by Joe Pascente
He had just hoped they hadn’t yet, for the surprise attack could be their only chance to kill this horrible woman causing all the trouble today. The more he thought about it - their situation - the more Worm felt sickened by this whole scenario. He felt a connection to his team members, for they had each saved his life on multiple occasions (especially Ace), and he was completely uncomfortable with the idea that there was a battle going on amongst them.
He was torn because he understood why the mission had to be completed, but he also felt sorry for Ace. They all understood why he didn’t want to complete the mission because he was in love with the target. But Worm had a job to do and couldn’t let his friendship with Ace get in the way of it—no matter how badly it hurt him to do so.
22%...damn it! Let’s go! We don’t have time to wait.
Angela had her back to the television screen, as she chomped down on her big bowl of freshly made microwavable popcorn. She looked for some butter to melt but there was none in the fridge. She also looked for salt in each cabinet with no luck. The TV dinner was still thawing as it had been in the freezer for probably many months now.
Angela could hear the shower running above her in the master bathroom. She was imagining scenarios of Jacobi coming downstairs in just his towel and grabbing her by the waist, pulling her close to his wet body and giving her another kiss—this time leading back up to the bedroom. She shook her head and tried to get this image out of her mind.
It’s just been a while. You are not attracted to Jacobi… You are not attracted to Jacobi…Oh, just be real with yourself. He’s sexy as hell. Of course you are attracted to that man! Just be cool. Play it cool.
But playing this cool was never Angela’s strong suit. Even when she would get hit on in her college days by other swimmer’s on the men’s team, she couldn’t quite find the right words to say. Some of her friends would tell her she was too ‘book smart’ to flirt smoothly. And, there definitely was some truth to that. She smiled to herself hoping Jacobi had any sort of inkling of the sort of feelings she was experiencing. They hadn’t known each other for more than two days, but they had already been through so much together. If there was ever any future for the two of them, at least they’d have an interesting story of how they met.
Angela grabbed the bowl of popcorn off the kitchen counter and spun around on her toes facing the living room. Right as she spun, the television clicked off. She looked at the microwave clock and it was shut off as well.
That’s strange.
Chewing on her popcorn, Angela noticed how quiet this safe house could be. She could hear Jacobi shutting the shower off from directly above her. She was happy Jacobi took his time finally getting to recuperate. This relaxation time was crucial for both of them. He called down to Angela and told her he’d be just a few moments longer. She told him she had already started on dinner and jokingly told him to wear his nicest suit.
Meanwhile, Worm told his team members the cameras were now shut down and Boulder felt it was safe for Bows and himself to step away from the tree. He ran around the house and back into the front lawn, watching Worm do his thing. Worm signaled Boulder to come over to the front stoop of the house.
“It’s not working, man.” Worm said hesitantly.
“What do you mean? It says 22%. That piece of shit working, or not?”
“It’s been stuck there for over five minutes. I think the safe-lock door is too sophisticated for this unlocking mechanism. And that’s saying a lot because this bad boy cost Duke a pretty penny.”
This did not please Boulder. He was determined to get inside this house somehow. And just as Jacobi and Angela were handed a gift from the heavens with the stolen motorcycle, Boulder found a gift too good to be true. There it was, across the street in the neighbor’s backyard.
The house across the street was practically demolished. There were several construction machines for the taking. The one that caught Boulder’s eye was the bulldozer with the attached scoop. This particular machine was designed to ‘scoop,’ or shovel large amounts of the ground material and place it in a pile.
Boulder smiled slyly and said, “I’ll be right back, Worm.”
He was definitely up to something as he crossed the street and disappeared for a few quick minutes. Worm was still stressing out about his gadget and was ready to contact Duke to let him know they had failed to get into the safe house, when he heard a loud rumbling noise coming from across the street.
There was Boulder, driving the four-wheel scoop across the front lawn of the neighbor’s property and down onto the street. He was going as fast as the machine would move and all Worm could do was watch as his mouth hung wide open.
At this point, Bows couldn’t wait in the backyard for any more amount of time and made her way to the front of the house, and couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw what Boulder was planning to do.
Boulder had now driven the machine across the street and onto the front lawn of the safe house. He didn’t stop as he reached the front windows of the house. He just kept going, raising the scoop to window level. He was now ten feet away.
Worm noticed the windows had bars over them from the inside, but this construction machine was no match for some bars blocking the windows. Now with only five feet to go, Bows couldn’t help but stare into the Boulder’s wildly venomous eyes. He was obviously jacked up on the adrenaline and ready to go through any obstacle that lay ahead of him; whether that be barred up windows to the front of this safe house, or a fellow team member who he was now ready to kill.
At the moment of impact, the windows shattered and the bars crunched under the weight of the scoop, and the entire bulldozer crashed through the front of the house into the dining room. Obviously Angela heard the incredibly loud clatter of the dining room wall being torn down and knew she was in serious trouble.
