Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV by Borthwick, Finlay (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗

“Nate!” Michelle gasped in horror as she watched her ally’s corpse fall backwards onto the ground with a fresh bullet in his head.

“There’s nothing we can do for him, ‘Chelle!” Rob tried to multitask between comforting her and returning fire at The Neo-Bandits from around the back of the car.

Although Michelle had seen people die before, and had even killed some of them herself, it had been a while since she had lost someone close to her, in both a literal and figurative sense alike.

“Michelle, look at me!” Rob forced her to focus on him, “I need you to stay with me, right here in this moment… If you don’t, then we’re both gonna end up dead right alongside him, okay?” Although this seemed like a rather heartless thing to say about Nate, it was also something that was very much said in the heat of the moment.

Michelle reluctantly nodded, understanding that there would be time to grieve for their deceased friend later.

Nolan, with several other bandits, were firing away into the safe zone from behind the cover of several trees and bushes just next to the entrance to the tunnel.

“I think I killed the kid!” One of The Bandits proudly proclaimed; he was the one who had been shooting at the car which Rob, Michelle, and Nate were hidden behind.

“Good!” Nolan was impressed. “Now kill the other two as well!” But he was also restless and a difficult leader to please indeed.

‘BANG! BANG!’

Peering out from an alleyway, Kieran took several well-aimed shots towards The Bandits that were hiding in the bushes and firing down the street.

Due to being distracted by gunfire from multiple directions, however, The Bandits were unable to pinpoint where Kieran was firing at them from.

‘BANG! BANG!’

That being said, The Bandits were so well hidden and covered by the brush that Kieran had not managed to get a shot in on any of them.

‘BANG! CLICK--!’

He had reached the end of his last magazine.

“Dammit!” He cursed as threw the pistol away from him. The force of this hurl had caused the three grenades on Kieran’s bandolier to rattle against each other.

He then reached down the alleyway which was hiding in.

Unknown to Kieran, however, Nolan had noticed the pistol being mysteriously lobbed out from the distant alleyway. With the weapon having drawn his attention over there, he watched as Kieran scurried away back down the cranny.

Nolan licked his lips, now having picked the man that he was going to take as a hostage in order to trade for Gwen.

“Nolan!” One of The Bandits called to his superior as he ducked to avoid Rob and Michelle’s increasing rate of fire, “What do you want us to do? We’re just sitting here, dammit!”

“Circle around the safe zone,” Nolan grumbled, but then followed up this order with a far more aggressive one, “Kill every person who crosses your path, and if you find that Welsh bitch, fucking finish her for Kyle!”

The bandit nodded, obeying this order.

“What about Donna?” Another bandit barked out a question.

Nolan scrunched his face up, “Fucking what of her?!” He bellowed. “If you find her, great! Release her! But don’t go out of your way to save her. Remember, we’re only here to avenge Kyle’s death once and for all!” He proclaimed as he punched the air in a dark form of hope.

“Understood.” Both bandits declared in unison, accepting what Nolan wanted to be done.

Whilst evading barrages of bullets, Nolan had followed the road parallel to the alleyway up which Kieran had hidden. Then, he finally saw his prize.

Still with his grenade bandolier strapped around him, Kieran was scurrying up a small flight of stone stairs and into the semi-detached house to which they lead.

Nolan grinned maliciously. Raising his new M1 Carbine, he set his course for that exact building.

“Knock-knock!” Nolan taunted as he barged into the house, “Anybody home?”

The entire house was silent as he performed a quick glance around the front room. The only noises that could be heard were the gunfights across the safe zone and the desperate cries of death.

As he complete his glance, Nolan noticed that the door in front of the basement stairs was wide open.

“I know you’re in here!” He chanted, almost as though he was singing this ominous threat, slowly and prudently treading towards the basement stairs.

One of the floorboards creaked as he stepped over it.

Then, he found himself stood at the top of the basement stairs, glaring down them and into the pit beneath.

With slightly sweaty palms, Nolan shimmied the aim of his carbine around so as to aim the barrel down the stairs as he cautiously descended them one at a time.

“I know you were shooting at me earlier,” Nolan declared once he was halfway down the steps, “I think you owe me a free shot at the very least because of that—”

‘GRAHHHHHH!’

From out of nowhere, Kieran charged towards the stairs and launched himself down them, sending both him and Nolan into the basement beneath.

Due to his awful reaction times, Nolan had not been able to turn the barrel of the carbine in a sufficient amount of time.

“Fuck you! Die!” Kieran berated Nolan as he wrestled with him for control of the firearm.

“No—You!” Nolan grumbled back at him with clenched teeth as he rolled Kieran over onto the floor and had leverage over him; he tried to force the body of the carbine down onto Kieran’s throat in an attempt to crush his windpipe.

Realising what Nolan was trying to do, Kieran put all his strength into his hands and forced his enemy up off of him – Now, Kieran was the one who was on top and had the leverage, though he was quickly being overwhelmed.

Then, an incredible resolve