Special District 9 Chapter 105: A Desperate Struggle in the Dark Alley

Inside the alley.

Of the four armed men who were walking over from the opposite end of the alley, two of them held onto Little Qu and dragged him behind them whereas the other two raised their guns and released the safety engagement notch.

Bang bang bang!

Gunshots sounded loudly in the air.

It was a narrow alley they were in, so Ma Lao-er and the others couldn’t possibly charge straight ahead anymore under their firing. So, they could only quickly take cover behind the rubbish dumpsters inside the alley and return fire.

The whirring of the car engine grew louder as a car backed diagonally into the entrance of the alley, bumping against the concrete wall.

With his body filled with blood, Little Liu opened the door and fell out from the inside of the car. His consciousness was already fading as he bellowed hoarsely, “Run… Don’t bother… Run, Brother Lao-er… We’re… surrounded…”

Ma Lao-er immediately turned his head around after hearing those words, only to see that their car had jammed up the entrance of the alley, and Little Liu had collapsed right in front of it. On the other side of the car, someone was still spraying frenziedly, putting bullets into the car.

Squatting behind a rubbish dumpster, Liu Zishu tugged Ma Lao-er’s arm to snap him back to reality as he whispered harshly, “It’s over, Lao-er. We need to go now, or else we’ll lose our lives here!”

“Retreat and get Little Liu!” Ma Lao-er ordered as he flung Liu Zishu’s arm aside and began backing to the entrance of the alley, where the car was jammed up.

Liu Zishu and the others who had come to Fengbei with Ma Lao-er were all brothers who had followed Old Ma for years. They formed the core team of the Ma Family. Despite the desperate situation they were in, they didn’t abandon Ma Lao-er and run away on their own. Instead, they unhesitatingly followed his orders and began retreating along with him.

On the main road outside the alley.

Xing Zihao was taking cover behind a wall on the left side of the alley. Holding his rifle tightly in his hands, he peeked his head over before shooting at the wheels of the car.

The wheels immediately deflated after a bullet was put through them, causing the metal rim of the wheel to scrape against the concrete road.

“Ma Lao-er, do you think that you still can get away?!” Xing Zihao roared in frenzy. “Because of you, I had to beg with a person whom I never wanted to beg with, and I was even beaten up by a bunch of soldiers. Do you think that I’ll let you get back to Songjiang so easily?”

As Xing Zihao spoke, he gestured to the men standing beside him to charge into the alley first.

Bang bang bang!

It was at this moment that Liu Zishu and Maozi, the other subordinate of Ma Lao-er, emerged from behind the car. Using the car as a cover, they decisively fired at their group.

Meanwhile, Ma Lao-er rushed forward and grabbed Little Liu’s bloodstained arm. He pulled the latter up to his feet as he shouted anxiously, “Get up, we’ll be leaving together!”

“Leave? Where do you think you can go?” Xing Zihao sneered coldly. He turned to the men that had gathered here on his command and shouted loudly, “You lot who are living off my family, you can back off if you don’t want to earn any more money from us. For those who have the guts to charge at the very forefront, I’ll give you 10,000 each!”

Hulala!

The crowd outside the alley immediately dashed forward like a bunch of lunatics, firing their guns relentlessly toward Ma Lao-er’s group.

An intense gunfight ensued. Despite having a car to cover for them, Ma Lao-er and the others were clearly at a numerical disadvantage. In just a few moments, Liu Zishu was already shot in his left arm, causing him to stumble three steps backward.

“You support him!” Ma Lao-er ordered Liu Zishu before advancing forth.

Liu Zishu quickly backed away and supported Little Liu on Ma Lao-er’s behalf with his injured left arm. At the same time, he aimed his gun at the four armed men behind them and fired at them while dragging Little Liu back into the alley to take cover behind a rubbish dumpster.

“Retreat, Maozi! Leave with Zishu first, hurry up!” Ma Lao-er shouted across the deafening gunfire.

The other subordinate that was still fighting with the charging crowd began to back away too. He headed back into the alley to provide cover fire for Liu Zishu.

Meanwhile, Ma Lao-er headed closer to the car as he shouted, “You fucking come any closer, and I’ll shoot the gas tank!”

Those men charging over from outside the alley subconsciously backed away fearfully after hearing those words.

Meanwhile, Wen Tao and his friend were still in the back seat of the car when it all happened. They rushed out of the car and kneeled onto the floor, wailing desperately, “Don’t fire! Brothers, we have nothing to do with this at all! Don’t fire at us!”

