“I feel… cold, so cold…” James slowly rolled over and opened his eyes,
shaking off his fatigue as he threw on a white undershirt and black jeans. “Ahh, what time is it?” he groaned as he
switched on the television.
“Yet another alleged criminal has been cut down, only
hours after he was released from court.
Police still have no clue as to who is behind these attacks, but have
now widened their search in order to bring justice to this mysterious figure.”
“Ahh man, just leave the poor guy alone,” James muttered,
“he’s doing this country a favour.”
Looking down at his watch, James groaned as he realised it was
four-thirty in the morning.
Knowing he would not be able to get back to sleep, he
instead sat down for breakfast and prepared to start the day.
James sighed as he considered what he would do on his
day off; he threw on a black over-shirt, covered in neon-blue flames, and some
sneakers.
Heading outside, James grabbed a soccer ball and began
juggling it, pulling off some old tricks as well as practising new ones. Growing tired of that, he then began kicking
the ball against various walls, trying to anticipate where the ball would end
up.
After six hours of exercise, James collapsed with
exhaustion. “What a workout,” he
muttered to himself as he grabbed a drink from the fridge.
Looking out the window, he narrowed his eyes as a
limousine pulled up in his driveway.
“What law did I break this time…” he muttered as he climbed to the roof,
searching for a less detectable viewpoint.
James gasped as the passengers of the limousine pulled
out some pistols and promptly headed towards his house. “I’m guessing this isn’t because my
electricity bill is overdue again…”
Fear starting to creep in, James cleared his head and
tried to process his thoughts. He had
some important information stored on a USB device in his house, and if they
were after his computer he would have to wipe it.
Jumping down and following his intruders, undetected,
his suspicions were confirmed as one sat down to his computer.
“Okay, I’m sure it’ll take at least ten minutes for
them to find whatever they’re looking for, so I have five minutes to cut the
power.” James then pulled back out of
his house and proceeded to his main power box.
As James flicked off the power, his backup power supply came on, as
expected.
Heading over to his backup, James flicked it off. Being highly fond of gadgets and complicating
things, James had rigged his power so that it would not work unless his backup
was working, and his backup was located quite a distance from his house.
Cutting the power supply to the house, James went back
to observe the two in his house.
“Find the power supply,” the one sitting at his
computer demanded to his accomplice.
“Good luck,” James whispered.
After five minutes, the accomplice returned, informing
his partner of his finding. “I found the
power supply, but it’s not working. I’m
sure he’d have a backup somewhere, but I can’t find it.”
Sighing, the leader got up from James’ computer and
proceeded outside, in search of James’ backup supply.
Leaping to action, James grabbed his USB port from the
lowest drawer of his computer desk, and a screw driver and hammer from the
drawer above.
Placing the screwdriver on the hard-drive of his
computer and striking it with the hammer, he completely impaled the drive,
shattering it.
Moving the screwdriver to the motherboard, James
waited for the power to come back on.
As soon as the lights started flickering, before
shattering due to the rush of power, James drove the screwdriver into the
motherboard and smashed it forward with the hammer. A spark generated and a stream of electricity
jumped over the screwdriver, frying the computer.
James then dashed out of the house and leapt into his
car, grateful that the power supply was located on the other side of the house.
He casually started his engine and slowly drove away,
not attracting attention and escaping undetected.
Spending the entire day driving around, James returned
later that night to pack up his things; whilst there was no immediate danger of
them returning due to the state of his computer, they would eventually be back.
As James turned off his lights and headed to his car,
he noticed a small figure standing by his front door.
Curious as to how he had missed the child when he
entered, James headed over to talk with the intruder.
“You must stop him…” the child whispered, his voice
echoing through the house.
“Yeah, sure. No
problem. While you’re here, would you
like a lolly?” James felt an instant
pang of guilt as he said this, and apologised.
“I’m sorry… What’s wrong?”
“Zephyr… you must stop him.”
“Who?”
“The one behind the attacks. He is more powerful than anyone can conceive,
except you.”
“Do you think you could… maybe… give me a little more
details?”
