There in the corner he found some dark disgusting filth he couldn’t identify. But it was sticky, and dark.
Which was exactly what he wanted.
Reaching down, he scooped some of it up onto two fingers and liberally coated the blade in it. It wouldn’t do to have the knife reflecting in any way.
That bit of yuck done, Felix moved forward, entering the post office.
He kept to the far wall, half of his mind working in overdrive to keep himself from tripping over things, the other half trying to figure out where the firelight came from.
“—it!” came the faint sound of a heated whisper. Felix held perfectly still and cocked his head to one side, listening.
“No, I won’t!” came back an equally angry whisper.
Back room. Sorting room? Behind the service desk.
Doing a quick check of the room, he found two different doors that could possibly lead into the back area. It had to be where he’d spotted the faint light.
Moving to the second door, Felix listened intently. If he could just figure out if they were on the other side or not, this’d go easier.
Then he heard a sound that could never be mistaken for anything else.
The clack of a gun being chambered.
Opening the door as carefully as he could, Felix pulled it open a centimeter at a time. Getting it past two inches he peeked in through the gap.
Two men and four women were pressed up to a wall in a defensive huddle. Not far from them were three men and a woman who were clearly the aggressors.
They also had the gun.
“Just give them to me. It’ll be easy. And then we can both go our separate ways and act like nothing happened,” said the man with the gun.
“No. I already told you. Just leave, you don’t have to do this. It doesn’t have to be like this,” said one of the men in the defenders’ camp.
“But it does,” said the man with the gun, raising it up to eye level.
Chapter 29 - Never Again -
Goddamnit. If he pulls that trigger every idiot nearby will know something is going on here.
Taking a firm grasp on the blade, Felix thought furiously.
He wanted the gun. He wanted to stop this before it got out of hand and brought every fool down on them nearby that thought they could benefit.
He also wanted everything these people had on them, and anything in this building he could claim. Being after midnight, his points would hold until tomorrow night.
If he built up a big enough value, he could eek something out.
First, the gun.
Even if he never fired it, having it would help level the playing field. At the least, it’d be an intimidation factor.
Then we’re resolved. We take the gun.
Miu would tell me to take out the one least likely to be missed, and move on quickly. If I do this right… I can drop two before they realize. Maybe three.
Doesn’t have to be perfectly clean, just enough to drop them.
Incapacitate them.
A quick inspection of the area got him a chunk of brick, and a small rock.
Taking both up, Felix transferred the brick and knife to his left hand, taking the rock in the right. Gliding forward, he hefted the rock twice to get a feel for it.
“What now then? Huh? Hand ‘em over. Or I’ll just kill you, take ‘em, and get out of here before anyone comes to check,” said the man with the gun.
He was clearly enjoying his moment of power over these people. Hopefully he would be too caught up in that to notice Felix.
Amazingly, or perhaps not considering how hard Miu had trained him, Felix closed within two feet of the rearmost enemy. He was a man of short stature and seemed distracted. Felix flicked the rock to the far side of the building. He’d been aiming for a space that would take all the eyes off his targets.
Before anyone even reacted, Felix switched the knife to his right hand, and brought the chunk of brick up into the back of the man’s head.
There was a solid clunking sound that Felix ignored immediately.
Flowing forward, Felix drew up alongside the woman and drove the brick into the back of her head as well.
The sound of the first man collapsing drew the second man to start turning towards Felix.
Leaping forward, Felix buried all six inches into that man’s throat. Ripping the blade to the side, Felix did his best to continue on towards the gunman.
Only to find that man was already starting to lift the gun towards Felix.
Eva’s fist crashed into the man’s jaw, turning his head to one side with the force of the blow. The man fell to his knees, his head clearly ringing with the strike.
Moving in quickly Felix brought the brick down on the man’s forehead. Chasing the man to the ground as he went, Felix brought the brick down twice more in rapid succession. Tossing the brick to one side, Felix scooped up the gun, rolled to one side, and came up with it aimed on the other group.
The men and women were staring at him unmoving.
“Keep an eye on them while I finish the others,” Felix said, looking to Eva.
“Do we have to?” Eva asked plaintively.
Felix didn’t respond to her, and instead went to the man he’d stabbed in the throat.
He was bleeding out fast and was already slipping into unconsciousness.
That one’s done.
“Seriously, do we have to?” Eva asked again.
“What would you have me do?” Felix asked, moving over to the woman. “Do you want to tie them up? Let them go? Try to talk them onto our side? Hm?”
“Actually, wait,” Eva said. “Hey, what territory is this? Where are we?”
The collective response from the huddled mass was jumbled and confused.
Felix got down on the woman’s shoulders, pinning them down with his knees. Her face was covered in dirt and small cuts. She had the look of someone who was probably pretty, but had seen the ugly side of war and was coming out the other side changed already. She was breathing, and if he didn’t miss his guess, she’d probably be mobile within an hour or two. Though still with the giant goose egg he’d given her on the back of the head.
“Where. Are. We. Who owns this block?” Eva repeated.
