"¡Bang!", "¡Bang!", "¡Bang!".
"¡BOM!"
Different sounds of gunfire echoed throughout the place, shots from different weapons, bombs, grenades, mines, grenade launchers, bazookas.
Any weapon imaginable that a group outside the law could have and more, those were the MRCU, they fired all their weaponry at the invaders who were fleeing.
"¡How much longer until the airport, Caleb?!"
Ethan screamed as he stretched out the window, firing at the vehicles approaching from the back about 15 meters away.
"We're 5 minutes away, you have to eliminate them before we arrive!"
Things couldn't have gone worse, everything that could go wrong went wrong and worse, the idea was to reach the airport smoothly and without problems. No one foresaw that a trivial problem in the central plaza would make everything go to hell.
"We should have left them alone"
Emily declared in retaliation, she was angry, this wouldn't have happened if they had listened to her.
"And let that mother and her daughter die?, seriously you don't have a heart Emily", Lucius spoke holding a handgun and firing out the right side window.
"Who cares if I have a heart or not, it wasn't our business, in fact, why are we bringing them?"
It was a pickup truck and a car they had for transportation to escape. The mother and her daughter were in the front car with Heiss and the others.
In the pickup truck were Emily and Lucius in the back, Ethan in the co-pilot seat, Caleb driving and Rudolf on the cargo platform.
Rudolf mostly kept the drug traffickers shooting at them at bay to stop them.
He used an assault rifle he took from the old base before leaving, it had anti-armor bullets which came in handy.
"Do you dislike whores?, I didn't think you were the type to make prejudices about their professions"
For some reason, Lucius was in a worse mood than usual, counterattacking Emily's complaints.
"¡haa!, and when did I say I discriminated against her for being a prostitute?"
A voice of complaint sounded indignant in the pickup truck at Lucius's statements, that irritated Emily greatly.
"Both of you stop, what's done is done, focus on the enemy"
"Jumph", he twisted his neck and pursed his lips indignantly.
"Tsk", he clicked his tongue at her attitude and focused on firing.
***
3 HOURS BEFORE
It was October 31st, the streets were crowded with people running from side to side getting ready for the night when everyone will go out asking for candy, several others buying baskets of beer or sixpacks, not only the young people had fun on this day of sharing.
"The traffic is long, from here to when we leave it will take at least two hours"
Marcus mentioned who was in the driver's seat.
"We can park and take a walk while the main traffic clears up"
There was a long line of cars waiting to pass, this because a bus and a car had collided, they were waiting for the authorities to tow them with a crane, what they didn't expect was the traffic jam that formed while it arrived, which made the procedure take longer.
"Sounds good to me"
They heard my proposal, and it seemed pleasant to them, they didn't want to spend all this time in this unbearable heat.
So, we reported to the guys who were in the other car and decided to take a walk around the town.
The groups joined, Lucius and I went with Cloe and Emily, Caleb and Jesús went with Ethan, Rudolf and Marcus.
The groups were larger than before for greater safety.
We decided to take a walk around the commercial area near Florencia's plaza, there were different market stalls like in the main park, they were stalls that sold everything from toys to sweets like arequipe with cookies or bocadillo, all in different versions, on other sides salpicones, obleas or even stuffed arepas were being prepared, there were even the famous cotton candy.
"Wuau"
It was Emily's voice upon seeing the market.
"It reminds me a little of the stalls in Japan at the fairs"
Said Cloe, observing the stalls with curiosity.
Upon seeing her enjoying herself, I approached a oblea stall.
"Give me one please"
After a few minutes they handed me a large oblea, with grated cheese, curds, arequipe, different jams and strawberries cut into slices.
"Tic", I tapped Cloe's shoulder from behind.
She turned around and the first thing she noticed was a large oblea that appeared in front of her.
"..Mmmh, I saw that you were observing curiously, do you want?"
Cloe's eyes widened upon seeing me say those words, during which I turned embarrassed. Without realizing it, a subtle smile formed on her lips.
"Of course…thank you"
"Jum", I simply nodded at that moment.
