Hannibal hadn't eaten in god knows how long, he didn't know what was going on and he had no idea what day it was. Without sunlight and decent food he felt like he was going crazy. Even if somehow he did finish this stupid bomb with parts he didn't have, how the hell was he going to get out of there? He was surrounded by gangsters who would kill him and take the bomb for themselves if he poked his head out for even a second.
It was during these ponderings that his worst fear was realised. Or was his worst fear scorpions? Fuck it he didn't know, but he was discovered! The shutter door opened and from a dim light a man raised his... well it wasn't a gun, what was it?
"Hanny my boy, you got my bomb ready yet?"
'oh no, oh god no not him please.'
The man ran up and slapped him hard on the back. His hand was covered in blood. "You got my brother's bomb yet?" Hannibal stuttered, unable to answer him, the man looked at the bomb and sighed. " Oh Han... Oh... What the fuck is this?" He picked up the bomb, totally unimpressed and completely offended. "Hannibal... You wasted so much time on this piece o' shit? Are you fucking serious!" At that moment a man ran up to the door and pulled out a gun, aiming it at the pair. The man swiftly threw the knife in his hand at the man, quicker than he was even able to draw.
"Jesus Christ!" Yelled Hannibal as he watched the man die.
"Christ won't save you now Hannibal. What did that pig fucker say to you huh? He told me, y'know before I paid his bail and ended his worthless ass of course, that he told you to make the bomb. Hannibal this is a god damn fire cracker!"
"I-I-I Know I-I-" fear was shooting through him now. "Mr Gunderson please, I don't know anything about che-"
"You know nothing! About! Nothing! You dumb mother fucker! Strand is gonna be very very disappointed, and when the client is disappointed, me and Noah get violently angry." He spoke eerily calm but his actions were a different matter as he backhanded Hannibal across the room and out of it. Finally he was outside of the room... but looking around he wished he was back inside. The building was full of gangsters and drug dealers fighting against Gunderson's forces. Gunfire and throwing knives were everywhere around the room. He lay on the ground as Gunderson pounced on top of him and began punching him repeatedly. "You do not fuck with my family Hanny! You fail us once and you're dead, fail us twice and you suffer before you die-"
"Grenade!"
The word came a little too slow as the grenade went over the head of Hannibal and the Gunderson brother and into the room with the bomb. "Oh shit." Were the words that came out of the mobsters mouth. He quickly got up off of Hannibal and ran to cover while Hannibal ran for the exit. The explosion from the grenade destroyed the room, but it was the bomb that caused the true damage. Totally unstable it lit a fire as it blew out the space between the room it was in and the opposite storage unit, which just so happened to contain volatile chemicals for a drug lab. Just like the rest of the building.
Hannibal, running faster than he ever had in his entire life, raced down through the building, dodging bullets all the while as drug labs exploded one by one behind him, killing and burning dozens upon dozens upon dozens of gangsters on both sides. He raced for the exit, the fire chasing him quickly behind. The end was in sight, he reached out his hands for the fire exit, feeling the heat behind him. Not stopping he slammed the door open and kept running and running and running, the building going up in flames. He didn't stop and turn to look at the carnage, he simply ran as fast as he could away from it as debris rained down into the street. He had no idea where he would go now, the Gundersons's after him and now maybe even one of Feroxi's many violent gangs. Fearful thoughts ruled his mind as his feet never once stopped running.
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Alex entered the town hall and walked up to the conference room, where she would be attending a meeting. Sat around the large table was the mayor, a principal representing schools, a rep of the gardening committee for the garden of Yuteni, a rep for road safety and construction, a farming rep, a priest and various workers union reps.
Taking her seat she greeted the rest of the party. The Mayor was the first to speak. "First order of business, and I know all of you are going to hate this because I sure do, Sophia Yuteni," the room grumbled at the name, "yes I know, well she has decided that her airship isn't fashionable any more and instead of trading it off and making some money off of it, she is handing it down to her daughter. As such she is demanding money from our budget for her ship."
The room began shouting over each other for their case of how wrong it was. "People, people please, people!"
Alex stood up and took off her sheriff's hat, everyone immediately paid attention to her. The outfit demanded attention as a sheriff, but everyone respected her for the intelligent person as well as the badge.
"I don't want a repeat of last month's meeting, because last time we ended up all giving the Yuteni's a share from our own departments, and we suffered for it. The police department surely did. I know we would have been worse off giving our profits to him like we normally would, but at least then the rest of you wouldn't have stagnated so much like last month. Even just a third of what they normally demand, taken from each of us, is more of a blow than if one of us gives them a large, albeit undeserved, paycheck."
The mayor interrupted her but not with an insulting intention. "True as that may be sheriff it appears we may have to again in order for her to buy the ship, one department alone can't pay her, I know the police can't, nor can anyone here. We can't let one suffer or else it won't be done. We are all going to need to put in much more than usual."
"How much are we talking here?" Asked the principal.
The mayor responded, sighing heavily as he did. "It appears that... Well... We will have to pay out more than the usual 30%." He clearly did not want to continue but knew he had too. "Each of us will have to pay at least 43% of our monthly individual budgets."
The room freaked out, shouting and screaming ensued, Alex was close to joining in as her blood boiled.
"We can't pay that much!"
"No one is going to be able to even feed their kids with that kind of money.'
"The streets are gonna be ruined, we barely make enough as it is."
"Won't somebody please think of the children!"
"Enough!" Both Alex and the Mayor seemed to shout in unison. The mayor spoke first, putting her stetson back on. " Its not going to help us all shouting at each other, and not all of us will be able to pay this, so someone may have to pay up more than others in order to-"
"NO that's fucked up! If one person pays less then they'll always end up paying less!" Yelled the farmer, frothing at the mouth.
The preist spoke more calmly. "Even if they don't they may feel pressured next month to contribute more. Not just that but the church runs on a donation basis, everyone in the city losing part of their paycheck for this ship won't be able to donate enough on my part to pay, I am afraid I won't be of much help other than-"
"Then pay from your own damn pocket!" Angrily exclaimed a union rep.
"I was just about to say that!" Retorted the priest.
Alex had had enough and planted her boot firmly on the table, some turned to her in shock, others hoping she would defuse the situation. "I know how bad this is. We can all keep paying some from each of us from now on but that won't work, the city will suffer for it. I can already tell we are going to be feeling this for at least the rest of the year. So why don't we all sit down, like adults, and decide how we will pay out."
"You mean get raped by our nobles." Said another union rep sadly.
"Yeah, why don't we just not pay for a month, that'll show 'em!" The leader of the gardening committee was getting louder now.
"You know what happens if we do that!" Yelled Alex, finally losing her temper. "I'm not going to risk those man children losing their temper again and taking it out on the city. So shut up, calm down and let's talk like grown ups here. My 8 year old is more mature than you-smarter too, he knows when to negotiate."
The woman promptly shut her mouth.
"Good." Said Alex. "Now then, probably about time we started talking like people over the age of twenty."
