Fan Fiction ❯ Corperate Takeover ❯ Chapter 3

Chapter 3

They were dressed in the same shadow like outfits as we were, designed specifically to blend in with nearby shadows. I couldn't see the slight bulges where their well-concealed weapons were hid; but I knew they were there, nonetheless. Even if it had been daylight, an untrained eye would have never have seen them.

Fingering the throwing knife up my right sleeve, I tensed, shifting ever so slightly into a fighting stance. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my companions do the same.

For long moments, no one moved, then their leader appeared, silently materializing out of the shadows of an alley way.

"Well, Jared," their leader said, referring to my brother, "it looks like you brought you sister straight back to me. I guess I should thank you."

"You always were slightly delusional, Alec," my brother replied, a predatory smile crossing his face. "We have no intention of giving her back to you."

I mentally sighed; my brother can be so predictable sometimes.

"That's a pity," Alec replied, as a throwing knife magically appeared in his left hand. He began to flip it almost absentmindedly, each time catching it by it's blade. "I guess we're just going to have to resort to fighting. And you know what they say about fighting; someone might get hurt."

He was good, there was little warning before he caught the blade and threw it. It's tip found home in the eye of the guard right next to me. He was dead before he hit the ground.

Without time to think, I reacted by drawing my own knife. In another second, it was hilt deep in an enemy's shoulder.

I cursed, noticing my aim was off; I was out of practice.

Noticing a silver glint out of the corner of my eye, I ducked and dodged, barely missing the sharp projectile.

Pulling out another knife, I had time to access just how unfair this fight was. There were nine of us, minus one, against their knife men, of which there were at least twenty. As much as I would have like to take them all down, we would probably live longer if we staged a retreat.

Loosing the knife in my hand, I took down another as I sought to make eye contact with Jared. Eyes meeting, Jared knew what I wanted without words, and called out to the others to fall back.

With rapid fire, I took down two more as they took down another one of ours. We now had an opening that would take us down an alley was that led to who-knows-where. All I knew was that anywhere was better than here at the moment.

We ran, our feet thudded along the pavement, silence no longer necessary. I could hear Alec shouting orders to what was left of his men, giving orders to head us off at the other end.

We kept running, taking dizzying twists and turns down adjoining alleyways. We were all in good shape, so it was awhile before we began to tire.

Soon, we could hear no more pounding feet behind us, no more shouted orders. It was easy enough to distance ourselves quickly from Alec and his men; the streets and building in this part of the city were built during the early years of the Tech Wars, and were designed to make it easy to lure, trap, and confuse the enemy. For safety reasons, complete and accurate blueprints of the mazes of alleyways were never made. Even to this day, no one knows all the ins and outs of these streets and alleys. However, even though we couldn't hear Alec and his men anymore, Alec was probably the only one besides Jared, me, and a hand full of others that knew these passages enough to navigate through them safely. So, although I hoped the loss of pounding footsteps meant that we had lost Alec and his men, I was not sure enough of this to slow my pace. Neither were the others.

I lost track of how many twists and turns we took before we finally decided to stop. By this time, we were all gulping in air as if it where our last.

There were five of us left, one of which was badly injured despite the fact that he could still keep up with us. I wasn't sure what had happened to the others that had been with us, but I had a pretty good idea.

Suddenly, we all looked at each other, our eyes dancing. We all burst our laughing. Not the type of laughter that indicated any sort of humor, the tense sort of laughter that says: I can believe I'm still alive.

It was good to be home.