Jhondie
For a fraction of a second, I was totally frozen from absolute sheer terror. I had never before in my life been that scared. Running from Manticore? Not even close. All they could do was kill me. This was Justin. This was Justin, and something happened, and there was no way for me to know what was going on and he could be dead or hurt but I didn't know and I might have just lost him even though there was something saying I hadn't and God help whoever was after him.
The tail end of that thought seemed to dig deep into me, into vaults that I had thought were locked away forever, and God help me, I still responded to them. "Under no circumstance is fear or worse, panic, to overrule you," Lydecker's voice echoed in my mind. "The mission is always to be completed. In any situation, you have the training and the ability to adapt it to suit your needs at the time. You will evaluate. Where am I? Where do I need to be? What is my goal? What tools do I have to complete the goal? The rest will follow suit. Soldiers rely on their training, and will adapt it to any situation."
The fear was gone, and I felt like I was acting on automatic pilot, watching myself from a distance.
Where am I?
In my room in Los Angeles.
Where do I need to be?
In Seattle, or wherever Justin is.
What is my goal?
Find Justin. Find whoever wants to harm him. Neutralize the situation.
What tools do I have to complete the goal?
The ability to make a flight reservation without adequate funds. Eye's Only. A story that would stun the hell out of him, but he would do anything to get his hands on it.
I went to my computer quickly and sent him an emergency message, saying that I needed to talk to him ASAP. I went to my closet and grabbed some clothes, shoving them in a gym bag. I didn't even notice until later that the majority of what I grabbed were dark in color and more rugged. Good thing I refused to own a piece of camouflage, even when that style was popular a couple of years back. I would have filled a bag with it without thinking.
My computer beeped, and I jumped over there quickly. It was Eye's Only. Already? He must have been sitting at the computer or something. Good for him. Any delays that get Justin hurt and he was next on my hit list. I didn't have the camera set-up on my machine like Justin did, but we still could do a text message so long as I gave him the correct initial code to let him know that it was really me. I typed my pass code in quickly, and he responded correctly.
"You have an emergency?" he asked.
"I need to get to Seattle, ASAP. I have a flight that I can take, but I need all of the paperwork to get access to the sectors," I replied.
"How fast do you need this?"
"Flight is in three hours. I'll need it when I land."
"The name you want them in?"
I thought for a second on that. I was expecting some kind of resistance, but I guess after all that we had done for him, he knew that he better come through for me. "Leeann Amanda Xavier," I replied, wondering if he would get it.
There was a pause. "I'll do what I can. It's short notice at the moment. I'll contact you in two hours if it's possible. If it isn't, you don't want to come here." My eyes narrowed. There was no impossible right now. If I had to fly up there and kick sector police ass to get out of the airport and into the city I would. Reckless? For once, yes. But I didn't care. There wasn't time to stop and think to realize what I was doing so that I would care.
"LA is in Seattle," I typed. "He's in serious danger right now, and I am going to be there in a few hours, paperwork or no." I was ready at that moment for him to ask what was wrong and why I needed to be there. And when he did, I was going to tell him. Tell him enough to make him realize what I was, and then promise him the rest of the story when we were done. It was crazy, and exposing myself like that was downright stupid, but I had to take the chance.
"Give me two hours."
I almost cried seeing his reply. He wasn't going to ask. Maybe it was just courtesy considering all of the things that we had done blind for him. Maybe it was plausible deniability. Who knew? Who cared? I didn't right then. He had two hours to make it happen for me.
In the meantime, there were a few mundane concerns to deal with. I had no doubt that Eye's Only would come through. Within a ridiculously short amount of time I had hacked a flight reservation. There were more flights being offered at night now than before The Pulse. Since there were only a couple of airlines left, people were pretty much at their mercy. Engines ran more effectively in cooler night air, and that saved them money. I wasn't going to complain. The time was right for me, and it was direct from LA to Seattle. There was just one more detail to take care of.
