Fight for Palet ( part III )

They were progressing in a dark long hallway aiming to reach the white square of light before them while the noises of gunshots, the screams of the outlaws were becoming louder at every step they put. They could even hear footsteps coming from above them giving the impression that people were running in every direction, on the upper floor.

Volga had chosen to walk two by two as the hallway was not very large and also she thought that if they were too many they would not be able to react in time in case of an ambuscade. [ They don't have reflexes as sharp as mine so I better walk in front so that I can protect them well ] she had said to herself.

" We are almost there, only five meters left, get ready " Carla whispered to her comrades behind her. She had, earlier, proposed to Volga to be her partner and the latter didn't say no since that was what she had planned to do from the beginning. Volga believed that this girl was the most capable of all her team and the devotion she didn't stop showing all along the mission was just proving it.

As they were getting closer, the white square started to slowly show a clear image of what was happening inside. Groups of criminals were hurriedly going up the stairs on the right side, fully armed, while some of them, who were less courageous, preferred to wait on the ground, their weapons pointing toward the top of the stairs. Volga noticed that their hands were shaking, revealing how afraid they were as if a monster could come out at any time to jump on them and kill them all.

Hopefully, it seemed like that 'monster' had captivated their attention enough to hold them noticing yet the danger which was about to fall onto them from the other side of the hall.

Volga turned to her group and through some simple signs of her hands, she gave them her instructions. The first column, which meant Volga and all the people behind her, would go for the outlaws on the upper level while the second column, Carla and those behind her, would take all the outlaws on the actual floor. Volga trusted her that she would accomplish her mission and protect all the people she was in charge of.

" I have a request " Ilya who was just behind Carla, whispered as lower as she could at the intention of the captain. Volga nodded as to tell her to express her request, " I would want to switch and come in your group, " she quickly turned to Carla to clear her statement as she felt that the young woman could have misunderstood her, " it's not like I don't trust you or anything but for some reasons, Jamal told me that no matter what, I should stay by your side and follow you wherever you go ".

Without any hesitation, Volga made a sign to tell her to come behind her while telling the man behind her to switch and go behind Carla.

She would have lied if she said that she didn't find that request quite strange since she was sure that Ilya wasn't lying, but she was convinced that there was a good reason for him to ask that.

Now they were ready, Volga raised her left hand and started the countdown. 5...4...3...2...1... when she dropped the last finger they all rushed inside, following the formation. She turned on the right side and her group imitated her forming a sort of row while facing the stairs. They raised their weapon toward the people on the stairs and started to shoot at them, doing their best to not even give them the time to understand what was going on.

While on the other hand, the group of outlaws who dared to aim for them were simultaneously killed before they had the time to fire. Carla's group came in a strong attack, spreading quickly in the level to protect the backs of their comrades. They had already cleared the zone when Volga's group began to go up the stairs.

" You can go, we are covering you " Carla had shouted to her. She was holding her gun next to her face with one knee onto the ground while moving her sight around to keep herself alerted of any danger.

" I authorize you to go attack the outlaws outside, I think it's a good idea to go help the others. But don't make any bold or reckless decisions that could put you in a hazardous situation. I'm counting on you, " Volga replied before taking the stairs.

" Got it! " she shouted, trying vainly to hide her satisfaction and her excitement. She made a sign of the hand pointing to the direction of the principal door in front of her and when she stood up to walk toward it her group stood up to follow behind her.

Arriving at the end of the stairs, on the upper floor, Volga stopped behind the wall on her right and take her time to have a look at her surroundings and verify whether there were enemies nearby or not. Apparently, the way was free, she stood up and carefully walked forward through the hallway which was extending on both sides, left and right. [ The right way has lesser rooms than left one ] she made the remark silently for herself. Again with quick signs of her hands she ordered three guys to stay to watch the left part of the hallway while the rest, along with Volga, would go to inspect the few rooms on the right side.

There were three rooms in total and behind each of the three doors she had opened, they found the same scenery, dead bodies laying on the floor and blood staining the whole room.

" Do you think it's him who did that? " Ilya asked Volga when she closed the third and last door.

" It's him, " she responded straightaway, " there is no doubt about it, " she paused, " We should hurry up to go help him ". They went to join the rest of the group and once they were together she announced, " this level is too silent what means that he has already passed here a moment ago, so no need to waste our time inspecting the other rooms, let's go straight to the next floor ".

" But if only by himself he managed to kill off all the outlaws who were on this floor that would mean that he doesn't need any help, don't you think? " Ilya suggested. Even though she was taller than Volga, by the way, she lowered her voice when she was speaking to her, it seemed like she was a little intimidated, and the latter didn't miss to notice that.

