I sigh—aggravated—at the sound of Hayden’s voice calling from behind me. I keep walking to the car,speeding up just a little. “Don’t start with me, Hayden!” I growl.
I climb into the driver’s seat and slam the door shut, immediately shifting the gear into reverse, trying to get the hell out of here before he catches up to me. I back out of the parking spot, and as I go to shift into drive, the passenger door swings open, and in jumps a panting, sweaty Hayden.
“Fuck, man.” He snaps breathlessly.
“I don’t have time to argue with you, I’m saving Kelsey myself.”
“I’m not stopping you, I’m going with you.” He reasons and looks me dead in the eyes, seriousness etched into every fiber of his face. “It’s my fault all of this happened, and I will be there to make it right. The guilt is fucking eating me, man.”
My nostrils flare as I take it all in. He’s damn right, it’s all his fault. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little relieved to have him going with me. At the end of the day, he is my brother and always will be. We fist bump, and Hayden sighs a breath of relief, “Let’s get our girl back.”
We successfully breached their system thanks to Teegan, who called me like a pissed-off wet mama hen when he realized Hayden and I had set off on this mission alone. He was able to bypass their system operations, and we took down their entrance guards, which was surprisingly easy. We expected at least a little more of a fight from them, but now it’s safe to say there’ll be no more fights from them in the future.
“Ah man, they splattered their blood all over my new shirt,” Hayden whines jokingly.
“Dude, you’ve had that shirt for a decade,” I reply, cracking a smirk. Something I haven’t managed to do in damn near four days.
Walking side by side in all black to blend in with the shadows. They don’t call me Shadow for nothing. We pull out our black Glock 9’s and attach the silencers we had specially crafted. I wasn’t sure what we were up against, so I loaded ten mags to be sure I had plenty of bullets. I’m not worried about missing my shot. I don’t miss. I just don’t know how many people we are about to have on our hands.
“What’s it lookin’ like, T?” I ask through the earpiece. He has access to all indoor security cams, which benefits us drastically, because he can tell us what to expect and where to go.
“I’ve blocked the cams from their access, so you’re good as far as that goes.” He clears his throat, and we wait idly behind a hedge of bushes across from the entrance doors. “You have approximately two minutes to breach the doors, then you will take an immediate left down the first hall crossing you see. There appears to be a medical room, possibly an OR, on the right.”
Nodding my head towards the house, I stay slightly crouched with Hayden directly behind me. We press our backs firmly against the siding of the house on either side of the door and listen for only a second, trusting Teegan would inform us if any threats were beyond it. I silentlycount down from three on my fingers, and together we kick the steel door open. It bounces off the wall, sending a plume of drywall dust into the stale air.
Alarms and flashing red lights immediately blare. It’s already too late for them. If anyone survives our wrath tonight, they’re only going to be lucky briefly.
“You’re about to be greeted by four guards from the security room straight down the hall.” Something tells me these guys won’t be as easy to kill as the others.
“You take the right hall, and I’ll take the left,” I whisper to Hayden. “Shoot as soon as they open that door.”
He nods in agreement, and we proceed to our stations, keeping our guns at the ready. A few seconds feel like an eternity when you have little to no patience. My clock is ticking, and waiting on these fuckers is wasting too much of my time. I glance at Hayden to make sure he’s focused on our task. Given the circumstances, it will take a while before I can fully trust him again, if that’s even possible.
Hushed voices beyond the basement door have us both shifting on our feet, preparing ourselves to take aim. Footsteps halt before the slams open, and all hell breaks loose. Hayden fires and shoots the first guy right between the eyes.
“Nice,” I say with a wicked smirk. “Next one’s mine.”
The men following behind haven’t realized their buddy is down yet, thanks to our specially made silencers.
“Fuck!” One of them shouts, and it sends joy through my bones. Yeah, that’s right. Shadow’s here, bitches. I like to play with my prey a little, so I let him scope out hissurroundings, fearing the unknown that lurks around the corner. As soon as he reaches for the rifle on his back, I blow out his kneecaps in quick succession. He lands on his knees before twisting to land on his side, and an agonizing scream tears from his throat.
“Such a pussy.” I mock, making Hayden chuckle. “Don’t kill him. He’ll be giving us information later.”
“Yes, sir,”
Two more men trail behind him, and honestly, I’ve grown bored with them. This is the absolute worst security I’ve ever seen. Did they hire mall cops or some shit? What the fuck even is this place?
Hayden and I fire simultaneously. My shot lands right in the jugular, and Hayden’s shot hits their temple.
“Good shit!” T, exclaims in my ear. “Alright, go to that medical room on Ry’s right. All their locks are old school, so you’ll have to kick it in too.”
“How much time do we have?” I query as we rush to the door, trying the handle in case it happens to be unlocked. No luck, of course.
We take several steps back before charging towards the door, jamming our shoulders into the steel. The force sends tingles down my arm, but I shake it off. Scanning the room, I notice it is ancient. Everything looks like it came out of the Flintstones era.
Picking up a scalpel from the instrument tray, I examine it, noticing how rusted it is.
“I will personally cut their dicks off with this tetanus-infested bullshit if they used this on Kelsey.”
