(Agent Eren’s thoughts) I didn’t want it to come to this.

  Sean cmped his hands on the right side of his stomach, as a pool of blood drenched his shirt and leather jacket. Feeling as if his liver was being tossed around in a hot pan, every thought of his mind zipped through his mind at lightning speeds.

  As for Jumbo, his mouth gawked open, his body convulsing and twitching while curling himself from the pain. Blood was being drawn from the left side of his stomach, and a putrid smell radiated from the wound.

  While Eren lowered the barrel of the gun to the floor, his parching breath flowed on top of his lips.

  (Agent Eren) The areas I shot won't kill you two, but it will make you think twice about standing up to me.

  Taking a st gnce at the balled Rimy, her mouth was wide open, wide enough for any tarantu or big insect to call it home. Continuing to have both his hands wield his rifle, he began walking toward Sean and Jack, who still groveled from their bullet wounds.

  Standing in front of both of them, he hovered the barrel to the back of Sean’s head.

  (Agent Eren) I want to hear the words come out from you. Are you going to surrender, or not?

  Sean opened his eyes slightly to the question at hand, his hands-free from his grip on his Thompson. Instead, he curled his fingers, his nails scratching the floor of the train cart like he was scraping a chalkboard.

  Unable to gnce up at the silver-haired agent, Sean’s breath worsened the more he breathed, his lungs squeezing every inch of air from out his sacs. Feeling like his chest might explode, his motored wheezes rippled his throat, the sound resembling a car starting up on a freezing winter morning.

  (Agent Eren) Well?

  Someone lifted their head.

  The back of his neck going bumpy, Eren spun his body 180 to look at a red-haired man wearing a bck leather jacket.

  His boots cmped shut on the metallic floor, with the soles of his feet gluing deep amongst his boots. His hands loose, he let them sway back and forth, having his nails trickle and scrap against the fabric of his pants.

  Pale-faced, drenched with sweat, blood ran off from his stomach.

  (Jack) We’re … gasps … not going to surrender …

  Eren lowered his head, pushing his shoulders down as a breath of air leaped from his mouth. Loosening his body, his feet almost crumbled him to the ground, but the heels of his feet managed to stabilize him.

  (Agent Eren) sighs … Why is that?

  (Jack) Unlike you … gasps … we’re not some king’s concubine …

  Eren’s right eyelid twitched.

  His finger on the side of the rifle, he lifted the barrel so it pointed toward Jack’s wound. Having the crevices of his eyes snting to form a gre, the soles of his feet stationed his body to stand tall, with his neck hunched forward while aiming.

  Scratching the tint of the metal gun, some of the nails scraped off, littering it down to the floor.

  (Agent Eren) You talk too much for a bleeding man.

  (Jack) It’s hard to go to sleep … when a yapping dog continues to bark nonstop.

  Eren kissed the trigger with his finger. A vein sprouted on the right side of his forehead, his finger itched the more his skin tainted the trigger with sweat.

  Raising the barrel straight to Jack’s heart, Jack lifted his right lip to reach between his ear and jawline. Having his right hand hold his body up, he had it pced onto the top of a wooden crate, his fingers scratching the surface of the wood.

  While Eren’s body tightened, his cheeks flushing a crimson red.

  (Agent Eren) You better watch what you say next.

  His voice was as low as a pet bear, rumbling every vocal and mucus membrane along both his windpipe and esophagus.

  But Jack widened his eyes to the fullest, making him seem crazy by hunching his back an inch forward. Pushing both corners of his lips to the bottom of his ears, a crazed chuckle speckled the air around them, showcasing his bright white teeth.

  (Jack) What can I say? That you gave your body up to big brother? That you gave up your soul to people trying to py God? No…

  Jack began walking forward to the fuming agent, who kept his finger still while gring straight into Jack’s brown eyes.

  His hands unarmed, he stood directly in front of the silver-haired agent, with the barrel of the rifle touching and molesting the area of his heart. Coughing, his iron breath molested and wrinkled its way up to Eren’s nostrils, leading him to push the barrel into Jack’s leather jacket.

  As Jack gripped the rifle with his right hand.

  (Jack) No one knows who you are, huh, not even your goddamn mother. Hate to break it to you, but the government does a shitty job of being one’s parent.

  Eren—

  He didn't pull the trigger.

  Jumping to his left, he took cover behind a box of crates. His ears and even the room trembling from the hardening of gunshots, he pced the back of his head hard on the wood.

