Soldier of Time

I: The Mercenary

Everything was blurred, as in a memory that struggles to disappear. The car was going at high speed. I still remember the colors of the road. Going on the official Highway was a lot of trouble, the squad leader had said. This guy had to be escorted to the airport in the best possible way.

This path turned out to be much longer and suffocating but much safer. Although in my experience, a lonely path is hardly safer.

It had been two hours since the assignment had started, the long road had been the logical choice according to our employer.

The target was next to me, and he didn’t seem particularly uncomfortable, but fear could still be seen in the back of his eyes.

My head leaned against the glass as the long journey slowly progressed to its denouement, the other members of the squad seemed to laugh at a joke which I don’t remember how it went, but suddenly someone joined the conversation.

“So, Deer?” Ringo asked while he smiled weirdly, “What kind of name is Deer?”

“Not a very good one...” I responded by looking at the fellow for a second, and the target made a confused face, and Ringo decided to clear up his doubt.

“You see, of all the men who are here to take care of you, this boy is the youngest. However, he is also the most famous,” Ringo casually said while pointing at me.

Because of that, the target looked at me, it was difficult to know what was on his mind, but he was obviously observing the youth that was reflected on my face.

Meanwhile, Ringo continued speaking nonchalantly, “This boy is known as the ‘Deer’ there are many reasons why they call him that but none seems to be correct,” he then snorted before adding, “Supposedly he was the Deer because he fights with his head.”

“More like with the horns” André added the chuckled. He was in the passenger seat, then he turned towards me “Don’t feel like a bad friend, you know what they say...”

When the man saw me, something broke the window next to him, and the driver’s head exploded, bathing all the glass in his door with blood.

For a second, everyone was in shock, and it was the uncontrolled car that made everyone see reason again.

Andre tried to take the wheel, but by the time he got to him, the car was already off the road in the direction of a tree.

André pulled the steering wheel hard to try to get us away from it, but the car could not stand the pressure of the turn and overturned, causing its backside to crash violently against the tree and the car to roll a little more on its roof.

My window was the only one that did not break with the impact, and it only splintered when my head collided with it from the strong wobble of the car. When I opened my eyes, some kind of red seemed to fall down my face.

My eyebrow was bleeding from the impact that splintered my window. I felt the pressure of gravity on my legs, where the seat belt kept me attached to the seat.

The target was completely unconscious, and Ringo next to him was already set in motion. He was slowly getting out of the truck while he called desperately to the driver. His screams would not be answered.

André started to get out of the car, and I decided to imitate him. I opened the seat belt and spectacularly fell on my head. The pain in my whole body was so strong that I barely felt that blow.

I settled in and finished smashing the window with my elbow as I prepared to get the target out of the car.

“Leave it inside!” Ringo shouted, panting heavily, “We still don’t know where the shooter is!”

I got out of the car and looked in all directions, I wiped the blood from my eye, but it kept pouring out of the wound on my eyebrow. I listened to a motorcycle among the noises that my head was making from the bruises. I stopped everything to observe more calmly.

The sun was behind me, along with the overturned car and a Ringo holding the back of his head. The tree we collided with was out of my field of vision, and in front of me, I could not see where the shooter was.

I left everything running again but sharpening my ear to that motorcycle noise that seemed to be approaching. Andre next to me was trying to make a radio call, he was kneeling on the floor and his rifle hitting its barrel against the hot earth.

I was looking at him, trying to listen carefully around me, and the noise of the motorcycle was heard louder and louder.

I knew someone was coming to finish the job. André was no longer holding the radio, and now he was pointing his rifle at the landscape, hoping to see the attacker before he started another attack.

“Must be two of them,”André said unhappily, “The shooter and the one who comes to finish.”

Just as André said that I paralyzed everything again, I thought for a second where we had received the shot and letting time run once more, I took my rifle and pointed it towards a place on the road.

The noise of the motorcycle was already clear and coming from in front of us. From what looked like some kind of sunken ditch, a motorcycle leaped onto the pavement.

André tried to shoot that man, but he took action first and unloaded his gun on us. I stopped everything again and watched to see what the best solution would be.

The man in front of us was holding his gun and had fired. The best option was to get out of his sight.

In my peripheral vision, there was a pile of rocks that were on the side of where the car had overturned, and that was the direction I took.

I ran towards them as the bullets collided in the places I had left behind. André’s gasp was heard over the bullet holes that pursued my escape. I jumped on the rocks, and many shots crashed into them.

Where I landed, I could see the driver’s side of the truck that had Ringo crouched down holding his gun. His hands trembled as his face seemed contorted with terror. His gaze was fixed on the floor, and at that moment, we heard the voice.

“You have good reflexes, buddy. I congratulate you.”

It was a youthful voice, hard to tell that it belonged to someone much older than me. Ringo turned his gaze with difficulty to me. He seemed to be panicking, which was absurd for a mercenary of his quality, but his eyes were filled with a fear that I had never seen.

