Gone was my rifle by the time that my senses returned to myself.
I had no idea where it had gone, nor where was the last time I saw it; all I did know was that I was now defenseless, chained up and apparently in Hell. At least that was what four-eyes told me.
Still, I'd been through worse.
This was already the second time I was stuck between a rock and a hard place today, and I gotta admit: not feeling it. My throat was dying, my legs were still wobbling, and my body felt as if it had suffered a sudden rage of the cold; everything looked blurry. My vision itself was absolutely hazy out of the strain that my head was having from being awake alone.
Marching left and right, in and out of focus, the only thing that I could truly see was the outline of the two people responsible for my current predicament: four-eyes and bulky guy over here. Even without the need to say anything, I could already feel the sentiment that was shared between the three of us.
Anxiety. The three of us were anxious; they more possibly more than I.
Hell, maybe the lack of headache that they were suffering had caused them to feel even more tense. I, on the other hand, felt both pain and in elation.
Well, as much elation as you could ever conjure during an episode of sudden fever anyways.
"Look at you," I could hear the Reaper's voice right next to me, mocking. "You look rather pathetic, I must say. Still, seeing how easily you let yourself get caught, I guess you're pretty better off than your predecessors."
I could feel the "pitying" look that the Reaper was giving me, but to this, I could only reply with a small laugh. Even with my whole head feeling as if it was being split straight apart due to the strain, I did my best to fight through it. Whatever it was that was causing this, I knew that pushing the Contract would not be one thing I'd like to do that often starting from today.
Unfortunately, this small one-sided conversation between the Reaper and I didn't go unnoticed. Or at least, my small laugh surely didn't.
Approaching me was the short, bulky guy who I'd shot back in the mall. He wore on his face an expression that shouted to me that he was the type to hold grudges, that he was going to hit me yet again with my(!) hockey stick. Still, this tough act of his did not fool me. From the way he walked and carried himself, it was almost as clear as day that the man was injured.
"What're you laughing at?" He asked, pointing my—my! —own hockey stick right towards my face. Boy oh boy, I couldn't wait in getting the whole thing back and proving my point!
"Nothing," I said shortly, cringing immediately out of the sudden aching that spread throughout my whole body. "Just wanted a laugh, you know."
I gave him a weak smile, hoping that he might take my words at face value.
Unfortunately, he didn't.
"I don't like this, Haimsey," the he called out to four-eyes. "The kid's definitely got some things out of order in his head. We haven't heard anything from Stevie either ever since he decided to go solo. Not gonna lie, I don't like this whole scenario one single bit. We're basically split up…"
I really couldn't put it better myself.
"Don't be foolish, Dallas," four-eyes' voice replied. "We, ourselves have faced many things which surely had much bigger problems that just their head. Besides, Stevie is very talented in escaping death. So long as he remains calm, he should be fine."
…
Although four-eyes himself was out of my field of vision, the presence of his voice alone convinced me that it would require so much more thinking on my part this time to escape. Not only were the two of them more cautious in dealing with me now, the binds that they'd made too became so much more restricting than ever before. In fact, aside from moving my head, I was practically immobile from the neck and under; my whole body was simply tied to a chair.
Thus, as I continue to see the hands of the clock above me dance, the only thing that I could think of was how dull things were to be if this was the end.
And of course, jumping the gun without any form of hesitation whatsoever, the Reaper found yet another topic to ramble about. Although his voice reverberating inside my head surely wasn't something I'd like to have everyday, it did prove to be quite the convenient background noise for me while I was formulating a plan.
"If this was truly the end, Rainy boy, then surely this would be quite a disappointing one. I mean, you've got so many things going your way at the moment, it's practically unbelievable! Besides, this is still just the beginning… You haven't even reached any significant checkpoint in your life since you've met me. Oh, and do give me a good fight. I'd always love to have more of that coming. Surely, you've got yourself a full plan by now… No? Has it always taken you this long to come up with one. I'm sorry, but I got to say I'm rather disappointed."
Okay, correction. For the first five seconds, it was a pretty decent background music but now, it was just simply annoying. Thus, I quickly gave the Reaper an absolute wonder-shot of a hate-filled glare.
What I got in return was a grinning face of the demon itself.
"Now that's more like it. Show me some spirit, boy!"
With that, he once again faded into thin air, leaving me alone with the my two lovely friends.
Nevertheless, I had already come up with a plan. Or at least, something that could be considered a plan. All I needed now was to time everything perfectly.
While my two captors were still busy discussing within themselves, I busied myself by taking a look around.
