Chapter 21 – Violent Realizations

Tyana jumped down the last few rungs of the ladder and landed on her feet, her grace resembling that of a cat's. With a roll she took cover behind the closest wall and then extended her legs, standing straight up, her gun clutched tightly between both hands. Part of her told her to stand waiting for the rest of her group to make sure they made it in safely and double check that they knew what they were doing. But there was no time. It was clear each member of the fold knew what they were doing and so Tyana wasted no further time. With her gun pulled to her chest and her heart beating, adrenaline pumping, ready for action, Tyana looked around the corner just enough to glance down the hallway. There were no signs of security and so she gestured for someone to follow her before she dashed around that corner and slithering quickly along the wall down the corridor. She got half way towards the turning they were to take before a guard appeared from around the corner. Reacting quickly Tyana clutched the gun tighter and pulled the trigger sending echoes of shots ringing through the air as the guard caught the bullets in his chest and slumped to the floor with a sick thud.

Tyana heard a loud metallic clang as she rushed towards him but dismissed it as the final members replacing the cover hold which they had entered the vicinity through. Making quick work of it all Tyana grabbed his weapons and then ordered the closest person to her to gather any other useless objects from his dead person. The adrenaline now so thick in her veins that she could feel every millimeter of it Tyana sprinted down the hallway, taking the turning without a thought for her safety. Bad idea. A fist caught her jaw the second she turned with such force that her body was hurled backwards and slammed against the opposite wall, her gun flying away from her. The gun shot that landed barely inches from her face made Tyana forget the pain that smashing her head against the wall resulted in. Desperate to gather some sort of weapon or anything that could help her stay alive Tyana rolled to her left, narrowly missing a string of gunfire as she did so, and snatched up a gun from the pile of weapons they had confiscated from the guard.

While covered by the wall for the few precious seconds that she predicted she had left before the other guards came thundering around the corner Tyana grabbed a knife and slipped it into the shoe which did not hold a weapon. With another roll Tyana came back into view of the running guards and immediately began shooting. She barely registered the presence of Marrettabella who rolled into a kneel beside her and also began to shoot down the hallway, catching many a guard in a deadly grip of flying metal. When all signs of life had disappeared they jumped up from their crouched spots and once more sprinted down the hallway, the reality of the situation sinking in with every rushed step they took.

They reached an intersection that they had not planned on being caught at.

"FRAIL!" Tyana muttered angrily, recalling the map of the building in her mind's eye and noting that there was no intersection to be seen. She had known all along that the map had been a detailed, educated and calculated guess but it had been a guess none the less. And now they were in trouble. Tyana pushed aside her anger and took charge for the fate of those that followed her was resting heavily in her small soft hands.

"Hurry up!" she called back to the group who all barged down the hallway behind her. She did a quick head count when they reached her that took approximately 2.7 seconds and then began the instructions, "You, you and you, head down that way, you lot down there, that includes you Marrettabella. I'm taking this hallway" Tyana pointed over her shoulder to the hallway she had her back to.

"No way Ty, not alone, that's too dangerous, we cannot loose you" 

"And you won't. Now do what I frailing say and get your asses going. Kill anyone you find, and if you find a dead end then come back and take my pathway. Got it?" Nods all round. "Good. GO!" With that every single person dashed off, guns at the ready, taking the corridors they had been assigned. A voice in the back of Tyana's head told her she had just put the entire in mission in such an incomprehensible danger by splitting the group up that she did not deserve to be captain of this final stage. But she bit back at it: there was no other choice. Tyana was sure that the corridor she was turning to head down was the correct one so why she had decided to take it alone she did not no; there was no doubt in her mind that the correct corridor would hold more security than the rest. But it was too late to turn back now and Tyana had always trusted her gut instinct. Hey, it got me this far. And with that final thought Tyana picked up her feet and pounded down the hallway, wondering what lie for her ahead.

***

Jeff landed in a crouch as he jumped down from outside. That metal door-thing as he had named it had been a bitch to budge but he had eventually moved it and clambered inside. He didn't dare try and cover it back up though for he knew he would not be able to lift it. Jeff stood from his crouching position and then quickly ducked behind the close by wall at the sight of a guard rushing down a hallway. He peeked round the corner in time to see the guard inspect the dead body of what looked to be yet another guard. The guard pulled his gun and then dashed off down a different hallway. One Jeff had a gut feeling was the wrong one. The rainbow haired youth waited a second to see if the coast was clear and when that much became apparent he gingerly ran down the hallway to the lifeless body. Gun wounds punctured his body in several bloody places but he ignored it for sake of his stomach as he bent down. There was nothing that seemed immediately useful to him on this body and so Jeff hopped back up. But his eyes caught something laying just a way away from him, something large a black. Something that he thought resembled a machine gun. Out of nothing but instinct and pure fear Jeff snatched up that weapon and then ran for his life down the hallway that held even more dead bodies. That's when he made the conscience decision to follow where the trail of death lead him. His gut told him that was where he'd find the woman he sought.

***

Tyana blocked a punch and followed up with a left-left-right combination to the guard's face. He stumbled back, clearly disoriented and evidently in pain and that's when Tyana jumped into mid air and delivered a spinning heal kick to his nose, knocking him off his feet with a flabby thump. 

"The main chamber?" she quizzed, pulling the pained guard up by his collar. He shook his head. And she was wasting time. With a shrug she threw him against the closest wall, picked the knife out of her boot and stabbed him with force, twisting the knife before pulling it out. The body slumped to the floor, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Eager and angry voices filtered down the hallway Tyana had never intended to take and her head snapped round. She calculated correctly how far away they were. And with that ran down the corridor she knew was correct.

Something inside told her she was getting closer and closer by the second so Tyana's legs pounded harder against the concrete floor, almost cramping with the force of which she was driving them. Tyana took another corner and with a strong stench of Déjà vu she was knocked off her feet, slamming once more against a wall. Why did these hallways have to be so damn frailing small, she wondered painfully. Before she could even focus again a hard boot was slammed into her ribs and Tyana fell to her side with the impact and pain.

"Frailing hell" she yelped, clutching her broken body. Her anger flared then and there, giving her the pain to switch around and kick out with all her legs had, "didn't you mother ever tell you not to kick a girl when you're wearing steel capped boots?" Tyana flipped to her feet and her assault on this guard started immediately. Just as she was about to pull out her knife again she was pulled from behind by her hair. A small gasp escaped her throat before a blade was held to it.

This was it. This is the end, was all she could think when her hands were pulled roughly behind her back. In two seconds flat she pondered eveyr possible way out of the situation but none would work she concluded with an air of failure and misery.

Gun fire pierced the air at the second she felt pressure being applied to her throat and the grip on her hair was released. But Tyana had no time to celebrate before there was gun shots coming in all directions and her mind informed her that she was caught in the cross fire. The next thing she knew Tyana was writhing on the floor clutching her punctured arm as gunfire died down. Soon she was being helped up and all she could see around her was the scene of massacre of the enemy.

"Tyana, are you ok?" the voice of Marrettabella made her eyes focus again, pushing the pain of her sliced arm out of Tyana's mind.

She answered with a wince and a nod. Pain would not hold her back. "Come on" she noted that her entire fleet was there and so used her good arm to signal them to follow her. They all ran off, nearing their destination.

As they ran, scorching pain invading Tyana's entire body, she began to recognize the pattern of the tunnels they took and so matched them to the map in her mind.

Not far too go…