I felt restless as I stood in the shadows between a fence and a couple of large bushes. I tried to stay still and make no sounds while the sun was still setting, the dim light still enough to reveal my position, but the longer I waited, the harder it was to stay calm. I carefully peered around, trying to spot movement in the sidewalks and windows, but the entire neighborhood seemed calm and peaceful, with not a soul around. There were some lights on in the houses near me, but most of the people were glued behind their televisions and computers, not paying attention to what was going on outside in the shadows.

Fuck, I hated waiting… I turned to glare at the largest house in the area. It loomed up ahead, behind a few smaller homes, and surrounded by a tall brick fence. There were still lights on. They were better fucking go to sleep soon… How long had I already stood in my little corner? A fucking hour? More? But it was still early…

I just wanted to kill them already and get the fuck out of this stupid neighborhood.

“They’re outside.”

I jumped at the sudden voice whispering in my ear, and I quietly hissed my curses, gathering my composure, while another voice replied to him over the radio.

“Then fucking shoot him.”

“With this peashooter shit you left me with?”

“You don’t have a rifle?”

“I have a fucking nine-millimeter! I told you to give me a rifle, but nooo, I’m just here to watch the fucking house, you said!”

“Fucking shut up!” I hissed into my own microphone. “What are they doing?”

“They…” I heard breathing coming from his end, so he didn’t get cut off, but he sure kept us waiting. “Uh… I think they spotted us.”

“They fucking what?”

“They… I don’t know… They got freaked out by something. They’re getting back inside in a rush…. He’s locked the door, and… Yeah, he’s closing the curtains.”

“FUCK! Are you absolutely sure?!”

“Yeah, he’s definitely spotted us.”

“How?!”

I laughed lightly while pulling my gun out of the holster. Finally, some fucking action…

“Plan B! Plan B! Everyone get into your positions! Get in there fast! We can’t let him get away or call the army cunts! Move! MOVE!”

I started running towards the large house up ahead, and I was quickly joined by five more people. There was a big van parked close by, and its the doors opened when we passed it by. Three more guys jumped out and ran after us, two of them carrying ladders.

At least we had a plan B… I peered at a taller apartment building in the distance where our watcher guy, Thomas, was hiding. Who was the absolute fucking moron who decided not to give a sniper rifle to that one guy who had the perfect view of the whole house and its yard? This was already going so fucking well…

We reached the fence, and the guys hurried to get the ladders ready for the rest of us. I let a few of them climb up first in case our target was waiting to blow our heads off on the other side. When nothing happened, and the guys got safely into his yard, I followed them. After dropping down, I hurried behind large bushes and peered at the house while I waited for the rest.

Some of the curtains were closed, and most of the house had no lights on. I couldn’t see anything, no movement, nothing. They had to be getting ready to fight or escape, but no matter… I preferred it this way. I wanted a good fight. Killing people in their sleep was for cowards.

“Spread out, set the bombs, shoot Mercer if you see him. The boy… try to get him alive, but he can’t escape. Move!”

“Trouble, follow me,” spoke Glen, one of my closest friends, and together, we made our way closer to the garage with a couple of more guys.

The yard stayed quiet as we sneaked into our positions, but right when we reached the garage door to set our explosives…

“They’re in the kitchen! No! They’re in the garage! Shoot them! SHOOT THEM!!”

“Fuck!” Glen hissed, shoved the bombs away to grab his assault rifle instead, the rest of us following his example.

“Just fucking shoot! SHOOT THEM!”

We blasted it. The whole door got quickly riddled with holes as we emptied our clips into it, hoping to get our target. We failed, I guess, since suddenly, one of the guys standing next to me got shot straight in his chest. He fell, screaming in agony. Glen and I jumped out of the way when it was suddenly us getting fired at from inside, while the fourth guy we had with us wasn’t fast enough and got shot in the head. We continued firing from a safer distance, but seconds later…

“STOP! STOP! They got out! Back in the kitchen!”

By the time Glen and I got close enough to shoot, our targets were already gone. I saw movement in the entrance hall, and fired after them, breaking the glass, but missed.

“I see them! They’re in the living room! We’ll blow them up!”

Fuck, these two were fast. I’d laughed when I heard we’d have almost twenty people attacking two men, but I was finally coming to realize this was not an easy target. For one, the house was too large, and two, it was the fucking Michael Mercer we were after.

The guys set off their bombs on the other side of the house, the explosion shaking the ground. I was sure this was it, that our targets were dead now, so I quickly grabbed my bag so we could get the fuck out of here because the neighbors must’ve called the cops already.

“Did you get them?”

“Negative! They’re still running!”

“Fuck! Just fucking kill them already! Fuck!”

The house was on fire, and the backside grumbling. How the fuck was this guy still alive?

“Trouble! This way!” Glen shouted and easily kicked down the rest of the garage door.

“Fuck me…” I mumbled as I grabbed a couple of full clips for my rifle and followed him into the collapsing, burning building.

Rationally speaking, I never should’ve set foot in that death trap. But I wasn’t a rational man. I lived for this shit.

“Man down! He’s got a gun! Careful! He’s going upstairs!”

Glen and I ran past the fucked cars, then through the kitchen. Smoke was coming from the living room when we stopped by the doorway to the entrance. I saw flames and heard loud grumbling as the walls and the roof kept collapsing.

“Look!” I told Glen when I spotted a trail of blood going up the stairs. “They’re injured!”

The rest of our men burst through the front door, while a couple of guys climbed through the rubble in the living room to give us a hand.

“There’s blood,” Glen told the rest.

“There’s nowhere for them to go,” our leader, Caleb, said when he joined us in the entrance hall. “Find them!”

