“Don’t move a single inch or I’ll blow your head off,” the orc screams pointing the gun at me.

If this moment wasn’t so serious, it might actually be funny. Still he’s out of control and swinging a gun wildly making threats to everyone in the room. I don’t really care if he shoots me, I’m pretty sure I could take it. It might be good to know what I’ve been doing to people. The bigger issue is that he’s got a Kaiden in a chokehold. He’s taken him hostage, which is something Orcs don’t do. That probably stopped the chaos as much as the gunshot did.

“Alright, I’m still,” I promise the orc with my hands in the air. “Just let the kid go.”

“Bilge you cannot do this,” The Chief approaches him. I suppose that’s his name.

“We can talk this out,” I side with The Chief.

“The time for talking has past, I’m going to blow this kid’s brains all over the room,” Bilge chokes Kaiden harder.

“I got some demands. First, I’m the new Chief. Your time is up old man. Second, I’ll let the kid go, but I get to shoot the big oaf in the face.”

“That is unreasonable,” The Chief shouts in a boisterous voice.

“Yeah, I’m not budging on that one either,” I regret those words almost instantly.

Kaiden stops struggling and becomes a willing hostage. He probably took it as I don’t care about him or something like that. He’s a real pain in the ass when his emotions are running wild like this. That can’t be debated. But, the last thing I want is for him to get his head blown off by some wannabe gangster Orc. Dalia entrusted me to take care of him, and even if it is his own fault, I’m not letting him die tonight. Any night.

“New deal. How about you let him go, we leave and I don’t feed you your own intestines,” I offer my terms of peace.

“A real fucking wise guy you are,” he takes the gun off Kaiden and points it back to me.

“Bilge, stop this madness. You have strayed too far from what an Orcs true nature is. You have twisted it and turned it into something sick. We do not kill children. We do not use machines to kill. We are warriors. If you have some issue with this man, then fight him, hand to hand, single combat until one of you no longer draws breath on this Earth,” The Chief makes an impassioned plea.

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The Chief seems to have a larger part of the crowd on his side. You should always be afraid of the man who draws his gun first. Something like that. I was never fond of the old proverbs, but I understand why they lasted so long. Bilge turns his gun to The Chief and shoots him in the leg. The old Orc falls to the ground. Others rush to him to provide medical treatment. In the chaos, I draw my gun and now we have a real standoff. We’re left to stare at each other as The Chief passes out and is taken away for medical. Just me and Bilge now.

I should have saw it coming sooner. That stupid thing Kaiden calls magic where he blows everything up. I haven’t even seen him practice getting it under control. It starts with tiny blue sparks surrounding his hand. I already know the kind of damage that thing can do. A small part of me wants to let it go off, just kill us all and be done with it. But, I know that’s not the right call.

“Hey Kaiden, I need you to calm down,” I plead.

“You’re dealing with me,” Bilge fires another shot in the air.

“Kaiden, just relax for me,” he’s still not responding. “Just take a couple of deep breaths.”

I feel the energy in the room shift, and dive for cover as Bilge fires off his gun at me. The blast comes after his third shot. I expected some kind of noise or explosion. Not this time. Just silence and a blinding blue-white light filling the room. It looked cold, but it was so warm. Welcoming almost, although I’m not sure where it was welcoming me to. This was different than the other times I had seen Kaiden pull off this trick. Maybe he had been practicing, I don’t know enough about magic to be sure.

When I can see again my relief is gone. Three Orcs lay injured, screaming. Many gathering their senses, ready to kill Kaiden. Oh, Kaiden. He’s kneeling there covered in blood. The green jacket he was wearing now mostly red. Slowly he’s just scooping together pieces of what I can only assume is Bilge. Stuffing brain matter into a collapsed skull. I don’t think he knew what he was doing. The first Orc makes a move towards Kaiden. Not thinking, I shoot right through his skull, splattering more blood on Kaiden. He doesn’t flinch, just looks on dead eyed and tries to soak up the blood with what may have been a hand.

I rush over and scoop him up. He doesn’t fight me, just keeps trying to scoop up pieces of Bilge. I toss him over my shoulder so I can run better. While I shoot at our pursuers. I’m not sure he’s aware of any of this. I take up refuge in a storage room. I know they’ll be after us soon, but I need to get Kaiden back to reality. I sit him a small plastic chair before I peek outside the door. I hear them shouting in the hallways, but they haven’t come down this far yet. That gives me a little bit of time to figure this out.