All or Nothing by Stuart Keane Page A

steps to be simply passing by on the wide pavement. Besides, who visits a building with a card lock unless they work there? It only happens on rare occasions.
    The body was male, middle aged, and had a hole in his face where, to judge by the rest of him, she was sure there used to be attractive features. She could see the pavement through the hole, his left eye gone. His suit was blue and blood-spattered. The jacket hung loose on his body, his frame too small to fill the material. Maybe he had been expecting to get fit by visiting the gym? Fitness needs regular workouts, she thought, it doesn’t happen overnight, my friend. And it never will for you now.
    Kathryn looked for the jeep and saw that it was beginning to turn around.
    GO!
    Kathryn was out on the path and beside the corpse within a second. She lifted his jacket and patted him down, first his suit pockets, then the inside one.
    The jeep was coming back. She could hear the men laughing.
    NOTHING!
    She slipped her hands underneath the jacket and checked his trouser pockets and then his other ones. She felt flabby flesh beneath the clothes.
    Urgh!!
    The jeep was speeding up, getting closer now.
    NOTHING!
    Leave it, she reasoned, you’re a dead woman!
    She rolled the man’s body over. It wasn’t easy, shifting a dead weight never is, but she rolled it over nonetheless. As she rolled him past the point of no return, momentum took the corpse further than she expected, and it slapped against the pavement, nearer the road. The head squelched on the kerb, maggots tumbled from the rear of his skull and scurried across his torso.
    The jeep was twenty feet away. She heard one of the men cock his rifle.
    Then Kathryn saw it.
    Attached to his waistband below his jacket. A small plastic card, attached to a string pulley so that he would never drop it.
    OF COURSE!
    Kathryn grabbed it and pulled. It wouldn’t come any further, held there by the restraining tie.
    There was the sound of two more rifles being cocked.
    Huh?
    Looking up, she saw that all four of her assailants had pulled rifles out and were ready to fire.
    She yanked the card hard. Still wouldn’t come away.
    “Hereby I decree you the holy bitch!” came a shout from the jeep.
    “ Holy, ahahahaha, she's gonna be full of holes! I get it! "
    “Fucking dipshit.”
    Kathryn yanked hard, and the tie snapped, sending her flying backwards onto the steps.
    The corpse erupted in a cloud of viscera, sinew, blood and maggots, as hundreds of heavy calibre bullets hammered into it. The body convulsed violently, its dead arms flapping like a spastic chicken, as a pool of blood formed beneath it. A maggot hit Kathryn in the face, and she quickly knocked it away. Blood followed and splattered her face and chest. A piece of brain landed on her foot.
    Kathryn didn’t even have time to vomit. She jumped up, shaking her foot free of the offal, and sprinted back up the steps.
    The firing was still going on, until all four firearms clicked uselessly, having used up their ammunition.
    All four men were still screaming like maniacs. One shouted: “Did we get her?”
    Kathryn reached the door and fumbled with the card in her hands. Blood made it slippery, but she wiped it on her top and managed to swipe the card reader. The red light turned green and there was a loud decisive click. She pulled the door open and fell through into the corridor beyond. The door closed behind her automatically.
    Backing up, her rump against the wall, all she could hear was four psychos screaming.
    The screaming was in anger this time, not because of pride or machismo, or whatever they fucking called it.
    The jeep drove off. Then all was silent.
    She was safe now. Locked in. Alone.
    Kathryn vomited.
    She laid her head on the floor. Her eyes closed.
     
    ***
     
    That was fucking brutal!
    Hardcore shit!
    I knew she was good.
    That's okay, little subject, you can rest now, you did well. Phase Two is just ahead, but don’t worry, it just got interesting now.