“JACOBI!” she screamed.
But, she couldn’t hear any response from him over the loud noises coming from the front of the house. As fast as her feet could take her, Angela ran to see what had happened and saw the giant construction machine in the living room.
There were entirely too many pieces of the house flung around, and it took her a moment to realize what was happening. She made eye contact with Boulder, and knew she was in immediate danger. A few more seconds went by before she heard Jacobi’s voice loud and clear. He shouted Angela’s name. He was upstairs, holding onto the staircase railing, clearly still wet from the shower, but had some pants on, as well as a white dress shirt (still unbuttoned), looking quite terrified, as he shouted, “Get to the basement!”
CHAPTER 8
TIME’S UP
I. 7 Minutes and 22 Seconds
The basement door had a lock on it, but this door wasn’t like the front door. The basement door was traditional and had a regular lock and key. Angela quickly grabbed the key off the hook next to the doorframe, and unlocked the door. She flung herself into the basement and shut the door with a forceful slam. She locked the door with the key and made her way down the stairs, practically flying down the wooden steps. Her shoes weren’t the most practical for running around (being dress shoes), but at least she wasn’t barefoot anymore.
There was another loud reverberating explosion above her head. So loud, in fact, that this time Angela felt she was done for. The noise spooked her so badly that she ducked down and held her head in between her hands—as if that would protect her from the ceiling crashing down upon her.
But when she opened her eyes, she realized the ceiling of the basement above her was still mostly intact. A portion of it was caved in from where the bulldozer was now located, but it was still holding up. The loud booming crash must’ve been aftershock-destruction caused by the massive construction machine. At this point, she had reached the end of the staircase. She looked over to her right and noticed what seemed to be giant plastic containers stacked one on top of the other. She couldn’t c
ontemplate why there were so many, or what sort of objects filled them. The basement was not lit up well, so she squinted her eyes, trying to spot a good hiding place, possibly behind the stacks of containers.
Guns were fired repeatedly upstairs, and Angela practically jumped with each shot she heard. It sounded like a gang war up there and her only hope was Jacobi would find a way out.
That’s when she heard the basement door being slammed into, by what seemed to be several kicks and pounding fists. Whoever these people were that wanted her dead, were right up those stairs, on the other side of the door trying to get in. It wouldn’t take them long, since this door wasn’t as secure as the front door. Angela slid behind one of the containers, squeezing her slim swimmer’s body behind the second row. She crouched low and looked down at the basement floor, which was reflecting a soft greenish quality from what must’ve been a light on the other side of the basement. She peeked her head over the top container to see if she could get a better glance.
For a second, she felt like the vibrant green glow was coming from a hole in the basement wall. But then she realized what it really was, and figured out why Jacobi had sent her to the basement.
The effervescent green light wasn’t coming from a hole in the wall, but from a separate room. The walls to this room were made of solid steel and could only be described as a panic room. This room was Angela’s saving grace. She would be safe in this room, as long as it had a protective door that would shut behind her once inside.
At that very second, Angela straightened her body from the crouching position, she heard the door at the top of the steps rupture into countless wooden shards. Angela didn’t have time to process how the door shattered like that, but it didn’t matter. They were in; and the race to the panic room was on.
But there she stood. She was frozen. Fear had gotten to her head and she couldn’t move any of her limbs. All Angela had to do was move the large containers out of her way, and run to the panic room before those monstrous people could get to her. It seemed so simple, but when she heard the door break and the footsteps coming down the stairs, she was stuck, standing still in her own body. The panic was sedative and for just a swift millisecond, Angela thought about what it would be like to be stabbed to death. Or shot.
It must be absolutely horrifying. Or maybe it feels like nothing at all.
Angela could see a beautiful dark woman approach the bottom of the basement steps and the frozen feeling in her body melted, because she hid behind the container as fast as her legs could bend back down into a crouching position. Of course, Bows looked for a light switch, but there was none at the bottom of the steps. She squinted her eyes, reached for her knife belted upon her right calf and held it in front of her face. It acted like a mirror to see behind her and protected her from any forward momentum attack.
“I know you’re down here, bitch! So come on out and face me…woman to woman.” Bows said this with quite a bit of volume in her voice, for the basement was quite large.
And there were many places a petite woman could be hiding. Bows walked left instead of right, and Angela knew she had only a few precious seconds to formulate a plan. She slowly peeked her head above the top container and unhinged the top of it. Peering inside, she saw it was filled with pet toys. Rubber balls, collars and leashes were packed inside this container. Frustratingly, this box filled of pet supplies wouldn’t be of any use to Angela. Maybe if she had Jacobi’s skills, she could use this junk to strangle this woman, but she knew she was no match for her and this woman’s sharp knife.
Bows had found the panic room and stood in the doorway, cautious. An uneasy feeling took hold of her, standing inside this room, for she thought it could be a trap. Looking inside from the doorway, Bows had to make sure Dr. Haven wasn’t in there.
