Alissa - Part 3

Silence lingered in the air, like the deferred moments before a falling glass shatters on the ground. There was smoke everywhere because of the amount of cars screeching whilst they came in, surrounding everyone. Thick residual of smoke shifted around the atmosphere, taking the shape of ghosts in the air. Instantly the silence was disrupted; by what sounded like footsteps rushing forward in an organised formation…

“Nobody, do anything stupid”, a voice ordered, as the smoke slowly began to clear up - making it easier for everybody to see their surroundings again. There stood the officer that approached both Chris and Omar accompanied by over a dozen men in uniform circling everyone with guns pointing; ready to shoot.

“Hahahaha we finally meet Officer Connor”, laughter suddenly erupted from a peculiar source. The dealer stood still, displaying a sense of humour, but nobody seemed to understand the joke, as the situation at hand was no laughing matter.

“I must say you’ve outdone yourself this time round Chris, I didn’t think you had it in you to double cross me. In case you didn’t know, my resources extend to the police force little boy, so I came prepared.” the dealer oozed confidence.

Chris couldn’t believe what he just heard, and with Omar still on his knees stunned with total shock, nothing could have prepared either of them for what came next.

“Lay on the ground!” Officer Connor yelled as he started cautiously moving forward in the direction of the dealer. Suddenly, the two black vans that were behind the dealer opened simultaneously. Men dressed in all black came spurting out firing with assault rifles. The sound of bullets echoed through the cold air; bodies were falling from both sides in the array of gunfire.

Chris managed to drag Omar behind one of the police cars, neither of them was carrying a firearm so all that was left for them to do was to wait patiently and hope for the best outcome. In the centre of the action, the dealer rattled down the officer’s men headshot after headshot. Conner was backed up behind a car with two of his remaining men, tactfully trying to take out the opposition. At this point, the sound of the bullets became a soundtrack of death, which was on the cards, for everyone.

“Connor, come out come out wherever you are. That goes for you as well Chris, this can only end one way.” The dealer was carefully wondering around the many dead bodies laid to waste as he looked for Chris and Connor.

“I’m sorry bro, but honestly, I had no choice,” whispered Chris as he and Omar who was now fully aware of what was going on, they began moving quietly from car to car, desperate not to get spotted by the dealer.

“You always have a fucking choice, but now isn’t the time. Let’s try and survive this mess then go our separate ways after” Chris continued, Omar didn’t look at him once as they moved from car to car.

There is no sound, yet everyone is moving, moving and not talking. The dealer and his remaining men who have not been taken out are discreetly preying on Chris, Omar and officer Conner.  

“Shhh, do you hear that?” whispered Chris, as he stopped moving.

“It’s nothing, just stay low and keep moving forward,” Omar was in front, so he couldn’t see a thing behind him.

“Chris? Chris?”

As Omar turned his head to figure out why Chris wasn’t responding, to his horror he discovered the problem, and he froze in his crouched position. Conner as well as his two men had taken ahold of Chris with a gun pointed at his head.

“I’m not going to hurt him, but I need both your co-operation.” Conner slowly lowered his gun to prove he wasn’t lying. After a few moments of talking strategy, a plan was configured to take down the dealer.

“I’m not sure about this, to be frank.” Chris was never sure about any plan that wasn’t his.

“Have you been in a situation like this before?”

“No.”

“Exactly, so shut up and get ready before he spots us before we’ve even put this plan in motion.”

Conner seemed very confident his plan would work. Meanwhile, Omar kept silent throughout everything, he was just observing and listening.

“I’m getting very bored of waiting around for you vermin to come out. Conner, you think I don’t know that you have no reinforcements coming? I also know that your deputy leader did not approve this investigation, so the blood spilt here tonight is on your hands.”

Both Omar and Chris turned in the direction of Conner in disbelief and Chris appeared utterly devastated. The pain, coupled with anger that was flowing through his body was unimaginable. He then glanced in the direction of Conner’s gun.

“Chris, don’t do anything silly we’ll handle this later,” Omar knew if he didn’t react when he did then it would have been a harsh ending for them. Conner and his two men didn’t look phased at what they saw.

“Take these two guns I’m sure you know how to use them, but just keep in mind there's about 10 rounds left in each of them so don’t waste it.”

