Beyond the Breaking Point - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Everything stood still for a second. Finn was aware of the grazing feeling he had felt on his forehead and was aware of the bullet that enlodged itself in the fake marble paneling that covered the walls but he still just stared at the hole trying to determine if it was real or not. The populace was in a similar state; trying to determine if they just heard a gunshot or if their ears needed to be checked. That was for the first second. The second, everything flew into chaos. People started screaming, Andrei Sokoloff’s eyes widened until they seemed to be as big as plates and his hands began shaking while he tried to pull out his phone to dial 911. Finn’s reflexes kicked making a decision for him. Finn threw his body at the ground. Putting his hands over his head for a split second while he still tried to make sense of what had happened a minute ago. Amidst the general populace, a collection men, pulled out guns, mostly pistols but a few brandished mini Uzis.

“Drop to the ground! All of you! Don’t move or I shoot.” The man that uttered the words, a burly man with a brown mustache and a balding head could barely be heard above the populace. Finn directly disobeyed the source of the words. Finn got up and ran, down the hallway and away from everyone. The shiny concrete floor rolled underneath Finn’s feet as someone in the opposite room opened fire. Finn didn't look back. There was nothing he could do for them. If he was in close quarters, that was one thing, but from across the room, he was helpless. Finn charged back through the butterfly room just as a man in a ballcap and whiskers entered the room with a colt pistol. He wasn't fast enough to catch Finn though, Finn charged into another hallway, heading towards the “Ancient Egypt” room as a bullet slammed into the wall behind him. Finn heard a lady scream as the man in the cap began barking orders behind him. Finn had to get out. If he could help Rei and Andrei along the way he would be glad too, however, a live piece is more help than a dead one, as Zach had once said while helping Finn learn to play chess.

The Egypt room was dark and full of shadows. Finn didn't take the time to look at any of the slabs of clay with Hieroglyphs or other form of writing on them, lit by various different spotlights, which served as the only form of light in the room. The sound of his shoes slapping the suddenly dark concrete was the only sound to be heard as Finn flew by. Finn was nearly out of breath when he was stopped by a familiar sound.

“Borus! What happened? Why are you running?” Finn stopped and looked into a hallway that served as a secondary entrance to the Egypt room. Rei stared wide eyed back at him.

“Guns. shooting. C’mon!” Finn grabbed Rei by the wrist and pulled her along with him back into the dark room just as Finn heard the far off sound of footsteps.

Finn dragged Rei behind the gleaming tomb of a mummy just as the echoing sound of footsteps became audible in the distance. Finn prayed that Rei would realize the gravity of the situation as a metallic click echoed down the strange, eery room full of slabs and mummies. Finn thought he could feel Rei tense up and realized he had his hand clamped across her mouth. He let go, gently urging her further into the shadow cast by the gleaming mummy casket.

“I know you are in here, there is nowhere to go.” The voice had an accent of african origin maybe Nigerian, or South African, Finn couldn’t see the man, hopefully he couldn’t see him either.

The sound of footsteps came closer and closer, slowly, methodically making their way across the long narrow room. He was right, he had a perfect position to shoot him and Rei, should they try and make a dash for the nearest exit. Their only hope was to find another exit.

Finn heard a soft beeping sound.

“Yes, I got them cornered, hurry.” The voice was barely audible, but still it was loud enough for Finn to hear it. He was running out of time. He needed to act now.

Finn put his mouth as close as he dared to Rei’s ear.

“Listen, I think I can get us out of here, but you need to do something for me.” Rei nodded her head silently. Finn hoped that he couldn't be heard by the man. “You need to make a distraction, break away from the shadow and run towards the wall over there,” Finn gestured with his hand to the wall on the left side of the Egypt room. The direction opposite of the exit, and the gun guarding it. “Listen, if we… die.” Finn’s voice trailed off, he had to remind himself not to engage in eye contact with Rei, even in the dark her eyes gleamed like blue diamonds. “You should know that I.” Finn’s voice ended abruptly, maybe he should think a little more about this. Finn decided to improvise. “Appreciate, your willingness to cooperate.” Rei nodded again, then looked down, as if contemplating what to do next. Rei then got up as quietly as possible and got ready to sprint towards the next piece of cover, a slab of rock almost 4 feet thick. Finn got his iPhone out, held it in his hands, still kneeling in the shadow. Finn then drew his arm back and nodded to Rei.

