SHOT in the Back

"I hit some dishes..." the sniper muttered, a little disappointed, he might not have really been trying but he was still hoping for a flesh wound at least. "You're up, my good man,"

"Ah thank you," his partner chuckled, lifting up the grenade launcher and firing off the three gas grenades he'd loaded into the gun. He whistled as he watched them sail through the air, making a noise as they disappeared through the now shattered kitchen window were they would quickly exploded.

"Keep 'em pinned for a minute, I gotta load the real ones now."

"Gotcha," he replied, firing off another two quick shots, though with the gas now in the way, he was firing blind. If they were going to leg it now would be their chance to do so whilst both he and his partner were blind to their movements.

Max clinged to Andrea closing his eyes tightly and too shocked to cry out.

As the other grenade came in and started to fill the kitchen with smoke, the woman continued to hold onto Karl. "Run."

Karl nodded and followed right behind Andrea. Mentally cursing his bad luck at things. Of course, just when things seemed to be getting better they would all break down and crash. "Wasn't there a truce!?" Karl asked once they had made it out of the kitchen.

"I thought there was." Andrea replied, anger welling up and evident in her tone. She took Karl's hand. "They'll try again. I need to contact Dom. We need to go."

"Kaboom!" The man with the grenade launcher announced, firing in three grenades into the heart of the kitchen mentally counting down waiting for the explosion. Which quickly came, followed by the building being set ablaze.

"I think our work is done for the day," he commented off-handedly as he lowered the grenade launcher again. "Reckon this will be on the news before the afternoon?"

"In this town it's probably already on the news," his partner joked as they packed up their gear. They'd done the first part of the days work, the boss and de Luca's still had their part to play, but it was almost assured that everything would go just according to plan.

"Well," Karl said, watching as the house get set ablaze. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out his cellphone and handed it to Andrea. "This marks the second house...." He sighed and then bent down to Max. "You alright?"

Max stared at the now blazing house, his face pale as he was set down by Andrea so she could use the phone. A large pop of something breaking cause him to cover his ears, shaking on the spot he stood and shaking his head. Now Max was scared.

"Dom, it's Andrea. Our house has just been blown up. Send a car and I'll talk more about it later." The woman said to her cousin, trying to keep her voice calm.

"There there," Karl said, picking up the boy, to hold in one arm. "It's alright...we're all safe." he said, looking at the house. He then sighed aloud, and glanced over at Andrea.

If this means what I think it means...she might go back...

"Sir, gunshots," Myrrh reported, his eyebrow raised, but otherwise guarding his thoughts. The de Luca head paused in his work before looking at the ceiling as if praying - only Myrrh knew he wasn't. "It's near Andrea's place."

Dominick hummed. "I knew I shouldn't have let her go. Is her child all right?"

"Source says so."

"Good. Let's keep it that way," Dominick said. "Find her with minimum casualties - also, send reinforcements to her place ASAP."

"Yessir."

Dom smiled, a hint of bitterness in his eyes. "It's really come to this again, hasn't it? I see. I expected this, but I wished... No, that doesn't matter anymore. It's this accursed city. But it won't knock us off our feet. We'll stand, and we'll remind Marisol that the de Luca family isn't something to be messed with."

Careful not to show his thoughts still, Myrrh nodded.

Myrrh was just exiting the HQ when Dom's cellphone rang. Guessing who it was, he picked up.
"Andrea," he said after listening to her plea. "It's Myrrh. We're on our way. Keep low, don't talk to anyone - you remember the drill."

Andrea nodded, before realizing Myrrh couldn't see her. "Right." Andrea hung up.

Max sniffled , cuddling into Karl's chest as he faced away from the flames. Andrea stroked the boy's head soothingly, moving the three of them away from the right in front of the house to wait near the curb, trying to make them unoticed until the car arrived.

The woman felt angry, tired, and most of all, scared. It's happening again... we should have left.

Karl shifted his weight, looking at Andrea. She looked tired... Understandably.
He knew he probably looked worse than she did. "I'm sorry about the house..." he finally said, looking over at it.

Myrrh nabbed a decent-looking car from some de Luca who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn't have to think about directions - he'd memorized seven ways to Andrea's new house already. He would have even if Dom hadn't required him to keep tabs on her new family. With the shootings (Myrrh realized they weren't such a common occurence anymore; it was like the whole town had stopped to reminisce), no one tried to pull him over even as he sped.

