Soft rays of sunlight the next morning bore through the impeccably clean windshield. The hot summer air drew beads of sweat from Mike's skin. He reached with one hand to adjust the stiff tie tied just a bit too snugly around his neck. His body was sweltering underneath the layers of thick starched clothing he wore, but he paid the minor discomfort no mind. As occupation would have it, he had suffered and and endured much worse before. He paused momentarily before turning on the AC, glancing to his right at Kimi in the passenger seat, her hair turned away from him. All he could see was violet hair draped across her shoulders, in disarray from her having stirred in her sleep. She'd moved frequently, jerking her head to the side at times and and whimpering softly. He knew all too well what the cause of her nightmares must've been. He turned his attention back to the road when a soft groan escaped her lips.
"How long have I been asleep?" Kimi asked quietly.
Mike gripped the steering wheel, flexing his fingers in a futile attempt to relieve some of the tension that seemed to prepetually plauge him.
"Not long... You continue to rest," he answered in a calm tone.
Kimi shook her head. She streched the stiffness out of her neck before straightening up in her seat.
"I'm fine. I..." she paused, dropping her gaze to her lap. "I don't feel like sleeping anymore."
Though Kimi attempted to hide it, Mike could see the almost imperceptible shudder that coursed through her body. He didn't need to hear it to know what it was that's causing her unease. They sat in silence, and out of the corner of his eye. Mike followed Kimi's movements. Though she sat still, her eyes roamed around the car, peering curiously out of the window at times, at the dashboard at others, occasionaly up at him (though she immediately averted her gaze whan she did). A few times she appeared to be on the cusp of initiating conversation, only to think better of it and remain silent. The only noise came from the car's tinny speakers. The steely guitar riff and gravelly vocals were just loud enough to be heard over the low hum of the car's engine.
"Mike?" Kimi's soft voice pierced the tepid ambience of the car. "Can... can I ask you something?"
Mike remained silent, his body unmoving and eyes locked straight ahead.
She sighed before continuing. "It's just that I... I watched you cold-bloodedly execute the people in the old hotel earlier."
Mike had been aware that she'd been witnessing him shooting the goons in the head. He clenched his jaw and tightened his hold of the driving wheel, keeping as still as possible as he waited for Kimi to continue.
"It sounded like... It's almost as if..." She took a deep breath and paused, then let out a defeated sigh. Within the next second, the car plunged into silence once again. After a few minutes of examination of her hands, Kimi raised her head and reached for the stereo controls. Her fingers hesitantly turned the knob, and slowly the music began to swell. Mike glanced curiously towards her. She'd closed her eyes, hands still poised above the speakers basking in the rich timbres that filled the air.
I like music," she said without moving. "Lil... she gave me a bunch of CD's, some of them which were okay, but others I liked."
She paused, glancing up at Mike to see if he's paying attention. He stared straight ahead, but she continued anyway. "Nina Simone, Metallica, R. Kelly, ACDC... They may be old, but their music makes you feel what they were feeling when they sang it. It's... Hm..." she trailed off, as if suddenly remembering something. "It's funny... They said if I like soul music, then that must mean I have a soul, right?" An empty smile drifted across her face, one that never reached her eyes.
"Right," Mike simply replied, keeping his gaze towards the road ahead.
Kimi whipped her head up, shocked to hear him respond. This time her smile was genuine. She settled back into her seat, resting her head and gazing lazily out the window.
The blazing sun had set, but the heat still hung heavully in the air. Kimi had shed her jacket long ago, though it made nearly no difference, and had tied her hair into her usual double pigtails. Hot, dry night winds, no cloud coverage... Kimi constructed a mental map of the states, narrowing down where they might've been. She tried asking Mike where they were going, but he told her if that it'd be safer if she didn't know yet, as she knew she couldn't return home knowing the traffickers would snatch her back if she did. Well lit, well populated, but all low buildings. Suddenly it clicked.
"Are we taking a train?" she asked, sitting up right.
"Yes."