  Jack tumbled back, his butt smming onto the floor below, causing his tailbone to crack upon impact. Turning his head to his left, he noticed a bunny-human spray a mist of bullets on the covering agent.

  Wielding his Thompson with his right, he clutched his left hand along his stomach, his hand drenched in his blood.

  (Jumbo) Come on Jack … groans … do your thing!

  Reaching for his rifle, Jack puckered his lips from the burning pain in his abdomen, biting the inside of his cheek to direct the pain away. Leading the inside of his mouth to swell with blood, every bit of his teeth coated red, his gums littered with iron and supplements of his red liquid.

  Having both hands wielding his rifle, he pced the chamber on top of the crate, as he sluggishly watched for Eren to poke his head out from the crates.

  Meanwhile, Sean tried to csp onto the metal vault in the back of him, his arms bulging to get his body off the ground. Feeling his feet going cold, his legs wobbled like jello, with his knees locked in pce like cardboard.

  (Sean’s thoughts) Got to stand up … got to stand … up.

  Having his other hand clench onto the grip of his Thompson, Sean crawled toward the row of crates where Jack took shelter. His breath parched, his throat scarce, and his elbows bruised the more he pushed his body like a worm.

  Barely getting into cover, he held his gun like a baby, wrapping it around with both arms.

  Unable to peek out of cover, Sean gnced to his left, noticing Jack’s eyes on the verge of shutting off.

  (Sean) Hey … gasps … do you have the shot …

  (Jack) No, not at all.

  (Sean) Let me think of something …

  Jumbo took shelter at the first row of crates, poking his head out to notice both Sean and Jack one or two rows in front of him. Noticing Eren took shelter on the other side of the train cart, his humid breath melted the metal of his gun to paste water.

  Raising his gun to the top of the crate, he squinted his left eye, ignoring the tapping of blood from his wound. His finger on the mechanism, he slowed his heavy wheezing, softening his throat which was assaulted by his motorred breaths.

  (Jumbo) This fight has gone out long enough.

  Silence filled the air.

  With Jack and Jumbo having their barrels pinned onto the covering agent, their eyes traced along the edges of the wooden crates. Quenching their breath, and stiffening their shoulders, even the muscles along their fingers didn’t flinch for a mosquito or two.

  The silence loudening their ears, both men waited. The more they focused, the less their minds were coated with simple and complex thoughts.

  Until Eren's fedora popped out from his cover.

  (Jumbo) Gotcha!

  (Jack’s thoughts) Wait a minute…

  (Eren’s thoughts) He fell for it.

  Jack instantly ducked down, except for Jumbo.

  Firing another mist of bullets from his Thompson, Jumbo’s entire body let the recoil tremble every bone and muscle from his toes to his skull. Silencing the booming silence, dozens of hot flying metal smacked onto the fedora frozen on the crate.

  Riddling it with bullets, there was no head; as no blood was present.

  (Jumbo) Huh?

  Another bullet grazed the air.

  As if someone had smacked it away, his Thompson was sent flying toward a dark corner of the room. Smacking onto the wall behind him, it nestled under the darkened warmth of the now early night, with the sun halfway sinking into the endless horizon.

  Crashing onto the floor, his eyes widened at the smack, his body frozen and paled. His fingers still locked on the same motion as when he fired, a little gap of air broke free from his lips.

  (Jumbo) What happened…

  Unwilling to move, it left the two Dark Angels to deal with the agent.

  Hearing Jumbo crash to the floor, both Sean and Jack smmed their heads to the wooden crate, their eyes straining red. Swelling and seething from their inflicted bruise, Jack kept his stare on the crate in which Jumbo took shelter.

  (Jack) Damn it!

  (Sean) It looked like his gun got shot out.

  (Jack) I know that!

  His rifle trembling, all of his fingers scratched the metal of his gun relentlessly and without mercy. Digging, digging, and digging even more; he tried to pry the chamber and mechanism open with his bare fingers, but he couldn’t.

  Wanting to unleash it open, wanting to rip it apart, his lips opened up to his clenching teeth. Showcasing his pearly whites, his eyes widened at the rifle he stared at, holding his crazed eyes at the gun like a madman.

  (Jack’s thoughts) Work! Work! Work you idiot! Why can’t I just shoot the bastard!? How come!? How come!?

  The metal cracking along its edges, Jack failed to listen to the screams of the rifle he tortured. Leaving Sean to raise his right eyebrow, his arms continued to hold onto the Thompson like a lifeline.

  But he let his arms go; once he noticed one or two tears rolling out from Jack’s eyes.