Again, I stayed back to make sure I wouldn’t get shot right away, but while the guys climbed the stairs, there was no resistance. I hoped it meant the duo were bleeding to death in their hiding place. It would be a big fucking miracle for them to survive us. The explosion alone should’ve ended them already.

The first guys reached the upper floor and went to search through the first room in the hallway. Glen and I held our rifles tightly when we followed them, ready to shoot anything that moved. When we got up the stairs, it was clear our target was somewhere at the very back. They had pushed over all the furniture in the hallway to slow us down on their way there, but we searched through the other rooms first in case it was a trap.

“Nothing here.”

“This room is empty!”

“So is this!”

“They’re at the back,” Glen muttered, pointing his rifle at the very last door in the hallway as we approached it.

Once he was close enough, he fired several times through the door, but we heard nothing. They couldn’t be dead yet, and Glen had clearly missed them. But they weren’t firing back, either…

“Break the door,” Caleb ordered, and three of his men started kicking it in, trying to stay out of the way in case our target still had fire left in him and enough bullets in his gun. “Mercer! Give us the boy!”

Something heavy blocked the door, but since no one was firing at us, the guys got bold and started slamming straight into the door to force it open.

“Careful…” Glen muttered, getting ready to fire once we had a clear view.

I heard a short shout coming from inside the room, but couldn’t quite make sense of the words over the loud sounds of the breaking door. A second later, the door and the object behind it suddenly fell over, and the guys practically fell inside with it, their guns at ready. They got immediately killed, all three of them.

“Fuck!” Glen hissed and retreated a few steps, pushing me back as well.  

None of us dared to get close to the room. There were just two guys… And we’d already lost at least five people. I quickly glanced around and counted seven of us in the hallway. There were supposed to be eight more, but I assumed most of them were hiding outside or downstairs like cowards.

But I also noticed the smoke rising up the stairway.

“We need to get this over with,” I hissed. “We can’t stay here. The fire will kill us.”

Caleb was the bravest and approached the doorway with his gun ready. Glen and I inched closer as well, ready to cover him in case he got shot at. But nothing happened. He got all the way to the door, then hid behind the wall on the other side of it.

“They’re hiding in the back corner. I can’t shoot without stepping in,” he informed us.

“Then blow them up!” Glen hissed. “We have hand grenades, right?”

“Here! I got one,” someone said, and I turned to grab the grenade from him.

Then… I turned back to face the door. Glen and Caleb had their eyes on me, expecting me to throw the grenade in. But I had no time for that.

I saw an unfamiliar face of a pale young man in the darkness of the room. I froze to stare at him, but in my defense, I never would’ve had any time to react, anyway. The man shot me in the stomach before I could even blink. Glen and Caleb turned around. They both got shot, but while Caleb fell dead on the ground, Glen got shot in the shoulder. And the young man was gone, retreating into his safe corner before any of us could fire back.

“Fuck!” Glen screeched, retreating, pulling me with him. “Where did he get you?”

“Oh, uh…” I muttered, my mind numb. I looked down and saw blood on my clothes.

“Shit!”

I looked up at Glen. Blood spilled out of his shoulder… I guess he got saved from getting shot in the head because he turned around right when the boy was about to shoot him. That… That was good. He was a good friend. I didn’t want to lose him.

“Come on, Trouble! We need to get you out of here!”

“Why…?” I asked. “I still have the grenade.”

Glen took it from me and gave it to someone else. “Get rid of those sons of bitches!” Glen told him.

“Fuck no! I’m not getting myself killed! I’m out of here!”

“Get back here, you coward!” Glen shouted after him, but he, too, was retreating to the stairs. “We need to kill them!”

And if there still was someone willing to finish off our enemy, they quickly changed their minds when we were suddenly getting fired at right when we reached the staircase. Glen pushed me out of the harm’s way, somehow managing to not get shot in the process, but I heard more painful shouts behind us.

Two fucking people, and we couldn’t get them… The kid had a fucking killer aim…

I suddenly felt the pain spreading in my stomach. It confused me. I felt fine. It was just a scratch, so why did it suddenly hurt so bad…?

“Fuck’s sake…” Glen muttered as he dragged me down the stairs. “Hold on, I’ll get you out of here… You’ll be fine…”

I coughed hard when we entered the smoke and headed to the front door, the pain spreading fast now. Fuck… It really fucking hurt… Right… I guess bullets did hurt a lot…

“You’ll be fine,” Glen told me as we reached the door. “Just hold on…”

We never got out. Glen stopped when we heard screeching tires and something large crashing through the gates just outside. He pulled me to the window and peered outside. I saw a large truck parked in the bushes, and men with guns pouring out of it. More cars entered the yard behind it. More angry, armed people exited them.

“Fuck…!” Glen gasped, turned around, and hurried to the burning living room. “Come on! Fucking run! It’s the mafia!”

“They looked upset,” I said, laughing. I wasn’t sure why I laughed. “Fuck, we failed hard…”

“Just run!” Glen hissed at me as he started climbing over the rubble in the living room. “There’s a gate at the back. We can get out through there.”

“We should’ve given Thomas a rifle…” I mumbled as I followed him.

Suddenly, we were outside, running across the yard, but I tripped on my own, tired feet and fell. The impact with the ground was painful as fuck, and I didn’t feel like getting up anymore. I was getting really sleepy for some reason…

“Come on! Get up! We need to get out of here!” Glen shouted, pulling my hand.

“Sorry… My feet don’t quite work…” I told him as I tried to get back up.

I got shot in the stomach… Wait… I got shot in my fucking stomach!

Fuck… I was dying.