Of Cages and Misery

[Cat]

"Hurry up already, we don't have all day!" Kyle shouted after a few more moments. The anxiety and anger were getting the better of him. The longer this situation continued, the more time that thug had to do something to Kiara or come up with a plan. Not to mention that someone was bound to check up on the apartment after the lock of the entry door was shot. "Get your rear out in the corridor, or I'll lose my patience."

"Can say the same for myself. Where is my friend?" Kyle heard the reply from the man who apparently had Kiara hostage. He just needed to have Kiara safely out of that guy's reach. What would happen next was secondary: "You'll see her once you reach the corridor. You there yet? Once you're in the corridor, stand there. We need to discuss what happens now."

"Buddy you think I'm dumb enough to stand in there? How about you peek out and see who is though." There was some arguing in the living room, and Kyle thought he heard Kiara's voice. What he heard next was a sound he was the most afraid to hear: a shot of a laser pistol, albeit not at full power. DO SOMETHING, IDIOT! Kyle wanted to rush towards the living room, but that would mean leaving cover and getting killed for no reason. So instead he just peeked into the corridor briefly, his gun at the ready.

He saw Kiara stumbling against the doorframe into the corridor, nearly falling through. She then fell to her knees (it seemed to be a controlled fall), leaning her forehead against the frame. She muttered some curse through clenched teeth to the man who had shot her, and then she held her left hand against her belly. What's worse, the Brigand in the living room could probably still aim at Kiara, and Kyle wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Then he heard the intruder again: "Now then, as I said, where is my friend?"

A friend? That'll do. Kyle looked at the gun he had picked up from the woman earlier. A slugthrower, one clip, unknown number of bullets. He then looked at the woman lying unconscious in the doorway. Her brown hair had covered her face entirely. At least he didn't have to look at her face...

Hesitant, even disgusted at himself for what he was about to do, Kyle stepped to the side and a bit farther from the woman to get a better angle, but making sure that he wouldn't be seen through the doorway by the thug that held Kiara hostage. With a sigh, he aimed at the woman's right ankle and took a shot, ensuring that it wouldn't hit the bone and would just graze the woman. The sound of a powder weapon thundered throughout the apartment.

"My pistol ain't a laser one, so I can't regulate how hard it hits!" Kyle shouted through the doorway with anger and and a slight tone of gloating in his voice. "This is how it's going down: you let Kiara enter the room where I'm in. Then you throw your gun in here too. After that you can tend to your friend's wounds before she bleeds out, then you tell us what you're doing here and we figure out what to do with you. Another option is that you shoot Kiara, I shoot your friend, and then we try shooting each other. Think fast, you *******!"

Apparently, Kyle calculated right. Thugs only understood brute force and guts, so backing out when Kiara was shot wasn't an option. Kyle was satisfied at the reaction he got from that Brigand: "You mo-.. How do you plan to negotiate if she looks already dead to me?! You better answer fast, *****." Right, we got his attention. Now it's time to use logic: "I only hit her on the back of her neck because you two trigger-happy wackos showed up here uninvited and started shooting." If that Brigand was reasonable enough to start talking, Kyle needed that thought to sink into his thick skull. "Your friend will wake up soon enough. I wouldn't have even shot at her if you hadn't shot at Kiara!"

Hopefully, that too wouldn't seem to that Brigand as far-fetched. It was the truth, after all. Kyle continued: "I clearly can't trust you holding the gun, but if you do as I say, there won't be any more shooting. I'd give you my word, but it probably wouldn't mean anything to you. But we don't even know each other. For all I know, I have no problem with you, as long as you quit threatening me or Kiara with guns!"

"Oh.. Good, then we might just resolve this nicely," Kyle didn't think it was sincere, but as long as the thug was talking, it wasn't for nothing. "Although I thought she's Aurora now.. Which means you are that Remy guy.. What bring us into a weird position.." Kyle then heard a squeal of pain from Kiara, but then saw her crawling clumsily on three limbs towards the bathroom, where she grabbed the handle with her uninjured hand and pulled herself up, opening the door at the same time. As she locked herself out from the bathroom, Kyle felt down and relieved at thee same time: she didn't come to him, but at least she was safe from what was about to unfold.

"I guess the bathroom will do just fine too," Kyle shouted, hoping his adversary would hear it. "Now, just toss that gun of yours into the room I'm in, and feel free to attend to the wound of your friend. I won't stand in the way." "Right.. Because you just won't shoot me. And how about we both drop our guns?" Kyle heard the sound of a laser pistol being dropped into the corridor, yet a few steps away outside the room. Trying to take it meant leaving the cover. "Let me hear yours drop too."

Whoever those guys were, they sure knew how to hand over their guns. First that woman dropped the gun instead of letting Kyle take it. Then the trigger-happy guy threw a gun right oustide the room, not into the room as he had been told. "Nah, that wasn't what we agreed on. I'd rather keep my only gun," Kyle didn't know how many more guns or accomplices that Brigand had. He removed the clip to see how many bullets he had left: there were 11. Good, should be enough for whatever comes next. Kyle pushed the clip back into the pistol, preparing himself for an inevitable firefight.

"Besides, how would I know you don't have a..." Suddenly Kyle felt the strong grip of a pair of hands strongly grabbing his legs. Before he could realize what was happening, he was already falling down on the floor.