  A small sniffle whistled to his pointed ears, Sean’s eyes darkened as he watched Jack begin to lose it. Seeing that his fingers loosened from the gun, Jack arched his head back, his breathing fastening as his wheezes returned.

  Which led Sean to pat his shoulder two times.

  (Sean) Be right back.

  Jack reached for Sean’s right elbow, gripping it firm with just his fingers. His fingertips trembling by just holding onto the fabric of Sean’s leather jacket, Jack gulped down a load of saliva and blood down his throat.

  (Jack) What are you doing…?

  (Sean) There are a couple of wooden crates, looking to be chained by the interior walls of the train cart.

  (Jack) How will you do that…?

  Sean pushed up a quivering smile, as both corners of his lips quaked under the immense pain from his wound. Despite this, Sean’s eyes didn’t falter, nor did they close shut from the twitchiness of his eyelids.

  Remembering the past couple of chaotic days with them, there was one particur memory that seemed cartoonish compared to the others.

  (Sean) Test him. See if he’s down to kill a man.

  Meanwhile, Eren began reloading another case of bullets into the chamber. Next to him, Rimy continued to sleep peacefully, despite all the reverberating gunshots from earlier. Her right cheek pressed firm on the wooden crate, and drool swept off from one of the corners of her mouth, leading her to taint it with saliva.

  Pressing the metal of the rifle onto his shoulder, he peeked his—

  He turned his body around.

  His rifle was pinned on a ginger-haired elf, the crosshairs pinned themselves onto the elf’s forehead, whilst having the butt of the gun stuck in his armpit. Sweat trickled off from both his temples, it spttered along the floor, as he continued to push more air out of his parched lungs.

  (Agent Eren) You got a lot of nerve.

  (Sean) I just want to talk.

  Sean had his hands firm into his pockets, his legs wobbling uncontrolbly as he stared deep into Eren’s eyes.

  Every muscle in his body ached the more he pushed his body to stand, leading to his feet spiking numb. His face cmming pale, the blood-drenched wound from his stomach was present, and the blood trailing down his pants was seen as well.

  (Sean) I promise to go with you if you spare Jack and Jumbo’s lives.

  (Agent Eren) Now you’re promising me? I don’t believe you.

  (Sean) Believe me when I say it’s not a promise if you tie me up first.

  Eren still maintained the butt of his rifle inside his armpit, leaving the metal to be stained by his putrid sweat. Along with his finger hovering on the trigger, he just needed to push an inch into the mechanism to fire; but can?

  The elf barely standing on both hinds of his feet, would Eren be so heartless as to kill him right here? All this time, he showed mercy, but would Sean be the only exception, as the elf spat out lingering blood from within his throat.

  (Agent Eren) Even so, I pn on tying you up. You, Jack, and the bunny-human are also part of the capture. You can’t talk your way out, not before, not now.

  (Sean) I knew it would lead to this.

  Taking out both his hands, he let his left hand loosen to his thigh while using his right hand to dig into the inside of his jacket. Pulling out his Thompson, he had the barrel pointed to the floor, but it was enough for Eren to…

  Pull the trigger.

  Sending a single bullet straight to Sean’s forehead—

  It went through his forehead like air.

  Flying through his face, it pierced straight onto a locked chain, a chain that held a rge stack of two-meter crates. Breaking it into two pieces, the metal chain fell ft onto the floor, leaving the wooden crates to…

  To tilt on their own.

  On top of a tilting weighted bar, it kept it still when it was locked by the chain. Now that it was broken, it meant the two-meter crates could…

  Slide forward, to where Sean’s clone, Eren, and Rimy were at. Standing up, he pushed all of his muscles along his feet, trying to lunge his way to safety, along with Rimy who ceased her snoring.

  (Agent Eren’s thoughts) Just got to—

  (Jack’s thoughts) Gotcha you fucker.

  He felt his left shoulder split open.

  Letting loose a river of blood, it flowed down to his arm and hand, leaving a trail of it to stain his tuxedo suit. Unable to lunge to avoid the sliding wooden crates, he smmed his knees on the floor before widening his eyes.

  Having Rimy wrapped in his arms, she slowly opened her eyes, her body feeling and sensing the warmth of his body. But that feeling soon faded…

  Both took note of the two-meter crate about to crash into them.

  Pushing their backs against the very wall, both let go of their weapons and even themselves, as their arms and hands extended forward. Both woman and man released a shriveling high-pitched scream, Sean and Jack smiled warmly at the sound of sore ears.

