Pessimism (Book One)

Chapter 16: It's What Family Do

Almery drove away after his last remark. I didn't hear the others say anything at all. I watched as Almery's car vanished under the horizon.
"Guys, we need to follow him! Guys-" I turned to see them all armed. They had their guns out and were watching closely on something.
"Ian, as much as I want to ask questions," Ethan said. "We have a bigger problem."
"It seems Almery lead us to an ambush." Kaitlin chuckled. "That bastard, when he said, 'that's what family do', he really meant it." I looked around and noticed we were in a kill zone. The car was just a bullet or two away for us to run back to it. Three snipers, two on parallel buildings from each other and one on the radio building across the parking lot's building where we were. Four men behind two pillars of the parking lot's pillars, were holding Arsenal handgun machine guns, rapid fire too. The odds were against us and to add, there were three black Xterra, armored vehicles, four men in each car. They would capture us if we tried to make a getaway and with their armored cars, firing bullets would be useless. Damn Almery. He dares speaks of family.
"Guys," I told them. "Get closer to me." They slowly moved close to my range of field. "It's just like practice." I smiled at Grant. It was a fake one, hiding my anger behind it. "Kaitlin-?" I was going to tell her if she can get one of the men with the Arsenal guns, down.
"Don't underestimate me." She held up her gun. The men threatened and everyone was ready to fire. Kaitlin chambered a gun. Time was precise here. I can't make a force field with a flying bullet in it, or it'll ricochet at us. She has to chamber a bullet and fire quickly, before the men start firing at us. The timer began.
"Only one." I told her. She grimaced. She fired, not once, but twice. "Kaitlin!" I made my force field and one of the bullets just got out of the range. She managed to get two of the four men dead. It was scary, how she can have a kill rate under these circumstances that high. Every man, the snipers, the two standing Arsenal men, started firing. I was able to hold off the bullets, but couldn't redirect them. The rapid machine guns were coming to fast that I didn't have a chance to direct them at a certain point. Luckily, there were no personal here.
"What's our next move?" Elaine asked. I couldn't move and have my barrier active at the same time. I looked around. Because of the firing and ricocheting of bullets on the rusted walls, dust and debris started fogging the lot.
"We wait." I said. The pressure was increasing on my barrier and I didn't know how much longer I could hold off. Grant looked worried. Even though I couldn't even last a minute with Grant's palm on my field, I was able to hold these bullets off. But the one thing that kept me wondering was how we had trained for a whole day and not notice it.

The men just a bout slowed down their fire. I wondered if it wasn't that they slowed their fire, if it was that the ricocheting of bullets killed them. It didn't matter, my barrier just about had it.
"We have to move, now." I started for the car. We made it into the car and the armored vehicles started their engines. Elaine made a swift U-turn and exited the building.
"how are we going to take the armored trucks down? Bullets won't make a difference." I asked. They all looked at me, as if I was clueless.
"Just watch." Ethan archaically smiled. The three cars came from three sides, two on both sides of us and one from behind. They were going to box us in. Kaitlin took the sunroof, it was her favorite shooting range. She wasn't aiming at the car itself, she was firing right beneath the cars. That made sense. If the bullets were to ricochet, they would towards the driver's seat, since the bottom of cars aren't usually armored. One of the cars swiveled around until they hit into a tree. That was one of the other three.
"Hey Talia?" Elaine requested.
"Yes?" Talia's ignorance spoke.
"Listen, can you still engage the spikes of your tires?" She asked.
"I wouldn't disengage them for anyone, even Grant." Talia smiled in a turquoise light. Four spear-like swords came out of each tire of the car. It was for defense to knock the vehicles from us. The cars were much bigger than us. Kaitlin got down from the sunroof. She buckled up and I did the same. This was weird. All the windows were shut tight.
"You better hope we don't go to jail for this." Grant laughed.
"Oh please, it's called elf defense." Elaine continued. I looked outside and saw that we were attached to the two vehicles. They were in our control and I knew what we were going to do, dispose of them. There was a tight tunnel, only one vehicle can go through at a time. This was going to blow up in our faces. Here we go. The two cars crashed into the opposite walls and blew up into a ball of fire. Talia's spear-like tires were denting the interior of the tunnel's walls. They disengaged and we made for a clear exit.
"That was a fun ride." Kaitlin, serious as can be. I didn't see the fun part. My body was sore.
"Do you guys know what that was all about?" Ethan probably asked the question we were all thinking.
"I honestly don't know, but Almery probably does." Grant brought back another question of mine.
"Who is Almery?" I asked them. They seemed to know more than me about this guy.
"Honestly Ian," Ethan started. "Almery was only someone we tried to recruit for our revolt against the government and ever since then... he has been jumping around and doing things on his own. This is the first I ever heard of him being your brother." He sort of answered my question. I decided to ponder on the thought.
"This revolt..." I stared out the window. "Just what will you guys hope to accomplish in the end?" I can feel them stare at me. They had ties that led to the distrust of the government. I haven't met the government, but it seems they aren't very pleased with them. I always believed in the government. They would protect us and save us. They were our heroes. Has it really all been just an act? I needed reasons, because that's what I always believed in.