“Okay, upstairs, get out.” I kneel next to the boxes as we listen to the thuds from footsteps upstairs, and then down the stairs. I take the lighter and set a few of the box strips on fire.
Once the fire is burning well and has started to lap at the curtains, we step back. We carefully make our way to the next set of curtains, while making sure we stay out of sight of the windows.
The downstairs team keeps ahead of us, clearing a path, creating places for us to start the fires and keeping the people in the street occupied. They’ve also pulled some of the bodies to the middle of the room and when I glance to Luca, he’s noticeably not looking in that direction.
He puts down a couple more cut up boxes and I hand him the lighter. He gives me a tight smile as he holds it near the boxes, the flame moving jerkily as his hand is shaking, and they catch fire. We wait for a couple of seconds, making sure it’s burning well, and then step away.
As Luca steps back, he trips over something and I quickly grab for him, dropping my boxes. He looks down, very pale, but seems to relax when he realises it’s a broken piece of wood, from a table or chair. Then he lets out a soft chuckle. “That was almost a repeat of that first night.”
I raise my eyebrow at him not so sure what he’s talking about, but he quickly shakes his head, grabs the boxes I dropped and nudges me on.
“Let’s keep going. It’s not exactly safe to stay here, right?”
I look back to where we set the first fire and the curtains have started to properly burn, the flames reaching the ceiling, the heat from them starting to fill the room. Yeah, if we don’t keep moving, we might not be able to get out on time.
And that would be very, very bad.
I look to the people from Mathew’s team and sign for them to get moving, then I reach up so everyone hears me. “Everyone out of the building. This thing is going down.”
2
Jorge
Watching Mathew get carried/dragged out of the building was fucking scary. He acted like nothing was wrong, clearly annoyed he was getting dragged away from the action, but when I saw how much blood there was on his clothes, it made sense that they wanted him to get stitched up as quickly as possible.
He refused to leave the alley even as someone was looking him over, he wanted to stay as close to the action as possible. I stayed near him the whole time, probably getting in everyone’s way, but I didn’t care, my mate was hurt and I needed to be with him.
Then, from a distance, I watched Caleb and Derrick move to the buildings on either side of the brothel, joining the teams there, and the tension got worse.
Riley came barging out of the building, immediately coming over and fussing over Mathew, once Vera and her were done with their part of the tasks. That meant that when Caleb told us the vans from the Hearts were in front of the building, only Vera and Luca were still inside.
Once Mathew heard that the Hearts had arrived, he finally allowed Riley to take him to Timothy’s van. After everyone had already tried to convince him —with no luck— this was finally enough of a threat that he accepted to be moved. But only by Riley and only to Timothy’s van, no further than that. He wanted to stay on top of what was going on, but conceded that doing that from Timothy’s van would be safer and more sensible.
They tried to get me to join them, since I don’t want to be part of any fighting, but two of my mates were still inside the building, and one of them in an adjacent one, I couldn’t leave, not yet.
I tug on the bulletproof vest, not very comfortable wearing it, and the size is a little too small, but they wouldn’t let me stay here without one. This was the best option.
The corner where we took the kids through isn’t visible from the street in front of the building. So that nobody out front would be able to see what we were doing, but it also means that it’s a bit sheltered from everything. Because the sounds I hear from the street are not good, at all.
After Vera told everyone to leave the building, the gunfire seemed to lessen for a couple of moments, but it picked back up soon after, probably from the teams in the other buildings.
I watch as the orange glow on the wall of the alley intensifies and grows, reflecting the fires in front of the building.
My eyes shoot between the back door and the flames. I don’t know if I’m getting warmer and warmer because of stress or because of the fire, but I don’t like it either way.
More and more people from Mathew’s teams come out the back door, immediately reorganising as they get new orders from Timothy, since Derrick is too busy with what’s going on at the front of the building.
When nobody else comes out for ten seconds. I start to get nervous.
Another ten seconds pass, and still no Vera or Luca.
Another ten seconds and I reach up for my ear piece as I start to cross over to the door.
Where are they?
Did they get stuck?
Are they in trouble?