Everything happened at once. Rei began sprinting towards a piece of rock on the far side of the room. The guard, visible in the light that streamed in through the exit snapped his gun, a black market pistol with extended magazine to the body sprinting across the room. He was about to pull the trigger when something hard struck him in the face. It felt cold and metallic, like a slab of something hard and glassy. Finn had thrown his iPhone as hard as he could at the man’s face, without even seeing his target until a split second before release and was now barreling across the room towards him. The unfortunate guard wasn't fast enough in bringing his gun back to a firing position and the “thing” that came charging into him grabbed the gun. The guard fought back, pulling the hand that still gripped the gun towards himself. What the man now identified as a teenage boy then let go of the gun as he pushed the button to release the magazine. The clip fell to the ground as the gun, being pulled towards the man’s own body made contact with his nose. Finn wasted no time in releasing a powerful kick aimed at the man’s head. The man fell unconscious to the floor as Finn brought his now throbbing foot back to the ground.

“Borus! There’s a door over here!” Finn rejoiced as he limped his way across the eery room. Rei had found an unmarked door behind the slab of rock or clay that she planned to hide behind. Finn had made his way to the door in time to see the door in question being opened. A long hallway lit at irregular intervals with a light bulb hanging from the ceiling presented itself. Daring Finn to enter.

Finn took one look behind him at the guard, starting to regain consciousness and plunged into the dark. Rei followed behind, closing the door behind her and following Finn as he made his way to the first small path of light on the ground.

“Do you have a phone? I kinda… got rid of mine,” Rei smiled despite the gravity of the situation.

“Yeah.” Rei caught up with Finn as he entered the small circle of luminescence and handed Finn her phone. Thankfully it was an iPhone. Finn knew about the ability Apple iPhones have to turn the camera light on the front on but he didn't know about Android. Finn did this now, flicking up on the screen, pulling up the control panel and tapping the light icon. The small light on Rei’s phone lit up an area of about four feet in front of Finn allowing him to notice various different artifacts and items  thick with dust lined up on the first of many bookshelves leaning against the walls. Finn walked towards them as if in a trance, out of the circle of light on the ground, and into complete darkness besides the small light of the iPhone.

“This must be a storage area or something,” Rei’s voice now seemed drowned out in the immensity of the now slightly visible room. It was a hallway with walls made out of countless bookshelves with anything from a book to a small statue lining the shelves.

Finn nodded his head, agreeing with her on her conclusion. Finn heard a door open in what seemed like the far distance. Finn immediately put his hand over the iPhone’s light and immediately the dark engulfed him and Rei. The voices then reached Finn’s ears as if travelling a long distance away, even though Finn didn't think they had progressed that far from the door.

“Spread out. He can't have gone far.” Finn’s head began spinning. Why were they hunting him personally, was it because of his mission? Finn shook away the thoughts, he didn't have time.

Finn grabbed Rei’s hand. Pulling her through the darkness along one of the many bookshelves, further and further away from the approaching men. Adrenaline raced through Finn as his eyes began to adjust to the darkness; whether it was because he was being hunted like prey or because of the person Finn was leading through the dark he couldn't tell. Finn glanced behind him at Rei. Finn didn't know why he did it, but he immediately regretted it as he tripped on a small statue, sitting on the ground instead of on the shelf, falling forward with a crash. Finn fortunately was able to let go of Rei’s hand before he fell, otherwise she would have fallen on top of him. Finn got up as fast as he could but it was too late. He had made enough noise to alert his would-be-captors.

“Over there! I heard him!” Finn could tell two things from the voice. One that the voice belonged to the man he had attacked and two that he was closer that Finn had hoped. Finn got back to his feet and began to squint his eyes. He could see well enough around him for now. He could see a cross section in front of him a few feet. The long hallway he had been going down branching off into three other directions. As long as he didn't get distracted he could find his way around. A plan began to form in Finn’s mind as he began leading Rei forward again.

***

Five minutes later, Finn felt like they were closing in on him. He couldn't just run away for ever. They would catch up eventually, no matter how fast Finn progressed into this enormous maze. He had to do something. He had been jogging silently down hallway after hallway for what seemed like hours to no avail. This room or rooms made a massive maze. He had to level the playing field.

“Take the phone and run away, just get as far away from here as you can.” Finn didn't tell her what he was doing, and how dangerous it could be.

