Two Steps From Hell

Chapter 4: Escape

Ten minutes earlier, down on the ground floor of the warehouse. Two guards, who were the gate-keepers, sat idly around the corner playing cards when all after a sudden they heard 'bam-bam-bam' on the front gate. Usually, that meant they should get up and go check the gate. But these two guards were too comfortable to be bothered.

"Aren't you going to get that?" One of the men asked while rapidly rubbing his hands together in an attempt to ward off the cold. 

"Man, it's your turn," the other man replied, taking a satisfying sip of warm coffee from a paper cup.

"It is, isn't it?" The first man realised, finding humour in his lackadaisical memory. The lazy guard eventually forced himself to go and check the gate. When he did, he carelessly began to unlock the shutter while chatting out loud with the other guard sipping coffee around the corner. "Hey, did I ever told you about that one time when---"

The other man sitting around the corner picked up on his friend sudden silence and wondered what was up. "Joe?" He called out, but he received no answer. So resting his cup down on the floor, he went to see what the problem at the gate was. "Joe, where you at?" He cheerfully greeted as he bent the corner. 

But to his horror, he found Joe standing at the gate with a long, single-edged sword piercing through his back. The sword was then pulled out and his body collapsed to the floor, revealing the deadly masked killer that stood before him. Quickly while he was still in shock, a second assassin threw a three-bladed ninja star which gracefully glided across the gap that was between them and silted his throat and jugular artery open. Quickly, with his eyes wild with terror, he took a firm hold of his neck; trying to ease the blood flow. Yet like a geyser, blood sprayed outwards from his neck uncontrollably. Still, in disbelief, the man fell onto his knees and then finally onto his side where he bled out and eventually died with his firearm still strapped in place on his hip. 

The two female assassins then stood over his body with balled fists. They wore a tight, black full body amour completed with a pair of armoured, knee-high stiletto-like shoes that served as a shin and knee guard. Their suit had a V-cut and their chests were covered with a fishnet material that modestly exposed the upper regions of their breasts. On their left arm was a utility pad which housed smaller weapons like ninja stars and daggers. A skin-tight face mask that was just below their eyes hid their identities. The assassins wore almost identical suits. The only difference between their suits was that one suit had purple streaks and the other had yellow streaks. Nevertheless, they were fully prepared for combat and combat was what they would get this night. 

Suddenly the other guards, who were out patrolling the rest of the warehouse, stumbled upon them and the dead bodies of their fellow security guards lying in pools of blood. Without thinking twice, the guards opened fire on the two assassins. The two women ran swiftly in opposite directions, throwing ninja stars and daggers in efforts to take down as many men as they could whilst they made their ways to safety. They found shelter behind two large, cylindrical pillars that helped form the foundation of the building. The men, however, continued to fire heavily at them; their bullets eating away at the concrete makeup of the pillars. The purple assassin held them back to a certain extent with her handgun, ensuring that every bullet was spent wisely. The yellow assassin then pulled out a high-tech grenade of sorts and sailed it over to the men. It readily exploded in mid-air causing the entire warehouse to be enveloped by an irritating smoke. 

This separated the guards and made it favourable for the assassins to strike. One by one they took out the men, who by the way were hugely disadvantaged due to the fact of not being able to breathe or see through the smokescreen. Their bone-wrenching screams, echoing throughout the smoke, marked their death. Two men with their backs turned to each other, shook in their boots as they didn't know where or when the assassins would attack. The screams stopped for a while and the place became suspiciously quiet. One of the men lost his cool and began to fire wildly into the smoke which stood around them, hoping that he could at least injure one of the assassins. Then just when he ran out of bullets, the smoke finally died down and revealed to him that he had mistakenly shot one of his comrades, who was only seeking help while lost in the smoke. This man dropped dead. Out of nowhere, the purple assassin attacked this coward of a guard. With two daggers tightly gripped in her hands; up-down she went with one arm, sideways-sideways she went with the other arm, carving an opening into his chest and killing him. The last remaining guard witnessed this and decided that he had a better chance of living if he ran away, which he immediately did. With an unquenchable fire in her eyes, the purple assassin watched him as he ran towards the office.

Meanwhile, in the same upstairs office, Antonio was busy feeding a shredder with vital documents. 

"How did they find us?" Ezra asked while holding his head in panic.

"Does it matter at this point?" Antonio wittily replied.

"Are they the 'they' we should be worried about?" Essen asked, checking his g*n to ensure that he had enough bullets and later peeping through the blinders to see what was going on down below in the warehouse. He realized that it had become very quiet down there. 

"Not even close. They are mere pawns to the real villains at work. These women are Dai Lee assassins sent to kill us...no doubt the ones who killed Judas," Antonio replied bitterly, twisting off a cork and pouring out a corrosive chemical all over his hard drives. He also poured some into boxes containing files that weren't shredded. The chemical surprisingly melted everything down to nothing, destroying all of their secrets. When he had poured the entire chemical out, he tossed the bottle aside and went on to clean a whiteboard that was displaying various mathematical and chemical equations. "My men won't be able to keep them off for long," he continued. 

"What are we going to do, Antonio?" Ezra asked, biting his fingernails.

