9:00 AM
Matilda rolled her eyes when she heard Claymore advise Squad Menace to "hold their position".
"Right," she grumbled, leaning her head against the apartment wall. She edged closer to the window, taking care to avoid the faint shaft of sunlight that penetrated the glass panes.
Taking a deep breath, she peeked out the window. Her eyes were greeted with a collage of black and red.
Yep. They were still there.
The police cars and vans that had initially pursued them hadn't moved. They only lay on the asphalt road, engines rumbling with a low, predatory purr.
Additional vehicles had joined as well, clogging the driveway. Even the sky was abuzz with activity, as black, angular transports of some type floated above ground and circled the apartment complex.
Matilda drew back before anyone could get a bead on her. She sank to the floor, against the synthetic carpet.
Well, if they weren't cornered before, they sure as hell were now.
Matilda breathed out, wondering how their mission could have gone so successfully, yet turned into this mess.
Miguel had started it off, then…
No. She couldn't think about Miguel. Not normally, anyway. Instead of his frizzy hair, his love of motorcycles, Matilda could only remember his body. How the magnetic cannons had pounded it until it looked like a t-shirt stuffed with shredded pastrami.
After that…
The robots. Everything would have gone fine if they hadn't run into those goddamn robots. Those big, bullet-retardant things weren't part of the mission briefing, but then again, that went for everything else.
The door creaked open, and Matilda lifted her head up.
"Shi wants to see you in the common room," Mrs. Sycamore said.
Matilda nodded, and stood.
"You good?" she asked the old woman.
Mrs. Sycamore gave a small grin. "As good as any old woman in a warzone can be, love." Despite the affirmation, Matilda didn't see her features soften. Her eyes still rolled about, twitching left and right.
Nobody was feeling good today.
Matilda walked into the common room, and did her best to keep her face neutral. It was hard to, especially with the corpses staring up at her from the carpeted floor.
Shi stood in the center of the room, his graying hair and stern expression making him as lifeless as a rock. He "woke up" when Matilda walked in, turning and greeting her.
"Operative Fournier, status?"
"They're still out there."
Shi lifted an eyebrow.
Matilda sighed. "They're still out there, sir."
Shi's nostrils flared as he exhaled.
"Operative Fournier," he said. "Speaking candidly, I don't give a shit about what pronoun you refer to me as. I'm more interested in exactly who is 'still out here', and how many of them there are."
"Who cares?" Matilda snorted. "There's Advent out there, and they want to kill us. Do the specifics really matter?"
Shi's face stretched out into something that barely met the universal standards of a smile.
"Operative, care to explain why you are displaying such… uncharacteristic impertinence right now?"
Matilda sneered. "Did I hear right? You want to actually hear me out? Wow, what a first!"
"Perhaps I am too generous right now," Shi said. "You seem to not care about the mission, or the objective at all."
"You're right!" Matilda said. "I don't care. Especially since caring about the mission is what apparently got us into this mess in the first place."
"You are aware of this mission's importance, Operative?" Shi asked. "It is –"
"Very important," Matilda replied, cutting him off. "Yeah, I remember the briefing. I also remember that part where Central told us not to 'stay too long', and that we're supposed to be a distraction, not a suicide squad. Or were those not important enough for you to remember?"
"Operative, you are way out of –"
"In fact, I'm thinking we should've picked someone else. Y'know, to lead the squad? Someone who would've called for evac instead of taking one of the admins hostage and running halfway across the whole fucking city to off another target!"
Matilda stopped a moment to breathe, and then smiled at Shi.
"That good enough? You wanted to hear me out."
There was silence. Then the soft sound of clapping.
"What a lovely show," said a female voice. Matilda shifted her head and saw the hostage, sitting behind Shi.
"I'm glad I lived long enough to be afforded this sight," Artemis said. Her hair was in disarray, with blood caking her face. One eye was swollen shut, but the rest of her face was a mask of serenity. "At least I can go to my grave knowing that your insurgency is doomed to fail," she continued.
Shi swung around as the last syllable left her lips, unhooking his rifle and laying across her face with it. Globs of blood pattered against the carpet, followed by the clacking sound of a tooth.
"Did I ask you to speak?" he growled, a low, deadly sound.
Artemis didn't reply. She only coughed, with a low moan crawling from her throat.
Mrs. Sycamore ran up beside Matilda and called to Shi.
"Sir? I'd hold off this time. We're running out of hostages, you know."
She gestured to the bodies on the floor.
Shi turned again, locking eyes with Mrs. Sycamore. Finally, he dropped his rifle, and moved away from the chair.
