Hobo

This is a little something I threw together in a day where I was feeling a bit creative. I will warn though that anyone with a sensitive soul where harsh language offends them would be better off just stopping here. These are not nice people but they still have something like love even to them.
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I was happy once. There was a time in my life where things were normal. Some might even call it peaceful. Not now, not today, not ever again. My days and nights are now filled with chasing ghosts. Tracking the coming and goings of anyone in and out of airports and train terminals and bus depots across the world that appears to be an alias. It's not so hard once you learn what to look for. Corpses with itineraries and flight plans stick out like a sore thumb.

Most of my friends call it ghost hunting. Most of them have long since disappeared leaving me to my own world. It's not a ghost I'm hunting though her name is April. She turned my world upside down and fell off the face of the planet in one fell swoop. That was four years ago.

We've had several encounters since then. Close and intimate. The kind that leave a permanent mark on your psyche.

Last month it was Milan. A week ago it was Kosovo. Today it's right here in Vegas.

"You've been a very busy girl." I say with a smile.
"Still haven't gotten a hobby yet?" She quips back.
"Who needs a hobby? I've got you." My gun digs into her back and she winces just a bit.
"How sweet you remember my old injury" She says through gritted teeth.

The parking garage outside the airport is dark and it's just the two of us. There aren't even very many cars on this level. Mostly long stay for people like her and me to leave a mode of transportation in every city.

"I could never forget Morocco darlin, that's where I gave you that one."
"You shot me in the fucking back." Her eyes stare at me with a coldness that chills the air.
"It is the safest way to shoot someone." I smile just a bit too soon.

She's ungodly fast and the guns flying out of my hand and sliding under a row of cars in less than a second. The thing about April is never get close. She's deadly and easily one of the best close combat fighters on the market. My wrist is tweaked but she hasn't broken it yet. We trade a few body shots and I get my hand back. Squaring off I know I'm out matched.

"Are you actually getting slower and worse at fist fighting?" she asks almost sounding concerned.
"No you've just gotten faster."
"Thank you." she half bows.

I get a glancing blow across her eye thinking she's off guard but I was wrong. Her jab gets me right in the mouth and I feel my teeth cut the inside of my lips and my mouth fills up with blood. She just waves a finger at me saying no more. Then the blood starts to drains from my glancing blow into her eye. Sending a flurry of blows at her she blocks all but one. An upper cut to her stomach that catches her square under the ribs lifting her off the ground on my fist. When I pull back and put some distance from her she collapses to the ground for a second. She's down but not out.

"I see you're still a dirty fighter." she spits out onto the concrete and catches her breath.
"I'm letting you catch your breath. Besides we both know you're taking it easy on me." I spit out another mouth full of blood.
"Just wanna make sure you feel like you're doin ok. I don't want to crush your ego."
"Yeah yeah yeah just shut the fuck up and fight will you?"
"Ok sweetheart."

It takes her maybe two seconds to get to her feet and lunge at me with seemingly reckless abandon. There's nothing random about the assault. In seconds I'm feeling my guts ache from the pounding I'm taking. I manage to land a few lucky hits in and catch her off guard when the blood gets in her eye but I need a miracle. She hits me open palmed in the chest with both hands and my feet are no longer under me and my breath is no longer in my lungs. Stars flutter across my vision and the ground and a car rush at me from behind. I sit there dazed.

"That was longer than you usually last." She said with smile pointing a gun at me.

Two shots fire at the same time. The metal next to my head screeches with the impact of the bullet. A lock of hair falls from underneath her ear. We sit there in silence for what seems like an eternity.

"So you need a ride?" she asks casually holstering her pistol.
"Yeah I don't think I can ride in this condition" I struggle to my feet putting my own gun away.

The car's silent for the first bit of the drive. I light up a smoke even though I'm still trying to catch my breath from what feels like two broken ribs and the rest are bruised. She's already fussing with her body language.

