B.L.O.O.D (BlackRose)

Seventy two

Ricard manages to trick Faith, pretending to run into a big clothing store and back upstairs. What he did was the opposite.

Faith, who had lost track, ran into the escalator as the loudspeaker announcement reverberated across the mall.

"Consideration, attention.emergency announcements. All visitors and staff were asked to leave the mall immediately. It's an emergency and not a training exercise. Leave the building immediately.”

The escalator jerked to a stop under his feet. Faith rushed up the rest of the stairs and headed upstairs, she swept her gaze across the store. He saw dozens of people, seven of them wearing the same pink shirt as the girl dying under - he assumed the shirt was some kind of uniform. None of them became his prey, he lost track of Ricard.

Faith immediately looked for a ladder to climb down, she slipped her gun to the waist of her jeans and hid the grip that poked under her jacket. No need to attract unwanted attention, They've done enough with a shootout downstairs.

He joined the crowd of people upstairs, who poured out from the front of the shops. So many of them are slow-moving, uncertain: it seems uncertain whether this is really an emergency or an exercise, he said, not sure if a few minutes of gunfire might just be stupid kids playing firecrackers.

Faith looked at the back of the people's heads, necks, and shoulders. His eyes coldly evaluated the people rushing in front of him, one after another in a quick succession.

Damn, Ricard was in the middle of a crowd of jostling, motionless crowds above the two escalators that now stopped moving, leading down to the ground floor. Someone's turned off the escalator. Maybe it's a procedure for health and safety during an evacuation at the mall. But turning off the escalator was a stupid act. It'll take a long time to get down. Ricard was stuck on top, waiting for the pair of old men in front of him to descend slowly.

“Come, come on.”

He guessed he must be the last of Louis and the others. They may have run across the parking lot, along the sidewalk to the store which is only five blocks from the mall.

His mind was still not processing what he had just experienced. The shadow is inside his head. He was almost shot dead.

A woman pushed past Ricard, past the old couple in front of him. Heeled shoes were twitching on the metal rungs, wide hips bumping people to the side as he thrust forward and muttered a spell of barely unstoppable panic.

"Oh my God, protect me! Oh my God, protect me!"

Ricard wants to move forward like he did too. But not doing it. Too rough. But still....

Come onl. Comeing!

Ricard wishes Angel was with him. Or even Louis they're trained. She may only look like an eighteen-year-old girl, but Angel can break her neck and resist attacks. Then Ricard saw the face of a man he knew. It's just, of course it's not Arnold.

Faith was still on the floor above Faith's eyes and Ricard met of course Faith immediately recognized him. Faith reached out to the back and pulled out a gun from her waist.

“Please move aside everyone!" his orders were on those around him only when he pointed a gun at his target.

“YA-GODKU-DIA-PUNYA-PISTOL" shouted someone

That's more effective. The crowd, which had been pushing each other down the unmoving escalator, was now dropping down the floor together, and Faith had a perfect line of sight towards Richard. The only one still standing.

Ricard pushed the large-bodied woman who was crouching in front of him, desperately trying to pass him by. But the woman was too big to make room on the escalator. Ricard found himself climbing over the woman's back.

"Ow! God help me! I'm attacked!" yelled the woman. "Surge!!! I have to go through" Ricard said. "I have to pass.”

Ricard stood up and decided he was far enough down the escalator, so he decided to jump to the side. He landed on top of a tropical shrub of plastic embedded in a bed of gravel. Not the softest landing, but probably better than the marble floor of the mall. He stood up again and the people around him screamed in fear as several other shots rang out in the front porch.

"Get out, get out!" Ricard yelled at the people who were jostling and scrambling out of the turnstiles and emergency exits on both sides.

Faith walked towards the safety hatch in the upper hall leading to the escalator. He looked at his target on the ground floor, wrestling with people, tugging at them to let him through. He aimed again and shot twice, emptying his magazine. Below.more glass exploded and the screams around Ricard rose tremendously.

Faith climbs the escalator and lets herself slide down. He landed five meters below the hard floor, like a cat landing on his feet, his legs withstanding the impact like a brackish-modified monster truck.

He reached out to his waist to pull out his last apprentice. His target - Ricard - was right in front of him, stuck because the only way out was crammed with people fighting each other and too frightened to calm themselves. He smiled as he stuffed his last magazine into his gun.

Two missed shots, hit the big glass and broke it. Making Ricard able to get out freely, Faith saw Ricard running zig-zag in the crowd. Armed police are on hand, it would be stupid for Faith to go after him now. He let Ricard escape and ran inside to find another way out.

Arnold held back the exit so the others could get out easily, after feeling everything was sorted out he returned the little girl to her mother. He was surprised when he walked through the parking lot, Louis was already outside and was with a security guard.

Arnold ran over and hugged Louis. “Darling, are you okay? Are you hurt? My God, what bloodstains is this?”

“Excuse me are you his family?”Ask the security guard

“Yes, I'm his father my name is Mark Webber and this is my daughter.” They also shake hands with each other.

“But, your face is even..”

“Not similar? Yes, she looks like her mother. His mother is Indian.” Arnold acted very convincingly.

The security guard was relieved, he had recorded Louis's name and phone number which of course were all a disguise.

“Alright miss Chelsea, sorry for the incident. Next time be careful.”

They say goodbye and begin to walk away from the place, from a distance Louis saw Ricard who jumped out of the remains of broken glass building.

“That's Ricard.”

Ricard immediately ran towards them.

“Come, go.”

“What?”

“We first, come on.”

They ran through the parking lot to the sidewalk, and ran as fast as possible to arrive at the store five blocks from the mall, hoping Angel had arrived there first.