Search and… #2
“You got it, Major.” Lee walked to the door, opened it, and saw one of the new guys going into the room that held Eleni. “Hey, you! The Major needs a chair. Get one from upstairs in the kitchen.” He saw the man shoot him a salute, then disappear up the stairway.
With a laugh at Simo, Harding walked over to a push broom in the corner.
Still chuckling away, he unscrewed it from the brush head.
He then walked over to Jessie, swung the broomstick a few times, then hit her hard across her back, making her gasp in pain.
He turned to Simo. “Not her legs? Fine. We’ll start up higher.
Let’s start slow and see how long it takes for her to die… ”
Xander ducked his head at Lee’s command and feigned jogging up the steps.
He paused at the landing and heard the downstairs door close.
He immediately turned back around, peeked around the corner, and found the hallway empty.
He readied the guard’s suppressed M4 assault rifle and stepped into the room.
Xander saw the room’s guard and gestured behind him. “Break time.”
The guard yawned and stood up. Xander kept him in his periphery as he looked down at Johnny Stone, who was beaten badly and handcuffed.
Eleni was unconscious, bound, and had bloody bandages over both legs.
Her arm was stuffed up inside her shirt, and a rope was wrapped around her chest and arms. He thought her arm was possibly broken.
Johnny looked up and instantly recognized him.
“Hey, this fucker is eyeballing me,” Xander sneered out.
He felt the guard come up beside him. As the guard began to lift his boot to stomp on Johnny’s leg, Xander swung the butt of his rifle and caught the guard on his jaw and throat, knocking him back.
He had hoped the attack would knock him out, but Xander’s luck ran out.
As the guard went down, he kicked out and caught Xander on the back of his leg, causing him to drop to his knee.
A gurgling grunt came from the guard’s throat as he sprung at him with a knife drawn.
Too late to turn his gun around and fire, Xander dropped the gun and caught the knife, as he was propelled backwards onto his back on the floor.
The guard was on top of him pushing down on the knife with everything he had.
Xander could see the guard’s jaw was broken and blood was dripping from his broken teeth down onto his face as his rank breath swept over him like sewer gas.
Xander struggled fiercely with the guard, as the man double-fisted the knife and, bore down his weight, inching the point downward toward his chest. Xander tried to get his knee under his attacker to dislodge him, but the guard felt it coming and drove his knee hard onto Xander’s leg, pinning it.
The man clearly outweighed him and knew how to fight.
Rather than continue to fight him, Xander relaxed his body and began redirecting the point of the knife away from his chest. Better to take it in the shoulder, he was thinking, when suddenly the man was knocked off him.
Xander jumped up to see Johnny rolling with the guard, and suddenly Johnny gasped.
Xander grabbed the barrel of the gun, swung it hard, and caught the guard squarely in the face once more with the butt of the rifle.
He raised the gun up, spun it around, and smashed the butt of the gun into the side of the unconscious guard’s head for good measure.
He searched around for the knife, then noticed dark blood pooling on the concrete. “Johnny?” he whispered and turned Johnny onto his back. “Oh, shit.”
Johnny moaned. “Hurts… really bad. I—I’m getting c—cold.”
Xander saw the knife was buried in his chest right below his heart. He scooped Johnny up in his arms. “I’m here, Johnny.” He watched as Johnny tried to talk, then coughed up blood.
“I called her… d—did H—Halo make it?”
He smiled at him, nodding. “Yes! Your message got to her. You saved her and me, too, Johnny, thank you.”
“T—tell her… I—I am so sorry f—for what I—I did. All of it…”
“I will, I promise.”
A sigh came from Johnny’s bloody lips, and his last breath left his body. With a sad sigh, Xander set him down, checked his sidearm, and then picked up the M4. Watching the door, he checked on Eleni. He shook her to wake her, and her eyes came open slowly.
“Shh!” He pulled out his pocketknife and cut through her ropes.
“Can’t walk…” she whispered. “Johnny?”
“Dead. Here, take my handgun.” He pressed it into her left hand. “Where is Simo?”
“Next room… are you alone?”
“Yes, but help is inbound any moment.” He handed her his new phone. “Try to text the situation to Ari. I heard shots, too. No telling what is happening in there.”
“You should wait. Harding was torturing us… waiting for Joel.”
“Oh, shit.”
He stood up and peeked out the door and caught sight of Foster Lee heading up the stairway. “Shit,” he muttered and shut the door.
“Pull me over there, so I can see the door from the back,” Eleni whispered.