Finn had to strain his eyes to see Rei’s features as she nodded. She was scared. Finn, with difficulty, unclamped his numb hand from around the iPhone’s light then handed it to Rei. Rei hurried off, turning left when she came to the next cross section of endless bookshelves and the stuff on them. Finn followed her and hid behind the corner of the hallway opposite the one Rei took and to the right of where he just came from. Crouching in the dark, hopefully out of sight in shadow Finn listened. Straining his ears to hear any sound in this gigantic maze. He heard one almost immediately.

“There! I heard him trip he’s this way!” Finn winced. Rei must have tripped. Hopefully she could out distance them. At least she might make it out alive. Finn scolded himself. No, you’re going to make it.

The sounds were coming closer. Finn had to ready himself. He searched the bookshelf to his right. Fortunately, it held various different pieces of volcanic rock, they weren't perfectly round but they were heavy enough for what Finn wanted to do. The sounds were getting louder. Finn could hear the sounds of what sounded like two or three men breathing heavily. Perfect, they were tired. That just made Finn’s job easier. Finn heard them turn a corner. They were almost to the Finn’s hallway. Finn shrunk deeper into a shadow he found on the floor. Finn was perfectly still and quiet as a light shined out in front of the men, going past both Finn’s hallway and Rei’s. Finn prayed that the men wouldn't be able to hear the blood pounding in his ears as the sounds, impossibly drew even closer.  

***

The first of the men had almost shined his light in Finn’s direction, fortunately he was stopped by the second man, who argued that he heard the sounds go that way. He then grabbed the flashlight the first man was holding and shined it down Rei’s hallway. Then a third man joined the argument, solving it immediately with a nod in the direction of Rei’s hallway. The other two men’s faces Finn couldn't make out, but Finn could see that the third man had a Guy Fawkes mask on, it practically glowed in the dark and Finn was immediately drawn to it, hiding motionless and soundless in the shadow as he was. Finn’s heart raced as the men began jogging down the hallway opposite of him. He began to creep along behind them. Withdrawing from the shadow and silently moving in on them from behind. A little closer and he would have the perfect position to launch the first of many guerrilla attacks. The masked man, now leading the party of three turned a corner and the others followed him. Finn picked up a little speed, feeling the smooth surface of the rocks he had picked up in each of his hands. Finn came to the corner. There was no intersection on this one, one way to go. Finn stealthily creeped around the corner. Still following the unsuspecting men. Hunters turned hunted was the phrase that ran through Finn’s head as he began to make up for lost time when the party stopped at another intersection. Finn crept closer and closer until he was almost 20 feet away. The party settled on a direction to take and set off. Finn followed behind. That was when he remembered the various different gadgets in his pocket.  

***

Vandal wondered why he had been assigned to hunt down Finn as he turned a corner in the dark maze he found himself in. He guessed it was because many of the other high up operatives were making ready for phase “Invisible knife” although Hugo may have hidden motives for assigning this specific mission to him.

Vandal was becoming angry. Baatseba’s reasoning must have been affected by the large bruise near his eye. He had to stop and argue at every single intersection. There were eight other teams, stumbling around the maze, trying and repeatedly failing to cut Finn off, that being said, this team might have been the slowest paced. The masked man considered killing him right there. It was tempting, but eventually he decided against it. Hugo Volkov wouldn’t be pleased if one of his most loyal and zealous subjects was murdered. Vandal’s mask pressed against the skin on his face as he turned another corner. Waiting for an objection from Baatseba but not finding one, the masked man glanced backwards while still walking at a steady pace towards his prey. Baatseba was nowhere to be found.

***

Derek turned in the direction of his leader's gaze. Behind him and to the spot he had expected Baatseba to be, Derek found nothing. Where had he gone? Derek shined the flashlight back down in the direction he had came. All this accomplished was to illuminate a bookshelf containing old dusty books at the far end of the hallway.

“Boss, Baat’s gone,” when Derek looked back at the masked man he found him staring back at him. The masked man was about to respond when a he felt something hard smash into the hand holding the flashlight. The flashlight’s powerbutton, a button protruding from the side of the smooth metal object, made contact with the ground and went out. Derek was reaching for the gun in his holster when what looked like a pair of earbuds came flying out of nowhere. Derek then felt an explosion and a burning sensation on the very top of his head before blacking out.