Kimi waited for Mike to elaborate, but soon realized he had no intention of continuing. "Can you tell me now where we're going?" she pressed. Excitement was starting to stir in her; she had never left the country as far as she was aware aside from taking the plane from Paris when she became Chuckie's step-sister back in her rugrat days. She childlishly hoped their destination would be out of country, mainly hoping it would be in Canada.
"No," was Mike's only response.
"Why? What can happen in a few hours?"
Mike stiffened in his seat, then slowed the car to a stop. Kimi suddenly grew silent as a chill ran down her spine, realizing she didn't need to ask to know what was happening.
"A lot can," he replied before opening the front compartment and drawing out his pair of AMT M1911s. "Stay out of sight."
Kimi didn't protest, knowing full well how important it was to follow his instructions. She nodded as he calmly opened the door and stepped outside the car. She pulled her jacket again, running through the many outcomes of this encounter. It was too dark to nake out much, but something told her the danger lay not too far away somewhere to their left. Apparently Mike thoght so too, fot he immediately set off in that direction, walking around the path of the streetlights and, within the next second, vanished from view. It wasn't long before Kimi grew too anxious to stay seated. Something urged her to get out of the car. Quiet as a mouse, she hopped lightly out of the car and gently closed the door, then followed Mike's path, making sure to avoid the dim light from the streetlights, and stopping outside the back entrance to the building. She placed a hand on the rusty doorknob, but quickly stepped back as she thought better of it. Settling in hiding nearby Kimi shimmed in between the dense shrubbery by the wire fence. It wasn't large enough to entirely cover her, but the near pitch black darkness would hide her adequately enough.
A few uneventful and uncomfortable minutes passed. Kimi was shifting in her akward crouching position, wondering if she'd made a bad decision, when the sound of oncoming footsteps (several of them) reached her. She froze, squinting through the leaves at a group of men surrounding the car. Internally, she was pleased and relieved by her good judgement call, but also terrified at the scenr in front of her. One of the men signalled his arm, then wrenched open the car door.
"She's not here," he said as he shook his head and gestured towards the building, and the others silently approached it (and her).
Kimi held her breath and counted as each man passed; there were a half dozen, all armed with firearms (most likely handguns). whoever these men were clearly meant business in retaking Kimi back for sex-trafficking. Mike had to have heard them, had to have been aware thet they were coming. But if for some reason he wasn't, she wasn't sure what would happen. He was certainly capable of taking care of himself, but even he had to have his limits didn't he? Whatever decision Kimi was gonna make, she had to make it fast as they were already gathered at the door and preparing to make their entrance.
Just as the first man touched the doorknob, Kimi reached out her hand from underneath, as his leg was within arm's reach. Without second thoughts she grasped his ankle and pulled hard. His exclaim of surprise was so brief before he hit the ground it almost went unnoticed by the others for a split second. Then chaos erupted. Kimi smapped her elbow to the side of the man's knee, eliciting a scream of pain from him, and grabbed a blade from his harness before launching herself out of the bushes and into her second target. She plunged the blade into his lower back, right between the vertebrae. Already anticipating the oncoming fire, she held up his limp body to shield herself, then rammed his body into the next closest man. She fell to the ground as an ounslaught of bullets whizzed by her, grabbing the nearest abandoned gun off the ground before rolling off to the side. Her fingers calmly pointed the muzzle into the side of the fallen man, pulled the trigger, then whipped the sights up and towards the few remaining others and ducked for cover, but not before she'd shot two more of them. All that training with her brother Chuckie and Angelica she remembered had finally paid her off.
'Five down... only one to go,' she thought to herself as she scrambled to take cover and searched for the last one.
It took her a second too late to sense the presence behind her. Kimi whipped around just as the tip of a blade came swooshing down at her head. She lifted the gun in defense, stopping the blade an inch above her forehead. Her feet were trapped, unable to kick as she pushed herself upwards against the knife, She could risk trying to get a kick in, at the risk of the knife slicing into her skin. Kimi steeled herself anyway, risking the injury if it meant living another day. Just as she was about to shift position, the oressure lifted as the man was suddenly yanked backward. Kimi fell back panting, and the man soon crumpled to the ground, lifeless. She slowly braved a glance upwards at Mike, who tucked his garrote neatly into his pocked as he glared down at her. Though he betrayed no emotion whatsoever, Kimi could tell he was angry... likely very angry. Kimi scrambled to her feet, wiping off the dirt from her scraped knees and crumpled clothing.