I still had that feeling that I was outside of my body, watching my actions as I left my room, smiling brightly, and acting like I was excited about something. It was odd because I knew it was me, but it didn't feel like me. I knew what it was. I had a hard time lying to my mother, and she knew it. That's why she knew she could trust me. But she never had to deal with the deceptive nature of a Manticore soldier. X-5182 had a mission to accomplish, and she was well trained to do it. It was simply adapting skills like we had been taught to do so very well.
"Mom!" I yelled, running down the stairs. She poked her head out of the kitchen.
"That was quick," she said, a little surprised at how fast I had gotten off of the phone. Kayla had been watching TV, and immediately scrambled to it, dialing rapidly before I could get my hands on it again.
"I need a ride to the airport," I said excitedly.
Her eyebrows rose. "Really? And where would you be going?"
"That's why my call was so short," I replied, sounding like a normal girl excited about something wonderful. "Justin has to stay longer than he thought with the lawyers and bankers and everything. So, we were talking and he said he missed me, and said that he wished I was there, and I said I wished I was there too, and then he started laughing and said that was great because my flight was in a few hours."
"Oh my," Mom gasped. "What about paperwork and reservations and all of that?"
"Already done," I replied. She had no clue. That was a first. "He totally took care of everything before he told me. Tell me that's not just too much."
She glanced in the kitchen, checking where Kayla was. She had grabbed the phone, and was on the back porch, probably whispering about how they were going to skip school the next day and not get caught. When I got back, if I was still in this mood, I might have a little conversation with Ginny and explain to her why being Kay's friend wasn't the best of ideas. Just like when I explained to Denise at a certain construction site that Justin and her were over.
"Is it safe though?" she asked. "There's police everywhere there. It's still a military state."
"Do you really think Justin would ask me to come if it wasn't safe?"
She nodded. "I suppose not. He doesn't seem to be the type that would put you in danger." She was examining my face and expression, looking for something that would tell her that there was something missing, that I wasn't saying something. But I just smiled as sweetly as before. There was no telling that I was lying through my teeth.
She smiled. "Well, when is your flight?" I gave her the time, and she laughed. "You better get to packing quick. I don't think your beloved would be happy if he went through all that trouble and you missed your flight." I grinned and ran back upstairs.
Two hours later, the boss came through. When I landed, all of the papers would be there. . Thank God. I had a feeling he was getting a set for someone else, and it was easy enough to get a second set of papers while he was at it. I asked him if he had heard from Justin. He said that he hadn't since I had contacted him, but if he did, he would get a hold of me. I had no question that he would be able to get me somehow. Another hour later, and I had my seat up and the tray table in the upright and locked position as we took off from Los Angeles. I looked out the window below and watched all of the twinkling lights of the cities below. For a moment, I closed my eyes and prayed.
Hold on Justin. I'll be there soon. Just be okay when I get there.
Justin
The definition of having a bad day: spending it all with lawyers instead of going home and being with the woman you love. The definition of a spectacularly bad day: spending it with lawyers, finally getting to talk to the woman you love, and then get interrupted rudely by someone trying to make you slightly dead. And what really made it worse was that when I got back to the hotel after meeting the informant, I found out that I had missed a broadcast from the boss. He was real hot on some guy that he said was selling fake drugs to vets for the Balkan War Syndrome.
If I hadn't had experience with Jhondie, when I saw the shadow outside my window while I was talking to Jhondie, I would have ignored it. I was on the sixth floor. People don't notice shadows outside of their windows when they are that far up. However, when you get used to a girl that can be up there like that, you start to notice little things. It saved my life that night. I was still watching it when I went to start talking to Jhondie again, and that's when there was a glint as the shadow changed position and I saw the gun.
I dropped to the ground a split second before gunfire erupted into my room, bullets spraying into the wall behind where I had been sitting just a moment before. I heard Jhondie say my name, but there wasn't any time to respond to her. Whoever was trying to kill me came through the window, and I launched an offensive.
