The Red Nights

They were progressing in a dark long hallway aiming to reach the white square of light before them . As they were walking the noises of gunshots, the screams of the outlaws and their footsteps became louder, they could even hear them coming from above them.

Volga had chosen to walk two by two as the hallway was not very large and also she was that if they were too many they would not be able to react in time in case of embuscade, [ they don't have reflexes as sharp as mine ] she had said to herself. " We are almost there, only five meters left , get ready " Carla whispered to her comrades behind her. She had , earlier, proposed to Volga to be her partner and since that was what she wanted to do she didn't say no . For her , this girl was the most capable of all her team and the devotion she didn't stop showing along the mission was just proving it .

Once they were enough close, the white square started to slowly show a clear image of what was happening inside. Groups of criminals were hurriedly going up the stairs on the right side, fully armed, while some of them less courageous preferred to wait on the actual floor, their weapons pointing toward the top of the stairs, afraid, as if a monster could come out at any time to jump on them and kill them all.

It seemed like they didn't have noticed the danger which was about to fall onto them yet. Volga turned to her group and through some simple signs of her hands, she gave them her instructions. The first column, which meant Volga and all the people behind her, would go for the outlaws on the upper level while the second column, Carla and those behind her, would take all the outlaws on the actual floor. Volga trusted her that she would accomplish her mission successfully and protect all the people she was in charge of .

" I have a request " Ilya who was just behind Carla whispered as lower as she could, Volga nodded her head to tell her to express her request, " I would want to change and come in your group" she quickly turned to Carla " it's like I don't trust you or anything but for a reason I don't know Jamal told me that no matter what I should stay by your side and follow you wherever you go " . Without any hesitation Volga made a sign to tell her to come behind her and then said to the man behind her to change and go behind Carla. She would have lied if she said that she didn't find that request a little strange, knowing that she was sure that Ilya wasn't lying, but she was convinced that there was a good reason for him to ask that.

Now they were ready, she raised her left hand and started the countdown. 5...4...3...2...1... she dropped the last finger and they all rushed inside, following the formation. She turned on the right side , raised her weapon toward the people on the stairs and started to shoot on them and the guys behind her quickly imitated her. And for the rest of the outlaws who dare to aim for them were killed before they had the time to fire, Carla's group came in a strong attack , spreading quickly in the level without letting them the time to realize what was happening. Before Volga's group started to go up the stairs they had cleared the zone . " You can go , we are covering you " she shouted, still holding her gun before her, she put one knee onto the ground and started to pass her sight around, aware of any danger.

" I authorize you to go help the others by attacking the outlaws on the outside. But don't take any bold and reckless decisions which could put you in a hazardous situation . I'm counting on you " Volga replied before taking the stairs.

" Got it ! " she shouted, trying vainly to hide her satisfaction. " She then stood up, left the place to walk toward the principal entrance where she was sure to run into the outlaws.

Arriving at the top of the stairs Volga stopped behind the wall on her right and take her time to have a look on her surrounding whether there were enemies nearby or not. Apparently the way was free, she stood up and carefully went forward on the hallway which was divided into two ways, left and right.[ The right way has less rooms than left one ] she made the remark silently for herself, again with quick signs of her hands she ordered three guys to stay to watch the left part of the hallway while the rest, along with Volga, would go to inspect the few rooms on the right side.

There were three rooms in total and behind each of the three doors she had opened they found the same thing, dead bodies laying on the floor and blood staining the whole room. " Do you think it's him who did that? " Ilya asked Volga when she closed the third and last door. " It's him " she responded straightaway " I don't have any doubts".

" We should hurry up to go help him " she added when they gathered " this level is too silent what means that he has already passed here a moment ago, so no need to waste our time inspecting the other rooms, let's go straight to the next floor ".

" But if only by himself he managed to kill off all the outlaws who were in this floor that would mean that he doesn't need any help, you don't think ? " Ilya suggested, even though she was taller than Volga, by the way she lowered her voice when she was speaking to her, it seemed like she was a little intimidated, and the latter didn't miss to notice that.

