Twenty minutes later they both left the building on its back side and slowly made their way down the street again. Jack thought it would be best to make their way back towards the city center again, steal a car somewhere and then get out. Here in the outskirts they had pretty little chances left it they'd not find a car very soon and could leave.
The street fight was still raging. It had even intensified.
Audrey had never seen such a terrible scene ever before in her life. People were running aimlessly over the streets. Nearly all the houses around here had been broken in to. Whoever had gun was now firing it. The cars which hadn't been stolen were being stolen now, or set on fire.
Whole families ran for their lives.
The survival of the fittest had replaced the law.
She felt the sharp pain in her abdomen, as she went on. Though Jack was supporting her as well as he could, she felt like any other step would kill her.
"Jack…", she pleaded silently. "Stop."
He held her tighter. "Ten yards, then we've got cover.", he whispered into her ear. He saw how it hurt her to move on, and this hurt him even more than that gunshot wound in his left shoulder. But he simply couldn't let them stop right now, without cover.
"Just eight more steps, Audrey, then you can take a rest.", he encouraged her.
She groaned with pain, not able to answer him.
Then, suddenly, her knees gave in. Jack caught her weight, before she hit the ground. Swearing and cursing he put away his gun and lifted up her body with both his arms now, carrying her to that recess where he had planned to take cover.
He put her softly down, leaning her back against the house wall behind them. She was unconscious. "Audrey.", Jack murmured softly, but she showed no reaction.
He felt her pulse and was relieved that it was normal.
Jack also sat down next to her and leant back. Their situation was getting worse and worse. She was in a worse condition than he had suspected her to be. The riots were worse than he had ever imagined they could be. As he looked up into the sky he saw a large heap cloud, black from the dirt which had been whirled up by the explosion. It was forming dimensions which he had never guessed could be possible. They had to get away from here, before the rain would set in and take its deadly fallout down to the ground.
Jack stood up and went towards the corners at the edge of their hideout to have a look over the street. There was pure hectic, disorder and riot all around. Whoever could run, ran. Whoever had a gun was now using it.
Across the street, a man was guarding his car, which stood in the driveway. He was armed, knelt beside it and was ready to fight against anybody, who might came to steal his car.
Jack watched how the door of his house opened and his wife came out, carrying a maybe two year old child. He dropped the plan to steal this car. Damnit, he thought, I can't do this to them. But then again, this car- this opportunity- was their only chance left. He saw from over here they had some free space on their backseats. He simply had to try and get into that car.
Hurriedly Jack turned around to Audrey again and eyeballed her. She wore blue jeans and a way too large sweatshirt now, over her hospital gown. Around her arm she still wore that hospital bracelet, yet to mention her golden marriage ring.
Jack peeked back at the couple on the other street side. Maybe he had a chance of going with them, if he told them the right story about him and Audrey and got a bit of their trust. That family looked decent. Would they probably take another couple along, if he simply asked them? Audrey really looked like she needed help. If they would only show a bit of sympathy for her situation they would probably let him and Audrey come with them.
Jack put away his gun, back into the holster at his belt. He had thrown away his black jacket and had taken another one along from that apartment where they had been. It also was black, but thank god had no bullet holes and blood on it.
He zipped it up to hide the gun and his bulletproof vest, trying to hide everything which could lessen their trust in him and Audrey.
As he bent down to pick her up he realized that there was still one important thing missing. It was just a detail, but it damaged their image- he didn't wear the same golden ring like she did. Maybe the others wouldn't notice, maybe they would.
Jack knew the solution for this problem, yet still he hesitated.
Slowly he took out his wallet. It had a little division which he almost never opened.
Forgive me, Teri, he murmured, as he opened it up and pulled out their wedding ring. It was plain gold and unobtrusive, looking so similar to the one Audrey wore. Nobody would notice the difference.
He felt somehow guilty as he put it on. It had been so many years ago, when he had last worn it.
With a huge sigh he pushed the memories about Teri aside. He heaved up Audrey's unconscious body once more and went the dangerous way across the street, with her in his arms.
