Chapter 357 - Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

The lady trying her best to make us drop all our weapons tried her best to hide her surprise when I informed everyone that her 'hostage' was in fact, actually her daughter. Her hair was frazzled and her clothes were ragged and dirty, the same as what her daughter was wearing.

"I'M NOT JOKING! I'LL BLOW HER BRAINS OUT!" she bellowed.

Her 'hostage' couldn't cry out because the lady was covering her mouth. We could only see up to her eyes but it was also partially covered by her bangs.

"I DID TELL YOU TO DO IT, RIGHT? DON'T LET US STOP YOU! WAIT! LET ME COME DOWN FIRST SO I COULD SEE IT MORE CLEARLY!" I shouted so she could hear me. There was still a fair distance between my group and the two so I had to shout.

"DON'T F.U.C.K.I.N.G MOVE! I'LL F.U.C.K.I.N.G DO IT!" the lady c.o.c.ked the hammer of her revolver which was a Model 19.

I didn't mind her and I whispered to Kaley, "Stay here with Tatiana and look around if there are people hiding from the houses."

I made my way down and she already lost face when she still didn't pull the trigger. I even started to doubt if it had bullets in it.

"Wow, thank you for waiting for me. How considerate. I know you have other people watching, I saw them from above." I lied to fish for a reaction.

She instinctively looked at her left while her 'hostage' did the same.

"Idiot." I thought to myself.

She realized what she had done and just as she was about to run back to her people, I shot a few inches away from where she was about to head to. The pavement let out a few bits of debris towards them and they stopped.

"Umm, I'm not gonna do that if I were you. If you didn't realize already, the two of you are my hostages now." I said calmly.

The two's faces paled in horror and they didn't move a muscle.

"Okay, to the f.u.c.ktards who are hiding behind that house, come out now or I'll place a bullet in each of their legs. I'll watch them scream while I wait for them to bleed out, understand?" I shouted loud enough towards the area where the two were about to head to earlier.

Silence.

No one was coming out but the two were still glancing in the same direction.

"Oh, you think I'm not serious eh? You two, raise your hands where I could see them. Make any sudden moves and you'll regret it, okay?" I said then I raised my rifle at the lady. My group did the same though Jared and Lawrence were looking at the other directions where they might be people hiding.

The two were breathing heavily and the daughter slowly raised her hands.

"Good. Mrs. Hostage Taker, kindly lower that gun on the ground." I ordered.

She didn't.

"You're not gonna shoot me." she muttered while still holding her gun up.

However, I'm not here to play games.

I aimed for the lady's hand and I squeezed the trigger.

I f.u.c.k.i.n.g love this new gun.

It hit where I aimed at and her gun fell to the ground along with two of her fingers. Her hands were bloody and she lost her balance. She was still holding her daughter so her daughter was pulled down with her while she was shrieking in pain. Her daughter was about to reach for the gun but a shot came from the barangay hall.

I bet it was Kaley and the revolver slid a few feet away from the two. The girl backed away but then her mother shrieked once more.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" the lady screamed in pain after, clutching her hands.

"MOM~!!!" the girl shouted.

"MARICEL!!!" we heard a loud voice.

"NOOOO~!!!" another one followed.

"COME OUT OR I'LL F.U.C.K.I.N.G SHOOT THEM BOTH!!! I JUST AIMED FOR HER HAND AND THE NEXT TIME WILL BE THEIR HEADS!!! DON'T F.U.C.K.I.N.G TEST ME!!!" I bellowed.

"F.U.C.K YOU!!!"

"ARSEN DON'T!!!"

"STOP!!! DON'T SHOOT!!!"

All of a sudden, eight people came out and started firing at us. My group went for cover but then Mikhail provided suppressive fire.

Mikhail's unsuppressed and automatic AK-47 wreaked havoc as he fired at the opposing team.

Most of my group used that chance to try and shoot back at most of them as I ran behind the HUMVEE in front of us. Matthew was crouched near the door but I revealed a portion of myself, BCM raised.

A couple was hit by Mikhail's gun but a few of them survived and had their heads ducked low and I used that opportunity to kill the nearest one in front of me.

The guy was holding a shotgun but he was already on my sights.

I pulled the trigger and hit center mass twice.

A hole appeared near his lung and near his heart then I fired another shot towards his head. His head blew back and just as I was about to aim for the woman next to him carrying a Glock 17, a large hole replaced half of her face. All I heard before that happening was Matthew's suppressed Remington 870 firing a shot, one after the other.

The girl earlier was lying prone clutching her head but her mother was about halfway in reaching her revolver.

I fired a quick shot to her head but several bullets entered her torso and neck before she fell down bleeding.

Blood spurted out from the bodies of the other hostiles but some of them still managed to let a few rounds loose. They weren't aiming at any of us properly and they just fired it as long as they could.

I quickly took cover but I went prone and saw their feet and their calves.

Their bullets grazed the HUMVEE and our 8-wheeler but I returned by shooting several rounds aimed at their feet.

Screams followed after that and the people I shot fell to the ground revealing their heads.

