Fools of us All - Chapter 26

I flinched as the gun whipped by me and imbedded itself into the wall. Her scream echoed around the small room for a moment before fading into nothingness. The three of us stayed where we were, almost frozen in our spots. Cautiously, I moved to where Jack was still laying on the ground and I helped him to his feet. He looked for a moment as though he wanted to try and escape, but a firm hand on his shoulder encouraged him to stay.

The two of us sat by the small fire, warming our hands. Every time Jack went to speak, I shook my head at him, and so we sat in silence. Finally Caz sat across from us, staring moodily into the fire. “I’m sorry,” said Jack.

“You’re sorry?” Caz snorted.

“Look, I didn’t know it was a bomb. I was just told to deliver the package.”

“What package?” I asked. I had my suspicions, but I suspected that Caz needed to talk this out.

“Look around you,” she said. “Do you think this was always like this?”

I shook my head.

“This was where I worked - this was the organisation’s headquarters. And then one day we got a package, delivered by this guy, and minutes later, the room blows up and we are attacked by M.E.R.C. squad.” An odd look flashed across her face, and she regarded Jack closely, this time with curiosity. “How did you escape? No one left after the package was delivered. And no one had paid you for delivery, so why did you leave if you didn’t know it was a bomb?”

Jack laughed nervously. “Sometimes I just get these feelings, y’know? When I gave you the package, something just felt wrong. And then the big dude showed up and he was giving off some serious bad vibes, so I scrammed.”

“Big dude?” I asked.

Caz smiled, if somewhat sadly. “Dun. He was my mentor and our leader. I told you about him.”

“Oh yeah. What happened to him?”

She gave me an odd look. “He…he died.”

“Saving you?”

Tears began flowing down her face yet again, but her voice was unemotional. “I thought he did. I saw him get shot before I escaped here. But then, when I was captive in the warehouse, he showed up, alive and well. He told me…” she stopped and looked away. “He’s the guy you shot when you rescued me.”

It was my turn to be shocked. “Caz, I had no idea.” My heart sank, convinced that she was going to kill me.

Instead, she merely smiled. “He was in on it,” she said, the tears finally stopping. “If you hadn’t killed him, I might have.”

“Yeah, that’s right.” We both looked at Jack who had leapt to his feet with excitement. “I knew I recognised that dude. When I was hired to deliver the package, he was standing in the shadows, trying to stay out of sight.” He noticed us watching him and self-consciously sat back down. “That’s why I was getting bad vibes from him. I thought it was weird that he had wanted a package delivered to himself. That’s why I left.”

The fire crackled in the silence before I turned to him and asked the question he had yet to answer. “Jack, how did you leave without being seen or getting hurt?”

Moments later we stood in the remains of Dun’s office before a very large round door. A door that led to somewhere I wasn’t sure I wanted to be.