Page 4 of Sins and Virtue

“Wait, how will I know where to meet you?”

Three.

The countdown began before I could even process the words.

Two.

Shit.

“My people will be in contact. Have a good night, Mr. Volkov. Nowrun.” The cold edge in her warning was as cruel as the Russian storm.

One.

Instinctive panic set in, and with all my force, I threw it in that direction and ran to the corner of the room for cover as the explosion went off. The nuclear reaction reverberated loudlythroughout the halls. A deafening, piercing ringing affected my hearing as I closed my eyes from the strong radiation.

My chest tightened with residual shock.

How the fuck are we not dead?

“A miracle, I guess,” I murmured, attempting to fix my hearing as I opened and flexed my jaw.

You eedeeot! I told you not to trust that damn Ved’ma! She could have gotten us killed!

“But we aren’t.” I adjusted my eyes and saw the cataclysm before me. Intense heat wavered in the air from the blast. Filling the room with a hazy cloud of smoke, ashes, and raging fire. The ceiling was on the verge of collapsing. More importantly, the bomb ended up destroying the railing and walls that contained me inside this hell.

My one-way ticket to freedom.

My salvation.

The grin on my face grew as wide as a madman’s. “She kept her promise.”

Now I was going to walk out of here like nothing.

I rose to the balls of my feet, leveling myself for what was next as the prison alarm activated. The sirens screeched to the four winds, and the ambience of the building became engulfed in red light.

Shit. My content was interrupted, and my smile faded off as I thought about what step to take next.

You didn’t think it would be that easy, huh?He taunted, like always trying to be right.

The little shit was a pain in my ass, but there was no way to get rid of him unless it was to kill myself. And I preferred living, so I guess life was disappointing for both of us.

“Shut up. I’ll do what I have to do. Fuck off,” I snarled, picking up my pace and walking through the brazen fire, lifting one foot first and placing it outside my cell. Then the next, realizing I wasfinally out of my purgatory. Taking in the moment of my long-lost freedom. For the first time in a long time, in the recess of my chaos and confusion, the ones that chained down my soul, I never felt more alive.

This is going to be fun to raise hell.

“Help us! Help us! Get us out, Volkov!” The men in the following cells yelled.

I ignored them. They served me no purpose, so why would I?

Even puppets were better served to their masters. These scums weren’t even that.

Navigating my head side to side, checking out the scene to see if there were any guards on the way to this floor and/or making their way too. Although that didn’t matter because they would be here soon enough.

Not sticking around for that to happen, I turned on my heel when suddenly I heard the heavy machinery opening all the cells of the inmates. Malicious crazy laughter followed afterwards as, one by one, they began pouring out of their holding cells.

Damn, this wasn’t a rescue; it was a fucking prison break.

Shit, that woman wasn’t aVed’ma;much worse, she wasD’yavol.