" Don't be silly, there were less than three dead bodies for each room we've visited and known that this level has only 8 rooms that mean there were approximately 24 people in this level, outside I've counted only 3 dozens of outlaws adding with the ten we've killed when we entered here we have a total of roughly 70 people which is far less than the number Glenn, your mayor, has estimated. So they're remaining many of them in this huge edifice so do you think he can deal them all without getting hurt? "

" Sorry, " she only said, after a short moment of silence, while bowing her head. Reviewing the spectacle Jamal had showed them in the previous mission she thought [ did I overestimate him too much? ]

But she, then, realized that she wasn't as stupid as she thought as Volga surprised her when she carried on by telling her, " but you still get a point though, no need to go all of us, he surely doesn't need so much help, we just have to watch his back. So we will divide our number one more time ".

Volga stared at the group and selected who, she thought, were the four most capable, including Ilya, to accompany her. " The rest, you will go down to lend a hand to Carla, you must follow her orders, got it?"

" Yes ! " they shouted.

One man raised his hand before she told them to go. She nodded to tell him to speak what he had to say. " I'm asking permission to let us inspect the rooms before we go, " he carried on before she protested, " I know you've already told us that there's no need but Jamal taught us to always be careful, there may be remaining one or two who managed to survive, we don't have to take any risk. Moreover, there must be some useful items we could collect ".

She thought few seconds before she finally allowed them. She was glad to see that Jamal was inspiring them in such a good way, usually, only Sania and some few other members would dare to take such initiatives, even among the former captains only Don dared to oppose her decisions and that was also one of the reasons she fell for him.

" Thank you and good luck, " the man said before the groups parted ways.

Volga turned to the four people beside her " let's hurry up, we have wasted enough time ".

As strange as it seemed to be, the next floor was completely different from the previous one. It was not about the decorations or anything but rather the change of show. Even before they reached the level they were hearing some deaf noises coming from upstairs and as they continued advancing the noises were becoming more intense, until they reached the end of the stairs where they could finally identify the origins of those noises as they could associate them with images.

As Volga thought they were remaining a great number of outlaws and it seemed like they were all gathered in that space. Volga, like the rest of her little group, saw many of them surrounding an opened door, some of them were shooting inside the room while the others were just standing behind with their shaking hands holding their weapons. Screams of pain and terror could be heard in the entire hallway as if there were men inside the room who were being tortured.

They were so loud that Volga was asking herself why they couldn't hear them when they were still in the lower level.

Ilya turned toward her, a scarred face, she had her eyes widely opened it as if she was begging her to say that she was wrong, that it was not what she was thinking, but deep in their hearts they already knew the truth and Volga did not try to deny it. She glanced at the rest of the group and they were showing the same expression.

[ I have to do something about it ] she thought before she said them, " hey listen to me, the outlaws there are scared and completely discovered, they are easy targets now, and we will not waste this chance, so pull yourselves together, let's go ".

They seemed to have understood what she wanted to say as the expression on their faces gradually changed. " That's right, this is not the time to be afraid. Put those fears and worries aside and focus now on your enemies, " Volga added. They came out from their hideout and squatted down with one knee on the floor while the other was facing forward, they formed a row perpendicular to the hallway, in sort of facing directly to the outlaws. Simultaneously, they started firing at them and as expected they were easily annihilated, one after another they fell onto the ground in agony or completely lifeless. There were some idiots, hiding behind their friends, who stood up trying to counter-attack but Volga was too fast for them, at the moment they took their heads out they got killed immediately, showing the great difference of skills and experience there was between them and her.

Less than a minute later, there was no one standing before Volga and her team, no one was moving in the hallway, only the screams came to break the calmness of that zone.

Ilya and a man beside Volga tried to stand up thinking that it was all over but a hand came to stand before her, stopping them from moving. Volga held her and made her sign to get back in position while one of her men was doing the same to the other comrade who wanted to do like her.

They stayed there for some more moments, staring at the corpses. Ilya was about to turn and seek some explanations when she glanced at a movement on the front. The second after, three outlaws suddenly jumped up guns in hand but before they could press the triggers they were shot dead, the four people who were sitting before them were only way too faster.

Ilya was not even conscious of what happened, her body had been faster than her brain and she fired without realizing it. It was only just after the three outlaws fell down that she got what was going on. She glanced at Volga and saw her raising two fingers and slowly pointing forward what meant that she wanted two people to go ahead and check the situation. She stood up and along with the man on the opposite side, they walked ahead carefully until they reached the stack of corpses. To take zero risks, they both just shot each of them and after they finished Ilya raised her thumb to give the signal to Volga and the other guy, who had stayed behind to cover their backs.

