42. The Liar
Chapter forty-two
The Liar
Abe
I charge into the building after the grenade blows the door out, with Zeke at my back, cursing up a storm about me being a reckless fool. He’s probably right, but I don’t give a shit. This is what makes my blood sing, well, besides Atasi, him, and Sammy, that is. I refuse to apologize for being a bloodthirsty fucker. There’s no point, since I have zero intentions of ever changing. I fire as someone runs by, trying to take cover, and the body goes down hard onto the concrete floor, and doesn’t rise again. Then, fire again, as I spy a man pointing his weapon at us, from the metal machinery platform to our left. He takes a bullet to the middle of his forehead, and falls right off the platform. Bullseye, motherfucker. “Two, Atasi!” I holler back over my shoulder, without daring to take my eyes off the enemy before me to check she’s actually there. I have no desire to leave this tempestuous world filled with holes, and looking like a piece of Swiss cheese.
“Would you knock that shit off, Abe!” Zeke shouts at me, and fires his gun in the opposite direction, at some of Noah’s men trying to sneak up on us. From the corner of my eye, I spot Atasi, slashing with her blade at a grungy-looking man attempting to strike her with his enormous fist. Rage momentarily blinds me at anyone trying to hurt my girl. I don’t have to worry, however, as blood arcs in the air and hits her face, as she manages to stab him in the throat, and cackles charmingly. That’s my beautiful, violent girl.
I catch a fist to the side of my skull for my distraction, making my vision momentarily swim. As my head whips to the side, I hear Zeke’s angry voice as he fires closely beside me, and murders the asshole that punched me, and my ears ring from the blast. “Pay fucking attention, Abe, or I’m going to beat your ass!” I read his mouth watering lips more than I actually hear him, and his words cause my chest to tighten with emotion. Look at how much my baby loves me; he can’t wait to have his hands all over me again.
“Promises, promises, Zeke,” I mock him as I fire again and again, taking out two more men, and raising four of my fingers in Atasi’s direction, when she looks at me with an amused grin. God, I love playing this game with her. It pushes both of us to the edge of our darkness, and allows us to loosen the restraint on our violent tendencies. I focus my attention back on the enemy highly intent on ending our lives, and lose track of Dinah and Sammy, who are already pushing into the next section of the massive warehouse. The shout for them to wait for us gets stuck in my throat, as I witness a man jumping off a small platform and landing on Zeke’s back, taking him to the ground, and using his hold on Zeke’s hair to smash his face into the floor. Fuck that! No one gets to hurt my Zeke but me! He’s fucking mine! I roar like a furious animal watching its mate being attacked, and charge at the asshole, slamming my casted hand into the back of his head and forcing him off Zeke, who’s struggling to regain his feet. My heart beats furiously in my chest, at all the blood on Zeke’s face, as his shocked moss-green eyes meet mine, and he probes at the cut on his forehead that’s gushing blood into his eyes. Fuck, that is going to need stitches. He’s going to look so sexy with a scar there.
“There are more than ten men here, so our information is fucking useless. Where the hell are the rebels that are with us?” Zeke yells with frustration, as he uses his forearm to swipe at the cut and smears his blood on his arm. He’s right, of course. I’ve killed four, and he’s at least gotten two, and so has Atasi. I don’t see any sign of the rebels Dinah sent to the other side of the building, even though we can clearly hear gunfire, so maybe they’re pinned down. “We are going to run out of ammo, Zeke! Start grabbing weapons from the dead!” I lean down and tear the gun off the asshole lying on the floor, unconscious from my hit, and fire into the back of his skull.
“We have to catch up with Dinah and Sammy! Why the fuck did they take off without us? I’m going to wring her pretty fucking neck the first chance I get!” Zeke shouts with fury, as he kicks at the dead body, and moves to where I last saw Dinah and Sammy disappearing through. We catch up to them pretty quickly. They’re holed up behind a massive concrete pillar, gunfire erupting all around them, and still no sign of Noah anywhere. “Should we pull back?” I question, even though everything within me is demanding that we push forward and find Noah, and end his miserable life once and for all. I want all three of my lovers to be finally free of his threat. Especially Sammy; I want him to be able to see the monster in his nightmares no longer breathing, so he can stop waiting for the next time he’s going to get his hands on him. I will never let Noah have any of them, even if it ends up costing me my life. “No! We continue to push forward, that fucker is here somewhere. We cut the head off the snake, and the rest of the body will fall,” Dinah yells with determination, in between firing around the column.
