Chapter II.

I keep running until I finally outrun them. The snow finally starts to slow down and I'm not so cold anymore seeing as I just sprinted five blocks. When I start to walk my normal stance I realize there is someone close by. I don't understand, I sprinted faster than the both of them. I turn around quickly to see a man who was about a few years older than me, alone. He seemed innocuous but my perception was off lately and I needed to be careful.

When I look at him, we stare at each other. I quickly turn around and try to ignore him. I walk faster. "Wait!" he yells. I start to run but he's quick and catches up to me grabbing my arm. I quickly turn around and use the arm he just grabbed to grab his arm. I use my elbow to hit him in the face. Then I grab his shoulder and knee him. I try to run away but he's recuperates fast despite the fact I just hit him and he pushes me against the side of the building. I try to punch him put he catches both my hands pinning me to the building. "Hey look I'm not trying to hurt you" he yells at me. I somehow manage to wiggle my one hand free and push him off me but he still manages to hold on to my other arm. "Then stay off me!" I raise my voice.

"I'm sorry but what are you doing out here alone?" he asks with a big Gotham accent. His eyes seemed pretty genuine, so I wasn't sure if I should continue to fight him or not. "I needed to get food for my friend and me" I say trying to not be angry, but I was livid. I look over to my arm being held and he lets go immediately. "Look I didn't mean to scare you but you shouldn't be out here alone" he says in a nice tone. "Thanks but I think I can handle my own" I say. I know it sounded cliché but after fighting and running, it was the best I could come up with.

The guy laughed at me. "What you don't think so?" I asked him. "I'm pretty sure you can…" "Then why were you laughing?" I ask sarcastically, again no limits. He can't answer. "Yea I know, it is pretty funny, thanks but hey were all going to die anyways so why does it matter if someone kills me now or later" I say sarcastically. "What do you mean?" he's confused. "Look I got to go by the time I get back it's going to get dark and I need to get some food" I tell him.

"hey I didn't mean to insult you, you definitely know what you are doing.." he touches his lip, where I punched him. "I'm sorry I just thought you were trying to kill me, I already had a run in today" I say like it's no big deal. "Yea I saw you running…you alright?" he asks sounding concerned. "yea I'm fine but I really need to go" I say. My head was starting to feel dizzy and I really needed some food. I also forgot to eat this morning. The man seemed to notice. "Okay, look why don't I at least walk with you?" he says. He sort of getting on my nerves, I can protect myself. "Fine" I said trying not to sound pissed, because I knew he just wanted to make sure I was okay on the other hand I felt weak.

We started to walk toward the highways. It started to snow pretty badly. "So what's your name?" he asked me. "Jamie" I say. Normally I would have lied but for some reason I trusted him. I kind of got the feeling he didn't trust me completely yet. Before I can ask what his is he already answers. "John" he holds out a hand. I shake it but try to remain pretty apathetic. "So you never answered my question why do you think the man with the mask will kill us?" he asked. "He's just torturing us, making us believe we have the power to save ourselves but he's going to blow this city to the ground" I say. John didn't say anything to that, he just looked at me with hurt eyes but looking into his eyes I knew he thought the same.

"Well do you still have faith that you know he'll come back?" John asked. I stop thinking about it. Who the hell was this guy? Some sort of pastor. He was talking about batman though. "No I don't" I say shortly. "I have faith" he retorts. "Good for you" I say shortly again. I think he sort of kind of understood that I didn't want to talk about this so he switched the subject. "So do you like meal bars?" he asked. I laughed, not at his question but how quickly he turned the subject from death and destruction. "what?" he laughed too not knowing why he was laughing. "No I just love how quickly you changed the subject from doom to what do you like to eat? Guess that's normal in Gotham these days" I continue to laugh. It was rather funny how one minute we can talk about our doom the next we would talk about something completely different.

