Note from Author: as with another chapter, I once again recommend music for this scene. Blind Guardian's "Punishment Divine" (try Youtube). It suits this scene quite well if you ask me.

Chapter 15

Gallo saw the cops and in his desperation, turned his car to drive right at them. He knew that if these cops interfered, he'd never reach Alice. He had to stop them from shooting so that they could get away.

The cops saw him just in time and dove away from his manic charge. Gallo began to gibber in the excitement of it all. He pulled out his gun as he skidded the car to a halt.

At once, cops began firing on him as more cops began to charge forward towards the store.

Gallo began firing his gun, not even aiming at the cops, but trying to cause a distraction. He could still not bear to shoot another person.

Looking at the store, he saw several cops fall from bullet wounds, out leaped a man in a tuxedo. He carried a satchel and instead of going towards Gallo, he turned away and bolted off down the street, pursued by several cops. Turning back to shoot a few of them, Mr. Pink fired off a round of ammo before bolting off.

Gallo began to panic again as he saw more cops getting shot. He stared at the blood in shock.

Just then, a scream from behind caused Gallo to turn around. It was another cop, running right for him.

Out of panic, Gallo screamed as he cannoned for the cop's legs. The guy, who was pretty young, fell over heavily.

Gallo leapt on top of him, holding him down, "Lie still and I won't shoot you!"

"Fuck you!" The cop struggled hard, and Gallo applied more weight, all the while staring at the car, which hadn't been hit with many bullets. The cops were mostly ignoring it in favour of the guys in the store. Gallo could see more cars coming down the road.

In his fury, Gallo punched the cop in the side, "I don't want to fucking kill you alright? I don't want to kill you!"

"Oh don't worry, Brown, I'd be happy to take it from here."

Gallo looked up in horror.

Mr. Blonde was crouched down, reloading his guns. He smiled at the two men in front of him, "Having a good time there Mr. Brown?"

Gallo was too intimidated to respond. He almost let go of the cop.

Mr. Blonde grabbed the handcuffs from the cop's belt, and handcuffed the man, "I'll take him with me. We need to figure this whole thing out."

He began dragging the guy behind him, firing over the car. Judging by the screams, he was a deadly shot.

Gallo, with more courage and effort than he'd ever mustered in his existence, called out, "Blonde! Was there a black girl in there?"

Blonde looked back, "Yeah. She set off the fucking alarm so I blew her apart." Ignoring Gallo, he dived, still dragging the handcuffed cop, among the cars of the parking lot.

Gallo stared, unable to breathe. He couldn't believe what he had heard. Alice was dead. Dead. Blown apart by a fucking madman who would never regret his actions. Gallo felt like turning the gun on himself.

He crawled into the car, back into the driver's seat. He could barely see for the tears blinding him. Alice was dead. What could amount to that? Nothing mattered anymore. Gallo could see that Mr. White and Mr. Orange were punching a whole in the attack of the cops. They were going to make a break for Gallo in the car.

Then Gallo noticed one of the plainclothes guys staring at him, his guard down.

It was Holdaway.

Gallo groaned in horror. Now it was over.

Holdaway's face looked astonished, then with a look of fury, he pointed his gun at Gallo.

Gallo knew that it was over then. He was trapped, he couldn't move away. Maybe he didn't want to.

Gallo saw the window in from of him smash before he heard it smash. As the sound came through, something struck him right in the forehead, and Gallo knew he was a dead man.

Someone grabbed his shoulder, and he saw that it was Mr. White. He stared in horror at Gallo's head, and Gallo knew he must be dead. But although the pain was enough to make him crazy, he was still alive.

Mr. Orange stared at him from the back, "How the fuck is he still alive?"

Gallo groaned and automatically began driving away. He heard bullets and shouting, but all he could think of was the fact that Alice was dead, and that he'd been shot through his skull. Was he being toyed with? Was he being tormented? A bullet through the fucking head killed you! Any asshole knew that!

His eyesight began to fade from the tears and the blood. He sobbed as he drove. He felt a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't look to see who it was.

Gallo suddenly slammed the car into another automobile parked right on the side of the road.

Gallo cursed automatically. How had he not seen that?

He heard sirens, and he wished he was dead. He wanted to scream and cry and wail and plead for forgiveness. He had fooled himself all this time into thinking he could get the better of the deal. He thought he could have figured this out and escaped the madness. He had fooled himself, had made himself blind.

"Blind...I'm blind... Gallo muttered as he stared at his bloody hands, his words becoming slurred as though drunk.

A voice broke through, "You're not blind you've got blood in your eyes." It was Mr. Orange, not understanding what Gallo meant.

Gallo wanted to swear at Orange. Fuck him, fuck White, fuck Eddie, fuck Holdaway, fuck Joe, fuck everyone. Fuck them all. He'd had enough. He wanted it to be over.

The last thing he heard was the hail of bullets, and his last thought was wondering whether he'd see Alice again or not.