"This is my car you could try respecting it." She finally says.
"Just fuckin drive." I say through my teeth spiting blood out the window and down the side of her car.
"You really wonder why I left you?"
"God damn it does everything have to come back to that? I mean fuck."
"Hey I'm just saying ... you're a fucking prick." she starts coughing.

Flicking the cigarette out the window I just stare and focus on the taste of the copper in my mouth. Like a fuckin mouth full of pennies. I hate this woman.

"When are you going to stop pretending to try and kill me?" She asks.
"When I actually pull the trigger." I say off hand.
"Yeah yeah yeah. So am I staying at your place?"
"Whatever you gotta do." I think about smothering her to death in her sleep.
"Stop thinking about smothering me. It didn't work in Italy. It won't work now either."
"When at first you don't succeed..." I let the rest hang in the air.

She's driving like a bat out of hell. Avoiding the strip we fly around town to my building. The rest of the trip is silent. Not until we're in the elevator does she bother approaching me. Striding to my side she places a hand on the side of my face and looks at me with her crystal clear grey eyes. This is something like love. She kisses my lips and I feel all of the heat and passion I once had for this woman well up in me. She breaks the kiss and looks in my eyes for feeling but all she see's is my dead eyes staring back at her. A quick back hand and she's turned around facing the elevator door.

"I doubt your husband would appreciate you kissing another man." I say flatly.
"He doesn't have to know. He doesn't even know what I do." She says with a single tear rolling down her cheek.
"You walked away. Not me." the elevator chimes and the door opens up to my penthouse apartment. Killing people may not be moral but it's certainly profitable.

I duck as a vase goes flying over my head. Spinning around I have her dead to rights between my sights only to find I'm too late and she's already got me sighted. Dropping my gun I walk up to her slapping the gun out of her hand and pinning her by the throat to the closed elevator door.

"What the fuck do you want from me?" I whisper in her ear my rage barely contained.
"I just want you. Just in this moment." She whispers back.

Our lips collide like a train wreck. She's pinned to the door but her hands are fumbling with my pants. We fuck, make love, assault one another sexually however you want to phrase it right there against the door and on the floor for hours. After our final climax we lie there on the ground sweaty and exhausted.

"Say it." She says rolling on top of me giggling playfully tracing the scars on my chest looking me dead in the eyes.
"I fuckin hate you." I say back with a coldness I can't control.
"Good. You still keep food for me to cook with in here?" She asks getting off of me and waltzing to the kitchen already knowing the answer.
"Yeah." I just light up a smoke and lie there. Three broken ribs now.

We sit across from one another. I'm still naked and she's wearing nothing but an apron. Her cooking is amazing and I find it hard to concentrate with her across from me. I eat only a few bites and push my plate in front of me.

"You don't want it?" She asks me.
"It was fine I'm just not very hungry."
"Suit yourself." She continues eating her salad.

I find myself staring at her with torrent of emotions running through me. My fingers wrap around the steak knife involuntarily. Seems like now is better than any other time.

"You'll never win knife on knife." She says without even looking up from her salad.

Getting up from the table I excuse myself and go into the shower. My one safe place. Sitting under the warm water I let it cleanse me of blood and sweat. Lost in my own thoughts I don't even notice that she's climbed in with me until she starts to wash me down.

"These are new." She says paying attention to the scars on my back."Are you getting sloppy or are you just suicidal?"
"Don't lie. I know you've been keeping tabs on me." I say without looking at her.
"Well you're watching my every move I figure it'd be unwise to not at least do the same." she says moving on to the back of my arms.
"Fair enough. That move you made in Monaco was just plain stupid."
"Big talk coming from the guy who massacred a subway train. Did you even get your target?"
"You know the answer to that."
"Yeah I know, you never fail, you never die, and you’re fucking invincible blah blah blah."
"What are you thinking?" I ask finally turning around to face her.

She doesn't look at me. Her hands keep moving across my body washing me gently and tenderly. It's just the sound of the water and us. The way the water trails down the contours of her body make me a little dizzy. I always get cloudy minded around her.

