Common elements

Rat-a-tat-tat! The machine gun was growling loudly. The whole place was smelling like gunpowder. The heat and smoke mingled with the sparks were making everyone's eyes water and ears ring. But no one stopped shooting.

Theo was worried about Zion. The boy had just started taking interest in his father's business and now he had to face death. He looked at Zion who was curled up on the ground screaming at the top of his lungs and started making his way to him.

Then he suddenly looked at Archer, and even though he was bleeding, he stood up and made his way to Zion. Archer knelt before Zion and made him look at him. But Zion was still scared. Archer tried talking to him, but Zion was uncontrollable. Archer shook his shoulder vigorously, but nothing happened. To Theo's surprise, Archer then slapped Zion hard across his face bringing his senses back to the present.

Archer signalled him to follow him, but Theo shouted, "Zion, take the car." He tossed the key toward Zion, but Archer grabbed it with one hand with style. He looked at Theo and Theo looked at him. Both exchanged a look and nodded at each other.

Archer grabbed Zion and made his way towards the car. It was a black SUV. Before they could reach the car, the bullets started raining over them from the roof of the building. Archer covered Zion with his body and after opening the door with difficulty and bravery, he shoved Zion into the back seat. He then jumped in the driver's seat and raced the car out of there.

Theo thought Zion was safe now. He had to get away too. He shouted at his man, "Bobby, follow me." Bobby still had the briefcase full of money with him. He crawled to Theo and they both somehow made their way to the car nearby and escaped the arena. Theo knew he was going to lose so many of his people in the gunfire but had no choice other than to escape from the arena.

Archer on the other hand was racing the car as fast as he could as they were being followed by another SUV with a machine gun mounted on the top of it. Thank God! The SUV he was in was bulletproof. He drove the car like a maniac in a zigzag fashion and kept changing directions every few minutes.

Archer never removed the foot from the gas pedal and kept increasing the distance between his car and the enemy's car. Well, he knew that was not an enemy car, it was the FBI. They had to make the experience authentic as the Hall family would not have believed a weak attack, so they had to go full-on.

Archer knew that he had to shake them and escape. They were about to pass by a homeless community when he drag-parked the car and immediately switched off all the lights and the engine of the car.

He jumped out of the car and opened the back door. "Get out," he commanded Zion.

But Zion was too sacred. Archer had to drag him out of the car. Limping, he dragged Zion out of the car and comforted him. "If you want to live, do as I say and I promise you will reach your house safely and soundly. Just trust me," said Archer. Zion nodded.

Archer took him under a bridge, and they looked around. They found an empty tent and entered it. It was clear that the occupant of the tent was getting ready for sleep, and he went out to pee before going to bed. The torn mattress was covered with ragged sheets and a new blanket that had the name of some help aid plastered on it. The whole place was smelling like a potpourri of different smells. There was the smell of pee, the smell of rotten meat, the smell of garbage, the smell of tobacco and alcohol, the smell of drugs and whatnot.

It was difficult to breathe in the tent, but they had to stay there if they wanted to live. A few minutes of bad smell was a bargain compared to being dead. The next moment the owner of the tent came inside but he was too inebriated to notice two men sitting in his tent.

"Hey man! Nice weather," the homeless man smiled with his black teeth and made a peace sign. Without waiting for an answer, he fell face forward on the mattress and started snoring.

"Is he on drugs?" asked Zion.

"Yeah, he is, and he is thinking of us as hallucinations," replied Archer.

"Now, what we do?" scoffed Zion, impatiently. He was shivering with fear. All he could think was about returning to his home, safe and sound.

"Nothing. Hide here for hours and then I will take you home," groaned Archer and looked at his feet. The blood kept dripping drop by drop. The lower half of his trousers was all wet with blood.

Zion too noticed his leg. "But you are hurt."

"Oh this, this is nothing," said Archer. He inserted his finger in the hole of the trouser and tore it apart. He looked at his wound. It was still oozing blood. It was minutes since he was shot but the blood never stopped coming out or coagulated on its own.