"There were so many, a-and you hadn't come out yet. I was-" she started but was quickly cut off by Mike.
"You were disobeying my orders. Next time you will do exactly as I say. Do you understand?"
Kimi couldn't even bear to meet his gaze, so she looked straight down at the dead grass. "Yes," she replied.
The sharp bursts af a few silenced gunshots ripped her gaze from the ground. "What are you doing?" she asked as she ran up to see what was happening. Mike was walking past the bodies lying on the ground, shooting each in the head as he passed them. Kimi consciously left each, albeit in immense pain and severly injured, at the very least, alive. He was taking out each one as hastily as possible.
"Keeping us alive. Dead men don't speak," he answered Kimi's question in a rather calm voice.
Kimi looked away as he finished the last of them. One final scream pierced the air it died away in the wind. Then... silence. She drew in a shaky breath before turning to Mike, who was already making his way into the station. With nothing else to do but to follow, Kimi trailed him on shaky legs, taking care not to step on any pools of blood painting the ground crimson red.
Only minutes after they entered the station, another group of kidnappers were amongst the crowd. Like the previous group, they were all armed with handguns and blades. Fortunately for Mike, he detected them while he and Kimi blended in with the crowd.
"Go to the end of the platform and wait for me there," Mike instructed her.
"What're you gonna do?" Kimi asked him.
"I'll take care of this."
As said, Kimi made her way towards the end of the platform, waiting for him to return in one piece.
One of the armed henchmen, pretending to read a newspaper, spotted Mike headed towards one of the other platforms. However, Mike realized he's being followed.
"He's in my sight," he called the other five goons via earpiece.
"Gotcha. Stay with him and contact us what platform he's on."
He followed Mike towards platform 9, which was unused.
"He's on platform... platform number 9..." the goon radioed, pulling his blade out, ready to stab him. But when Mike reached an unused underpass he vaulted over as he knew he was being tailed. The goon chased after him, but was far behind. Ready to do whatever it takes to kill Mike, he drew out his silenced pistol and searched for him until he came across a mechanical room. Just as he stepped a few meters inside, it was a second too late as he whipped around to fire his weapon, but Mike grabbed the man's wrist and twisted his arm, pulling the trigger on his stomach.
"Tell me why there is a hit on me," Mike said, shooting the man's elbow and back. He then saw three other shadow figures. "Stay here," he said, shooting the man's back once more.
As Mike proceeded further in, he found himself in an underground train yard. He entered one of the cars only to find himself surrounded by the three hired guns. Knowing there's one of them right behind him, he grabbed the guy's arm for the gun, essentially using him as a human shield. The other two were pointing their weapons, trying to aquire a clear shot, but were too late as Mike swiftly shot both of them in the head and knocking out his human shield (which eventually he shot in the head as well).
Shortly after as Mike made his way back to Kimi, he saw the first henchman, severly injured in the mechanical room. He approached the injured man.
"You think it's over?" the henchman laughed. "It's only beginning." At that, Mike executed him in the head, a blood pool of chrimson red painting the floor.
Mike then heard two more men heading his way. He hid behind cover as the goons spotted their dead friend.
"He's dead, man. We're fucked," the bald one said.
At this, Mike emerged from the shadow, shooting the guy's elbow and using him as a human shield like he did not long ago.
"He doesn't have to die, man. You want to shoot someone, shoot me!" the second one said, who's more diplomatic. But Mike shot him in the heart, gravely injuring him, and knocked out the bald one, executing them both in their heads afterwards. Two minutes later, he reached Kimi, who was glad he made it back in one piece. With no one else he has to encounter, Mike made his way back outside to his car and Kimi trailed behind, hoping there would be no one still after them.