A Killer's Memoir 2: New Contracts

by Mark J. Allen

  “What’s your name man?” he asked me.

  “James,” I said. “Call me Jim.”

  “Shit man,” he said. “Four Jim’s. That’s crazy.”

  “Yeah,” I said, pretending to laugh. I then drove my fist as hard as I could into his throat. I heard his larynx crush and he began gasping for air. I pushed him down to the ground and took his weapon as his face started turning colors from not being able to breathe properly.

  He was dead shortly after and I knew I had one down and 22 to go. I also had one kill with my hand down and only four to go. I was going to have to try hard to keep track so that I didn’t mess up.

  My plan was to make my way to the fourth floor and work my way down. I went back in the building from the roof door access and walked to the fourth floor. I listened and could hear some rustling around but otherwise didn’t hear much.

  I opened the door slowly and walked in. I didn’t have my gun drawn yet as I knew nobody was alert or aware to my presence.

  “What’s up?” one of the guys asked as I walked in but then turned and noticed he didn’t know me. “Who are you?”

  “Doesn’t Lance tell you guys anything?” I asked. There were four of them in the room. I was ready to fight and I was ready to kill to get to the bottom of everything and save Emma. The guy who had spoke to me immediately drew his gun and pointed it at me.

  “Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

  “The new guy,” I told him, bluffing and looking the room over.

  “Bullshit,” he said.

  “What? How would you know?”

  “Nobody calls the boss Lance unless they’ve been here awhile. We all know better,” he said. Damn, I thought; I blew that. Apparently he was smarter than the guy on the roof.

  One guy was standing in a small kitchen area, two had been sitting on a couch and were now standing and the other was a few feet from me with a gun to my head. Given that only one of them was holding a gun to me I assumed he was the only one who had his gun ready and loaded. The guys up top probably didn’t keep their guns on them like the guys on first floor would because they would assume if trouble started they could always go grab it and then work their way downstairs, however, these guys seemed pretty confident their buddy had it handled.

  “How did you get in here?” the guy asked me.

  “The roof,” I told him honestly.

  “Bullshit,” he said, apparently not believing me.

  “Serious,” I said. “I jumped from the building next to this one and landed on the roof.” They looked at me questioningly, as if they were trying to decide on whether to believe me or not. As they tried to decide I looked around the room and began to plan how to handle the situation.

  “Let’s go downstairs,” the guy with the gun said. “We’ll let the boss decide how to handle you.”

  “That’s not going to work out too well,” I told him.

  “What do you mean?” he said.

  “I mean, the boss is dead,” I said. As I did I drew my knife out and moved forward quickly, before he had time to react. It was clear to me since there was no gunshot that he hadn’t been ready for me to make any moves and wasn’t very alert.

  I brought the blade up quickly and against his right arm, cutting his wrist deep enough the tendons cut so he couldn’t pull a trigger. I then pushed him backwards and moved quickly to the kitchen.

  The guy in the kitchen grabbed my left arm as I began to punch at him and it was exactly what I wanted him to do. I grabbed an apple corer that was sitting on the counter and swung it as hard as I could into his eye. It penetrated deep enough into the socket that he didn’t even make a noise as he dropped. There was one down with a random object, two guys down, 21 to go.

  I went back to the guy who had the gun as he was still trying to fumble with it as well as hold pressure on his wrist at the same time. He swung weakly at me and I brought my blade up fast, sticking it right in the soft spot between jaw bone underneath his mouth.

  I pulled the blade out as he fell to the ground knowing that was one with a knife. I had no killed one guy with a knife, one with a random object and one with my hands, leaving twenty guys left to kill.

  I moved my way to the two other guys who had come around the couch and were standing in open space waiting for me. They must have decided they didn’t need their guns to take care of me and thought they had strength in numbers. I assumed if they had known how pissed off I was and what I was fighting for that they would have re-evaluated that decision.

  The guy to my left swung at me and I grabbed his arm and held it. I felt the presence of the guy to my right move behind me as I was turned towards the other so I swung my foot back and connected with his stomach. Before he could react I brought my blade down and stuck it into his leg and pulled it out quickly. He gave a small grunt in pain but brought his hands back up ready to fight.

  Using the handle of the knife I hit the arm of the guy I was holding, bending his arm inward and hit him with his own hand. He moved backwards, looking a little stunned, and brought his hands back up to fight.

  The guy to my right, and now technically to my backside, made the first move swinging his fist at me and I grabbed it as I moved to the side and pushed him in the back, thrusting him towards the other guy. I now had them both in front of me, right where I wanted them.

  For somebody who still had healing injuries I felt I was moving surprisingly quickly, whether driven by adrenaline or rage wasn’t sure, but I felt confident in what I was doing. I brought the knife in quickly with a right cross and caught the neck of one of them. With the blade pointing down I immediately brought the knife backwards and rammed it into the solar plexus of the other guy.

  I let go of the knife as he dropped to his knees, trying to pull the knife out, but I knew I had stuck it in too deep for him to pull it out without it being extremely painful. Two killed with a knife and nineteen guys remained as I stared down the last guy in the room who had a pretty severe neck wound.

