The Aethernet Falls

Chapter 11 - Observersatory

“Nobody move!” A man in tactical gear, burst through the now unlocked door, “Rust Belt Regional Militia!” He scanned the room with his rifle leveled. He lowered the gun and made a fist with one hand, raising it beside his head. Two more men came into the room, each taking either side of the first, carefully peaking around the corners before emerging in their designated direction. Consummate professionals.

Though Boros saw none of it. He was sat with his back to the work station on the far side of the desk, clutching the small handgun. It suddenly felt woefully inadequate. He had a vague notion of where Clarissa was. She had been checking other workstations somewhere on the far side of the room when Greco burst in. The politician had run off somewhere, Boros didn’t know where. He wasn’t even sure he could count on the man.

His best hope, probably his only hope, was that the men would quickly lose interest and leave. Boros was absolutely certain that was not going to happen.

Footsteps rang out in the still of the room. Slow and deliberate. The occasional sharp step as someone planted and pivoted to look around a corner. It was only a matter of time before one of them found somebody. Boros hoped it wasn’t Clarissa.

-

She was stuck fast, back planted against the workstation, hugging her knees and squeezing her eyes shut as though she could just will them away. She couldn’t move even if she wanted to. It was as though she had sprouted roots and stuck fast to the ground.

The footsteps sounded distant to her still, but she knew that Greco and her brother would be much closer to the intruders. Suddenly she was struck with the violent image as the men found their brother and shot him in the head. She couldn’t let that happen. But she could barely move.

Greco was something she didn’t have to worry about. Even though he had gotten them this far, she hardly knew him and he likely had enough knowledge of this place to hide well. He did seem to know everything about it. She thought maybe since the men had only seen him, that if they found him first they would do whatever they wanted with him and just move one. Not knowing anyone else was there.

But the computer that Boros was using had been turned to face the door. Surely they would see that and come looking if he hadn’t taken the time to turn it off. She knew she had to hazard a glance ahead. She figured if she was low enough to the ground the clutter of workstations and chairs would hide her. Hoped.

She lay low on the ground and, turning her head to the side, peaked around the corner just enough to see if she could get a glimpse of her brother. She couldn’t. She did see a man looking away from the workstations, to the partition that split the room down the middle. Boros wasn’t there, but if the man turned around when he discovered that no one was on the other side of the partition he would probably see Boros clear as day.

Sweat dripped down her forehead. She swallowed hard and held her breath. What she was about to do was absolutely crazy. If any of the other guys were looking in her direction she would die on the spot. They wouldn’t give her a second chance.

-

Clarissa stood straight up from where she was hiding. Hands above her head like the man before demanded. She was shouting something, but Boros couldn’t hear it over the pounding in his ears.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted on of the men he was leveling his gun on her, yelling something that somehow sounded distant to Boros even though he wasn’t more than a few meters away from the man. He tightened his grip on the small handgun and stood stretching his gun arm out and firing three quick shots.

The kickback, however minimal it was, seemed to raise each shot. The first two had caught the man in his body armor, but the third hit him in the face, just above the nose.

He swiveled quickly shouting “Sasa, get down!” as he did. Trying to bring the handgun around before the other two could sight him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do it. He wasn’t a professional. He wasn’t a soldier. He’d only fired a gun once before in his life and that was point blank distance. He closed his eyes and prepared for the shots to come.

Two loud bangs and he crumpled to the floor.

-

Greco had emerged from a door Clarissa hadn’t seen before as soon as Boros had fired. He had a small black gun, barely visible in his hand. He took two steps forward and pointed at the back of one of the men, pulling the trigger once then turned it on the other. Two shots in the back and they both fell to the ground. Boros had, too for some reason.

Had they gotten a shot at him? She couldn’t tell from where she was standing. She didn’t hear the men fire a round, didn’t see the bright flash from the muzzles of their rifles. Maybe they had silencers. She had known what they were from serials, but didn’t know what one might look like in real life.

She ran over to her brother while Greco fired twice more, pointing at the men who were laying on the ground. If they weren’t dead before, they most certainly were now.

When she got over to her brother he was chuckling. He didn’t sound like he had any air left in his lungs he was just so quiet. But he was laughing.

People take shock differently so it was no surprise to her that he’d be laughing if he had taken a hit. But she couldn’t see blood anywhere.

He paused just long enough to ask her to help him up and then started laughing again. Harder this time. “You had a gun this whole time?” He was near-hysterical.

“I keep it in my car, so not the whole time, no.” The man who just saved his life replied. “Is he dead?” He gestured at the man Boros had shot.

Nodding his head, he gestured with his free hand to his forehead. “You ever kill someone before?”

“No, had to waive the thing around a few times. You?”

Boros looked away for a second, just a quick movement of his eyes. “Yes.” Was all he said.

His sister stared at him for a second, her mouth agape. “You’ve killed someone?” She shouted at him.