First, I went on to find some sort of escape route that I could use in case the door in front of me would be rendered unusable. This, of course, was the most important part of the plan for if I were to fail to find one, I would surely have a huge disadvantage put up against me in my escape. Fortunately though, my prayers were answered. Just to my left was an entrance to the ventilation shaft of the bunker, and after having given it some thought, I came to the conclusion that it fit perfectly all of the criteria I was looking for.
Second, I needed to check on the lights above me. Moving my head painfully to face the ceiling, I indeed saw that it was exactly right on top of me. One too, by the looks of it, which made things much easier.
Third and final thing left for me to see was the things I could actually use for my cause. I was tied up, tired and plagued by a bad headache. Judging from how I was in my current situation, I could easily say that there was no way for me to get free without the aid of any tools.
Of course, the binds that were restraining me were also there in my way, but I pushed that thought away for now. What I needed was something to help me create a distraction, and that meant something to break the lights with.
Still, it wasn't easy in figuring out what exactly could I use for that purpose.
Surely, both four-eyes and injured guy wouldn't give me any openings to take advantage of, so that was out of the equation. A gun? No, my last one was gone. Using the Reaper's Authority yet again? No chance in hell. I was already having trouble as is, so why would I want to create any further complications for myself!?
Even so, nothing was really coming to my head, so I grew a bit worried about the whole process.
Come on, think! I pressed urgently on myself.
Once again, I looked around at the room lying before me. It was an empty room, filled with nothing but the small cupboards and chairs lying around. It was dull, only the color white could be seen everywhere, and yet still nothing of interest came up to me.
That was, until four-eyes himself came back into view and gave me a brilliant idea.
Thus, the only thing left now was to regain a little bit of that strength back and break free from these ropes tying me down, but even that was now covered.
Here we go, I told myself.
As the two men finished their conversation, they walked back into the room with a new air of refined confidence.
However, things would soon shatter for these two, as life was slowly flowing back into my legs. Even with the headache still there as well as the aching, at least my legs were finally back into shape.
All I needed now was to have one of them come towards me, and if possible, have that person be four-eyes instead.
"Oi," I called out, pushing myself against my sore throat, once the pain had slowly subdued itself underneath the rush of adrenaline pumped into my veins. "Four eyes! Have somebody ever told you that your glasses looked absolutely pitiful?"
Yep, that was the best I could do.
Fortunately, I was a better profiler than I was an insulter. Proving my suspicions to be correct, the man turned out to indeed have a complex about his appearance, and from his face alone, I could see his temper rising. Still, he tried to his absolute best to maintain a cool demeanor at first.
"What did you say, boy?"
"I said your glasses look like absolute shit, my guy," I told him as casually as possible, inviting not only the fury of four-eyes but also the worry of the injured guy.
"Haimesy, no!"
But it was too late. Four-eyes were already on his heels, walking towards me with such firmness that I'd have believed him to be a tree. A moving tree, that was.
Let's see how an unstoppable force reacts when faced with an immovable object, I thought excitedly to myself.
…
Or at least, something along those lines.
"You will die, kid," four-eyes exclaimed, as he swung his fist to punch me.
And this, this was the moment I had been waiting for all this time. Without even a second delay, I got my feet back onto the floor again and with them acting as my fulcrum, I spun my whole body a whole one-eighty with the chair along with me.
BANG!
Catching the surprise of everyone in the room, including myself, the chair crashed onto four-eyes with so much force that it immediately broke. Hell, even I was so caught off-guard that as soon as the rope tying me no longer had anything to hold on to, I almost spun myself back onto the ground.
This was when my body began to just take full control. Everything looked as if it had been slowed down, and all I saw was only a movie I was seeing through somebody else's lens. Instead of falling down onto the ground, I quickly grabbed onto the shotgun four-eyes had and aimed it directly the entrance of the light above us.
BANG!
Everything went dark.
BANG!
Gone was the panel that closed the ventilation shaft.
Without even batting an eye at the door right next to me, I immediately went to the vents. I already knew that the door would be guarded by the bulky man purely out of instinct, so I didn't even bother to try.
And so, I quickly made my run, which I had already calculated from before, and climbed onto the ventilation shaft as quickly and quietly as I possibly could.
Thankfully, all my calculations had indeed been right, and I easily fit into the damn thing.
Hurrying inside, I carried myself into the ventilation shafts and began my crawling. All that was left for me to do now was to esca—No, I needed to get my stick back!
Having forgotten such a thing, I cursed at myself for being so stupid. I looked behind me to see the darkness that lay, and all I could think about was how I would need to return back into the fray anyways.
Maybe it wasn't really a bad thing? I reasoned with myself. Besides it isn't like I could bring the whole thing with me…
With this new set of determination, I continued to make my way through the shafts to recuperate. For now, it was time for me to hide in the shadows.