In an instant, the terror suffusing my body transformed into rage. Endangering me was one thing, but threatening Helen's life was something completely different. I was going to kill these people with my bare hands, and their splayed entrails would serve as a warning to all others who would threaten those close to me.
Three of the bowling alley's employees looked at me fearfully. I held a single finger up to my lips as I flipped open the butterfly knife, revealing the lethal razor contained within.
"He just got a call!" One of the civilians out in the main chamber of the bowling alley called out in fear. "He's in the front office!"
"Bastard," I swore instinctually. I turned to the cowering employees. "Do you have a rear entrance?"
"Y-Yes," the employee said fearfully. "There's an employee entrance in the kitchen that leads into the hallway." The man pointed at a doorway behind me.
I could hear the rapidly approaching footsteps of armed soldiers, so I wordlessly moved into the kitchen. Since the kitchen wasn't very big, I was able to find the employee entrance relatively quickly. With three long strides, I reached the entrance and kicked it open forcefully. The door was light, and the force of my kick caused one of its hinges to break in half, preventing the door from returning to its original closed position.
With no hesitation, I altered my course and dove behind a large industrial sink in the kitchen. Seconds later, footsteps filled the kitchen, and I figured that there must have been five armed soldiers. I didn't dare to stick my head out of cover, but I could hear the sound of rifles slapping against cloth as the soldiers ran past. Three of them immediately ran out of the kitchen in the direction in which they thought I was fleeing.
"He's running! Get him!" one of the soldiers shouted. After a few seconds, I heard the crackling staccato of gunfire emanate from the direction of the soldiers. Apparently, they weren't here to take me prisoner.
"Where did he go!?" From far beyond the destroyed door, one of the soldiers called out in confusion.
"Charlie, Echo! Check the crowd for the people that came with the Gray Demon! There should be a Chinese man and a blonde woman somewhere here. Find them, and bring them here! Bravo, Delta! Spread out and find him!"
"Yes, sir!" The man who had just been identified as Charlie called out before two sets of footsteps departed the kitchen.
The attackers' use of the phonetic alphabet and the efficiency of their movements made me think they were a military unit. These weren't some amateur assassins who were driven to kill me by vengeful wrath or nationalistic fury. They were professionals.
The voice of the man who was in charge of the squad of assassins emanated from outside of my vision, saying, "Did any of you see where Sebastian Dogwood went?"
Based on the acoustics of the voice, I could tell that his back was turned to me as he spoke. Slowly, I stepped out of cover and began approaching the man who, based on context clues, probably went by Alpha within the squad.
"Y-Yes," a terrified employee said. "I told him that there was a rear exit, and he just ran away. I-I can't believe he would just leave us here."
"So you helped him leave?" Alpha asked coldly.
"D-Did I? P-Please don't…"
Without hesitation, Alpha pressed the barrel of his rifle against the employee's chest and squeezed the trigger. A bright flash of light filled the man's abdominal cavity and blood splattered outward, staining my bowling shirt.
"Is something wrong, Alpha?" one of the other assassins called out.
"No," Alpha said. "I just had to send a message."
My knife stabbed through Alpha's throat, piercing right through his trachea and both carotid arteries. Blood ejected from the wound as he spasmed and gurgled. I could feel it as he tried to scream for his men, but my knife prevented the sound from escaping his throat.
With my free hand, I grabbed Alpha's rifle. Instinctually, his finger pressed down on the trigger, and another bullet shot forward. I yanked the rifle out of Alpha's hands before he could get another shot off.
The rifle was already pressed against my shoulder before the assassin's body had even fallen to the ground. I didn't even bother removing the knife from Alpha's neck, and he was left writhing on the ground, unable to breathe and quickly bleeding to death. It was a fitting end.
I lightly worked the bolt and confirmed that a bullet was chambered. It was strange just how much the rifle resembled an AK-47 from the 20th century. Evidently, it wasn't broken, so nobody ever bothered to fix it.
After confirming that the rifle was ready to fire, I looked down at the dying man. His death-spasm had died down to a pitiful twitch, and I noticed a strange patch on his chest. It portrayed a winged woman holding a spear and wearing an armored helmet. The symbol was that of a valkyrie, the creatures of Norse mythology that ferried dead soldiers to Valhalla.
Before I could consider the significance of that symbol, the sound of gunfire filled the building once more. I stuck my head over the counter separating my position from the main chamber. One of the men sent to search for Wei and Helen had just shot a fleeing civilian in the back. A moment later, another civilian stood up quickly and caught a bullet in the stomach.
They hadn't reached Wei and Helen yet, but I could see Wei watching the two gunmen with the steady gaze of a predator. His hands were still placed on the table to not provoke the gunmen, but I could tell they were prepared to jump into action at a moment's notice.
I knew that it would be much safer for me to move slowly, but I couldn't let Charlie and Echo act unimpeded. At that moment, I was basically surrounded. It was only a matter of time before Bravo and Delta came back from their mission to sweep the perimeter, but Charlie and Echo would reach Helen in just a few seconds. I couldn't let that happen.
I steadied the rifle on the counter and fired a volley of shots into Echo's chest. As if I had suddenly cut the strings of a marionette, Echo fell to the ground in a motionless heap.
A strong sensation of danger pulled my attention to the door. When I looked through the threshold, all I could see was pitch-black darkness, but I felt like a speeding train would come flying through that empty door frame in a few seconds. I dove behind a sink, and a salvo of zipping projectiles struck the position I had just left.
I turned, hoping to find somewhere to run, but there was nothing other than a white concrete wall. Bullets flew over my head as Bravo and Delta entered the kitchen. I was totally cornered, and the gunmen would have a firing angle on me within seconds.