Cheap Thrills (6 Thrilling reads) by Luis Samways

outspoken man.
    ‘I don’t care, I’m the president, and you will do as I say’
    The four men opposite to the President look at each other in dismay.
    ‘I’m sorry sir, it’s done. The Apaches are on their way’
    The president’s eyes burn a hole into the men in front of him.
    ‘I said fucking call the mission off!’ screams the President
    Suddenly a heavy set man walks into the room. It’s the Secretary of Defence Howard.
    ‘We can’t call the Apache’s off. It’s confirmed from the satellite images that they have two Stinger missile launch pads that are fully functional and it seems as if they are going to fire,’ says Howard
    The President doesn’t seem to want to listen to any of his men.
    ‘So why bother risking two Apache helicopters? If the Stingers get launched then we are screwed. Those two birds will go down and we will be two gunner helicopters short!’ says the President
    The Secretary of Defence just smiles a candid grin, one that throws off everyone in the room.
    ‘Fuck the helicopters, I’m talking about nuking the base!’ says Howard.

Seventeen
    ‘Get behind cover!’ Shouts David as he finishes loading some more shells into the shotgun.
    He fires two more bursts into the tight opening of the sewage outflow entrance. The shadowy figure can be seen to reload a heavy looking SMG of some sorts. The click of the magazine going into place sends a shiver down David’s spine. He looks back at the group on the floor, all with a terrorized look on their faces, except Mitch, who is still knocked out from the tranquilizer shot to his neck.  Ray watches on as David fires another two shots in the vicinity of the figure with the machine gun, then like a well-rehearsed play, the shadowy figure returns fire. The bullets from the small machine gun pepper the walls around them. Bits of dust fall from the onslaught of gun fire and hit the floor. The crackling sound of bullets whizzing by the group’s head’s puts much of the struggle into perspective.
    Ray still has his head buried into the floor. Every gunshot sends a resounding feeling of doom down to the depths of his heart. He made it to safety down to the sewers just to be shot by a mad man. He starts to laugh. Donner, who is next to him looks at him in a surprised manner. She can’t quite believe that Ray is laughing his ass off at a time like this.
    ‘What the hell is wrong with you, stop laughing!’ she says impatiently.
    ‘It’s just, too damn funny,’ he says, still laughing.
    ‘What’s so funny?’ she asks
    ‘That we are going to die by gunshot wounds, and all this time we were worried about the lights in our wrists blowing us to hell!’
    Donner smiles at the analogy.
    ‘Well at least we won’t leave too much of a mess,’ she says, laughing a little herself.
    David continues to shoot back at the figure. He’s certain there is only one man with a gun. He can’t be one hundred per cent sure, but judging from the shadowing on the walls from the light reflecting off the blazed oil drum, he’s quite certain that there is only one shooter. He sees the man’s face for the first time. Its balaclava’d. The way the shooter is leaning in and out of cover suggests he is well trained.
    ‘Are we going to die?’ asks Tristan whose lying on her front behind Donner.
    Donner turns her head around and smiles at the little girl. She looks at the girl’s sister, Abigail who is on the verge of tears.
    ‘No, we won’t die. Don’t you worry, we will get out of this,’ she says
    David loads his last two shells into his pump handle shotgun. He’s just about to shoot when he notices a sewage pipe parallel to the balaclava’d man who is shooting at them. He takes aim at the pipe and shoots two rounds into it. The pipe bursts and a huge pressure filled spray of sewage blows out of it. It ejects fast and hits the wall the man is behind, throwing him off his feet and into the open. The blast of sewage had knocked the man’s machine gun out