Nuclear winter
Chapter 4
The motorbike slowwed down to a stop in the parking lot next to the police station.
Jacklyn turned the key off, cutting the engine and setting down the kick stand, she and lucas hopped off of the bike and started making their way back to the station. Right before turning the corner into the station, lucas grabs jacklyn by the arm and turns her around to face him. " Before we go in, before we go on any more missions, you need to tell me what happened back there with you. " Lucas demanded from Jacklyn boldly. She sighed, attempting to avoid eye contact.
" Were….were you abus-"
" No, it was never like that for me. " Jacklyn said quickly, dismissing that thought from lucas's mind.
" It was my mother…"
" What do you mean? "
" She went through the same thing as that woman. It happened once, when I was little. I was not going to allow a second time. "Jacklyn looked Lucas in his eyes, her's was red and tearing up quickly. Lucas hesitated, then asked " W-what did you do? "
" I pushed him down the stairs one day, he fell. On the last step he landed on his head. His neck snapped. I watched as a puddle of blood formed from his mouth and my mother screaming when she found him. Her eyes looked scared, which i could understand since a dead body never a pleasant sight to see the first time, but i never saw anger in her eyes when she looked at me, only gratitude and she never accused me of killing him. No one did. I didn't know if it was fair. A broken neck for the man inturn for the broken ribs he gave my mother. "
Lucas look at her deeply. She wasn't a killer, nor a monster, not even dangerous. She knew what was happening was wrong and did what felt right. Even though lucas wouldn't have chosen the path of murder, he understood her reasoning. " I won't blame you for your choices in the past " Lucas softly told her. " Do...Do you not want to be my partner? I'll understand now that you know this…" Jacklyn asked Lucas without looking at him, instead down in shame.
" Can I trust you to have my back? " Lucas asked her. Jacklyn looked lucas boldly in his eyes " Yes you can " she told him confidently. She may not be able to control her emotions all the time, but she knew she can trust in her ability to protect herself and others around her.
" Then I'll have yours " Lucas wrapped his arms around her back, hugging her tightly. He could feel a tear running down his neck.
" Alright " Her voice softly said in his ear. Pulling away as Jacklyn quickly turned and wiped her eyes, then facing back to Lucas " So...if the guy comes back with the bruises and spitting blood, shall we say he fell down the stairs while we were getting the woman to safety? " Lucas jokingly told her, which rewarded him with a punch to his arm " That's not funny " Jacklyn said with a small smile on her face. Jacklyn walked into the station as Lucas silently said ouch in pain, rubbing his arm. He never suspected a powerful punch to come from a smaller woman but he was glad to learn this now than a time that she might have been pissed at him.
Lucas walked in behind jacklyn and to the desk that sat brian. " So, how did the test run go? " Brian winked to lucas. " It went well enough, the mission complete. " Lucas felt like he should keep most of the details to himself out of respect for jacklyn as he handed the folder to brian. Jacklyn looked up at the clock on the wall.
Only 2 pm?! This day felt like it should be nighttime by now. Lucas noticed Jacklyn looking up at the clock. " Wanna kill some time till our shift ends? " Lucas called out to her. " What is it you're planning? " she asked back. " How about you show me how to use a baton and I'll show you how to use a 9 mm " Lucas offered to jacklyn. She considered it for a moment and nodded.
Walking past some doors and into the training room. The room was large and wide, about a third of the building. Light blue brick walls and padded flooring and mats organized in a pattern, to offer melee and close quarter fighting to officers. The back of the room being the firing range with it's personal firing spaces and lanes fifty feet long for both long arms and short arms practice. To the left side of the room was pratice dummies, some half bodies while others were full bodies. The right side of the room was weapons closets, though the closets were by ranks. Privates and recruits got the small weapons only, batons, combat knives, basic pistols while high ranking officers such as captains and sargents got large weapons and guns such as sledgehammers, shotguns and assault rifles. Lucas opened up the recruit closet and reached in, pulling out a 9 mm pistol with some clips and two strong foam training batons.