"Maybe in another lifetime things would have been perfect." She says and the rest of the shower is silent. Taking my time washing every inch of her body after I wash and rinse her hair. This is one of those moments that's almost perfect but so far from at the same time.

Loading rounds into a dozen clips with plastic gloves on she walks up in some tiny lingerie. Staying focused I just keep going about my preparations. No need to get sloppy now.

"Why are you here?" I ask loading another round.
"You're still using plastic gloves?" She asks back.
"You are still allergic last time I checked and don't avoid my question."
"That's sweet coming from the guy who wants me dead and you know I can't tell you details."
"You don't shit where I eat and I don't shit where you eat. That was the fucking deal. I haven't been to L.A. so tell me before I start clearing out anyone who might have an agenda here.' I say finally turning around.

With her petite body and full curves barely covered by a little bit larger than a tea doily and with just as many holes to show most of her body I find myself losing my focus. She knew I'd be there. What a bitch.

"That's bullshit a year ago you broke into my house and I had to beat the shit out of you to keep you from killing my husband." She says with her hands on her hips.
"Well besides that I've stayed out." I say back.
"What about the studio city thing?"
"I couldn't help it I had to finish the job ... hey stop changing the fuckin subject what are you doing here?"
"The mob called me in for a problem."
"That problem would be?" I say arching my eyebrow.
"You." She says dead pan.

That final word sits in the air. We just stare at each other. Neither one of us breaking the silence not sure what to say because we're both already answering each other in our heads. If I had something like a best friend it would be April.

"Huh ... ain't that about a bitch?" I finally say.
"You already know I can't do it." She says as she sits in my lap draping her arms around me nuzzling her face into my neck.
"Guess we're working together again?" I ask more than state.
"Not quite." She says pulling away looking me in the eyes."You're finally going to kill me."
"You're gonna use me to get out of this aren't you?" I ask already knowing the answer.
"Yeah." She says right before kissing me.

Back in the car we drive deep into the Vegas desert. There's an old abandoned underground bomb shelter used by the obscenely rich as a club house for illicit dealings. This doesn't even have anything to do with the apparent hit on my head. I like to think of this as part of my humanitarian efforts towards the betterment of mankind the only way I know how to do it.

"This is the kind of shit that has you marked." she says staring out the windshield. "I mean this is just unbelievably stupid."
"Shut ... the ... fuck ... up." I say slowly and clearly."I didn't even want you to come."
"Just puttin it out there." She huffs dramatically.
“Put it back." I shoot back at her.

We drive in silence for another twenty minutes but I know that this is far from over. This is what we do. We fight, we fuck, then we fight some more. Thankfully there's no mystery involved.

"Ok for the sake of conversation what is the plan?" She asks.
"Well thank you for asking. I go in. I kill everything that moves." I say with a self satisfied smile I can't contain because I know the reaction this will bring.
"You are a fucking moron." She finally says after a moment."I'm going in with you."
"Better stand still then I'd hate to have an accident."
"I'm not kidding the mob called in the big guns for this, people you are far from able to handle, you will die if we don't clean this mess up." She spits out almost excitedly upset.
"Stay in the car." I tell her.
"Fine." she’s pouting already.

We pull up to the building that serves as a main entrance. The parking lot is filled with every rare and exotic model car you can imagine. Selling just one of these cars could put me into retirement. Pulling up to the door a valet runs out to take the car.

A bullet through his face sends him tumbling back as I step out of the vehicle and April drives away into the parking lot. One of the upper level guards comes to check on the commotion but the silenced pistol left only the collapsing body to make a noise. I catch the guard with the shotgun through the eye of his designer sun glasses. Two more guys with guns try and get the drop on me and I take each of them down with a precision round. The third is just about to use his radio when I shoot him through the radio, his hand, and right into his mouth. Nasty.

__________________
Hobotastic!

Hobo

It's a long ride down to the lowest level of the site. One more floor down and I might just be in the first level of hell. It's a shame that they don't have any elevator muzak ... I actually miss that shit.

