The killer detective

16 - Carefulness isn't a part of my job

But nothing was happening. He kept breathing hard, the muzzle tightly pressed against my forehead wasn't moving, either. It felt like seconds were as long as hours. My life was basically at the mercy of one pull of the trigger. Praying wouldn't save me. In fact, I was only waiting for the guy in front of me to decide what to do with my life.

"Okay, then answer me this." He sarcastically snickered with an insanely high-pitched question: "How much were they worth?" I was silent. There was no way I was going to tell him anything about the bounties on some of the Ruinees I knew I had killed in the past. Sadly, I remembered every single one of them. I could never forget anyone's face and price that I had killed. I swallowed and took a breath.

"My boots?" I opened my eyes and looked straight into his. The gun was still pressed against my forehead, his finger on the trigger. In fact, this time it twitched. I could see his hand shaking a bit. He was fighting the urge to pull it before he had gotten any information from me. His face wrinkled into an ugly grimace.

"THEIR LIVES!" He pushed the gun onto me so hard I had to take a step back. The cold metal was making me realize that I probably had just made the biggest mistake in my life. Talking back or trying to make the situation easier, wasn't a way out. In fact, nothing was. There was no way he was going to let me out of here alive. Even if I told him everything I knew. They already had my equipment, they wanted to take everything from me... My life not excluded. My clothes were drenched in sweat and my heartbeat was nearly the only thing I could hear. It felt like I was under the water, not being able to take a breath, water running through my ears. I didn't hear anything else but myself. Out of all the stress, cold sweat covering my body, and my heart jumping out of my chest, I managed to get my senses to concentrate.

To make the nearly zero chances for escaping higher, I had to come up with a plan. Where can I go? If I manage to somehow make him fall and get rid of the handgun, pointing it at him... How will I escape those other guys? I was trying to think as fast as I could. The gun was leaving a mark on my forehead already. He kept pressing it hard against my skin.

"Why ask if you know the answer?" One of his lackeys, probably the one, who was holding my arms before, answered him. The guy holding the gun in front of me looked back for a bit, but quickly turned back to me and continued staring into my eyes. I clenched my fists. My knees were trembling. I had to stop the fear. I had to come up with a plan.

Where to go. How can I get away from this? Think... THINK. My eyes were running all around trying to find an escape route. But the only way to get away from here was either go back or run over all three guys at once. I was either risking being shot in my back or legs or being shot dead if I tried running forward. This is bad... This is seriously bad. I clenched my teeth.

"Yeah, she's right. Why ask her if you know the answer." I hadn't heard this voice before. Someone else had to come. For some reason, his voice sounded very familiar to me. It has to be just my imagination. There's no way I would know anyone here. I have troubles hearing. Everything sounds like I'm under the water and people are talking above the surface. Can the blood stop rushing through my ears?! I would seriously appreciate that! I couldn't control my blood flow. I could only breathe and try to calm down my heartbeat. But that was nearly impossible as more and more adrenalin was flowing through my veins. It was getting harder to concentrate and focus my eyes on anything. It was hard enough to keep myself from just giving up and blacking out.

"Chief..." The guy in front of me looked behind him as he said it. So he's their chief? That's why they didn't do anything to me yet? My chest squeezed even more than it did before. The fear I was feeling was getting worse. I had goosebumps all over my body, my mouth was dry. I felt myself getting dizzy, the world around me turning and my body feeling lighter.

"Got the badge?" One of the guys came and ripped off the badge from my right shoulder. My mind was wandering off. A heavy swallow made its way through my throat. My breathing was getting out of control. My mind had given up.

"Clear the area. I'll deal with her."

My forehead suddenly didn't feel the cold metal pressing against it. The gun was getting further away from it as the guy was walking backward. He was still aiming at me. He changed position with the new guy, their chief. He came closer to me. His thumb stroked the muzzle mark on my forehead. Are they going to let me go? Is this all there is to it? I exhaled in relief but still kept vigilant. The guys from before were slowly moving away. I had no weapons on me. While he had to have a few. I tried scanning his body to see if he had a gun, knife, anything. My further actions depended on what he had on him.

"Sucks they caught you here..." He said. Only now I realized he was wearing a scarf on his face. I couldn't figure out, who he was, even if the voice was familiar! It's now or never... Balance first! I slowly lowered myself in the knees. He didn't notice anything. A low kick!

