Gunblade: The Rebellion of Cain

Gunblade: The Rebellion of Cain - Part 3

Chapter 8 - Avenging Demon: Cain Unleashed

The first gunshot didn't raise anyone's suspicions beyond what they already knew was transpiring within the large room where the interrogation was taking place.  The screams, the shouting and the light bark of the monitor's pistol were all expected.  However, the second gunshot sounded all wrong to the group of men standing in the hallway and in the makeshift lobby of the building by the large black sedans that were trademark Triumvirate vehicles.  The second gunshot rumbled out of the room, filled with more bass and power.  The most observant of the group soon came to realize that the second gunshot came from a gun very similar to the one packed in his underarm holster.  He instinctively moved to draw his own Desert Eagle and launched himself down the hall.  Seconds later, the rest of the group were in motion.  He barked orders to the team.

"You three stay there,” he shouted over his shoulder to the men outside positioned at three points around the monitor's sedan. 

"The rest of you are with me!  Standard infiltration pattern, and form up on my lead."  They closed on the room through the twisting hallways displaying a tactical acumen not even found in most police units.  Leapfrogging each other from corner to doorway, never dropping cover, they quickly closed in on the room.  They almost drowned in the eerie silence that seemed to be palpably emanating from the room.  Approaching, the point man in the formation drew a closed fist up over his shoulder to signal to the rest of the group that they should slow their approach.  Taking up position in a dimly lit corner of the hallway outside of the room, the point man motioned for two of the enforcers to take up position on either side of the door, which turned out to be the only exit. 

The screams echoing the halls had ceased and he couldn't hear any motion coming from within the room.  Now that he was stationary behind the cover of an adjacent doorway, his heartbeat slowed enough for him to hear a soft moaning, or sobbing emanating from within.  The details of what transpired hit him all at once as if he had been slapped in the face.  The sobbing, the silence of the monitor and his men on the inside of the room as well as the muffled sounds of anguish could only mean one thing.  He and his team were facing one of the most deadly individuals ever forged in the fires of combat and training.  He knew the price of rebellion in the Triumvirate.  As a member of the organization, the consequences of dissent and the inability to perform was well understood.  He also understood the price of failure and what would happen to him if he didn't attempt to take down the deadliest of the Swords of the Triumvirate.  With that, he signaled to his team to breach.  Based on their hesitation, they had come to the same slow realization that he had.  Each of them preferred death to failure.  His team surged, breaching the room.

Cain's mind froze, a rush of thoughts and feelings roiling inside him as his soul shattered like that of a mirror.  For all his might and strength, he wasn't fast enough or strong enough to prevent the death of his most beloved.  Waves of denial washed over him as he attempted to think of what he could do to bring her back.  Panic slowly began to creep in as with each passing second, he knew that any hope of helping her was slowly vanishing.  He could almost feel her life fading further and further away from any possibility of return.  All he could do his to rock back and forth, cradling her still and limp form.  His reality was slowly unraveling as he began to collapse under a tidal force of grief and horror.  He was aware of the men outside the room.  He had expected there would be a small army attached to the monitor if they had any hope to take him down.  He heard their soft shell boots grind across the floor outside the room.  He routinely registered that there was no escape from the room save for the single door on the opposite side of the room.  In this situation he understood that his training was more than a system of behaviors that had been ingrained into him far before he could remember.  They were part of who he was.  They were also part of what had been responsible for the death of his wife and all he held dear.  He wanted to die.  He wondered what it would feel like if he let the assault team outside strike him down.  He would leave the stark pain of an uncertain existence.  He knew he didn't know how to live or survive without her.  How could he possibly go on?  What would his life be like without her?