The family on the other side at first didn't even see them approaching.
When they first did, the other man came around their car, his gun drawn, pointing it at Jack. "Stop right there!", he yelled. "Don't even think of coming closer!" He held Jack at gunpoint.
Jack avoided to look into the others eyes. He knelt down, put Audrey down in front of him. "I'm sorry.", he answered him. "We're just looking for a ride."
"Well, anyone is.", the other spoke. "Not with us."
Jack gave him a closer look. That man was probably in his mid-thirties. The way he held his gun showed that he didn't have a lot of practice with the usage of guns. In no case he had ever had to do with them for a living. I would be able to overwhelm him, Jack thought, but dropped that thought right away. This was not a terrorist. It was a simple citizen, defending his family in the moment of greatest crisis. Actually, he owed him his respect.
"We won't be any burden.", Jack silently said. "We need to get out of here just the way you do."
The other pointed his gun at Audrey. "What's up with her?"
"She was in the Baltimore Memorial Hospital for surgery. As they were evacuating their ambulance crashed, that's how we got here.", Jack answered. He knelt at the ground. Audrey he had put down, too. Her back now leant against his torso and her head lay lifelessly at his chest.
Behind Audrey's back, out of his opponent's sight, he slowly and unnoticed slid his jacket away from the holster, releasing the latch, which kept the gun in the holster at the same time. He didn't like it when the other was pointing a gun at Audrey, no matter if he was a criminal or not.
"You say she just came out of surgery? That's definitely going to make problems." The man first had a look at Jack, then at Audrey again.
Jack could tell from his facial expression that he had some sympathy for their situation. But he was fighting with the decision.
At the same time something else caught Jacks interest. As he looked past his opponent he saw two others approaching from the back side.
The closer they came, the better he could guess they were all aiming for the exact same thing- their car.
Right as one of them pulled out his gun, Jack did so, too. "Get down!", he yelled and fired at them. One of them was hit in his arm and the chest, the other in the shoulder. They both fell to the ground as the man who had threatened Jack and Audrey before was even too stunned to realize what was going on around them.
He stood there, petrified, staring at the bodies on the ground and at Jack who quickly laid Audrey's body at the ground and stood up.
"Keep an eye on her.", Jack ordered him, as he went past the other, with his weapon drawn and pointing at the two men.
His own child had started to scream awfully upon the shots. But he was unable to move. Immovably he stood by Audrey's unconscious body, his weapon pointing somewhere on the ground in front of him. He was watching that man's back as he approached the two guys.
One of them was still alive and conscious, trying to reach for his gun again.
"Don't even try!", Jack shouted and fired a warning shot, at the ground, close to the position of that man. He came close and then kicked the other's gun away before he knelt down to him.
"I'll give you one chance now. Take it and run.", he hissed.
His opponent took that chance. Groaning he fought to get up again and yielded a few steps backwards.
"Run.", Jack ordered, firing another volley of shots before the man's feet.
He started to run.
Jack felt the pulse of the other one. He was dead.
Jack stood up again, taking both their guns with him. Slowly he went back to Audrey. He turned around frequently to see if that man was still running away from them, but as the other was 200 yards away he was sure that he wouldn't come back any time soon.
Jack holstered his gun again, checked on the magazines of the weapons which he had taken from these two men and put one of them in his bag. The other one he presented to the man who was still standing next to Audrey. "Here, take it. You're going to need a backup.", he mentioned, while he knelt down next to Audrey again.
Softly he took her shoulders and lifted her chest a little bit, to rest her back at his legs. He looked up, directly in to the other's eyes. That man was staring at him, with disbelieve. "What would you have done, if they had come any closer?", Jack silently asked him. He could read the other's thoughts like a book. That man was far too wimpy to ever pull the trigger of that gun.
The other also knew that. He knew that he would have been afraid to really aim his weapon at somebody else and pull the trigger. Probably this stranger had just saved all their lives. He put away his gun and nodded towards their car. "Get in at the back.", he simply said and went back.
Jack was deeply relieved as he carried Audrey over to the car. They had a chance again now.