Ruffian by Leia Barko

Author:Leia Barko
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Andrasne Mestyanek

15: ALL HELL

Hendric

I try to breathe as quietly as possible, if that’s a viable expression.

“Ruffians,” Astra mouths. She silently slips her sidearm from her leg holster and clicks the safety off. We follow her lead. She drags her index finger across her throat and shakes her head. Don’t kill them. I hold up three fingers and count down. Then we burst up.

The Ruffian hit squad seemingly doesn’t have reservations against shooting us. Immediately, they lift their weapons, firing bullets our way as they dive toward another stack of wooden crates diagonal from ours.

The paper and wooden containers don’t offer very good shields but they do hide us from view. Bullets rip through the walls of our hiding spot, barely missing us. When the Ruffians stop to reload, we return their fire, shooting until we’re out.

We run out of ammunition at about the same time. I can tell because they’ve been quiet for a few seconds after we’ve stopped shooting.

Then all hell breaks loose. A black cylinder rolls toward us, stopping a couple of feet away. Flash grenade. My brain has just registered the immediate threat and I hurtle my body away from it when it explodes, the sound loud enough to split my eardrums. My vision is black and fuzzy and I lose my balance, tipping forward onto the floor of the warehouse floor. The cold stone scrapes my knees, bits of gravel lodging in the crevices of my palm. My ears ring and I’m disoriented, confused which way is up or down. My vision consists of black patches.

Suddenly someone grabs me under the shoulder and hauls me up. The blindness of a flash grenade is only temporary — in a few seconds my vision clears and I see people, a bit slanted but sharp. Alessia is still keeping a firm grip on my arm.

Then we collide with the Ruffians and our nonlethal approach vanishes at once. All I see is a flash of salt and pepper hair and one of the Ruffians is thrusting a knife at me. I have just enough time to swivel to the left and the blade only punctures my upper arm. He jabs at me again and I ignore the throbbing of my wound, pushing the hand away with my forearm and punching the man in the face, hard. He staggers back and Verman kicks him in the head. Another Ruffian grabs him in a chokehold from behind but before I can move to help, Astra is already there, sweeping his feet out from under him and pressing her forearm to his throat. We are a swirl of limbs and weapons, falling, rising when we can, heaved up by the other when we can’t.

But the Ruffians are stronger and more experienced than we are. The fight is coming to a close, and not in our favor. The Ruffian woman has Alessia pinned in a corner, Astra and Verman barely keeping the other two busy. We are still alive but so are they, and in much better condition.

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