The door opens up and I come across four more people. In quick succession I place a round into the head or heart of each of them. A quick exchanging of clips has me reloaded with a full sixteen rounds to dispense. Doors open and some people rush out others slam them quickly trying to avoid the fire. One after another I take out the people clawing at the dead folks. Three doors on either side I enter and eliminate all remaining targets before proceeding to the main hall. I still have five clips of fifteen left and their all itching to be let loose. It's moments like this I recognize that I am in fact bat shit crazy because I really do feel like my gun is talking to me.

The ornamental double doors open as I approach them. No doubt someone was either expecting me or just caught on to the chaos that was beginning to unfold. These places are always wired to the brim with cameras and listening devices. Jokes on them though I accounted for that. Taking the three smoke grenades I had attached to my harness I lob them in at three different angles. One to the left, one to the right, and one dead center.

I'm not gonna lie this makes things almost as difficult for me as it does for them but I have one thing going in my favor. I don't need to choose my targets quit so carefully. The barrel of my gun jumps as I continue to loosen a salvo of shots into running figures in the haze. I see muzzle flashes from other guards from either side of me. Automatic sub machine guns and a shot gun or two this is gonna be rough.

There's a close call as some shotgun pellets imbed themselves high in my shoulder and graze the side of my head. More scars, more character. In the fog of war I find more targets putting them down slowly and methodically. It's too bad I need to speed up before the industrial filter ditches the smoke. That's when I hear it.

Another pistol is firing behind me. It's silenced so the only way I can really tell is the spent casings hitting the floor. Digging behind my back I pull my back up forty five from its holster holding steady on the approaching sound. It's April, and while she's turned covering my back firing at people hurrying for the door I notice that her other hand has another pistol aimed straight at me. I keep taking shots as the smoke begins to thin. Slowly circling one another taking down targets left and right periodically dodging incoming barrages our guns never leave each other.

Finally the smoke clears and we're surrounded on all sides by bodies. One man remains seated his fingers steepeled in front of him. He lets go with a slight cough as though the smoke was just a pesky irritant and that some people didn't just bust into is fortress and kill everything that moved.

"Bravo ... " he says clapping his hands before I interrupt him.
"I told you to stay in the car." I say to April
"I don't really care what you want I need you alive." She shoots back.
"Excuse me." says the bewildered man now rising to his feet.
"Shut the fuck up." We both say to him in unison training our guns on him while still having a gun pointed at each other. He just sits down.
"This is my job you don't need to get involved. I don't need your help." I say keeping an eye on her and him at the same time. A wounded guard stirs on the ground and April shoots him through the head quickly without looking before turning her gun back on the seated man.
"Fuck you and what you need. This is about what's best for me." she says in an angry hiss. Some other person in a suit rolls and starts crawling towards the door and I shoot him past her shoulder in the back and retrain my gun back on the man.
"Might I get just a word ...' he begins to say before we both put a round in each of his shoulders." Guess not he grunts."
"Do not fuck with me April." I say giving her the meanest look I can.
"Don't use my name!' She squeaks at me
“Oh who the fuck is he going to tell? I'm gonna fuckin kill him when you stop nagging me." I push the barrel of my forty five to her forehead.
"That's not the point you retard!" she yells back at me getting up on her tippy toes to make it easier for her to dig the barrel of her gun into my forehead.
"Would you people please just kill me?" The guy finally gets out.

We happily oblige him with all four guns. His body is dancing in his chair like some sick puppet. We holster our weapons.

"So wanna set this place on fire then go fuck in the car by the fire light?" I ask her.
“Always the romantic." She says back with a devious smile.
"I promise you'll end up battered and bruised if it makes you feel better."
"How can a girl refuse an offer like that?"

As we walk out I slap her on the ass and she giggles. After about a half hours worth of work we destroy all evidence of our presence and set the entire building ablaze all the way up to the shack that is nothing but the entrance. After our romantic interlude by fire light I call a chop shop guy I know to pick up the cars and dismantle them for a nice finders fee going directly to my account.

