Lara was frozen stiff, too scared to move or make noise. She waited until the group had gone into the house. To her dismay she could hear them moving towards her position, murmured voices passing through the window pane above her head.
Slowly, on her hands and knees, Lara made her way towards the back of the house. The gravel beneath her shifted like sand. Oh god, it’s too loud thought Lara.
The murmuring she could hear had stopped. Doors were flung and slid open and multiple sets of footsteps could be heard pacing their way through the gravel. Like a Hare being chased by greyhounds, Lara bolted towards the private lane and drive way that wound its way towards the second residence, she could follow it south towards Spains Hall road. Shouting followed her, but she did not turn back and put all of her effort into a full mission impossible style sprint.
“Get after her” she heard someone scream, followed by many scrambling footsteps behind her. Despite their muscles or grit, Lara was too fast the gap between the groups widened, quickly. Vasquez watched from the house, a wry smile forming at the edges of his lips.
As Lara sprinted across the path her heart dropped as she heard a number of engines rev up at the front of the house. The sound of approaching cars soon caught up with her, she turned just in time to see the snake-like man with greasy black hair gunning towards her at rapid pace, with no intention of slowing. Lara leaped out of the way and rolled down a small bank into the adjacent tree line that followed the curvature of the path. With a tumble and a thud she hit an oak tree, cracking her ribs as she went. Staggering to her feet, she tried to continue, but was greatly slowed by her injuries.
The man in the second card skidded to a halt by the side of the path and swiftly tackled her to the ground. Soon swarmed by four others and strong armed into the back of a car, she was on her way back to the house, hands cable-tied behind her back. Surprising herself, the fear she felt before had dissipated and once more she felt a flame inside of her begin to flicker.
Lara found herself hauled in front of the thug from the driveway. He seemed to be their ringleader.
“Well, well. What do we have here then?” He sneered, looking Lara up and down “Explain yourself!”.
Holding her head down, she said nothing. She was kicked down to her knees, she didn’t bother to look at the culprit, she had a gut feeling it was the skinniest of the runt trying to prove a point. Instead, she was innately focussed on starting, but not actually using her Burst of Flame ability; noticing that it warmed her hands and wrists significantly before firing. The cable-tie around her wrists was beginning to weaken and soften. She would find her moment and strike, when the time was right. Bob taught her that patience and planning were often the key to success and it was advice she had wrongly ignored earlier. Not this time she thought.
The ringleader grabbed a fist full of her frizzy brown hair and yanked her head upwards, forcing her to look at his bulging, grotesque face. A wicked smile revealed gold incisors that glinted, cheaply, in the light. “You know” he said “I could use a new bit on the side…”
“Leave her. Let her go” a voice commanded in a thick Mexican accent.
Lara glanced across the room to see the man they referred to as Mr. Vasquez making his way across the hall. Snarling, the ring leader turned around “you, my friend, are starting to overstep. You were brought to this country to help with a specific threat to our business and to help your compadres broker a new supply deal.”
“Your friends are all dead and you have no way home. So you are either with us, or against us” the ring leader continued, emphasising ‘with us’ in his speech.
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“You are turning into animals” Vasquez spat, not breaking eye contact, the others around him bristled, ready for action. All eyes were now on Vasquez and their leader.
“No Mr. Vasquez. You have turned weak. Strange for a Scicario, who I was informed was as good as it got. You over step, you look at us like we are common criminals. Maybe we were, but now we have a chance to take a piece of this land as our own. The forces have too much to contend with to worry about our little operation and why not build it out in this beautiful location. All of this space for us to utilise, quickly.” The man was now on a roll, he wandered around the thick red carpeted room, his arms were spread wide and he looked at the old fashioned and ornate furniture as he spoke. The air of possibility was clear in his voice. This was his big opportunity and one he would grasp with both hands, even if it killed him.
“There’s a new world order. Mr. Vasquez and I am ready to take my place on the throne.” He was almost euphoric now.
“Kev. Take our girl to the back room over there. We will work over our lovely Mexican protege. It is high time we show him where he now sits in our beautiful organisation. Work up an appetite for our new princess, hey?”
The yobs sneered and jeered, ready for violence. Almost hungry for it. Kev, it turned out was the snake-like man. Thick greasy hair matted his forehead, missing teeth, a crooked nose from multiple breaks and a scar that ran down the left side of his face made him a frightening sight. He had clearly survived and thrived in the hardships of his life and was readying himself to take more.
As he pulled her up, he didn’t notice the slight movement in her arms. Lara didn’t make her move yet as she surveyed the room. The remaining five men were now either brandishing knives or had picked up one of the various cricket bats or golf clubs that had decorated the walls… one had taken the metal poker from the fireplace. It was going to be gruesome.
Kev threw her into the room and to her dismay he walked in after her, turned around and locked the door. A cruel giggle escaped his lips. He turned and lunged at her, anger and greed in his eyes. Lara utilised his body weight against him, anchoring her feet and pivoting at the point of contact. Kev was flung against the solid brick wall by a small fireplace nestled in the corner of the room.
Before he could get to his feet, Lara kept her assault in full swing. A run up and swift knee to the face, followed by a series of blows from her fists and elbows to the back of his head did the job. She didn’t stop for at least a minute, animal instincts taking hold of her.
He was unconscious and bleeding heavily from a re-broken nose. Lara had initially considered using her powers, but was not prepared, yet, to kill another human. No matter how vulgar they were, nor the circumstance she found herself in. Saving her powers for an escape was front and centre in her mind, his life was secondary.
Stepping backward, she took in the sight of the unconscious assailant. How the bloody hell did I do that she thought to herself. Bob had been training her in various forms of combat over the last year and she had taken a number of kickboxing, as well as jujitsu classes to prepare her for facing the worst of humanity after the first event. ‘Formulate your plan, commit and adapt accordingly. Do not hesitate, it will kill you’ was advice for combat that Bob had been drilling into her during their sessions and that is exactly what she had done.
Amongst the action and her own adrenaline taking over, Lara had failed to hear the screams of the assault next door. It sounded brutal, smashing glass, huge thuds of a body being thrown around, the crying of a man in pain. That man, he had tried to save her. At the very least, I should attempt to save him, even if it gets us both killed Lara thought, trying to rapidly formulate a plan in her head, but she was too late.
“No, no please. No” a quivering mans voice called out. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. Six shots rung out, one after the other.
“Oh fuck” Lara said out loud, rushing over to the window for an escape route, she would smash the window and run for cover. It again, was too late. The door to the room was kicked wide open. She turned to meet her maker.
“H…h..how?!” She said
Vasquez said nothing, looked at the man, named Kev, who lay bent over unconscious. BANG. A bullet straight through his head, no hesitation.
He filled the door frame, covered in blood. Other people’s blood. His hands and forearms completely soaked in a deep red. Flecks of blood dashed his face, his hard eyes bore into Lara.
“Leave. The others will be coming here now. I will free the people they have trapped in the basement.” With that, Vasquez turned on his heel and walked out the door. A ruthless, killing machine. A magnificent wonder.