Lucius for his part was in a store where they sold different toys for children, he observed them with great interest. When he was a child he always wanted to play with water guns or bow and arrows, but his parents never had the money, more because of his alcoholic father who left nothing for his mother or him.
At that instant a figure of approximately one meter approached, a girl with black hair and dark blue eyes, observed the toys with a longing that reminded him of his past.
"Mommy, I want one of those"
Behind her a young woman with blonde hair and dark blue eyes, the same as the girl's, touched her shoulders and held her back.
"I'm sorry Nerisa, I don't have enough to buy it for you"
She looked up, felt his empathetic and sad gaze, his gestures were smiling, although a bit downturned. The most notable was the black eye on her right eye.
"Of course mom". Understanding what her mother was saying, she stopped looking at the toys.
'She's a good girl', Lucius thought, seeing her.
"Excuse me, could you give me that one there"
The girl and her mother were approaching to leave the market when they heard a voice from behind them.
"Excuse me miss"
"Yes, tell me?", the woman turned around, she was beautiful, if it weren't for her blow to her eye she would certainly be a beauty. Noticing she saw a man with long hair, black with brown and a well-defined beard, his features were young and defined.
"I know you don't know me, but if you allow me..."
He moved his hand forward and brought it close to the girl, she was in shock as she took it and looked inside.
"Wait, you didn't have to do that..."
She opposed upon seeing the gift they were giving her daughter, it was the doll the girl had been looking at earlier and which Nerisa asked her mother for.
"It's just a gift for the girl, you don't have to feel pressured, it's a gift, it reminds me of myself when I was young"
The mother observed him intently, perhaps trying to see if he was telling the truth or if it was some trick to get close to her, it wasn't the first time it happened, and it would be very dangerous if it did, so she was willing to stop him at any moment.
But for some reason she didn't feel it was necessary, the man only looked at the girl with empathy and without a hint of malice.
Upon noticing that he was doing it as an honest act, she decided to accept it.
"…Thank you, what do you say, Nerisa?"
"T…thank you sir", said the girl shyly without being able to lift her gaze and holding the box.
"Jeje",
A soft subtle laugh sounded, his lips were a little upturned, it was the first time Lucius smiled in all the time during this time, neither with his group, nor even in the cartel with any of his companions, he was always stoic or of few emissions.
At a distance, Emily watched him with raised eyebrows and surprise.
"So he can smile…I thought he was a stone mold without emotions"
However, things were about to get worse. Several men approached from the other direction from where Emily was, they were very armed, one in particular came with a look of anger. They were heading towards where Lucius, the mother and the girl were.
"¡Shit!", Emily pronounced.
At the same time Lucius was saying goodbye to the woman and the girl.
"Goodbye.."
Interrupting the goodbye, several armed men approached, one grabbed the mother's hair and pulled her back, making her fall.
"¡Ahh!", a scream of pain, was released from the mother.
"So that was the lover you were cheating on me with, bitch!"
Lucius's mind accelerated rapidly upon seeing the situation, he knew there were many, understood where the woman's blow came from, who knows how many more she had under those clothes. For now, he tried to clarify things, so a problem wouldn't escalate.
"Sir you're mistaken I was just giving the girl a gift..¡BAM!"
A hard blow to Lucius's face, he could have dodged it, but decided to wait first. The blow sent him to the ground, leaving him on one knee and his hair disheveled, covering his face.
"Shut up trash!, take care of him", he gave a quick response to his team to take care of the subject.
They were going to beat him to death and then kill him.
That was the reason no one helped the woman despite often appearing beaten, because they knew her "owner" was Jonathan, son of one of the most powerful narco leaders in the region, even in the country.
The men approached, the first one came head-on and threw a punch at Lucius's face.
"¡No!", screamed the girl through sobs.
However, Lucius approached the fist and at the last moment dodged it, his head tilted to the left, letting the falling fist pass. Taking advantage of the fact that he didn't have a good center of gravity and was falling without being able to grab anything, Lucius fired his hand in a pointed form at the subject's neck.
"¡Cackk!"
