Rated M - Mature
Heavy Violence, Some Vulgar Language

A Matthew Smith Fictional Adventure

Episode Two

X-Ray Vision

By Matthew Smith

"Alright. There you go." I handed the patient the box of medication and instructions on how to take it, even though I'd already explained it to him twice already. He took it, nodded, did a little bow, and then left. I rolled over to my computer and checked out. I got up and grabbed my jacket.

"Hey, Jackie, I'm off for the night." I called to the back room. "Okay! See you in the morning!" I rolled my eyes. "No, I've got the next two days off!" I called back. "Oh. Right. My bad! Night!"

"Night." I turned and walked out into the hall. The place was still buzzing with activity, but, it wasn't anything new. It was the only hospital for 20 miles. The new life was coming along well. I passed through a crowd of patients and workers, and saw the doors in my sights. I started to move toward them, when something caught my eye.

The face was so familiar. Brown hair. Brown eyes. The smile was… intoxicating. I found myself moving towards her. "Crystal?"

The girl turned. The smile that was already on her face grew extremely large and her eyes lit up. "Matt!" Her arms flew around my neck as she pulled me into a hug. I put my arms around her and hugged back. "Oh my god! How are you?!" She asked.

I smiled. "I'm good. Got me a job here and an apartment and all. How are you?" I asked. She shrugged. "I'm doing okay. I've been working double shifts at the restaurant downtown." I nodded. Her smile had dimmed. "You wanna get a soda?" I asked. She smiled a little more now, and nodded. "I'd love that."

The can of soda fell out of the machine. I scooped it up and handed it to Crystal, who smiled. "Thank, Matt."

"My pleasure. So what are you doing here?"

"Ah, I just cut myself. Needed a few stitches." She replied, extending her arm out, to show me a large gash on the top of her arm. "I've been waiting for an hour for someone to stitch me up."

I winked at her. "Well, let's go take of this." I said.

I wiped the alcohol pad across the cut, and Crystal winced. I smiled softly and glanced up at her. "Sorry." I said. She nodded. "It's alright. Nothings painless you know." She smiled. I took out the butterfly stitches and began to stitch her up.

She sighed as she looked around the room we were in. "Hey Matt?"

"Hm?"

"Do you have dreams? Of what happened?"

"On the plane?"

"Sure."

I thought for a moment, as I applied another stitch. "Do you?"

She chuckled. "Very good. Answering a question with a question, I mean." She sighed again, and looked down at me. "I do have dreams of it. Some of them turn out normal… then other times they turn out better."

"Or worse." I said suddenly. She nodded. "Unfortunately, sometimes, yes."

"It was three months ago, Crystal." I said. She nodded. "Indeed. You've been keeping count too, eh?"

I applied the last stitch and looked up at her. "Of course I have. I see the faces of those men in my dreams every night."

I also see your face every night too. I thought to myself.

She sighed again, and her smile turned to a frown. I looked up at her as I placed a bandage over the stitches.

"Mind if I ask what's bothering you?"

She frowned. "Well… I suppose not. I've getting evicted from my duplex this weekend. The double shifts weren't helping me collect the cash I needed to pay the owner."

My eyes shifted to the ground as I nodded slowly. "Oh." I said softly. "You have anyone to stay with?" I asked. She shook her head. "Well, not really. There's this one girl at work, who said I could crash at her place for a few days…"

I looked up at the ceiling, thinking as we walked down the hall. "What if..." Suddenly there a loud pop. Then another. "Get down!" Someone screamed. There was another loud pop. I grabbed Crystal and pulled her back against the wall.

"Don't move!" a man screamed. I moved down to the main doors and peered through the window. There was a few men, waving guns around. I turned and moved back to Crystal. "Come on. We're getting to some place safe and calling the cops." I said, grabbing her hand. She gave mine a squeeze as we moved down the hall. We quickly found the elevators. I hit the call button and pulled out my cell phone. I dialed 911 and waited. The elevator doors opened and I pulled Crystal on with me and hit the forth floor.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"The General Hospital, there are about 3 to 4 armed men. I'm not sure what they are demanding, but I believe that they've shot two people already. You need to get the cops and SWAT down here ASAP."

"Sir, please stay on the line." The elevator doors opened up and revealed two men with pistols standing in front of us. Needless to say, the call was abruptly ended as I dropped the phone and punched one of the men and shoved him into the second man, knocking them both to the floor. I snatched up one of the pistols and pulled back into the elevator and hit the close door button. The doors close as the second man got to his feet. Crystal hit the 6th floor button.

