Chapter 4
(Nothing to worry about in this chapter)
The van halted to a slow stop, in front of a large and what seemed to be abandoned warehouse, whose walls were slowly deteriorating. Its roof had several holes in it, and corrugated iron beams were visible and jutting out. The large industrialised windows were also cracked and obviously on the brink of shattering.
The warehouse was on the very end of the harbour and cargo bay, and therefore no houses were present for at least half a kilometre. Glancing south, was the river which extended for kilometres, as far as the eye could see. The river’s murky blue and green water, reflected the pale white luminescence of the moon which arced high in the sky above. Few cargo boxes were scattered across the dock and half a dozen boats rocked slowly in the midnight breeze.
Diamond Hound, opened his door and also took a large duffel bag from the back as well as called for Arthur to come out the car. He did so silently, looking down.
D.H, gripping onto the duffel bag tightly, walked right of the warehouse, following a small path until it led to a steel doorway, which he then punched in a few numbers on a touchscreen keypad. Hisses and whirrs were heard as the doors automatically opened.
He called out to Arthur who was still standing by the van:
“Hey kid, are you comin’ in, or are you gonna stay out all night?”
Arthur, stubbornly obliged and walked slowly to where the mysterious man just walked in.
The interior of the warehouse surprised Arthur, as it looked much smaller inside than its outer appearance. Although, it was probably due to the congregation of equipment which was present in the single massive room which was about 20 meters long and 12 meters high.
D.H flicked 6 separate switches to the left of the now shut doorway, and about 2 dozen lights switched on, illuminating the entire room. To the right of Arthur, was a small boxing ring, 2 meters above the floor, complete with the ropes around. Right next to the ring was about a dozen different models of sparring dummies; rubber, wooden and even metallic dummies each one with different protruding arms. He even saw a stereotypical ‘wooden man’ dummy used in many martial arts films. To the left of the warehouse was a whole array of gym equipment, treadmills, weights, rowing machines, cycles and all other sorts of weird things for cardiovascular training. There was even two parallel steel poles which went up vertically for 10 meters. Each pole had a hook at 1 meters intervals. Another pole, 2 meters long, laid on the ground. The exercise was an extreme one, where one would hop up each 1 meter interval using the pole, meaning there was 10 levels to conquer. However if one fell down, serious injuries would be sustained- and it seemed the D.H didn’t bother to put a safety mat underneath.
Further up in the warehouse was a firing range, separated by a wall and bullet proof glass, essentially meaning it was its own separate room. From this angle, Arthur could make out a workbench, some storage cabinets as well as 20 different targets each at different levels of height and angles. Each target, however, was connected to a mono-rail system, meaning that the targets could probably move.
“Stop gawking and follow me.” Diamond Hound muttered as he dragged Arthur along down the aisle which was situated in the middle.
After walking for a minute, they reached a hatch which was positioned on the floor. It stuck up slightly, and a circular, metallic hatch door was present on top. The figure, knelt down and pressed his hand up on a green touchscreen.
A few beeps and clicks were heard, and then a robotic voice spoke, “Hand recognition, perceived as correct. Please use voice input.”
The man spoke, “Diamond Hound. Agent 99-Registered In.”
*Beep Beep*
“Voice recognition, perceived as correct, opening hatch, Mr. Hound.”
A mist of steam escaped from the hatch as it slowly opened revealing a vertical ladder going down into darkness.
Without looking back, D.H spoke, “Now or never, kid. This is your last chance. Once you come in here, you’ll be with me.”
Arthur was silent as he sniffed in and exhaled, slowly thinking of the consequences. What D.H said in the van was true- he was the only chance that Arthur would get to claim redemption for those Vampiric fucks who took away what was most beloved to him. For 4 years, the ‘law’ had kept him under shackles in that corrupt hell hole, preventing him from pursuing revenge. They wanted to stop him. And the law did nothing to get the true murders. No, instead they took HIM in. And tortured HIM. HE was blamed for the death of his parents.
And those who kept me in that prison, will feel the same wrath that those who took my family away from me.
His teeth clenched and his fists tightened. He, for four years, was constantly bullied, tortured and defiled more than a boy of his age could endure. Every night, he had received horrendous treatment, and after such torture he would have brutal nightmares every single night.
The inmates are added to my list.
The boy looked up at the humungous figure who was, too, looking at the boy.
“I…I need to save my sister.” He said in a quiet voice.
“Good choice,” the man muttered as he descended the ladder.
Arthur humbly followed.