I lay there quietly; not daring to breath until whoever it was came within range. From my position on the floor, I spun on the heel of my hand, my foot lashing out and slamming into the guy's knee. There was a dry crunching sound, like someone stepping on a bag of Fritos as he knee shattered. He fell to the ground, the gun going off again, riddling the ceiling above me. I didn't waste time hoping that room was vacant before leaping on him. I would have tried to get some answers out of him, but there was someone else out there, and they were probably coming in with more firepower. Time to make a graceful exit.
I decked the guy one time, feeling his nose shatter under my fist. He went limp, and I was out of there, grabbing my laptop off of my desk, and heading into the hall. There weren't that many people on my floor, but the guests that were there were coming out of their rooms. I didn't hang around to answer questions. Whoever was after me probably didn't care if I died in front of witnesses or not. The guy that I hit had been wearing a mask. Maybe I should have taken it off so I could remember who it was later like they do in movies, but when it happens to you the first time, you don't think about later. Your primary concern is being not dead.
I hit the stairwell, not wanting to risk being trapped in an elevator if there was an unfriendly waiting for me. Later experience taught me that you take the elevator, but you get on the roof of it and let them shoot up the empty car. But the first time someone that you don't know tries to kill you for reasons that you also don't know, it's a very scary experience.
There were people in the hotel lobby, most of them running around, and lucky for me, some were vacating quickly. The hotel was in a nicer section of the city, and there weren't that many shootings around here. From what I knew, in some sectors kids used dead bodies to mark the outfield when they played baseball. One sector over, and people were discussing designer clothes and how hard it was to find a decent maid. In any case, when guns started going off in this sector, people got scared and ran instead of ignoring it.
I headed down the street, ducking down another side street, wondering if I was being followed. I wasn't sure how long I ran, but it was enough to get me away from the hotel. Now what? Go to the cops? I knew about the cops around here. If whoever was after me owned one, I was still a dead man. There would be an accident or something, and nobody questioned the police if they valued their lives. I stopped, ducking into an alley and leaning against a building, trying to think. What do I do?
Eye's Only. Contact him. Let him know that I needed help. I might have to explain the whole situation to him, but it would be worth it. Chances were that he knew who I was anyways. As long as he didn't know about Jhondie, it was fine by me. It was starting to rain, a light misting rain, and my jacket was back at the hotel. How much worse was the day going to get? I bent over to stretch for a second when a single gunshot rang out, driving into the bricks where I had just been standing.
A car's headlights flicked on, bathing me in light. Maybe they were expecting me to stand there, stunned at the light. No such luck for them. Maybe if this was the first time I had been shot at I would have been too scared to move, but I had been in bad situations before. Granted, I had a genetically engineered partner at the time that didn't want me to get killed, but the point is that I wasn't frozen. I took off like a bat out of Hell, half leaping over a dumpster to block off another shot before they could take it. The alley was too narrow for the car to go down, so maybe I had a fighting chance.
There were some apartment buildings near by, upscale ones that notice things like strangers, and more than likely, the people living there own a few cops of their own. Whoever was after me probably wouldn't want to risk following me into a crowded area again. Especially when cops showed up there quickly. In front of witnesses, the cops couldn't exactly ignore a murder. At least I hoped not. It was a plan at any rate.
I was glad that I had gone to so many meetings now at different offices. It had given me a good layout of the city, and I knew where I wanted to go. There was an office building next to this huge apartment high rise. I had seen it in passing the other day with Steiner. It had a weird name like Froggy Towers or something like that. The important thing was that Steiner had joked that if I wanted to move to Seattle that was a good place to move to. Really upscale and exclusive kind of place. Exactly what I needed.
I was on the backside of the building and had to cut through an alley to get around to the main entrance. They could be waiting for me. I had to take the chance. I darted across the street, hoping that I had lost them at some time in the dark. Why was I even asking for good luck at all that night? I wasn't sure who was more surprised, them or me when we damn near ran into each other in the middle of the alley.
My saving grace was that it was too close for them to use a gun. There were two of them, and with all of the movement, they might hit the other one. They both attacked, but that was when I realized exactly how much I had picked up from Jhondie over the last year and a half. Working out and building strength was all fine and good, but there was a lot more to hand- to-hand combat than brute force.
