The trap's jaws close

On a roof of a five-story building somewhere near Chainsaws Base, a man in a camouflage cloak was scanning the surroundings through a pair of binoculars. Nearby, another man, dressed in a white t-shirt and pants, was sitting on warm concrete nearby.

"I see the targets. On two o'clock, moving towards the base. You owe me a thousand," the cloaked man suddenly said. His voice was barely above a whisper, but the other man heard him perfectly.

"Damn!" the t-shirt man stood up and kicked away a small piece of rubble. "Alright, got it!"

He rushed to the stairs that led from the roof. His speed was inhumane; in a blink of an eye he crossed the whole roof, and in the next one he was already jumping down to the next flight of stairs. In just a couple of jumps, the t-shirt man got to an inconspicuous apartment. He opened it with a loud bang.

"Boss! The targets are there!"

Inside, two men were playing a game of cards. Both were bulky in stature and were dressed in military-style clothes. One had a scar that crossed half of his face and one of his eyes that was replaced with a bionic prosthetic. In comparison, another man looked ordinary. That man stood up first. His lips curved into a bone-chilling smirk.

"Good. Beetle, take Bloodhound and make sure they won't have anywhere to run. Eugen, let's go greet these two…" he said.

The t-shirt man, whose name was Beetle, nodded and run back towards the roof. Eugen, the man with a bionic eye, stood up from his place and kneaded his shoulder with a hand.

"Finally. If this woman is neither as pretty as you were told, nor as powerful, you are going to owe me for this week, Cole," he grumbled with a roll of his eyes. "I thought I'm going to die from boredom."

Cole kept smirking as he walked out of the room. His steps were fast, but not frantic. "Sure, sure. At the very least, she is a new face—I know you like those!"

Eugen sighed, but followed without another word. Soon, the two of them walked out on the street. Both hid their presences, but in this area people from Chainsaws Base had cleaned out most of the zombies, and no one tried to go for Eugen and Cole's cores. From where they stood, they could see their targets perfectly as they rode on their bicycle.

In front was Eve Ziffer—either a mysterious hidden expert or a charlatan from nowhere. She looked young, not older than twenty-five. She had an angular face with sharp features worthy of an evil queen and striking green eyes. Her heavy dark brown, almost black, hair was put in a long braid, but both Cole and Eugen could almost imagine how beautiful she would look like with its strands falling freely on her naked body. Her skin was shining with a healthy luster, and even her baggy clothes could not hide her well-proportioned figure. Eugen especially wanted to feel it with his hands. One glance at Eve was enough for him to tell that people from the base didn't lie about her looks!

Cole's gaze, on the contrary, focused on the woman's passenger. From this position he could only see a pair of hands and a bush of dazzling blond hair, but it was enough to identify Cole's old annoyance—Ellin. 'You, boy... should have known your place! You can only blame yourself for how you are going to end...' His cruel smirk widened.

Noticing two people blocking their road, Eve slowed down. Behind her, Ellin narrowed his eyes to discern their features. Then, he paled; his grip on Eve's waist tightened until she felt like he was going to choke her. "This... Eve, I didn't want to say this, but I'm afraid we are deeply fucked," he said a moment later in a shaking voice.

Eve hit the brakes, halting her bike a couple dozen meters away from the people in front of them. She glanced at them, then turned towards Ellin. "What?"

"The taller guy is Cole, and the other one, with a bionic eye, is Eugen. They are level six and five, respectively. And I don't think they are here to chat with us!" Ellin let go of Eve and jumped down from the bike. Then he made a deep sigh and continued with more composure. "But maybe you can still bluff the way out. Your presence became even more domineering than before after you upgraded, Eve. Even Cole would be wary of it!"

Following Ellin's example, Eve dismounted the bike too. She didn't feel any powerful presences in the area yet, so Cole and Eugen obviously hid theirs. Still, she believed Ellin's words. She frowned and scratched her chin. "Cole... Isn't that the guy that Qiao Xia called a dog?"

Ellin nodded and combed his hair with a shaking hand. "It is as you said earlier—you didn't offend him, I did. It would be better for you to walk away at this point. If Cole did attack you..." He fell silent.

Eve didn't reply. 'Right... I can't die there because of some feud... I have a more important purpose,' she reminded herself. Still, her heart clenched painfully over the idea of Ellin's death. She looked at Cole and Eugen, who walked towards her and Ellin in a leisurely pace. The atmosphere was so tense that one could almost feel the sparks in the air.

Finally, Cole stopped five meters away from Eve. A step behind and to the side of him stood Eugen. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? I think it's someone who doesn't know the people they shouldn't cross! Say, Ellin, did you really thought that you can escape from the Chainsaws Gang? Did you really thought that you are that lucky?" Cole asked with a sneer.

He released his full presence, and it hit Eve and Ellin with a weight of a truck. The desire to run and hide was so strong that Ellin covered in cold sweat. Eve held better, but her skin turned a shade paler. She turned on her own false aura in a wordless response, but it didn't stop the pressure from Cole. To his side, Eugen frowned, but there were no changes in Cole's composure at all.

Cole looked into Eve's eyes and smirked like a cat who got the cream. "This trick can work on dumb zombies, miss Ziffer, but using it on me is an insult of my intelligence. Now, are you going to pay for it?"

"H-hey, mister Cole, she has nothing to do with you," Ellin stood up in front of Eve; his face was white as a sheet, but his eyes were resolute. "Kill me, or whatever you wanted to do, but let her go, alright? I beg you!"

Eve grit her teeth. Her rationality urged her to take this chance and escape; ask, beg and grovel for live if necessary. Her heart had different opinions. The inner conflict made her unable to move from the spot. 'Damn you, Ellin, for being so nice, and damn you, Eve, for re-awakening your conscience now of all times!'

Cole glanced at Eugen and slowly shook his head. "No, that wouldn't be right. I had promised miss Ziffer to someone already, after all."

Eugen nodded in response; his eyes were glued to Eve all that time. "Yes, woman, you can be proud of yourself—you were worth that week of boredom. Now, you'd better sit and be still unless you want to get bruises later…"

'I guess my dilemma was solved without me. That means I have nothing holding me back!' with that thought, Eve unsheathed her katana and stepped next to Ellin, who followed her example and got his sword out too.

"I don't know what are you talking about, but no," Eve said with a scowl. To her side, Ellin nodded determinedly.

"Well, I was just trying to be considerate." Eugen shrugged. "Your pain, not mine."

With no warning, he jumped towards Eve. He crossed the meters between them before she could even blink; in the next moment, his big palm grasped around her arms. When Eve finally reacted and tried to slash him with her katana, she realised that her body was completely unresponsive. Her eyes widened; she tried to open her mouth and say something, but couldn't utter a sound. Eugen looked into her eyes and his lips curved into a smile that made Eve's skin crawl. In the next moment, she felt herself falling onto the asphalt like a marionette with cut strings.

Ellin tried to rush to help her, but before he could move even a step, Cole was already in front of him. He sent Ellin flying with one mighty kick; before his body even hit the ground, Cole was there to catch him by his collar.

"Whatever luck let you escape Jayce is over, blondie. Should have banked on actual power instead. Soon, I'm going to make an example out of you…"