\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 57 - Nightmare on Klep Street
The calm ocean waves of Pacifica gently grace the sands of the beach one pull after another. The neighboring quiet chaos of Night City matches the tone and energy of the starless night sky and the baron tattered streets. The silhouettes of Brian and the crew march in tandem up to the building they hope Zaunya and Audrey are being held in. As he leads the march, he hears the sounds of the crew racking their iron and preparing their weapons alongside their confident footsteps on wet pavement through the quiet streets.
Brian's mind begins to race with possibilities on what may have happened or what could be happening to the women. A quick flash of the dead young ladie's face back at the Hotel Pistis Sophia enters his head. The moment that has engraved itself in his mind revisits... laying her limp body gently to the floor and watching a single tear run out of her lifeless eyes as her head turned. He then hears the sudden scream of Marilyn's voice come back into his head... continuing to haunt him during his times of stress and uncertainty. "NO NO! PLEASE! VARGA! VARGAAAAA!" He shuts the intrusive thoughts down and locks in.. drawing his Nue and clutching it tight. He speaks to the crew while they continue to walk.
"There's gonna be more in there. They gotta know whats goin' on by now. Eyes open. Keep up... match my pace." He says to them sternly. They stack up on both sides of the building entrance as a homeless man trying to mind his own business passes by on the sidewalk. He gets a glance at the crew and decides to quickly cross the street toward the beach instead. BugBear quick hacks into a tattered surveillance camera of the building watching the street, granting her access to several of the cameras inside. She quickly scans through the available ones seeing into various rooms.
"Nothing so far... place looks emptied out-.. Wait, shit. I see a few of them. They're hunkered down toward the back. Alot of iron... They're waiting... ready."
"How many?" Brian whispers
"uhh.. I see 6 in the front and like 8 more upstairs. They're still scrambling around."
"Netty, get the door." Brian orders causing netty to quick hack the security access panel next to the door. The light on the door turns green. Brian gives Carter and BugBear a nod as they all ready their iron to enter.
BugBear with the gang goons in line of sight through the camera remains in deep focus. With her eyes still glowing red, she navigates her custom pink runner interface with her various personalized logos and branding on it, one being an angry robotic cat baring its teeth and roaring. She targets the various goons while cycling through her programs. "Just a... sec more... and... done. Short circ with an optics reboot incoming.. And not much in the way of resistance either! They're mine." She says with an intense look on her face with her eyes glowing red.
"NOW!" Brian yells as they slide the door open and quickly enter. Brian takes lead with Carter as BugBear and Netty hang back. Carter raises his custom jet-black Guillotine with a high polish finish that catches the dim light perfectly making it gleam and pushes forward alongside Brian. They see a once prepared group of mercs with their guns trained in their direction now completely compromised. They drop several of the sight and cyberware compromised mercs struggling to clear their vision with ruthless efficiency and a sudden onset of loud booming gunshots ringing throughout the building.
The sounds of their brutal work is heard upstairs by the other mercs as some of them stay put and several sprint for the staircase. The several that sprinted for the staircase are met at the top by a couple of thrown flashbangs that go off right near their faces. The closest mercs to the explosion has his head nearly blown off by the concussive force, dropping him instantly and blinding the waiting mercs on the top floor. Brian keeps the merc's body propped up with his own strength, using it to push forward as multiple heavy rounds are fired into the back of the corpse by the rest of the waiting shooters. As Brian draws the fire of the mercs on him, Carter pushes up behind him spraying the mercs with precise Guillotine bursts. Carter takes a heavy round to the shoulder knocking him off balance as he slams up against a wall in the hallway, leaving blood behind on impact. Brian shoves the dead merc he was running with on top of a merc posted at the end of the hallway in front of a door. The dead weight of the body catches the merc off guard and knocks his giant 6 foot 5 frame off balance. Brian leaps up into the air over the falling dead body and knees the huge merc right in the face with full force nearly knocking him out. The force of the strike knocks the two of them off balance sending a bunch of blood from the merc's face spraying onto a nearby wall as they go tumbling onto the floor. Carter quickly walks up behind them and rips chunks out of the back of the merc's skull with his Guillotine. As Brian shoves the corpse off of him, Carter helps him up to his feet.
Without missing a beat Brian turns his full attention over to the door the merc was guarding as he franticly struggles to open it. He desperately bangs on the heavy iron door several times while continuing to try and yank it open. Carter looks on while watching his back.