Back at my place we're cleaning our guns. It's silent for a while both of us highly focused on our weapon maintenance. Finally I finish up just a little bit after she does. We both strip and climb in the shower to get the gun powder off us. Washing one another again it's just like falling into old patterns.

"What's the plan?" I finally ask.
"I want out. I can't do this forever and I'm just burnt." She says with an exhausted look on her face that says more than her words.
"So how do you get out?" I say as run the loofa down her neck cleaning off the grime that clouds the bottom of the shower floor.
"I'm going to fail and you're going to kill me. Then you go after the guys who ordered the hit. Once it all goes down I disappear forever. You're the only one who really knows who I am. No one even knows my real name ... once again except you." She says looking to my eyes.
"I understand." I sit down on the bench in my shower letting the water cascade down on me. She sits next to me placing her arm around my shoulders and kisses the side of my head.
"You know I ..." she begins
"Stop." I raise my head and look her dead in the eyes. "You know what this entails don't complicate it."
"Ok." she says and then we sit there in silence.

She's curled up close to me in bed. I lie there staring at the ceiling. A plan begins to formulate somewhere deep in the recess of my mind. This will have to be big. This will have to be messy. Somewhere in the dark part of my brain says ' this is gonna be fun' and then sleep claims me slowly.

I wake up the next morning alone. I hear the kitchen going full blast and smell bacon, crawling out of bed I make my way to the table and wait. It's a pleasant sight early in the morning to see her cute little back side hanging out from the apron the bow tied just above her hips tracing down the small of her back and down her ass. She turns around a plate ready and full for me.

"Mornin sleepy head." She says with a smile.
"You're certainly chipper this morning." I say with a half smile.
"You figured it out last night." She said making it almost sound like a question.
"I did happen to figure it out. It's gonna make you cringe though."
"At this point if it gets me out I don't care."
"You checked into your hotel. Tonight you go out in a blaze of glory."
"Oh god."
"Oh god is correct."
"One thing you haven't asked is who ordered it." She says.
"I figured you'd get around to it hopefully sooner than later."
"It's Lancaster." she says this with a serious face.
"Pfft I'm not surprised I killed his hooker murdering son. A whole family of cock sucking scum bags. Thank god it's not somebody slightly honorable." I say with honest relief.
"What's the second part of your plan?' She asks with concern.
"I walk into his office building during the meeting they're having in two days with his heads of each family. I kill everything that moves." She just looks at me and sighs.

We spend the rest of the afternoon going over the plan and kiting up. I have one of my Muslim friends get themselves a room next to hers leaving clothes in there for her to get out unnoticed and prep him with the information I want leaked later. Lancaster will have his goons get to the hotel residents before the cops even arrive. He'll provide the damning information that a woman was killed after confessing who had hired her which of course will be Lancaster. It'll convenient and safe because he's a fairly well known international arms dealer. Then some fireworks and me on camera entering and leaving the hotel and volia instant death.

The plan goes off without a hitch. I even give the camera a thumbs up as I walk out the door. My friend even provided us a woman’s body from the morgue. Smuggled it into the room and got it ready. It was a beautiful explosion and as I drove off into the night I admired the beauty of the fire mixed with the brilliant reds and blues of emergency vehicle lights.

At the hidden air strip that doesn't really exist I met April for what was to be the last encounter with her. She was dead now and so she truly was a ghost. I don't really know how to feel about all this as I pull up she's standing there waiting for me. Getting out of the car I know this is going to be hard.

"Thank you." she says tears welling up in her eyes.
“Not a problem. Guess I finally got my wish." I wrap my arms around her tightly.
"I really am sorry. I lo ..." she begins.
"Stop. You know how this goes. Just let it go." I say with a half smile on my face as forced as can be.
"Good bye." she says squeezing my arm tears streaming down her face. She turns and takes a few steps towards the plane. Stopping she runs back to me and kisses me sweetly on the lips before she tears off running up the steps and into the plane. The hatch is shut and I see her looking out the window for just a brief second before she covers her face and the plane turns around taking off into the sky and away from me forever.
"Bye." I barely rasp out watching the plane disappear into the night sky.

