Ch.146Episode 8 – Say Hello To My Little Friend

Droplets of blood trickle down my jawline. An inexplicable anxiety creeps into a corner of my heart, and my skin is damp with cold sweat.

I limped up the emergency stairs.

“Damn it…!”

I somehow managed to climb the stairs to reach the third floor, only to find the exit blocked with boxes. Fucking department store. This is a fire code violation, you bastards.

From below the stairwell, curses and shouts echo upward. Those terrorist bastards must have already followed me here.

I loaded a single bullet into the empty chamber and fired down the stairs.

-BANG!!

“AAAAARGH!”

The dim stairwell filled with light, and screams reverberated through the space. Seems like I hit someone.

“Go up! Go up!”

“Kill that bastard!”

“Get him!”

From now on, I had to fight for my life.

If I didn’t want to die.

Episode 8 – Say Hello To My Little Friend

Fighting one against many is realistically difficult. Especially when it’s close combat rather than a gunfight.

The number of terrorists who followed me was six. Not just the ones guarding the cargo, but even those who were moving it came after me.

Unless I was Rambo, to fight them I needed to face them one-on-one, not all at once.

In that sense, the stairwell was excellent terrain.

-BANG!!

The heavy gunshot shakes the stairwell. The muzzle flash illuminates the dim emergency stairs in an instant.

I fired the shotgun to blow the heads off the terrorists crawling up the stairs.

-BANG!! BANG!!

The higher ground, narrow passage, and superior firepower that could turn limbs into rags—despite being wounded and facing six men at once, the situation wasn’t too bad.

The problem was that I wasn’t the only one with a gun.

“Eek…!”

A terrorist with a bushy beard leaned out his upper body and aimed something. A pistol.

Bang! As I twisted my body inward to dodge, the bullet flew past and hit the railing. Sparks flashed before my eyes like a scene from a movie. I retreated from the sudden gunfire, and the terrorist, pressing his advantage, fired three or four more shots toward where I had been.

“Go up! Now!”

With that shout, the sound of hurried footsteps began to fill the stairwell.

As I was loading shells one by one from my pocket, I took a small deep breath and sprang to my feet.

I locked eyes with the terrorist leading the charge.

The knife-wielding terrorist stared at me with wide eyes, shook his head as he reached out his hand, and I pressed the smooth, cold trigger while aiming the muzzle at him.

-BANG!!

With the gunshot, the terrorist’s body collapsed. His chest, hit by the shotgun blast, was torn to shreds. The terrorist following behind ended up unintentionally embracing his falling comrade’s body.

Clank. The empty shell rolled on the floor.

I aimed at the terrorist while loading the next round, and the one holding his dead comrade flinched and frantically tried to push the corpse aside.

I pull the trigger.

“Shit, I’m fucked…!”

-Click!

Amid the stairwell filled with curses and screams, the sound of the firing pin striking is distinctly heard. The bullet didn’t fire. A malfunction.

The terrorist must have noticed this too, as he grinned with relief and gripped his knife tightly.

“This bastard’s out of bullets! He’s screwed now!”

“Kill him!”

The terrorists shouted as they bounded up the stairs.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

The close combat had begun.

*

I decided to take out the first terrorist who came up.

“Die!”

I gripped the shotgun in reverse and struck the terrorist’s head.

-CRACK!

The stock hit the temple of the knife-thrusting terrorist.

The wooden stock of the already deteriorating old shotgun shattered as soon as it struck the terrorist’s head.

I couldn’t use the gun anymore. Firing would still be possible without the stock, but in the time it would take to fix the malfunction, I’d be stabbed several times over. I discarded the shotgun and drew my knife.

-THUNK!

The blade sank into the neck of the terrorist who had just taken a full swing to the temple. Disoriented, he lost consciousness as soon as his carotid artery was pierced, and I pulled out the knife and pushed his lifeless body down the stairs.

Crash! The corpse tumbled down with a loud noise. The terrorists climbing the stairs scattered to avoid the body. The one at the front looked at his comrade’s corpse once, then gritted his teeth and readjusted his grip on his axe.

The third terrorist climbing the stairs, now suddenly at the front, appeared before me.

“You son of a bitch! I’ll chop you into pieces while you’re still alive!”

The gleaming axe blade cut through the air. He was aiming for my shoulder.

