81.

  Bullets zipped behind me as I ran. I sprinted down a narrow alley while the goons fired indiscriminately behind me. Wild shots pinged off the brickwork by my head while the rest disappeared into the gulf of the Estate. I had to get these idiots away from people's homes before they killed somebody.

  Around the corner of Gable Alley, I came out onto one of the main fourway junctions in this part of the estate. Opposite me were a row of shops with the usual array of late-night shops, kebab places, betting shops, and off-licenses, and a few people milling about. They had obviously heard the gunshots, were ears perked up, heads spinning around. I came hurtling out of the alley, and three shots rang out behind me. People panicked and began running.

  "Shit," I cursed under my breath, stopping sharply.

  I skidded into the street, turned left away from the people, and sprinted down the road. But now I had put myself in the open line of fire. A bullet whizzed past the hood of my jacket, and I felt the material tear. That one was too close. I couldn't just keep letting these thugs take shots at me, eventually they were going to get lucky.

  I ducked behind a car and heard three more rapid snorts of automatic gunfire. Bullets smashed into the side and back of the car, shattering windows and popping a tire. I fumbled for my Wrist Rocket, my breath coming fast and sharp, sweat stinging my eyes. I loaded up a Bang Rock and listened. I could hear their footsteps charging down the road towards me. They weren't being careful or stealthy. They were running like a pack of hounds after a wounded rabbit.

  I popped out from the side of the car, my Wrist Rocket at full draw, and loosed a shot, catching one of them around the hip and blowing him off his feet. He spun wildly and clattered into one of his partners, one of their guns went off, hitting another car. The air was full of the sound of car alarms wailing now. The third thug stopped for a second, looked at his fallen comrades, shouting at them to get up, and turned just in time to take a Bang Rock to the chin. He flew off his feet, spinning backward, head over heels.

  And that's when the car screeched to a stop in the middle of the street. It was one of those old ones that still ran completely on petrol. It came flying around the corner, the tires smoking, and four thugs leaped out of the car while the fifth stayed in the driver's seat, keeping the engine running. Two of them were armed with baseball bats, one with a machete the length of my forearm, and the fourth had a sawn off shotgun. These weren’t young street thugs, they looked like hardened villains. All four had a mixture of squashed, broken noses, mean eyes, bald heads, and heavy, stout builds perfect for violence. They were on me in an instant.

  The two with the bats came first. I ducked the swing of one, and it shattered the car window above my head, sending a shower of glass raining down upon me. I wasn't quick enough to dodge the second and took a hard thump across the shoulder blades. I stumbled forward onto all fours, pulling myself to my feet and yanking Grandad's bat out as I did. Then the machete wielder attacked, but he was more fearful than the other two. He didn't want to get close to me and was simply swinging and chopping wildly from as far away as he could.

  All three men were so eager they were getting in each other's way, and more importantly, in the shotgun's way. The shotgun wielder was snarling at them to move, and that's when I took my chance. I dodged another swing from the machete, reached into my pocket, and pulled out a Chalk Bomb. I spun, closed my eyes, held my breath, and slapped it straight into the chest of one of the baseball bat twins. The Chalk Bomb exploded, and even out here in the open, it still caused enough chaos to give me a chance to slip out between them while they tumbled around blindly.

  I whipped my Grapple Cord at the shotgun user, wrapping around the barrels of his gun and yanking it from his hands before he even knew what had happened. I leaped over the car at him, bringing Grandad's bat down one-handed. He raised his arms, to protect himself. The Explosion Rune went off and sent him flying sideways with more power than any human could probably muster with one arm.

  I pulled my Grapple Cord back towards me and turned just in time to see the machete idiot staggering over the car bonnet as I had, but with less grace. I swung Grandad's bat at his legs, completely taking them from under him and sending him crashing down onto the hood of the car so hard it folded underneath his bulk. He let out a wheezing groan, and I was sure he’d probably broken a couple of ribs there, but I wasn't going to wait to find out. I ran across the street, planning to escape, and then I heard the car revving.

  I looked to my right and saw the old black petrol monster flying towards me, all four of its doors still wide open. I didn't have a choice; I wouldn't be able to get out of the way, so I did the only thing I could. I leaped and tucked my body inwards, trying to protect my limbs and take the blow of the windshield onto my back, hoping the carapace would protect me from the worst of it.

  In fact, it did better than that, or worse, depending on whose perspective you were talking about. The entire windscreen gave in underneath me, and I went straight through it onto the driver, sandwiching him. We were caught in a bizarre tangle, my legs hanging out of the window as the car rocketed forward blindly, the driver screaming, unable to turn the wheel or escape. Then we hit something, and we hit it hard. We hit it so hard I was ejected back out through the broken windscreen and onto the hard pavement. I rolled several times before skidding to a halt.