The first guy jumped me quickly, knocking me back into the wall. My laptop fell into a pile of garbage, and then I was free to retaliate. His hands were around my throat, and instinctively I wanted to grab at them, but instead I punched low into his ribs. He flinched a little, and that gave me the leverage for a kidney shot. My vision was starting to darken a little from lack of oxygen, but I hit him hard enough to make him turn slightly gray and his grip loosened so that I could get some air. My hand shot around his arm and slammed into his nose, shoving him off of me.
We both stumbled into the center of the alley, and I ducked fast, dropping to the ground and barely avoiding the other guy's knife. I kicked up, nailing him in the stomach, and knocking him back. I was on my feet in a second, circling with the guy with the knife. His partner was getting back into the game too, but I wasn't out by a long shot. I jumped forward, grabbing the guy with the knife, and swinging him so that the other guy plowed into him, and not me.
There was a slight noise above us, and I glanced up, fully expecting death from above at this point. It was dark, but some reflected light illuminated a woman on the side of the building. There was a fire escape at the side, and if she could get way up there, then so could I. I couldn't really see where it went all the way up, but the building was shut down and closed up, so there had to be some way to get up there. One of the attackers was back on feet, catching me with a roundhouse punch on my cheek. I fell back over a trashcan, landing on the ground with an impressive clatter, and slamming my head on the wall.
For a moment I saw stars, and then he was standing over me, gun drawn. "Goodbye Mr. Carter," he said politely.
I'm not sure exactly how I managed to do it, but I think I somehow got a single second of absolute speed and coordination, and I managed to not waste it. One foot was flat on the ground, and I shoved up using it and my hands, my other foot flicking up and kicking his wrist. I fell back into the garbage, the shot ringing upwards instead of into me. Cool move, but there was no way I was going to do it again, and he didn't lose the gun like I thought he would. Time went to slow motion. The gun swung back down at me, triumph in his eyes.
And that's when a single shadow behind them suddenly became solid.
For a fraction of a second, I was totally frozen from absolute sheer terror. I had never before in my life been that scared. Running from Manticore? Not even close. All they could do was kill me. This was Justin. This was Justin, and something happened, and there was no way for me to know what was going on and he could be dead or hurt but I didn't know and I might have just lost him even though there was something saying I hadn't and God help whoever was after him.
The tail end of that thought seemed to dig deep into me, into vaults that I had thought were locked away forever, and God help me, I still responded to them. "Under no circumstance is fear or worse, panic, to overrule you," Lydecker's voice echoed in my mind. "The mission is always to be completed. In any situation, you have the training and the ability to adapt it to suit your needs at the time. You will evaluate. Where am I? Where do I need to be? What is my goal? What tools do I have to complete the goal? The rest will follow suit. Soldiers rely on their training, and will adapt it to any situation."
The fear was gone, and I felt like I was acting on automatic pilot, watching myself from a distance.
Where am I?
In my room in Los Angeles.
Where do I need to be?
In Seattle, or wherever Justin is.
What is my goal?
Find Justin. Find whoever wants to harm him. Neutralize the situation.
What tools do I have to complete the goal?
The ability to make a flight reservation without adequate funds. Eye's Only. A story that would stun the hell out of him, but he would do anything to get his hands on it.
I went to my computer quickly and sent him an emergency message, saying that I needed to talk to him ASAP. I went to my closet and grabbed some clothes, shoving them in a gym bag. I didn't even notice until later that the majority of what I grabbed were dark in color and more rugged. Good thing I refused to own a piece of camouflage, even when that style was popular a couple of years back. I would have filled a bag with it without thinking.
My computer beeped, and I jumped over there quickly. It was Eye's Only. Already? He must have been sitting at the computer or something. Good for him. Any delays that get Justin hurt and he was next on my hit list. I didn't have the camera set-up on my machine like Justin did, but we still could do a text message so long as I gave him the correct initial code to let him know that it was really me. I typed my pass code in quickly, and he responded correctly.
