His head was running on full adrenaline, and his hands were grasping for the weapon at his thigh. Jared had to shake his leg around for a quick moment before it finally got loose enough for him to get it out of its holster and fully into his hand. Quite the achievement, since his position was making it hard to even move.
How strong had the bullet been? Jared couldn't clearly remember the sound of the impact, but it clearly wasn't hard enough to get through the car’s door. Yet even if one wasn't enough to get through the metal, there were no promises about it being the same for the glass. That was why they were not being given the chance.
During his jump inside the vehicle, Jared had dragged the upper body of the automation down with him, stopping it from being seen from the outside. Since the road itself was slightly higher up than the grounds the trees stood on, there was a bit of ease during it. Yet that didn't make it that easy, Jared fully feeling karma for not having done his stretches in the last few weeks. His back was killing him already.
Not that this made him feel any desire towards stretching, that act likely being the last thing he would ever get to do. Instead, he gave the construct a glance that very much implied the need to stay down, before crawling through the crack between the two seats and into the back of the car. The glass was tinted there, enough that the man felt safe enough to slightly peek over the next row of seats.
It was just his luck that their weapon repertoire had been moved around to make space for all the scavenged gear. Jared knew that he had been going slightly against protocol in doing so, yet there had been no ideas about the real consequences. The boss would only have slapped him on the wrists for it. Now… the man would be happy to even see those slaps in person.
‘Are the cameras on the outside working?’ Jared questioned the automation through the channel, as he got out the box with one of the smaller rifles. He could hardly remember anything about it, save for how to assemble it. The man had actually gotten commendations for that, being able to do it in under thirty seconds. Gods, he hoped he could still do just that, even if he hadn't tried it under pressure in under a decade.
‘The cameras in the back had been scratched up, but movement can still be detected to a minimal degree. The cameras on the back and sides are fully functioning,’ the automation quickly informed the man.
Through his ears, Jared could hear a mild muttering going on from outside. It was faint, barely enough to get out from the noisy static that came from the breeze. Yet Jared could still hear it just fine, his ears having been trained to pick up the slightest hint. It came with the position after all.
‘And what about the camera on top?’ Jared questioned, wanting to know how much utility they had at their disposal. The back camera being damaged wasn't good, but it would still be workable if they could-
‘This car is too old for that implementation,’ the construct informed him. Jared wished in some way that the automation had put emotion into that sentence, just so he knew that he wasn't the only one feeling the dread that came with it. That top camera would have been able to give them a complete three-sixty degree view of the exterior. And with the fact that it couldn't be damaged through normal means, Jared had been sure of their increased chances of survival when using it.
Now? Now, he was having a harder time believing that he would survive the next ten minutes. Looking down at his work, he hardly blinked, putting the various parts in the placements they needed to be. The innards of the barrel was the hardest, Jared cursing as he fumbled with the placement.
‘One is approaching from the left,’ the automation dully informed him. Giving it a side-glance, Jared could see that the construct was lying where he had left it. The man supposed that it didn't feel fear and therefore didn't feel a need to constantly jitter its fingers and twitch its teeth. It looked just as about as dead as he guessed he would be. ‘The person of interest is equipped with what seems to be an AA-12.’
Just his luck. Cassandra had warned them of there being shot-gun wielders, yet Jared just hadn't taken it seriously when he hadn't found anything of the kind during his time cleaning up the clearing. Now he knew why. They hadn't been there when he was doing it.
‘How close is the target and where are they heading?’ Jared asked, his fingers trembling while holding the ammunition. Just his luck that there hadn't been any preparation on that part. Then again, it was only meant as an emergency use-only weapon, so he supposed he couldn't have been too angry at himself.
‘They are five meters away and are casually approaching the door opposite to the one you're leaning your head against.’
That was just great. Just absolutely great. Jared certainly wouldn't have given his left kidney to not be where he was right now. In his attempt to finally load the weapon and get a bullet into the chamber, the man was unlucky enough to find that it was allowing him to do so. Something was not working as it was supposed to.
‘He is within reaching distance of the car. Facial expressions suggest that he is looking for something. Guesses are towards this target being us. I advise-’
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
‘Shut up and tell me what he is doing,’ Jared sent back in frustration, the rifle not loading a bullet no matter how hard he tried to get it under his will. Did he actually need to deconstruct it to figure out what was wrong? No, he didn't have the time! Then what else? What could he do as an alternative? His pistol? No, that would be enough piercing. It wasn't powerful enough. Just what could he-
‘I believe you have been spotted. The target is starting to lift his weapon,’ the automation sent. It was fair to note that the message sent happened over an instant, faster than the human body could possibly react. It was faster than the sounds getting transmitted from the ear.
Maybe that was how Jared got himself in order. With a swift punch to the side, something suddenly decided to dislodge itself from wherever it had been stuck. Jared was able to ready the rifle up, put it in position, and press the trigger hard enough to cause slight pain in his hand. Not that it mattered much about the pain, since the man was much more focused on keeping the recoil steady.