*
Arthur looked around him, in the room he had just entered. It was fairly small, and felt claustrophobic, but it was well ventilated. Each and every wall was metal, and looked as if it could withstand an elephant charge. On the floor was a red carpet, which proudly presented various beautiful and exquisite patterns. To the right was a small kitchen, presumably made out of marble, and nothing out of the ordinary. A small room to the left seemed to lead to a small bathroom- once again nothing to ordinary. And outside the bathroom, was a small flat screen television as well as two red sofas, arranged in a right angle, directly in front of a water paint painting.
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The man led Arthur onwards to a hallway whose entrance was in the middle of the initial room. He walked down the hallway, and pointed to two rooms parallel to each other. He pointed to the left door.
“Your room and the opposite is mine. Don’t worry I’ve supplied you with some porn magazines, so you don’t give me any weird looks.”
Arthur’s face went bright red and he looked down. In the prison, or even before, he had no access to such, as he was always preoccupied with schoolwork to focus on such… dirty things. Even in prison, he never had enough money to buy a porno magazine, one of the many rotating ‘treasuries’.
The man pointed to the doorway at the end of the metallic corridor. He went up and said,
“AI, open the door.”
*Beep Beep*
“Affirmative, Mr. Hound.” The robotic voice said.
The door slid open. And inside was a room about 5 meters long and 5 meters wide. The walls were pure white, without any imperfections, but it wasn’t a marble material. It shone, in the UV light which shone above, rendering the whole room in a purple tint.
The man walked in front of the boy to the wall in front of him.
“Alpha-Numero-Delta 009. Weapons case 01, attachments case 01, equipment (non-lethal) 01- Open. Directive Optimal.”
Suddenly, with the hiss of smoke, the once flat white wall in front of him, opened up into three separate compartments, unlocking, unhinging and folding open to reveal a desk-like platform. Multiple rows of rails, each 2 meter long rail, having 5 hooks, and there was 10 rails in each compartment. In the weapons compartment was an assortment of rifles, pistols and even crossbows, aligned so that their stocks stuck outwards and their barrels inwards.
The man opened the duffel bag, and stocked away 2 assault rifles, as well as reaching into his holster and putting it into its own separated compartment.
He looked behind at the gawking boy and said as if he was speaking to a baby,
“No touching.” He wagged his fingers and Arthur glared at Diamond Hound.
Arthur looked towards the ‘equipment’ compartment, and inside was various pieces of tech, that Arthur did not recognise. The only thing he recognised was a few grenades and a katana like weapon.
The man noticed the boy looking, sighed, and picked up the smallest pistol in his compartment by its barrel and handed it to the boy who picked it up feebly.
“First off all, let’s see if you shoot.”
“S-shoot?”
“Well sorry Goku-kun, this isn’t a battle manga, where you can fight people who have guns, with your fists.” Diamond Hound mocked the boy.
“Comon follow me.”
*
The man and him had now entered the firing range, and he had flicked the switch.
*Whirr*
As if acting as one conjoined mechanism, the whole mono-rail whirred to life, and slowly the targets shot upwards vertically, from their collapsed position.
“Since you’re a newbie, looks like I’ll keep the targets stationary. But remember in real life, an enemy will move at a constant speed. I mean- they wanna live too, right?”
“Do you know what this gun is?” D.H pointed to that pistol.
Arthur shook his head.
“It’s a M1911, single-action, semi-automatic and magazine fed pistol that operates on a .45 ACP cartridge. Designed in 1911, it was an effective model used by the Americans in the world wars and Vietnamese war, as well as the first human-demon conflict in South Africa, in 1999. Its recoil is extremely low, so even someone like you should be able to fire it safely.”
Arthur nodded slowly, but in reality he had no clue what the hell this old man was talking about.
The boy brought up the pistol in both hands, and aimed It similar to how he saw people did in movies. He closed one eye and brought the sight up to his open eye and aimed.
*Click*
…
*Click Click Click*
“Umm, I think your gun is broken.”
Diamond Hound face palmed and took the gun from him and flicked a switch and placed it back in his hands.
“The safety was on, dumbass.”
Arthur was slightly embarrassed and then re-aimed. Well it was considerably difficult to, since his hands kept shaking and the sight kept bopping about; but he timed it as well as he could.
*BANG*
“Argh!” Arthur screamed out as he fell backwards onto the floor, the gun flying out of his hands and skidding onto the floor. He laid there, stunned and his hands shivering.
“I-I can’t feel my wrists…”
Diamond Hound sighed and said to himself, “This is going to be a long night…”