness that’ll scar her forever if I don’t do it.
Sighing, Felix looked towards the other man he’d smashed with the brick. Unfortunately for that one, he wasn’t breathing.
Must have hit him harder than I thought.
“The other one is already dead. Can’t really fix that,” Felix started.
“I don’t care. Don’t do this,” Eva said. She apparently had realized she’d gotten some traction somewhere in this conversation and was pressing on it.
Felix couldn’t help but smirk at the situation.
She adapts so well to the situation regardless of what it is.
“Fine. This’ll be the first one I guess. That or I finish what I started. And you,” Felix said, gesturing to the six people. “You’ll be given the chance to join as well, but I’ll be frank with you. I’ll expect you to do what I tell you to, when I tell you to. This isn’t a democracy.”
Shaking his head, he looked back to the woman under him.
“And you, my dear thug, are very lucky,” Felix murmured, wiping the bloody, blackened blade off on her shoulder. He watched her intently, wondering if she’d agree, or if he’d be finishing her off later.
“Lluuuuuuuu-fy,” she groaned before her eyes closed again.
Eva was quickly explaining the situation to those six people.
Felix didn’t really care anymore. He needed to start exploring the post office as quickly as he could.
If he could figure out what was of value here as quickly as possible, he could get moving.
Clear the building, dust everything for points we can, find a better location to hold out.
Once we have that… information, food, water.
And a plan to get the hell out of here and back home.