A Life For A Life

"Fuck! They came faster than I thought!" Sensing the danger, Michael Carlito quickly accelerated the truck and drove it in a zigzag style. Gunshots came in less than ten seconds. Some bullets penetrated the truck roof and nearly injured Monica.

"They have a sniper up there!" Rachel wound down the window and returned shots. But the helicopter was way above her gun's shooting range, and she just could not hit the target. "Boss, we are at the losing end! Do something!"

"Okay! Let's go off-road!" Without hesitation, Michael turned the steering wheel, and the truck went straight into a deep forest. Once entering it, the sniper on the helicopter lost sight of them. The sniper did not give up and continued shooting, but his bullets hardly hit the truck anymore.

However, it was a rocky road inside the forest, and there were too many big trees in it. The truck crashed on several smaller trees along the way. They eventually came to a dead end - the trees were just too close to one another that the truck could no longer go through.

"Shit!" Both Monica and Rachel cursed loudly as they knew what was the next step for them - leave the truck and walk through the forest.

"We just have to move fast. They will land somewhere near and go after us on foot." Michael was the first to come out from the truck. The bodyguards followed, and finally Lina too.

"Boss, they have a pretty good sniper. They can kill us from a distance." Monica sounded worried. And she definitely should be. Her worries were valid.

"I already know that. Will you please tell me something I don't know?" Michael led the way to the deep end of the forest. He could not conceal the fact that he was worried too. "We just have to get ahead of them as much as we can. And then, find a suitable place to ambush them."

This was the first time Lina saw Michael being anxious. This made her realize that they were really in an extremely shitty situation. But then, when she looked at Michael's eyes, she suddenly had the confidence that he could overcome it no matter how tough it was.

They moved fast in the forest, literally running for their lives. Lina tried her best to run as fast as she could. She liked outdoor sports and was a regular at the local gym. However, she was still no match for Michael and the two bodyguards. She gradually lost her steam and started to slow down after a frantic half-an-hour run. She knew it and continued to push herself to the limit so as not to slow down the whole team.

"Hey boss! How about we ambush those motherfuckers here?" Rachel noticed Lina's situation, knowing she was unable to keep running at this pace for too long, she put up a proposal.

Michael realized the situation too. He looked around their surroundings. They were in the middle of the deep forest, and the trees were really close to one another; some of them were so close that it was hard for a person to squeeze through. This would make it hard for the sniper to hit his victims as there were many trees for them to hide behind. However, the setback was it would be the same scenario for them - it would be equally hard for them to hit their target too.

"Go up to the trees!" After analyzing the situation, Michael gave his instruction to the bodyguards. "Lina, hide behind this big tree and never come out before everything is over. I will be the bait to lure them for you girls to shoot."

"No, boss! That would be too motherfucking dangerous!" Both Monica and Rachel objected to his plan.

"This is an order. Just do it. I am Michael Carlito; they will not just shoot me like that. Robert Cimino would definitely like to torture me before he ends my life. Or he would probably use my life to bargain with my mother." Michael explained his thoughts. "But if they see you two, they will shoot you at sight without doubt. So… it's worth it for me to take a bet on this."

The girls stayed silent for a while and went ahead to climb the trees. They knew he was right. And there was no better option.

"Be careful." This was what Lina said before covering herself behind a huge tree.

"Don't worry. You have saved me so many times that my life belongs to you now. No one can take it except you." Michael replied with a mischievous grin.

"For God's sake, I do not want your life! I just want my life back, okay?" Lina seriously did not know if he really meant what he said or was he just teasing her. No matter what, she did not want to see him die.

After all the three girls had got into their positions, Michael hid behind a tree as well and waited.

The enemies came around five minutes later. There were three of them, all dressed in black. One of them was holding a semi-automatic sniper rifle, a McMillan Tac-50, seemingly to be the sniper; while the other two were using semi-automatic pistols. They stopped when getting near to Michael's hideout. They were experts who could smell danger ahead and scanned around looking for their prey.

"Michael Carlito! We know you are here. We are here for the girl! Surrender her to us, and we let you go free! What say you?" A bald guy put up a seemingly attractive offer to a normal person who did not wish to die.

"Robert Cimino was only mad at the girl. Not you! Give her up, and you live!" The sniper was a middle-aged man with a long beard. He chipped in to lure Michael to surrender. "We are professionals. You guys can never win!"

"Yup! A life for a life! Give us the girl, and you can go back to LA and live the high life again! This is the best deal you can ever have! You won't be so stupid to reject our offer, will you?" The third guy was a fat guy with fast moves. All of them seemed to be well-versed with psychological tactics.

"Okay! I will give you the girl!" Michael finally gave them a reply that they loved to hear.