" So which first? " Jacklyn asked. " How about pistols " Lucas decided. Both walking over to the firing range. " Ok, show me what you know and we can work from there. " Jacklyn nodded, loaded the pistol, turned to the target and started pulling the trigger in a quick fire session as if she was facing a horde of zombies, the pistol wavering with each shot as her arms bounced up and down from the recoil of every shot. After a few clicks of the empty pistol, Jacklyn pulled the target back. "Well….at least you hit the target…." Lucas tried to stay positive. She missed all but one shot. And that was along the edge of the paper. Jacklyn smiled at him though " Well, let's hope that some birds were part of the crime in progress, I seemed to have hit some of those " They laughed a small bit.
" Ok now let's try this " Lucas said, coming up behind her after she fed another clip to the pistol. His chest softly pressed against her back, his arms against her arms as he helped her steady her aim. "Whoa now, at least buy me dinner first~ " jacklyn toyed with lucas. He blushed and then tried to focus. " Arms locked, lean forward, wrists straight, eyes on target through iron sight " Lucas said to her the same words that was said to him in training. " Breathe in, and pull " Her finger squeezed the trigger, the gun blasted and recoiled, though her arms stayed mostly steady. The bullet flying through the yellow circle about 4 circles from the bulls eye. Not bad, of course she will get better with practice, Lucas thought to himself. Jacklyn repeated the process till the pistol was empty, she landed all but 2 shots on the target. Certainly better than the first clip. Jacklyn relaxed back into lucas's arms, the adrenaline of firing the pistol hitting her now. " Let's try batons " She told him.
Stepping over to the mats as jacklyn stood on one end and lucas stood on the other. Both with strong foam training batons in hand. " Do you know how to use one of these? " Jacklyn asked Lucas " How hard could it be? You just swing the end at the person you wanna hit! " He answered. A dark smile formed on jacklyn's lips. " Then show me " Lucas cautiously stepped towards jacklyn, then swung his arm downward, his baton aimed for her head. Jacklyn circled her baton over her head, parrying his and sending his arm to the side as she followed the parry with a quick thrust with the end of the baton to the gut, forcing lucas to double over. Stepping to his side, jacklyn wrapped her arm around lucas's neck and swung him around, forcing him off balance as he fell to the ground. lucas quickly flipped to his back as jacklyn side swung her baton from the left, stopping right at his ear. " What did we learn? " She sarcastically said to Lucas. " That you still have some pent up agression? Is it that time of the month? " Lucas joked back. Jacklyn laughed too, after sending the baton into his chest. " Again " She told him. lucas, gasping then catching his breath, dragged himself to his feet as they assumed the battle positions on each end of the long mat.
After an hour of wrestling with batons both combatants were covered in sweat and panting hard, the only difference was lucas was also covered in bruises while jacklyn will be walking away with a strained arm at most. " Shall we call it the day? " Jacklyn offered mercy, which lucas happily jumped onto " Yes! Lets. " Setting the weapons back in the closet and locking it up. jacklyn and lucas walked through the station and out the door, though Lucas did a lil more of stumbling. " Tomorrow? " Jacklyn asked. " Yeah, I'm sure we got something tomorrow " Lucas answered. Jacklyn smiled and walked down the street to her apartment which was three blocks away. Lucas walked to his car and started the engine. Driving home while lip singing to the songs on the radio. If he were to actually sing, all of New York would go deaf. Stopping at the parking lot of his apartment and turning off the car and walking inside. lucas almost killed himself over the stairs, all of his energy went into trying not to be killed by a crazy, quite hot, terminator-like lady with a baton. Reaching his door and going inside, locking the door behind himself and stumbling to the couch, which he collapses on. A small paper sound underneath him as Lucas looks down onto the floor. A small tear of paper had fallen out of his shirt he assumed. Reaching down and picking it up, it read " Jacklyn " with a phone number on it. Calling the number with his phone, the line connected, on the other end was jacklyn's voice " Glad to hear you made it home alive. "