Felix put a hand behind the woman’s head and grabbed a fistful of her black hair. He tilted her chin upward to get a good line at her throat.
“This is Skipper’s turf,” said one of the men.
“Wait, Felix! Don’t kill her. If this is Skipper’s territory, doesn’t that mean you could take them as slaves? Yes?” Eva said.
“Nothing to bind it with,” Felix said, pressing the bloody blade to the woman’s throat.
“Wait. We can make this work. You gave me that one, didn’t you? I could make that one work,” Eva said, pleading. “I can use magic, throttle it out for two months, and use that as the binder. Lily told me all about it. Said it didn’t take much if it was a blood oath to slavery. It’s how the Pit works.”
The woman beneath him cracked her eyelids open slowly. Her green eyes were rolling around in her head as she tried to focus on him.
“Mmmauuuhhhh,” she gurgled beneath him. He must have really brained her.
Felix looked up at Eva. He wanted to do right by her, but this was foolishness.
Foolishness that’ll scar her forever if I don’t do it.
Sighing, Felix looked towards the other man he’d smashed with the brick. Unfortunately for that one, he wasn’t breathing.
Must have hit him harder than I thought.
“The other one is already dead. Can’t really fix that,” Felix started.
“I don’t care. Don’t do this,” Eva said. She apparently had realized she’d gotten some traction somewhere in this conversation and was pressing on it.
Felix couldn’t help but smirk at the situation.
She adapts so well to the situation regardless of what it is.
“Fine. This’ll be the first one I guess. That or I finish what I st
arted. And you,” Felix said, gesturing to the six people. “You’ll be given the chance to join as well, but I’ll be frank with you. I’ll expect you to do what I tell you to, when I tell you to. This isn’t a democracy.”
Shaking his head, he looked back to the woman under him.
“And you, my dear thug, are very lucky,” Felix murmured, wiping the bloody, blackened blade off on her shoulder. He watched her intently, wondering if she’d agree, or if he’d be finishing her off later.
“Lluuuuuuuu-fy,” she groaned before her eyes closed again.
Eva was quickly explaining the situation to those six people.
Felix didn’t really care anymore. He needed to start exploring the post office as quickly as he could.
If he could figure out what was of value here as quickly as possible, he could get moving.
Clear the building, dust everything for points we can, find a better location to hold out.
Once we have that… information, food, water.
And a plan to get the hell out of here and back home.
Not waiting for Eva to finish, he began to work over the entire post office from one side to the other. Quickly exploring to find anything he could claim, and convert to points.
Or at least chart everything out that he could so he could draw upon it later.
It felt like he’d only been gone for a few minutes when Eva stopped him while he was checking over a massive machine. Felix thought it might be a sorting device but he really had no idea.
All he knew was it was a mass of thick metal sheets and looked as if it were older than the building itself.
She’d hustled him into the main room everyone was staying in.
Sitting down on top of a desk, Felix folded his arms in front of himself. He let his eyes slowly roll over the seven people who had just sworn themselves to him on a blood oath. They’d all been given a chance to refuse, save the thug, and all had opted to join him.
Eva hadn’t told them much, other than that Felix and she had a place where, if they could get to it, everyone would be safe.
She didn’t specify where, who, or how, which was good, but they all seemed to eager to have a way out.
“So they were here for… your food?” Felix asked, staring at the man who’d been so defiant in the face of a gun.
“Food. Women. Both. Didn’t matter,” he said. “They weren’t going to get anything from us.”
“Admirable, if a bit suicidal. Your name is…?” Felix asked.
“Steve. Steve Middleton,” Steve said.
“Derek. Derek Bissell,” said the second man, without any prompting.
“Nancy Boltman,” said the woman next to him.
“Amy Inocencio.”
“Katy Hendricks.”
“Lauren Romick.”
Felix took that all in and nodded his head.
Looking to the thug he’d bound against her will, Felix waited.
“Julia Crawfird,” she muttered, standing up straighter under his gaze. She still seemed a touch out of it, but was quickly recovering
She was a remarkably tall young lady.
“Welcome aboard, one and all. Sunrise comes in an hour or two, everyone get some sleep. I’ll take the first watch, and we’ll organize in the morning. And so you know, our goal tomorrow is barricading this building. As far as I can tell, and after searching through it, it’s defensible. With a clear exit that’s actually not obvious, or even visible from the street.”
In fact, it opened up out into a private parking lot on the other side of the wall.
“It’ll need some work, but once we get holed up, we’ll have a better chance of keeping others out,” Felix finished.
“What then?” asked Katy.
“Food, water, intelligence. I’d like to know who is controlling each block of the city. Who the local players are. How they’re operating and what their activities are. Once we know that, we can better plan our moves, and how we get out of here,” Felix said. “Go to bed everyone, I’ll see you all in the morning.”
Standing up, Felix checked the pistol and knife, and went towards the front of the post office. He could hear Eva trailing along behind him.
“Well?” she asked quietly when he stopped.
