1

Only with our combined strength did we manage to open the heavy steel door.

“Where will this lead us?” I asked stupidly, staring into the darkness.

Turning on a light she took out of her bag, the girl bravely advanced into the unknown.

“A maintenance-shaft, most likely? What else could be down here.”

“One of your secret hideouts?”

“Shut up.”

I did, but just for a brief moment:”So, I've been thinking.”

“Oh no.”

I offered a little laugh, but only to be polite at her joke. She probably wasn't joking though.

“Anyway, so why don't we go to the police, why would we go even deeper into these tunnels?”

“Did you just pass out? They basically driven us down here, there was no other option.”

“I meant before that, on the station. What did you do anyway, why are they chasing you? Why would they even shoot innocent people, just to get you?”

“Who says they are after me?”

Did she think I was that stupid? Come on, at least give me a little credit here...

“This huge guy said they needed to find a girl...”

“Plenty of those around, don't you think?”

“Yes, but...”

“Stop it. I told you how this will go, so stop asking questions.”

So it was silence then, very well. Maybe this was my fate then, surviving this crazy encounter, returning to my normal life without ever telling anyone exactly what had transpired here. That seemed to anticlimactic but such is life is suppose.

But really, could I really let it end like that? I kept staring at her gun, little side way-glances I didn't want her to notice, since she'd probably scold me for it.

I had to force her to get rid of this murderous piece of metal, that's what a tiny voice in the back of my head kept telling me.

Okay, but why though?

I mean, I did comprehend that my very brief teenage obsession turned it's head here and kinda resurfaced, but didn't I left this shit behind me? It was cringy and illogical, there was no way to “destroy all weapons”, to pacify the entire world. Especially not for some nobody, like say, a totally average college student.

Yet here I was, staring at her modified gun, stored away in a holster on her hips, illuminated by the shine of her flashlight.

“What are you looking at, exactly?”

“Your butt.” I replied in a panic and I actually think this was an answer favorable to the truth.

There was a shocked silence, a tension so thick it caught the breath in my throat.

“Excu...”

“No, sorry, that was a lie, I was looking at your gun.”

She even came to a halt, turning towards me, the light shining into my eyes:”Now that just sounds like a terrible excuse.”

“Wait, no, it's the truth. You see, guns fascinate me, they always did. And yours is not a standard model, right?”

Even my amateurish eye could tell that much, I've never seen a gun like this before, the way the barrel was shaped, looking like it accommodated a higher caliber than usual. I told her that much, trying to make my lie more convincing. I lied to her, then pedaled back only to lie again. Go me, I really thought I learned how to talk to people the last few years.

Then again, this girl wasn't just any ordinary girl and that did not only refer to her stunning looks.

When would you ever meet a girl that just casually pulled out a gun to mess with a bunch of trained soldiers?

Right now, this very gun was the problem though. If I could just get rid of it, we could finally get along.

No, wait, we'd die, completely defenseless against another attack, what was I thinking?

“You're not very good at your hobby then, huh? Well, I guess such a modification is kinda unheard of...” She pulled out her weapon, her finger always off the trigger, while showing it to me. Of course she would never point it at me unless she intended to shoot me, what a professional. Or rather, what a possessor of common sense!

“Guess there is no harm in talking about this, I am actually kinda proud of this baby. This gun, this work of art...”, she held it up for me to see clearly, “...is a customized Makarov PMM. Blowback action, a 12 round magazine, drift-adjustable sights, higher muzzle velocity compared to it's predecessor model.”

“Impressive!”

“I know, but these are just the specifications of the regular model. Now when it comes to the customization...firstly, it's got a cute kitty engraved on the handle.”

She showed me, smiling bright and jumping up and down. What a personality-shift, but she was right, on the black handle, there was the stylized head of a cat. Quite the amazing artwork actually, but why was that necessary?

“I...I see.”

“And that's about all I can tell you, the rest is confidential.”

“So you just told me some facts I could have looked up on the net and bragged about your cat-handle.”

“That about sums it up.”

I looked at her, dumbfounded. This redheaded girl had a sense of humor? More importantly, was this really the time to joke around? Our lives were kinda at stake here.

“What's your name, actually?I know I've asked you before, but it's kinda weird to only refer to you as “the girl”.”