The next day is a blur. I spend it combing over every detail of Lancasters building from how thick the security doors are in the safe room in his office to the placement of every shitter in the building. I've decided to take this over the top. I'm going to take down the entire family and bury him in a tomb made of his own fuckin building. This is war and the first causality was April.

Sitting in the parking garage underneath the Lancaster tower I find myself double checking a weapon I've already triple checked. My man on the inside whom I've paid handsomely just called telling me that the last of the family heads have arrived and asked that I give him ten minutes which I'm happy to let him have. My phone rings a second time from a number I'm not familiar with ... well that's a lie. It's just not a number I ever expected to see its April home phone or now as she's known Eden.

"Yes?" I ask after flipping open my phone.
"What is going on? Why did you transfer the contents of all your accounts into my overseas account? What are you planning?" She spits out rapid fire at me.
"You need it more than I will." I can hear her kids playing in the back ground.
"Don't you dare! Don't you do this!" She's on the brink of tears.
"Eden?" I ask her.
"Yes?" She calms down a bit.
"I love you." With that I hang up my phone and leave it in the car.

The elevator up from the garage is step one. After that I enter onto the ground floor and wait by the main elevator bank waiting for the first car to arrive. The security guard standing next to them walks over to me asking for my pass right as the door opens to the empty car. Grabbing him by the throat I crush his wind pipe while simultaneously throwing him into the car. I snap off his security card and take the elevator up to the executive level.

They know I'm here but they can't stop me. Unslinging the shot gun from my arm I let the pistol grip rest in my hand and the pump across my arm like I'm cradling a child. Two floors to go. I begin to get the steel tension in my back and arms. The elevator dings and before the door opens fully I let off every round in the shotgun killing the six trained men that were standing at the door. Like magic my pistol appears in my hand and I've put down the guards on either side of the elevator bank. It's empty now except for the receptionists desk where she's cowering underneath.
.

__________________
Hobotastic!

Hobo

"Hey hun?" I ask in my softest voice. "I need you to key in a bomb threat in the computer system then kindly get yourself out of the building and far away."

She nods her head and quickly punches a button I can't see and lights and shit are flashing and sirens are going off on the lower levels. Hell has officially broken loose.

Down the hallway I see a door crack open so I let loose a few rounds from my gun and the doors slam shut. The sounds of locks and bars can be heard from the other side as well as the reinforced steel shutters. That door is my next obstacle.

Funny thing about that door. It rated ability is enough to stop an RPG. However taking a cue from my buddies in the military I have brought a shit ton of C-4 and the mathematical equation to solve this problem. That is of course P = plenty. After about two minutes I have enough C-4 on there to probably blow out the entire side of the building. Sitting around the corner I count to three.

The explosion sends a shock wave of heat and pressure over me actually setting my coat on fire and burning away part of my eyebrow. However on a positive note it was also enough to start my cigarette even without me being able to breathe from both the shock wave knocking the air out of my lungs and the fact that the air was so super heated it would have dried out my lungs if I had tried to breathe in. I was right however I demolished most of the partitions and blew out most of the glass on the opposite side. Taking a deep drag I get to work.

Turning the corner and walking into the gaping maw that is now the conference room doors I'm actually a little let down.

"Mother fucker ..." I mutter to no one in particular.

I've caused some fucked up shit before in all my years as a professional killer but this was easily one of the most grisly sights I had ever created. Everything in the room was still. Blood was sprayed on the walls, painting and people had the slight flickering of flames that were still fueled by whatever material, some of them laid twitching and bleeding out of every orifice.

"Well that fuckin killed some of the drama of this moment." I tell the bodies.

