Chapter 38: Glimmer of Hope
The bullet tore through Adam’s thigh an explosion of white-hot agony. His leg gave out instantly. He crashed to the wooden floor his charge brought to a brutal and abrupt end.
The heavy frying pan flew from his grasp skittering across the floorboards with a loud metallic screech. He was down. He was wounded. And he was completely at their mercy.
The assassin at the very front the one Adam had been targeting stepped forward. He walked calmly over to where Adam lay clutching his bleeding leg. He pointed his silenced pistol directly at Adam’s forehead.
"A good attempt," the man said his voice a low emotionless monotone muffled by his mask. "For a child."
Adam lay on the floor the pain in his leg a throbbing all-consuming fire. He could feel the cold metal of the pistol’s muzzle pressed against his skin.
He looked up. He could only see the man’s eyes through the slits in his mask. They were a startling piercing blue. The blue eyes stared down at him cold and devoid of any human emotion. And then the masked man pulled the trigger.
The world vanished.
Complete darkness. A familiar empty void. The system window appeared a constant companion in his endless cycle of death.
[Host Adam has been killed. Sending to respawn point.]
His eyes snapped open. He was back in Sophia’s bed. The first light of dawn was just beginning to peek through the window. This time there was no hesitation no moment of despair. He moved with a cold practiced efficiency.