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  A deep, guttural groan escaped my lips. I was unsure of what had even happened, my vision was jagged and my equilibrium was completely gone. I rolled to one knee, adrenaline keeping my body moving, and used Grandad’s cricket bat to push myself up. I saw that the car had driven straight into a bollard. The driver was a bloody mess. He was still stuck in the car between the windscreen and his own seat. The car engine was smoking, and one of the wheels had completely collapsed in on itself after hitting the curb. Just as my vision was starting to uncross, gunshots rang out again. The original three machine gun wielding idiots, now down to two, were limping after me, firing indiscriminately. I cursed and ducked down as another bark of gunfire rang out. This one was much throatier and deeper, someone had recovered the shotgun. Pellets rattled across the car, and I'm sure a couple even hit the driver. I ducked again as the second shot went off, and pellets peppered everything around me.

  This was insanity. I had to get out of here!

  I stumbled and shook my head trying to clear the cobwebs. Everything was moving too fast. I looked down and saw my Wrist Rocket was back in my hand, loaded and half drawn thanks purely to muscle memory. Before I could think any further, I lurched out of cover and fired. My aim was good even over the distance, as the shotgun wielder was both a meaty and stationary target as he stood there trying to reload with his clumsy fingers. I hit him square in the centre mass, right in the solar plexus. He was such a beefy boy that he didn't go flying. Instead, he collapsed, dropping the shotgun and curling over while wheezing.

  I reloaded and drew again, searching for the machine gun thugs. They saw me and for the first time, actually ducked for cover, so I used this opportunity to turn and run. I was limping now, but I forced my body on. How many more of these guys could there be? I found out far sooner than I wanted to.

  I sprinted down the alleyway, looking over my shoulder for pursuers when three figures stepped out in front of me. I skidded to a halt, breathing heavily, eyeing the group warily. There were three young women. Two of them were redheads who looked like they could be sisters. The third was shorter and had brunette hair tied back in a very severe ponytail.

  "Told you he'd come this way," one of the redheads said.

  "Lucky guess," the other redhead spat back.

  "Now, the only question is," the brunette said as she drew two long blades from her hip. "Do we want the 100k or the 200k?”

  "You reckon you can stop yourself from killing him?" the first redhead asked.

  "Only if he plays nice," the little brunette responded, and my eyes widened as I saw all three of them produce weapons.

  The brunette had two long, thin daggers, the first redhead had a chain that she began spinning lightly, and the second redhead produced a thin, spiked bat. I held my hands up as I looked at them.

  "Listen, I don't want to have to hurt you," I said, and even as I heard the words, they didn't sound very convincing.

  All three girls burst out cackling at me.

  "Don't worry about that, sweetie," the first redhead said, spinning the chain faster. "You just worry about what Brick's gonna do to you when we take you to him."

  And then she let the chain fly. I lashed out at it with Grandad's bat, slapping it to one side, and then the brunette was on me. How she had covered the distance so quickly, I had no idea. One minute she was ten feet away from me, and the next she was so close, I could smell her perfume. I looked down at my stomach. Both daggers were buried in me, but the carapace stopped the blades, otherwise, she would have turned me into a shish kebab.

  She looked surprised for a second as the blades stopped, and then I did something with Grandad's bat that I'm sure he would not approve of. I smacked the living daylights out of her with it. I caught her just around the shoulder and a glancing blow to the head, the Rune activated and sent her flying into the wall next to us. It was only a short distance, but the impact was gnarly. I heard things crunch, and brick dust fell along with her limp body.

  The two redheads' eyes widened, and I levelled the bat at them.

  "I told you I didn't want to hurt you.”

  The second redhead snarled in fury, her pretty face contorting and twisting into a mask of pure venom. She leaped at me, bat raised, swinging wildly and screeching like a Valkyrie. I dodged one swing and parried the second with Grandad's bat. Then, the chain-wielding redhead snapped her chain at me, catching me around the end of Grandad's bat, yanking it wide and giving the first redhead with the bat an opening to swing.

  As she brought her bat around, I threw my hand out, the Magnet Rune activated, and grabbed hold of the bat. Suddenly, we were in a three-way lock, tussling over weaponry. Both the bat-wielding redhead and I seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same time. I let go of Grandad's bat just a second before she let go of hers, and I brought my fist around, the Shock Runes crackling. I only gave her a glancing blow to the ribs, but that still sent enough volts through her body to make her fold up and screech.

  Then, I deactivated the Magnet Rune and grabbed hold of her bat, swinging it wildly at her, trying to force her back. The chain-wielding redhead leapt into the fray. She had wrapped her chain around her fist and was using it as a makeshift knuckle duster. She punched me in the side of the head and then delivered another stiff blow to my stomach, but the carapace took the worst of it. I saw her wrist fold painfully. She snarled as pain ricocheted up her arm. I caught her around the throat, pushing her away from me before returning the favour and punching her hard in the stomach. She too screeched and stumbled back from me, smoke rising from the burned clothes on her torso.

  The bat-wielding redhead now had a dagger in her hand. She chopped and slashed at me, forcing me back against the wall, where I had no option but to thrust out with a heavy kick, hitting her in the midriff and slamming her against the opposite wall. I stumbled away, circling so I could get both vicious females in front of me.

  I held my hands up again, trying to reason with them.

  "Listen, if you just let me go, I won't…”

  Bang!