Chapter 15

It was a cold night. 

The shadows lay in the darkness, and there wasn't a sound to be heard. Well, apart from the sound of footsteps quietly marching.

On and on we went. Counting myself in, we were a group of eleven people, with Wade at the front. I was somewhere in the middle. Every now and again there was a "Quiet!" or "Keep moving!", but apart from that we trudged on without any conversation.

We had left the base through the garage, driving a van a few miles until dumping it in an alleyway. We then walked the rest of the way.

And now, finally, we had arrived. I looked up to see the great office building towering above our heads. It was huge.

Wade suddenly spoke into his transmitter.

"We have arrived. It's now time to move on to phase two: getting inside"

Someone answered back on the transmitter:

"Great work. Just watch out. Security is tight up ahead."

The group then advanced towards the gates.

But barely even got close before someone saw us.

"Hey!"

They were two guards.

Suddenly, one of the killers got up, aimed and fired at them. Two short hissing bullets came out of his pistol and buried themselves into their stomachs. Then the two guards collapsed to the ground. 

The gun had obviously had a silencer attached to it. If not, the sound of the gunshot would have been much greater.

"Don't worry, kid" laughed Wade slapping me on the back "They were just stunning darts. These guys will be out for only a few hours"

I sighed and continued to walk.

When we reached the gates, one of the men got into the small controler cabin, pressed a few buttons and soon let us through. Fortunately, the gates didn't make hardly any sound as they opened. We hid the bodies of the guards and slipped through unnoticed.

"We're in" said Wade through the transmitter.

"Good. Now cross the carpark and go in through the main entrance"

We did as we were told.

Half of the group stuck to the right side of the carpark, and the other half (including me) went round the left side. We figured that it would be less likely to be spotted if we did so.

I crept behind car after car, my back down low, not saying a word.

From the point we had started the mission, I had not taken my eyes off the red button. It was dangling like a keyring from one of the zips in Wade's backpack. I winced every time it got  jostled around, hoping that it wouldn't get pressed somehow. If that happened, it would be the end. It was crazy how something so litte could cost my life. I shivered at the tought of it all.

But I couldn't get out of my head what Antonio had said to Wade yesterday: when the job was done, they were going to kil me after all! That's why I had to choose the moment carefully. Time was running out, my life was on the line. For the moment, I had to try to remain calm, in case of Wade spotting in me anything out of the usual. Tonight was the night: Life or death. It all came down to this.

"Zack!"

Wade suddenly brought me down to earth.

We had arrived at the entrance. One of the killers came forward and tried the door. For obvious reasons, it was locked. Then, he took out a small kit of what looked like metal knifes and utensils. With those, he jammed away at the door, and soon enough unlocked it.

Wade grinned. "Let's do this"

The group rushed into the building. We found ourselves in a big reception area.

"Head for the stairs!" shouted Wade.

We were no longer trying to keep quiet about things; people were going to see us anyway.

Up the stairs we climbed. We heard a couple of shouts behind. I continued to run, but the killers fired back and soon the whole lobby was filled with the sound of gunshots.

As soon as we reached the first floor, Wade started to shout orders of where to go. Through a corridor, then a left turn, up more stairs and through yet another hallway, all the time the killers shooting at passing guards.

Finally, after a lot of running, we turned into a room and locked the door behind us. Inmediately, the killers started to grab and push objects in front of he door, making sure the guards couldn't get in.

They soon finished, and so we all stood there, trying to catch our breath.

Wade spoke up.

"Okay men" he said "I believe we have arrived at the very centre of the building. In other words, exactly where Antonio wants us to plant the bomb"

My blood froze. We were here. This was it. The button was there, I could see it. Wade was right in front of me, talking away. Now or never. "I love you mum" I thought, and took a long deep breath.

I threw myself at Wade, catching him completely by surprise.

"What the-"

Yanking the button off his bag, I punched him in the face and he went flying. The others came at me, but I didn't stop.

I jumped up on a chair and kicked the first one in the face, confusing him. That was my chance. Before he recovered, I grabbed his pistol from his hand and shot him in the leg.

He screamed and fell backwards on to someone else. I kept shooting. One, two, three. But the men kept coming. A fourth man came from behind, but I ducked his swinging punch just in time, and then kicked him in the soft bits.

Gosh, I was doing better than I thought.

Unfortunately, my luck was about to run out, for a couple of the men took out their own guns. So I dived behind a shelf by the door, before punching yet another guy.

They fired away at me. But their bullets ran out quickly, and that's when I gave it a chance. As soon as they started to reload, I peered round and fired at the man closest to me. I hit him straight in the knee, and he howled with pain. Bullseye.

But just as I aimed to hit yet another man, I heard a sound behind me. I turned round, and for a split second I saw Wade with a murderous look on his face.

"You little demon" he said, and punched me straight in my left cheek.

I fell to the floor. My head throbbed with pain, and my eyesight had gone blurry. I could also feel a little blood running down my face.

The fight was over, I had been defeated. 

Wade picked me up and dragged me over on to a chair.

The remaining killers kept their distance, their guns aimed at my head.

"Think it would be so easy?" spat Wade bitterly. He looked terrible.

He yanked the red button from my hand and then hit me a few more times.

"Right, Zack" he said "I was going to do this later, you know, but it seems like I have to do this now"

"I was... aware of that" I mumbled back.

"Were you? Ho, ho!"

"Just get it over with, you fool. I'd rather die than listen to another word come out of your foul mouth"

I could have sworn he was about to press the little device, but he stopped himself: we had heard a sound.

For quite a while now, the hall outside and the rest of the building had gone completely silent, probably because we had stunned all the guards.

But there had been a sudden bumping sound that had caught us by surprise.

"What was that?" growled Wade.

But everyone just shrugged.

"You!" said Wade, pointing to one of the men "Go and check it out!"

The man did as he was told and after unblocking the door, silently went outside, closing the door behind him.

We waited in silence. But then, unexpectedly, we heard a great scream come from outside the door. Then, silence once more. We all stood there in terror; the scream had come from the killer's mouth.

We waited again in silence. Soon enough, there was another bumping sound coming from outside. And then another one! Whoever or whatever it was, it was obviously trying to scare us... and they were doing a pretty good job at it, too.

More bumps. More terror.

Suddenly, the door crashed open, and a group of people came running in. But at the front, there was a face I knew too well.

"Hello losers!" said Barry.




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