"You have an emergency?" he asked.
"I need to get to Seattle, ASAP. I have a flight that I can take, but I need all of the paperwork to get access to the sectors," I replied.
"How fast do you need this?"
"Flight is in three hours. I'll need it when I land."
"The name you want them in?"
I thought for a second on that. I was expecting some kind of resistance, but I guess after all that we had done for him, he knew that he better come through for me. "Leeann Amanda Xavier," I replied, wondering if he would get it.
There was a pause. "I'll do what I can. It's short notice at the moment. I'll contact you in two hours if it's possible. If it isn't, you don't want to come here." My eyes narrowed. There was no impossible right now. If I had to fly up there and kick sector police ass to get out of the airport and into the city I would. Reckless? For once, yes. But I didn't care. There wasn't time to stop and think to realize what I was doing so that I would care.
"LA is in Seattle," I typed. "He's in serious danger right now, and I am going to be there in a few hours, paperwork or no." I was ready at that moment for him to ask what was wrong and why I needed to be there. And when he did, I was going to tell him. Tell him enough to make him realize what I was, and then promise him the rest of the story when we were done. It was crazy, and exposing myself like that was downright stupid, but I had to take the chance.
"Give me two hours."
I almost cried seeing his reply. He wasn't going to ask. Maybe it was just courtesy considering all of the things that we had done blind for him. Maybe it was plausible deniability. Who knew? Who cared? I didn't right then. He had two hours to make it happen for me.
In the meantime, there were a few mundane concerns to deal with. I had no doubt that Eye's Only would come through. Within a ridiculously short amount of time I had hacked a flight reservation. There were more flights being offered at night now than before The Pulse. Since there were only a couple of airlines left, people were pretty much at their mercy. Engines ran more effectively in cooler night air, and that saved them money. I wasn't going to complain. The time was right for me, and it was direct from LA to Seattle. There was just one more detail to take care of.
I still had that feeling that I was outside of my body, watching my actions as I left my room, smiling brightly, and acting like I was excited about something. It was odd because I knew it was me, but it didn't feel like me. I knew what it was. I had a hard time lying to my mother, and she knew it. That's why she knew she could trust me. But she never had to deal with the deceptive nature of a Manticore soldier. X-5182 had a mission to accomplish, and she was well trained to do it. It was simply adapting skills like we had been taught to do so very well.
"Mom!" I yelled, running down the stairs. She poked her head out of the kitchen.
"That was quick," she said, a little surprised at how fast I had gotten off of the phone. Kayla had been watching TV, and immediately scrambled to it, dialing rapidly before I could get my hands on it again.
"I need a ride to the airport," I said excitedly.
Her eyebrows rose. "Really? And where would you be going?"
"That's why my call was so short," I replied, sounding like a normal girl excited about something wonderful. "Justin has to stay longer than he thought with the lawyers and bankers and everything. So, we were talking and he said he missed me, and said that he wished I was there, and I said I wished I was there too, and then he started laughing and said that was great because my flight was in a few hours."
"Oh my," Mom gasped. "What about paperwork and reservations and all of that?"
"Already done," I replied. She had no clue. That was a first. "He totally took care of everything before he told me. Tell me that's not just too much."
She glanced in the kitchen, checking where Kayla was. She had grabbed the phone, and was on the back porch, probably whispering about how they were going to skip school the next day and not get caught. When I got back, if I was still in this mood, I might have a little conversation with Ginny and explain to her why being Kay's friend wasn't the best of ideas. Just like when I explained to Denise at a certain construction site that Justin and her were over.
"Is it safe though?" she asked. "There's police everywhere there. It's still a military state."
"Do you really think Justin would ask me to come if it wasn't safe?"
She nodded. "I suppose not. He doesn't seem to be the type that would put you in danger." She was examining my face and expression, looking for something that would tell her that there was something missing, that I wasn't saying something. But I just smiled as sweetly as before. There was no telling that I was lying through my teeth.
