How A Real Gun Behaves

Along the alley, she came to the other end and rushed for the street. Her heart beating faster and faster. She didn't have time to look back to check if she was still being chased but in her mind's eyes, she could swear that it was the case.

Clair soon halted and bent over, her breathing was ragged and she panted heavily. She looked around for a while but just as she was about to heave a sigh of relief, she noticed the lady from before twisting out of the corner. She aimed her gun at Clair but didn't shoot, as if to warn her to continue running.

Clair didn't wait to test out her patience. There were a few people on the street and somehow no one noticed the woman who was on her neck. She dashed towards the next street and kept running. She was afraid of the gun constantly aimed at her and she badly needed to take cover.

It wasn't like she hadn't considered that this sort of danger might arise from publicly putting posters all over the city seeking for this unknown group but she also didn't imagine that they'd openly attack them.

She had expected a more subtle attack. Maybe at night. She instinctively wiped her forehead. 'Not time to think too much. I have to find shelter and lose her.'

….

Steve—who had just escaped another death claw—jumped at the nearest woman in an embrace. The woman was taken aback for a few seconds and couldn't react quickly. Her companion was stunned as well and found that they couldn't really understand the train of thought of this man.

While others would be wetting their pants at the threat of death he was busy jumping onto the very woman who was about to send him to the underworld.

Steve used the split seconds the distraction bought him and turned the woman around so that she was between him and her companion. At this time, the woman exerted strength on her leg and was about to push him off and hit him with the butt of the gun but Steve was quicker.

It could have been the adrenaline or the urge to survive that made Steve become witty but he quickly pushed the woman into her companion who had tactfully held back from shooting. He used the same momentum of the spin to turn and do a few leaping runs.

'I can't believe that worked. These guys are actually morons!' he thought and rushed out of the alley, heading down the street. He felt that if they were smart enough then they wouldn't follow him out but he was wrong.

On turning back to look, he saw that they were just behind him but their guns had been put away. 'Shit, my big mouth!'

He ran his eyes around the street as he ran forward; meandering his way around other people just in case they decided to shoot. He soon spotted Clair heading into another street and she seemed to have loosed the lady who was after her.

He took a run for that direction as well.

….

Oliver—who was still inside the strange house—climbed onto the window level and jumped over nimbly. He landed with a thud and hurt his knee but that didn't stop him. The pain in his leg was not to be compared to the anxiety he was feeling.

He limped a bit but soon overcame the pain and started to run at full speed again. He looked back and it appeared that he had lost the men. He heaved a sigh and dashed down the street, his eyes diligently searching for Steve and Clair.

All that running while under gun point was enough to make him sweat bullets both from exhaustion and from the immediate threat. These people really meant business.

Another thing that puzzled Oliver was their intent to kill them. He reckoned that if they didn't really want to be known then they would have tracked and finished Clair off in Crevania even before she arrived here and get the uniform.

This also made him realise how serious his problem had become. It was no longer a case of kidnapping and alleged rape but something more serious. Whoever hired these guys was really targeting him but who?

His mind was running in circles and soon he had subconsciously jumped over a half wall and entered another alley. He came to the next street and followed the nearest alley, trying to go in zigzags to avoid being spotted.

The moment he entered the second alley, he almost jumped out again. Two people were already waiting there. The only thing that made him hesitate a bit was that these two people were breathing heavily as well and when they saw him, they wanted to make a run for it as well.

They were Clair and Steve.

"You g-guys are o-okay…huh?" Oliver leaned on the wall and tried hard to catch his breath.

Steve held his chest, which was thumping like drums, and said. "Man…I…have…never…ran like that…before!"

"We're not safe here."

"And we aren't safe anywhere else." Oliver added looking around the alley they were at. It had the other end blocked off and he discovered that it only had one entrance. "These guys must have already traced us to where we live."

"That's crazy!" Steve said. "Shit has really hit the fan."

Oliver snickered. "Now I feel special."

"Wait…" Clair looked up and pointed at a few shadows that seemed to be stretching into the alley.

"Shit!"

The shadows came closer and soon the outline of a few people was revealed. They were the same people who were after them. The unbuttoned shirt clearly showed the symbol they wore almost proudly.

They had found them.

Oliver, Clair and Steve backed away a bit. They soon, to their despair, realised that three more people had jumped over the small wall on the opposite end of the alley as well. Each of them had their guns pointed at them.

"We are toasted." Steve said raising his hands in the air.

Oliver looked at Clair and then at Steve. He felt a pang in his heart and knew that it was his fault. If he hadn't led them into this then they would all be fine. He stepped forward, and in a last ditch effort, folded his fingers and formed a 'gun' with it. "Stay back or I'll do something really crazy like shooting air bullets out of my hand!"

Steve and Clair exchanged looks. 'He's really doing something crazy.'

One of the men laughed and gripped his gun harder. "Let me show you how a real gun behaves."

He squeezed the trigger.

BANG!

Oliver fell to the floor and blood spattered all over the alley along with brain matter….