  (Sean and Jack’s thoughts) Old memories.

  Once upon a time, Jack, Sean, and Luke had that same misfortune, with rge furniture crushing on top of them.

  And at st, the wooden crate fell onto the top of them, a cartoonish defeat amongst the agent and the Zirardge guard.

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  A dust storm ravaged the entirety of the train cart.

  The intensity of the dust ravenous, even Sean and Jack spat out chunks of dust which contaminated their saliva. Littering it onto the floor below, both men swiped away their drool with their sleeves, staining their leather with it.

  Waving away the air, they led their eyes at the unconscious Eren and Rimy. With Sean having his eyes rolled to the back of his head, his mouth gaped open, as Rimy did the same.

  (Sean) We finally got those two.

  (Jack) Barely … Thank you for coming up with that pn.

  (Sean) No problem.

  Patting each other on the back, Sean turned his head back to notice the vault still unopened. As for Jack, he didn’t see a trace of movement coming from Jumbo. Both of them limping their way toward their destinations, Sean arrived at his first, leading him to pce the earbuds of his stethoscope into his ear holes.

  Pcing the bell of the instrument next to the combination locker, he began spinning the dial on the metal.

  (Sean’s thoughts) Now to finish what we started.

  Looking down at the still-frozen Jumbo, the bunny-human eyes trailed up at the ft-lined lips of Jack. As if he was thawing, the bunny human id his scrunched-up fingers on the floor, along with his arms and hands as well.

  (Jumbo) Did we do it?

  (Jack) Yeah, and you contributed jack shit.

  (Jumbo) Hey! I made sure Rimy wouldn’t be a problem for you guys!

  (Jack) yeah yeah …

  Helping the wounded Jumbo pce both his boots on the floor, blood still drenched their stomachs. Wrapping their arms over their necks, they both limped toward Sean who continued to spin the wheel of the locker.

  As soon as they reached Sean, the door from the third compartment swayed open.

  Looking at the flying door, Miles carried two women on both his shoulders. Appearing to be already healed, Miles’ eyes widened at the state of all three men in front of him.

  (Miles) All three of you got shot?!

  (Jack) Yeah. Eren lives up to the legends, I’ll tell you that…

  (Jumbo) He quicked-scoped me and Sean in two seconds; with his eyes closed.

  Miles lowered his head and his eyes, as he looked upon the fallen wooden crate which trapped both Rimy and Eren. Tapping his right foot on the floor, he huffed out a hush of air from his pent-up lungs, blowing it into the dust-filled room.

  Clearing his throat, he gnced at Sean who unlocked the vault, seeing his eyes sparkle at st. As the ginger-haired elf opened the metal container, the rge door let itself be perverted upon.

  (Sean) Here it is!

  Their eyes pstered the color gold.

  All four men oohing and awing at the colossal amounts of gold coins stuffed in the vault, the corners of Sean’s mouth drew drool as he stuck his tongue. Giggling, he smacked his lips, before he spped himself in the face.

  The sound of the sp raised concern on the three others' faces, their eyebrows furrowed down at Sean.

  (Jack) What’s with the sp?

  (Sean) Sorry. Lost my cool there.

  (Miles) I abandoned my morals for this…

  (Sean) They probably have dozens to hundreds of other vaults scattered around the world. Not all of their money is on this train from the looks of it.

  (Miles) Wait … say that again?

  Miles towered over Sean, his eyes darkening the more he stared directly at the pale-faced elf.

  Gulping a heap of saliva down his throat, Sean raised his right finger to his cheek, scratching it to release batches of dry dust. Considering the amount of sweat drenching his cheeks, the dust that burrowed in his skin sunk deep into his pores.

  As Sean took a step back, both of Miles’ hands clenched firm, his nails digging deep into his palms. A dry chuckle leaped off from his mouth, he kept his nail still on his cheek.

  (Sean) Uh… ‘Lost my cool there’?

  (Miles) Don’t py dumb with me dumbass, the other line.

  (Sean) … About other vaults—

  Miles hunched his back forward, thrusting both his hands toward the colr of Sean’s jacket. Both women continued to sleep onto his shoulders, Miles let the tips of his hair block his eyes, as his fingers sunk deep into the leather of Sean’s jacket.

  As a low growl soothed out from his throat.

  (Miles) At all of the vaults you picked, you pced your finger on this hell hole of a train!

  The cshing between the train and tracks screeching and screaming, the train continued to traverse to its destination; The Marston Bridge.