The subject let out a whimper, but since his neck was blocked, he couldn't receive or expel oxygen.
In this way, the first one fell to the ground while trying to breathe.
"¡¡¡!!!", the others watched in shock at the scene until they heard a female voice.
"You really give me a lot of trouble"
A girl with reddish-purple hair and violet eyes appeared with a long silver-colored bar
When Jonathan's bodyguards realized it was too late, each one positioned in the back was knocked out.
Only 4 remained conscious with Jonathan; upon seeing that things were getting out of control he decided to pull out his weapons, however, at that instant a cold hand grabbed him by the nape and lifted him in the air.
Personality #4: "But what do we have here?, a dog without manners dares to raise his fangs, how unpleasant"
It was Heiss who had noticed the situation and arrived in time.
"¡HAAA!, LET GO OF ME"
His grip tightened much more, then he slammed him to the ground, causing his nose to break and spread a lot of blood on the ground.
Personality #4: "Who do you think you're talking to trash?, What are you waiting for?, take him away"
He pointed at the three men who were still standing unable to draw any weapons and threatened by the spear that Emily held who knocked out 4 subjects.
"¡Come on!", the 3 hurried and lifted their contractor from the bloody ground, then took him away from the place.
When they left, several people were looking at that same place,
Personality #4: "What a problem"
"Are you okay?", unexpectedly, Cloe helped the mother to her feet while calming Nerisa.
"….Y..You got into trouble because of me…Jonathan is a very dangerous person, you shouldn't have messed with them"
"We don't care about them, what matters is that you're okay, besides, they would try to eliminate me even if I explained, we had no choice but to defend ourselves"
Lucius clarified with his characteristic stoic manner and without feeling.
Personality #4: "It's true, besides, I don't like people who mistreat women just for their pleasure. Although, of course, now we have to run"
"Why should we?", asked Emily, feeling that they weren't a threat.
Personality #4: "While you were in trouble, I heard people murmur who Jonathan was, is he the son of a cartel leader, isn't he miss?"
"..Yes, that's right"
Personality #4: "That in itself isn't a problem, if it weren't because we're in a municipality controlled by the MRCU, which in turn is connected with the drug traffickers in the country, so we made ourselves public, and they can suspect that we're not exactly sent from peace from the government, otherwise they will believe that we are either an external force, because, who in their right mind would mess with them directly. We have to get out of Florencia, you on the other hand…"
Heiss remained watching them in silence, but was interrupted by a question from Lucius.
"Do you have family here in Florencia?, anything that would keep you from escaping from here?"
"No", answered the girl's mother.
Heiss understood what Lucius was doing and didn't interrupt him, he planned the same thing.
"Do you want to get out of here?....or rather, do you want to escape?, if that's what you want we can help you…only if you want"
The girl remained looking at him and then turned to look at her daughter, understanding what was at stake she confirmed to herself that it was the best.
"¡Please!"
A plea was heard loudly, it was determination to finally escape this hell.
"Good…by the way, what's your name?"
"..Cataline, Cataline Montclar"
***
Heiss met with the rest of the team and explained the situation to them, they all nodded and set off, but there were already problems ahead.
"¡Damn, checkpoints!"
Marcus cursed out loud.
"Do I stop the car and turn around?",
Personality #4: "No, get us close. Cloe, lend me one of your weapons, and help me"
With a look, he understood what he was going to do and handed him one of his weapons.
He stepped on the accelerator and approached the checkpoint, in the same way in the back they wondered what Heiss had in mind, their doubts were, why not take another route?.
The problem is that thanks to the scandal they had created, every escape route was officially closed by the police authorities, not to mention that they were bought by the guerrilla and the traffickers.
The car approached, a hand asked them to stop. The car approached and was slowly braking, the other officers were alert. Despite them, they were too slow.
"Clack", one of the doors opened quickly.
The officer realized and was going to send him a warning, pointing his weapon at him, only he didn't even have time to think about it.
"¡Pfut!", the shot from a silenced weapon, sounded.
The other officers froze for a moment before waking up and understanding what was happening, they quickly drew their weapons.