He only held it down for about a second, yet it was still more than ten rounds fired. Ten rounds in about the same spot on a piece of glass. It might have held up to the first shot, and maybe even the fourth. Yet the fifth and everything after that went through cleanly enough, right into the throat of the criminal that had stood behind the window.
For a second, he was able to see right through the man, the holds held open in that small time. The power the rifle packed was no joke at all, and Jared was able to witness that in his adrenaline-fueled mind, just as he was able to see the man slump to the floor. For a moment there had been an attempt to get at his neck, yet the hand had fallen limp before it was barely halfway.
Jared felt no real remorse for that. He only listened to the shout of shock that came from outside the car. Whoever had ambushed the car had been more than a single person. Closing his eyes for a second, only the sound of his own breathing and a single pair of footsteps was heard. If there was more than one person out there, they were damned good at being quiet.
Checking quickly to see if his connection to the station was still being jammed, Jared tried to think about his possible choices. Try to wait it out? Wouldn't be advised. With an easy-to-reach hole in their defences, a single incendiary grenade was more than enough to blow him to kingdom high. And even if he threw the first one back before it blew, nothing stopped the ones outside from just timing the next perfectly. They would die before anything else notable happened.
Try to make a run for it? Jared would guess that they came from the other side of the one he sat on. It would be fairly easy to slip out the back and try to run as fast as he could. Even if his legs were tired, he was still faster than any regular human could ever hope to become. And with the criminals' reliance on exterior technology, he wasn't guessing at them being able to catch up to him. Yet… that was just that, wasn't it? They didn't need to catch up to him. There was no need to lay a single finger on him when one had access to weapons that could create a disk-plate-wide opening in his chest cavity. Even with the vest he wore, a direct hit could still likely kill him.
Jared couldn't hide and he could run. What else was there to do, other than neutrality and defence? Offence. If the outcome was invariably ending up as him fighting for his life, he could at least do his best to make the chances higher for him.
‘Are there any signs of the last criminal?’ Jared questioned, making sure his rifle was still working fine. Even if the current magazine was half-full, the man still changed it around. There was a feeling he would need every last one of them.
`Other than the exclamation ten seconds ago, there have been no clues to their current location,’ the automation responded. There was a feeling that it wanted to give him advice, but Jared’s orders in that regard had clearly worked perfectly. No additional words were coming out of that trap.
No real idea about where the criminal was, except for the side of the car that they were located. Going outside would be close to suicide when Jared didn't even have a clue about where he needed to hide. He needed more information if he was going to have a chance. Which… was probably where he got the idea about his next course of action.
‘Watch the cameras for the source of the bullet,’ Jared ordered, as he tore a piece of his uniform off himself, sticking it to the end of his rifle. He would have prefered a stick, but there was no real way he would be able to get one of those.
‘What bullet?’ the construct questioned.
‘The bullet that will be coming from the would-be killer in just a few seconds,’ Jared informed the construct, creating some padding to make the fabric look worn. More specifically, to make it look like a bad position made it be slightly exposed.
Putting it up a few centimetres above where his actual shoulder was, there was no real reaction. Not entirely unexpected, just showing off that the criminal was close enough to the point where they couldn't see too far into the car. The fake shoulder was lifted another few finger lengths, however, and the light show truly showed itself.
The padding was torn to shreds, as the fake shoulder was hit directly through the middle. If it had been his actual shoulder, Jared didn't doubt that he would have cried out in pain, even his pain tolerance being way too low to not emit sound at the direct hit. But… he did not peep in the slightest, only slightly uncomfortable by the ringing noise in his ears. Not like it wouldn't go away soon, but he just didn't like it.
‘Did you get the location?’
‘Location found. Target is hiding behind a bush seven meters from the door. I have marked it through a visual ping in your sight.’
Through the door and the car in general, Jared was momentarily able to see the landscape there was to look at. In it, there even was a bright circle indicating where the presumed hiding spot was. Not… the greatest spot that they could have been in, looking at it from Jared's own perspective. No obvious weakness, no tree to run to. No place to hide, the open area working against him. Really, there was only one way forward that Jared could see.
‘I need you to perform covering fire for me,’ Jared sent through the channel. He started to hand over the rifle to the automation but was quickly met by a response.
‘I do not have training for covering fire, and the jammer is stopping me from accessing additional information about the task. I am not able to perform the task you require of me.’
Jared sighed, having heard that excuse before. For an idiot robot, it seemed so human at times like these. Or… maybe the adrenaline was finally hitting his head the wrong way. It was likely that. He was getting kind of doozy from the downtime.
‘Do you know how to shoot with a rifle?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘Do you know how to aim with a rifle?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘Do you remember the general location of the target?’
‘Affirmative, but-’
‘I don't care about your supposedly vital details. When I say go, you will get up from that distasteful position you’re in and fire at the criminal through the window. It does not matter that you hit or not, but only that you distract them for the next few seconds. Is that understood?’
‘... yes.’
Finally, some progress with that scrap of buckets. It could even understand his orders. Yet, even a toaster could do that nowadays, so Jared didn't really feel that proud. Readying his lungs for the run of the dead, he mentally started to form the words that would likely cause his death.