The child was replaced with an image of a young man,
with wings and a tattoo of a falcon underneath his right eye. “Stop him…”
The image then faded away and James stared hard at the wall, trying to
make sense of what he had just seen.
Shaking off his confusion, James finished packing his
car and pulled out of his driveway, heading over to his friend’s house.
“Brad, open up!”
James knocked heavily on the door, fidgeting nervously as he waited for
his friend to open the door.
“Hey, man,” he was greeted, “what’s up?”
“The feds are after me again, I need a place to stay
for a while.”
Brad smirked.
“What’s new?”
“This time they were armed.” The smile faded from Brad’s face, and was
replaced with a look of concern.
“Well, you’re always welcome to stay here, but…”
“You got a hit tonight?”
“Yeah…”
“I can’t, man.
I gotta work tomorrow!”
“We need you!
They’re gonna bust up the Shelter, and we’re the only ones that can make
them reconsider.”
“No guns?” he asked.
Brad didn’t reply. James
sighed. “Come on, man. There are way too many children around there
for us to just go in and start shooting.”
“It’s for the benefit of good,” Brad argued.
“There’s no good in taking a life!” James insisted.
“Alright, alright…
No guns.”
James was having serious doubts as he donned a black
sweater and black shoes. He slipped on a
set of black gloves and a black cap. It
had been two years since he had assisted Brad in a ‘mercy mission’. Basically, he was a part of a gang that
worked for the people, defending the streets from rogue gangs.
“Why’d you stop?” Brad asked.
“I had to. I
couldn’t keep going to work with cuts and bruises and the other injuries I had. The cops would’ve gotten involved and we
would’ve been found out.”
“You were our best.
There wasn’t a single enemy you couldn’t drop from hundreds of yards
away with only a pistol. I shudder at
the thought of what you could do with a scoped weapon.”
“I left that all behind me. I’m only helping you now because I can’t bear
the thought of women and children being slaughtered. I’m still not going to kill.” He emphasised this last point, a stern
expression forming on his face.
Brad came up beside his friend. “You changed so much when she died… I’ve never seen anyone so determined to turn
clean. You were just a kid, but you
could take a life without a second thought.
You really did bring justice to our town.”
“I now know what it’s like to lose someone close to
you. All life has meaning. I’m now working to build lives, not destroy
them.”
Brad climbed into the car and James followed; the two
then proceeded to pick up the other members of the gang.
“Hey, it’s James!” Craig exclaimed as he jumped into
the car. “To what do we owe such an
honour? I guess these guys must be
hotter than I thought.”
“Shut-up, man.
I’m only here ‘cause I’m under heat from the feds again.”
“Gonna wipe out a few crooks to make you feel better,
eh?”
“Dude, stop!”
James removed his cap and wound down his window, letting the wind ruffle
his hair as he tried to drown his feeling of doubt.
Drew was the next stop. He, too, was surprised to see James alongside
Brad, but kept his mouth shut.
The car pulled up in the small town where the Shelter
was located, where they were greeted by Patrick. A glance at his watch told James it was two-thirty;
no way was he going to get any sleep before work.
Looking around, he remembered that many of his
students lived around this area; James lowered his cap to cover his face, and
pulled up his hood.
“What is it?” Drew asked, coming up beside James.
“Something doesn’t feel right…”
“Like last time?”
“I don’t know.”
James slowly followed the others as he talked with Drew about what he
was feeling.
The last time James had partook in a mercy mission,
his best friend had been shot in front of him, and his sister had been gunned
down as she tried to protect him. He had
a similar feeling that day, but had kept it quiet. Now he was alert, his eyes scanning the area
as he clutched the pistol inside the pocket across his jumper. James had vowed to never take another life,
but he was well aware that if his friends were attacked again, he would fight
back, even if to only injure his enemies.
“Now we wait,” Patrick ordered as they came to rest in
front of the Shelter. The feeling in
James’ gut grew more and more intense.
He looked around, and realised that he was outside Naomi’s house. Naomi was a student in his grade nine class;
he had once dropped her off home after her parents had been called out of town
suddenly.
As a car slowly turned into the street, James snuck
away from the group and towards the Shelter.
