Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide

"Come on, Jack," Eve said as she tried to help him walk. He put his arm around her shoulder as she carried and dragged him down the hallway from the freezer area of the docks.

Jack tried to breathe from everything he took. Although Jack put up a fight and managed to get some hits on the big man, Longshoreman X was bigger and had a lot more strength and power. It didn't help that he also shot Jack a few times with arrows. As Eve dragged him along, blood dripped a bit from both of his shoulders along the ground. She did this while carrying the crossbow on her back, the same weapon that Longshoreman X dropped after finally meeting his end.

"We really need to take you to a hospital," Eve said.

"I said no hospitals," Jack said. "I…know someone who can help."

Eve sighed. "You better be right about this."

"Things could be worse," Jack said. Or could they? He thought.

As they got closer to the rolling door, just as Eve was about to open it with the control panel on the wall, Shadow let out a couple of barks. The barking caught Eve off guard a bit.

"What's wrong, boy?" Jack said. Shadow barked and put his paws against the door and barked some more.

"What's going on?" Eve said.

"Something tells me that there's something waiting for us on the other side of the door," Jack said. "It can't be good."

"Shit," Eve said and looked at the bloodstains on Jack's shoulders. "We got to stop the bleeding somehow."

"I am sure that I'll be fine once we get out of here," Jack said.

"No, let me figure something out," Eve said and then went up to Longshoreman X's corpse, as well as the two corpses in the area and then got out a knife to cut off some pieces of cloth from the clothing of the corpses. They were long enough that she could tie them around Jack's shoulders.

"I hope this works," Eve said. "Come on."

"Wait, Shadow said that something was wrong out there," Jack said. "If we get out, then we're dead."

"So what do we do?" Eve said.

Jack looked to Shadow. "Go on, Shadow, check it out, boy."

Shadow crawled right through a ventilation duct that was in the hallway. Once he got to the other end, Shadow pushed down the vent cover with all of his might and slowly crawled out. It was an area with stairs and open areas, along with carts that led into another docking area, whether it was for boats or trucks. It was close enough for anybody to bring and/or take some cargo that needed to be kept on ice. Many guys in black outfits with creepy clown masks, as well as guys in purple jackets with creepy joker masks had their weapons drawn. It was clear to Shadow that the moment Jack and Eve walk through that doorway that they would pump them full of lead.

Shadow stayed out of sight of any of the clown and joker assassins. With two of them standing right close to the doorway, as well as well as a guy with a rifle at the top of the stairs, there was only one way out of this. Shadow climbed up some stairs and quickly pounced on one in a joker mask wielding an MP5. The growling and screaming drew attention towards the two men right at the door.

Gunshots were heard from the other side of the door where Eve and Jack were. Jack was still aching a bit from the pain, but he had a gun in his hand in case he needed to use it.

Jack pushed the button so that the door could open. One guy turned around and yelled, "Huh?"

BANG!

The man dropped as blood splattered from the back of his head, through the rubber mask, too. Eve was the one who shot the man.

"I'll cover you, okay?" Eve said.

"By me some time," Jack said.

Eve went out into the surface. One guy tried to shoot Shadow, but the dog was too quick to evade any of the gunfire. Jack, while in pain, fired a shot right at the man's leg, causing the man to roll down the stairs. Shadow quickly jumped through the railing as he wasn't too high off the ground. The man rolled down the stairs until he landed on a landing. Jack saw him move a tad and then laid a final shot when he saw the joker assassin try to move.

BANG!

Jack quickly dropped as a shot came from above.

"JACK!" Eve yelled. Shadow barked rather loudly. The female assassin went right to his aid, as did Shadow.

"It's okay," Jack said. "I'm wearing a vest, but I feel like shit."

Eve turned around to look up and saw the sniper from above.

"Fuck this," Eve said and drew the crossbow and fired an arrow right at the man's gut. The sniper fell backwards.

But Eve wasn't done. She quickly walked up the stairs. As Jack slowly started to get up, he asked where she was going. Eve didn't answer. Right when the sniper slowly tried to reach for the rifle.

"I think I'll take that," Eve said and then kicked the rifle behind her. She leaned in to pull off the sniper's mask.