I leaned against the elevator wall, shaking. Crystal touched my shoulder. "Are you okay?" she asked, scared. I nodded. "Fine. I'm just not used to fighting bad guys on a day to day basis."

She chuckled sadly. I waved her to the side as the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened and I lunged out, the gun at the ready. I waved her out and she came over to my side. "Come on. We've got to get to the roof."

"What's on the roof?"

"A helicopter."

"What good is that? Are we going to fly from danger?"

"No. We're going to radio the police. This place seems to be crawling with these guys..."

"Good idea."

We rounded a corner, and saw the stairwell door ahead. "Stay close." I said. She nodded. We started to jog for the door, when suddenly it flew open. Three men, including the second one from the forth floor, came out. They saw us and open fired. I pulled a large metal cart over, and ducked behind it with Crystal.

"Look around. Find something we can use!"

"Like?"

I looked around and saw a fire extinguisher. "Grab that. I'll cover you." She nodded. I jumped up and fired at the men, hitting one in the shoulder as they took cover. Crystal jumped up and grabbed the extinguisher and ducked back down. "Give to me." I said, as the men resumed shooting.

"What are you planning to do with it?" She asked, handed it to me. I smiled and winked at her. "Something I saw in a Die Hard movie." I said, rolled across the gap, to a wall. I looked into the cart's reflection and saw the three men still bundled together.

I took the extinguisher and tossed it like a bowling ball at the men. It stopped at their feet. I aimed the gun at it and fired several times. Suddenly the extinguisher exploded, causing a small blast, knocking the men off their feet and into the walls.

I raced over to Crystal, and grabbed her by the hand. As we tore past the men, I stopped and grabbed a walkie talkie and an extra pistol off one, before we ran through the door, quickly finding ourselves in the stairwell. "Go." I said, waving her up the stairs. "I'm right behind you." I said, taking one step at a time up the stairs as I ejected the clip from the butt of my gun. 4 bullets left. I slapped the clip back in and pulled the barrel back and cocked it.

I kicked open the door to the roof of the hospital, and almost fell backwards from the strong wind. I moved out, with Crystal right next to me, and looked around. There was no one else up here. Good. We rushed over to the parked helicopter and got inside.

"Hit that button." I said, pointing to a button on the dashboard. She quickly pressed it, and I grabbed the radio and help the button to transmit down. "Mayday, mayday. My name is Matthew Smith. My friend, Crystal LaBeouf and I are at the General Hospital in LA, and we need immediate police units to deal with gunmen that are scattered through the floors of the hospital."

I let go of the transmitter button and we waited, practically holding out breaths. Suddenly there was a deep, angry voice on the radio. "Well, Mr. Smith, Miss LaBeouf. I'm sorry to say that the police are taking the night off."

"Who is this?"

"The guy in charge of those gunmen. I've got men on their way to the roof right now. You never should have taken that walkie."

I kicked open the door of the chopper and pulled Crystal out when suddenly the door to the roof was kicked open. "Spread out, find them, kill them!"

I handed Crystal one of the guns. "Aim and shoot. Go for the chest or head. Keep to cover. Only shoot if you got a shot. Don't waste ammo."

She nodded, breathing heavily. I peered out, and saw about 10 men, all armed with sub machine guns. I spotted a pair of large tanks nearby. They had warning signs all over them: Flammable. I glared and turned back to Crystal, who had her eyes closed and murmuring to herself. She was praying. Something I never thought of doing.

"Crystal…"

She opened her eyes and looked at me. "What?"

I just stared into her eyes. "When you get a shot of those Propane tanks over there… take it."

She nodded quickly. I turned and started to move away. "Matt?"

I looked back at her. I felt time slow down as a tear rolled down her cheek. "Be careful." I nodded and then stood up and let a shot go at one of the men. They turned and fired back as I ducked back down. Crystal had taken off for a better position while the men came toward my position.

I felt my heart rate increase as I leaned out and fired off another shot, hitting one in the lower abdomen. The man fell with a yelp. Suddenly gunfire opened up on the concrete at my feet. I took a few steps back, wincing at each shot that came too close to hitting me.

Suddenly there was a shockwave as flames erupted near the men, sending them flying over or toward the edge of the roof. I stood up and saw the Propane tanks gone. I looked around and saw Crystal, running towards me, a huge grin on her face. She leaped into my arms, and gave me a hug. "Did you see that?!" She screamed, laughing.

I chuckled. "Yeah, I saw that. Excellent shooting, Crystal."