Archer looked around and reached toward the sheet on the mattress. He tore a big piece of it and wrapped it around his wound.

"That is dirty!" exclaimed Zion.

"For the time being, I need to stop the blood, or else I will faint due to blood loss. The infection comes second, we need to stop the blood loss first," educated Archer.

"You know a lot about that," Zion was suddenly suspicious. A small drug peddler who was at the bottom of the food chain knew so much about wound management.

"My mother was a nurse," explained Archer and kept wrapping his wound tightly with the cloth. The blood slowly stopped.

Hearing about mother, Zion was emotional. "Was? What happened to her?" he asked.

"Killed in gang activity," Archer's voice suddenly became sad. He cleared his throat after talking about his mother. He even avoided looking at Zion.

"What? How?" Zion was shocked.

Archer took a second, looked outside the tent, took a deep breath, and said, "she was driving from the hospital to our house one day when she was caught in between the gunfire of two rival gangs." He gulped and stopped himself from crying.

Zion placed his hand over his shoulder comfortingly and asked, "I am sorry, how old were you?"

"Six," replied Archer.

Zion was taken aback. Even though Archer was his employee he shared a lot with him. There were many common elements in both their lives. "I was six too when I lost my mother," he patted Archer's shoulder and shared his tragedy with him.

Archer looked at him with pity in his eyes. "How did you lose her?"

"She too was caught between two rivals," Zion chose not to elaborate on that.

"I am sorry too. So, you are our new boss?" asked Archer.

"Yes, I am. What do you do in our business?" asked Zion.

"Oh, I help Doughnut with drug run."

"Such a handsome face and you stand in a corner selling drugs?" Zion was stunned.

"Ha-ha," Archer was flattered. "No, I visit clubs, pubs and crazy girls buy drugs from me. I use my charm to make my business."

"Clever," Zion smiled.

"You don't do drugs, do you?" observed Archer.

"Sex and alcohol are my drugs," winked Zion.

"Nice! Me too. I will tap anything that moves. I am known as a playboy," said Archer, proudly.

"Not me. I like slim, sophisticated, and rich females. I don't do prostitutes," said Zion with pride.

"Oh, me too. I never pay for sex. Girls just love me. I can get sex anywhere, anytime," smirked Archer.

Zion patted his back and smiled, "that's my boy. You should party with me."

"You are my boss. I am nothing compared to you. How can I party with you?" said Archer, humbly.

"Don't say that. You just saved my life. I owe you everything," said Zion.

"That's what employees are for, Boss," Archer placed his palm on his forehead and saluted Zion.

Zion just smiled at him and nodded. True to Archer's words, after spending a few hours, they came out of the tent and moved towards the area where they parked the car. To their surprise, the whole car was destroyed and set on fire. It appeared that glass was shattered with a heavy object and the car was set on fire. The car that was previously a luxurious SUV was not reduced to a tin box that was covered in multiple bullet holes and was smelling like hot metal. Archer took a deep breath and threw the key to the car in a dumpster nearby in anger. The car was useless now.

After thinking about his next action for a minute, he took Zion to a nearby street, and they flagged a cab. Zion gave him the address of his house and their journey began. Zion was still scared, and he kept glancing in all directions to make sure he was not being followed.

Finally, they reached Zion's home where Theo was waiting for them eagerly. The moment he saw Zion, he ran and hugged him with concern. He looked at Zion and made sure he was not injured. Zion kept telling him that he was safe, but Theo had to see with his own eyes.

But that time was testing for Archer. He had lost a lot of blood by then. He saw Theo taking care of Zion and the moment he found out that his new boss was alright, he fell to the ground with a thud and fainted.

Zion ran to him and carried his heavy body to his room. Zion returned the favour by taking care of him in his house. A bullet victim on the night of the shooting would have attracted attention, so Zion called his family doctor and Archer was treated in the Hall mansion.

Since that day, Zion was indebted to him. He always listened to his every word and made him his bodyguard. Theo too rewarded Archer with a lot of money which he refused and earned respect from everyone.