(Day 27 - 2360 Words)
Thom and Shae were under the same vehicle. Mike had rolled under a truck Shae could see after the little Zip car took off. She thought it was going much faster than they normally could when there wasn’t a driver. It was probably something else that Thom had done.
The flash of lasers stopped hitting so close, so at least for now it had drawn their attention.
Mike motioned from under the truck for them to move on and out. He pointed to himself and motioned that he was going to go the opposite way.
Thom gave Mike the “thumbs-up” sign. Then he reached down and patted Shae’s head so that she looked up at him. His lips mouthed, ‘I love you.’
Shae’s eyes teared up a little, but she blinked the tears away rapidly. Thom’s fingers motioned rolling backwards out the other side, and then running crouched down. Shae nodded that she understood. Then Thom counted down on his fingers.
Three.
Two.
One.
Shae rolled and pushed up to toes and fingers, crouched over. Thom was already out and crouched when she looked. He pointed to the next row, and they both ran, bent over to keep their head’s below the windows as much as possible.
They made it to the next row, between two vehicles and paused. Thom looked up through a window for their next move. Shae heard distant sirens. She felt relief and wanted to wait where they were and motioned that to Thom when he looked back at her. He shook his head and pointed further away.
Shae wasn’t in the best shoes for running, and her dress was ruined now from rolling on the ground, but she trusted Thom. So she nodded. He nodded in return and then took off running again, crouched over. Shae followed.
They made three more quick stops and moves and would be near the retaining wall on the next move.
Shae had heard the sirens get closer and then some loud bangs and crackles of electricity, but they were over by the entrance, not way back where they had gotten. So she was shocked when she saw a flash of light out of the corner of her eye. She jumped forward, even though in her head she knew that by the time she saw the light she would have been hit if it was aimed directly at her.
Her ankle twisted and she felt a stabbing pain as it rolled. She cried out.
Thom grabbed her arm to steady her and at the same time put a hand over her mouth. But it was too late, her cry had drawn the attention of the shooter and the next shot was only two cars over.
How had they found them?
Her eyes filled with tears, both from the pain and in despair. Thom shook his head. He looked over at the retaining wall.
‘Trust me?’ he mouthed silently at her. Shae nodded.
‘Give me your hand. There’s a lake on the other side. Take off your shoes. We are going to jump. We can make it. I swear,’ Thom continued.
Shae pulled off her shoes. She flinched every time a flash of light struck nearby. The Lekthish seemed to be playing now. She wondered which one it was, probably the black-haired one. Shoes off, she held Thom’s hand. Her toes on the injured foot, just barely touching the ground.
Thom picked up one of her shoes in his other hand. Shae had no idea why.
“Now!” Thom yelled, but he was holding her back still.
A black-haired, black-faced Lekthish head popped up over the hood of a nearby car, laser aimed at where Thom’s voice had come from. When it did, Thom was ready and winged her shoe right at the Lekthish’s head, catching the side and one eye. The laser shot went wide and that’s when they ran, Thom pulling her along so fast she barely had time to touch her injured foot down and then they were leaping into the air. Out and down.
Thom was right, there was a lake on the other side. Six stories down.
Shae hit the water hard, her hand was torn out of Thom’s grasp and she went far down before struggling with her dress tangling her legs, she got herself turned over and made for the surface. Her lungs were burning and she gasped air gratefully when her head broke the water.
She looked around for Thom, and saw that he was already swimming towards her. She looked back up at the retaining wall, thankful for the darkness that surrounded them.
No sign of the shooter.
Thom got to her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, the water feels kinda nice on my ankle, really.”
Thom pulled her into a hug, that almost caused them to sink. Then, he rolled over to his back and pulled her up on his chest with one arm.
“Hold on to my shirt, I’ll paddle us to the edge. I never thought those Lifeguard lessons would be of much use after school.”
Shae wrapped her hands into his shirt and Thom began a slow backstroke towards the nearest shore. Luckily, it wasn’t too far.
*
They had been seen swimming by a passing couple who informed them they weren’t allowed to swim in the lake. Shae and Thom explained that they had been escaping a gunman and asked if they would call the patrol.
Shae didn’t think that the woman believed them, but the man made the call. Thom had used his watch to do the rigging on the Zip car, so he didn’t have his. Shae had left hers at home so as not to be bothered during dinner.
Thom and the man helped Shae to limp over to a bench, which didn’t make his partner any happier.
The patrol didn’t take long to get there after the man, who’s name was Ben, called them. Especially since there were a number of them still at the crime scene. This kind of excitement on the station was pretty rare.
Mike had shown up about fifteen minutes after the patrol did. And the ES about five minutes after Mike.
Shae’s ankle was just sprained and once the ES had slipped an ankle boot on and turned on the electromagnetics, which both stiffened the material to support her ankle, and monitored the swelling, it was just twingey. Maybe, the meds helped, too.
“Once the Zip took off and I saw you both roll up, I rolled out the other side and started working my way around to flank them. I had texted to the commander what was going down and that likely the fugitive was with the rest. So, I knew more help was on the way. Hey, Thom, sending the Zip off that way was really smart. Most of them started going after the car, shooting at it and that let me get out of the way.”
“Thanks,” Thom said.
“Unfortunately, they hit the mag-drive before it got out of the lot and bricked it.”
