The passenger

Walker sat in the train just as any other passenger, Metallica bursting through his earphones, he looked at all the people in the train going somewhere for some reason just like him, He didn’t know their reasons and they didn’t know his just human beings living their lives.

He saw good-looking people and ugly-looking people and all kinds of people, Walker wasn’t a handsome guy or a hideous guy he was just a guy he wasn’t fat or skinny although he did gain a few pounds since his time in the Special Boat Service.

When Walker was 14 his parents died in a hiking accident while climbing Scafell Pike. 4 years later he went to a Royal Navy presentation with his grandfather where a Royal Marines sergeant recommended him to start a career in the military.

Walker spent 4 years in the Royal Marines before attending selection for the elite Special Boat Service where there he spent another 10 years, mostly deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan.  

When the train arrived at the King’s Cross station in London walker saw a young lady taking a sit in the sit in front of him, she had a kind face and short wavy hair but not too short she must have been no older than 22. Walker realized she seemed rather worried she kept looking around as if she was afraid of something or someone.

When she noticed Walker was looking at her she gave him a small smile and opened a book, the book was quite worn out and seemed as if it was read multiple times.

When the train came to a halt a huge man with a thick leather jacket entered the train cart where Walker and the girl sat, the girl lifted her head from her book and her face lit up with horror as she saw the man.

She immediately got up from her seat and exited the train from the other side, Walker saw she left her book on the sit and since it was also the station Walker was supposed to get off at he picked up the book and went after the girl, the girl quickly climbed the station stairs and Walker had to step up his pace if he wanted to give her the book before she disappears in a crowd of people outside the station.

When he caught up to her he reached out for her hand and the moment he touched she screamed and threw her bag at him, realizing it wasn’t the man from the train she apologized to him and took the book from his hand Walker asked her:

” what’s your name?” 

” Holly, what’s yours?” 

“Walker”

 “Is that a first name or a last name?”

“It’s James Walker”

“I’m Holly Sonders”

“Like the golfer?”

“What?”

“Never mind”

“Anyway thank you for bringing me my book”

“No problem, who was that guy though?”

“Oh that was nothing don’t worry about it, just someone I know”

“Well it didn’t seem like you two were friends”

“Listen you seem sweet but I have to get going, thanks again”

She left in a hurry catching the first bus she saw, Walker thought what happened was quite odd but there wasn’t anything he could do so he decided to wait for the bus that should take him within walking distance to his three-room apartment.

Just as Holly went on her bus the huge man from the train came running out of the train station and stopped Holly’s bus Walker decided that drinking coffee and watching Pulp Fiction for the tenth time can wait and got on the same bus as Holly and the man when he entered the bus he saw the man sitting next to Holly grabbing her firmly by her arm probably hurting her, Holly didn’t see Walker and she just sat there horrified.

When the bus reached a station the man pushed Holly to get off the bus and he followed her, Walker went right after them making sure the man and Holly can’t see him, he saw the man walking with Holly to a secluded alley the man yelled at Holly but Walker couldn’t figure out what he said exactly, as Walker got closer he saw the man raising his arms as if he is going to punch Holly.

Walker tackled the man to the ground and Holly was shocked having no idea where Walker came from, Walker asked her:” are you alright?” Holly was too freighted to say anything, the man got up and Walker realized how big he was he must have been at least 6.5 feet. 

The man said:” you shouldn’t have shoved your nose where it doesn’t belong “and he grabbed Walker by his long-sleeved shirt and threw him at the wall, a crushing sound was heard and Walker was sure he broke at least one rib Walker stood up and punched the man in the chin and released a massive kick to his knee, the man fell on the ground where walker started to punch his face ruthlessly using all the things he learned the Navy.

Holly screamed at him to stop and Walker realized the man shouldn’t be able to get up anytime soon, he looked at his hands all bloodied and sore and as he got up he looked at Holly.

She said:” you killed him!”  

He replied “no I didn’t he will survive”

“Why did you do that?”

“He was about to hurt you”

“Great now you are stuck in this thing as much as I am”

“Do you mind telling me what is going on and who exactly is this guy?”