The guns were like any other basic handguns, but knowing that they came from Conner, an exposed somewhat “dodgy” cop caused suspicions to be raised.

“Let’s say we survive this; how do we know you won’t frame us using these guns?”  Omar being the type of person he was, couldn’t help but ask questions.

“You don’t, but right now you have to forget about everything you’ve heard and trust me if you want to survive.” The look on Conner’s face as he spoke looked of a man that was about to go into battle and determined to come out the victor.

Conner signalled to his two men to head to the right, whereas he, Omar and Chris started moving along the left. Then the unthinkable happened, two loud bangs pierced through the air. It was impossible to tell what had happened, the dealer and his men were nowhere to be seen. The same thing went for Conner’s men, which wasn’t good news either. Suddenly laughter broke out, “Hahahaha! Two down two to go!”

Conner lifted his head up to take a peek through one of the car windows. There lay his two men on the floor; blood oozing from their backs formed a never-ending trail.

“My plan has gone straight out the window,” Conner yelled frantically, his whole squad had been taken out.

“I tried to warn you, man, now let me show you how a real schemer deals with things.” Chris was now in his element, he thrived off of being in control of things. It didn’t take him long to conjure a plan of his own, all that was needed to be done, was to go through with it.

“You sure this will work?” Conner was not convinced at all.

“Well, I did successfully plan the diamond heist didn’t I?” Chris responded sharply in an ego-boosting manner.

“Fair point,” Conner admitted defeat to Chris.

“So, everyone knows their roles? Conner this whole thing weighs heavily on your shooting accuracy”.

Everyone gave a brief nod, thus signalling the start of the operation.

“Oi, old man you’re going to kill us so you might as well tell me your name,” Conner now purposely calling out the dealer in an attempt to get him and his men’s attention.

“Whatever you’re planning it won’t work Conner, there’s three of us and two of you.”  The dealer sent his two men in the direction of Conner’s voice, then suddenly Chris’ voice broke out.

“Can’t we come to a civil understanding like real men? No more blood needs to be spilt.” With Chris speaking, the dealer knew what direction his voice was coming from, he signalled to both his men to split up and search for Chris and Conner.

Conner was slowly and quietly moving from car to car, he was scanning the section that he was currently at, but for the life of him, he couldn’t see his pursuer. There was shattered window glass all over the floor, after some time looking at them Conner came up with an idea to enable him to get a better view of his surroundings. He picked up one of the broken pieces of glass and used it to look at directions that would give his position away if he moved his body outwardly.

“I’m getting restless! I’m a very busy man,” the dealer was getting impatient.

“You look about 200 years old, you’ve had all the time in the world. So waiting around what harm you” Conner purposely trying to draw out one of the men. To his surprise he heard approaching footsteps, acting quickly he angled the broken glass he was holding to see if he could see the enemy approaching him…

Conner maintained a cool detachment to his targets. Mostly he preferred not to think of them, but when he did it was as if they were already dead. Then just like that Conner caught a glimpse of his target through the broken glass. In one motion he eyed his gun with his bleak grey eyes, the eyes of a hunter, whilst keeping his cool he turned, aimed and fired his gun.

The pursuers body fell as if it was snow settling on the ground.

“One down two to go,” Conner muttered as he reverted back to his position a few moments ago.

Meanwhile, Omar and Chris were fighting their own battle in trying to evade the last henchmen who was after them. Realising they were clueless about being in the front line, Omar and Chris knew they couldn’t afford to make any errors at this point.

“All I wanted was for Alissa to be healthy again. How did it come to this?” Omar brought out the picture of Alissa, which he carried with him everywhere. Chris could only watch as he spoke to himself. Knowing that this was entirely his fault, made his stomach turn.

“Stay here Omar,” Chris said as he quickly pushed past Omar whilst crouching down.

“What are you doing? I need to do this for the plan to work,” Omar said assertively as he grabbed ahold of Chris’ arm. They spent the next few seconds bickering not knowing that they were bringing attention to where they were.

“Get down!”

Instinctively Omar pulled Chris back onto the floor, as he heard Conner’s voice. They didn’t know it yet but Conner had just saved their lives.

“You fucking idiot, I knew you couldn’t be trusted,” Chris was raging

“Fuck you! I just saved both your lives.” Conner pointed to the now dead body that lay there on the ground.

