“We need to run!” Tala screamed and grabbed her brother by the hand as she ran toward the back door.

He did not hesitate, letting her lead her, but neither did two guys coming through the food aisle who ran after them.

Outside was a small, fenced-off court with a gate she did not waste time opening. She took the lead and jumped on the stacked plastic containers, propelling her up enough till she could push off the top of the fence as she made it across.

“Wow, sis!” she heard her brother utter right behind her as he jumped and landed right next to her.

Then they sprinted down the small alley.

“Who was that?” her brother yelled from behind her, but there was no time for explanation.

He actually was trailing her and she had to turn around to see if he was still there. Could not believe she was suddenly faster than her little brother who still trained five times a week.

As she turned around to tell him to hurry, she saw the dark van racing after them, and she knew she needed to change the plan.

Looking ahead, she took a fast turn to a side street and she saw her target.

Daiki Kentzo. A kid she knew from school. He graduated a year before, got into a very good college. He was one of those kids who did everything just a bit better than everyone else. She hated him ever since he picked on her brother once and shoved him on the shoulder, pushing him against the wall. She saw it all, jumped in front of him, and told him to ‘fuck off’. She remembered his smirk, his indifference as he just moved next to her, leaving them behind as if they did not exist.

In an instant, she realized, it was time for a payback.

He never saw her come. At least not till it was too late.

She caught up on him, then as he turned his head to see who was running like crazy next to him, she threw herself on him, her hip hitting him in the head, and he went down, off the bike, spreading himself across the road.

“What are you doing?”

“Get on a bike!” she screamed, already in a saddle, picking it up, and looking backward toward the van that made the corner.

“I’ll ride!” he said.

“No time!” she screamed as the van pulled up behind them.

Her brother jumped on the handlebar, above the front wheel, lifting his legs up, and holding as well as he could. She started to push the pedals, and they took off.

“You freakin’ nailed him,” her brother screamed at her, unable to contain his laughing.

“Yeah, and if I don’t peddle fast enough, they’ll nail us,” she said seeing the van gaining in on them.

As he was frantically holding to the handlebar, she found it almost impossible to move and direct the bike and could not make the turns she wanted to.

But then, she saw there was another way to lose the van that was just a few meters away. A passageway down.

“Don’t you dare!” her brother screamed, but that’s only because he could not see the van that was ready to overrun them.

So, down the stairs they went, her brother yelping in horror as his body tilted forward and he got the view of the stairs that terrified the life out of him.

“Stop, stop, stop!” he screamed, but there was no way of stopping.

They hit the car, and her brother went flying over it. Finally free of his weight, she easily turned the bike to a side and passed the car around, coming to her brother who lay spread over the road.

“Sis,” he said, lifting his hand up.

“I got you,” she said and held his hand, trying to help him get up.

That is when they got him. She saw his body convulse from the impact of the bullets, worse than when they hit the car.

“No!!!” she screamed as everything went dark around her.

A few bullets flew by her, and she instantly ducked down, hearing them bounce off the car and some even hitting the bike’s frame.

She could not believe her brother went down and that these assholes in black killed him. Rage flamed up inside of her, and in an instant, she swore revenge, deciding to drive the bike in a small passageway where the van could not follow her, looking for anything she could use for weapons along the way.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

But she was not fast enough.

The black van appeared in front of her just before she could squeeze herself into the alley. And a dozen bullets hit her over the body, the pain and the impact making her lose control and she went down over the ground.

Yelping in pain, she felt two guys lift her up and throw her inside the van where Daiki lay dead or unconscious. She tried to sit up and fight the guys who suddenly dropped her brother’s unresponsive body right on top of her. She wiggled out and tried to attack them with her legs, but one of them knocked her on the forehead with a baton and then things went dark.

*Ding, ding, ding

It rang inside her head. She opened her eyes, finding herself still in the back of the van, her brother and Daiki’s body next to her. They were still driving through the city streets, but from her angle from the floor, she could not make it in what direction.

There were four dark figures sitting in front of her, not paying her any attention.

*Ding, ding, ding

The annoying sound rang inside her head until she asked, "What the hell is it, system?"

[Mission Failed!]

"Fuck off!" she cursed it right away, but then she squeezed her eyes hard, holding her breath, expecting heaven to open up and the bolt of lightning struck her through her head, killing her instantly. Then she slightly opened her eyes to see if it actually had happened and she had not felt a thing, thinking what the afterlife was all about.