"Huh," Matilda said. "Interesting. Y'know, there used to be three others here –"
"Shut. Up," Shi grunted. He sauntered up until he faced Matilda, face to face. "The only thing keeping me from shooting you for insubordination," he whispered, "is that I don't have any other competent fighters on hand. Remember that."
"Yeah, I'll also make sure to remember that your breath smells like shit," Matilda replied.
She almost giggled when she saw a vein pop on Shi's forehead.
Before anything else could occur, the door swung upon behind her.
"S-señor?" came Patricia's voice. "They're – they're trying to get through the front door."
The girl looked terrible to Matilda. And she'd seen some things in her medical career. To her, this girl looked like she'd been through a hellish mix of Vietnam, Normandy, and Shiloh.
"Hm?" Shi said. "How many?"
"A team…" Patricia gulped. "Cuatro – I mean! Four!"
"Any Captains?"
Patricia shook her head like a ragdoll having its neck wrung. Nervous jitters racked her body, making her look boneless. Frail.
Shi nodded, slowly, and grinned.
"That makes things easier then," he said, before turning to everyone else. "Operatives, I'm taking the hostage. Get your things together and meet me by the stairwell, ASAP. Clear?"
Everyone nodded.
Soon, they were all near the entrance to the stairwell. Shi was waiting for them. He had one arm around Artemis's neck, and the other holding a pistol.
"We need to make this quick," Shi said. "I've already radioed to Firebrand, and she's coming in for a quick extract on the roof of the apartment. However, we're going to have to climb several flights of stairs to make it in time. That means we'll have to hold out for five minutes."
"Uh, sir," Mrs. Sycamore said. "Won't it take at least three minutes for the Advent to reach us?"
Shi kicked open the door, and Matilda felt her stomach grow nauseous when he said: "We can make breathing room. But only if we have a distraction."
Oh well. Matilda didn't really have any regrets. And if those stupid stories about Heaven happened to be true after all, maybe she'd see her brother again.
Oh wait, she realized. I'm definitely not going there.
Shi raised his pistol, and Matilda tensed, expecting the decision to fall on her.
It didn't. Instead, the pistol was pointed at Patricia.
"What?" Matilda exclaimed, the words flying out of her mouth. "What?!" Mrs. Sycamore, to her credit, raised her eyebrows at this.
"Patricia, you must cover our retreat," Shi said. "It is necessary for the success of the mission."
The Spanish girl began to shake even harder, her rifle shuddering between her thin arms before clattering against the floor. Her breath became ragged and heavy, but she didn't utter a single word.
"Sir!" Matilda protested. "Not her! I am very willing to –"
"Not you," Shi grunted, waving his pistol at Matilda. "It has to be her." He began to step into the stairwell. "Patricia, do what you must to hold them. We will –"
He stumbled back as Patricia let out a wail of grief and threw herself at Shi. Matilda moved back as well, watching as Patricia tried to wedge herself into the doorway.
"Pendejo! Bastardo!" she screamed, clawing at Shi. "Monstruo!" Artemis's eyes widened and she bucked, kicking her legs out at the crazed Spaniard.
Shi shoved the administrator to the side before pistol-whipping Patricia. The sound echoed through the hallways, a hollow and wet impact.
Patricia recoiled and hit the carpet, stunned.
"Go!" Shi hissed, moving back to let Matilda and Mrs. Sycamore through.
For a second, both of them hesitated. They looked at each other, as if daring the other to move first. But that wasn't the case. To Matilda, it was like they were sharing a secret. As if Mrs. Sycamore was thinking the same thought.
Not right now. We'll make the bastard pay later.
Both of them moved. They slid through the doorway and into the dark, grimy stairwell, before Shi moved forward and slammed the door shut. Then, with his rifle, he wedged it into the door's opening mechanism, jamming it.
He wasn't a moment to soon. The door began to shutter as heavy thuds pounded on it from the other side. Screams and nondescript Spanish rang from the other side.
"Hmph," was all Shi said. "She'll probably give us two minutes at most."
He turned and urged for the other to follow. Matilda and Mrs. Sycamore did, without speaking. The only sounds they made were the heavy thuds their boots made against the steel.
It was only after two flights when Matilda began to speak up again.
"Sir," she said. "I think… I was in better condition to hold off the enemy."
"You may have," Shi said, still climbing the stairs. "But it was for that reason that I didn't want you to sacrifice yourself."
"Reason?" Matilda echoed.
"You are skilled, and competent," he continued. "Even if you do not take orders very well."
Matilda stopped. For the first time, she was surprised at Shi.
