It''s been a few minutes since Link took me to this empty container on the side, perhaps the only one that was already open, and told me to hide inside and not leave the place until he said so. I have no idea what''s going on, but I know that those bullets that almost burned off my skin were the real fucking deal.


    "THEY''RE INSIDE THE BUILDING, LET''S GET THEM!!"


    I heard someone shouting some orders outside while I heard wheels burning and the movement of cars approaching the warehouse. The only thing I can do now is hope for the best and spy on what''s happening through this rusty hole in the metal structure of this makeshift hideout I''m in.


    I tried to look around to see if I could spot Lincoln, but to no avail. Maybe he''s also hiding somewhere else in the warehouse, which is logical, since this... um... "gang" is after us for some reason.


    "YOU TWO ARE GOING DOWN!" one of the men who had barged in yelled as he opened the side door to enter.


    Oh shit, they''re here! What the hell are we going to do? This place is huge, with hundreds of metal containers... Maybe they''re not going to search all of them, are they?


    I stood there, sweating like a pig ready to be slaughtered, while still peering through the hole. I counted six people in total who entered the building, all wearing masks or bandanas covering their faces AND holding weapons, of course.


    "SHOW YOURSELVES, MAGGOTS!"


    "WE''RE AFTER YOU, BITCHES!!"


    "IT''S THE END OF THE LINE!"


    They yelled as they searched the open area in the middle of the place. The gang was surrounded by containers, and the silence that followed made me swallow hard in fear and apprehension.


    Shit, I''m too young and handsome to die here!


    At that moment, I heard a sound of something hitting metal on the opposite side of where I was, and all the gangsters immediately turned their attention to the place.


    "Heheh, found ya!", one of the men celebrated, heading towards the place, leading the others.


    Suddenly, as they approached, the leader of the group realized that he had stepped on what seemed to be some shiny marbles. He stopped and started laughing, making fun of the situation.


    "This is pathetic, hahaha!", he continued, looking at his friends, "As if we were idiots enough to trip and fall on a child''s toy!"


    *KABOOOOOOOOOMM*


    A massive, earth-shattering explosion shattered the previous silence, reverberating throughout the warehouse and causing everyone''s eardrums to immediately start ringing. As I gathered myself from the loud sound, I rubbed my ears and peered through the hole once more. It seemed that those ''marbles'' were, in fact, explosives.


    One of the men was blown to a pulp. I could see something... something that was once a human, lying there, completely destroyed. Holy shit!


    "MOTHAFUCKA!!"


    "WHERE?!"Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    The other gangsters shouted, as they opened fire through the remaining smoke in all directions. They gathered themselves in a defensive formation after their comrade''s explosion.


    So I was about to climb out of the container, thinking of making a run to the exit door and risk everything to leave this hellish place, but then I could see the silhouette of someone moving quickly through the smoke and weaving through the anguished group of men.


    "IAAAARRRRGGHHHH!!!"


    One of the men screamed as he fell with a huge cut on his throat, swaying from side to side, letting out an almost tragicomic waterfall of blood everywhere.


    Then the shadowy figure, still moving abnormally fast, continued his attack.


    "OVER THER- UGH-!"


    "OH N- ACK-!"


    Two of the other gangsters present there were lifted by their necks by some kind of sharp line, which that mysterious figure held as he jumped high and ended up stretching and strangling them both to death.


    I couldn''t believe my eyes, as the fog dissipated even more, I could see that the figure was Link himself! As soon as I realized the situation I was witnessing, he threw a small knife that he was holding in his hand, and it pierced another gangster''s eye. The poor guy fell, already lifeless, in a pool of blood.


    In an instant, a complete silence almost returned to the place, being interrupted only by several clicks of a gun that was already empty of bullets.


    "NO! NO! NOOOOO!" shouted the last remaining thug, trying to shoot his empty gun in vain, as Lincoln approached him, "GET AWAY FROM ME!!"


    Then, fast as lightning, my friend delivered an acrobatic spinning kick in the gangster''s last direction.


    "KETKETBARUKET!"


    Did he... Did he just... Did he just try to say ''Tatsumaki Senpukyaku''? Like... Like the move in that famous fighting game? No way... I must have heard wrong.


    "HYAAAGHH!!"


    Link then landed his acrobatic attack right in the thug''s face, breaking his neck instantly. The deadly silence had finally returned. Now more dead than ever, because I could clearly peer through the hole at the several bodies lying on the ground, all over the place.


    "Phew... Easy-peasy!" my friend said, wiping the sweat that was breaking on his forehead, "You can leave now, Gus. It''s safe!"


    The motherfucker tells me that, his voice reverberating and echoing off the walls, as if nothing had happened! Damn, I''m shaking so hard I think my knees are going to give out at any moment.


    "W-What was that...?" I asked, getting out of the container I was in and slowly approaching him.


    "Oh, those were members of the Rogue gang... That''s typical behavior for them."


    "Huh?!"


    "But don''t worry, it looks like the ones who were on our trail have been eliminated."


    "Da-Dafuck are you saying-?!"


    Just as I was about to finish my indignant remarks, a small earpiece in his right ear began to blink a red dot light, followed by several beeping sounds.


    "Excuse me for a sec, man." he told me, as he pressed his earpiece, "Affirmative, they''ve all been eliminated. Send the cleanup team to the coordinates I just sent, over."


    A what team now?


    "Understood." he continued, as if confirming something to someone on the other end of the comm, "We''ll be right there, over."


    Wait, "we" what does he mean by "we"…?


    "Uh… We?"


    "Let''s get going, Gus, a service car is already waiting for us outside."


    "Wait, wait, wait, a car?! You said you''d answer my questions!"


    "I will, but I''ll do it when we get back to our base."


    "Our base?!"


    "Yeah... Since you know too much, you''re now part of the team." he congratulated me as we headed for the exit door, "Welcome to Project H.I.T.M.A.N., Agent!"


    "W-Welcome to Project Hit-what?! What the fuck?! Dude, we need to call the police right now, this has gone on too far-"


    When we left the warehouse, a luxurious all-black car with blacked-out windows was waiting for us outside in the darkness of the night. The vehicle was parked on the street right in front of where we were standing, and Link walked over to it and opened one of the backseat doors.


    "Get in, man."


    "I-I... Wait..."


    "Fine, I''ll explain everything to you on the way back."


    "..."


    Unable to rationalize any more of this shit that was unfolding before my eyes, I sighed a "Fuck it..." to myself and got into the vehicle. Gardens got in right after me and we both sat there in the comfortable back seats. Solid tinted glass blocked our view of the driver.


    As the car''s silent engines started and we pulled away, I looked back through the windows and another all-black car was pulling up to the scene we were leaving behind. All I could think about were the many unanswered questions I had in mind and how surreal it all was.