One of Us Is Going Down

Before her were a few different cars, one of which had Brian in it. She saw a few men step out of one car after she stopped. They straightened their suit jackets. Her heart was nearly beating out of her chest. Ashlyn took a deep breath, she would have to do this alone, to save Brian, and herself now. She left the keys in the ignition, tucked the loaded gun into the back of her jeans, under her shirt. She stood from the Lamborghini, grabbed the bag of ‘money’, then took the few steps that it took to get out of the little alleyway. It was only a few steps, but it felt like a mile. More than a few yards away she could see an Escalade and an expensive looking car parked. Three or four yards between the two parked vehicles, three men stood in between the cars, but Ashlyn could see that there were more behind the dark windows of the vehicles.

She walked towards them, never breaking the eye contact, showing no fear as her heart pounded away to a different drum. She stopped, ten feet away from the men and the cars still.

“Give us the bag, and we’ll give you the guy.”

“Sorry, I don’t work that way. I don’t trust you, if I give you the money first, you’ll just put a bullet into both of our heads.”

The guy smirked at Ashlyn.

“Smart kid,” he turned to the guy beside him, “Bring ‘im.”

The gruff looking guy opened the side door of the Escalade and yanked Brian out.

Ashlyn fought back the tears that threatened to spill as she looked at Brian. He was bruised, his clothes bloody from some unknown thing that they had done to him, he looked tired and weak. Ashlyn bit the inside of her cheek, hoping that pain would distract her from another pain inside her at the moment. She wanted to pepper each of the men involved in hurting Brian with bullets at that moment.

The guy drug Brian her way, he cut the rope on Brian’s wrists, slicing his skin a bit, Ashlyn noticed that Brian didn’t even wince. She tossed the bag of money at the guy.

“Don’t spend it all in one place,” she said, disgusted as they turned and walked off, with Brian following.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Ashlyn turned to Brian slightly as she picked up the walking pace.

“Can you run?” She asked.

“I suppose, why?”

“Because it’s ninety percent play money in the bag,” she answered.

At that moment, a shout rang out. Brian and Ashlyn were so close to the alley with the car. She took off in a dead run, hearing Brian at her side. A gunshot rang through the air, and Ashlyn knew, just knew someone had been hit. She looked over her shoulder to see Brian’s face twist in pain as he shouted. Ashlyn grabbed his arm and yanked him closer to the alley, gunshots rang out all around them now. Ashlyn heard something whiz past her at the same time her lower arm stung. She didn’t look as she screamed in pain, she knew she’d been hit, right now she had to get Brian back to the car.

She threw open the passenger side door as Brian shouted at her to ‘just drive, damn it!’. She ran around the car, hearing tires squealing behind them. She turned the key, and the car roared to life.

“Seatbelt!” She screamed as she laid the accelerator to the floor she rolled down her window and pulled the gun from her jeans, cocked it and pointed out the window.

“Get down!” She shouted at Brian as they came to the mouth of the alleyway.

As soon as they were out of the ally, she opened fire on the cars that were now speeding their way, peppering the BMW, but not stopping the Escalade as it swerved to follow her path out of the larger ally.

“What are you doing!?” Brian shouted as they both yanked on their seat belts.

She ignored him as she floored the gas, making the car lurch forward, the engine revving beautifully. Ashlyn pulled a radio walkie-talking from the cup holder at her side.

“We’re on our way out, their hot on my tail,” She shouted into the radio, at this moment, Brian realized that she had brilliantly planned this, a bullet shattered the back window.

“FUCK!” Ashlyn shouted, “Hold on!” She shouted at Brian as she cut out of the alley and onto a road, the tires squealing as she fishtailed out.

Brian clenched onto the seat as Ashlyn corrected the car and picked up the radio again.

“Turned off a street early, they would have had us otherwise!”

Just who was she talking to? The person on the other end swore loudly.

“Alright, we’re coming for you!”

“Hurry the fuck up!!” Ashlyn shouted as another bullet hit the tailgate.

A bullet went through the windshield without shattering the whole thing. Ashlyn swore again.

“Take the wheel on my signal Brian!”

He looked at her like she was mentally ill as she reached for the glove compartment, pulling out another handgun.

“Ready?” She asked, cocking the gun.

“Yeah!”

Ashlyn spun around in the seat, her foot still on the gas, in that split second she shot at the escalade, peppering the front again and hitting the driver. She wheeled around again and watched in the mirror for the split second as the Escalade swerved, then she saw the passenger take over driving. She swore again, by now sirens could be heard.