“Referring to me? In front of whom?”

“You know, people.”

“People...well, that too is confidential. In fact it's so confidential that I have to kill you, should you ever find out my name. In fact, just a single letter would be enough.”

“Does your name contain an A?”

“Yes, actually!”

I shivered a little, half expecting her to really draw her gun at me, but she only laughed. It was a nice sound, even if it seemed a little mocking to me.

There was silence again, then she turned away, returning to her serious character, like our banter never happened:”We should keep moving.”

“Wait, there is something I need to talk about.”

“Do it while we walk, we can't linger here for much longer.”

I wasn't exaggerating, I had to talk about this. “Uh, wow, how do I say this? How about you lay down your weapons and live a peaceful live?”

No response.

“Cause, you see, there is this dream I have, since I was a teenager. That maybe, the bad situation of our planet directly relates to our use of guns. And...and if we just abandoned weaponry as a whole, then maybe we could finally change something.”

She never even moved or looked at me, just continued walking. A sure-fire way to find out if I should continue or just shut up about it. And of course, I chose the wrong option.

“Okay, let me get to the point. I want to end all armed conflict. I want to achieve real world peace! And I want to start with you, Missy, so throw down your gun! Huh, how about it? Just throw it away.”

“You're stressed, I understand. But if you won't keep it together you might actually loose your sanity. Without the chance to turn back. But again, I get it. Something like that would mess with everyone. After all, you're still covered in...never mind.”

As the corridor narrowed, all the images returned in my head, the subway-station, the walls and the platform painted in blood, the people who didn't die immediately lay there, afraid and in horrible pain.

Tears welled up in my eyes and I almost threw up again, but I had to remain steadfast!

“YOU'RE WRONG! It's my mission, you stupid...”

Lightning-fast she turned around and grabbed my mouth, pinning me hard against the wall, while looking intently into my eyes:”Sssshhh.”

Not the first time this happened tonight, but I just couldn't match her awareness for danger.

As a side-effect I got to see her eyes up-close, those green little gems. However, there was something else, something I didn't quite grasped at the time. Wouldn't take much longer though, I can tell you that much.

In this perfect silence, I only heard footsteps heavy boots moving silently through the corridor adjacent to the one we hid into. I couldn't see a thing and they moved silently, not even exchanging a single word. Only their boots betrayed them and I was glad that the girl picked up on it. That said, would we really be safe? They came ever closer, the footsteps obviously drawing nearer and then I finally got a real glimpse of our enemy. They looked like they jumped straight of a movie, clad in black ballistic armor, their heads completely covered by a black, large helmet, with goggles that emitted a faint, green light, hardly visible. That's why they needed no light, probably using the night-vision in these goggles. While I finally got to see them, I still couldn't really see any details, it was just so dark, even when my eyes slowly adjusted. Just judging by how carefully they moved they must have heard us, mostly me. My cheeks flushed as I felt some significant shame over this fact.

As they reached the crossroad, they had the option to either advance further on their path, leaving us alone or they could turn to the left, immediately running into us. That would not end well, I eyed the rifles they carried, huge assault-rifles, capable to rip us to shreds in less then a second.

If they saw us, that is. The first soldier started to turn and I could feel the body of the girl in front of me tensing. She was ready, any moment now and she would strike. While all I could do was hold my breath and send a silent prayer to whichever deity was listening at the moment. Just let us survive this, please. At least I didn't close my eyes, as the soldier turned abruptly into our direction. Even if I had to stare straight down the barrel of his assault-rifle.

2

That terrifying experiencing, face to face with a gaping hole that was able to unload dozens of rounds in the blink of an eye, lasted only for a brief second.

Cause she never flinched, the girl was ready, for the whole time she anticipated this moment and as it finally arrived it was only a matter of executing the plan she already laid out for herself. Namely, pushing his gun violently to the side, causing him to turn and crashing her elbow into his face. I could see her flinching, it must have hurt like hell, hitting the hard combat-helmet with such force and yet it proved useful as his body went limp, threatening to fall to the ground. Her red-hair flowing in her movement, she grabbed his shoulders and held him upright, his huge body covering her small frame, as his companion readied his gun.