He didn't fall down, instead, he blocked it. I threw a punch, but he blocked that one as well. I jumped away from the punch he was going to throw at me! I had my arms in front of me, feet ready. I'm not going without a fight! I was ready to charge at him and run away. We were throwing kicks and punches at each other, both of us blocking the other quite well.

I was taking a short break, catching my breath. He came with a jumping kick, which I had managed to evade by throwing myself on the ground to the left and picking myself up right away. He can't be a Ruinee! His training is way too good! Better than a lieutenant! He was more agile than Basil yet his strength was nearly bigger than Isaacs! What a luck! Damn it! I wiped blood coming from my lip with the top of my hand. He had done more damage to me than I did to him. My ribs were on the verge of being broken by a few of his punches.

He wasn't speaking. He was taking a break as well, catching his breath. I was holding my ribs, trying to not unnecessarily move. Suddenly a sharp pain hit the back of my neck. My body gave up. My vision was getting blurry and even though I looked up at his face, I couldn't see the features anymore. And darkness swallowed me up.

___________________

My head was going round, my ears were ringing and it felt like I would be throwing up at any moment. I brought my hand towards my head to place it on my forehead but instead, the hand fell on my nose.

Fuck. I groaned.

"Oh, morning, sleeping beauty." Some guy spoke. He also put the arm next to my body. I groaned again. I wanted to swear at the whole world. Even though it wouldn't help anything.

"You should probably open up your eyes already. If you're so scared this is hell, then you can rest assured. You still have a trip to get there in the future." I grunted. I didn't want to open my eyes. Because the moment I did, I would definitely be throwing up. Even with my eyes open, I felt like the whole world was spinning like a centrifuge.

"Should I open them for you, Lieutenant Althea?!" His ordering tone made me open my eyes in an instant. The light in the room was blinding me. I had to blink many times till I was able to see at least some things. My head was splitting with pain. Probably a doctor came and started checking my vitals. I still couldn't focus my eyes. Everything was just too blurry.

"Yeah, all good."

"Thanks, doc."

The door was shut closed.

"Alth, you should pull yourself together. Instead of reporting to me, I had to get you to report here. You can't be serious, making your supervisor get his report all the way to the hospital." Do you see that I can't even get up you i***t?! Try being in my shoes right now! Go and try! My blood pressure was rising. I wanted to kill him on the spot!

"Meiko... You sick fu..." I spewed up while trying to sit up. It most probably ended up on Meiko, who was sitting next to my bed. Unfortunately for him, it was too close.

"For f**k's sake!" He got up and rushed out of the room to probably get a change of clothes. 

I was inside alone. I looked out of the window, trying to get rid of the stupid dizziness. The afternoon sun was shining through the windows on the fifteenth floor of the hospital. The rays ended up on my blanket. I put my palms up to get the warmth from the sun embedded into them.

A nurse came rushing to the room to clean everything up soon after Meiko had left.

"Here's your water." She handed me a glass and then without anything else she left.

"Thanks." I cleaned my mouth and drank a bit to ease my throat. The burning from the vomit was getting better with each gulp of the water she had brought. It probably had to have soda powder mixed in.

When they were drilling us about how to behave in the situations, when we were caught, they never taught us how much it hurt to be knocked out! Or how uncomfortable everything was now! Idiots! The instructors should try to get knocked out at least once! Or fight in close combat for their lives! Pampered fools! The whole world was still spinning.

"Seriously. Learn to say hi to people first." Meiko came in with his white shirt wet. His jacket probably ended up in a bin at the toilets together with the tie. He was still drying the shirt with a couple of paper towels.

"Hi. How did I end up here?" I tried keeping my eyes open, but it was only making me feel like vomiting again.

"The Ruin Guards found you at the entrance. You were soundly sleeping while sitting with your back leaned on the guard post. Rifle and everything was with you. You were just missing the night vision and your badge." 

"Oh."

"Why do you cause trouble wherever you go?" My head was throbbing again. I didn't feel like answering his stupid questions. How was I supposed to know that?

"I do?" I rested my forehead in my hand. Meiko helped me lie down and covered me with the blanket up to my nose.

"If you vomit, do it inside the blanket," he said to me in a serious voice.

"Thanks. Won't do." I glanced at him with a killer's look in my eyes.

Meiko sat down and complained: "Can't you be more careful?" His voice sounded as if he was worried. He even let the air out in a sigh while saying it.

"Can you even be careful with the jobs we have?" I mumbled from below the blanket, holding another attempt of my stomach to get whatever was left in it out.

"What?"