Page 1 of Uprising

Prologue

REED

“Fuck!” Viper yells.

I don’t get a chance to look at what’s happening to him when sweat beads down my back as I toss another punch into my target’s kidney. I know I throw a hard punch, but this guy acts like it’s nothing but a fly landing on him. Yanking him forward, I toss the fucker over my shoulder. Swinging around, he twitches but still gets up.

“Jesus fuck,” I mutter under my breath. This was supposed to be an easy job, a simple get-in and get-out. This is anything but. From the moment we walked in ready to take him out, he’s been taking everything I give him.

Flicking my knife out, I widen my stance as he charges at me. I sink my knife into his gut the moment he’s within arm’s reach. Much to my surprise, this does nothing; he grabs at me, his nails digging into my back. I pull the knife out, slamming the knife into his side.

“What the fuck?” I grunt.

Throwing my knife at his head. The blade embeds itself in his mouth. Only this does nothing. My eyes widen, and it suddenly dawns on me that this could be what the news has been talking about. Rumors of people bleeding in the eyes, being hit, and not ending up hurt.

I shake my head, refusing to believe what’s right in front of my eyes. That is until he came sprinting at me one more time, the knife still lodged in his mouth. I take a deep breath. As soon as he’s right in front of me, I twist my leg around, knocking him to the ground. I don’t waste time; tugging the knife out, I slam the thing into his eyes repeatedly. I didn’t stop until he'd stopped moving, and even then, I couldn’t stop.

I drop the knife, my shoulder rising and falling. I hear Viper grunt behind me. Swinging around, Viper has the guy pinned, but the target still claws at him. Sweeping the knife up, I rush over, sliding on my knees, and slam the knife into the guy's forehead. In a matter of seconds, he stops moving. Falling back on my ass, I glance up at Viper, who stares at the dead guy.

“Vi–”

“He bit me.” Viper interrupts.

I bite my inner cheek, unsure what to say. My eyes drop down to his wrist, seeing the clear-as-day bite mark.

“You should go.”

“No, absolutely not.”

Ghost, Viper, and I all had a rule: no man left behind. We might all be hitmen, but they’re my brothers. We might not be blood, but they mean more than my own shitty family.

“Reaper,” he sighs. “We have no idea what’s going to happen. You’ve seen the news; whatever this is, there's no turning back.”

I shake my head, climbing to my feet.

“We also don’t know if anything is going to happen.”

Viper glances away, as if he’s thinking of some excuse to use. But I won’t have any of that.

“Let’s go.”

I hold my hand out, waiting for him to take it. Viper peers up at my hand before looking back at the dead guy.

“I don’t want to turn into whatever this is.” He tells me. Grabbing my hand, I help him up. “Promise me.”

I tilt my head to the side, my brows furrowed.

“Promise me you won’t let me turn into that thing.”

I’m not sure what to say. We don’t know anything about what’s happening. No one does, and the idea of Viper turning into one of them hurts. Even if I won’t admit it to him, I’m not sure what I would do if he turned.

“I promise,” the words slip from my mouth. Even if I don’t mean them, he doesn’t need to know that.

* * *

I take out my phone,scroll to my old friend's contact, and hit the call button while staring down at my brother, who has a knife lodged in his skull.

“Hey man, are you good?” Ghost answers.

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