He never exclaimed anything, no sound of surprise, those guys were professionals, trained perfectly and so he avoided shooting as soon as he realized what the girl was doing. Using his comrade as a meat-shield. His compassion kinda surprised me, in retrospective at least when I was watching these events, I had no conscious thought, it was like watching a movie while slowly drifting to sleep.

I guess the adrenaline was just too much handle for me, I couldn't even imagine how stressed out the girl must have been.

There was no sign of it on her face though, she just looked deadly serious, as she pushed the body into the arms of the remaining opponent, knocking him off balance. Rendering his rifle useless and then she was upon him, like a red demoness. Grabbing his arm, I heard a loud cracking sound filling the entire, narrow hallway. His scream came dull and distorted out of the speakers of his helmet, then he lost his rifle, the other soldier finally fell, slumped against the dark, cold wall.

The girl drew her gun, which she was so proud off and stared her enemies down, one whimpering, the other motionless, their weapons well out of reach.

She was brilliant!

I despised all combat, as you might have grasped by now, but this was so expertly done that I couldn't do anything but stare in awe. Even an amateur like me understood how she used the unprotected joints of his armor to her advantage, easily breaking his wrist.

And she never used a gun! Maybe this was it, the way to achieve my goal...

Heavily breathing, rasping into his microphone the soldier looked up to the girl, bending down in pain:”Fine, you win. We formally surrender.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I couldn't see her face, it was way to dark for that. While I could make out some basic shapes, these details were lost on me.

However, it did sound like she was sneering mockingly when she answered:”We? I only hear one of you.”

“Listen, you bi...” he was cut short, as her gun roared. Screaming, he clutched his leg.

“Just to remind you that your armor is like paper to this little cutie. Also, you might have trouble walking on that for the rest of your life now, sorry about that.”

H-hey, ease up a little, okay? Aren't you enjoying this a little too much?

“Okay, god, this hurts...we surrendered, fuck!” Drawing sharp breaths, the soldier was visibly and understandably distressed.

“But you attacked me, words can hurt me oh so much.” I could see her pursing her lips, only in my imagination however.

“Fine, whatever, you're crazy. I can't pursue you anymore, so just leave already.”

Then her gun sounded again, followed by a fleshy sound. Even I saw what happened, as dark as it may be, she just shot the unconscious soldier in the head, unceremoniously, without so much as a sharp breath.

The survivor was too stunned to speak, so I basically shouted what must have run through his head: ”Why the fuck did you do that?!”

She paid me no mind, in fact she didn't utter a single word.

“I...we surrendered, he wasn't even awake, why would you...?” Even the hardened soldier was shocked over such a display of senseless brutality.

He even whimpered as she put his gun to his head next, without hesitation. “Wait, this is insane, I give up, you win, there is nothing to be gained by killing me! Just walk away, just...!”

And then his skull too, exploded inside his fancy helmet.

Calmly, like there was nothing wrong in her behavior, she turned on her light and turned towards me. Finally I could see her face. I thought she was enjoying it, that she was some kind of twisted sadist reveling in the suffering of her victims.

Instead, there was nothing.

No emotion, not even in her eyes, her face was utterly blank. She didn't care about what she just did, murdering these guys in cold blood was nothing to her, it was as natural as taking a breath or batting her eyelids. That was way too scary, I never felt such intense dread.

As she opened her mouth and simply said:”Let's go.” in the calmest voice imaginable, I completely lost it. Turning around, screaming on the top of my lungs I dashed down the corridor, not caring about the absolute darkness I entered.

No matter what was lurking inside it, it could not be any more terrifying than the red devil.

3

My legs carried me all the way back and I never even considered the possibility that I might run into more enemy soldiers. Or why we fled into this maintenance-shaft in the first place. But it soon came back, flashing images of this hulking giant, who I only witnessed in little glimpses. That was more then enough however and yet I had no choice. I couldn't return to her, she was chilling me to the bone, so much that I feared my heart might stop any second in her presence. Then again, the giant scared me just as much, but it was a different kind of fear and I could not decide what was worse. Did it even matter? They would both kill me without hesitation, didn't even matter who gets the pleasure of robbing me of my life. Somehow, I just wished it wasn't her, that would be too cruel. Almost every two seconds, my head turned around, to see if I finally got rid of her. Not only once, but twice did I bump into a wall this way, my body crashing into the unyielding stone, I knew what I was doing was dangerous beyond belief, fleeing like a headless chicken, without stopping to think about my surroundings, but I just couldn't help it. Thank god the shaft wasn't of a very complex layout, no twists and turns, otherwise I might have, no, I absolutely would have gotten lost in these dark tunnels, without any hope to ever see the sunlight again. But since I was in luck, I soon stumbled into the door, only to find it tightly shut.