“The plan is still on, go, go, go,” Chris realised that everything was still going according to his plan and sent Omar out stumbling.

The dealer had ended up back in his van waiting for his men to come back with the bodies of Chris and Conner. “At this rate, I’ll be sitting here waiting forever,” the dealer was getting restless and decided to go check out the situation at hand.

As soon as he stepped out he could see somebody stumbling in his direction. He started walking towards them, as he couldn’t see who it was but then they fell to the ground.

“Hahaha! Looks like I’ll be dealing the final blow”, the dealer was delighted at the prospect of getting his hands dirty.

“I remember this jacket that you stole from me, Chris, I just kept quiet because I knew I’d eventually have the opportunity to kill you” the dealer was now standing over the body which he thought to be Chris, he brought out his gun, turned the body over only to realise it wasn’t Chris…

“Shit!” The dealer wore a puzzled expression on his face.

“Oi! Over here,” With Conner shouting to get his attention the dealer got back up, only to catch a bullet in the shoulder forcing him to drop to the ground in anguish. Conner then bolted to where the dealer laid, “looks like your old age has you forgetting faces.” Chris was next to come rushing in as Omar was already there waiting.

“Yes! My plan fucking worked, I knew his obsession with killing Conner and me made him forget about Omar’s existence.” Chris was ecstatic

Omar started walking away towards the briefcase of money when all of a sudden he heard a loud bang go off. As he turned around, he saw to his amazement Conner’s lifeless body hit the ground. Chris was stood over his body just watching him fade away.

“Chris why! What have you done?” Omar was in much so shock that he vomited.

“It had to be done it was the only way we were going to leave this mess and have nothing come back to haunt us. Remember this whole thing wasn’t authorised so now with him dead we can walk away as if we were never here, you choose” Chris said assertively as he walked over to check on Omar.

“It doesn’t matter man, you killed an unarmed man, it isn’t right, and it’s low down” Omar shrugged Chris off of him as he was wiped the vomit off his mouth. Omar looked up to the sky, the clouds were no longer grey or white, instead, everything had been engulfed by darkness. It really set the mood and reflected the setting they were currently in.

“You amateurs will never learn, the first rule in combats is to never turn your back on the enemy,” the familiar voice of the dealer sent shockwaves through both Omar and Chris’ body as they turned around.

“WATCH OUT!” Chris yelled as he shoved Omar to the left of him.

Omar watched on as Chris started to grunt in pain. Blood started to flow from his mouth, he looked in the direction of the dealer and saw that from where he lay he had managed to get ahold of a gun and shoot Chris.

“Noo! You son of a bitch.” Omar's wide-open eyes echoed how he felt during that precise moment. Behind them was something more intense than anger and his clenched jaw meant that Omar was seeing red. He reached for his pocket and unloaded round after round in the direction of the dealer. They hit the dealer in the chest, propelling him backwards.

Omar immediately rushed to Chris’ body holding the top half of him in his arms.

“Stay with me man,” emotions flowed out of every pore on Omar’s body. As much as he fought back tears, they slowly crept up to the surface and escaped.

“Listen to me Omar, I never wanted to sell you out. Maya told me she’s pregnant again, and with my debt, I had no choice.” Chris was struggling to get his words out as his life began to slowly fade away.

“You don’t need to explain,” Omar reassured him.

“I know I don’t but listen to me, I love you, man. As part of the deal, I rearranged for Alissa to get top treatment. That’s out of the window but you have the money and the diamonds so get her the help she needs.” Chris’ breathing shortened, then moments after he was gone.

Omar had no choice but to leave the scene of this bloodbath with the money and diamonds. He took one of the dealers black vans, as he knew if he took what he and Chris came with it would raise suspicion on his whereabouts of the time this bloodbath.

Whilst driving back, all Omar could think about was how Chris had left behind a big family. He was happy that a solution for Alissa was now sorted, but his best friend was dead. Before getting home, Omar stopped outside Chris’ house to write a note to his wife. After he was done he went to leave the note and half the money from the heist outside their front door. He called her, pretending to be someone else so she could receive what he had left. It was his goodbye gift from him to her through Chris.

All that was left to do now was for Omar to go home to Alissa. He knew after the event’s that had happened his outlook on life would never be the same again. With that in mind he also knew that he was blessed with enough money to live a new life with his daughter.