He smiled at me. "Yea I guess so, so um I have a meal bar do you want it?" he asked nicely. "No, You should keep it food is pretty scarce these days on the island" I try to be polite enough. "Really it's no problem…why haven't you guys been getting food?" he asked me sounding very worried, like how my ex-boyfriend used to sound. "Well up until a couple weeks ago my roommate had gone out for us and would get increments, still we have to ration there's not enough to go around" I tell him. He handed me the bar. "I don't-" I started to say but then was cut off by my stomach growling. He smiled again, "You should eat something". "Fine" I say again slightly annoyed but then again he was only trying to be nice.

I inspected the bar package to make sure there was nothing strange looking. The bar was completely sealed. Though my instincts told me to trust him I still had to be careful. After all I could be wrong, but if he wanted me dead, then why did he let me go? I think he noticed my squandering. "It's okay Its not poison, I'm a cop" He which he whispers to me. He quickly shows me his badge and puts it away. He had to have trusted me now, and at least now I trusted him enough, except I just realized I hit a cop twice. "Oh shit" I say out loud. "I'm-"before I could finish I realize he's laughing. "Sorry? It's okay I know what it's like being on your own, you were right to hit me" he said. I smile; well at least I wasn't getting arrested for assault. I wondered what he meant that he knew what it's like being on your own. I wanted to ask him to elaborate but maybe it was too personal of a question. He touched his lip again. "You could've been a little bit nicer, though" he joked. I laughed, "But it's so overrated".

"I second that" He laughs again. We walk for a little bit in silence, when suddenly I realize he's staring at me. Not in a weird way but a concerned way. "So how old are you?" he comes out, it seems like a question that was beckoning him. I look at him wondering if I should tell him or not, he didn't seem like the crooked cop type but I could never be too careful. I rolled my eyes at myself, I was being paranoid. "I'm twenty three, I go to GU" I explain. He stopped for a moment. "What's wrong?" I asked him quickly, for some reason I cared. "Nothing, you looked younger" he said quickly. I smiled, because for some reason I think he likes me. "I'm sorry to disappoint you" I retort jokingly. "No I didn't mean-" I cut him off. "It's okay I get that a lot, how old are you?" I ask. "Twenty six" he smiles. That's good at least he's within my age range.

So I had to admit, I kind of liked him. Although he was protective, I guess that was natural for cop and I couldn't really get mad when guys acted like that. It was just irritating, here I was having two black belts and people were still worried. It was sort of cute how he acted but I wasn't completely sure if he liked me or not.

All of sudden, we heard gun shots. John immediately pushed me into an alleyway and put his arms around me. We heard a few screams and car going by with people shouting. When he finally thought it was clear, he looked to see if I was okay while still holding me. "You okay" he said breathing heavily. "I'm fine" I say calmly. He put his hand gently under my chin, checking to see if I had been hit. "I'm really okay" I say again. He looks back to see if anyone's coming and then looks back at me.

Then he kissed me. It wasn't long, only brief but it was very sweet; He probably didn't want to scare me. "I'm sorry" he said sounding as if he did something wrong. "I'm not" I smile but he doesn't look happy. "I just wanted to do that just in case if I never get another chance" he said. I didn't want to say we probably never would. "Look I-"before I could finish what I wanted to say, a man runs by shooting at someone.

John gives me a look. "Stay here, I'll be back" He says as he puts my hair behind my ear. He kisses me again quickly and then ran out after the man who was shooting. And I was the one who shouldn't be out here alone. "John!" I yell. I go ignoring his order to look out but no one was there. He was gone.

I waited fifteen minutes for him. Each minute was more painful than the last. I know if I left I would probably never find him. Gran it he was a cop, but a cop named John. Since there were over a thousand cops in Gotham, I would never see him again. Probably for the best, we were all going to die and I already accepted never seeing my family again. All I could do now was go get Jen some food and antibiotics. Then maybe going exploring the broken in homes with her and drink a toast, when our end came. Yet walking away from where he left me seemed so hard. He was a little piece of happiness but at the same time it made me sadder, thinking of what could have been between him and I. I take a deep breath and walk forward.