Oh no, last time we needed the two of us to push this metal hunk open, oh god no!

Desperately I pushed against it, straining my body to its limits as I pressed my shoulder into the door. Adrenaline gave me a slight edge and indeed the door even budged! But I took too long, you know how fast the demon tended to move!

And indeed, an icy chill ran down my spine as I heard her innocent voice behind me:”Hey,where are you going? You know that this giant might still be around, don't you?”

“Stop! Get away from me.”,I screamed at the top of my lungs, multiple octaves higher than I used to talk.

She only sighed at my pathetic display:”Right, yeah, let me help you with that.”

Together, it was easily possible to push the door open and as soon as I glimpsed a gap big enough for me to fit through, I fled again. If I was lucky, the door would close again, leaving her trapped, but somehow I doubted this would happen. So I had to keep running, with everything I had.

Every time I stopped to think what I was doing, all I saw where those empty eyes. She just killed them, without feeling anything, she never even regarded them as human beings and consequently she lost all of her own humanity in my eyes. I just couldn't understand, who does these kind of things? It was something that belonged into the realm of fiction and even then I'd call the work deranged and not at all relatable. Main-heroine my ass, no one could feel any sympathy for this red-headed psychopath now.

But god I was stupid, thinking about this otaku-crap with my life on the line, I might be just as insane.

At least I had the dignity to feel sick to my stomach as I reached the subway-tunnel again, seeing all these dead soldiers. The armor dehumanized them enough that I didn't feel too bad and it wasn't such a huge amount of corpses, four to be precise.

Still, they were human, with their own thoughts and aspirations, even if the girl seemed to be willing to ignore this.

Staggering, my knees shaking I entered this accursed tunnel again. When I'm through with all this I had to look for alternate public transportation, no one could ever get me back into the subway.

Made me wonder what kind of effects today would have on our city. Nothing comparable ever happened, the peace of Ravenstar was absolute, at least on the surface. A shooting at a public station? Unprecedented, but then again, I knew nothing about the shooters. For all I knew, they'd cover it all up, but how could you even do this? Yes, nobody would care about these soldiers, they'd be slightly moved out of the public eye, most likely none of them had any family or a place in society, but how do you explain all these helpless victims. Well, listen to me acting like I know it all, I didn't understand jack-shit. Just wanted to get out here, was that too much to ask? How to do it though? I couldn't think too long, everyone was out to get me, me, a lousy and boring college student, why was I of any interest to these monsters? Think, stop getting distracted but this bullshit and think. That was all that mattered to me right now, to ensure my survival. No, you're doing it again, don't think about survival, don't think about danger, those are just abstract and subjective things, think only about your escape. I looked through the room, scanning it with my ice-blue eyes. There was plenty of light, falling in from the huge hole in the ceiling. Three ways, potentially, going right, left or up.

Going up was out of the question, I couldn't jump that high. Damn, I took too long, clutching my head while I desperately tried to remain calm. The giant rushed down to the right, but if I go left...

Suddenly a huge impact into my back, pushing me face first forward, followed by a sharp noise, next to my ear.

“Guess I saved your life again.” she smiled at me, the girl with the green eyes and reddish-pink hair. What did I do to deserve this torment?

4

Sitting again, leaned against the rubble, the girl by my side. Like a soldier sitting in the trenches... once more. This was just too much. This time at least, she didn't shoot out of our cover, instead holding a small mirror. Checking her make-up? Nah, even I knew by now that she tried to asses the position of the sniper who almost put a high-caliber round into my fragile body. Nothing weird about this, just the world I was living in now. I heaved a heavy sigh, once more.

“Hey...” I leaned to the side, a sad smile on my lips.

“Yes?”

“You think we can stop now?”

“I don't think so...I might know this guy. We just call him the Hawkeye, over 100 confirmed kills with his sniper-rifle, why is every freak after me today?”

