Haymaker: Part 1 of the Hayflick Series

Chapter 7

Cruz was becoming more and more nervous by the second. The two men on the platform were bloodied and sweaty, burns on different spots of their bodies due to the fucking electric fence in place of boundary ropes — and worse yet, neither man showed any sign of relenting.

In fact, Cruz could nearly see the sick looks in their eyes as they beat each other into oblivion.

Thomas had turned away a while ago, unable to bear watching his colleague beat up his brother. Of course, he would sneak a glance every now and then, probably to check if Thierry was indeed still alive, before once again taking great interest in the shoes he'd put on today.

Cruz tapped his watch impatiently, heavily considering climbing up the fence and dragging the two men away to... where? Honestly, Cruz hadn't the slightest idea of which way the exit to the parking garage was. Not to mention how they'd wrest over possession of Thierry from the 20+ Ambrose workers in this one room.

And as if on cue, the fire alarm went off. A golden few seconds passed as Thomas made eye contact with Cruz, and Cruz made eye contact with Jaeger, and Jaeger looked at Thierry, and Thierry finally snapped out of his daze and looked at Thomas.

Chaos ensued. The crowd began to chatter and mill about as the woman in charge conferred with the people beside her in a controlled panic. In the midst of the noise, Jaeger pulled Thierry close and muttered something in his ear — Thierry drank in every word, eyes brightening.

The intercom came on. "Attention, everyone. There is a fire in the building — this is not a drill. Please exit in an orderly manner, and follow staff through the nearest exit to the muster point."

The mass of people did as told, and soon enough, only the boxers and a few guards remained. The buzzing of the fence calmed down to nothing, and the fence itself promptly began to lower.

Cruz looked at Thomas. This was the moment of truth, and they couldn't afford to fuck this up.

The radio of one of the ten remaining guards in the room buzzed. When the transmission came through, Cruz felt his heart stop.

"The guards with the new immortal... they're not really guards... stop... leaving the..."

The temperature of the room dropped a few degrees. All eyes fell onto Cruz and Thomas.

Thomas didn't hesitate.

He pulled out his pistol. His first shot didn't miss, the bullet traveling straight through the closest guard's forehead. The second shot skimmed past another man's shoulder. The third missed completely, and the fourth into another man's hand as he reached for his own gun.

Cruz pulled Thomas behind a stack of metal drums, shots whiffing where Thomas had been standing a mere second ago. Thomas did a double take, realizing that Cruz's gun was still holstered.

"You gonna help?" Thomas barked, his voice unlike how he'd ever heard it before.

Cruz's mouth went dry. "Did I not just do so?" The man unholstered his own pistol with sweaty hands, and before Thomas could answer, fired two shots at an approaching guard's feet, toppling the man over.

The two men looked up at the sound of the shaking fence. Thierry had just mounted it and jumped down onto the floor into a roll, shoving a fist into a guard's gut, tugging the man's arm, and bringing his leg down on it, resulting in a sickening crunch. Jaeger jumped down next, sweeping the nearest guard's feet and snatching a baton off of him and knocking him upside the head with it.

Thomas shot Cruz a strange look. "If you want to help, give me some cover." Cruz nodded tersely and stood up, shooting off a few more shots, not a single one missing. Of course, they weren't aimed to kill, just to debilitate. Thomas left his cover and made a beeline for Thierry, firing off several shots along the way.