Making use of this temporary opening, Ma Lao-er retreated back to the massive rubbish dumpster as he shouted new orders, “Maozi, you cover fire. Zishu, you get Little Liu on top of the wall first.”

Maozi quickly replaced his gun’s empty magazine with a spare one before rising to his feet to fire at the four men at the opposite end of the alley. Meanwhile, Ma Lao-er turned around, aimed his gun at the gas tank of the car, and fired several shots toward it.

Bang bang bang…!

A series of gunshots sounded, and several holes were put through the gas tank of the car. As petrol began to flow out of the car, one of the bullets struck the side of the car and produced a spark to feed the petrol.

Boom!

A deafening explosion resounded across the night as the car burst into flames, causing innumerable fragments to fly in all directions.

At the entrance of the alley, the effects of the neurotic which Xing Zihao had injected into himself hadn’t completely died down yet. He hid to the side to dodge the flying fragments all around as sweat trickled down his forehead. With reddened eyes, he bellowed at the crowd, “You bunch of useless trash! I didn’t spend money on you just so that you can use my guns as firecrackers! Charge in right now!”

“Brother Hao, the car has exploded!”

“It’s all flames in there!”

“…!”

The men who were taking cover from the car’s explosion shouted in response while protecting their vitals.

In a moment of heat, Xing Zihao actually fired his gun at the sky to catch everyone’s attention before taking the lead to charge into the alley, shouting, “A bunch of useless wimps! Anyone who is behind me right now, you can be certain that I’ll deal with you once we’re back!”

Hearing those words and seeing that Xing Zihao had already taken the lead, the men could only buck up their courage and squeeze into the alley as well. However, out of fear that the car would explode a second time, they made sure to stick close to the wall so as to reduce their exposed surface area.

Inside the alley.

Liu Zishu used his shoulder to prop Little Liu up onto the wall of the alley before climbing up himself.

Ma Lao-er’s body was already soaked with sweat as he turned to the man beside him and shouted, “Maozi, you get up too. Hurry up!”

After saying those words, Ma Lao-er quickly changed his position before continuing to cover fire.

Mao Zi lowered his head to swap to his last spare magazine as he shouted back, “You go first, hurry up! Step on my shoulder to get up!”

“You fucking listen to…!” Ma Lao-er was stunned for a moment before he began to argue with him.

“We don’t have time to waste! What are you dilly-dallying for?!” Maozi hollered back as he fired at the four armed men at the opposite end. “Hurry up!”

Ma Lao-er knew that time was tight, and the time he wasted to say an additional word could possibly cost them their escape. So, he placed his right foot on the rubbish dumpster before planting his left foot on Maozi’s shoulder. Then, with a powerful kick-off, he leaped straight on top of the wall.

At the same time, sensing that Ma Lao-er’s left foot was already on his shoulder, he immediately propped his body upward to provide him with additional momentum.

Ma Lao-er grabbed the wall and quickly crawled upward. Then, with his body lying horizontally on the wall, he stretched his hand down and shouted, “Grab my arm!”

Maozi immediately grabbed Ma Lao-er’s arm with his left hand as he stepped against the wall with his feet.

“Harder!”

Ma Lao-er shouted as he tried to pull Maozi upward.

Peng!

A dull gunshot echoed through the air, and Maozi’s body suddenly stiffened.

Xing Zihao was using a particularly powerful rifle. It took only one shot for him to tear through Maozi’s right chest and ribcage. Maozi’s innard blasted across the air as strength swiftly left his body.

Lying on the wall, Ma Lao-er stared at Maozi with utterly horrified eyes.

Ever since he first came out on the streets, he had always been taken care of by Old Ma. He had never witnessed such savagery before.

“Go… go…” Maozi’s body swayed on top of the wall as he shouted feebly.

“Maozi!!” Ma Lao-er shouted in despair.

“We need to go!” Liu Zishu, who had already gotten to the other side of the wall, pulled Ma Lao-er’s right leg to tug him downward.

Bang!

Another gunshot sounded. The bullet struck the side of the wall, causing bits of concrete to fly all around. At the same time, Ma Lao-er was dragged to the other side of the wall with Liu Zishu.

…

On the main road.

Seated in his car, Yong Dong urged anxiously, “Hurry up and drive the car over!”

In the alley, Xing Zihao turned around to face the lot behind him and growled, “You are mere ruffians on the streets, but you can’t even get things done properly. What use do I have of you?!”

At the same time, the four armed men on the other side of the alley ran over with Little Qu held tightly in their grasp.