She turned around, hoping Dr. Haven would be stupid enough to attack her from behind. But then she thought about her target, and recognized this woman wasn’t a fellow assassin with developed skills. Dr. Angela Haven was a normal individual whom didn’t have any training in combat so she was, most likely, doing what other normal individuals would be doing—hiding somewhere.
This was partially true, as Angela was hiding behind the containers, but she was also searching through them as quietly as she could. She peered into two of three of them before coming to the top container on her left side. She unhinged the lid and saw a multitude of handguns. Her eyes lit up and she grabbed the first one she could get her hands on. She heard Bows searching for her on the other side of the basement, hearing her shoes stomp on the cement basement floor.
Angela didn’t know the first thing about shooting a gun. She had never even held a gun before. She was absolutely repulsed by these things, mostly because she had negative experiences being shot at. She knew enough about guns from television shows she had watched late night in her laboratory, while she and her coworkers ate bad Thai food late at night. She made sure the safety was off and held the gun with both hands.
If this bitch wants to face me woman to woman, then so be it. But I’m bringing a gun to this knife fight.
But, Angela was shaking at the thought of having to actually pull the trigger. She didn’t want to shoot this woman, even though she was endangering her life. She had never thought in a million years she’d have to shoot another human being. But this was self-defense, and she knew she had to make it to the panic room safely, to wait for Jacobi. She almost made a run for it right then and there, but then she thought she might not have to pull the trigger to this gun at all if she could distract this woman.
Opening the first container filled with the pet toys, Angela grabbed a bouncy rubber ball, and threw it as hard as she could across from her, diagonal from the panic room. The ball hit the wall with a thud and Bows heard it at once. Angela watched from across the room as Bows started making her way to that side of the basement.
Now’s your chance, run!
So, she did just that. Like a wild animal, Angela knocked the containers out of her way, causing some to crash towards the ground and tumble open. She jumped over the excess components that had spilled from the open containers, and ran towards the panic room with a dominant ferocity in her steps. Dashing at full speed, Angela’s adrenaline was in full throttle. Conversely, it felt like a bad dream, when your body moves in slow motion, and the monster behind you is nipping at your heels.
Bows was a master at diversions, and redirecting a target’s attention from certain activities or people in her vicinity. It didn’t take her long to figure out that the random noise coming from the ball Angela had thrown was just a distraction for her.
And so, when she started making her way to “examine the sound,” she knew Angela was hiding in the opposite side of the basement. Once she heard the containers collapse on the floor, Bows spun around and sprinted to the panic room herself. Being only a few leaps away from Dr. Haven, Bows was now right on her tail. They both reached the proximity of the area where the green vibrant light was beaming from the doorway.
Bows was fast, but she knew Angela had a few paces on her. Bows also didn’t know how rapidly the panic room door would shut, so she’d have to make a drastic move. She spun her knife in her hand so it was in a perfect position to throw, and then, without having even a second to aim, she threw the knife with her full strength right at Angela.
Angela peered over her shoulder just at that second, and noticed the deadly weapon heading straight at her. She tried to dive out of the way of the knife—but it came at her too fast and struck her left hamstring. The knife pierced her skin with ease and slid in about 3 inches deep.
Angela screamed and collapsed on the floor before reaching the panic room. There was no way she would make it to the room with the knife buried in her leg. Her fingers gripped the basement floor and with all her strength she pulled herself to the doorway of the panic room. Hand by hand, pulling herself as her leg started to bleed out. Now standing directly
over her, Bows was smirking at Angela’s writhing body on the ground.
Bows was enjoying the sounds of pain Dr. Haven was making and wanted to induce more agony on her. She hated Dr. Haven with a passion, and she knew this was her moment to end this horrible situation once and for all.
Bows took her left foot and slammed it down on Dr. Haven’s upper thigh, causing her to yelp boisterously. Once she had most of her weight on Angela’s leg, she reached for her knife and slowly pulled it out of her hamstring. Angela began to tear up and sputtered a few low sounding groans. She didn’t want to cry in front of this woman, so she held in the tears as best she could—even though she was in immense pain. The blood began to pool out faster from the wound, as Bows examined the bloody knife.
“I meant to hit you square in the back but my aim was a bit off. Oh well, it still got the job done,” Bows said, reaching down and flipping Angela onto her backside. “Y’all are just meaningless jobs to us. But with you…it feels a bit more personal. You caused our team to fall apart. You’re the reason my boyfriend needs medical attention right now. So, when I plunge this knife into your heart, I want you to know you deserved all of this. And, most importantly, I enjoyed watching you die.”
What Bows didn’t realize was that Angela had the handgun tucked into the front of her pantsuit. And when Bows flipped her over, and was speaking to her, Angela had reached down and grabbed the gun, and was now pointing it at Bows chest.
“I think you have it the other way around, crazy bitch.” Angela said, with a victorious glimmer in her eye.