Shae saw Thom wince at the news. More bills.
“So, when I popped my head up once, I saw that they had swarmed it, figured out that we weren’t there and started splitting up. That was about the time the patrol arrived blocking their exit.”
“That was it, then? They got them all, except the one that was shooting at us?” Shae asked.
“Oh no. They split like cockroaches. One came busting my way and I stuck a foot out and tripped him. But, the scumraker just did a forward roll and came back up on his feet, so I did a good old S-7!” Mike stopped and looked at Thom with a proud grin on his face. Shae had no clue what he meant.
“S-7? That some patrol code?” Shae asked.
“No, a football play. Flying tackle to the hips. Usually takes a while for people to walk that off afterwards. But, this slinky guy twisted around and punched me. Luckily I ducked my head and he just hit the top of it.” Mike rapped his knuckles on the top of his head.
“No pain, no brain,” Thom quipped. Mike swatted playfully at him.
“Well, it hurt his hand. He screamed out a curse in his language and pulled a knife from his side pocket. I let go, pushing back to my knees, grabbed his foot and twisted hard, like flipping a steer back home. That flipped him over and he lost the knife when his hand banged into the closest car. Which set it’s alarm off, as if there wasn’t enough noise going on.”
“What happened then?” Thom asked. The ES people were listening now, too, as well as Ben. The woman who hadn’t given her name had called a Zip and left. Shae didn’t think that Ben was going to get lucky tonight.
“Well, he kicked with his other foot, hard and pretty fast, too. It hit my hand and knocked it off, but with his boot still in my hands. He did a back somersault and came up with another knife. I threw the boot at his head and grabbed up the first knife which was within reach.”
Shae was horrified at the thought of what could have happened. Mike continued talking to his rapt audience.
“Those Lekthish are fast, and they are limber. But, they are shorter, too. So, I had the reach on him. I slashed out as I stood up and he hadn’t expected that, so hadn’t moved back far enough. I got a good slash in, but he was wearing a ship’s suit, so it just creased it and didn’t cut through. He tried to duck in and out with a stab to my gut, but I was expecting that and used a maneuver they teach us in Academy to twist just a bit to the side. I grabbed the extended arm and twisted it under and behind him, using his momentum and that put him back face down on the ground. But, I could feel him already twisting to flip over. I told you they were fast and flexible.”
Mike was now miming the movements as he told the story and Shae could imagine it vividly. She wrapped her arms around her, snuggling deeper into the blanket that the ES had put around her wet clothing.
“I dropped a knee down into his lower back and finished twisting the wrist until the blade dropped out and I could hear tendons popping. I was about to put the knife up under his skull and finish him off when a sergeant came around the corner, pistol drawn. That brought my mind back to where I was and who I was. I tossed the knife behind me and asked him to toss me a set of handcuffs. So, I cuffed the scumraker hand and foot so that there was no way he was getting away.”
“What about the one that was shooting at us? What happened to him?” Shae asked quietly. The shock was starting to set in. The realization that she almost died tonight.
“Shandorman. Shandorman happened to him,” Mike replied.
Shae looked confused. So did Ben. Ben was the one who asked the obvious question.
“Shandorman? What’s a Shandorman?”
“Not a what, a who,” Mike answered. “He’s my partner. And when he heard about the shootout going down and knew that I was going there with Shae and Thom, he busted on down there and got there about the time I was finishing arresting the guy I had fought with. After seeing I was okay, he asked about you all and I told him you were heading for the retaining wall, last I saw. I knew there was another exit on that side.”
Thom nodded his head.
“Yeah, that is where I was heading, but after Shae twisted her ankle, and the guy pinned us down, I knew that wasn’t going to happen and I remembered the lake ran almost up to the edge of the parking area. So thought we might be able to make it there. And water can help diffuse laser fire, so I was hoping for that, too.”
“Smart, Thom, it likely saved your life,” Ben added. “But what does that have to do with Shandorman?”
“Well, Shandorman had brought his riot shotgun with him and when I said where you both had gone he pulled himself up on top of a truck and sighted along the wall. He said he saw flashes of another gunman still on the loose. Then, bang. He turned and looked down at me and just said, ‘got it’. Lots of words and explanations, that guy.” Mike was shaking his head as he said it.
“How far was that, do you think.” Ben asked.
“At least 150 yards from where we were to there. It was a crack shot with a shotgun, even with a slug. He is good, got to give him that.” Mike was grinning with pride that Shandorman was his partner. Ben whistled low.
“Did they get them all,” Shae asked.
“Yeah, they did, Shae. That black-haired scumraker was the last one, and he was the same one who shot me. I was kinda pissed that I didn’t get to shoot him in return, but, hey, Shandorman getting him was the next best thing.”
“Very resourceful of all of you, I have to say,” Ben said. He pulled a stack of cards from his inner jacket and handed each of them one. “When things settle a little bit, give me a call at that number. I’d like to talk further with you about the first attack, as well.”
Shae looked at the card, it just had Ben’s full name on it and a number. She tucked it away for later. The full weight of everything was making her very sleepy. Or maybe it was the meds. The last thing she heard was Ben’s voice.
“Looks like your lady is going down for the count. I have a car here in the lake parking lot. I’ll give you all a ride home.”
*