Chapter Thirty-four
21:41 pm, Silver City, NM
“When do we get in?” I whine near her ear. It’s been ten agonizing minutes that we are standing near the ground-floor window of the already disintegrated building, witnessing few guards, playing cards. Serenity has already taken her stance with a revolver in her hand, the blonde who I have come to know as Agent Clarke is holding a revolver too and the other guy Auciello is carrying a rifle, more help is on the way and these three people with me are probably loaded with more weapons.
And I’m a fidgety mess as usual!
“Enjoy the hunting. After all you insisted!” Serenity counterclaims caustically.
Right after that we see a SUV pull in at the wrecked driveway. I see all three of my companions taking positions.
“There comes Gunter.” Clarke whispers.
Gunter comes out of the car and gets inside the building.
“I’m going in. Wait for my signal when it’s clear in there.” Serenity says. I open my mouth to protest, but she stops me right before that, “Stay.”
I stand there watching her subtly enter the building without a backward swivel. I look at Clarke and Auciello and they are preoccupied with their jobs, as if it is just a cakewalk for her. Or probably it is!
But I still fail to control my fluctuating nerves. What if something happens to her? As if on notion I hear a gunshot.
My mind becomes blank and I feel my feet moving like a bat out of hell ignoring the desperate yelling of Clarke. Reaching inside I search for her presence, but find her nowhere. I keep climbing the stairs all the while looking for her and following the sound of thundering gunshots. Arriving at the fourth floor I become chilled to the bone.
There are at least a dozen of men lying dead on the ground and Serenity is sitting on a chair cleaning the revolver at hand with the tip of her leather jacket. In front of her, Gunter is tied and gagged and is trying to kill her through his eyes. Did she just bring down an army of men all on her own?
“I told you to stay.” She says very calmly bringing me out of my trance. How does she know it’s me?
She didn’t even look back!
“I thought they—”
“Killed me? I’m hard to kill Mr. Damon Cooper.” I cringe at the mention of my real name after so long.
And the dialogue! She’s such a drama queen sometimes.
“Trust me you are not, babe!” I turn abruptly towards the owner of the voice and feel all my breath knocked out of me when I come face to face with Jason.
The familiar smirk is on his face and his eyes, those are exactly like mine. Wait! Jason is my evil twin?
Come on!
“Why hello little brother!” he says, amusement laced in his voice.
“Walker move!” Serenity shouts and before I could follow her order, Jason shoots her. I see her limp body falling to the floor. I feel everything stop around me including my heart. Taking that as a fair chance Jason grabs my neck and hits his head with mine. I feel disoriented for a while.
Oh no big brother, you didn’t just do that!
Regaining my equanimity I boot him in the gut and reverse our position and start beating the shit out him. He becomes shocked for a while, but immediately redeems his senses and starts counter attacking me. Our bones crack, blood spills, but oblivious to everything, we keep on fighting.
All the catastrophe from the past fifteen months flare before my eyes. The dead face of my little sister, my family, how I had to run around country to country just to survive; it was never a living for me, it was just not dying; all because of some sadistic revenge.
Suddenly I feel a blaring pain in my chest. Looking down I see Jason drilling a knife through my heart and smiling victoriously.
“Why?” I sibilate.
“If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?” he chuckles, “Words of William Shakespeare. One heck of a—” he keeps babbling, but I don’t hear him anymore. I think of Serenity lying on the floor bleeding. Someone please come to her aid- I want to shout, but nothing comes out of my mouth. I smile thinking of our first encounter. How I was speechless then. I hear people shouting, pounding of heavy boots coming upwards. Someone’s coming, maybe for help. Wait Miss Agent, you’re gonna be just fine. Hold on a few more—
And I drift off into nothingness.