For the next little while, we return fire against Noah’s Brotherhood men and gain ground. Some of the rebel forces finally make it out of wherever they were being held down, and help us move slowly forward and up. I take the metal stairs ahead of Dinah and Sammy, with Zeke bringing up the rear. I can see Sammy’s body is so tense that he’s trembling, and the whites of his eyes are so large I’m afraid they will pop right out of his skull. Fuck, please don’t let him have an anxiety attack right now. We have no way of stopping whatever rampage he goes on.
A long, narrow corridor opens with various closed, gray, steel doors before us. Fuck, like shit wasn’t already dangerous; now we have to worry about how many more cockroaches are hiding behind those doors, just waiting to end our lives. “Split up, we’ll cover more ground. Sammy and I will take the left side, and you and Zeke take the right,” Dinah orders, and doesn’t bother to wait to hear my objection, as she throws open a door and is immediately accosted by gunfire. “If you get yourself killed, Atasi, I am going to be fucking pissed!” I snarl as Zeke kicks in the door before us, but nothing happens, and only silence greets us. “We have to check it, Abe. My father could be hiding anywhere.” I know he’s right, but it irks me that we didn’t go with my original suggestion of loading up the exterior of the building with bombs, and blowing the whole thing to the ground, trapping everyone inside of it in the rubble. It seemed like a much safer and easier solution, perhaps not as satisfying, but I could have lived with it. Unfortunately, Dinah, in her wisdom, and let’s face it, need to get her hands bloody, vetoed it.
Zeke and I search the room, while keeping an ear out for what is happening across the hall. The sounds of gunfire and screams are still intense, and they make me want to get out of here and go help. “Nothing, let’s go!” I growl with frustration, and we head to the next room. The minute I open the door, a shot rings past my head and embeds in the wall above my ear. A few inches to the right, and it would have gotten Zeke’s head. “Motherfucker, you’re dead!” I rush into the room, firing my weapon and taking cover behind a few desks, in what appears to be some kind of training room. The lights are off, and only the dim morning light penetrates from the high square windows, causing the rest of the room to remain draped in shadows. I can’t even determine how many are hiding in here with us, and that stresses me out.
Zeke motions to me with his thumb to go left, and for once, I follow his directions. We approach an overturned desk, the silence deafening, and making my skin crawl. Zeke shoves hard at one end of the large table, and I fire immediately, catching whoever is hiding by surprise. My shot goes a little wide, and I catch them in the thigh, but as their screams rip through the air around us, and I get a good look at who it is, an evil smile breaks across my face. “Thing one, we meet again! How I’m going to fucking enjoy ending your life!”
The pitiful, filthy creature is none other than thing number one, Noah’s loyal henchman, Daniel. “Where the fuck is my father?” Zeke demands, as he kicks the fucker in the injured leg, as he tries to crawl towards where his gun has fallen.
“I will never tell you, fornicator! You and that other cunt are both monsters, betrayers of your family, and the faith!” Daniel yells through clenched teeth, as blood pools around him in a rapidly growing puddle. Zeke pushes the barrel of his gun against Daniel’s nostril. “You will die either way, but perhaps you would like me to gift you to my wife as an offering first. You’ve seen how much she enjoys tearing apart Brotherhood scum like you!“ I glimpse real fear materializing on Daniel’s features instantly. It seems my sweet Dinah is the boogeyman of all these maggot’s nightmares, and the knowledge only succeeds in making me prouder to be one of the men at her side. “No! Please... I’ll tell you.” He tries to move his head away from the gun, and I catch his hand moving across the floor closer to his gun. I take a giant step and crush his fingers underneath my heavy black boot, and his screams fill the air around us as I squat down and grab the gun, slipping it into the back of my pants. “Nah, that’s really naughty, thing one. I guess he wants to be Dinah’s new plaything, Zeke.”
“Fuck! He’s hiding on the top floor, with half a dozen loyal Brotherhood men. Please... please just kill me now!”