Knifed

“Solace is very agile, no?” Gloria asks Casanova. She shifts her weight to one hip and crosses her arms as she watches him try desperately to shoot his friend. She laughs as Solace trips just as a bullet flies for his head. She nearly taps Casanova on the shoulder jovially, but remembers his threat.

“Shut up.” He says through gritted teeth. Just one more shot and this will all be over. Fuck. One more.

“Maybe I should take over?” Endre asks looking at his Mistress.

“Yes, make yourself useful Endre, I see that runaway whore of yours is fighting along side our target.” Gloria holds up to fingers and Endre places a lit cigarette between them. “Make her wish she never left our employment.”

“Yes.” Endre turns and walks briskly towards the slaughter behind the gates. One hand stiff at his side, the other held gracefully behind his back. His breathing is calm, his face relaxed. As he makes it to the gate a eight foot Destroyer with a six shooter and a Kal guard with a rifle turn their weapons on him. In a flash both men drop their weapons, and a few fingers. Both men stare at Endre and his three foot Saber.

The metal of the sword glimmers the same multicolored pattern as his small round spectacles. With another emotionless swipe of the blade both men lose their heads. Endre turns his attention to the center of the fight where he knows Vera must be, she did always like being surrounded. On the way he watches as two of Solace’s friends, Edgar and Andy, try hard to fight off a pack of abominations. A stray bullet flies very near Endre’s ear and into the skull of an abomination. This seems to burst the dam of desperation and every one with a gun fires into the abominations all around.

“No, No Stop!” Alan walks right past Endre, to reprimand a couple of Destroyers.

Endre finds the Guard who fired at him and walks deliberately towards him. David fires again, Endre Deflects it with his sword. David shoots, Endre grabs a passing Abomination and blocks the bullet with its face. David fires six rounds in quick succession, the fourth and fifth pierce painful holes into Endre’s Shoulder. Just as he lifts his Saber within striking range, a pack of abominations take David by surprise and drag him away.

 

Solace jumps behind the chimney of the fourth roof to take a breath. No less then three bullets hit very near his left shoulder. The last ricochets off the brick and kills a Destroyer who had been trying to clime up. He falls but leaves a rifle behind. Solace knows the moment the barrage stops that Casanova is waiting for him to go after it. This rest allows Solace to fully feel the ripped flesh of his knee. If this is going to happen, he has to do it while he has one good jump left in him.

Casanova waits patiently for Solace to make a lunge for the rifle. He slows his breathing and relaxes his shoulders. Any moment now. There it is, oh solace I taught you that.

Just before solace made his leap for the gun he threw his cigarette case a second before him as a distraction. Right away he knows this didn’t work. Instinctively he tries to change direction and gets a bullet to the shoulder. He falls back, hits the edge of the roof and tumbles to the ground.

“You killed him, good work.” Gloria coos, risking a light pat on the back. “What are you doing?”

Casanova drops his eighth clip and reloads, “he grabbed the rifle as he fell. This isn’t over.”

 

Vera pulls an abomination off of a Kal guard only to see that she chunks of face torn of. Snapping its neck Vera turns her attention to another, this one has abandoned its hold on its head skin and is flailing wildly in all directions, she tries to move around it but its fingertips brush a wisp of her hair. It grabs her face and pulls her slowly towards its horrible chomping teeth. She punches and kicks trying valiantly to escape but its grip is too great. Suddenly its head jerks violently to the left and it falls. Alan nods at her and directs his thin cylinder at another abomination, its neck to snaps. She smiles, thinking how similar he looked to a television character, but a knock to the head wipes that from her mind.

Endre stands over her, holding his Saber by the blade like a baseball bat. The corners of his mouth twitch behind his manicured mustache. “Hello Vera, I’ve missed you sweetness.”

Vera kicks him square in the groin. He laughs and asks for another. She tries to roll away but he points his sword at her, “tsk, tsk, Vera where are your manners? Do you not remember how you are supposed to greet me?” he uses his other hand to tap his already bulging groin.

“You sick fuck!” Vera kicks again but he slices her calf before she touches him.

Endre laughs again and turns his back on her, “get up whore, fight me on your feet. There is only one thing you are good for when you are on your back and I get the feeling that won’t happen today.”

Vera stagers to her feet and points her gun at him. He turns to face her, only four feet from the barrel, and allows a smile to break across his face. She fires and deflects the bullet. Fire, deflect. Fire, deflect. He slices her hand open and she drops her weapon.

A knife digs into his side, he howls and turns his fiery gaze on Tony Jones. Tony is panting and holding another knife in his good hand, the other hand hangs uselessly on his broken marionettes arm. Edgar and Andy flank him holding a pipe and shotgun respectively.

“Bring it, mother fucker.” Andy says through a bloody lip.