The terrorist swung the hand axe widely, using the strength of his waist. I stepped back with my right foot and pulled my upper body away to avoid the axe.

-Clang!

The axe that missed hit the concrete wall.

The terrorist, who had lunged at me with the axe, realized his attack had missed and tried to regain his posture.

But I didn’t miss the opportunity and dove into his space, slashing at his armpit.

-Slash!

It felt like cutting lotus root, with a sound like slicing cabbage. I had severed a blood vessel.

Though confident I’d cut the vessel, to make sure I finished the job, I grabbed the terrorist’s arm and cut deeper into his armpit.

“AAAAARGH!”

Blood spurted from the axillary artery. The terrorist clutched his armpit as the artery was severed.

While he was in shock, I snatched his axe and buried it in his neck.

Thunk! The well-sharpened hand axe was buried in its owner’s neck. His unfocused eyes wandered aimlessly, and his fallen body grew cold on the floor.

After killing the axe-wielding terrorist, I glared at the hesitant terrorists.

“……”

“……”

“……”

No words were necessary.

The two terrorists standing frozen exchanged glances.

“……”

“…Let’s go!”

The two terrorists stepped over their comrades’ corpses and attacked me simultaneously.

The first to come up held a hunting knife. He shouted and swung the knife, and I reflexively raised my hand to block the attack.

At that moment, I felt a burning pain in my forearm. I’d been cut.

I quickly turned my arm to check the wounded area. The skin was torn along the direction of the knife swing, and the left forearm of my white shirt was stained red. Since I could still move my arm without much trouble, the cut probably wasn’t too deep.

I calmly extended my right hand holding the knife forward and placed my injured left hand in front of my chin. The terrorist, confirming I was wounded, grinned and thrust his knife.

“Die!”

The knife came at me. He was aiming for my abdomen.

I stepped sideways to avoid the knife, then grabbed the terrorist’s arm as he couldn’t stop his momentum, trapping it between my arm and side. The terrorist, visibly panicked, struggled desperately to free his arm.

People can move their bodies freely thanks to joints. But except for certain areas, most joints can only move in one direction.

For reference, the human elbow joint bends inward.

Unless it’s broken.

-CRACK!

“AAAAARGH…! My arm…!”

I slit the throat of the terrorist screaming about his broken arm. Like turning on a faucet, blood leaked through his fingers.

I lifted the terrorist and threw him over the railing, and he died when his head was crushed against the stairs below.

Now only two remained.

One held a large knife, and the other had a gun. A revolver that looked like it belonged in the Civil War. The same one who had been enthusiastically shooting from below earlier.

I decided to take out the knife-wielder first. Just as I was about to pick them off one by one—

-BANG!

With the gunshot, my body shook. For a moment, I felt dizzy, and all strength drained from my lower body. The knife I dropped tumbled down the stairs, already far away.

Looking down, I saw a bullet lodged in my right thigh. More precisely, there was a finger-sized hole in my suit pants.

Whether unfamiliar with gunfights or not, the knife-wielding terrorist lost his balance and leaned against the wall, groaning, while the one with the revolver was tapping the cylinder with his hand.

Seeing that, there was no need to think further.

Taking advantage of his reloading, I subdued the groaning terrorist with a punch to the face and pushed him toward the gunman.

The entangled terrorists rolled down the emergency stairs, clutching each other.

“AAAAH-!”

“Ugh…! Get off me…!”

Despite being battered from the fall, the gunman was still trying to force bullets into the cylinder and shouting at his comrade to get up.

-BANG!

With one heavy shot, the terrorists’ heads were blown off.

The shotgun I had set down earlier was somehow back in my hands, and the defective round that hadn’t fired was rolling at my feet.

“……”

After looking down at the terrorists who died entangled with each other, I dropped the shotgun and slumped against the wall.

All tension left my body. I could barely move a finger, let alone support myself.

I looked around, breathing shallow and short breaths.

“…Heh.”

My shoulder was injured, my forearm was torn, and I’d been shot in the thigh. My beloved suit, barely a year old, was in tatters. And to top it all off, my bank account was empty.

I wanted to cry, but no tears came. So I just sat with my head against the wall and quietly closed my eyes.

“…Ah, life.”

I feel like submitting my resignation.