He came to rest among the shadows of a stack of boxes, only metres away
from the door. He knew that the group
would not move until his order, so he crouched in full security that he would
gain the element of surprise.
The rival gang pulled up outside the Shelter and
stepped out of the car. There were five
in total, equipped with a shotgun, two pistols and steel pipe. The unarmed member was obviously the leader. They stepped up the door, where they were
intercepted by James.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve,” James
spoke, “but I suggest you turn back.”
The unarmed gang-member stepped up to James and
sneered. “Why should we listen to
you? You’ve got nothing on us. You and your mercy band are gonna fall just
like you did two years ago.”
James raised his head and stared into the eyes of his
adversary. “You’ll never get away with
what you did back then. You’re gonna pay
for what you did to my sister.”
“What’re you gonna do, kill me? Isn’t that against everything you live for
now?”
“When I’m through with you, you’re going to wish you
died.”
The leader smirked, and turned to the man with the
steel pipe. “Juno, take care of this
guy.”
Juno stepped forward and
smiled at James, raising the pipe before swinging at James’ head. James ducked and pulled sideways, punching
Juno in the gut swiftly in a counterattack.
Before Juno could react, James twisted his arm and spun Juno around,
holding the pipe to his neck before turning to the other gang members.
They all pointed their guns
at James, but James simply smiled.
“You’d kill one of your own to fulfil whatever it is you’re trying to
do?”
“We’ve all gotta go
sometime,” the leader smiled, withdrawing a gun from his jeans before firing a
shot at James. James threw his hostage
forward and jumped back, gasping as the bullet struck his left arm. He rolled to the side and used the wall as
cover whilst he withdrew his own pistol.
He leaned out and began
firing; the rival gang peeled and split, seeking cover within the street as
they sprayed bullets.
Brad and the others headed
for the car, pulling out pistols as they returned fire.
Soon a full gun-fight ensued,
and James ran from the Shelter so as to lead the attack away. He screeched to a halt outside Naomi’s house
and used the yard as cover as he targeted his shots.
The gun-fight raged on, the
sirens in the distance offering no closure to the battle. As James’ gun fell empty, he reached for a
clip, but hesitated. Turning slowly, he
noticed Naomi at the front door, staring at the gang-leader as he aimed a shot
at her.
James realised this, and sprinted
to the door whilst struggling to reload.
Sliding the clip into his gun, he cocked it along his leg and dove
towards Naomi. He caught her as the man
fired, and the bullet whizzed past the two and shattered a vase directly behind
where Naomi had been standing.
James turned to look at the
leader. His hand was to his
stomach. James smelled the gun powder
before the smoke had reached his eyes.
Looking down, he realised he had instinctively returned the shot. The leader dropped to his knees, gazing into
space as his life faded away from him.
James sheltered Naomi as he
cursed under his breath. Not only had he
taken another life, but he had done so in front of a young girl.
The remaining gang members
leapt into the car and sped off, leaving Brad and the others to regroup.
Drew was the first to reach James. “Oh no…” he muttered as he noticed Naomi
huddled up and shivering in James’ arms.
James stood up and left Naomi on the floor. “I can not deal with this right now!” He left Drew to tend to Naomi before storming off.
“Hey…” Drew said in a soft voice. “Are you okay?” Naomi nodded.
“I want you to go inside, and I want you to lock the door, okay?” Naomi looked towards the house. “Listen to me. Go inside, lock the door, and go to
sleep. Don’t tell anyone what you saw,
okay? Promise me.”
After Naomi ran inside, Drew headed over to
James. “Look, man, you didn’t have a
choice.”
James, furious, turned and slammed his hand against
the wall.
“Listen to me!
If you hadn’t done anything she would have died!”
James hesitated, thinking about this. He raised his fist so as to strike the wall
again, but Brad gently caught his hand.
“He’s right,” Brad agreed. “It was her life, or his. A sinner died, to let a young girl live.”
“Come on…” Drew encouraged. “Let’s go home.” The two friends helped James to the car,
leaving the area not long before the police arrived. There would be a large investigation, but
that would have to be dealt with at a later time.
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