CHAPTER 14: TAKEN SIDES, I'LL SAY.

Tanya looked at Victor, who she still pointed a gun at, he was whispering something. She did not care to listen. She went out of the room as gently as she could, careful not to make any sound. She was not sure of who had entered.

"Stubborn kid," Victor said as he tried to stand. "Like her father."

He heard shots. His body had quickly taken to a slight crouching posture. He straightened from it and limped to the door. He took Raymond's gun and left the room quickly and gently. He heard another shot and he crouched again. He felt something whiz past his ear moments before he heard a loud thud behind him. A stray bullet had chewed into the door behind him, he was grateful immediately. He glanced down at the sound of struggles that was erupting below him. He saw Tanya scuffling with a figure he thought to be a man in his early thirties. He grinned, Tanya was not that easy. Rock's experiment had worked on her.

He hurried down the stairs in quick and soft steps.

"Drop it mahn!" He said when he got behind the man wrestling with Tanya. Her hand was hung up in the air while the man was pointing a silenced pistol at her.

"Victor," the voice said and a face which Victor alone knew, looked behind. "Switched sides now, I see." Tanya was wrong. His voice was thicker.

"Taken sides, I'll say." Victor grinned, "Malik."

"A foolish move against the wining team." He said, looking intensely at Victor's eyes. "You know you'd lose, right?"

All those while they were talking, Tanya seized the opportunity. She felt the weight of the gun she held on her hand, it was not loaded. She instead, silently slipped behind a pillar and hoped for a miracle. Only Victor had seen this. This strange but foolish Malik still pointed a silenced pistol at the place Tanya once stood.

"I would not conclude it was a foolish move. That has always been your mistake, you jump too quickly into conclusions." Victor said, defiantly.

In a split second, Malik had brought a gun from his coat and had pointed it at Victor. He looked at Tanya, there was no time to be shocked. She was no longer there.

"I see," he said and changed the gun's position towards Victor. Now, both gun's faced Victor.

He shot immediately from both guns at Victor's direction. He was quick. Victor was quicker.

The moment Victor sensed the slight move of Malik's hand before he faced the gun at him, he had shot at Malik's chest while the bullets from Malik's gun shattered the TV screen behind Victor as he jumped into safety. He breathed out. It was a narrow escape and a calculated coincidence.

"Are you okay Tanya?" He said.

"Yes, I should." Tanya was adjusting her shoulder. She had hit it against the wall when she had jumped to safety from the bullet exchange. She feared she might get him by a stray bullet, the pillar could not protect her enough.

"We should move now Tanya." Victor said. He limped over Malik's motionless body to Tanya and stretched his hand as a gesture of help.

She slapped his hand away and stood herself. "I'm not limping."

"I'm limping, thank you very much!"

"Thanks to my dad." She heard a slight gasp. She glanced over her shoulder behind her, she raised her eyebrow and her voice. "He's not dead! Go!" She screamed as she jumped to safety.

"Bulletproof!" He sat and sprayed air with bullets that flew from the pistol he stretched towards them. Within moments, there was a loud click from an empty gun.

"Out of ammo!" Victor yelled at him.

"Not yet loser!" Malik yelled back. He fired shots from the submachine gun he had kept with him under his black coat for cases like this. "See?" He shouted amidst the shots, "you are all going to die!" He laughed loudly and hysterically amidst the loud shots from the gun.

For real this time, Tanya felt death coming towards her. She wondered about Victor. Would he be scared? She noticed her hand trembling. She bit her trembling lips in fear. Where she hid was not durable enough to take continuous and strong hits of bullets. She feared she might die soon.