But the inside of the van was very uneventful. And stinky, she realized as she started to breathe again.

“If this is the afterlife, then I’m Mona Lisa,” she said, relieved she was still breathing, not sure if she saw it right that they got her brother.

“Please, explain, system, what happened?”

[You have not completed your Mission.

Your current record is:

Missions Offered: 2

Mission Accepted: 1

Missions Completed: 0

Missions Failed: 1]

Well, at least I’m not dead, but… but that was not my fault! And… what? It does not even matter if I fail. What kind of stupid game is that?

[This is not a game.

Your low mission completion will be taken into account in assigning your preliminary position.]

Damn. I don’t fucken' need this. Missions, and shit. And my little brother, Chittooo!!!

This is some stupid game. Just like real life, only stupider. I’m being kidnapped here and you, system, had left my brother die, and now you're fucking telling me something about the missions? Shut up!!"

She saw her brother next to her, and tapped him. He was not responding no matter how much she shook him, and that was infuriating her even more.

"This is stupid. You gave me missions that I could not complete."

[Missions might seem sometimes easy. But they are not. The complexity and difficulty of their completion is directly proportional to the award given.]

“Okay, I guess that makes sense. And when do I know about the award?”

[Once you complete it or fail it.]

"Can I bring my brother back?"

[Only if you achieve Lord Class with Resurrection Abilities]

“Really?… And how fast I can get that?"

[That depends on raising your class through missions and tasks, among other things.]

"Okay, so, what kind of missions would there be available?"

[That would depend on your Class and rank.]

"Okay, so if I have like really high class and rank… what missions would I be able to select from?"

[Please define what you yourself would consider ‘high class and rank’.]

“Well, like, I don’t know, class ten?? Maybe fifteen?”

[Currently, for anyone class 15, there could be over ten thousand missions on your planet for someone with a very high class and rank.

Retrieval and Acquisitions

Protection and Safekeeping

Termination

Observances and Reporting]

"Interesting. Especially that Termination. Does that imply killing someone?"

[Further information cannot be revealed due to inadequate…]

"I know class and rank. Fine. So, what am I good for then?"

[I cannot answer that question yet since you are not...]

"Shut up, why do I even bother?" she sighed, trying not to whisper too loud, seeing the black in man turn around to check on her.

*Ding

[New Mission available]

Fuck off! I just need to get integrated and shut your dinging down!

The van suddenly crashed into something hard and Tala’s body together with her brother’s and Daiki went crashing against the back of the second-raw seats.

Then there was a whole bunch of noise, screams, windows being opened, the gun rattling. She covered her ears and pressed her head against the floor as the window glass all around came splattering around. And not only the glass. Parts of human heads came flying all over, brains mixed with blood and bones.

“Fuck!” she cursed and tried to make herself as small as possible, not daring to lift her head and look up anymore.

It all lasted just a few seconds. Then the side door opened and she tilted her head to see a huge and masculine black guy staring at her.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Here to take you to a safe place,” he answered. “Let’s go.”

“I’m not going without him. Maybe he is still alive,” she said, thinking of her brother, feeling stupid for not even trying to feel his pulse. Then realized she was just dead scared to do that and find out he was dead.

The man picked her by her leg and pulled her out as if she was a chunk of dead meat. “I can go on my own!” she screamed and dropped down to the ground, suddenly feeling dizzy in the head and weak in her knees. “Get into my van,” he said and pointed to the white van with the picture of produce decorating its side.

“Okay,” she said, knowing she was not in the condition to run.

She heard him pick a body from the van and turned around to see.

“Not him, you dummy,” she interrupted him as she saw him lift Daiki up.

The huge man sighed, moved back to the van, and picked her brother up in his other hand, throwing him over his shoulder.

“I’ll bring both, and you sort them out,” he said as he dropped both of them inside as if they were sacks of potatoes.

“Hey, gently!” She screamed at him. “He may still be alive!”

Alive or not, she was not going to have her brother be handled as if he were a sack of rice.

"I said, gently!!"

“What are you talking about? That was gentle.”

She jumped to the back and tried to find her brother's wounds, but there was just a bit of blood, droplets, a lot of coloring. She tried to find his pulse, but could not do that.

“Why is he not bleeding?” she asked, not sure what was going on. “And why can’t I feel his pulse?” she added, not wanting to accept that her brother was gone. But as she hugged him hard and felt his limp body, she realized she did not have a say in it. And she cursed herself. And hated herself a lot more for going back home and bringing him along.