Chapter 25 Friends

Gao Yang was only about twenty meters away from the restaurant and was quite close. He looked around, there was no fork in the road or alley to hide in. On the contrary, the Huaxia restaurant was at an intersection, adjacent to a street that was not very large.

Taking a deep breath, Gao Yang whispered, "We can't stay, as soon as the shooting starts, things will get messy. They seem to be waiting. Let's pretend we didn't see anything, walk past, and get to the alley."

After that, Gao Yang, suppressing the fear in his heart, walked towards the two gun barrels. After taking a couple of steps, he looked back and saw Bob, who was lowering his head as if he was shaking, but he followed anyway.

Gao Yang tried to act nonchalant as he and Bob approached the entrance of the Huaxia restaurant. They were now only four or five meters away from the two hidden gunmen. Fortunately, the gunmen did not open fire.

When they reached the street corner, Gao Yang didn't know whether to keep going straight and quickly pass the location where the gunmen were hiding or to turn into the alley. However, when Gao Yang noticed several people peeping at the gathering crowd on the main street, he immediately decided he would rather wander in the alley for an entire day than stay on the street to be a target or get trampled by a panicked crowd.

Suppressing the fear inside, Gao Yang turned into the narrower street, Bob following his turn. But Bob was so tense that he could hardly walk, and Gao Yang had to grab his arm and hasten his pace.

Gao Yang's heart was pounding extremely hard. After he had covered a few dozen meters, the fear of being under the gun barrels made him unable to stay calm any longer. He looked back and, seeing no one following them, whispered, "Run."

Bob was looking down, his body trembling intermittently, and he did not react to Gao Yang's words at first. Out of necessity, Gao Yang yanked Bob's arm and broke into a run.

Bob nearly fell when Gao Yang pulled him. It took a lot of effort for Gao Yang to stabilize him. But as soon as Bob realized what was happening, he too started to run frantically.

Gao Yang and Bob had not run far when a gunshot suddenly sounded behind them. Then, gunfire rang out in unison. At least a dozen guns were firing simultaneously to create such a barrage.

Upon hearing the gunshots, Gao Yang and Bob both sped up their sprint, running for their lives along the houses lining the street. At that moment, Gao Yang saw cement chips mixed with bricks flying out from the wall beside him, and then small pits appeared on the wall. It was then that Bob, running beside Gao Yang, suddenly fell to the ground.

Seeing Bob fall, Gao Yang didn't have time to think. He stopped, grabbed Bob's arm, and started dragging him.

"I've been shot!"

After Bob yelled out loud, he started to crawl on the ground using his hands and feet, coordinating with Gao Yang to move faster. At that moment, Gao Yang noticed a shop's entrance just behind him. He dragged Bob, exerting all his strength, a few steps forward, trying to get inside the shop.

As Gao Yang dragged Bob to the entrance, he saw a South Asian man, holding an axe, staring at them in horror. Gao Yang yelled, "Help me, pull him in."

The South Asian man shook his head in fear and then was about to close the door. Gao Yang got desperate, he pushed against the shop's door and shouted, "Let us in, there's shooting outside, do you want to watch us die?"

Gao Yang was really anxious. If the South Asian man still wouldn't let him in, he was ready to force his way inside. They could now hear the terrified screams of people on the main street and the chaos of footsteps, and the gunfire was becoming more frantic. However, there was good news now that the shop's doorway extended outward a bit, and Gao Yang and Bob were under the protection of the brick wall.

Temporarily, there was no need to worry about getting shot, but if they couldn't take shelter inside the shop, Gao Yang dreaded to think what would happen next. Just as he let go of Bob's arm, about to snatch the axe from the South Asian man to force their way into the shop, the man suddenly blurted out a question.

"Are you Huaxia People?"

Gao Yang, taken aback for a moment, then shouted loudly, "Yes, I am Huaxia People, let us in quickly."

Upon hearing Gao Yang say he was Huaxia People, the South Asian man dropped the axe, opened the wooden door, then grabbed one of Bob's arms and, together with Gao Yang, pulled Bob into the shop.

As soon as they entered the shop, the South Asian man immediately shouted, "Give me a hand."

With the South Asian man's help, Gao Yang lowered the outer roller shutter, then closed and locked the wooden shop door before he finally breathed a huge sigh of relief.

After closing the door, Gao Yang immediately ran to Bob, who was sitting on the ground, and asked urgently, "Where did you get shot? Let me see."

Bob, a bit embarrassed, pointed to his left knee and said, "It seems I wasn't shot. Look, there's no blood. But it really hurt a lot just now, so I thought I had been shot."

