CHAPTER 11 FIRE IN THE DARK
1136 Words
The refinery roared like a living beast.
Pipes hissed steam. Sirens spun red light through the metal shadows. Smoke hung in the air like a funeral veil. And in the center of it all stood Jaxon, Lena pressed behind him, surrounded on every side by Viktor’s armed men.
Guns glinted in the orange glow.
Boots scraped across concrete.
The ring of enemies closed in tight.
Viktor’s voice echoed overhead, dripping satisfaction.
“Drop your weapons, Jaxon. Your heroic sprint ends here.”
Jaxon didn’t lower his gun.
His chest rose and fell with slow, steady breaths.
Blood streaked down his arm.
His knuckles were raw, shaking from exhaustion.
But his eyes were steel.
“Let her go,” he said.
Viktor laughed. “After everything you’ve done tonight? No, no. She stays.”
Behind Jaxon, Lena whispered, “Don’t listen to him… keep your focus.”
Her voice steadied him. Even in her fear, she still believed in him.
He tightened his grip on his gun.
The refinery doors slammed shut behind Viktor’s men, trapping them inside.
More soldiers appeared on the upper walkways, aiming rifles downward.
“Come now,” Viktor teased. “You’re outnumbered. Outgunned. Exhausted. And your brother”
“Don’t.”
Jaxon’s voice cut like a blade.
Viktor smiled cruelly.
“is waiting for you to fail.”
Jaxon fired first.
The gunshot cracked through the refinery like thunder.
The bullet tore into one soldier’s armor. Chaos instantly erupted, gunfire exploding from every direction. Lena ducked behind a steel drum as sparks rained around her. Jaxon dove forward, rolling behind a pillar while bullets exploded against metal pipes, hot steam hissing out in violent bursts.
The refinery turned into a battleground.
Jaxon’s instincts kicked in. Every movement is sharp. Every breath is calculated.
He sprang out, firing two rapid shotsone soldier dropped, his rifle clattering. Another rushed him from the left. Jaxon slammed the man’s arm upward, disarming him, then drove an elbow into his jaw. Bone cracked.
A third soldier charged with a taser baton. Jaxon blocked the first strike with his forearm and flipped the soldier over a railing he spiraled into the pit below with a scream.
More bullets tore overhead.
“Jaxon!” Lena shouted.
She slid a metal wrench toward him; he caught it just in time to block another soldier’s blade. Jaxon swung the wrench hard, smashing the soldier’s helmet sideways. The man collapsed instantly.
But more kept coming.
Hundreds, it felt like.
Viktor watched from above with calm amusement, leaning on the rail.
“You fight beautifully,” he mused. “But you can’t win.”
Jaxon ignored him.
His eyes darted across the refinery.
He spotted the overhead crane.
The suspended fuel barrel.
The precarious chains.
A plan.
He sprinted toward Lena, grabbed her hand, and pulled her up.
“We move NOW!”
They ran. Bullets trailed behind them like angry wasps. Jaxon fired blindly to cover their retreat. Soldiers chased them along the narrow walkway, boots pounding.
“Left!” Lena pointed.
They skidded onto a metal catwalk.
Below them: giant fuel tanks humming with pressure.
To the right: a maintenance ladder.
Above them: the crane hook swinging slowly.
“Jaxon, what are you”
He jumped onto the ladder and began climbing toward the crane.
“Cover me!” he shouted.
Lena grabbed a fallen pistol and fired back at the soldiers closing in. Her hands shook, but her aim held steady. She shot out a spotlight, plunging half the refinery into shadow.
Jaxon reached the crane controls, smashed the glass, and ripped out the safety lock.
Metal screamed as the crane arm swung.
Viktor leaned forward. “What are you doing?”
Jaxon hit the release lever.
And the massive fuel barrelhundreds of kilograms of pressurized metaldropped like a meteor.
BOOM!
The explosion rocked the entire refinery. The shockwave threw soldiers off their feet. Fire erupted across the floor, swallowing machines and bodies alike. The tower Viktor stood on shook violently.
“GO!” Jaxon shouted.
He slid down the ladder, grabbed Lena, and pulled her through a maintenance doorway as flames roared behind them.
But Viktor wasn’t done.
He stepped through the smoke with hatred twisting his face.
“Enough games.”
He pressed a button on his wrist device.
A gate slammed down, blocking their escape.
Lights flickered on.
And from the far end of the corridor… heavy metallic footsteps echoed.
Jaxon’s stomach sank.
He knew that sound.
“Viktor,” he growled, “don’t tell me”
The shadows shifted.
A giant armored figure stepped into the light.
Eight feet tall.
Full exoskeleton.
Hydraulic limbs.
Red scanning visor.
A steel titan.
One of Viktor’s enhanced battlefield prototypes.
“Kill them,” Viktor ordered.
The titan charged.
Jaxon barely shoved Lena aside before the creature’s fist exploded through the wall where he’d been standing.
The impact shattered concrete.
The titan turned its glowing visor toward Jaxon.
Locked on.
It lunged again.
Jaxon ducked under its arm, rolled, grabbed a metal pipe, and slammed it into the creature’s knee joint. The blow barely dented it but it made the machine stumble.
The titan responded by grabbing Jaxon and hurling him across the corridor.
He hit the wall so hard Lena screamed.
“Jaxon!”
He forced himself up, spitting blood.
The titan stomped toward him.
Jaxon’s mind raced. He couldn’t harm the thing physically, not enough power.
He needed leverage.
Weakness.
A gap.
He spotted exposed wiring along its spine just beneath the hydraulic pack.
There.
He charged.
The titan swung
Jaxon slid under its arm, leaped onto its back, and plunged the metal pipe deep into the wiring. Sparks exploded. The titan convulsed.
“Lena! The valve!”
She looked around, spotted the emergency coolant valve, and sprinted toward it as bullets from Viktor’s soldiers began raining again.
She ducked behind the tank, twisted the valve, and
WHOOSH!
A blast of frozen vapor engulfed the titan, coating its armor in white frost.
“NOW JAXON!” she cried.
With a roar, Jaxon slammed the pipe down.
The frozen hydraulic tube shattered.
The titan collapsed like a toppled statue.
Breathing hard, Jaxon dropped to his knees.
Lena rushed to him.
“Jaxon! Are you okay?”
He cupped her cheek. “I’m still here.”
But Viktor wasn’t finished.
He stepped through the smoke, expression dark and murderous.
“You want a war?” Viktor hissed. “Then let’s finish it.”
Before Jaxon could respond, Viktor lifted a remote and pressed it.
Every exit slammed shut.
Steel walls sealed them inside the burning refinery.
“Let’s see how long love lasts,” Viktor said coldly, “when fire takes the air from your lungs.”
The doors locked.
The flames rose.
The real fight had only just begun
- Writer
