The Devil's Cage

When the explosion was over, Kieran did not run over to turn on the generator right away. Instead, he waited patiently to see if the thugs were still alive.

The grenade had caused a powerful explosion within a short radius. It was not possible for the them to have survived, but Kieran wanted to be on the safe side. He could not afford to let his guard down yet.

He waited until there were no more sounds coming out of the room, and then walked to the diesel generator and turned it back on.

The generator sounded like an old machine. The power was back in the corridor and in all the rooms, except the one the thugs were in.

The grenade had destroyed its walls and killed all the lights.

Although Kieran was already familiar with the smell of blood, his stomach still turned when he faced the scene inside the room.

He had to hold himself back not to throw up.

He forced himself to confirm that each and every one of the thugs was dead before he collected the loot.

Unfortunately, the thugs had already been bombed to pieces and all the loot had been destroyed in the process.

Kieran still searched though. He wanted to get used to the gore and blood because he would encounter even more of it in the future. He would face more death in the coming days, and he needed to be strong enough to deal with it.

About two minutes later, he came out of the room looking pale.

He took a deep breath, trying to wash off the stench of blood filling his nose.

“Νot there yet, huh?” he laughed at his own expense as he began to check out the other rooms.

Most of them were mere sleeping spots for the thugs, with barely more than a bed and a couple of sheets inside.

The only exception was a room that looked like a tool storage area.

Kieran found saws, shovels and several buckets of oil inside it, but most importantly, he found a cart. This gave him an idea.

Considering the amount of supplies he had discovered in the Vulture’s room, his backpack would not be big enough to carry everything. But if he used the cart, he could take with him at least half of the supplies.

Kieran placed the shovel and saw in the cart and moved towards the Vulture’s room.

The tools would be useful to him in the future, and if the buckets of oil were not that heavy, Kieran would have taken them as well.

Inside the Vulture’s room, Maggie was still on the bed. She had not budged an inch since Kieran had gone out to take care of the thugs.

When she heard the explosion outside and then saw Kieran walk through the door with the cart, her face turned dark. She even moved backwards a little instinctively.

Maggie might have been hiding during the war, but she was not stupid.

She knew exactly what had happened just now.

Kieran noticed the movement and the inexplicable fear in her eyes.

He did not explain anything, though. He could not fully trust her yet, so he thought it would be best to keep her scared so he could order her around.

“Help me get the food and the water inside the cart,” he told Maggie.

Before he could finish his sentence, Maggie was already putting supplies into the cart. She looked frightened as she watched Kieran take the saw and the shovel out. She had moved in such a rush that she had not even put on her shoes.

Kieran had not remained idle either. He had also begun to move supplies into the cart.

In less than two minutes, half the supplies had already been loaded. According to Kieran’s calculations, they would last him and Colleen for about a month or so.

“Not bad!” he said to himself quietly while he loaded the bag of jewelry and the tools on top of the cart. After he had arranged the remaining firearms, he was ready to depart.

“Thank you for helping me load the cart. The remaining supplies are yours to keep. If I were you though, I’d leave before dawn,” Kieran said before he left with his prize.

At daybreak, the rebels would arrive and they would find out that it had all been a lie. He could only imagine the rage on their leader’s face once the Major knew the truth.

Whoever stayed behind would definitely end up dead.

If it was just the thugs, he would not have cared, but Maggie was a civilian and he thought he should warn her. That was all he could do for her. Kieran could barely keep himself alive during such dire times.

Pushing the cart with the loot, he left the underground storage area and placed the makeshift sniper rifle on top of the cart as well. He was ready to head back to the hideout when Maggie ran up to him with a bundle on her back. The bundle was made of bedsheets that she had found back in the Vulture’s room.

“Can... Can I come with you?” she asked Kieran with an uneasy feeling, afraid that he might refuse.

She was still afraid of him, but she had no other choice.

After getting captured by the Vulture’s men and everything else that had followed, her instinct told her that she shouldn’t remain in such a dangerous place.

She could take the remaining supplies and head back to her old hideout, but what would happen when they ran out?

She would have to go out of hiding again and put herself in danger’s way.

Would she be so lucky as to have someone save her again like Kieran just had?

The answer was no.

Rather than face that kind of danger in the future, she might as well just ignore her fear and follow him now.

She might be scared of his methods of surviving, but Kieran has still proved to be a gentleman in the end. She might feel cautious around him, but he was harmless compared to the thugs, who made her feel like prey.

After some hesitation, she rushed to catch up with him.

“I’m a nurse. I have medical knowledge and know how to treat wounds!” she tried to prove her usefulness to him.

She was successful.

Keeping in mind that all civilians had the potential to become thugs, Kieran had no plans to let anybody else join him other than Colleen, whom he had shared a life-and-death experience with.

However, he needed to acquire more skills if he wanted to get stronger.

Now that a potential healing skill was being presented to him, he did not want to pass it up. He had no confidence that he wouldn’t get hurt in any future fights.

If it weren’t for the healing skills and Kieran’s uncertainty of how the game worked when it came to wound treatment, he would have tried to cut himself with the dagger a long time ago.

Now he had someone who could teach him some healing skills, and he did not want to miss that chance.

“Okay!”

He kept pushing the cart forward fast.

It took him some time to realize that Maggie was still standing back where he had left her, staring blankly into space.

“Hurry up!” he told her.

“Yes... Yes!” she nodded and followed him quickly.

She did not know why Kieran had agreed, but she did not want to miss this opportunity either. Her footsteps became faster as she caught up with him.

They both hastened until they disappeared into the dark.

About ten minutes after they had left the mall, a shadowy figure with a camouflaged cloak appeared in front of the building. The figure quickly checked the surrounding area and seemed to sense that something was not right. It entered the building, and exited it again after a while.

....

“YOU KILLED THE VULTURE!?”

Colleen could not hide her surprise upon seeing Kieran again. Her gray eyes betrayed her excitement.

“Of course. Where do you think I got all this loot, from a mall event?” Kieran smiled, patting the cart in front of him.

“UNBELIEVABLE!”

As she voiced her excitement, she could not help but notice the figure standing behind Kieran. It was Maggie, who was catching her breath.

Although it was dark, Colleen could tell that Maggie was beautiful.

Her delicate, pitiful look made an even bigger impression on her.

Colleen knew what kind of girls attracted men the most.

It was not really about a woman’s face or body, it was a woman’s demeanor and attitude that aroused a man’s protective instincts.

If a girl possessed a beautiful face and body and the right demeanor and attitude, she could attract men like flowers attract bees.

It was obvious that Maggie was one of those girls.

“Who is she?”

Colleen silently cursed, but she tried to look friendly and approachable on the outside.

She had already decided to become Kieran’s partner, and as such she could not look rude in front of him.

Something like that might scare him away. She needed to appear like a woman with a kind, welcoming attitude.

Only then would she get closer and closer to Kieran.

Until she could...

Ahem *

Colleen had never been one of the nice girls. She’d had too much experience dealing with guys during her street days.

“This is Maggie, I found her at the base. She had been captured by the Vulture. She’s a nurse and she knows how to treat wounds. I thought she might be useful to us, so I agreed to let her tag along,” Kieran introduced Maggie.

When he was done, Colleen smiled even wider.

She could tell that Kieran had not brought her back because of her looks, but because she was a nurse and he thought she might turn out to be useful to them.

“Welcome, Maggie. I’m Colleen!” Colleen said.

She sounded like she was speaking to a housemaid.