New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 910  Thirty Seconds

Sergeant Trudeau stared at Alex with uncertainty.

"I can't do that, kid. I know what you intend to do. There is no way I'll let the possible deaths go up from two to fifty. These people need to be brought to justice, not sent to hell. This isn't how society should work. We aren't in the dark ages anymore."

Alex smirked at him.

"How long will this pretense of society hold up once people start dying, Trudeau? Do you think the family and friends of these two hostages will stay on the side and do nothing after Anthony and Diego die?"

The Sergeant looked at him with a frown.

"How do you know the hostages' names?"

A chuckle escapes Alex's lips.

"Did you think I just passed nearby and jumped at the action? I was called here. I may not know the entire situation yet, but that shouldn't take too long. Once I hear the breadth of it, I will choose whether to go soft-handed or hard-handed.

"The questions are the following: Will your men still be there to interfere with the results? Will civilians get caught in the crossfire? Or will you do the right thing, and protect those that deserve to be protected?"

The Sergeant was left in a difficult position.

Either he stopped Alexander from acting, or rather, tried stopping him, and this devolved into a three-way standoff. Or he let him take action and evacuated the up-right people of the neighbourhood to ensure they stayed out of harm's way.

He was stuck between deciding the fate of honest people over the lives of a bunch of thugs. In any other circumstance, this choice would have been easy.

But he knew what awaited these thugs. It was nothing pretty.

Alex let him stew for a few seconds, as he knew the weight of the decision he was asking him to take. But as he was about to tell him to hurry up and choose, the radio on his shoulder screeched alive.

"Sir! The Los Segadores are bringing out someone in their front yard! I think it's one of the hostages!"

Alex's face grew stiff instantly.

'Fuck! Are they losing patience with the cops hanging around? If they kill either one of the hostages, Elise will chew my head off, and she'll never join us.'

The Sergeant grabbed his radio.

"Do you see weapons?!"

"Yes, sir! They looked armed, all of them!"

He clicked his tongue in anger.

"Did any of you morons try to be a hero and go against my orders to stand down? Why are they suddenly reacting like this?"

"It wasn't us, sir! A civilian walked up and yelled something at them! And now they are all getting riled up! There are more and more of them walking out and taking position in the windows!"

Alex heard this and frowned.

'Who the fuck is stupid enough to walk up on a gang and rile them up?' he thought.

But a person's face crossed his mind, and his face dropped.

'Don't tell me…' n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

His neuro-phone rang in his ear, and his blood froze. It was Kary calling him.

He quickly answered, trying hard not to speak his words out loud.

"What is it? I'm trying to get the police to back down. What is happening over there?" he asked, not even saying 'hello,' first.

"You'll never guess who showed up here, telling me to call you and stay out of this…"

Alex's mind jerked to a stop.

"Please tell me you told him to fuck off…"

"Trust me, nothing pleased me more than doing it. But he doesn't care. He told us he was going to solve our problem, as he always intended to do. I don't think this will end well for these guys. But I'm afraid he'll get Anthony and Diego killed…"

While the Sergeant shouted at his men to get the situation under control, and get the civilians away before this turned into a shootout, Alex kicked the van doors open.

"Where the fuck are you going?! Is this your doing?!" Sergeant Trudeau barked at Alex.

"If it were, I wouldn't have to jump in! I don't have time to entertain you anymore! This guy is going to kill everyone, and he isn't going to be careful about it! If I don't get those hostages out, they'll die, too!" Alex shouted back, as he jumped into the sky, wings appearing on his back.

He flew as quickly as he physically could, crossing the few streets' distance in seconds, before borrowing Asmodeus' powers again, and reaching into the building, where three thugs were guarding another person.

He pulled on his essence, teleporting him away from them and into his arms as he landed in the front yard, pushing away the thugs encircling Diego, who was on his knees, and wrapping his wings around the three of them, forming a dome.

Bullets immediately started tearing the air, as the thugs reacted to the sudden appearance of another person on their turf. Alex held his wings in place, until the dinging of metal on metal stopped, and the gunshots died down.

Pulling them back, a dust cloud surrounded him and the two people before him as the bullets ricocheted off his wings and into the dry ground around him. And there were not just a few holes around him.

The ground at his feet looked like a strainer, and the holes were still smoking.

He heard a familiar voice from outside the dust cloud and growled.

"Stand back, hero. I got this," David said, arrogance heavy in his tone.

"Boss! Who the fuck is that guy?! We just emptied forty clips on him, and he's still standing!" a thug sitting on a windowsill in the house's second floor asked.

Alex teleported out, taking Diego and Anthony with him, but not before whispering just loud enough for David and, unfortunately, Anthony, who was in his arms, to hear.

"Try not to kill bystanders, you fucking moron."

David burst out into laughter as the dust settled, the yard now empty of Alex and the two hostages.

"Hahahaha! You asked me if I was the hero, when I got here, didn't you, tough guy?" he asked the boss, who was standing behind a row of armed men, who were done reloading their guns.

"What kind of fucking loony are you?! You just saw us blaze this dude up, and you stood there, with not a shit to give!" the gangster shouted back.

David laughed again.

"If bullets were enough to take care of that guy, he would have been dead a long time ago. You don't have what it takes to leave a scratch on him. That one, he was the hero. He swooped in to save the hostages you were holding.

"Me? I couldn't care less if they died or not. Taking out fifty scumbags in exchange for two lives? That's a bargain in my book. I told you earlier I wasn't the hero. Let me tell you what I really am!" David shouted, raising his hands in the sky.

His shadow started shaking under his feet, but the thug didn't care to wait and see what was about to happen.

"Light him up! Make him regret he was ever born, as he meets with god!" the thug boss ordered.

Guns blazed again, this time aimed at the street.

There was no metallic echo this time, and the thug laughed as he imagined this douche getting riddled with holes for fucking with him.

Once the clips were emptied again, the man on the window sill couldn't believe his eyes.

As David had been standing in the street, there was no dust to kick up, and he remained clear as day.

Standing before him, a figure towering by a head's height looked at the thugs as his leather armour smoked from the bullets that had hit him so many times.

And behind him, David started laughing like a madman.

"Ahahahaha! You thought bullets would deal with me? Ahahahaha! I may not be the hero of this story. But let me tell you what I am, gentlemen. I am not here to save people. I am here to take what is due. I AM DEATH, AND YOUR LIVES ARE MINE!" David roared, as his shadow suddenly covered the entire front yard.

Not even a second later, hands started popping out of it, as an army of skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghosts, and revenants popped out of the ground, dozens at a time, surrounding the men by sheer force of numbers.

The yard was so full of undead that you couldn't throw a rock without hitting an undead of some sort. And they looked ravenous as their eyes gleamed red.

"Feast, my friends! Feast on the flesh of the sinful! Send them to our father, Hades!" David shouted, as the undead jumped into action, the Death Knight standing at his side, grinning at the massacre that took place.

The undead outnumbered the living by five to one, and it was all over in thirty seconds. But those thirty seconds would forever be engraved in the onlookers' minds, whether they were present or watching through the live feed from the overhead drones.

And they would remember the screams and blood until the day they died, whether that be sooner or later.