PROJECT SPARTA

CHAPTER 34

The Compound

2011

Xander was running down the cold, snowy streets of an unfamiliar city. It was a grimy metropolis littered with drunks and hobos bundled in blankets. Xander realized that he was carrying a gun, by the weight that tugged at the back of his pants. At first, he didn't know if he was chasing someone or being chased as he sprinted down an alley and came out on an adjacent street. There he saw someone ahead who was running and looking back over their shoulder at him.

I guess I'm chasing that person, he thought, unsure of where he was or what he was doing.

He followed the figure into an abandoned apartment complex that had graffiti all over its exterior. Rats crawled down the hallway as he raised his gun and aimed ahead, combing the first floor of the complex. He brought his ear to his corner cover. No footsteps. The person he was tailing must have taken a position and was awaiting his arrival. Each time he rounded a corner his pistol turned to meet a barren wall. He was nearing the end of the hallway but as he did a pistol came out from behind the corner and fired aimless rounds in his general direction. He immediately flung himself to a wall for cover as if it was a magnet, sucking him in.

He followed the hallway around where he could effectively flank the shooter. When he heard the reloading of a magazine and the final snap he popped out from the corner and steadied his gun on the back of the figure.

"Freeze! Drop your gun..." The figure's hands raised in surrender, loosening its grip on the gun. Just as Xander stepped toward the figure, it lunged to the side and fired at will. A couple of bullets zoomed by his head, while one caught him in the shoulder.

But before the figure could continue the firefight, Xander shot three rounds into the person's chest. Blood squirted up at the point of impact.

Shot in the shoulder, Xander approached his target and saw a pale face look up at him. There were locks of red hair that poked out from her skull cap. It was Fiona – her breath froze in the cold air with each exhale. A fire blazed behind her glacier blue eyes. And blood had begun to flood her teeth.

Xander shocked and trembling looked down at Fiona and whispered through tears, "I'm sorry".

Fiona snarled up at him and spat a wad of blood in his face, growling, "Nothing is as it seems!"

Xander awoke – his trembling hand wiped his sweating brow. He fell back on the pillows and focused on his breathing, trying to calm his heart rate.

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Xander's body lay rigid throughout the night as his mind raced through different schemes.