"Well, well, look what we have here," Eve said. It was clear that that she recognized the man.

"Fuck you, Adams," the assassin said.

"Now that wasn't very nice," Eve said and then went to pull the arrow out of the man's stomach, resulting in a scream. "Who the fuck sent you?"

"I ain't saying shit," the assassin said and coughed a bit, with blood coming out.

Eve pulled out a knife. "You don't have long to live. Just tell me. Did Patch put you up to this?"

The assassin nodded. "He and Sandervile. Patch knew you were here. He doesn't think you're worthy of his energy."

"Oh? Well, maybe this will change his mind," Eve said and guided the knife towards his neck. She had the blade right on one end and then quickly sliced the man's throat from ear to ear as blood started oozing out of the man's neck.

Eve went down the stairs. Jack and Shadow started walking towards her, but out of the blue, another clown assassin came out, ready to flank Jack.

"Jack, watch out, "Eve said and then drew the crossbow and fired an arrow, piercing the clown assassin right through the throat and larynx and quickly dropped in a fetal position.

"Here," Eve said and picked up the rifle and passed it to Jack. "Let's get out of here."

"Won't you need this?" Jack said.

"No, I have some of my own," Eve said. "You might need it if we deal with more of these assholes. Now come on."

It was a struggle for the three parties to get out of there. It appeared that those assassins with clown masks were members of Mayhem Inc. Jack was able to move a bit better than before, but was still in pain. There were times that Eve had to drag him along in order to get him to safety.

They knew they were home free once they reached a 2001 red Corvette. Jack went into the passenger's seat with Shadow on the floor right in front of him. Eve went into the driver's side and started it up.

"Okay, so where are we going?" Eve said.

"We're headed to Milton," Jack said. "A friend of mine lives over there. She'll help."

"She, huh?" Eve said. "Is she just a friend or is a friend?"

"She's an old friend of mine," Jack said. "What's it to you?"

"I just didn't take you for someone who would just have a female friend," Eve said. "Besides, what happened to blondie from the other night?"

"That's not important right now," Jack said. "But right now I need to make a call."

"You can use my phone," Eve said.

"No, I don't want anybody tracking me down," Jack said.

"Okay, there is a gas station just close to Milton," Eve said. "They have a phone booth there. I can take you."

Eve started up the car. From a distance, the Volkoff brothers, along with Rafshoon and Ruby walked out. Both of the brothers looked rather sad and upset at finding their brother dead on the boat. Meanwhile, Ruby looked on at the red Corvette driving off and the silhouette from the passenger's side had a familiar vibe to her and then saw the man facing a dog.

Jack? Ruby thought.

"Ruby, what's going on?" Rafshoon said with his British accent catching her attention.

"Oh, nothing, just thought I saw someone familiar," Ruby said.

"Well, we need to go talk to Fahook right now," Rafshoon said. "Let's go right now, love."

Ruby, reluctant to do all of this, went with the other three men.

Eve drove into Milton. They passed along some buildings. Some of the buildings had some posters of advertisements of upcoming concerts, as well as ads for upcoming albums from local music acts, ranging from rock bands to rappers, as well as posters of the upcoming movie, Time Crisis, which was coming out that summer.

Eve drove up to a gas station. On the window there were ads for Gomes Beer with beautiful pin-up models in bikinis modeling for the advertisement. All Jack wanted to do was make a phone call. He walked into the telephone booth with some change that Eve offered him and slipped a couple of quarters into the slot and punched in the numbers. The call went through.

"Hello?" a female voice said.

"Hildy, you're…home, thank god," Jack said as he tried to catch his breath.

"Jack? What's wrong? You don't sound too good," Hildy said.

"Listen, I'm coming over in a bit, I got into some shit earlier tonight," Jack said. "I need you to look at my shoulders. Can you do this for me?"

"Sure, but why aren't you going to a hospital?" Hildy said.

"I'm a wanted man, remember?" Jack said.

"Okay, I'll be here," Hildy said.

