Chapter 38: Rat In A Corner
A couple of women in Jacob’s group, along with Rhea and Naomi, all of them woke up from their sleep with a scream.
No one had expected the gunshots in the middle of the night.
Jacob also gasped awake and after opening his eyes, he only saw darkness.
He thought he was still in a bad dream, but just a couple seconds later... the lights flickered back on.
No time to relax, no time to gather their thoughts... Everyone was in a state of panic.
And then, they saw who had fired the gun.
At the front where the unchosens had met the awakeners, Fredrinn stood a little behind, his right hand holding Jenny’s arm as she held a pistol in her other hand.
In front of them where Max and Aadav were supposed to be, they felt surprised to see that Chubby was now kneeling, while Beanpole held a pistol.
Aadav was in a chokehold.
Beanpole’s hand was tightened around his neck from behind while the taller, slim man pressed the nozzle right against the young awakener’s head.
One wrong move, and the brown man would be blasted right in the brain.
Max was huffing slightly, his nose was bleeding, but he still held the Uzi in his right hand and his eyes were glaring right at Chubby.
"You... you dare try to take my gun, you fat piece of shit?" Max hissed in pure hatred, his grip on the Uzi tightened as he pointed the nozzle at Chubby.
His teeth were clenched and the handsome, masculine face was twisted.
On the other hand, Chubby was clutching his stomach, his face depicting extreme pain as he grunted. The hand was already stained in blood, and try as he might, the bleeding never stopped.
After all, he had eaten two bullets right into his belly.
The thick padding of fat was the only thing that allowed him to survive still.
"Wh... What’s going on...?" Jenny’s face was white, her lips parted in horror as she witnessed the scene in front of her.
Her boss had just shot a person, and her partner had gotten restrained at the gunpoint?
Then she glanced beside her, feeling her hand that was held tightly by Fredrinn and the whimpering man in front of them that was just kicked and had his bones broken by Fredrinn.
If it wasn’t for his quick reaction, Jenny was afraid that even she wouldn’t have been able to dodge the blows.
Would she also be restrained at gunpoint like Aadav if it wasn’t for Fredrinn?
"He...He he he..." Chubby laughed, sitting on his knees as the blood poured out of his mouth and he struggled to remain upright.
"The... plan, it worked..." He cackled.
"It didn’t work, you bastard!" Beanpole replied with emotions behind his voice. The gun was pushed even harder against Aadav’s temple as the man winced in pain but didn’t move without permission.
He still valued his life.
"You weren’t supposed to get shot! You were supposed to snatch the Uzi! You weren’t supposed to die!" Beanpole screamed.
"It’s... fine. We at least managed to catch... one of them." Chubby grunted, his voice getting lower as more blood choked on his throat.
He coughed violently, blood splashed onto the white tiles.
Jacob scrambled to his feet and rushed near the awakeners, but before he could get too close, Beanpole’s voice rang out.
He curled his fingers on the trigger and pushed the nozzle in Aadav’s head, "Stop right there! Move one more step and I will blow his head out!" he screamed.
Jacob stopped in his tracks.
"What are you dumbasses trying to do?!" Jacob shouted, "Stop making such a scene! Do you think that you all can survive if anything happens to Aadav?!"
Max remained silent, but when Beanpole saw the crazed look in the buff man’s eyes, he knew that Jacob wasn’t bullshitting.
If anything happened to Aadav, Max would surely shoot or slay every one of them personally.
But... he gulped and tried to summon his courage.
The plan was working. Although it didn’t go perfectly because of Max and Fredrinn’s quick reflexes, it didn’t matter.
They gained one hostage and managed to attract the attention of the entire room onto themselves.
"I-I need you guys to agree to some of our terms, or y-you can consider your precious awakener to be dead!" Beanpole stuttered as he looked at the group of men in front of him.
Max, Fredrinn, Jenny, Jacob... All 4 of them were awakened and 2 of them even had guns on themselves.
"You motherfucker... I let you live and this is how you’re going to act?" Max’s teeth were clenched as he glared at Beanpole, moving a few steps forward.
Beanpole’s knees felt very weak at the moment.
Chubby and the other guy were at death’s door and only him and another guy were left from their group here.
If Max actually attacked, there was no way that they could defend themselves.
But still, he didn’t give in.
"S-Stop right there!" He screamed, "I will really shoot him! Come one step closer and I will pull the trigger! Don’t test me!"
Max didn’t plan to stop.
Rage was visible on his face and he only had murder on his mind.
Beanpole’s fingers shook, the gun in his hand suddenly felt too heavy to hold, but he closed his eyes and got ready to pull the trigger when someone stopped Max.
"Stop! Don’t push the rat into the corner or it will get defensive!!" Jacob had grabbed Max’s shoulder, pulling him backwards while Jenny also moved to stop Max.
Fredrinn only stood at the side, still watching and observing the situation.
The drama was escalating slowly, but he knew that slowly they would overpower or soothe Beanpole to release Aadav safely.
That man didn’t have the guts to actually kill a person.
But this couldn’t be all, could it?
He looked on the side and saw that the smaller, black cladden group was still hanging out near the machine that killed lights, while the other, larger group that had separated was nowhere to be found.
And suddenly, Fredrinn’s sensitive ears twitched.
He caught a sound that he still remembered vividly.
The sound of the iron latch unlocking.
The bastards had opened the backdoor of the storage room!