“Heh, the Hawkeye, of course. That's who he is, huh?”

A sigh again, dropping my head.

“He is known to lie in wait for days, no one knows how he does it.”

“Sure, why not? Guess we stay here for a few days.”

She turned towards me looking displeased:”I don't think you are taking this seriously.”

I could only shrug, the girl reverted completely back to her old personality, nothing left of the cold-blooded killer. Maybe she really did suffer a split, could a life at war do this to you?

Just as you learned to flip the burger just right, without any trouble if you wanted to work minimum-wage at some fast-food joint, a professional killer had to learn how to kill people routinely? She never stroke me as a killer, though. Appearances could be deceiving.

“The thing is, we won't have this much time. If he transmits our position...but, dammit, I don't see a way out of this. If only there was some means of communicating...”

I was long past caring, so I just said what was on my mind, this whole experience proved to really change my character:”When you killed these two guys just now, that really scared me.”

“I could tell...” Was she going to be sarcastic again, mocking me? Was it impossible to actually talk to this girl?

“It was just, the way you did it, without any emotion, like those people were nothing to you.”

Looking into the mirror, very focused, she answered:”They are the enemy, nothing else. What benefit could there be in letting them go? They'd just report us, they saw my face and someday they'd be coming back. Sometimes, one less foe on the field could make all the difference and maybe I saved a friends life by killing these two, who mean nothing to me.”

She brushed through her hair, almost looking a little flustered:”I get it, okay? I know how it looks, I am not that far removed from society. You must think I'm insane or a terrible, evil person, but it's not that. It's just the way I have to live. I do this for you, too, you know? For every average guy, for every happy family. What happened at the station, it was my fault. I thought if I use the crowds as cover, they'd never find me. I don't know how they did it and I never expected them to just...”

She choked, I never knew she was that sensitive. But even a iron heart might melt in the sight of such tragedy.

“But who are they?” I tried again, but she just waved her hand.

“You still don't need to know! You're my redemption, nothing more. If I can save one innocent guy, if I can safely rescue you out of this hell, then it will be fine in the end. That's your role, so just stop asking questions and allow yourself to be saved.”

Did she just wipe a tear? This was starting to get really cute...

“Now, what to do about this guy...”

That was the question, one we couldn't answer and so one hour passed.

“So, what do you do in your free-time, when you don't fight for your life?” I laughed a little and immediately regretted it, but to my surprise she even smiled a little at my joke.

“Well, as you guessed I don't really get any days off. Reading is fun, kinda.” she scratched her cheek softly, seemingly embarrassed and she never specified what exactly she liked to read, but I picked the topic up regardless.

“Oh, yes, reading is great! Just yesterday I bought this new book, the newest installment of my favorite series.”

“What's it about?” ,she looked at me, honestly interested and that made me blush a little. Such a pretty girl caring for anything I had to say, that was new to me. Wait a second, you had a girlfriend!

Ah, but I couldn't deny it, she absolutely paled in comparison to the beauty in front of me.

“I-It's nothing impressive, just some light novel-trash, some guy getting reincarnated in another world, the usual stuff, but I really like the authors spin on the genre!”

“Mmh, I always wondered how this medium survived into the present day, same with all the anime. It's so different from our general culture.”

“Right?! But that's what makes it so interesting!”

We talked like this for a while, movies she liked, how there was basically coffee instead of blood running through her veins and I even managed to snatch the vital information that she had no boyfriend, even if she got a little mad at me for finding out. You told me, lady, that's not exactly my fault.

It was a bizarre to say the least, for a moment you could almost think we were just some young people having a chat. Apart from the rubble and the blood...and the corpses around us.

Four Hours passed in the meantime, while we were talking away and yet no strike team was called in to finally waste us. We were just waiting, the sniper was just waiting and the air around us came to a standstill. A deadlock, neither party could really do anything and it was starting to tear at my nerves. Getting to know the girl (whose name I still haven't found out) distracted me for a while, but now that we were running out of things to talk about the tension felt really palpable.

And I was alone in that feeling too, the warrior next to me showed no signs of exhaustion. I mean, it was only four hours, I get that, but still...try sitting that long in one spot, with a sniper-rifle trained on your cover. It was stressful, it was absolutely exhilarating, but at the same time it wasn't at all exciting.

