Work Text:
There are thirty other people on this bus, and not one of them has any idea what’s about to happen.
In roughly two minutes time, they’ll reach the last stop of this route, just south of the border between the districts of Draxtown and Redfield. It’s the last service of the day, with the sun barely peeking over the horizon, meaning each and every person will get off.
All except Joel, that is.
He hears the recognisable sound of his earpiece activating, “Checking in.”
Joel recites the code phrase they’d previously agreed on, “Can’t talk right now, I’m still on the bus. I’ll call you back in two minutes.”
Simple and effective, informing Li- Shadow that there are still others on the bus that will be getting off in two minutes, without raising any suspicions from those people. Speaking of, he quickly glances around to check that still nobody is paying him any regard, and they aren’t. Most are probably tired from a long day of work, now nearly finished with their commute home.
The bus driver calls out that they’ve reached the last stop as he pulls over. Joel feels a bit of solace with him, with the two of them being the only people still working surrounded by a bus full of people who’ve finished for the day.
As people filter down the aisle, Joel remains in his seat, trying to avoid any attention on him by pretending to mess with his phone. A stranger offers him the misplaced kindness of gesturing for him to go first, which he quickly refutes, “Ah, thanks lad, I need a minute to check the map, so go on ahead.”
Luckily, they buy his excuse, and the remaining people leave the bus with just Joel and the driver remaining onboard. The plan is to wait it out until as he takes the bus to the depot by hiding in his seat, specifically chosen to be hidden from view by the fire escape, and not making a single sound. There, Shadow would hijack the bus to be taken to their employers.
That plan is thrown quickly out the window as less than a minute later Joel’s phone starts loudly ringing. He swears under his breath as the bus screeches to a halt. There’s no way the driver hasn’t heard. Joel fumbles for the phone and sighs when he sees the name on the screen.
Jimmy.
From then on, everything escalates rather quickly. The driver thunders down the aisle, a burly man without a single hair on his head, and furiously barks out as his eyes land on Joel, “You shouldn’t be here, boy!”
And the next part, well, he really hates ever having to do this.
Joel pulls out a knife concealed in his inner coat pocket and plunges it into the driver’s thick neck. He gasps, turning a deep shade of purple, and after a second his eyes lose their colour, and he slumps to the floor. Blood spews everywhere as he retracts the knife, wiping it on one of the seats and returning it to his pocket.
Meanwhile, the phone is still ringing, and without thinking Joel presses to answer it with a bloody finger.
“My man!” Jimmy cries out, “You won’t believe the day I’ve had.”
He glances down at the dead man on the floor, resisting the urge to make a quip about his own day being eventful, “Go on, lad, don’t leave me hanging.”
“B and I are going on a date!” He seems overjoyed, “Or at least I think it’s a date? He can be a bit cryptic sometimes.”
“Let's go! Hey, Jim, can we talk tomorrow? I’m at work right now,” Joel explains, trying not to look at the ever expanding pool of blood seeping into the musty carpet.
“Of course, my man, sorry I didn’t realise. See you soon.”
He babbles out a farewell, eager to get the conversation over with, before hanging up. Lifting his foot up and over the bleeding corpse, Joel makes his way to the front of the bus, realising that although luckily they’d stopped in a quiet side road with no witnesses, it was still quite a way to the depot.
Joel calls out through his earpiece, “Change of plan.”
“That doesn’t sound good. Were you found out?”
“Yeah, because your blummin brother decided to call me to enthuse about his love life,” He grits his teeth, “I’ll send over my coordinates. Hurry before someone walks by and sees the mess I’ve made.”
He taps a button to quickly send her his location.
“Hmmm,” She seems to be processing the information sent, “You’re not too far. I’ll be five minutes.”
“You’d better be, I need to be out of here soon if I want to make it to the tunnels by morning.”
“I forgot about that!” She gasps, “Say hello to the old man for me.”
“I will, so long as you actually get here!” He grumbles.
Joel isn’t sure how he managed to mess this up so badly. Their employer is bound to find out about this mishap sooner or later, so he’s counting on tomorrow’s mission going without a hitch.
He’s terrified. He tentatively looks back to the driver on the floor, a man he brutally murdered just for doing his job, and in a way he wishes he could take his place, that would be a far lesser punishment than whatever their employer could potentially cook up for him. Joel has always been a puppet of theirs, pulled through life by their strings. There are a million different points at which those strings could be severed; it would be so easy for them that they probably wouldn’t even bat an eyelid.
They are the city, after all. There’s nowhere beyond their reach.