“Well what. I’m going to watch the front entrance. You’ll be watching in a similar fashion when daybreak happens so I can get a nap in,” Felix said. “So you might want to hit the sack while you can.”
Eva snorted at that. She partially turned to leave and stopped. “Thank you… I know you did that for me.”
Felix nodded his head at that, not even trying to deny it. “I did.”
Smiling at that, Eva moved behind a desk, curled up, and promptly dropped off to sleep.
And when the morning comes… we’ll find out what we’re dealing with.
“Engineer,” Steve said. “National Guard.”
“Huh. And why are you out here in the city and not deployed? Last I heard they were all holed up with the army,” Felix asked.
Looking out through the broken entryway, Felix could see the morning gloom. He figured daylight wouldn’t be far off from now, and he could send his people out to begin gathering information.
“Wasn’t on the clock when it went down. Didn’t think I’d make it across the city so I didn’t try. From what I can tell, it was the right choice too.”
Felix made a curious noise but didn’t look away from his task. He needed to be ready if someone decided to drop in for a visit.
“In those first few days, a lot of people got shot simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Blue on blue situations,” Steve elaborated.
“Ah. That makes sense,” Felix conceded.
“But you wouldn’t know that. Would you?”
Sparing Steve a dangerous glance Felix deliberately slipped his finger into the guard.
“As soon as everything went down, Legion sealed itself up tight and hunkered down. No one’s seen much of you all since it all started.”
“Interesting theory you have.”
“Not a theory. I was there when we took over. I know you, Mr. Campbell.”
“And you decided to put yourself into slavery to me anyways? Considering all the rumors out there, I’d be curious to know why you did that.”
“Because you’re not supposed to be out here. The fact that you are means that Legion is probably now on a warpath trying to find you. Either you’ll find them, or they’ll find you, and that means a free ticket out of here for my people and I,” Steve explained.
Felix couldn’t help but appreciate the cold logic of it. It made sense.
He liked it, because he’d do it himself.
“That’s a fair point, Steve. For now, let’s work on improving our lot. I’d be much obliged if you could start working on getting a bunker of sorts in place here. Turn this single entryway into a choke point. We’ll barricade the back door to a degree, but nothing that can’t be dismantled in a hurry if we have to bail,” Felix said.
“Would if I could. I kinda need materials for that,” Steve said, shaking his head. “Steel would be great. Even if I can’t patch it together, getting it in place with a backstop would still do wonders.”
Wish I could help ya there. But as far as I can tell, doing anything that requires modification at any level balloons the points I need to an astronomical level. I can’t even make a—wait.
“Eva,” Felix called out softly.
“Mm?” she replied from where she was dozing. She hadn’t seemed to Felix as if she’d been sleeping very well.
At best she might have caught an hour or two of actual sleep.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like you to take the watch. I need to try something before the day gets started,” Felix said.
“Mm-hmm.”
Eva slowly got her feet, rubbing the palms of her hands into her eyes.
“Remind me to better appreciate what we have when we get back,” she grumbled.
“Noted. Need a minute
to hit the bathroom or anything?”
“No. No, I’m alright. You only need a couple of hours?” she asked.
“Maybe less than that if I get this to work. We’ll see.”
Eva trudged over to him and leaned up into the desk. She held out her hand to him, still blinking rapidly to clear her vision.
“Shoot first, ask questions later,” Felix said, laying the pistol in her palm. “Safety’s off and should remain off.”
“’Kay.”
Smiling, he patted Eva on the shoulder, and went back towards the rear of the post office.
“Come on, Steve. Things to do, no time to do it,” Felix called over his shoulder, making a beeline for the machine he’d seen previously.
“What are you doing?” Derek asked when Felix passed by the sleeping area.
“If you’re awake, get ready to work. We’ll be moving out in an hour or so. Otherwise, get back to sleep. Going to be a long day,” Felix said.
Stopping in front of the massive machine, Felix gave it a once over.
“What are you looking for? And how is this going to help us?” Steve asked, walking up next to him.
“What I’m looking for is thick steel plates like this,” Felix said, tapping one particularly worn and dented example. “If I pried this off the machine, would this do what you wanted it to?”
“Uh… well, I guess. I mean, I don’t have any of my tools, it’d be whatever I could scrounge up and put together but… yeah. I think I could do something with it… but I’d need more. The backing I can fabricate easily enough.”
Steve had started to inspect the plate now. “Don’t know how you’re going to pry this off though. It looks like it’s been welded and riveted in place at the same time. That’s just overkill.”
“Get ready for a surprise,” Felix said.
“A surprise?”
Felix concentrated. He didn’t want to actually modify this machine too much. He merely wanted to turn everything to dust that wasn’t suitable for the task at hand.
Which was creating a bunker and choke point.
And he’d need every plate large enough or thick enough that’d work towards that goal.
With any luck, it’ll infer what I need and simply do it. And since we’re not modifying anything, this’ll be a zero point cost.
Super Sales on Super Heroes: Book 2 Page 32