"Wait – you're saying that Patricia… that she wasn't competent enough to keep going?"
Shi didn't reply. Instead, he kept going up, machine like, one leg pumping after another.
"Shi, I want an answer."
Shi stopped at a landing, and then turned towards her.
"The world is harsher than it was twenty years ago, Operative," he told Matilda. "And in our line of work, we can only afford to keep those who are fit to live on this earth."
Matilda gaped, at a loss.
"Y-you've gotta be – you have to be kidding me. She lost her brother, Shi. Her fucking brother. I didn't pin you to be this – this heartless maniac."
Shi gritted his teeth. "We all have to make sacrifices," he said, keeping his tone even and solemn. "And I am no 'heartless maniac'. My heart is here. It beats for earth and its future." He hefted the hostage. "With her, we can get vital information on Advent. I feel that is worth a few deaths."
"But enough talk," he said, moving forward once more. "We need to move."
Matilda didn't follow him. There was no way in hell she was. In fact, she would've rather stood there for eternity, until the Advent security squads reached her, if Mrs. Sycamore hadn't grasped her shoulder.
"Better get going, dear," she murmured. "If we're going to have any chance of making things right, we'll have to keep moving."
Matilda kept walking forward. But it wasn't long before she heard the gunfire.
"Patricia's gone," Mrs. Sycamore said.
"We need more time," Shi grumbled.
Mrs. Sycamore looked at Matilda.
"Got a grenade for me, love?" she asked. She held up one in her hand. "I'm going to need more than one for this."
Matilda looked at her waist and found two pieces of ordnance hanging from her belt. She unclipped them and held them out.
"Not yet," the old woman said. "Not until I tell you to."
The woman moved past Matilda and went down until she reached a landing. Then, she looked down.
"Oooh boy," she said. "They're mighty close, now aren't they?"
Then, with complete nonchalance, she removed the pin from her grenade. And like a romantic letting a rose fly on the wind, she dropped it. The rotund bringer of death bounced against the sides of the stairwell, rolling step after step until it stopped.
Then it exploded. Mrs. Sycamore stood back, buffeted by smoke. Screams, and the heavy thud of bodies emanated from below.
"I'm going to need one more, dear," Mrs. Sycamore said. "Their armor's a bit too tough for my liking."
Matilda tossed her another grenade, and the process repeated. The pin pulling, the drop, and then the screams.
The only difference this time was the long, metallic groan, followed by the sound of something large shifting and collapsing against the ground.
"Can't go up this way now," Mrs. Sycamore said, nodding at her grim work. "That'll give us a few more minutes." She tottered back up the steps, and nodded at the other two.
"Well, let's keep moving," Mrs. Sycamore.
It was a good thirty seconds before the group reached the top. Shi kicked open the door, and bright morning sun flooded the stairwell. Matilda stumbled, caught off guard by the sudden burst of light.
"Ah, there she is," Shi exclaimed, looking to the left. "Just a few more seconds, and…"
Suddenly, Matilda could make out the extremely low sound of the Skyranger's engines. She walked out of the doorway, and came face to face with the craft, hovering only a few feet above her. Shi was gesturing to the pilot, positioning the administrator so that the pilot could see her. In response, three ropes slithered out of the Skyranger, landing against the edge of the roof.
Shi turned to the others. "Let's move quickly," he ordered.
He moved towards one of the ropes, and latched a hand around one. Matilda followed him, despite the sick feeling building up inside her. She didn't want to follow this man at all, let alone be near him. But what choice did she have?
"Operative Sycamore, what are you doing?" Shi shouted. "We need to get going!"
"Hm?" Mrs. Sycamore said. She was going slow, moving step by step towards the Skyranger. "Sorry, sir. Was just, um, ruminating on some of things you've said."
"You can think on board the Avenger!" Shi scolded. "There's no time for this!"
"Oh, but there is!" Mrs. Sycamore said. She hefted her shotgun as she approached Shi. "It's very important. You said something about our line of work –"
Her eyes lit up, and she pointed the shotgun at Shi.
"And it's quite true."
Matilda could barely hear the fwump of the shotgun. Instead, she only saw Shi's neck snap back, gouts of blood spraying from his and the administrator's ruined chests. Both of them hung in the air for only a second, before they slipped, together, off the side of the roof and fell. Matilda thought she could hear their bodies slam into the pavement.
She looked, numb, at Mrs. Sycamore. The old woman was grabbing her rope, almost oblivious to the act she had just committed.
"I really do agree with Mr. Shi," Mrs. Sycamore told Matilda, as the ropes carried them up to safety. "We only can afford to keep those who are fit to live on this Earth."