  He kept his left hand pressed to his neck as he swung at me with his right. I easily evaded his attack and drove my elbow into the back of his head. He fell to his knees and I moved to stand behind him.

  Putting my right hand under his chin and the other on top of his head I pulled my arms in opposite directions quickly with as much strength as I could and I broke his neck. The wound split even more when I did and he began to bleed more. I was debating on how to count that but any good coroner would be able to determine he died from his neck being broke, not from bleeding out.

  I had four kills with a random object left, five kills with a gun, three with a knife, three with my hands and three unique kills left leaving eighteen guys left to kill. My adrenaline was pumping as I retrieved my knife, pulling it out quickly and I prepared myself for the next floor.

  The Next Six

  I peered into the hallway seeing if I could see anybody but nobody was in sight. Apparently nobody patrolled the stairwells very well, assuming they would have to see somebody that was going to be taking the stairs.

  I walked down two flights of stairs and did the same thing I had done on the fourth floor, pressing my ear to the door to try and hear what was going on in there. Much to my surprise I couldn’t hear anything. I strained to listen harder but I still couldn’t hear anything.

  Finally I decided to just walk in. I still wasn’t too paranoid as I didn’t think anybody below knew there was an intrusion. I shortly realized that I was wrong and that they did know I was there as I stepped through the door and closed it. I was hit around the mid section from the side as a guy was driving his legs, tackling me to the ground.

  Rather than fall all the way down I only fell to one knee. As I started to get up another guy came out of nowhere and kicked me in the chest, pushing me backwards onto my ass.

  Again I tried to get up quickly and yet another guy came up from behind me and put a rope around my neck. I grabbed for the rope trying to put some space between it and my neck. As I tried to s
tand up the guy who had kicked me in the chest kicked my legs out from under me, knocking me back to the ground.

  I twisted my body and brought my knee up to connect with the guy with the rope’s face. It wasn’t much of a hit but caught him in the nose enough that he leg go of the rope. I gasped for air as I quickly got up and realized I was backed into a corner with the three approaching me.

  I looked around to see three other guys watching, waiting for their turn in case something happened. I breathed heavily trying to regain my breath as I waited for their next move and they appeared to wait for mine.

  Finally the guy that had tackled me moved towards me and as he did I grabbed the gun from the back of my waist band and shot the guy who had kicked me in the head as well as one of the observers. Two bullets and two kills with a gun. I tried to think as everything was happening but that still put me at sixteen guys with three of them okay to be shot.

  The guy moving towards me tackled me again, pushing me into the wall, forcing me to drop my gun. I withdrew my knife from the side sheath and stuck it in the back of his head right in the soft spot. Fifteen guys left to kill and only two of them could be with a knife.

  The odds were a little better now as it was three on one. The guy who had the rope backed up, letting me out of the corner but formed up with the other two in the room getting a better position on me. They were all in front of me for now, which I was thankful for but I had a feeling they were going to try to move in a triangle around me so that there was a guy on each side.

  While I waited for them to make the next move I put my hands on my knees and continued to try and regain my breath. As I did I continued to look around the room. I had fifteen guys left to kill, three with a gun, two with a knife, three in a unique way, four with a random object and three with my hands.

  The room was set up a lot like a college dorm lounge. There was a big television with a couch on one side of the room, a pool table in the middle of the room behind the couch, and then an entryway to other rooms. The guys were between me and the pool table in the middle of the room.

  I continued to look around, waiting for my options and without any type of warning I ran at the guy in the middle of the three. I wrapped my arms around his midsection as I lowered my head and hit his stomach with my shoulders as if I was making a tackle. I picked him up and threw him down onto the pool table.

  I grabbed a pool ball and clenched my hand around it and swung to the guy to my let as hard as I could in the temple. The sickening thud let me know I had connected exactly where I wanted to and as he started to fall I pushed the guy to my right away and turned and hit the man falling with the pool ball again in the temple.

  He fell to the floor and I knew I had crushed his temple inward, cracking the skull, which would allow the blood to rush into his brain and kill him. The guy I had tackled onto the pool table grabbed my arms from behind and pulled me backwards, almost throwing me back right into the other guy who swung a pool stick like he was a major league baseball player.

  The stick connected with my back and broke over me, causing me to lean forward. The guy that had pushed me backwards kneed me in the face, standing me upright and the major league baseball wannabe swung another stick, this time to my chest.

  He connected, again breaking the stick, and I fell backwards over the couch and onto a coffee table, which broke. I shook my head left to right trying to shake the pain off. I had fourteen left to kill now, three with a random object, three with a gun, two with a knife, three in a unique way and three with my hands.

  My back and my chest hurt but I got up slowly. The guy that had initially taken the rope to my neck and the guy that had hit me with the pool sticks remained. I moved back around the couch and got closer to them again, waiting for their next moves.

  They appeared to be waiting for mine just and for a minute I thought we might just be at a stand still until the guy who had taken the rope to my neck moved towards me. I pushed him away with a hard shove and turned my attention towards the other guy.

