UNWANTED HOSTAGES

It seems that even after arriving in the city, we can’t catch a break. I didn’t imagine it would be this difficult to find a cure, but I’ll get this over with as soon as possible.

“Masashi, Riko, it would be bad to fight them here. Let’s escape with a smoke grenade and go back to the first floor,” I said in a rush, standing up and about to leave.

“Just tell me when, and I’ll make this whole floor a cloud of smoke,” said Masashi, with the grenade in his hand, crouching close to the door.

“W-wait, not so quickly. Where do you think you’re going!?” said a person in a tone I never thought I’d hear him use, hiding behind a chair.

“Y-yeah, that’s right, General Kouji! They need to escort us and risk their lives for us!” said an official while holding his ears to block the sounds of gunshots outside. The whole room of higher-ups was panicking like they’d never seen a battle in their lives.

“Risk my life for you? That’s not a funny joke to say at this moment,” said Masashi, standing up and confronting the scared crowd.

“That’s too bad. You’ll be kicked out of the army if you let us die. They know you were with us during this attack,” said Kouji, gaining a little confidence, similar to the attitude he once displayed, though still not even comparable.

“There’s nothing we can do, Masashi. We need the army’s support from now on,” I said, walking toward the general.

“But Ryo—”

“Give us your guns right now, and stop pissing your pants so much. The customers might see it when we go down,” I said, holding out my hand to him.

“I want my salary doubled this month for this,” said Riko, choosing her weapons too.

“Take this knife too; it will come in handy at some point,” said Kouji, handing it to me.

“Are you guys ready? We’ll clear the hallway, and then you guys follow us,” said Masashi, reluctantly agreeing to protect them.

“Wait, I’m fighting too,” said Naoya, preparing his rifle.

“Do as you wish, just don’t stand in our way too much,” I said, peeking into the hallway. There were six people dressed in hoodies, walking in groups of two and checking for the higher-ups, probably. I signaled their position to Masashi and Riko, then simply nodded and got out of the room simultaneously with them. Each one of us three took out one group before they had the time to react.

“Ryo, be careful. There’s still some noise coming from the other rooms on the floor,” said Masashi, while checking if the guys were dead.

“They’re just some regular people wearing masks and hoodies. They don’t have any special equipment besides this weird gauntlet on their forearm,” I said while kneeling to observe one of them.

“H-how are you guys fighting so well?” said Naoya, speechless about our actions, standing in the middle of the hallway. “I thought you came from a village.”

“Killing people who were born in the city and rely only on inventions is easier than hunting animals in the woods when you’re hungry and have nothing else to eat,” I said while standing up and walking past him.

“But you need special military training to know how to attack as organized as this.”

“The woods don’t care about anyone—not about me, nor about you. We had to move together in order to see tomorrow,” I said, getting closer to his face.

“Leave him alone, Ryo. He’s still getting his food with delivery drones like everyone in the city,” said Riko, laughing with Masashi about him.

“It’s not my fault I was born in the city!” he said, bumping into me and walking toward the balcony where the plates were. “We need to escort General Kouji and the rest—”

Suddenly, an explosion sent the door of another room flying, and numerous other enemies rushed toward us.

“Shit, we need to get back to the room,” I said while taking Riko with me back inside.

“Gotta hide quickly; I can’t avoid the gunfire,” said Masashi, hiding behind a floor scrubber robot while getting shot at.

“This is a special governmental site. Forces that exceed 125 newtons are not tolerated,” said the robot, activating because of the gunfire.

“I swear this can’t be real,” he said, fed up with his encounters with robots.

“Don’t move, or your friend dies. You’ll give us what we want,” said an enemy, holding Naoya, who was too slow to react, hostage.

“What do you want from us!?” said Kouji, who was the closest he’d ever been to the door so far, hearing the man demand something.

“We want all of the officials as hostages, and in exchange for that, we’ll give back your friend.”

“You got it wrong; he’s not our—”

“Let them believe that until we attack again,” I said, covering Riko’s mouth and keeping the confusion going. “Ouch! Why did you hit me for!?”

“I couldn’t breathe, you idiot. I got it now. Let’s pretend we’ll give one hostage, then shoot them.”

And so that’s what we did. I walked to General Kouji, grabbed him, and pushed him outside the door.

“H-hold on, what are you doing?” he said, panicking.

“Keep your hands on your head and act as a hostage. And don’t move—I don’t wanna miss my targets,” I said, standing behind him with the gun concealed.

“Just one of them? I said we need everyone from that room.”

“We’re clearly outnumbered here, and there’s nothing we can do. Release our friend first.”

“That’s fine, but follow up and release him immediately after we do it. And don’t try anything,” he said, pushing Naoya toward us.

At that moment, I took a full second to analyze the surroundings and prepare for the attack.

“Why is everyone standing in the open like that? This might be easier than I expected,” I uttered to myself before shooting the one I thought was their leader.

“Impossible. He blocked it with his arm?” said Riko, reacting to my action and opening fire with me.

“I warned you guys—shoot all of them right now!” he shouted, pointing at us to his subordinates.

“Dammit, I guess I’ll have to use it now,” said Masashi, throwing a smoke grenade and picking up Naoya from the floor. “This isn’t your place, city boy. Get inside the room.”

And here we were, back to where we started—in the meeting room.

“Did I see that right? They all just blocked the bullets with their arms!” said Riko, mimicking the weird stance I noticed they had, with their forearms protecting their heads.

“That’s not possible. Besides, wouldn’t they be bleeding by now?” said Masashi, peeking at the hallway while the enemies kept shooting at our room.

“It has to do with the gauntlet they’re wearing. The previous guys had it too, but they didn’t get the chance to use it,” I said, remembering that weird forearm thing.

“Do you guys know anything about it?” said Masashi, looking at the higher-ups.

“We’re not the weaponry department...” said Naoya, responding for all of them.

“Boring. That doesn’t mean you can’t learn about it. How did you guys even survive so far?” asked Riko, shrugging her shoulders.

“Hey, what do you think you are doing?” said Kouji after seeing me sneak my gun outside and pull the trigger.

“We can’t speculate all day about what that gauntlet is. The best thing to do is to take action.”

“Sir, how long are they going to keep shooting back pointlessly?” asked a subordinate, doing something that caught my attention.

“You guys have one minute before we tear off the walls of your room,” said their leader confidently.

“Dammit, we gotta do something fast before that. Is there nothing in this room useful besides national flags and medals?” I said, searching in the drawers.

“Attention, personnel. The level of stickiness in the area has exceeded 75 score. I will begin automatic cleaning,” said the robot, probably detecting the mess we made.

“I see. That might be it!,” I said, grabbing Kouji again and standing close to the door.

“What are you planning, Ryo?” asked Masashi, reloading his gun.

“There’s only one way to find out,” I said, exposing Kouji again in the open. “Alright, fine. We’ll release them if you let us leave.”

“Who would believe you after what you’ve done?” said a subordinate, raising his rifle.

“That’s fine. He can release him now to prove yourself,” said their leader, signaling his people to lower their guns.

“Thank you. You’ll get him... now!” I shouted, shooting one bullet into one of their forearms.

“What a shame. I thought we were on the same page regarding your bosses. Didn’t you already see your attacks have no effect—?”

“Sometimes you gotta be more insistent when you wanna get something,” I said, firing another bullet, then another, eventually emptying my mag.

“Ugh, it broke through it? I... can’t believe it,” said the subordinate I just shot.

“Damn you, what did you do!?”

“It’s time for our comeback,” I said, reloading and getting ready to start the show.