She smiled. "Well, when is your flight?" I gave her the time, and she laughed. "You better get to packing quick. I don't think your beloved would be happy if he went through all that trouble and you missed your flight." I grinned and ran back upstairs.
Two hours later, the boss came through. When I landed, all of the papers would be there. . Thank God. I had a feeling he was getting a set for someone else, and it was easy enough to get a second set of papers while he was at it. I asked him if he had heard from Justin. He said that he hadn't since I had contacted him, but if he did, he would get a hold of me. I had no question that he would be able to get me somehow. Another hour later, and I had my seat up and the tray table in the upright and locked position as we took off from Los Angeles. I looked out the window below and watched all of the twinkling lights of the cities below. For a moment, I closed my eyes and prayed.
Hold on Justin. I'll be there soon. Just be okay when I get there.
Justin
The definition of having a bad day: spending it all with lawyers instead of going home and being with the woman you love. The definition of a spectacularly bad day: spending it with lawyers, finally getting to talk to the woman you love, and then get interrupted rudely by someone trying to make you slightly dead. And what really made it worse was that when I got back to the hotel after meeting the informant, I found out that I had missed a broadcast from the boss. He was real hot on some guy that he said was selling fake drugs to vets for the Balkan War Syndrome.
If I hadn't had experience with Jhondie, when I saw the shadow outside my window while I was talking to Jhondie, I would have ignored it. I was on the sixth floor. People don't notice shadows outside of their windows when they are that far up. However, when you get used to a girl that can be up there like that, you start to notice little things. It saved my life that night. I was still watching it when I went to start talking to Jhondie again, and that's when there was a glint as the shadow changed position and I saw the gun.
I dropped to the ground a split second before gunfire erupted into my room, bullets spraying into the wall behind where I had been sitting just a moment before. I heard Jhondie say my name, but there wasn't any time to respond to her. Whoever was trying to kill me came through the window, and I launched an offensive.
I lay there quietly; not daring to breath until whoever it was came within range. From my position on the floor, I spun on the heel of my hand, my foot lashing out and slamming into the guy's knee. There was a dry crunching sound, like someone stepping on a bag of Fritos as he knee shattered. He fell to the ground, the gun going off again, riddling the ceiling above me. I didn't waste time hoping that room was vacant before leaping on him. I would have tried to get some answers out of him, but there was someone else out there, and they were probably coming in with more firepower. Time to make a graceful exit.
I decked the guy one time, feeling his nose shatter under my fist. He went limp, and I was out of there, grabbing my laptop off of my desk, and heading into the hall. There weren't that many people on my floor, but the guests that were there were coming out of their rooms. I didn't hang around to answer questions. Whoever was after me probably didn't care if I died in front of witnesses or not. The guy that I hit had been wearing a mask. Maybe I should have taken it off so I could remember who it was later like they do in movies, but when it happens to you the first time, you don't think about later. Your primary concern is being not dead.
I hit the stairwell, not wanting to risk being trapped in an elevator if there was an unfriendly waiting for me. Later experience taught me that you take the elevator, but you get on the roof of it and let them shoot up the empty car. But the first time someone that you don't know tries to kill you for reasons that you also don't know, it's a very scary experience.
There were people in the hotel lobby, most of them running around, and lucky for me, some were vacating quickly. The hotel was in a nicer section of the city, and there weren't that many shootings around here. From what I knew, in some sectors kids used dead bodies to mark the outfield when they played baseball. One sector over, and people were discussing designer clothes and how hard it was to find a decent maid. In any case, when guns started going off in this sector, people got scared and ran instead of ignoring it.
I headed down the street, ducking down another side street, wondering if I was being followed. I wasn't sure how long I ran, but it was enough to get me away from the hotel. Now what? Go to the cops? I knew about the cops around here. If whoever was after me owned one, I was still a dead man. There would be an accident or something, and nobody questioned the police if they valued their lives. I stopped, ducking into an alley and leaning against a building, trying to think. What do I do?