A look over at Brian said he was losing too much blood too fast. She also realized that she was driving away from the hospital, but to get there, she would have to go back into town. She made the split second decision.

“Hang on, Brian,” she said softly, then slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel, spinning the car completely around.

As soon as the nose was pointed in the direction she wanted to go, she corrected the wheel and laid on the gas again, fishtailing before she was speeding off towards the hospital. Brian’s vision started going hazy, he tried to keep his eyes open, but his body felt so heavy, and his eyelids. He heard Ashlyn tell him that she was going to take care of him, and that he would be ok. He closed his eyes, listening to her drive, the way she would lay on the gas a moment, only to come off it and careen onto another road, leading them to where she only knew.

Ashlyn saw behind her as at least a dozen red and blue lights overtook the car that was chasing her. The windshield shattered, making her scream and throw up her arm, trying to shield her face from the glass. She felt the bits of glass chew into her arms as she slammed on the breaks. She looked at Brian, he had passed out, but the glass had missed cutting him, instead it was just scattered on his clothes.

Before she could blink she heard the sound of tires squalling and the sickening sound of metal crunching on the road. She looked in the mirror to see that the Escalade had been stopped, she smiled in joy, now all she had to do was get Brian to the hospital. She didn’t realized that she had slowed until the police chief pealed her way, radioing her.

“Follow me, I’ll get you to the hospital fast.”

The police car sped off in front of her, once again, Ashlyn laid on the gas, following the siren and lights all the way to the hospital. The chief radioed her as they got closer, saying there would be a crew waiting with a stretcher for Brian when they got there. They wheeled into the hospital, as soon as the Lamborghini was in view a crew rushed out to the car.

Ashlyn leaned over Brian and threw his door open as the crew rushed to that side. She got out of the car as they pulled Brian onto the stretcher, she ran to be at his side.

“Miss! You’re bleeding!” One of the nurses called, trying to pull her away.

“Don’t fuck with me!” She shouted, nostrils flaring. “Here’s how this is going to go, once he’s stable, then you clean me up, not before! I want all of you and the best doctors in the damn hospital working on him, NOW!!” she shouted.

“I’d listen to her, she just shot numerous gang members for a drug cartel,” the police chief said, backing her up.

The adrenaline pumped through her veins as she ran into the hospital, following the stretcher where Brian laid. They wheeled him into a room where she couldn’t follow. She stood in the hall a moment, looking forlorn, just watching the door where Brian had disappeared behind.

“Ashlyn! Ashlyn!!” She looked to see her brother running her way, yelling her name and looking as desperate as she felt.

Her eyes rolled to the floor, her face twisted a bit as all of what had happened, finally snapped in her brain. The images played rapidly back through her brain: the ‘exchange’, running to the car with Brian, him being shot, her tearing a new road getting them out of there, the car chase, the shattering glass, Brain passed out in his own blood. Ashlyn vision went fuzzy, someone was whimpering, there was a pain in her lip, something wet on her cheeks, her stomach was turning somersaults, her hands were pressed to something icy. Ashlyn blinked as Dean called her name again closer. She blinked, realizing that she was crying, she was making the sick whimpering noises and she was on her hands and knees on the floor.

Dean wrapped his arms around his sister, pulling her into his arms and kissing her hair over and over again as tears fell down his cheeks. She wailed and clung to his shirt.

“I’m going to be sick!” she wailed.

Dean moved quickly in picking her and carrying her into the nearest bathroom. Ashlyn wriggled from his grip and threw her head over a toilet, throwing up everything in her stomach, she sat back, only to throw up again until she was just dry heaving. Then she sat back a moment, pressing her cheek to the cold stall wall. She took deep breaths in and out as Dean flushed the toilet for her.

Stumbling, she walked to the sink where she washed her hands and rinsed her mouth out, then took a piece of gum from her brother. They walked back out into the hall, Ashlyn stopped and blinked, Dean walked to face her, holding her upper arms in his hands, afraid she was having another fit, and he would have to drag her back to the bathroom to throw up again.

“How’s. . .” she trailed off, “How’s. .Bri. . .”

Dean watched as his sister’s eyes blinked rapidly, her lips pursed like she was trying to remember something, her eyes set on the wall.

“How’s what, Ashlyn?. . .Ashlyn?!”

Her eyes rolled back into her head at the same time her body went limp.