They came at Zandra before she could get up. The world spun around, and her back hurt like a bitch. But there was no time for it. Glad at least she did not black out from the fall, she lifted her head up from the brutally hard surface of the road, steading her vision.

Four big guys, all dressed in black, now only meters away. In the corner of her eye, she saw them spread around and come, now circling her as she rolled over and tried to get up on her knees.

As if that was not bad enough, long and brutal shock stun batons appearing in their hands.

She had very few options and certainly did not have time to run the system’s full diagnostics to see how many bones she had broken, how bad her concussion was, and how long it would take to fix it all. But her automatic warnings came flashing anyway,

[Warning:

Two Ribs cracked.

Six Ribs severely bruised.

Ankle tendons and ligaments damaged.

Right-hand wrist ligaments damaged.]

As the warnings flashed, she remembered a milliseconds before hitting the road of putting her hand and leg down, moving slightly to the right side, and keeping her head up, so she did not slam against the road with her back and head first. At least her back was not all busted and it would not make her stutter and collapse in pain if she tried to get up.

Yet, getting to her knees was hard enough and she decided to wait, dropping down on the road.

Seeing her limp body hugging the ground, the men relaxed a bit themselves, and two of them even pulled their batons away, extending their hands to reach for her armpits in order to pick her up.

“Hit her anyway!” A millisecond before they could touch her, a stern voice in the back called on to them, and they froze the hand motions before reaching her. “Hit her, just to make sure.”

She heard the sizzling of electricity a moment before those sticks were to poke her body. But with the speed superior to rattlesnake's, she rolled over the asphalted ground, moaning as she pressed over her bruised ribs, opening her eyes to see two of them cursing and going for their batons, two other jumping toward her.

So, she rolled again, and then ignoring pain, she hit a guy who was already on top of her, nailing him in his right knee, an inches before he could bring his stick on top of her head. As he fell to the right, she moved enough to grab his free hand and, using her body as a lever, tossed his whole body into the sizzling stick of the second attacker, knocking him down in the process.

Now on her right knee, she twisted out of the way of a stun baton that was going for her chest, rolled over the ground and ducked down as one of the guys swung at her head.

As he missed, she grabbed his baton-holding hand, right above his wrist, twisting it with such force that the bone cracked. But before he could even utter a cry of pain, she got hold of his baton and nailed it right against his teeth, knocking some inward and sending him down.

The guy who was knocked down was already up and with the help of the forth attacker, they charged her from opposite side. But she was just too damn fast for them and moved out of their strikes, then hit the second attacker in the back with the electricity, sending him down for the second time, this time in convulsion and even more pain.

The forth attacker turned around, and, with a slick move, she blocked his baton with her own which allowed her to get close enough to him to land the palm of her free hand right into his nose, smashing bones there and making a bloody mess of his entire face. His head went backward, his feet left the ground, the force of the impact making his whole body make a hundred-eight degrees flip before crashing against the dark asphalt.

Happy that suddenly they were all down, she raised her head, and suddenly felt a bolt of energy hitting her from behind. A fifth man she did not even notice seemed to had come out of nowhere.

She felt the pain in her back travel throughout her body, now making all the other pain meager and inconsequential.

“Absorb the energy!!” she instructed her system and instantly felt a bit of relief. Enough to move.

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Her whole body convulsed toward the front, but her right leg bolted backward, hitting the man in his groins with the power of a horse’s backleg kick, sending him to meet the pavement meters away.

Partially upset she did not see him come, partially stunned, and a whole lot pissed, with the baton in her hand she moved toward him, ready to stick it between his teeth and blast all the electricity it could produce into his mouth, seeing how he would like that.

But the sound of tires screeching made her look backward and saw a dark van pulled up, its side door flying open as a few men covered completely in black body armor and short rifles in their hands jumped out while the van was still moving.

As if that was not enough, another van pulled up behind it with more guys jumping out.

“Shit,” she muttered to herself as she dived behind a tall SUV that was parked by the sidewalk.

