Bang
Seth could feel the bullet's speed as it barreled past him only inches from his left ear.
"Fuck!"
Bang Bang Bang
Ritchie answered the gunmen with a flurry of bullets.
"You Motherfucker!" Ritchie screamed leaning out the passenger door window.
The gunmen, a plain clothed man in his forties collapsed behind his car, shot. Red and blue flashing lights appeared two stop lights down. More bullets whizzed past Seth. Impulsively he grabbed the girl around the waist and pulled her with him behind the fender. She screamed in pain when he moved her, but only a sudden wretch then it became too much articulate the sensation any longer.
"Seth?! Get the fuck in the car before we're cornered! Seth!" Ritchie yelled above the commotion.
Seth yanked the gun out of his pants and held the girl close to him. Breath.
"Ritchie get in the driver seat and put the car put it in D!"
Quickly as he could Seth got to his feet holding the girl against him, her head lolled against his shoulder. Her blood streaked the side of his face, but he held on his pistol against her temple with resolve. The firing stopped from the cops when they saw a hostage had been taken, but Ritchie continued his onslaught of bullets covering his older brother. Seth ducked behind the car and flung himself and the girl head first into the backseat.
"Go!" Seth screamed. Ritchie slammed his foot on the pedal and the car blared down the main drag directly at the two oncoming squad cars.
Ritchie was crazy no doubt, but it had its advantages. No cop had ever out maneuvered him in a chase. No one could match him at chicken, but then again he had no sense of fear so it was hardly a fair game. Seth ducked down and waited. He turned his head to the side and looked at the girl. She had fallen between the front and back seat in the abrupt entrance moments earlier. Her left arm was tangled underneath; her arching her back grotesquely. Her mouth swallowed the air in huge gasps and she seemed to be speaking a silent phrase to herself over and over. Impossibly large, glassy brown eyes gaped unblinkingly at him. They examined one another for a long time. Seth couldn't recall the last time he had looked frankly into the eyes of another human being. Looking another man in the eyes for too long made you lose something in yourself; give something away you weren't prepared to. Seth didn't want to give anything away, but he sure as hell was gonna take what he could and run.
That's what he and Ritchie were doing anyway. But he looked into her eyes fixedly for a long time. There was no understanding or truce between them. It would have been folly to think that their staring made them see eye to eye in any other sense than the literal. They both just lay there knowing only that they were uncertain, as in every day. Seth had known this since he was young, since the morning he didn't drop Ritchie off at school. The morning he drove away from his home with only his brother and a pile of cash he had nicked of his dad's dresser. He knew then so his eyes were not glossy with tears when he stared down at the crumpled girl. The girl's were though, glossy like a fish dangling from a hook; brimming to the lashes with bleak comprehension. Uncertainty was the only constant to hold on to; paradox though it may be.