" Don't be silly, there were less than three dead bodies for each room we've visited and knowing that this level has only 8 rooms, so there were approximately 24 people in this level, outside I've counted only 3 dozens of outlaws adding with the ten we've killed when we entered here we have a total of roughly 46 people which is far less than the number Glenn, your mayor, has estimated. So they still remained many of them in this huge edifice so do you think he can deal them all without getting hurt ? "

" Sorry " she only said while bowing her head, reviewing the spectacle Jamal showed them in the previous mission, [ did I overestimate him too much ? ], but it seemed that she was as stupid as she was actually thinking as Volga carried on by telling her " but you still get a point though, no need to go all of us, he surely doesn't need so much help, we just have to watch his back. So we will divide our number one more time ".

She stared at them and selected the four most capable of her group, including Ilya, to go with her. " the rest, you will go down to lend a hand to Carla , you must follow her orders, got it?", " yes ! " they shouted.

One man raised his hand before she told them to go, she nodded to tell him to speak what he had to say. " I'm asking permission to let us inspect the rooms before we go " he carried on before she protested " I know you've already told us that there's no need but Jamal taught us to always be careful, there may be still remaining one who managed to survive, we don't have to take any risk. Moreover there must be some useful items we could collect ".

She thought few seconds then she finally allowed them. She was glad to see that Jamal was inspiring them in such a good way, usually only Sania and some few other members dared to take some initiatives, even among the former captains only Don dared to oppose her decisions and that was also one of the reasons she fell for him. " Thank you and good " they before they started walking on the opposite way. She turned to the four people beside her " let's go then we have wasted enough time ".

They went on their way and as strange as it seemed to be, the next floor was completely different from the previous one. It was not about the decorations or anything but rather the change of show. Even before they reached the level they were hearing some deaf noises coming from upstairs and as they were going up the noises were becoming intense until they reached the top of the stairs and could now identify them and even associate them with their corresponding images. As Volga thought they were still remaining a great number of outlaws and it seemed like they were all gathered in that space. Volga like the rest of her little group saw many of them surrounding an opened door, some of them were shooting inside the room while the others just sat with their shaking hands holding their weapons. Loud screams of pain and terror could be heard in the entire hallway, as if there were men inside the room who were being tortured.

They were so loud that Volga was asking herself why couldn't they hear it when they were in the lower level. Ilya turned toward her scared face, with her eyes widely opened it was like she was begging her to say that she was wrong, that it was not what she was thinking but deep in their hearts they already knew the truth and Volga would not try to deny it.

She said to her little team " hey listen to me, the outlaws there are scared and completely discovered, they are easy targets now and we will not waste this chance, so pull yourselves together, let's go ".

They came out from their hideout and sat by forming a vertical line to the hallway, in order to face directly to the outlaws. Simultaneously they started firing them and as expected they were annihilated, one after another they fell onto the ground. There were some idiots, hiding behind their friends, who stood up trying to counter attack but Volga was too fast at the they took their heads out they got killed immediately.

One minute later there was no one standing before Volga and her team, no was moving in the hallway, only the screams came to break the calmness of that zone. Ilya and a man beside Volga tried to stand up thinking that it was all over, a hand came to place before her, stopping her to, Volga held her and made her sign to not move while one of her men was doing the same to his friend. They stayed there staring at the corpses and when the woman was about to turn and seek more explanations she glanced a movement on the front. The second after, three outlaws suddenly jumped up guns in hand but before they could press the triggers they were shot and killed, the four people who were sitting before them were only a way too faster.

Ilya was not conscious of what happened, her body had been faster than her brain, she fired without even realizing it. It was only just after the four outlaws fell down that she got what was going on. She glanced at Volga and saw her raising two fingers and pointing forward what meant that she wanted two people to go ahead and check the situation. She stood up and along with the man on the opposite side they walked ahead carefully until they reached the stack of corpses . To take any risk they both just shot each of them and after they finished Ilya raised her thumb to give the signal to Volga and the other guy, who had stayed behind to cover their backs.

