The Iron Hallway

Chapter 23

Six guards had attempted to disrupt us already by the time we'd made it to the warden's desk. Khemera had dispatched four of them, and Aaron was responsible for the demise of the other two. 

When we reached the stately desk, Aaron snatched the warden by the back of the head and slammed his face into the wood, instantly knocking him out and drawing a whole lot of attention. Aaron grabbed two guards and threw their skulls together, Keira kicked another into a corner of the wall, and even I took one out, blocking several attacks before punching him in the eye. Once he'd been debilitated, I shoved him into the sharp corner of the desk. 

Most surprising of all, Sila grabbed a knife from one of the fallen men, spun, and stabbed it mechanically into the last remaining guard. As the blade had impaled his throat, the man only took a few seconds to collapse into a tasting of his own blood. 

"C'mon, ya'll!" Hannah shouted, leading the way to the confiscation department. 

Aaron silenced some remaining groans before we left the room. Several yards of hallway and four takedowns later, we broke through the doorway of the confiscation department, and I eyed the rows and rows of tables, full of belongings small and large, commonplace and rare. 

Of course, guards and workers stood all around here too, so they had to be handled first. Aaron shut the door and locked it before he cracked his knuckles and made a businesslike face. 

I ducked as the guards began a round of gunfire from their pistols. Only Khemera remained standing, but none of the men had aimed at him originally. He dashed up to the nearest man, snatched him up by the collar, and threw him into a table. The man screamed as the corner sliced into the back of his head, and a box of knives fell off the edge, adding even more to his misery. 

Keira slid over, grabbed a couple of the knives, and tossed them at two guards' necks. They never rose again. Next, the feisty brunette snatched up an old musket from one of the tables and fired. Yet another one of our attackers screamed and died. She pulled the trigger again, but nothing happened. She frowned at the weapon before huffing and using it to beat her enemies senseless. 

Aaron hurled a box of hardback books at the nearest guard. I somewhat disapproved of defiling the precious books for such a vile purpose, but silently brushed it aside and tried to move on. But still, that's such an abuse of books. 

"C'mon, Baird, lend a hand!" Aaron shouted as he destroyed a man's jawline with a baseball bat. "We can't let any of them get outta here!" 

I nodded and clambered over a table to disrupt one trembling worker's path to an alternate exit. Once I'd planted myself in his path, he pouted and began crying. Just to make sure it wasn't just a deceptive act, I slapped him and flipped him onto the floor. 

Another worker raced his heart out to reach a third exit. I moved to intercept him, only to realize Aaron was closer and had it handled. He moved into the man's path and tripped him. Then he grabbed one of the cluttered tables and tipped it sideways, dumping all its contents down onto the man. Objects sharp, heavy, and hard of all kinds, all hailed down on the man at once, and his intense screams died off as sharply as they'd begun. 

Keira finally found her grapple gun on one of the tables' abundant piles and snatched it up with no lack of enthusiasm. She spotted yet another worker on the other end of the room attempting an escape. She shook her head and fired the hook at a hanging light above. Then she leapt up and swung over to the escapee, kicking him in the head once she'd reached him. Then she disengaged the claw, drew it back in, and knocked the man out with a hefty blow from the gun. 

The green-eyed brunette grinned as she discovered her sniper rifle on the table. She grabbed it, took out a guard who was trying to sneak up on Hannah, and looked up at the ceiling again. She shot her grapple gun at a ceiling beam, clipped it to her belt, and zipped up. Once ascended, she used her bird's eye view to good advantage, peering through the scope and sniping left and right.