After Austin read and reread the letter, he said "Fuck!" before crumbling it up and tearing it to pieces.
He'd just thrown the shredded pieces of paper on the floor when it happened…It was as if time slowed, as his senses suddenly seemed to heightened and something else within him took over his body. As if by instinct, he leaned his head to the right nd a bullet skinned through the air of where his head just was. This was followed by - well, during - sound of a gunshot.
Looking up, Austin saw where the bullet collided with the wall in front of him. Then, eyes tracking where the bullet came from, Austin found his would-be killer just in time to dive to the ground as another shot was sounded, piercing his eardrums in the tight space like a thunderclap in a thunderstorm.
Quick to his feet, Austin processed what he saw in the split of a second: A boy, maybe 18 or 19 years old, smiling coldly as he reloaded a pistol. He wore shorts and a black tank top and a pair of brown combat boots, with a green camo cap. He was pretty thin, malnourished even, but he was stanced as if he knew how to use the weapon he was carrying, the fact that Austin would be missing a head if he hadn't felt the instinct to move out the way only supported the guy's ability with the gun. And his sick, sinister smile suggested that he enjoyed Austin's look of horror. Austin didn't even need to look at the holes in the wall behind him to know that they would have been holes in him had he not ducked out of the way.
Interestingly enough, another detail caught Austin's eye: The guy's green, army jacket with a brown scorpion emblem stitched to his back — Just like the owl emblem Austin had etched into his clothing. But he couldn't focus on that because after the 3 seconds it took for Austin to take all that in, he looked in horror as he realized something: The guy wasn't alone.
Behind him, 1 girl and 1 boy stood, with the same chilling, cold eyes, with the same brunette hair, chilling, malicious smile and military boots as the first guy. And all three of them possessed firearms: The first guy had 2 pistols, the 2nd guy had a machete and a pistol and the girl had a shotgun.
Austin processed all of this in a split second, as combat instincts he didn't even know he had took over, saving his life as he barrow-rolled sideways, avoiding a shotgun shell to the shoulder before ducking as a pistol's bullet missed his skull just barely. "Who are you guys? Why are you attacking me?"
"We've run out of supplies, so we figured why not take yours," said the girl, laughing maniacally, as she fire a shell from her shotgun that Austin dove deeper into his room to dodge. "We figured you weren't using them; you're after all the only one we've seen still in his cells here!"
"Yeah, so just stay still, so we can kill you and take your stuff, and we'll be on our way," the first boy said.
Austin noticed that they spoke as if what they were asking him was a simple request, like 'Hey, let's play a game,' not 'Stay still so we can kill/rob you.' But, as Austin dodged another array of bullets, he repeated his question. He wanted - not, he needed answers. And their vague answers weren't cutting it. "No, who are you people?"
"Oh, I guess knowing who we are isn't too much of an issue, seeing as you're going to die anyway," the second guy sounded as insane as the other two. "Alright, well I'm Feari and that's my big bro Horri. And that girl there is big sis Pannica."
Horri (the one with the two pistols) suddenly fired again, but Austin tucked in his knees, rolling forward, right in front of Feari, who decided he was too close to fire his gun , so he threw the gun away, pulling out his machete, as Austin pulled out his own own blade — his sword.
Heart racing, blood pumping, instinct took over Austin again as he clashed his blade to Feari's.
Hearing the sound of guns being reloaded, Austin took a step back, dodging another of one of Horri's bullets, this time to the gut. Unsheathing one of his daggers from his heels and then, to his own shock, shucked the small, thin blade straight at his attacker with terrible accuracy.
The squishy sound of blade punctuation skin and muscle followed by Horri's scream of pain resounded. It was a gut-piercing sound.
The fight was then paused suddenly, as his companions rushed to his side and mere thought of what he had just done dawned on Austin, as the sound of dagger piercing flesh replayed in his ears over and over and over again, causing him to wish to cut his own ears off and throw up whatever was still left in his stomach from the night before.
The sight of one of his attackers' blood oozing from his leg with a blade still sticking out at a very uncomfortable-looking angle, Austin watched as Horri, on his knee, too paralyzed by the shock and horror, and his companions looked at Austin with horrified expressions on their faces.
Austin has already begun processing things. First, it was as if the moment the fight had started, Austin's body moved on its own, without listening to Austin's conscious mind. It was as if somebody - something - had taken control over his body, leaving Austin powerless and in the passenger seat in his own body.
However, thankfully, it only lasted a moment, and it would have seemed that Horri's scream let loose a domino effect. Immediately, Austin's body was provided with enough adrenaline to shock him back in control of his body. But with it, came the emotions he suddenly was hit with.
Guilt. For what he had just done to his attacker. Even if it was in self-defense, the guy wasn't that much older than Austin was — Whatever had taken over Austin's body had possibly robbed this guy of his life.
Shock. He felt shocked at what had happened. Though he felt like the guy before him wasn't in immediate danger, considering he doesn't think he aimed for a lethal spot, it was still a traumatizing experience. But the fact that he sensed this, seemed to suggest that Austin had more of an experience, perhaps, in combat than he initially thought…
Austin would have chased that thought, but then the room was dizzying as Horri let out a second raw and guttural sound, as if he were dying. Austin made a step towards the guy, as if to help him, but, before he could make another one, Feari let out a gut-clenching sound of his own, ragefully, he said "That's it! You die!"