  The guy I shoved tripped over the pool ball that was on the floor, buying me more time as I swung at the pool stick guy. I connected a couple of blows but they weren’t as powerful as I normally would have been able to due to the fact that I was in pain and I was wearing down, starting to get tired.

  He swung back and landed a left cross and I landed a right uppercut. By now the guy who had taken the rope to my neck was up and grabbed my arms from behind me as his buddy started to hitting my body with lefts and rights.

  I threw my head backwards into the guy holding me, connecting with his nose and got free of him. I lowered my head and ran at the other guy, driving my legs. I knew exactly where I wanted to push him to and I kept driving my legs even as he was trying to push me away, hit me, and throw me to the side.

  Finally I stopped driving and shoved has hard as I could and the momentum I had created pushed him through the window. I heard him yell as he fell to the ground and I heard him hit the ground and I looked out the broken window pane, making sure he was dead.

  I turned to the other guy who had just thrown a pool ball at me. It connected with my forearm as I brought it up to shield my face. The pool ball stung badly and he threw another. I turned to try and avoid it but the pool ball hit the back part of my side and I heard and felt the familiar crack of a rib.

  I grunted in pain but moved towards the guy as he picked up another pool ball. This time as he threw I was closer and I was able to catch it. I threw it back towards him immediately and connected with his head.

  I grabbed the same rope he had used to strangle me with and threw it around a metal beam that ran across the ceiling. I wasn’t sure of the beam’s purpose but I knew what purpose it would hold for me. I hit the guy with my hand and turned him and wrapped the rope around his neck. I tied a decent enough knot and pulled the other end of the rope, pulling him off the ground.

  I held him there until his legs stopped kicking and I was sure that he was dead. I would consider both that and the window a unique way and I was hoping Justin thought the same since I was supposed to keep track.

  That left twelve guys left to kill. Three with a gun, two with a knife, three with my hands, three with a random object within the house and one unique death still remaining.

  I sat on a nearby chair for a second to try and catch my breath and regain some of my strength. Having thrown the guy out the window I knew they would be alert and ready for me now and I would have to proceed cautiously as I was no longer going to get the jump on anybody.

  I took a minute to compose myself and to bury the pain with anger and I got up, ready to finish the rest of the job.

  The Next Five

  I got up and made sure my gun and knives were ready. I was exhausted and in pain but I knew I had to finish the job within the hour as Justin had instructed and I was only hoping he was going to stick to his word.

  Just as I was getting up I heard something outside the door and as I turned towards it I saw the door open up. Four guys headed upstairs as one took an automatic machine gun to the room I was in.

  I pushed the pool table up and over with all my strength and got behind it as the bullets whizzed by my head. Four of the guys had gone back upstairs so I’d have to follow them up there but first I had to take care of the guy with the gun.

  When his clip emptied he switched it quicker than I thought possible and continued to shoot at me. I knew his guys were clear but he must have been buying time for something. I tried to listen over the gunfire but it was hard to hear anything aside from the black powder explosions, the bullets tearing through the furniture and walls around me, and the empty shell casings hitting the floor.

  Finally I was able to tell that he was backing away from me, presumably working his way towards the door. I had my pistol in my head, waiting for any small break. I continued to listen carefully and finally heard his foot start to pivot on the floor with a squeak of his shoes.

  As he was turning to leave the room
I quickly sat up from behind the pool table and shot two times, first catching him in the side and the second in the chest as he turned back towards me to shoot.

  He fell there where he was as I used my third gun kill, leaving me with eleven guys. Two gun kills left, two knife kills, three with my hands, three with a random object and one unique kill.

  I left the room and worked my way up the stairs. As I walked up to the third floor I checked clip and switched the magazines in my gun so I had a fully loaded gun. Even though I only had two gun kills remaining I wanted to be ready just in case I needed more than the two bullets to do it.

  I started with the room I had killed Lance in. I walked in cautiously with my gun half raised just in case it was needed. I didn’t see anybody in the main room so I walked back towards the bedroom where I had hid before.

  After entering the bedroom there still wasn’t anybody that I could see. Maybe they had all gone up to the fourth floor either to wait for me to go up there or hoping I would just continue on down and leave them be, however, after seeing how willing the other guys were to fight I had a feeling they were strategically planning to fight me.

  I decided to check the bathroom where I had killed Lance just incase somebody had gone in there. I pushed the door open slowly with my foot and began to raise my gun as I went in. As I stepped halfway through the door somebody on the other side pushed it closed with a lot of strength, forcing me to drop the gun.

  He opened the door back up and brought it closed on my arms again and then opened it up another time and grabbed my arm and pulled me in. As I gained my balance after being thrust into the room I saw the guy who had been on the other side of the door. He was about a foot taller than me and probably weighed at least fifty to a hundred pounds more.

  “Are you prepared to fight?” he asked me with a deep voice that you’d expect to accompany a man of that stature.

  “I don’t suppose I have a choice,” I said, looking at my gun on the ground that was a foot from him. I quickly started to move that way but he moved surprisingly quick for a big guy and kicked the gun farther from me, causing me to stop my charge towards it.