Meanwhile, in the car while she was waiting, Eve took a closer look down the street. It looked like flames were burning in the air. In fact, the flames looked like they were coming closer. Eve even saw that the man was burning up parked cars and shooting at windows of businesses along the street. She quickly got out of her car and went right to Jack after he got off the phone.

"We got to get out of here, now!" Eve said.

Jack looked up and the flames were getting bigger as a man in a black suit with armor and a dark mask with a flamethrower and an assault rifle was seen firing flames and bullets at places. Both Eve and Jack got into the car and Eve started it up.

"What's going on? Do you know that guy?" Jack said.

"It's Antorcha," Eve said. "He's another one of Mayhem Inc's top assassins and terrorists."

Jack looked at this woman with so much confusion. It seemed that she knew a lot about Mayhem Incorporated. But it was no time to ask now. They needed to get out of there.

Eve sped out of the parking lot and tried to go down the road and make a turn to avoid this guy, but bullets and flames kept flying as she tried to make a break. She couldn't go through the fire. She put the car in reverse and made a swerve and hit the brake and put the car in park.

"What are you doing?" Jack said.

"There's no way past this guy," Eve said. "We got to take him out."

Jack looked to his right and saw that Antorcha was firing towards everything around him. Cars, stores, Antorcha was causing a lot of property damage.

Eve looked towards Jack. "You got any other ideas?"

"How about you run him over?" Jack said.

"What if he turns and shoots us with that fucking assault rifle?" Eve said. "Or worse, burns all of us?"

"Maybe he won't," Jack said. "He hasn't yet."

"Right, but what if he does?" Eve said.

"It's time to think positive here," Jack said. "How about we will him not to turn?"

"Will him?" Eve said with so much confusion.

Jack nodded. "Will him. Yeah, come on. Don't turn, don't turn, come on, Eve, will him with me."

"He's turning," Eve said as she observed. "Oh shit."

Jack sighed and quickly got out of the car and yelled to Shadow to go to safety. Eve quickly got out. Both Jack and Eve went and hid near the driver's side.

"So what's your plan, handsome?" Eve said.

Jack popped up and looked towards Antorcha, who started torching other things around him. He even torched a tree. Eve popped up at the front of her car near the left front wheel. Once Antorcha stopped firing bullets and flames, both Jack and Eve popped up and started firing bullets. However, the bullets didn't do much as they bounced off the guy's armor. The two dropped down.

"We're fucked," Eve said.

"It's your fault, Eve," Jack said.

"How is it my fault?" Eve said.

"You didn't will him," Jack said.

Eve rolled her eyes, like she didn't know how to respond to that. She peeked over through the car windows and windshield. Antorcha walked towards them and through the mask, a voice that sounded like it was speaking through a speaker said, "Come on, let's do this!"

"Okay, I'll draw his fire," Jack said. "You run for cover."

"No, Jack, I'll do it, and you run for cover," Eve said.

"I got a lot less to lose," Jack said. "So you do the running."

"No, I got nothing to lose," Eve said. "You have blondie and your doctor."

"Shut up," Jack barked. "Are you kidding, Eve? I got less to lose. I'm going in."

"Jack, don't," Eve said.

"Get ready to run, Eve. Ready? On two."

"Wait…"

"One, two!"

Eve bolted from behind the car. Antorcha turned.

"Who's the man?!" Antorcha yelled and drew his weapons.

This gave Jack a chance to lay out five, six shots. Even in his condition, Jack's aim couldn't have been better – the bullet from his gun tore off the stem of Antorcha's flamethrower tank, releasing napalm into a high-pressure, burning jet that launched him off the ground and through the air towards the gas station. From the inside, the guy inside the convenience the store looked through the window and was shocked at what he saw and quickly ran towards a door leading into the back. Antorcha impacted a fuel pump, igniting the gas. In quick succession, a violent flash of heat and light went off, causing the station to explode. At the same time a tanker truck offloading gas was sent flying out of sight.

Stunned at what just happened, Jack and Eve watched the inferno for a few seconds, before they looked up at what caught their eye above them.

"SHIT!" Jack yelled.

Both of them started running, even Jack in his condition. Right then, the tanker dropped from the sky behind them, a few tons of metal falling at 10 meters a second. They looked back and saw the tanker explode in another fireball.