“I'm about ready to leave now.” I said jokingly, despite my tension.

“So am I. But he won't let us.” Did she even see anything in that little mirror of hers? I tried it, as she lend me the looking glass for a second, but all I saw was a bunch of high, modern skyscrapers. He could be anywhere, he could have left even, there was just no way to tell. But did she see things I didn't? That was entirely possible, combat training was something else. Who trained her anyway? And how did she get so good so fast? She could not be any older than 22...

So many questions and a lot of time to ask them too, but I knew that these topics belonged to the forbidden territory.

“You sure he's still around?”

“He's around. You can see the reflection...what is that, actually? His rifle, some sort of body armor? We don't know all that much about him, to be frank. But that's really sloppy. Am I mistaken? Is it not the Hawkeye?”

“Why would you think that anyway? You never saw him.”

“I just assumed it's him and with good reason. This city is his territory, he is the only hunter with this kind of weapon. He is not the only assassin, don't get me wrong, but taking out targets from an extreme distance, that's his MO.”

In what kind of city have I lived all my life?! I thought it was the outside world that was scary, but even here, in Ravenstar, you could die at the drop of a hat.

“It's just weird that he hasn't called for backup yet, we really cannot leave, so it would be easy to catch us now. Unless...”, deep in thought, her face seemed to lit up suddenly.

And she fell silent, thinking to herself. It was weird in general to think aloud like that, but maybe she just did it so I wouldn't be left completely in the dark. Now though, there wasn't a single sound coming of her lips, she just bit her thumb softly, deeply focused. Then she turned her head abruptly and flashed me a brilliant smile:”We are definitely going to get out of this mess!”

Are we? Um, great! But I couldn't really share her confidence yet, after all, the situation remained completely unchanged. With new-found enthusiasm, the girl started to look into her mirror again, her giddiness reminded me of a young child. Maybe that's exaggerated, but why was she so goddamn happy? 10 minutes passed, then 20 and finally I heard the answer.

Gunfire, distant, but it was still a familiar sound to me by now. A fact I hated as you might imagine, but at this point everything that broke the monotony of our hiding was welcome.

A last look, then the girl grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet:”This is it, just follow me.” Running down the tunnel, I felt elevated. We made it! Yeah, sure, this monstrous guy should be somewhere ahead, but hours passed, I was sure he was long gone. Maybe I shouldn't jinx it, I thought to myself, but Lady Luck was on our side today and we reached another station safely. Surprised looks followed us, as we stepped of the rails and onto the platform, then shocked gasping as they saw my bloodstained figure. It was dry by now, the color fading from a deep red to a dirty brown and maybe that was the reason that no panic broke out all around us.

However...what was going on? Why were there so many people around? Did they not hear the news, the terrible tragedy that happened just a station further down the line? They...really covered it up?

Still grabbing the girls hand, I could feel her shaking, but her face was hidden to me. Walking up the stairs, the bystanders made a point in avoiding me, dirty as I was. Surely they noticed the intense iron smell coming off me, nut nobody even approached us and offered his help.

I was willing to give humanity the benefit of the doubt here, obviously I was already in capable hands, seeing how my protector dragged me behind her.

As we reached the top of the stairs, the both of us could only gape in complete terror, our mouths open, the eyes wide.

People! Everywhere! Happy families taking their kids for a shopping trip, young couples on a date, colleagues going for a drink.

Somehow, the worst case just happened to us, the station was directly connected to a mall.

Indeed, the clock was fast approaching the middle of the night, but such a consumer-palace didn't care about that, it would likely be open for one or two more hours. And as the weekend was fast approaching nobody here cared about an early bedtime. There must have been like 500 people around here, lingering in the stores, walking around in the great main hall or just lounging around in front of the doors.

If they'd found us now...

The girl understood the dreadful situation:”We need to leave.” she urged, her voice flat and without any emotion, but her face as she briefly looked at me, showed plainly just how afraid she was.

Again, some people looked at me funny, but here in this mass of people many never even payed me any mind.

Then, time came to a halt, as I saw the black armor, soldiers storming through the main entrance.

All around us, voices rose in sudden fear, their peaceful lives violently interrupted.