Not fast enough as the swamp of bullets was already flying toward her, and she felt a strong sting of some of them nailing her leg.

“Shit!” she cursed louder, not for the last time that night.

Behind the tall car, she had only a second to look at her wounded left leg. There was not much blood coming from two of her leg wounds. She smelled it.

Sedatives. Hallow bullets. Not lethal, just trying to knock me out. They are trying to get me alive.

[Warning:

Sedative EKR122 has entered your bloodstream.

Your Awareness is decreasing at 1 percent every 2 seconds

Physical abilities have been impacted and are decreasing at 2 percent every 10 seconds

The time of passing out and losing control over your nervous system is estimated to be 5 minutes]

“System, put everything into neutralizing the sedative, and then try to get my ankle back up. I’m way too slow,” she gave instruction as the bullets banged and danced against the car, some hitting her fallen attackers as their hushed screams reached her as well.

Between the banging of bullets, she heard their steps. They were coming, fast. A minute and they would be circling her from all sides.

She looked up, her apartment windows and balcony now a hollow hole from which the fire still twinkled, smoke dark and thick pouring out. Somewhere in the distance, there was a fire truck serene going off.

“Probably three minutes before they come here. Two minutes too late,” she concluded, not that any fireman could save her anyway.

Her whole body hurt. Her head was not her own, and ribs, her back, feet, shot pain throughout her body as she moved.

“Pain blocking, max,” she told her system, knowing that she may not be pain-free, but that as long as it blocks most of it, she would at least not pass out.

The shooting suddenly stopped as a few cars suddenly drove down her street.

“They made a mistake, should have blocked the street completely,” she muttered to herself.

First there was a white delivery van passed her by, but then, came a dark sedan. She came out from the SUV and jumped on the roof of the dark sedan. The banking noise of her jumping on the roof must have spooked the driver who instantly hit the brake, cursing, and she slid off the car’s windshield, making him yelp in shock. Then she made a few fast strides to reach the back of the white van and jump on it, leaching on its back door.

The driver of the van seemed oblivious to anything happening around him and had just continued to drive, probably too sleepy to pay attention to anything other than the music he was listening.

But she was not out of danger yet as she heard them running after her, firing the bullets as they ran. She tried to make herself small, but they were pretty good shots and one bullet nailed into her shoulder. It felt different. It did not feel like it was made to inject a sedative. But she did not let go of the van and in seconds, they already made the curve and entered in another street.

She had a moment to take in a deep breath, a mountain of questions towering over her.

If they are after me, why blow up my apartment?

They wanted me alive, so… why first try to kill me?

And who are they?

What do they want?

And how the hell did they find me?

Two streets down, she jumped off the van and found a dark doorway to hide inside, watching as in the next ten seconds two dark SUVs zipped past her. She reached for her hurt shoulder, her fingers coming back all bloodied.

She hid in the darkness, putting pressure on her wound while thinking and trying to make the sense of it all, talking out loud her thoughts. “This is a real bloody bullet, made to kill. So... They wanted me alive… and... if not alive, then dead? Obviously, they did not expect me to come home so fast. That’s why they were not ready. That’s why their second team with guns was a bit late. That’s why they did not block the street both ways. Should have done that. Isolate me. I rushed them. Is that why they blew up my apartment? Because I rushed them?"

"It just does not make any sense. Besides… How could they have known? Knew my place, knew everything. This has been planned for a long time. They are good. Followed me for a long time, and tracked me without me even being aware of them. Even how they attacked me… It was not stupid. There was enough electricity in those sticks to have overpowered me. It must have been heavily modified to be 2 or 3 times more powerful than regular models. How could they have guessed that? No guessing. They knew, knew everything. And I know nothing,” she said and suddenly decided she needed some answers more than she needed to rest and heal.

“Don't even remember the last time someone attacked me. I'm the one that strikes, not the other way around," she said, now trying not to feel upset. "So... Can’t run away. Need to go back. Need to find answers.”