Black Dawn

Chapters 1-5
Chapters 6-10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Adam gets down just in time to avoid the rapid fire. He can't say put for long, as he hides behind a set of benches. The guards know Adam is on his own, but is more dangerous than a small army when cornered. In fact, Adam has taken out small armies before in his day. Maria is frozen in fear as she's watching Adam in the line of fire, wanting to do something, but realizing she's unarmed and helpless and would just get in the way. But she's more sure than she was a while ago that there's no chance she's leaving the facility without Adam. When they were together, Maria managed to suppress this side of Adam's life from her mind, simply not thinking of the fact that Adam fought for a living, and risked his life everyday. It's easier to be confident of someone else's abilities when you're not witnessing it yourself.

Maria fears for Adam more than she's ever feared for herself.

Adam fears, too. But not for himself; Adam has never experienced fear in a battle situation before - because Adam has always fought either for himself, or an idea. Today has been the first time Adam has fought for someone else, someone close to him. Someone who requires his protection.

Adam makes a move and jumps up to one of the seats, launching himself backwards to the floor while firing away at the guards. The crash landing with the floor below serves as a grim reminder that Adam doesn't have the body of an 28 year old anymore, but instead that of an 38 year old. The 10 years in between have not been kind, and it shows. The adrenaline helps, but it takes just that much more time to get up after hitting the floor. It's noticeable enough.

Some of the guards get taken out by the blind fire, but there are many more making their move towards Adam, who takes cover on the stage behind the lectern to reload his weapon. The pain never shows itself while he's on the move, but staying still forces Adam to experience the burning pain all over his lower back after crashing on the floor. The fear of not being enough to protect Maria is starting to creep up, and focusing on that is a surefire death knell. Adam has always said that there's never a soldier in war who hesitates, because those who hesitate end up dead.

Adam is starting to hesitate.

Maria knows Adam better than anyone, and can read his body language, and can tell that things are not okay.

---

Kevin is running for his life, through the narrow corridors of the facility, away from Logan.

The run is a struggle, though, since Kevin can put barely any weight on his knee that was injured during the torture. He frequently stumbles and falls down, making him an easy target.

Logan is a big guy, and not the fastest chaser in the world, and that's the only thing keeping Kevin alive right now. Unfortunately, the rockets from the rocket launcher travel lighting fast, and it takes everything Kevin has in him to move away whenever one is launched. And on the other hand, Logan is firing away with his rifle.

The rocket launcher shots have maimed many of the doorways of the facility, forcing Kevin to find alternative paths to where Adam is being ambushed, fearing he may already be too late.

Managing to get a little bit of headway, Kevin finds a place to hide just for a second to ready his weapons, hoping he might get a good shot in. Logan is not stupid, though, and stops making movements as he realizes he lost Kevin from his sight.

Kevin quickly decides to improvise, removes the magazine from one his weapons and throws it to the opposite direction on the floor, causing a noise. This causes Logan to fire and turn around just enough for Kevin to jump out and unload, but his knee gives away, causing him to miss and giving out his location.

Logan takes aim and pulls the trigger, but not before Kevin manages to get a clean shot at his leg, just above the knee, causing the rocket to just barely miss Kevin, exploding the wall behind him wide open.

Logan falls down and Kevin has an opportunity to take him out, but realizing he's still dangerous, Kevin instead just runs through the wall that was just torn open.

Suddenly, Kevin realizes where he is, as he pictures the layout of the facility in his head, and after a moment of thought, comes up with a plan and takes a left.

Logan's not done, however, and gets up despite his right leg being torn open. Logan has an immense threshold of pain, and even though the leg slows him down, it's nowhere close to stopping him. And Kevin didn't expect it to.

Kevin enters a room with and looks for something, until finally finding a fuse. He realized he was near the room with the main power controls for the facility, and blows up the fuse with his weapon, causing a blackout throughout the facility.

---

The sudden blackout catches Adam off guard, but his soldier instincts kick in immediately, as he realizes knows his one and only chance, comes out of hiding and fires away at where he remembers the guards being. The shots are not precise, as the weapons being fired provide the only lighting in the room, but judging from the screams, Adam knows he's managed to take out a number of them.

There's no time for a sigh of relief, though, as Adam suddenly experiences the sharp pain of skin being torn open, as he takes a blind bullet right through his left arm, falling down on the floor in pain.

He lets out a grunt loud of enough for Maria to realize that it really happened: Adam got shot.