Chapter 55 Attack
Maria's POV
My hallway.
At first, I thought there were only three men; now there are five. Dressed head-to-toe in black tactical gear like it was something off war video games I'd seen kids play.
But this wasn't a video game; this was real life.
"Henry, that's my room."
"Yep, you just said that," murmuring while still having his eyes glued to the security screens.
My pulse was pounding; this must be what it feels like to have an adrenaline rush.
"You don't sound concerned," I snipped back at him.
"Oh no girl, I live for this kind of shit," he said calmly, beginning to look like the Joker, twirling his pistol around and around.
"Just keep watching to see what happens."
Ignoring the fact that I now think he is a bit psychotic, I keep my eyes glued on the cameras.
Noise was still coming from the walkie-talkie, with Russian being shouted back and forth. I had no clue what they were saying, but whatever it was, it sounded frantic, not controlled.
The men began to move toward my room again....the first man jiggled the doorknob, testing to see if it was locked. We didn't have time to lock it, so when he turned the knob, it should have opened without any resistance.
"Uhhh, why can't they open my door?"
Henry just smiled, "I bet you ten bucks they kick it in."
"You think this is funny, don't you?"
"Sort of," he started laughing.
Kicking his feet up on the desk, he pointed his pistol and yelled, "Boom."
One of the men went over to the door, and you could tell they were bickering with each other. The man who went to the door picked up his foot and kicked the door open. Not five seconds later, you could feel the floors above us shake. The camera in the hallways went black... my fucking room just exploded.
"Hahahahaha, that's what those fuckers get."
"You owe me ten bucks, Maria."
"How did my door explode?"
"I had one of the men rig it," still laughing.
Rolling my eyes, "Get it from Aleksander, you heathen," I say as I'm still staring at the screen.
The screens started to come back to life, and the carnage that I saw was unreal. Two of the men who were there in the front who opened the door, their bodies were splayed on the ground, torn to pieces, blood pouring around them all over the floor.
The men behind them were standing, shaking the dust and debris off themselves. Stepping over the bodies, they entered my room, searching through the rubble looking for something. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt like a dumbass to not really fathom it completely.
The something they were looking for is me.
Before I could say anything else, Henry stood up, moving the mouse, clicking the mouse a hundred miles a minute.
"Fuckkkk," moving away from the screens, he ran over to a tall cabinet and opened it. Opening the cabinet, it was full of all kinds of weapons, pistols, rifles, automatic guns, and oh my god, is that a grenade?
Standing up, I almost fell over my feet. "Henry, what's going on?"
Looking at me with danger and maybe a touch of fear in his eyes, he sets the gun down momentarily, grabbing me by the shoulders. Looking into my eyes, he says the one thing that, out of all of this, puts pure fear in my heart.
"They're going to try and breach us."
"What do you mean????? I thought you said this bunker was unbreachable," waving my hand around, pointing at all the stuff in the bunker. "Isn't that why it's called a bunker or a safe room?"
"Maria, everything can be breached with the right amount of force."
Picking up a pistol, he thrusts it in my hand, "I hope you still remember your lessons."
Shouldering an automatic rifle, he picked up a box of ammunition that said armor-piercing bullets.
One by one, he loaded the clip and an extra clip as if he were preparing for the whole world to infiltrate us.
The pistol felt heavy in my hand. I wanted to learn to defend myself, but ironically, a piece in the back of my mind, I never thought I would actually have to use it.
Would I be able to shoot if need be?
Before I could continue that thought, both of our heads snapped to the stairwell leading to the bunker.
Footsteps.
A lot of them.
"Prepare yourself!" He shouted, pushing the couch and chairs to a defensive angle five feet from the bunker's door.
Crawling behind the couch, I sat on my knees, poking my head out so I could still see the door and the cameras.
Henry looked like a God war, a pistol strapped to his leg, an automatic weapon over his shoulder, and one gripped in both hands.
Crouching down next to me, he grabbed the automatic weapon, pointing it at the entrance of the bunker. Looking at it more closely, I could see a red laser pointing from it.
"What does the laser do?"
Chuckling, "Wherever the laser points at, that's where the bullet will go. It's a bad, bad son of a bitch." He began stroking his gun as if it were the most precious item in his life.
No wonder Aleksander assigned him to me.
"Oh my God, Henry!" I suddenly poke him with my finger, "What about Maxim? Do you think he's ok?"
Looking at me like I'm stupid, he grabbed my hand and put it back down by my side. "Maxim is a God of death. I'm sure...." Before he could even finish that sentence, there was commotion on one of the video feeds.
Rushing back over to the desk, Henry picks up the remote for the volume and turns it up. Viktor's men were headed towards Maxim's room, where he and a guard were hunkered down.
"Well, we're about to find out how good the old man still is," he said with a serious tone to his voice.
Coming back over behind the couch and crouching down, we both stared at the screen, watching it all.
The men began to approach Maxim's room, pulling out a battering-ram-like item, ready to breach it. Two doors down, a door opened. The men were too busy to notice the figure approaching them amid all the chaos. But even through the grainy footage, I recognized that tall frame instantly.
Maxim.
Aleksander's father moved like a ghost breaking loose from the dark. The first man barely had time to react before Maxim's arm snapped forward with a glint of a knife showing. A gunshot exploded somewhere in the dark as the knife in his hands slid over the man's neck, pouring blood all down the man's front. The man fell to the floor with a silent scream on his face, gripping his neck.
The man who was in front of the man who had just dropped turned around, pointing his gun at Maxim. Pulling out a pistol before the man had time to react, Maxim let out a shot, hitting the man point-blank in the head. He dropped to the floor before he ever realized what happened to him.
In the footage, all I could see was the smile on Maxim's face.
Henry was right......he did look like the God of Death.