They gathered in front of the entrance of the room where the screams of those people who were being probably tortured had stopped already. Together they penetrated in and before their eyes was just an empty hall with no table, no chair and especially no people. On the right, there was another opened door and the wall beside it was laying Jamal's motorbike, what meant that he was actually in that mysterious room. Volga stepped aside towards the room and naturally her companions followed her. The second room was quite small, lighted with only one lightbulb, like the other rooms they had visited in the previous floor, this one too was all recovered by blood and associated with the weak luminosity were giving to the room a sinister decoration.

In the middle, there was one man standing over a pile of dead bodies. " Jamal...? " Volga asked with a shaking voice as she was a little bit scared the actual worrying mood and it seemed like she was not the only one, the four people behind her were literally shaking, completely terrified. Volga knew that she had to act bravely to reassure them, like the situation was under control but it was as easy as trying convincing them that fire does not hurt. She stepped forward and call him again more confident now, but still nothing. He was completely immobile, staring down at the corpses laying on the floor, his arms were covered with blood until his shoulders and his hands were holding two knives which surely had served him to kill all those people.

She was now in front of him , trying to not her balance on this pile of bodies. She tried to look at his eyes, thinking that maybe he would retrieve his consciousness after seeing her face, but his dreadlocks were falling on his face covering his eyes, normally he attached them behind his head with an elastic band but it seemed like he lost it during his fight against the outlaws, and she couldn't bend to reach them as she would fall down. So she decided to shake him a little bit to wake him up, in case he fell asleep after all these fights, Volga recalled that he didn't get enough sleep [ he must be tired ] she thought.

As she was moving her hand toward him she heard a yelp coming her back. She turned her head and saw Ilya with a worried look shaking her head, telling silently to not do what she was about to do. Volga moved her lips, articulating soundlessly that it was alright. When she turned her head again, Jamal's face was suddenly at one centimeter of hers, his eyes at the level of hers.

" bouh ! ".

The poor screamed and fell aback while her four subordinates, also scared , jumped back and their guns toward him.

Jamal bursted out laughing, enjoying their reactions, he stepped forward to lend Volga a hand and help her to stand up . When she was back on her feet she seemed furious, the first thing she did was to punch him on his c.h.e.s.t. " Why did you do that ? You almost give me a heart attack ", as he didn't stop laughing she punch him again a little harder " there is nothing funny " she pointed to her crew who were still holding their weapons " look , they could have killed you ".

" Impossible, they don't have munitions for that, am I wrong? " he replied, with a large smile, still amused, while stroking his c.h.e.s.t , Volga glanced at them and they nodded.

" How... " , she didn't even finished formulating her question he cut her, " and concerning your first interrogation, it was to punish you for having taken so much time to come helping me " he waved his hand toward the dead people behind him, " look at what I was obligated to do in order to keep the larger part of them at a reasonable distance ".

" That's why " Ilya exclaimed now she was understanding.

" You're saying that as if it was an easy job to make it until here and by the way, who even told you to rush here alone without being armed, look at you " she grabbed his arms tainted by blood and lifted them " you , even had to use knives in order to fight , do you consider how dangerous it was ? "

" No I didn't consider that because I was sure you will come in time and it seems like I was right, once again " he replied.

" So why did you scare me if we did arrive in time as you have planned ?"

" Because it was funny " he responded while laughing at her and she, again, punched him.

Ilya coughed " excuse me to disturb you but don't we have an army of outlaws we should finish off ? " she asked with a little voice.

" No need to worry it was the last group of outlaws remaining, I think you have already dealt with those on the lower levels, right? " Jamal said distractedly .

" Yeah, the rest of my team must have finished with those who fled on the court, especially if it's that girl who lead the army ." Volga replied while thinking about that Carla .

" Well but we still have to go though, faster we leave this place the better " he finally concluded, he passed his arm around Volga's shoulder and with a taunting smile he said to her " let's go, my fearless friend " . The latter pushed him away " don't touch me with your stained hands, I still didn't forgive you " . She stepped toward the exit alone while Jamal was running after and apologizing without even trying to hide his insincerity. " You're sure they are not lovers? " Ilya asked to one of Volga's men while they were leaving too , the guy chuckled and responded " yes I know it's hard to believe but each of them love someone else, they just... very close friends, don't worry you'll quickly get used to it ".