Antonio reaching into his pocket pulled out a USB flash drive and placed it into his hand. "Here. This is everything we have uncovered about CERN. You're right...the world must know the truth. Guard it safely with your life as I have," Antonio finished saying to him. Ezra then with a weary look, beheld the USB flash drive now in the middle of his hand; he was dumbfounded at how everything was moving so quickly. Antonio subsequently walked past him to go over to a file cabinet. On his own, he tried to push it from out of the corner of the room but failed miserably as it was quite large and sturdy. "Detective, will you help me with this." 

"Sure," Essen replied, tucking his g*n in the back of his pants and hurrying over to assist him. 

Together they managed to push the file cabinet out of the corner to expose a hidden vent that was big enough for an adult to slide down into it. 

"It runs on the outside and leads all the way down to the parking lot," Antonio commented while they all looked at it in sweet relief. 

"Good. You and the kid can use it to escape while I stay and hold back these assassins."

"No," Antonio objected. "I need you alive, Detective. I need you to keep Ezra safe." 

"Negative," Essen said, pulling out his g*n and drawing the slide up and down to make a clicking sound. "If you are right and those women are indeed responsible for Judas' death, then I'm taking them in." 

Antonio realizing that Essen meant business, grabbed Ezra by the shoulder and helped him into the dusty vent. 

"Wait, aren't you coming with?" Ezra quickly latched onto Antonio's hand.

"No. Not this time, son. It's me they want. Not you," Antonio answered, trying hard to c***k a smile for him to see.

"You'll die if you stay," Ezra quickly warned, with his heart beating out of control. 

"I'm already dead," Antonio grievingly revealed before he forcibly pushed him down the vent. 

Ezra, however, screamed, "No," in defiance as he went down. 

Essen saw his brave act of kindness and offered him a small g*n he had strapped above his ankle. "Do you know how to use one?" He hesitantly asked, watching him as he inspected it.

"Tonight I will have to learn," Antonio smirked. 

Yet as they looked at each other, the door was kicked wide open and the security guard that had run away from the assassins earlier appeared with blood all over his face. Almost at the point of running out of breath, he yelled, "Help me!"

Essen and Antonio had initially raised their guns at him but lowered it after seeing that he wasn't a threat. Then wham! The yellow assassin rammed her sword through his heart, killing him on the spot. She pulled it out and allowed his body to free fall before them.

Quickly, they pointed their guns at her but before they could even release a bullet, the purple assassin crashed through the office window from the warehouse side and threw a dagger that knocked the g*n out of Essen's hand. Feeling she was going to throw another blade, he with all haste ran up to her and engaged her in close hand-to-hand combat.

Antonio holding the g*n funnily, began to shoot at the yellow assassin who was quickly approaching him. He missed on all attempts to shoot her with the g*n. She then backed him into the wall with her sword at his neck. 

"Antonio Versalez, consider this mercy," the yellow assassin spoke, surprising Antonio. 

"Wait! You don't have to do this. There is still time to save your soul," Antonio said with all urgency in his widened eyes, beseeching the assassin. She looked at him rather closely with her deep green eyes, hesitating to slice his throat open. 

On the other side of the room, Essen and the purple assassin were engaged in heated combat with Essen shockingly holding his own against her and her life-threatening daggers. He shortly after successfully hit one dagger from out of her hand, followed by the next one. She became very crossed that Essen was putting up a good fight against her, a person who should be the superior martial artist here. So she decided to pull a stunt on him by dropping herself on the floor and later twisting her entire body like a drill between his legs, propelling herself towards his g*n which he didn't know was just behind him. She subsequently picked up the g*n and shot him in his abdominal region. The colour drained out of his face when he realized what had just happened. Now he tried to elude her by stepping backwards, but he instead found himself backed up against the window. She soon after stood up and gave him a finishing shot which consequently sent him crashing backwards outside through the glass window. 

The warehouse was three-storey high and they were practically on the third floor. Essen fell hard on a trailer top that was conveniently parked directly below the window he fell out of. He imprinted a dent into the top of the trailer on impact. He laid there for a moment in aching pain but quickly had to roll himself off when she began firing at him from above. He was now stuck beneath the truck, bleeding out and under heavy gunfire.

Yet in his hopelessness came Ezra stopping his car next to him. "Get in!" Ezra shouted at him, opening the car door. The assassin then started to target the car, trying to deter Essen from going in. But he risked it anyways by dragging himself halfway into the car. Ezra prematurely sped off before he was totally in, driving them away to safety.

The purple assassin was pretty upset about their escape but she figured she had netted a bigger prize tonight in the form of Antonio, who she later caught conspiring with the yellow assassin.

"You can walk away from this---" Antonio said to the yellow assassin just before the purple assassin cold-bloodedly shot him between his eyes and killed him. 

The thick blood from his forehead began to flow. His pointed nose shortly parted it and it appeared as tears flowing down his face. The yellow assassin numb for words, gently placed his body to rest on the floor where she afterwards closed his eyes. He looked at peace dead, she thought to herself thereafter.

"You didn't have to kill him," the yellow assassin reasoned, pulling down her mask. 

"Don't get soft on me, sister," the purple assassin replied. Her eyes then glimpsed at a wallet amongst debris on the floor. She picked it up and opened it. "Besides, it would seem that our job is not yet over," she revealed while looking at an ID card with Essen's picture and full name on it.