“Ringo... I can’t hear you….” And at that moment, I understood the reason for Ringo’s panic.

“Hanibal, there is the guy, take it! I don’t care take him and go, please!”

Hanibal. The man attacking us was Hanibal King. That explained why Ringo had panicked. The best assassin of the civil war, and when it ended, he became the best hitman in the entire country. No one in Javelin could stop him. This was getting worse.

“You are the worst mercenary in history, buddy!” The murderer said in between laughter. His footsteps could be heard walking slowly. The blood from my eyebrow gave everything a red hue, and I could see how the truck was wobbling, and I understood what was happening. He was taking the target out of it.

“Come here, precious. Just look at your bodyguards. They don’t want to do their job...”       

I saw Ringo and made a sign to him, but he completely ignored it. I couldn’t count on Ringo for this. I had to do it on my own.

Instinctively I put my hand on my leg in search of my knives, but they were not there. I sighed in frustration at the decision I had made, and with speed, I jumped over the rocks that protected me and fell to the other side, aiming the rifle.

In front of me was Hanibal pointing a handgun at the target while with another pistol, he kept my face insight.

“You are a good employee. Wait. I know you!” Hanibal said with wide eyes.

“I know you too,” I replied dryly.

“Yes, everyone knows me in the Mines. But I know who you are. You are the Deer...” Hanibal muttered thoughtfully.

I looked at the smile on his face, and it was creepy. The target was still alive, but his chances were in the red at the time.

“Drop your weapon!” I said in an unsafe tone, although my plan wassimply to keep the conversation going.

“Tell me, did you try to put down your weapons after the war, child soldier?” He asked while looking at me with interest.

“I could ask you the same….”          

“Good times, now you have to earn a living, right?”Hanibal was talking to me casually as he observed his target, and that somehow pisses me off.

“Good Deer. The way I see it, your protégé is dead, regardless of whether you kill me or not. You obviously don’t want that, but I want to kill him, so I propose the following.”

I stopped everything once more. I tried to think of possible solutions, but in the situation, I was in, everything seemed to lead to the same conclusion.

I looked around the ground expecting him to propose what I thought he would propose.

“We drop our weapons and decide it the old way. The winner takes everything. Yeah?” Hanibal offered with a grin.

At that moment, everything happened absurdly fast. Hanibal shot and killed the mark. But he didn’t shoot me. Instead, he opened one of the car doors, moving extremely fast. I pulled the trigger, and all the bullets hit the door. There,I make everything paralyzes again.

The image I was looking at was clear, Hanibal’s gun appeared from what used to be the window of the overturned car door pointing directly at me, the target was dead, and I would be next.

When I released the time, I moved as fast as I could, jumping on my back to get covered by the car. The shots did not reach me, but I had to move fast.

I got up and thought about turning the car to get Ringo out of his trance, but when I leaned out,Hanibal was over the car shooting Ringo in the head and firing in my direction.

I went back to cover myself and listened as the shots collided on the edge of the car just above me. The truck moved as he walked. I held my rifle without showing my face over the truck and fired, but he jumped, doing a flip and falling right in front of me, evading my attack.

I froze time again. His body was turned back, and his weapons were in his hands. One of his legs was raised in my direction. I was helpless. My hands were over my body, shooting at a target that was no longer there. I analyzed the situation well and acted.

When I released the time, his kick went to my chest, but my hands came down quickly, and I placed the rifle in the path of his foot, preventing him from kicking me. His face looked shocked and when I kicked his base leg. He fell to the ground roughly.

At that moment, I froze time once more. He had fallen with his back on the ground. But he had already absorbed the blow, and now his weapons were preparing to point in my direction.

I let go time again and threw my rifle into his hands, and then kicked all the weapons away from us, both my rifle and his pistols. Then as fast as I could, I grabbed my handgun, and as I pulled it,I froze time once more.

The man was coming towards me with force, he would arrive long before my weapon could point at him, and he would cause me a lot of damage with his attacks.

As I let time rum, I moved out of the way while pointing towards where he was going to be at the end of his movement, but he handheld my wrist against the car as his leg kicked my stomach, and he elbowed me in the face.

I fell to the ground seeing the blue of the sky. I stopped time for who knows how long. I saw in all possible directions, andthere were no stones or sticks that I could use. I had no more weapons, and he was out of reach from my legs or arms.

There was only a cannon pointing in front of me, far out of my reach, blue eyes belonging to the devil, and a bright blue sky. Death this day dressed in azure blue.

Hanibal saw me and smiled when he said, “This is a gift for a good match”

And he shot my bulletproof vest three times. The impulses were strong and dry like surprise blows, and the air went away in the first one, the sight in the second, and the last one, took my conscience.

_______________

The sound of the alarm clock broke the silence of the room. Slevin looked at his own reflection while his hand rose to the scar on his eyebrow. His memory was interrupted.

He released a heavy sigh before he muttered quietly, “I hadn’t thought about that for a long time….”