Page 12 of The Wolf and the Monarch

From the corner of his eye, he could see Andi typing a million miles a second, but he had to investigate what the hell that was. Moving out of the office, he walked through the room once again and saw that the door he walked in was wide open. The crash must have been the door hitting the wall. “Shit.” Benji was now keenly aware he wasn't alone anymore. Whoever it was, they probably worked there, right? Would they know about him? He doubted it. It was probably classified what he was doing. So, what? Would he be knocking out random bunker employees? Apparently so…

Keeping his back tight against the wall near the door, he cautiously peered out into the hallway, hoping to spot the culprit but no one was there. Were they ding dong ditching him? He had no idea what was going on. Releasing a soft breath, he turned his head away from the door and it was at that moment when he saw someone hiding underneath one of the desks in front of him. His eyes widened and Benji reached down to grab their foot, dragging them out from under the desk while taking care not to stab their leg with his knife. They looked like they were in tactical gear. What the fuck?

He hadn’t even realized that the door was moving to the left of him. If he had, he may have been ready for the strong arm that was wrapping around his neck. The person he had dragged out slapped the knife out of his hand. With his core muscles (thank God for those), he bucked at the one in front of him. Benji pushed himself backwards as hard as he could, slamming the other into the wall behind him. It was enough to make them falter and Benji slipped out from his grip. He lost his tactical mask in the process, but that was fine. He had time to get out back upstairs before the gas leak got to him too badly.

Probably.

The strong scent of rotten eggs immediately permeated his nostrils so at least they weren’t lying about the gas leak. With how strong it was, he knew there wasn’t a whole lot of time to get out of there. The big problem was the flash drive that was currently sitting in the computer in the back. He couldn’t just leave that in there. Whoever those people were could use it to their advantage and Benji couldn’t have that. As fast as he could, he ran back through the office and slammed the door behind him. Benji quickly grabbed the chair in the room and wedged it under the handle to give him an extra minute if he was lucky. Moving around the desk, he took one last look at the screen, seeing the wall of text from his sister on the word document.

There was far too much for him to read it. Benji just threw one quick sentence in there before he yanked the drive out. He threw it on the ground and stomped on it as hard as he could, effectively smashing it. He then moved onto the computer itself. Andi was still probably working on it but if they were there for the computer, all hell would break loose, according to his dad. Ben crawled under the desk and unplugged the computer in one fell swoop. He stabbed his knife into the tower over and over, rendering the thing unusable. Once satisfied, he emerged once again. After a few hard kicks at the door on the other side, the chair flew backwards and the door was open.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Benji chanted. The smell from the gas leak was already starting to make him feel lightheaded but he could push through it. There was no other choice.

One of the assailants rushed forward, reaching out for Benji. He dodged out of the way and swiped his knife at the person’s hand on the way, slicing straight through their glove and skin. The other was quicker than Benji. A hard right hand was landing on his cheek. It felt like he just got hit in the face with a brick. A hand was grabbing onto his left arm and wrenched it in a way that his arm really wasn’t meant to go. He dropped the knife, which was their intention, he was gathering. Before it fell too far, Ben caught it and jabbed into their thigh. He wasn’t necessarily aiming for the artery but he was pretty sure he did hit it from the way blood squirted out immediately. His arm was released as the person fell to the ground.

Benji couldn’t help but notice that they were not even concerned with anything in that office but him.

He didn’t have much time to dwell on that, however. With every passing moment breathing in that air, he felt himself growing drowsier and drowsier. Benji rushed forward on his unstable feet and plowed into the third person, knocking them both to the ground. His knife clattered to the ground somewhere in the room but he didn’t have time to search for it. Benji reached towards his hip to grab his gun but the person beneath him beat him to it. They grabbed it and tossed it aside. Fuck. In a rush, he crawled off the person. It was some sort of male, from their bulk. Benji tried to move towards the exit again. His foot was grabbed and he crumbled to the floor. Benji kicked and kicked at the hand until he was released.

Rather ungracefully, he pushed himself back up to his feet and ran (mostly stumbled) towards the door. Rule one was always be aware of your surroundings but he didn’t have the luxury of it. He needed to get out. There was a scuffle behind him. He then felt something slice through his right side, right underneath his vest. Then a clank. His knife had hit the ground. But that didn’t stop Benji. He turned the corner and the butt end of a gun was slammed into his temple. He hadn’t even seen the fourth person. Benji collapsed into the doorframe, attempting to hold himself up, before he fell to the ground with a thud. His head was swimming and he felt like he was going to throw up.

A heavy boot was then stepping on his chest, keeping him in place. Not that he was going to be moving much at that point. First off, he couldn’t even see straight after that hit to his head. It was a fucking miracle didn’t pass out right then and there. But the gas leak was doing a fine job of finishing that bit off. Benji’s body was impossibly heavy now. All that was keeping him awake was his stubbornness that flowed through his veins. He wasn’t going to be killed from a fucking gas leak. He’d rather die by the hands of the assailants that were now crowding around him. Well. Three were. The other must still be on the ground, bleeding out. Good.

“Get him ready for transport.” The one with the boot on his chest said with a gruff, deep voice.

Panic began to take over and a burst of adrenaline hit him. Benji fought to push the foot off his chest, which just led the man to step harder. It felt like he was going to crush his chest cavity in. He struggled to take another breath with that pressure. One of the others reached out and attempted to grab his wrists. Benji was having none of it. He swung his fists wildly. He wasn’t going to go down without fighting. That had prompted the third to reach into a pouch on his waist. He only saw what they were doing from the corner of his eye so he wasn’t fully aware until a strong hand with a cloth was placed over his mouth and nose.

He continued to thrash against the hands and foot, but it didn’t last all that long before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his head hit the ground with a light thunk.

Chapter Seven

Benji

“I-I think he’s starting to wake up.”

That was all that Benji heard when his eyes began to flutter open, trying to come back to reality.

“Give him another fucking dose then.”

He tried his best to move but it felt like his body weighed a thousand pounds… Benji attempted to speak but before he could, that familiar sensation of a cloth and hand covered his mouth and nose again.

“No, no, stop–” Benji managed to say, though it was completely muted. The only thing he was able to see before his world went black again was the hand on his mouth had a butterfly tattoo on their hand and their eyes looked…sad?

Chapter Eight

Sawyer

“Bring him inside and put his ass in the basement. See me when you’re done.”

Sawyer just nodded at the instructions and he looked towards their captive. He was still out from the chloroform and would likely be for another hour, at least. He had given him a pretty big dose. It was a mercy, really. He knew that the guy would be panicking if he was able to come to while they were driving and no one would handle that well. He was quite lucky that Sawyer was there at all. He doubted the others would have been as nice as he was.

Hooking his arms underneath the guys arms, he dragged the dead weight out of the back of the van and inside home base. Unfortunately for Sawyer, he had to drag the guy through most of the base to get to the door to the basement and he could hear sniggering and chuckles from just about everyone. Sawyer hated listening to them. It wasn’t his fault he was always on bitch duty…

Okay, well, yeah, maybe it was.

Sawyer’s family were not kind people. They had more enemies than allies and at that point, they were practically enemies of the state. No one trusted them, nor should they. They did anything they could to get ahead and get money. That was it. That was their prerogative and it had been that way for as long as he could remember. When he was young, his father ran the entire operation but he was killed when he was eight years old. His mother quickly followed his fate, leaving the ‘business’ to his uncle Milo. Once he took over, he hired all the people he exclusively trusted and knew and made Sawyer a ghost in his own family’s business. Not that he really cared. He didn’t like their practices anyway…

He just didn’t have anywhere else to go.