Another Threat

The alarms were blaring furiously. Glass was everywhere and an entire crowd of people was cowering on the ground. Seeing this, Rin immediately turned to run the other way and look for another exit, but he was immediately stopped in his tracks.

Another, albeit smaller group of armed terrorists were walking in to corner the people trying to flee. They brought with them a few mall security officers to add to the crowd. With no way out, the only thing Rin could do was wait for an opportunity. 

He was forced to sit near Klein. Lena was a bit further back than him and Miles sat at the front because he hadn't made it out of the building in time. Once all the hostages had settled down, the armed men made their way to the entrance to join the rest of their group. 

As they did, the lady who seemed to be leading this whole thing spoke up.

"Do anything suspicious and you're dead meat."

She looked over all the faces staring back at her.

*Bang, bang, bang*
She fired three rounds into the ceiling suddenly. And as the sound reverberated throughout the entire mall, she spoke again.

"Save me the trouble of finding you and just come out, Klein."

Before Rin could even ask, Klein answered immediately.

"Yes. I know her and it's a long story."

"What does she want?"

"...You'll find out soon."

He slowly stood up after saying that and the terrorist lady immediately locked eyes with him. She stormed over with two of her men following closely behind. Their footsteps echoed loudly against the floor.

*Tap, tap, tap*
Rin looked back at Lena. She would die by the end of the day. That was the only thing he knew right now. 

*Tap, tap, tap*
He examined his surroundings. The escalator next to him stood out immediately, but it wouldn't be very helpful given how obvious of an escape plan it was. Much more important was the positioning of the terrorists. None of them were stationed at the back of the crowd. 

*Tap, tap, tap*
Rin pressed his hand against his forehead as he thought about how he could use that information. He thought and thought, but no matter how he looked at the situation, it was obvious he needed some kind of distraction first.

Complete silence. The tapping had stopped. Rin looked back up and saw Klein and the terrorist's leader standing right in front of each other. The former spoke first.

"Eva...", he said.

"...The stasis bomb. Where is it?"

Klein subtly shifted his eyes over to Rin before responding.

"If you're talking about the pocket watch, I don't know."

Eva lashed out immediately but not at Klein. She swung around and struck one of her men. He slumped onto the floor and went completely limp. Klein didn't seem too surprised by this as Eva turned her attention to him once more.

"Same question.", she said.

"Same answer. I don't know. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

This time, at first, she didn't have any over the top reaction. She simply got closer to Klein and asked him another question.

"You really want to do this?"

Klein wasn't given any time to respond. 

Without any kind of warning, Eva kicked him hard in the shin, forcing his leg to buckle under him. Then she pressed on it with her foot, upping the pressure more and more as he shouted in pain.

*SNAP*
Klein screamed even louder as his bones shattered, and his leg was rendered completely useless. But Eva never let up. She kicked Klein in the face and sent him flying onto his back. 

"Don't give me that crap!"

She sat on top of Klein's torso as she punched him in the face. 

"You and your guys were watching it!"

She punched him over and over again. 

"How the hell could you... have lost it!"

The time between each of her attacks grew smaller and smaller with every word out of her mouth. She eventually devolved into a blind fit of rage as she continued striking her victim in the face. 

"Either you're lying to me or just incompetent! Either way, it's a bullet in your skull!"

Almost every single person's attention was fixed on the senseless violence going on between the two of them. And almost nobody could find it in them to look away from the beating taking place in front of them. Almost being the keyword.

Rin was crouching beneath the underside of the escalator now. He'd managed to slip away from the scene, unnoticed. Before doing anything else though, he decided to quickly take stock of his inventory. 

Although he'd almost forgotten, he was still carrying the paper bag. So, the only tools he had available to him were some cash, a portable voice recorder, his phone, and his newly acquired wristwatch. Once he registered this, he equipped the watch to his left wrist and took off his shoes, before obscuring them as best as possible.

Afterwards, he took a moment to check on Lena. She was scared, but still alive. And he intended to keep it that way. He took off in the opposite direction of the crowd, using the escalator's cover to obscure himself from anyone who might have been aware enough to catch him. 

***

Thanks to him only having his socks on, Rin was able to run great distances without making any noise at all. While he was able to get away however, there was still the issue of where he would go after this. 

He tried his best, but unsurprisingly, it was difficult for him to come up with a way to deal with the numerous and very dangerous armed criminals occupying the front entrance of the mall. 

He had no weapons of his own, and even if he did, his physical abilities weren't anything to write home about. As evident by how quickly he had run out of breath and was forced to stop and take a break. A voice emanated from his wristwatch. 

"So, what's the plan?"

"I'm still... working on it."

Still gasping for air and clutching his side slightly, Rin walked and walked and somehow brought himself to the second floor before his reflection spoke again. 

"What are you doing right now?"

"I need to see how things look outside before I can come up with anything."

He trudged down an empty hallway and eventually found what he was looking for. It was a door and opening it brought him face to face with the outside air. There was no time for him to take in the refreshing atmosphere, however. 

He looked over the edge of the building, into the parking lot below him, and saw an entire army of men stationed outside the front entrance of the mall.

"God, there's got to be... around two hundred of them.", he said.

"We already know the police are making their way over thanks to Klein, but no one's getting through that any time soon."

"Will they even try? All Eva has to do is use the hostages inside to avoid a shootout. She's got full control here."

Rin spent a bit longer examining the situation before deciding there was no way he could wait for the police to resolve everything. He leaned his back against the stone rail as he sat down.

"Is she really going to..."

His voice trailed off as he looked down at his wristwatch. It wasn't to look at his reflection but rather the strap connecting the watch to his wrist. For a while, he couldn't bring himself to say anything, but there was only one conclusion he could come to. 

He breathed heavily.

"...There's nothing I can do. 

I have to let her die."