The lucky ones were the ones that fell on their backs, heads on the other side. Well, I still shot at them while Matthew was reloading his shotgun.

Brain matter scattered on the pavement and the ones whose heads weren't revealed got their d.i.c.ks or snatches shot off. Screams resounded but it was easily silenced by a bullet coming from my group.

"STOP!!!"

"STOP!!!"

"PLEASE!!!"

"NO!!!"

"WHY DID- NO!!!"

I could hear a voice from someone much further but we didn't listen to him. As long as their group was still firing at us, we wouldn't stop until it was over. I saw a few more people coming from the other side and they received the same fate. They were running in the open, not shooting from cover so it was f.u.c.k.i.n.g obvious what would happen. Mikhail let loose another barrage after he stopped and reloaded his AK-47.

"STOP SHOOTING!!!"

"STOP SHOOTING!!!"

Bleeding corpses was all I was seeing from under the HUMVEE so I stood up and looked through the glass. A few more people came out but their hands were raised and they were holding nothing.

A guy was in front, tears flowing out of his eyes, waving his hands for everyone to stop. However, his people that came out earlier were all dead. The few at his back were angry and sad at the same time as they saw their comrade's bodies riddled with holes and unmoving. The only one that survived from that shoot out was the girl lying prone in the ground.

"IT'S OVER!!! IT'S F.U.C.K.I.N.G OVER!!!" the guy bellowed once more.

"Do not take a step further. That goes for the rest of your group. Move a muscle and the same thing would happen again." I said to them, still behind the HUMVEE. Matthew was on the other side, pointing his shotgun at them in case they move.

"Everybody okay?" I shouted to my group.

"Everyone's good except for Mikhail. His ear and shoulder got nicked when he stood up earlier." Jared replied.

"Nah, I'm good. This is just a graze, nothing more." Mikhail replied.

"Get that checked with Kaley later. Unc? Where are you?" I briefly turned around. I saw the windshield of our 8-wheeler full of holes.

"Here! I went inside the bus and ducked down." Unc Zardon replied.

I looked at the barangay hall and I saw Kaley at the roof and Tatiana making her way down. Kaley just gave me a signal that she was fine while Tatiana was vigilantly looking at the opposing side. Her Benelli M4 was drawn and pointed at the rest of them while she came to me.

After making sure everyone's okay, I walked out of my cover to face the guy. Looking at him closely, I recognized that he was a government official because I saw his portrait on the barangay hall. He was the barangay captain of this place and the few at the back were the cohorts that held a much lesser position than him. He was throwing me a hateful expression the whole time, the same as the rest of his group. The girl earlier was crying nonstop when she saw her mom with several holes with blood flowing out of them. She was shaking her mom's body but she wouldn't move anymore.

"You did this." he said to me, breathing heavy.

"Yeah, I did. Well, your 'hostage taker' made me. Turn around, raise your shirts, and empty your pockets." I replied.

"You think we'll still fight?!" he bellowed.

"Well, you could if you want to. Just know that we'll still kill all of you if you tried something. Are you all that's left?" I said.

He wasn't answering. There were nine all in all from what I was seeing, including the girl.

"Okay, you could take the vow of silence if you want to as well but don't make me take the vow of being impatient and just murdering all of you so it would be faster, okay?" my face darkened.

"What do you want?" he asked with a difficult expression.

"I told you already. I want you all to turn around and raise your shirts so I would know if there's a gun or a knife hidden in there somewhere. After that, I want to know if this is all that's left of you." I replied.

The guy looked at his group and then they all turned around, raised their shirts, and emptied their pockets. I saw a few weapons hidden on their h.i.p.s and I told them to lay it all on the ground slowly. They complied after much hesitation and I ordered the guy to gather all of them including their dead comrade's weapons and place it inside the HUMVEE. I noticed that there were a few guns which were standard issues for the police and the military but I kept my mouth shut. He complied as well and he stepped back while raising both of his hands.

"Okay, you still haven't answered my question. How many of you are left?" I looked at all of them.

"Why does it matter?! You killed a lot of my people! Are you gonna kill them too?!" he bellowed.

"It depends. I'm here because I want to block off that bridge a ways away. If you nine are all that's left, we'll tie you all first while we check everything before that bridge. However, you already confirmed that there's more of you by saying if we're gonna kill them too. I just need the exact number, their names, and what they look like. If you want to make it easier, you could make them come out. If there's more than what you told me, we'll kill them because anyone we found hiding is also your enemy. Do you understand what I'm saying?" I said without any emotion.

"You're not gonna kill us?" another guy asked.

"It depends." I replied.

"Before I tell you, I want assurances that you won't kill us." the guy earlier spoke up.

"Assurances? No, you don't." I replied.

"Then how could we trust you?!" he yelled.

"You just tried to 'disarm' my group earlier while making that woman use her daughter as a fake hostage. What are you even gonna do after disarming us? I doubt you'll just let us walk away, am I right?" I said with an annoyed tone.

They were all silent.

"If any of you wanted a chance to live, all you could do is blindly trust me that I won't give the order to kill all of you. Sucks to be on the other side eh? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." I tilted my head, looking at them.