Gao Yang looked at Bob's knee and noticed a gray mark there. He let out a long sigh of relief, patted Bob's knee hard, and said, "You scared the hell out of me, you bastard. It's just a scratch from a fragment, alright?"

"Sorry, but it really hurts, it hurts so damn much. Under the circumstances just now, of course, I thought I'd been shot."

Realizing that Bob hadn't actually been shot, just hit by a piece of cement or brick from the bullet, Gao Yang finally let go of his worry. He too sat down on the ground, gasping for air. Although they hadn't entirely escaped danger, at least they were temporarily safe.

"I'm sorry for how I treated you earlier, but these are sensitive times, especially for foreigners, who are very much in danger. I had to be cautious. I'm really sorry."

The South Asian man, holding an axe at the entrance, spoke nervously to Gao Yang. Gao Yang got up from the ground, nodded to the South Asian man, and said, "But in the end, you still let us in. Thank you."

"Are you really from Huaxia? Say something in Chinese for me to hear."

"Hello."

After hearing Gao Yang say "hello" in Chinese, the South Asian man smiled and said, "You are from Huaxia, that's why I let you in. I can speak a few simple words in Chinese; hello, goodbye, things like that. I have a friend from Huaxia, he works at the restaurant on the corner. Did you see which restaurant earlier? Foreigners are very dangerous now, extremely dangerous. People say Gaddafi has hired a lot of mercenaries; we must stay away from them. But you are from Huaxia, that is naturally different."

Gao Yang was curious. "Why? Why is it not a problem for Huaxia people?"

The South Asian man put down the axe and extended his hand to Gao Yang with a smile, "I am from Pakistan, friend."

Realization dawned on Gao Yang, and he grabbed the South Asian man's hand, shaking it vigorously, "I see, I'm really grateful to you, friend."

"My name is Malik, from Karachi. I'm happy to meet you here, friend, but we'll have to chat later. I need to close the windows; it's too dangerous like this."

After a brief introduction, Malik picked up the axe again and peered out the shop window. Gao Yang also walked up to the window and took a look outside. It was then that he saw someone step out of the shop across the street and look out.

"Get inside, do you want to get shot?"

Both Gao Yang and Malik shouted loudly at the same time, but while Gao Yang yelled in English, Malik used Arabic. Unfortunately, just as they shouted, the person looking out on the street burst into a cloud of blood and fell to the ground.

Just as the person on the street fell, Gao Yang and the others saw two people run over quickly, both holding guns. One of them, as they passed by the body on the ground, suddenly stopped, aimed at the head of the person struggling to crawl back to their shop, and fired a shot.

Brain matter splattered everywhere, hitting the glass window in front of Gao Yang, and after a smack, began to slowly slide down, leaving a white mark.

Gao Yang and Malik exchanged a frightened look, then immediately darted behind the wall beside the display window, followed by the sound of a gunshot shattering the window glass all over the floor.

Malik stood beside the window, axe in hand. Gao Yang looked around and realized the shop they were hiding in was a tool store, filled with various hardware and power tools—no lack of weapons. He immediately ran to the shelf, grabbed two long-handled axes, and even Bob, who had been sitting on the ground, got up and picked up a long steel crowbar, standing behind Gao Yang.

Gao Yang tossed one of the long-handled axes to Malik, who caught it and casually placed the shorter axe he was holding on the windowsill. The three of them, armed with weapons, prepared to deal a heavy blow to the heads of any thugs who might try to crawl through the window.

Gao Yang had seen clearly earlier; the shooter was a black youth, and he looked quite young—only about fourteen or fifteen—but his actions were extremely cruel. Even an incapacitated person received an additional shot to the head. Gao Yang would never let such a person burst into the shop.

Thankfully, the young black gunman didn't seem intent on entering the shop. After firing a few shots into the window, he hurriedly ran away. As the sound of footsteps faded, Malik whispered, "We need to find a way to seal the window. Damn it, I should have installed protective grilles on the windows long ago."

The shop was full of tools, and they had no shortage of materials to seal the window. Working together, the three quickly covered the window with wooden boards and long iron rods. There were still gaps, but it was no longer possible for anyone to break in.

While Gao Yang and the others were sealing the window, a large crowd of frightened people began to pour onto the street. Fortunately, no one tried to storm the shop, but after the crowd passed, the gunfire didn't stop. The intermittent shooting continued, some of it very close to them.

Gao Yang and his companions listened anxiously to the noises outside the door. When the street finally quieted down, and Gao Yang thought they were completely safe, sudden gunshots rang out at the entrance, aimed right into the shop. Bullets pierced the iron roller door and shredded the wooden door inside, sending wood chips flying everywhere.