"Mr. Smith…"

We both glanced down at the walkie on my belt. I pulled it off and answered. "Yeah, buddy. We're still alive. And guess what? The police might take the night off… but we don't."

"That's… unfortunate."

"How do you figure?"

"Because, if you don't surrender yourselves on the first floor, I will be forced to start killing hostages."

There was a loud pop over the radio. "One, John Gallagher. Had a wife and three kids."

There was a pause. "Faith Montgomery. Separated with a kid of her own…"

"Alright! I'm going down."

"Miss LaBeouf too."

"Leave her out of this. I'm the one picking off your guys."

There was a click over the radio. "1… 2…"

"Alright. Jesus!"

We stood in front of the double doors that led into the main lobby of the first floor. I stopped Crystal and she looked at me. "Crystal… I just want you to know… no matter what happens out there… I'm sorry."

She smiled sadly and pulled me into a hug. "Matt, you know none of this is your fault."

She let me go and looked up into my eyes. I stared back into hers. She reached up and kissed me on the cheek and winked. "Let's go kick some ass."

She held up her hand and made it into a fist. I held up my fist and we bumped each other's fists and drew our guns by the barrels and went through the doors. Several men suddenly surrounded us.

"Mr. Smith. Miss LaBeouf. Please surrender your weapons."

We held out our guns and the men took them from us. "On your feet, please."

Suddenly a man stepped out from around the corner. He had jet black hair, with deep blue eyes and a look that pretty much read BADASS. "Bring Miss LaBeouf to me, please." He said. The men grabbed her and dragged her over to him. I glared at him. "Mr. Smith, you have a beautiful friend." He narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm surprised you haven't tried to take the friendship… farther."

I continued to glare at him. He laughed softly. "Oh well. She's mine now." He pointed to one of his men. "You. Kill him. The rest of you, with me."

As he turned, he glanced back at me and smiled. "Don't feel bad, mate. I'll take very good care of your friend."

He glanced at his man that was to kill me. "When your done, destroy the evidence, as planned."

He nodded. "It'll be done, sir."

"Good." The man turned, grabbing Crystal by the arm, and they all left, leaving the one spare man with me. He kicked me to my feet and pulled a pistol. "I like to ask my victims before I end their lives… do you have any last words?"

I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. "Yes, I do."

He leaned in and chuckled. "Speak then."

I reached up, and grabbed him by his head and pulled him straight down, knocking him into the floor. The gun fell next to us as he struggled with me. I slammed my elbow into his temple, causing him to release his grip.

I reached over, and snatched up the gun. I let out a breath, and stood up, taking a step back from him as he looked up at me. "My last words to you are… What are your last words?"

"Go to hell!"

"I was hoping you'd just tell me who your boss is and where he's headed."

"Make it painless?"

"Of course."

"He goes by the name of Harrison. As for his next location, I'm not one hundred percent sure. But… it's likely he's heading to Washington D.C."

"What for?"

"You got all I know."

I fired a shot into his abdomen. He let out a scream of pain. "Fucking asshole! I thought… you said… painless."

"If you told me what I wanted to know." I fired another shot into his leg, hitting the femoral artery. He let out a scream again a began to cry to himself. I turned and started to walk away. "Hey, jackass!"

I turned and looked at the man. He was holding some sort of device. "I'll see YOU in hell." He said, and pressed a button. I waited. Suddenly there was a rumble. The building was blowing up from the top, and coming down.

I turned and took off running for the doors. The entire building began to crumble around me. A large piece of the ceiling slammed down in front of me, forcing me to leap behind the front desk. I scrambled to my feet and jumped over the desk, and took off for the font doors. I aimed the gun, and shot out the glass in them. With one last glance back, I saw flames approaching my position quickly. I raced through the doors, as the blast pushed me even further.

I laid on the ground, before I closed my eyes, unable to keep them open. A flash went through my mind. Crystal. The plane. The men. Harrison. Crystal. No… I was forced to watch as he tore her shirt open, revealing her bra. He reached down, and undid his belt buckle…

I opened my eyes, and gasped for air. I sat up, and looked over at the burning hospital. I sucked in air and let it out again, over and over. I heard sirens in the background. I stood up, wincing at the pain all over my body. I glared at the burning building in front of me, before turning, and running off into the darkness.

Song Recommendations:

Not A Moment Too Soon; Tim McGraw - When I See Crystal in the hospital and go say hello.

Seizure Of Power; Resident Evil Soundtrack - When the elevator doors open and are attacked by the two men.

Detonator; Ash - On the Roof, when the men come through the door.