He stopped a street away from Andrea's place and exited his car. Dressed in a plain t-shirt and slacks (his knives hidden skillfully), he looked the part of the curious bystander. Quietly he made his way through the shortcuts he'd explored during his visits and emerged behind Andrea and her family.

"All okay?"

"Look at the bright side... they won't bug us anymore about paying the rent on time." Andrea said, her voice sounding hoarse. The woman stared forward, but put her hand into Karl's free one, squeezing tightly as she felt something wet start to come out of her eyes.

When she heard Myrrh's voice Andrea quickly wiped her eyes and turned around the face the man. "Yes."

"Odd," Siegrain muttered, his hands tucked into his pockets as he looked upon the blazing building - the whole thing had gone up in flames as he walked around the corner. He'd also started enough fires to know that this one was not naturally, there was a nasty gas in the air besides the smoke.

"Very carefully worked out..." he muttered, eyes watching the flames flicker from behind his sunglasses.

Myrhh nodded at her, surveyed the wellbeing of her family, before returning his gaze to Andrea. He smiled carefully - a smile he hadn't shown since the war had ended. "Let's go," he said, more towards her husband. The car's not far, but stay on guard. I'd keep the boy close." He turned to walk away.

And so it begins again...Karl thought as he started to walk. Still holding Max with his good arm. Wonderful. Well done Karl. Your whole family is in danger now.

Any ideas on how to break it further? He asked himself.

Andrea held onto Karl's hand while Max stayed still, a little hand holding the front of Karl's shirt. He was still in his jammies and shivered a little from the October chill.

The silence of the graveyard allowed Robert to hear the explosion, even if he was a bit away from the house. He had seen all he'd wanted to see and more, anyway. It would do him good to get out of the memories his surrounding were bringing him back, he reflected as he slipped out through the gates. It didn't take him a huge amount of time to get to the scene of the crime, half-hoping that something would still be going on there.

He hadn't seen many fires in prison, and it had been a few decades since he'd seen a house burning down, too. He'd heard that the war was over, either he had been misinformed or else something could be about to kick off in Marisol. He idly wondered how he felt about that. He reached the house quickly enough, hands in the pockets of his old coat, stopping and looking at the scene for a minute.

"Hm, which car did I take again?" Myrrh mused aloud. He hadn't been paying that much attention to his ride. "Uh, shoot. I think it was this one." He opened the door to the driver's seat and got in. The keys were already in the ignition, so Myrrh beckoned his charges inside. "Mind explaining this incident?"

"What is there to say?" Karl asked as he put the kid down on a chair, sitting down beside him and slid the seatbelt over them. "Take a while stab at what happened? I'm sure you'll get it in one." He wasn't in the best mood anymore.

Andrea gave Myrrh a look, before sighing and sliding into the back with Karl and Max. "We were all in the kitchen when shots where fired at our window. By the sound of it a sniper rifle of sorts, made for long-distance shooting."

Then a smoke grenade was thrown in, clouding our vision. But thankfully we made it out of the building before the explosion."

"This doesn't make any sense," Siegrain mumbled, casting his gaze from the burning building to the people that had escaped from it. The dark haired women he spotted with the man, probably a husband or boyfriend, and kid seemed hauntingly familiar. Where have I seen her before...?

Chancing a glance to his side he noitced others had come to investigate and sirens could be heard in the distance. "They should swap it for the sound of drums; it'd be more fitting." He muttered, his stomach churning as he realised that this was rather like some of the stuff he'd pulled back in the day. Just a bad coincidence, he told himself.

---

E: Big 100, hell yeah~!

Myrrh wasn't fazed by Karl's remark. It was understandable the man would be upset. If Myrrh recalled correctly, the Trenklers had been targeted quite thoroughly during the old clan wars as well. "Would you prefer a house within the compound or one in the city?" he asked amiably.

Andrea sighed, looking over at Max who was poking his seatbelt. The boy was wondering why he wasn't in his carseat, swinging his feet a little.

"...Which ever one that this won't be likely to happen again." Andrea replied.

Myrrh sighed as he pulled into the de Luca compound - speeding again. "Isn't that what we all wish for?" he said. "But most circumstances are out of our control now. Dominick won't take this lying down; there'll be..." He paused to look at the boy in the rearview. "Anyway. You'll probably get placed in a house with a guard. That would be safest. Living with Dominick is out of the question. If that's the case...my place would be safest."