Holly realized Walker was hurt

“We need to get you to the hospital now”

“I’m fine it’s just a bruise 

She lifted his shirt and he felt her cold hands on his body, it’s been a while since he felt the touch of someone else but himself.

“It’s broken”

“Yeah well that won’t be a first time”

They took a taxi to the nearest hospital, in the waiting area Walker asked:” so who was that guy”

Holly turned to him and said:” it’s a long story”

“Well knowing the hospitals in this country you have enough time to tell me this long story”

“I owe money to people”

“What people?”

“Dangerous people”

“As you probably noticed I am a dangerous guy”

“I think they are some sort of small-time Russian mob or something like that, and the guy you almost killed is their leader”

“How exactly do you owe money to a Russian Mob?”

“My sister got very sick when she was 5 and my mom died when she was born and my dad left us about 5 years ago so I had to get money for her treatment somehow and believe me I did worst stuff to get the money”

Realizing what she meant Walker looked at the floor in regret.

“And now my sister is getting better but I can’t pay them back”

“So now they are coming after you?”

“Yes but I dont care if they kill me it’s my sister I’m worried about, they said they will find her and kill her as well”

Walker Looked at his Suunto diving watch which he got in the Navy and the words that came out of his mouth even surprised himself “I’ll help you”

Holly looked in his eyes with her big brown eyes almost tearing up.

“You will?”

“Yeah”

“You promise?”

“I promise, besides how hard can that be?” he knew deep down it will be extremely hard.

They left the hospital after the doctor said it wasn’t broken just heavily bruised and gave Walker some ice.

 They went to Holly’s apartment and Walker met Holly’s little sister Jane, Holly introduced him to her and he realized there is no going back from the promise he made Holly.

It was a bit after midnight and Jane already fell asleep, Walker sat with Holly on the fake leather couch, she asked him:” so you got any family?”

“My parents both died when I was 18 and my grandfather was the only family I had ever since but he died 7 years ago”

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that”

“It’s Alright it’s been a long time, so you are taking care of your sister all alone?”

“Yes she has nobody else but me, but enough with the sad stories did you live all of your life in London?”

“No I lived in the countryside of Manchester all my life, I only moved to London after I discharged from the military”

“Oh, what branch?”

“Royal Navy”

“That’s so cool I bet you got to travel the world”

“Yeah that much I did”

After a long night of conversation, Holly fell asleep on his lap, Walker didn’t want to wake her up so he stayed on the couch the rest of the night.

When the sun shined through the grey window Holly got up stretched herself and realized Walker was awake all night not wanting to wake her up.

“Oh I’m so sorry I didn’t let you sleep”

“Don’t worry about it I had many sleepless nights, so those Russian guys will they send someone else?”

“Yeah they will they have a lot of soldiers doing their biddings”

Jane got up and Holly made breakfast for everybody, as soon as Walker lifted his fork the door burst open and two men entered the room holding 9mm Berretta handguns, Walker’s training kicked in and he went straight for the first guy and slammed his shoulder in his chest, the man fell on the ground trying to breathe while dropping his handgun Walker rolled over picking the gun and shooting two well-aimed shots at the other guy’s head dropping him down.

Walker went to the man he slammed into and held him at gunpoint telling him to go back to his bosses and tell them to stop going after Holly and Jane, the man laughed a vicious laugh “It doesn’t matter what I will tell them or what you will do to protect the girls, they will never stop sending men after them”

Walker punched the guy in the jaw knocking him out, Holly and Jane were in the corner of the apartment looking terrified, “it’s alright walker said, everything is alright now”

Holly said:” We are not even safe in our home, where would we go to now?”

Walker replied “I think I know a place”

All three of them took the afternoon train to Manchester, after arriving at the station they took a 3-hour bus and walked another 40 minutes to where Walker grew up, a large country house with nothing but open green fields and beautiful landscape surrounding it.

Walker unlocked the door and Jane ran inside amazed by how big the house was,

Holly said:” seems kind of lonely to be an only child in a house like this”

“Yes that’s true, I spent most of my time hunting and riding the horses” Walker replied.

“You have horses?!” Jane asked with excitement.

“Not anymore, no”

Walker could see the disappointment in her face.

