64. Jump (Patreon)

Rowan’s phone buzzed. At the same second, Ikara’s went off. Ikara fumbled hers out first. She squinted at the screen, then whispered: “From the northwest.”

“Which way’s northwest?” Rowan whispered back.

Ikara shrugged. “I haven’t seen the sun.”

Rowan glanced back at the street. “Well, as long as northwest isn’t behind us, I think we’ve got it.”

Ikara moved to the side, out of Rowan’s way. Rowan pressed his back up against the wall and held his breath, peeking around the corner. Which way?

“Left,” Ikara murmured.

A second later, Rowan heard them. Four older teen boys, maybe in their twenties, jostled each other and chuckled. None of them looked guarded. None carried weapons. In their jeans and t-shirts, they belonged on a college campus, not in the Tower.

Confident, or stupid? Or both? Rowan drew his spade, preparing to attack. Doesn’t matter if we get the jump on them.

Ikara shook her head. “Not yet.”

Rowan nodded.

The first of the boys jogged the three steps up to the Safe Haven door and pulled on the handle.

A thread twanged. He screamed and staggered back, hands hovering around his face. He turned toward his friends, revealing a face pincushioned with needles.

“Now!” Rowan whispered. He rushed out.

Two of the boys circled around the third, too distracted by his predicament to notice. The fourth turned. He raised his hand and opened his mouth.

Rowan struck, slapping him in the jaw with the spade. The boy’s jaw slammed shut, teeth half-biting through his tongue. He let out a garbled scream. His other hand lifted, and a dagger appeared in it.

Before he could strike, Rowan struck his temple with the butt of the spade. The boy fell back.

Ikara looped her wire around one of the remaining boy’s necks. He grabbed at the wire, but couldn’t get his fingers under it. Using her lack of height to her advantage, Ikara pulled harder and bent him backward. Bubbles welled up at his lips. He clawed harder, wild-eyed. The third boy spun to attack her and missed as Kaidu leaped down the windows, two floors at a time. At three floors up, Kaidu jumped. His arm slotted over the boy’s shoulders, wrapped around his collar. There was a distinct snap, and the boy went down.

The first boy, the one with needles in his face, raised his hand. Fiery energy burned in his palm.

Blind, Rowan drew another gardening implement and tossed it at the boy’s face. He screamed again as the needles sunk in deeper. The fire winked out.

Kaidu whirled and kicked the boy in the temple. The final boy toppled.

Congratulations! Defeated a Team. +117 Points!

Ikara breathed out. She shook her head and jumped in place. “Whew! That was—intense!”

“Help me tie them up. If they wake up, we don’t want them coming into the Safe Haven,” Kaidu said.

Ikara put her hands in her pockets, and thread spooled out of them. Rowan dragged the bodies together, back to back to back to back, and Kaidu wound the thread around the boys.

Watching Kaidu tie them up, Rowan stuffed his hands in his apron’s pocket and shuffled in place. A strange nervousness welled up in his gut, one he couldn’t put a name to. He swallowed. “They’re going to be eliminated, aren’t they?”

“Kill or be killed. They would have done the same to us,” Kaidu said.

Rowan shook his head. “I know. I know. We have to kill, and we have to keep killing. I’ve known since I was a kid, for as long as I wanted to be a combat class, that I’d have to kill. I just… there’s a difference between knowing it, and doing it.”

“If it makes you feel any better, it’s the Tower killing them,” Ikara offered.

“Not really,” Rowan said. He shook his head. “I guess… in my imagination, I’d only kill the bad guys. The ones who deserve to die, like… like Red, and Jeff. I never imagined I’d ambush a bunch of innocents, while leaving the evil merc warlord alive. Planning to avoid him and leave him alive, at that. You know? In my head, I was the hero, and it was all… backwards. The right way around.”

“The Tower doesn’t care about right and wrong,” Kaidu replied flatly.

“That’s the thing about the people in power. Good or bad, they’ve got power. They’re strong. It’s not easy to take them down. It’s the little guys like us who go down easy,” Ikara said. She fiddled with something in her pockets, clearly uneasy.

“They were combat classes. If we gave them the chance to fight back, we wouldn’t be standing here. If we survived the encounter, we’d be tied up on the floor right now, ripe for the Tower’s taking. But still…” Rowan shook his head. It doesn’t feel right.

Kaidu crossed his arms. “You can back out when we leave the Tower.”

“I’m not going to back out. I’m—not prepared, but I know. I know we have to do this. We have no option. Just… give me a moment to adjust,” Rowan sighed. He pushed his hair back and looked over the tied-up foursome.

Right now, we can’t take down the strong. The weak is all we can handle, and barely that. If we want to survive this Scenario, we have no option but to prey on the ones we can beat. But one day… One day, it’ll be different.

He shook his head and kicked at the road. “Let’s go in.”