Prey No More

Adagio crouched next to the edge of the roof she crossed to, peering over the edge. She saw almost an entire platoon of gang members combing the streets, carrying everything from bats to knives to old nightsticks. Up and down the streets, past windows, and through alleys, they seemed to be everywhere.

“Now, for this next scene, I want to get a big battle going for you to sneak through, on your way to the next street.”, Red Room stated in a blunt tone. He continued with, “Now on this street, one of the Jury members got laid out by a pair of cops in the brownstone across from you. The boys in blue got off on self-defense, so our hockey mask wearin’ chums are already like burning coals on a fireplace: all they need…is a little fuel.”

Adagio rolled her eyes at the director’s attempts at melodrama before she said in a confused tone, “And let me guess, you have just the fuel in mind and I have to pour it.” She looked at the street again to try to see what he was talking about.

“Exactly!”, he exclaimed in an excited tone. “If you look to your left, there’s a plastic bag with assorted pieces of jewelry.”, he explained, followed by a short chuckled. “Let’s just say that my boys…found a way to not have to pay for ‘em.”

Adagio looked over the street and said with a nod, “I think I get it. I plant the jewelry, get the police over here, and that’ll get the gang riled up and ready to riot.” Shortly after, she saw the bag in the corner of the roof to her left and quickly grabbed it.

“Heh, good to see we got the same thought process.”, Red Room chuckled out. “Now, there’s a couple gang members in the room where their friend went down. Still has the tape and everything. Put it in or around there without killing anyone and call the cops on the burner phone in the bag with the gems. The rest will take care of itself.”

Adagio nodded her head and noted the fire escape into the alley next to the building she was on. She tied the bag to her side and quickly climbed down after making sure the coast was clear. As she went down the ladder, she heard footsteps coming towards the alley from the street. In a flash, she moved to the other end of the alley and pressed her back against the dead-end wall. The shadow made from the street lights was barely large enough for her to fit into, the toes of her boots right at the edge.

The source of the footsteps was revealed as two members of the Jury passed by, talking to each other. “Man, it’s fucked up how they did our guy like that.”, one of them growled in rage.

The other nodded and said, “Yeah, but don’t you worry. The next time one of these pigs tries to put us down, we open them up.”

Adagio held her breath as they passed by, waiting for her chance. As soon as they passed by, she quickly shuffled to the end of the alley and leaned out. With a quick glance up and down the street, she knew that she was in the clear. Aside from the people who just passed, the Jury members on the street were all either drinking or deep in conversation, so no one was paying attention. She gave a deep breath and ran as she crouched, keeping her head on a swivel as she crossed the street to the brownstone, slipping in the front door silently.

Another building not even bothering to live up to code. The siren felt this thought run through her mind as she gave a silent sigh. Red Room wasn’t kidding, this place hadn’t seen any public work in years. She had thankfully gotten used to the smell, otherwise she’d be on the verge of vomiting. She looked around for any evidence of police presence: number tags, tape, anything to indicate the room she was looking for. As she walked up the staircase, she immediately noticed something at the end of the hall. There were two doors, the one on the left having police tape dangling from the frame.

Jackpot.

All she needed to do was find a believable place to plant it. Immediately she went for the door across from the crime scene. She remembered what the director said: death waited for her behind that taped door. After a test jiggle to see if it was locked, she smirked when she found that it wasn’t. This was almost too easy. She slipped in quickly and looked around. It was what looked like a spare bedroom. Well, “bedroom” was a bit of a stretch for this place. It was a bug-ridden mattress in the middle of a windowless room. Adagio shuddered to think what happened in this room. She quickly set down the bag of loot and pulled out the burner. Now to set this little charade in motion.

As she stepped down the stairs, doing all she could to muffle her steps, she entered “911” into the phone. She made sure to move to an area near the rear windows before she called, ensuring a quick escape from the building. A few moments after sending the call, she heard a click on the other end, followed by a voice.

“911, what is your emergency?”