Two days passed, Holly and Jane grew quite fond of the house, Jane was running all around the fields surrounding it and Holly enjoyed having some quiet time all for herself.

Walker realized it’s been a long time since he had been in this house and even longer since he had company, he found it quite calming to have other people he didn’t hate around the house.

In the middle of the night Walker woke up to the sound of cars approaching the house, Holly woke up as well and looked outside the window, what she saw terrified her.

Two black suburban’s and eight men armed to the teeth surrounded the house, Walker saw they had L119 assault rifles and SIG P226 pistols just as he used in his time with the Special Boat Service.

He told Jane and Holly to go hide in the house basement as he ran for his father’s old gun room hoping for some weapon to be found, when he reached the room he found an old hunting rifle with some rounds and a hunting knife, he quickly grabbed them and reloaded the rifle.

The men slowly approached the house and they looked like they have done it countless times, Walker thought they might be former military guys as well.

 Walker went to the furthest window and aimed with the rifle looking for a target, he got one of the men in his scope and took a shot cracking through the quiet night, he saw the man drop to the ground and his teammates spreading out shouting orders at each other, Walker thought one down seven to go.

He quickly changed positions not wanting to be an easy target, he heard the main door of the house break open and the sound of silenced shots and flash grenades shaking the house, he looked down the stairs and saw two men going up to the second floor where he stayed in, he waited for them quietly and once one of them was close enough he stabbed him in the back of his head and used his assault rifle to take down the other guy, he thought three down five to go. 

Walker went down the stairs quietly using the assault rifle he took from one of the armed men, he saw in the far side of the room two men going down the basement stairs where Jane and Holly were hiding, he wanted to go and kill them but he saw the last 2 guys covering the doorway and they will surely see him if he makes his way to the basement.

He lunged forward shooting a burst of bullets to the doorway killing the two men guarding it after that he found out he ran out of ammo, he ran to the basement realizing the last two men already went down there, he quickly went down the stairs with nothing but the old trusty hunting knife, he went into the basement and the two men saw him quickly raising their rifles and sending a large burst of bullets at him.

Walker stabbed the first guy in the neck immediately killing him, the second guy being too close to use his rifle hit walker in the face with the stock of the rifle and knocked him to the ground, Walker was sure he broke his nose.

Walker threw the knife with incredible force at the last man and pierced his heart, the man dropped to the ground with a loud noise of wood cracking.

 He went to Holly and Jade and escorted them outside and thinking of using one of the cars the men brought to escape but then it hit him if he took down seven guys that means the last man is still around here somewhere, and just as that thought crossed his mind he felt his entire body weightless flying into the air and falling hard on the cold ground with a cracking sound.

Walker’s vision faded but he could see a giant figure standing in front of him, the man from the train stood right on top of him and Walker could hear him laughing, Walker could see the hunting knife on the ground.

“Stupid guy, you think you can interfere with my business?!”

Walker stood up slowly and had a big smile on his face like he knew something the man didn’t know, Walker run at him and dropped him to the ground, they both wrestled and punched each other rolling over the ground the man threw Walker off him and went for the hunting knife, he stabbed Walker right between his damaged ribs.

Walker’s lost all of the air he had in his lungs and he couldn’t find any air to breathe, he fell to the ground.

“I will kill you right in front of those poor girls and then I will kill them”

Hearing those words something woke up in Walker, all those years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He saw the man walking towards Holly and Jane, he stood up took the knife from his ribs and stabbed the man in his eye dropping him to the same cold ground he was on just a moment ago.

Holly was shocked, she run to Walker as he fell to the ground bleeding and breathing loudly, she held his head and kissed his forehead.

“You are going to be alright it’s just a bruise,” Holly said crying

“Not this time, get Jane and go now or more will come”

“No, I won’t leave you it’s not right”

“Holly it's ok, take one of the cars and go I had a wonderful time with you and Jane, you reminded me whats it like to feel wanted”

Holly grabbed Jane and run to one of the black Suburbans hearing the noise of other cars coming their way, they entered the car and drove away.

 The sun rose and Walker laid there on the ground looking at the beautiful place he grew up in, birds chirping and deer running in the green fields of his old home.

He smiled thinking about the life he had.