As Brian struggles helplessly with the door, his worst fears begin to rush through his head. "Am i too late!?" He thinks to himself as his eyes open wide and he grits his teeth... the feelings of uncertainty and desperation grab ahold of him and bare down. He hears the feint shriek of a scared woman in his head alongside Marilyn's playful giggle. Various thoughts race through his mind untamed as the intensity of the moment builds. "Has this all been for nothing...? Did i fail... again...?"
The door abruptly turns green and slides open as Netty and BugBear slowly make their way up the stairs through the brutal carnage of the building. Seeing various clouds of smoke, debris and street toughs pooling excess blood underneath their lifeless corpses. All of them sporting headshots.
Brian rushes into the room and stops in his tracks with his eyes and mouth wide open... He sees Audrey alone in the center of the room, in only her white bra and panties, with her hands tied behind her back, and a stray rope around her neck like a dog leash. She lays with her back towards them in the darkened room lit only by the dim hallway light behind them. Shes... lethargic and barely conscious as Brian gets down on his knees and works quickly to untie her restraints around her wrists and ankles. She begins to whimper and moan in a daze as she comes too. "N- No.." she helplessly says with no strength left before she hears the sound of Brian's deep, gentle voice.
"Audrey! Audrey.. its me.. shh.. shh.. its me." He says causing her to gather her attention towards him. The sound of his voice causes her to break down. As the restraints around her raw, red wrists and ankles come off, she turns to face him while still laid on the ground. She sits up and hugs him around the neck tightly, pulling him down as tears begin to run down her face and the intensity of her emotions in the moment overwhelm her.
"They tried to-" She cries vulnerable into Brian's shoulder causing him to pull her into his chest even tighter.
"My god.." He says overwhelmed letting out a sigh of relief, looking up at the ceiling as emotion begins to consume him. "I'm here Audrey.. shh.. its ok.. i'm here.. shh.. its ok...its ok..." They share a very personal and vulnerable embrace with each other...
BugBear races into the room pushing past Carter and Netty. "AUDREY!" She shouts as tears begin to build in her eyes. She drops to her knees and wraps her arms around Audrey nearly falling on top of her as the pair embrace each other tightly. Brian gets up and sees Netty gathering Audrey's clothes that are torn and scattered about the room. He steps to Carter completely flustered, with his adrenaline now surging.
"There's... there's one more. Zaunya... she... they can't-" Brian stumbles over his words before Carter cuts him off, placing his heavy hand on Brian's shoulder and forcing eye contact.
"Hey... hey.. we'll find her, Yeah? We're gonna find her." Carter nods in a deep, reassuring tone. Brian looks at him before looking down and silently nodding in agreement.
Audrey yanks the rope off of her neck and over her head. With blood running out of her mouth, she shouts through her teeth to the group while slowly being helped up by BugBear.
"Basement!... BASEMENT! I saw them take her there!" She shouts in pain through her teeth, filled with frantic emotion causing Brian to look over at her before immediately storming out of the room at full speed.
A final chem fiend looking merc with wirey hair and goggles on is seen with his back pressed up against a door while clutching his iron. He sits in the intense, uncertain silence while in a panic. The door gets pounded with a loud bang and great force, pushing the merc off of it briefly and nearly knocking him off balance... scaring and causing him to press up against the door even harder.
The door blasts open causing the merc to go flying into the corner behind it. Brian steps into the room... He sees Zaunya in the center of it with both of her wrists chained and held up by the ceiling with various vials, bottles and needles littered about the floor and a side table. Brian quickly approaches her with full focus and fear in his eyes, Carter enters the room right behind him and sees the merc attempting to get up to his feet and shoot Brian in the back. He kicks the merc's gun away causing it to fire and sending it flying then proceeds to beat him down relentlessly. Netty enters soon after and joins Carter in beating down the merc as BugBear rushes to free Zaunya from her restraints.
The commotion going on in the room is silent to Brian as he drops to one knee and gently grabs Zaunya's face. She slowly looks up at him as he places his thumb on her bottom lip, revealing her bloody mouth and teeth. In a stunned daze, she gently turns her head away as tears start to build in her eyes. As her restraints come off, she falls into Brian's arms limp as he wraps his arms around her, grabbing the back of her head and pulling her in tight.
With his mouth open in disbelief, he clutches on tightly to Zaunya with her face buried in his shoulder... He closes his eyes tight.