Although their reaction was decent enough, for Heiss and Cloe it was too slow, enough so they could shoot the other 7 men at the blockade and eliminate them in a heartbeat.
"Thank goodness the route to the airport isn't so heavily monitored, no one thinks we have a plane ready to get out of here"
Said Marcus, upon seeing the spectacle that Cloe and Heiss made, it was simply masterful.
They quickly got into the car and took off, what they didn't have in mind was that one of the officers had gone to the bathroom when they arrived and saw everything hidden, when they accelerated and drove away, he reported everything and asked for reinforcements.
At 30 minutes, they were in a pursuit that followed them directly to the airport.
"¡2 minutes, and we're there!, how do we get rid of them?"
Marcus asked Heiss, he knew from the rearview mirror that they were still following and that his companions in the back were only holding them back for now.
Personality #4: "Mmmh, good thing I paid a deposit in advance"
He said while lamenting the state of the car that had several bullet shots on the sides.
"Who cares about cars at this moment!"
Clearly they had used false identities to rent it, there was no need to worry, although it didn't seem to matter to Heiss, he was in a kind of trance while looking at his phone.
"We're on the other side!, we need to get out and cross the river"
The airport was surrounded by a river, which helped that not just anyone could enter without permission, plus of course the security gates, if they wanted to enter they had to go around further and enter. They could have taken a detour before, but that could warn the other police or guerrillas in the area.
Personality #4: "Stop here, we're going to get out, you and Cloe take Cataline and the girl, I'm going to buy us time"
They stopped in an area near the river, everyone except Heiss headed to the river. Later, the others arrived and stopped.
"We have them 2 minutes at most"
Personality #4: "That's more than enough, everyone except Emily get going, cross the river with the others, the plane is already ready, my contact left it ready with the pilots, we'll meet him in Medellín"
Each one nodded and left without more, carrying everything.
"What do you need from me?"
Personality #4: "The best you know how to do"
After a few seconds, several pickup trucks and cars appeared with men armed with submachine guns and machine guns.
"¡Bang"
Suddenly a shot rang out, it was the shot from a sniper rifle. His shot was so precise that it hit the motor of the vehicle, making the engine explode and stopping it a few meters ahead.
A few meters diagonally from him, on top of a tree, Heiss positioned himself with a rocket launcher on his shoulder. Which he had conveniently stolen from one of the men at the checkpoints, it was clearly armament to eliminate any force of the Colombian army that approached, not for tourists, therefore, it wasn't used in the first place.
Taking advantage of the vehicles stopping, he fired the weapon between the first and second vehicle.
"¡BOM!", "¡Crack!"
A loud explosion was heard for kilometers, the two vehicles were blown to pieces, flying among flames, the only thing heard after the explosion was the flames and metal falling.
The caravan would now be stuck. Taking advantage of the distraction, he took the grenades he had collected and threw them all, the other half Emily had which she would also be ready to throw.
"¡BOM!", "¡BOM!", "¡BOM!", "¡BOM!", "¡BOM!", "¡BOM!"
Several explosions sounded, some people managed to get out of their vehicles only to be expelled by the explosion and die from the blast wave, explosion or shrapnel.
"It wasn't too bad"
Said Emily, observing the panorama. At that moment, Heiss approached her and they left the place.
When they arrived at the runway, everyone was already on the private plane, this was a special favor that Heiss's contact did, if it had been in a small plane they would have to stop at other landing strips and risk being caught.
They immediately boarded and sat down for takeoff.
In less than two minutes the plane turned on its turbines and accelerated, taking off leaving Florencia at exactly 5 in the afternoon, perfectly on schedule, as if nothing had happened.
In the meantime Heiss stopped being in the clouds and came to himself, this didn't seem especially complex to him, even so, it hadn't gone as he expected, and that was what made him uneasy the entire trip.
If he was going to face the district with new allies, he couldn't let these mistakes happen again.
{Even if there are civilian casualties?} questioned #2.
"…", he didn't respond.
He just remained looking at the landscape through the window, with a solemn and cold gaze.