Goal of the day: 1016 words. Written: 1063.
"Is Gabrielle bluffing?" She seems a bit bluffing… But what if she means it? What if she's seriously that stupid and telling me that!?”
“Guns like Joe? The council produces them and then destroys them? But Joe... As a man. What is this council!?”
"Snapped."
"Aaaaargh, shut up both of you!" - I shouted closing my eyes. And, looking directly into Gabriela's eyes, I threatened her:
"And this time I'm leaving you alive." If I find out you get another girl like that and try to do something like that to her... It will be your last day alive. clear?
Gabrielle moved, pushed herself to the wall and leaned against it, then raised her head slightly. And spat sputum directly on himself (perhaps accidentally) and almost mockingly answered:
"Don't worry, I'll try not to let you know," she grinned eerily.
- Um. I don't like your kindness. She is a member of the council and must pay for her sins, - said Stone seriously.
- Sha. Not this time. - I said, holding the Stone in my palm to him, - Next time you will get yours. But I can't judge her.
"Are you talking to yourself again?" Gabriele commented in a mocking voice.
I turned to her. I lowered my hand and walked over to Gabrielle lying on the floor.
Then I raised my leg... And I kicked her somewhere between the ribs and the hip with all my might.
Gabrielle faltered and writhed in pain. But that was not enough. I closed my foot and kicked a second time. She curled up even tighter, clutching her side. A large urine stain began to spread on her pants.
"For a long tongue. Remember me.”
- Yes! That's right! - shouted the Stone.
But I ignored him and didn't touch Gabriela again. I spun on my heel, kicked her gun across the room, and headed for the door.
"I should put the Stone somewhere so that no one will see it in the city... Or, anyway, somewhere more convenient to put it."
I looked around. And I noticed Gabrielle's same black backpack dropped on the floor, from which she had shaken out a pile of all kinds of junk.
Then I picked her up, shook her a few more times.
- Oh no, - said the stone, - why are you taking this backpack?
"To whom, to whom, it's obvious," I answered, opening the backpack and putting the Stone inside.
- But it stinks here! Oh God, it stinks! At least let me kill that Gabrielle or whoever she is then! Have mercy! - Akmuos immediately began to wail.
"You'll be fine," I answered him, tucking him in and zipping it up.
There was a bunch more swearing and comments from Joe about the stench and how he wanted to kill Gabrielle, but I had already made up my mind. However, I haven't seen a better backpack around, and I couldn't help but grab people's attention as soon as I left here, wherever I was. Although it will be difficult to get the Weapon out of the backpack like this, it is better than walking around with it in the palm of your hand when it is so huge.
I slung my backpack over my shoulder and looked at Gabriela. She glared back at me from across the room.
"Pathetic."
Then I turned back on my heel and opened the metal door of the room and immediately soaped it up.
"If the guard is really coming, it's probably right next door. I need to hurry!”
* * *
I closed the door of Gabriela's office behind me. I was in a completely empty, neat and clean office space with glass partitions. And besides me, there was not a single person here, it seems.
"If there had been, they would have already come when I was wrestling with Gabriele."
I rubbed my ass, which was still very slightly swollen. And then I started looking for the exit - I didn't even know I was on the upper floor of the building. Maybe in the sixth, if they are all as tall as this one. I walked down the corridor.
"Pala, who was there?"
I turned quickly, looking at where I had just passed. And I was not mistaken - it was a door with a gray square with the inscription "exit" at the top.
“…Well, it's either a very blunt trap, or someone thinks the residents of this building are idiots.”
I shrugged and slammed the door as I went back. These opened, and behind them was a square staircase down and up, lit by just one crystal in the middle at the top. I made a logical decision and headed down.
One, two, three, four, five... Six - I counted the floors in my mind, how many floors I had already descended. And at six, when I got to the door, I pushed them out.
I went out into an empty corridor again, which was not much different from the first one. Only in this one it ended with a glass door leading out of the building!
"This is what was needed!"
When I arrived, I looked outside the door. They led to a beautiful green courtyard, several cobblestone paths, and a large gate behind which several buildings and standing people could be seen. Somewhere in the distance were the tops of buildings, but it looked like there was a ravine right outside the gate.
I pushed open the glass door and I was flooded with sunlight, warmth and the quiet bustle of the city and the sounds of some animals and birds. It turns out that some old lady in a red suit was smoking right by the entrance, and I didn't notice her when I was looking.
She gave me a not-so-deep look, took a few more swipes from her smoldering crystal, and blew balls of smoke into the air for enjoyment.
"She doesn't seem to care about me at all. We need to move before I raise suspicion."
When I went outside, I closed the door behind me and after fixing my backpack, from which I heard Stone's muttering again, I went down the steps without looking at the woman.
“Do I look weird? Am I walking strangely? Why are my legs moving like that? Won't I make her suspicious?"
Lowering my eyes, I stared at the ground, then, as if among other things, I glanced at the top of the building from which I came out and continued to try to maintain a non-concerning appearance.
“This building… Is it a cage?”
I couldn't quite tell from this angle when I was right next to him, but the further he went, the more he looked like a big, big metal cage. This effect was created by its metal-clad walls and glass windows running the entire height of the rectangular building.
However, I turned to the road in front of me and continued walking away. The woman probably didn't pay attention to me, because I didn't hear anyone behind me - neither shouting nor going anywhere.
I approached a large brick gate in a correspondingly large wall decorated with some kind of sculpture.
And it became clear that after passing through them I would get to some kind of park. Outside the gate was a small area where a few people were standing and chatting at a few tables under the canopy of a gazebo, and beyond that was a path down into the ravine.
Treetops, several roofs of houses rose from the ravine... And...
"What is this stench?"
…It smelled like animals, and honestly, just like Gabrielle's backpack or her crotch, the moment she sat on top of me.
"Pala, she mentioned the institute by the zoo..."
I stopped and turned back to the building I came from. It was indeed in the shape of a giant cage, tapering to a dome shape at the top, with a large, I guess decorative, hook visible above it.
Then I turned back to the gate.
"Yeah. Of course. Zoo."
It became obvious that the sounds of animals and birds, the commotion of people and that stench were somehow connected. And a big cage might not look so strange, knowing what it stands next to. Sure, it still looked damn weird and scary, going up and probably leaving a long scary shadow on the other side of him in the evenings, but at least the idea makes sense.
"Original," I commented aloud to myself.