The Zodiac Assassins

Chapter 16

"Who are you?" someone shouts. "Are you the other members in the assassination group that he was talking about?" he swings his gun round to point it at Leo who looks down.

"Maybe, maybe not" Aries reaches inside her jacket for her knife and swears. "I've left it behind" she mutters. "Shit. Why would I do something like that?" None of us are ourselves today, all slightly... I'm not quite sure what the right word is to use but... that'll be why she forgot the knife.

Leo steps forwards and shrugs off his coat. I've never seen him without it and even in this blistering heat, he still had it on. It's like it's welded to him or something. Underneath the coat is an Akropolis IF (Swedish football team based in the capitol, Stockholm) shirt, jeans and at least four belts across his chest, all covered in what look like miniature axes. He drags a number out of their holds and lobs them down the halls. I don't think any of us actually register what is going on he throws and grabs them so fast, until most of the guards are dead. I don't think they register is either as it's only when there are only about six of them left that they start shooting at us. Leo throws a couple more axes and Sagittarius slips along the side of the wall towards them. They're so busy trying to kill Leo, they don't notice him until over the sound of guns is heard the crack of someone's neck breaking. Sagittarius shrugs and an axe hits one of them in the head, spraying him with blood. Virgo slips down the hall and does her trick with bashing their ears.

"I've been meaning to ask you" Aries says as she kills the last one. "What is that that you do? That... that thing where you hit the ears?"

Virgo frowns and wipes blood off her nose. "I'm not entirely sure how it works but it's something like the ear drums explode and it builds pressure in the brain really fast and then the brain explodes. Something like that anyway."

"Right"

"That was so cool" Cancer squeals as Leo goes to collect his axes.

He glances at her and then looks down, blushing. "It... it's nothing really I... I just..."

"Wiped them out in thirty seconds max" Virgo wipes the blood from her hands onto the wall in a long, hand shaped smear that looks like something found in some kind of zombie apocalypse. "It was really cool."

Leo smiles the tiniest smile I've ever seen and goes back to collecting his miniature axes.

"What I don't get is how you managed to hide them from them" Sagittarius hands him an axe. "I mean, I get that they're tiny but... seriously?"

"They were under my shirt the day we went in" Leo finishes slotting them back into the three belts across his chest and shrugs his coat back on. "Personally, I've got no idea how they weren't picked up by that metal detector thing either but still... I'm glad they weren't. These have saved my life more times than I can account for.

"Guys, we've got around fifteen minutes to navigate our way out of this place and get as far away from here as we possibly can" I say, picking up my phone and showing them the time. "We've gotta start moving."

Aries wrenches a gun off one of the dead guards as we pass, loads it and pulls the trigger. It goes off loudly right behind us and the ceiling caves in a little. "Just checking it worked."

"Idiot, they know we're here now" I hiss.

"Yeah, like they didn't hear all of those guns going off before" she smirks.

"Ricordami di mettere sulla mia lista uccidere te fastidioso pezzo di merda" I mutter (translation at bottom of page).

"Hey, hey, hey" Cancer turns to glare at us. "I seriously thought you two were starting to get along."

"I have really violent changes 'can stand' list sometimes and it's not always my fault" Aries hisses. "It's also not always my fault that she just goes off and speaks Italian while I'm left not knowing what the hell she's saying."

I roll my eyes and carry on going, checking my phone all the time. "Ten minutes guys."

With seven minutes to go, we reach the door. Aquarius stands just inside and grins at us as we approach. "Hey, you did it. Welcome back guys."

Sagittarius nods at her as he passes and we sprint for the van.

"I texted you a little late" Aquarius says to me. "I completely forgot until it'd been set for around four minutes."

"So we only have three?" I groan. "Damn it, we only just got out in time."

She nods. "Yup. Only just, but we still need to get away with this and there's no knowing that it'll actually work."

Taurus is twirling a gun round his little finger looking bored when we get back. He glances over his shoulder at us as we pile in the back and grins. "So, you survived without me?"

"Barely" Aries pats his shoulder and grins. "Don't worry, Leo is almost as handy with his axes as you are with your gun."

Leo blushed again and Taurus stared at him. "You have axes?" Leo nods. "I could never, ever find one. I've always really wanted one though. It'd be really cool. You'd be like Gimli, running towards you target with your axe, twirling it round your head screaming 'that still only counts as one'."

Leo grins.

The van pulls away from the base with probably only a minute to spare and we drive a bit away before Aquarius says it's okay to stop. We clamber out and watch nothing for a second and then the entire base blows up with an ear-splitting bang. We cheer and Pisces goes round giving everyone a 'Happy Hug' or, in Capricorn's case, a 'Happy Kiss'. Then there's another explosion, bigger this time and a mushroom shaped cloud expands into the air.

"Jeez Aquarius, how many explosives did you plant?" Virgo laughs.

"Too many" Libra mutters, not her usually completely grumpy self.

"No" Scorpio appears. None of us see him walk up, he just appears from no where. "No, she fucking screwed up big time. You're not talking your way out of this one Water-Bearer."

"Where'd you come from?" Cancer says, not taking her eyes off the cloud. "And what'd you mean?"

Aquarius takes a couple of dainty steps forwards and stares in horror at the slightly now red sky. "No. Please tell me you're joking."

Scorpio shakes his head. "No, you fucking screwed up. You've just doomed the entire fucking world. This thing, I bet you knew that it needed something to blow it fucking sky high and then they've set theirs off. I bet you knew."

"What're you talking about?" I snap.

"Her" Scorpio hisses. "She's doomed us all. That explosion of hers, it just made DdM blow. That cloud, that cloud is nothing to do with our little Water-Bearer here. That cloud is to do with our DdM, the size of three atomic explosions. And if we survive the few months in the aftermath, we'll all die of radiation sickness. You still don't get it. We're dead people walking now and it's all her fault. She blew up their weapon, she made it blow and now she's doomed the world."

"I... I didn't... I didn't mean to" Aquarius whispers. "I didn't know it'd make it blow."

"Yes you did" Scorpio scoffs.

"You're making stuff up now" Aquarius shouts. "I knew nothing of it. I didn't know anything about it and the only stuff that I now know about it is what you've just told me."

"So we failed" Aries mutters. "So... we're all dead now."

"I didn't know" Aquarius sits down fast on the road and starts crying, silently. "I didn't know."

Ricordami di mettere sulla mia lista uccidere te fastidioso pezzo di merda - Remind me to put you on my kill list you annoying piece of shit.