"Holy shit," Eve said.

"The whole town wants to kill us, don't they?" Jack said.

"Not sure, but it didn't seem like that guy was after us until he saw us," Eve said. "Antorcha is one crazy guy."

"How do you know so much about that guy?" Jack said.

"I'll explain in a bit," Eve said. "Let's get out of here."

"Got it," Jack said and let out a whistle. "Come on, Shadow, here, boy!"

From right behind a kiosk, Shadow came crawling out and then ran towards Jack as they all entered Eve's car. They were now off.

Sometime later they ended up in an area where there were apartment buildings. Eve went to a stop.

"I don't know how to thank you for saving my ass back there," Jack said. "How did you know I would be there?"

"I didn't," Eve said. "I heard that Patch would be at Dock 765 and thought that this was my chance to take him out."

"You were there to take out Patch? Just tell me something, Eve. What are you really after here?"

"You want to know? Patch killed my brother."

Jack was shocked when he heard her say that. So it was true what she said not long before about how she has little to lose.

"You sure know a lot about Mayhem Inc." Jack said.

"I'm going to tell you something right now," Eve said. "Sanderville wants you dead. He actually hired me to kill you recently, but when I heard two of his top associates talking about Mayhem Inc, I had remembered that Patch was involved in my brother's murder. In fact, Sanderville ordered him to kill Danny, my brother."

"Wait, so Sanderville hired you to do it, even though you know that he ordered your brother's death?" Jack said. "Why did you even agree to it? What did your brother do?"

"It was just business, but I have my motivations," Eve said. "When I found out that you were looking for Marvin Silt, I realized that maybe you weren't too bad. Besides, I know some things about you. Your father was murdered months ago and you recently broke out of Iron Point Penitentiary. You want to find the man who did it."

"Wow, you're good," Jack said. "I'm looking for Patch as well. He set me up for a fall. Don't you remember the other night?"

"I didn't forget," Eve said.

"By the way, you said something about your brother," Jack said. "Was he Triads or anything like that?"

"No, he got into some shit, like debt, especially when someone thought he tried to rip off the Sandman," Eve said.

"I see," Jack said. "And I have one question for you. Eve Adams isn't your real name, is it?"

Eve chuckled. "My real name is actually Evelyn Yang. The Adams comes from my ex-husband."

"I see," Jack said. "Well, because of all of this, I can't thank you enough."

"Hold on, handsome. I got to see who your doctor is. Besides, you might need some help with this. Come on."

Jack and Eve, as well as Shadow got out of the car. From all of the running even after the beating he took, it seemed that Eve had to help him again. They all walked towards the door. Jack knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" a female voice said.

"It's me, Hildy, open up," Jack said.

The door opened. Hildy stood there and her eyes widened at the sight of Jack, who was bruised and was still a bit bloody from everything that happened that night. Hildy gasped a bit at the sight of Jack.

"Oh my god, Jack?" said.

"Nice to see you, too, Hildy," Jack said and then fell to the floor.

Hildy and Eve wasted little time in carrying Jack to the couch while Shadow followed them inside.

Author's note: That's it for this one. The next one will continue from here and it will provide some downtime. You'll see what I mean.

The bit with Antorcha was heavily inspired by the opening scene from Lethal Weapon 4.

Also, the part when Jack and Eve went to the gas station and I mentioned posters of stuff, I'll lay it down for you. It used to be a common thing, and I don't know if it still is (although there are moments when I see stuff), that you would see posters of advertisements for music albums or shows. I remember in my area always seeing ads for rap albums, like from rappers from my area on bus benches, billboards, or even light-poles and signs. As for the movie poster, Time Crisis was actually a game from Namco, same company behind Dead to Rights, and thought it would be a nice little reference to another Namco property. It was either that or Tekken, and Tekken was made into a movie, so why not mention Time Crisis?

As for Jack using a payphone, like I've said before, this story is set in the early-2000s and I want to give it a feel like it was set during that time. Yes, cellphones existed, but it wasn't common for everyone to have one, not like how it was in the 2010s or even in the mid-to-late-2000s.