Eye's Only. Contact him. Let him know that I needed help. I might have to explain the whole situation to him, but it would be worth it. Chances were that he knew who I was anyways. As long as he didn't know about Jhondie, it was fine by me. It was starting to rain, a light misting rain, and my jacket was back at the hotel. How much worse was the day going to get? I bent over to stretch for a second when a single gunshot rang out, driving into the bricks where I had just been standing.
A car's headlights flicked on, bathing me in light. Maybe they were expecting me to stand there, stunned at the light. No such luck for them. Maybe if this was the first time I had been shot at I would have been too scared to move, but I had been in bad situations before. Granted, I had a genetically engineered partner at the time that didn't want me to get killed, but the point is that I wasn't frozen. I took off like a bat out of Hell, half leaping over a dumpster to block off another shot before they could take it. The alley was too narrow for the car to go down, so maybe I had a fighting chance.
There were some apartment buildings near by, upscale ones that notice things like strangers, and more than likely, the people living there own a few cops of their own. Whoever was after me probably wouldn't want to risk following me into a crowded area again. Especially when cops showed up there quickly. In front of witnesses, the cops couldn't exactly ignore a murder. At least I hoped not. It was a plan at any rate.
I was glad that I had gone to so many meetings now at different offices. It had given me a good layout of the city, and I knew where I wanted to go. There was an office building next to this huge apartment high rise. I had seen it in passing the other day with Steiner. It had a weird name like Froggy Towers or something like that. The important thing was that Steiner had joked that if I wanted to move to Seattle that was a good place to move to. Really upscale and exclusive kind of place. Exactly what I needed.
I was on the backside of the building and had to cut through an alley to get around to the main entrance. They could be waiting for me. I had to take the chance. I darted across the street, hoping that I had lost them at some time in the dark. Why was I even asking for good luck at all that night? I wasn't sure who was more surprised, them or me when we damn near ran into each other in the middle of the alley.
My saving grace was that it was too close for them to use a gun. There were two of them, and with all of the movement, they might hit the other one. They both attacked, but that was when I realized exactly how much I had picked up from Jhondie over the last year and a half. Working out and building strength was all fine and good, but there was a lot more to hand- to-hand combat than brute force.
The first guy jumped me quickly, knocking me back into the wall. My laptop fell into a pile of garbage, and then I was free to retaliate. His hands were around my throat, and instinctively I wanted to grab at them, but instead I punched low into his ribs. He flinched a little, and that gave me the leverage for a kidney shot. My vision was starting to darken a little from lack of oxygen, but I hit him hard enough to make him turn slightly gray and his grip loosened so that I could get some air. My hand shot around his arm and slammed into his nose, shoving him off of me.
We both stumbled into the center of the alley, and I ducked fast, dropping to the ground and barely avoiding the other guy's knife. I kicked up, nailing him in the stomach, and knocking him back. I was on my feet in a second, circling with the guy with the knife. His partner was getting back into the game too, but I wasn't out by a long shot. I jumped forward, grabbing the guy with the knife, and swinging him so that the other guy plowed into him, and not me.
There was a slight noise above us, and I glanced up, fully expecting death from above at this point. It was dark, but some reflected light illuminated a woman on the side of the building. There was a fire escape at the side, and if she could get way up there, then so could I. I couldn't really see where it went all the way up, but the building was shut down and closed up, so there had to be some way to get up there. One of the attackers was back on feet, catching me with a roundhouse punch on my cheek. I fell back over a trashcan, landing on the ground with an impressive clatter, and slamming my head on the wall.
For a moment I saw stars, and then he was standing over me, gun drawn. "Goodbye Mr. Carter," he said politely.
I'm not sure exactly how I managed to do it, but I think I somehow got a single second of absolute speed and coordination, and I managed to not waste it. One foot was flat on the ground, and I shoved up using it and my hands, my other foot flicking up and kicking his wrist. I fell back into the garbage, the shot ringing upwards instead of into me. Cool move, but there was no way I was going to do it again, and he didn't lose the gun like I thought he would. Time went to slow motion. The gun swung back down at me, triumph in his eyes.
And that's when a single shadow behind them suddenly became solid.