Eleni gritted her teeth as Xander dragged her across the room and set her against the concrete wall of the basement. “Lee went upstairs… I’m going after Simo.”
“Harding’s in there, I think. Just wait…” Eleni tried to order.
Then they both heard someone being hit hard, repeatedly, in the adjacent room, and the muffled cries were Jessie’s.
“That’s Jessie! No more fucking waiting!” Xander hissed angrily at Eleni.
Eleni sighed hard. “Be careful, they are professionals…”
Xander nodded, then crossed the room, opened the door slightly, and saw the hall and stairwell were empty. He slipped out the door and quietly ran down to the other door. He took in a deep breath, knocked on the door, and called out, “Your chair, sir.”
The door opened, and Xander kicked Harding squarely in the chest, knocking him back into the room.
He slammed the door shut behind him and saw a handgun clatter to the concrete, then there was someone behind him opening the door.
It was another guard with a chair in hand.
He spun, fired, and caught the man by surprise, his bullets hitting his ballistic plate, knocking him out of the room.
Xander heard a warning yell from Simo and turned in time to see Harding’s knife coming at him.
There was no time to get his gun around into firing position, so he dived out of the way.
As he came up, he shot out with his foot at Harding’s knee.
Harding sidestepped Xander’s kick, and Harding’s machete-like knife was coming down fast at Xander.
Xander came up, meeting the attack with the butt of his rifle as a block. Suddenly, the rifle was kicked out of his hands. Xander lunged forward into a roll. He saw a broomstick, rushed for it, and saw Simo grinning at him.
“Harding, you are so fucked,” Simo laughed.
“Come on, you piece of shit actor wannabe… it’s payback…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Xander leapt at Harding with a flurry of strikes, driving him backwards.
The machete-like knife went clattering on the floor as Xander clobbered Harding with rapid, violent strikes.
Suddenly, Harding rushed at Xander, who simply spun down to his knees and caught the major against his bad knee.
With a yelp of pain, Harding crashed to the concrete floor.
He tried to reach for his handgun, but Xander’s broomstick smashed against Harding’s wrist. Then, in a lightning-like strike, he caught Harding behind the ear with a loud crack, knocking him out cold.
A shout came from the doorway, and Xander threw his broomstick at a man coming through the door.
He dove for his M4 and sent three controlled bursts through the flimsy wood door as the man dived away.
In his periphery, he watched in awe as Jessie ran up the side of the wall and flipped herself off the hook that had been holding her.
He fired another burst as he watched her dive over Simo.
A flurry of bullets came crashing through the splintered door. Xander sent another burst in response.
“Next round that comes through that door, Harding fucking dies!” Xander shouted and recognized Lee’s voice.
“Hey, fuckhead actor, I know you are alone here! The rest of our crew will be here any minute! You are so ass-fucked!” He laughed.
Xander grabbed Harding by the back of his vest and pulled him up to Jessie. That’s when he saw the blood.
She was hit.
“How bad?” he whispered, then turned toward the door and yelled to Lee again, “Hey, Lee! Since you like to switch sides, why not again?”
“Fuck you!” Lee laughed.
Jessie whispered up at him as she looked at her wound, “In and out.”
“Jessie, get off me and check your injury, now!” Simo ordered.
She stared at Simo for a long moment. “Sorry, Boss.” Then, she rolled off him, holding her side.
“Get me out of this shit,” Simo ordered.
Xander began checking Harding’s pockets and found the handcuff key. He turned Simo over and undid the cuffs, then cut away his ropes. He noticed the bullet holes in Simo’s favorite leather blazer. “Oh shit, you hit?”
“No, that fucker was trying to see how good my vest was. Now, give me that assault rifle, Hero Boy.” Simo smiled. “Check Jessie while I cuff this fucking malaka.”
Xander whispered, “Help should be here any minute.”
“Eleni?” Simo asked quietly.
“Hurt badly. She has my gun. Johnny died trying to help me…”
Simo nodded and pointed at Jessie.
Xander checked the stolen pants he was wearing and the contents of their pockets. He found some HemCon bandages. He turned to see Simo sit Harding upright in front of him, and place the rifle on Harding’s shoulder, creating a shield for him and Jessie.
Jessie smiled at Xander and, with her sexy voice, she purred at him. “Turnabout is fair play, handsome…” She unbuttoned her shirt, exposing her breasts and her wound. It caught him by surprise, and he glanced away. Jessie chuckled. “Hey, handsome… consider us even now.”