They gathered in front of the entrance of the room where the screams of those people who were being probably tortured had stopped already. They all had the reflex to glanced at Volga and only when she nodded that they decided to move. Together they penetrated in and before their eyes was just an empty hall with no table, no chair, and especially no people. Volga found that odd until she noticed that, on the right, there was another opened door where, next to it, was Jamal's motorbike leaning on the wall. That meant that he was actually in that mysterious room.

Volga turned and walked towards that room and naturally, her companions followed behind her. The second room was quite small, lighted with only one lightbulb, like the other rooms they had visited on the previous floor. This one too was all recovered with blood and together with the weak luminosity were giving to the room a sinister decoration like it could be seen in horror movies.

In the middle of the room, one man was standing immobile over a pile of dead bodies.

" Jamal...? " Volga asked with a shaking voice as she was a little bit scared by the actual worrying mood, and it seemed like she was not the only one, the four people behind her were literally shaking, completely terrified.

Volga knew that she had to act bravely like the situation was under control, to reassure them, but it was as easy as trying to convince them that fire does not hurt. She stepped forward and call him again with a more confident voice now, but still nothing. He was completely immobile, his head bowed, staring down at the corpses lying under his feet, his arms were covered with blood until his shoulders like if he had plunged in a bucket of red paint while his hands were holding two knives which surely had served him to kill all those people.

Volga was now in front of him, trying to not lose her balance on this pile of bodies she had just climbed. She tried to look at his eyes, thinking that maybe he would retrieve his consciousness after seeing her face, but his dreadlocks were falling on his face covering his eyes. She thought that normally he attached them behind his head with an elastic band but it seemed like he lost it during his fight against the outlaws. She couldn't lean forward either as she was afraid that would fall, so she decided to shake him a little bit to wake him up, thinking that maybe he had suddenly fallen asleep after all these fights since she recalled that he didn't get enough sleep, [ he must be tired ] she thought.

As she was moving her hand toward him she heard a yelp coming from her back, she quickly turned her head and saw Ilya with a worried look shaking her head, telling her silently to not do what she was about to do. Volga moved her lips, articulating soundlessly that it was alright. When she turned her head again, Jamal's face was now suddenly at one centimeter of hers, his eyes at the level of hers.

" bouh! "

The poor woman screamed, rolled down the pile of bodies to fall on her on the floor, her four subordinates, also scared, jumped back and they clumsily held their guns aiming toward him.

Jamal burst out laughing, too amused by their reactions. He jumped, landed next to Volga, and extended his hand to help her to stand up. When she was back on her feet she looked furious and the first thing she did was to punch him on his chest. " Why did you do that? You almost give me a heart attack ". She punched him again harder as he didn't want to stop laughing, " shut up, there is nothing funny, " she pointed to her crew who were still holding their weapons " look, they could have killed you ".

" Impossible, they don't have the ammunition for that, am I wrong? " he replied, with a large smile, still amused while stroking his chest. Volga glanced at them and they nodded after they checked.

" How- " she didn't even finish formulating her question that he interrupted her, " and concerning your first interrogation, it was to punish you for having taken so much time to come helping me, " he waved his hand toward the dead people behind him, " look at what I was forced to do to keep the larger part of them at a reasonable distance ".

" That's why " Ilya exclaimed now she was understanding.

" You're saying that as if it was an easy job to make it until here, " she sighed still angry. " And by the way, who even told you to rush here alone without being properly armed? Look at you, " she grabbed his arms tainted by blood and lifted them " you even had to use knives to fight, do you consider how dangerous it was? "

" No I didn't consider that because I was sure you will come in time and it seems like I was right, once again " he replied.

" So why did you scare me if we did arrive in time as you have planned ?"

" Because it was funny, " he responded while laughing at her before she, once again, punched him.

Ilya coughed, " excuse me to disturb you but don't we have an army of outlaws to finish off ? " she asked with a little voice.

" No need to worry it was the last group remaining, I think you have already dealt with those on the lower levels, right? " Jamal said distractedly.

" Yeah, the rest of my team must have finished with those who fled on the court, especially if it's that girl who leads them. " Volga replied while thinking about that Carla.

" Well, but we still have to go, the faster we leave this place the better " he finally concluded, he passed his arm around Volga's shoulder and with a grin on his face he said to her " let's go, my fearless friend ".

The latter pushed him away " don't touch me with your stained hands, I still didn't forgive you ". She stepped toward the exit alone while Jamal was running after and apologizing without even trying to hide his insincerity or his amusement.

" You're sure they are not lovers? " Ilya asked one of Volga's men while they were leaving too.

The guy chuckled and responded, " yes I know it's hard to believe but each of them loves someone else, they just... very close friends, don't worry you'll quickly get used to it ".