Advance with caution

With the scream is still echoing of the walls of the empty mall, you make the choice to investigate. The memories of your time in the hands of the maniac were still fresh, you can remember wishing then that someone would come and help you. You could not condemn somebody else to that kind of treatment, not when there was a chance that you could save them.

A second scream urged you on, slowly you began to move in the direction that the scream originated from, it sounded like it had come from the food court and you mounted the steps taking you up to the second level. You took your time, careful not to make any sound, you were keen to save this woman but you were to do so at the risk of your own life. With painstaking slowness you crept along the hallway towards the growing sounds of a struggle.

Flattening yourself against the wall you peeked around the corner and surveyed the food court, there were three people, two men and the woman you had heard screaming. As you watched you saw one of the men was standing behind her holding her tightly against his body as he groped at her breasts. The other man was tearing at her clothes, even at this distance you could hear the sound of fabric ripping as he stripped the woman.

It was clear there intent and the woman knew it too. She was struggling as hard as she could against these two brutes. Her arms were caught up in the bear hug the man behind her was holding her in as he molested her, but her legs were free and she kicked wildly, trying to fend off the man in front of her. She landed a few good kicks which only seemed to anger the man. He responded by lashing out with is fist, smashing it against the side of her head again and again, he kept hitting her until she sagged limply in the other man’s grasp.

You pulled your head back and leaned up against the wall; taking a deep breath as you tried to calm yourself. The butt of your gun felt slippery in your sweaty palm, you tried to think, could you kill the two men before they killed her, or more importantly you.