“Someone’s coming” Rick whispered stark fear evident in his eyes.

I glanced around the room hurriedly. The only thing that looked good enough for us to hide in was a closet and the west side of the room.

“The closet” I said, running towards it.

We were running out of time, if that was an Ip the chances of us escaping out of the house without being noticed was looking bleak.

I got into the closet which was big enough to house Rick and I. Rick followed shortly and pulled the door shut.

I shrunk further back into the welcoming smell of both old and new clothes.Vertical slits in the closet door allowed us to see what was going on outside.

So far the door of the room hadn’t opened and the footsteps had
receded. Maybe it had been an Ip coming up to grab something.

I held my breath and watched the door intently.

“We are running out of time’’ Rick whispered the inevitable.

I made a shushing gesture with the index finger of my hands.

“Let’s wait a little bit, maybe whoever it was just coming up to check
something.”

I counted to thirty seconds in my head, and then counted ten more. Still no sound or sign of danger. I was ready to come out from the closet when suddenly the door of the room opened slowly.

Whoever was behind the door was acting very cautious, opening the
door crack by crack. As the crack grew wider I could see the head of a stun gun come into view.

Shit. It was an IP.

The door opened fully and an Ip stepped into the room his stun gun drawn in front of him.He leveled it in front of the closet and looked around the room.

I couldn’t tell where exactly he was looking at behind his visor.

He stepped fully into the room and silently closed the door.

“Come out boys, I know you are here.”

Fuck.

How had he known we were here.I felt Rick tremble close to me.

“I believe you boys have something that is mine.”

The Ip walked to the center of the room and slowly started for the closet.

“It’s him.” Rick whispered.

In an instant I suddenly understood what had happened. Loraine had
known we were hiding beneath the shrubs and he had purposely dropped
his nullifier.

But what game was he playing? Why had he let us get into the house when he could have easily stopped us outside.

“What do we do?” Rick whispered.

My brain was moving on clockwork now.

“I wouldn’t want to use this gun on you boys now would I? Why don’t you just spare me the trouble and come out” Loraine said, as he walked towards the closet in slow purposeful steps.

“We take him down,” I whispered to Rick in the darkness of the closet.
“I’ll go for his midsection and you go for his legs.”

“What?’’

“We have no other choice it’s either this or we get caught. We'll wait for him to come close enough and we move quickly.”

“Fuck, this is not a good idea” Rick whispered silently.

“I see you boys like to take risks, so does my gun.”

Loraine was within spitting distance of the closet but if we made a hurried and uncalculated move he could easily recover and things could go south.

I counted down as he came closer and closer.

3, 2, 1…

“Now!” I yelled.

Bursting through the closet door I charged at Loraine who barely had
time to pull back from the surprised assault.

I barreled into his midsection as Rick tackled him from below.

We all crashed to the ground a tangle of bodies. The stun gun left his hands and clattered off somewhere in the room.

I got on top of Loraine and reached for his neck squeezing with all the strength I could muster.

But Loraine hadn’t become an Ip for nothing, he grabbed my hands and
slowly but surely started to pry them away from his neck.

Rick just stood there watching unable to move.

“Find the gun.” I yelled at him.

The blow came fast, so fast that I didn’t even see it. Loraine’s fist
made contact with the side of my head and white spots filled the side of my vision.

I still didn’t let go.

The blow came again, this time carrying more momentum and power than the first one. Crashing into my jaw and snapping my head sideways.

I felt a stinging sensation in my mouth and tasted blood.

Loraine thrust his hips sideways and I went off balance falling to the ground in a heap. He was up on his feet even quicker than I had reached the ground.

He sent a kick straight to my exposed stomach and I doubled up in pain. Another one to the side of my ribs and I felt pain light up my entire body.

The funny part was that Loraine never uttered a word or even a sound...not even a grunt.

He descended to where I was on the ground, reaching for my neck he
began squeezing.I could slowly feel the air seeping away from my lungs as I frantically pushed at his hands.

“Stop!”

Loraine’s grip on my neck loosened and he turned to face Rick who was pointing the stun gun at him.

A short bark like laugh came from inside of the visor.

“Throw the gun over here boy” Loraine said, his hands still on my neck although his grip had slackened a little bit.

Rick stood there the gun in his hand and a mad look in his eyes.

“Let…him…go.”

Loraine gave no indication of releasing his grip on my neck and I wasn’t
sure that Rick was actually going to shoot him.

“You do know that if you shoot me you wouldn’t get away easily with it.”

At those words Rick’s eyes seemed to falter and the madness there was replaced with fear.”

“I know you don’t want to get in trouble so slowly  slide the gun over here and back off.”

Rick made no attempt at backing off neither did he make an attempt at
giving the gun back to Loraine. He merely stood there indecisive.

Thinking that he had both of us right where he wanted Loraine was starting to get cocky and careless.His grip on my neck had loosened nicely. I needed to act fast.

Throwing my knee up quickly I smashed it into his stomach. Freeing me Loraine clutched at his stomach giving me enough time to roll away from him and get back on my feet.

My victory was short lived as he charged at me. I was tired and my jaw
was hurting terribly but I braced for impact.

There was a sharp crack sound behind me and Loraine shot backward, off his feet. He crashed back first into the door of the room and slid to the ground unconscious.

Rick had fired.

“We’ve got fifty seconds more!” Rick yelled in terror.

The noise the stun gun had made coupled with the sound of Loraine’s
back coming in contact with the door was enough to bring Ip’s swarming
into the house.

“Let’s go!”

Rick hurried over to the unconscious Loraine and slipped the stun gun
back into its holster which was on Loraine’s waist.

With time barely on our side we left the room streaking down the hallway towards the back door.

Fortunately for us the noise hadn’t attracted any Ips yet.Once we were safely past the red tapes and outside a beeping sound emanated from the nullifier.

Entry time used…reboot in progress.

Rick dropped the nullifier on the ground and looked at me with wide
eyes.

“Is…is he dead.”

“No, I replied trying to calm my pounding heart. The stun gun only
stuns it doesn’t kill.”

Rick nodded and a slight tremble passed through him.

“I can’t believe I just shot an IP” he said his eyes lit up with fear.

“Let’s leave, Ip’s would soon be swarming here.” I said making my way towards the sedan