Walking through the mess I place a bullet in the head of anyone I'm not sure of their twitching. Rolling them over taking stock of them one by one. Faces in files flash through my head, mentally making sure that this is clean, for her. Finally making my way to the head of the long table that's still burning in places I find my intended target. Oh goody he's still alive.

"Wakey wakey." I say as I slap the groaning face of Lancaster.
"Wh .... Why?" he asks me.
“Oh common don't give me that." I say smiling with the pistol barrel jammed under his chin.
"It ... it was worth a try." he says with a laugh that quickly becomes choking and spiting blood from his shattered mouth.
"I'll give ya that. Was it worth it?" I ask curious.
"You won't make it out alive." He says his strength and resolve coming back.
"Neither will you but before you die know this. I took your only son. I've taken your life’s work ... your legacy. Now I've taken you." I let a smile creep on my face.
"My family ... will persevere." he says getting cocky with me.
“No your family is extinct. Every other major family knows what is happening right this second. Each of them are in place to eradicate every trace of any member working with your organization and they are going to dismantle your entire hold and consolidate it into their collective families. In the end it'll be like you never existed at all." The smile fades from my face as this all sinks in.
"No ... please ... don't." he sputters out beginning to beg.
"Also in about five minutes this entire building will be reduced to rubble. The second this building goes down men will barge into all of your estates including your three secret ones looting what they please before they set fire to them and reduce them to ash. Everything you are and have touched will be reduced to nothing."

He's crying already and sobbing about his legacy ... blah blah blah the bullet blows off the top of his head and showers me in his blood. I look like something out of a horror movie. Burnt and covered in blood this last bit should be fun. I already can hear the small armies’ worth of boots traversing the stairs. I unclip the assault rifle that was on the other side underneath my jacket.

Strolling to the door the first guy who opens the door stares at me with wide eyed horror and then is thrown of his feet back into the stairway knocking several other men over. Another burst catches the next few in their chest and necks pushing them further back. Round after round I pump into the armed response team. A bullet cuts into the meat of my side and glances off my rib. The stairs are slippery with blood and loud with gunfire and screams.

Three and a half minutes left. I clear out the stairs with minimum work. I take three more bullets and start bleeding like a stuck pig from a nasty gut wound. Black blood ... I'm totally fucked now. I hear a pilot in my head in forming me that we've reached the point of no return.

I walk out the lobby door. At this point I've ditched the assault rifle. With just my pistols in hand I stand in front of about ten guys armed with shotguns and pistols. Lucky for me aside from my nifty bullets I'm also about to bury them under a buildings worth of rubble. This should be awesome. Standing there facing them all I'm bleeding out of several new holes in my body I give them all a horrible smile. I can just imagine my white teeth possibly stained with some blood cracking into an evil grin breaking my burnt black and blood soaked face.

"Any of y'all got a fuckin light?" I ask dropping my guns and digging out a cigarette from my pack and patting down my pockets.

They just stand there horrified. One of them even throws up. It was probably the bullet that took off the top part of my ear. That probably looks pretty gross about now. Sissies. I finally find my Zippo. She gave it to me for a birthday or a Christmas. I light up feeling my lungs start to choke as I spit out black blood and smoke. Here it is 'happy anniversary'. I was way off. 'Forever and always'. Shit forever was a lot shorter than I planned.

I look down at my watch two seconds to go. I look them all over once. The smoke curls up past my face.

"If you're gonna shoot me ya got one second." I say laughing.

They open fire launching me off my feet. Jesus fuck they didn't even hit anything major. I collapse against the wall. Struggling to take one last drag before the lights go out. That's when I notice the building is still standing. Exhaling I manage to glance at my watch.

"Guess my timing was a bit ..."

Lancaster tower erupts in flames and broken glass showers down across the surrounding area as the building shakes from the force of an explosion shortly before it collapses in on top of itself. The news crews report on it having gotten a tip minutes before. Various buildings all over the world are almost all set on fire at the same time. One woman cries tears of both happiness and sadness knowing that she's free to live her life at peace. The rest of the world just changes the channel

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Hobotastic!