Adagio whispered into the mouthpiece, “Hello, miss. I saw a group of suspicious people walking into that old brownstone. The one where that gang member died. They were carrying this plastic bag of jewelry, I think.”

After a moment of silence on the other end of the line, the dispatcher said in an almost bored tone, “All right miss. We’ll have as many available units as we can spare in the area there soon. Thank you for your assistance.”

Adagio nodded her head and immediately hung up, going to one of the open windows in the back. As she crawled out, she immediately heard sirens off in the distance. As she landed outside, she decided to take advantage of how dark the back of the building was and peer around the side to watch her handiwork. After a few moments, she saw a patrol car pass…and another.

And another.

And another.

Dear Celestia, there must have been five cars. She didn’t expect this much of a response, but she certainly found it refreshing. Some allies against these bastards, despite the…problems the sisters had with them. She craned her neck to try and hear what was happening. Faintly. She could make out a knock on the door. Followed by a shuffling from upstairs and two doors opening a few moments after each other.

Then a conversation began. She couldn’t make it out through the walls, but it sounded like the gang members were annoyed by the interruption. A few moments later, there were steps leading back up the stairs, less plodding than before, followed by another door opening. She then heard a holler from inside the building.

“Well, look at this! Seems our hosts haven’t been honest with us!”, an older voice called from the top of the steps. “Slap the cuffs on ‘em and take them down to the station.”

This caused something of a commotion inside that quickly got loud. Now she could hear every word that was said.

“Put your hands on your head!”

“We ain’t done shit, officer! Fuck off!”

“PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!!”

“I ain’t sayin’ it again, cop! FUCK O--!”

BANG

The sound of a gunshot pierced the entire street as everyone on it froze in shock. Adagio covered her mouth to stop a scream from escaping it. These officers went to the guns quicker than she believed they would. She was suddenly very unsure if their presence here was a positive or negative. There was a brief, chilling silence before Adagio heard another voice scream out, “YOU SON OF A--!”

BANG, BANG

Adagio frantically began looking for an escape from the alley. She was not gonna stick around to get shot at by the police. Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, she heard the rest of the patrol car doors suddenly open. When she peeked around the corner, every cop had their guns out, and those gang members that weren’t charging like madmen at the officers were running for cover like Tartarus was breaking open in the middle of the street. Officers were beating assailants with their guns while the gang members were trying to clobber the trespassers on their territory. Adagio shuffled along the wall to the street, trying to find a way to escape.

Suddenly, Red Room interrupted her panicked looking by saying, “Head out onto the street and go to your right as fast as you can. When you come to an old sex shop, head into the alley, and keep going along the path. There’ll be a red door at the end of it. Head in there and lock it. Go! NOW!!!” He was notably sterner with his demands, like he himself was worried about the situation.

Not wasting any time, she ran out onto the sidewalk in a mad dash to her right. As she ran, she saw that all along the street, cops and Jurors were massacring each other. By a sheer miracle, any bullets that were shot in her direction in the struggles barely whizzed past her head as she flinched away from them. In her panic, she felt her eyes darting around in her head, eventually allowing her to see the telltale three X’s of a sex shop and the alley just beyond it.

Not long before turning into the alley, she heard someone from the street shout out, “HEY! SOMEONE’S MAKING A BREAK FOR IT!” By that tone, she could tell that the police saw her and were giving chase. She knew that if they caught her, she wasn’t going for a cell.

In a frantic dash, she followed the path the alleys made, the sound of the mob behind her swelling louder and louder. As it seemed to be right at her heels, the red door the director told her about came into view like a beacon of sanctuary on some distant horizon. Any sense of hesitation that Adagio may have had was thrown out the moment the guns rang out, made evident by her immediately rushing into the door without even questioning the validity of the director’s words. As she caught her breath in what she believed was a stairway, she heard a loud “kh-THUNK” behind her. Se whipped around, seeing that there was a massive electronic bolt placed on the door.

With that, she had seemed to escape certain death for the second time tonight. She didn’t know what the hell she was exactly thrown into, but all she could do was take the advice the universe gave her during that chase: don’t look back…