Caught in the Crossfire

With his hands tucked in his pockets, Liam Payne made his way down a busy street in London. Grease covered his hands, shirt, and short hair. It would take a long, hot shower to wash all the oil off his body, but after a ten hour shift at the factory, there was nothing Liam would enjoy more.

Liam’s phone vibrated in his pocket, tickling his leg. When he pulled it out, the screen lit up with Penelope’s name.

Penelope: What’s up?

Before he could respond, a scream in the distance took Liam’s attention away from the text. Further down the street, people crowded in a circle, their hands covering their mouths and eyes. Liam ran to the spot, pushing through the different people as he moved.

In the middle of the road sat the debris of two cars that had been thrown together. One of the drivers was sitting next to his car, holding his head in his hands, while the other was nowhere in sight. The other car was flipped over, with the sides crushed and dented in. A few men were surrounding the car, trying in vain to pry the door open.

Pushing through the startled mob of people, Liam made his way to the overturned car. Gasoline was leaking from the engine, and knowing cars as well as he did, Liam knew this wasn’t good. He looked into each of the windows, and found two young girls and their father strapped into their seats.

In the back seat, the older girl was crying, while the younger one sat still. The father was in the front, motionless as well.

Sirens were sounding in the distance, slowly making their way closer to the crash. They would arrive soon, but not soon enough.

Liam pushed the people away from the door and told them to give him space. With the men out of his way, he wrapped his fingers around the edge of the door. His hands had a firm grip against the metal surface, but the door was tightly jammed.

Liam’s veins began pulsing deep inside his body, as his muscles tightened in preparation. Taking a deep breath, Liam yanked at the door. The strength in his arms made it pop open in one quick motion, and the people around him gasped as he threw the door to the side.

The older girl was the closest to him, so he reached around her car seat and unbuckled her with one hand, while the other was wrapped tightly around her.

The girl was light, and Liam was easily able to pull her out of the car. A woman next to him took the girl and attempted to comfort her, while Liam tried to save the rest of her family.

Bits of glass scraped him and pressed into his knees, as he crawled into the back seat of the car. When he reached the motionless girl, he made the same quick motions he had before, and was able to pull her still form from the car in what seemed like only seconds.

In another quick motion, Liam ripped the driver’s side door from the car, with just as much ease as he had the other. The people around him still seemed shocked at how effortlessly he was able to tear the car to pieces.

Pressing one hand against the man’s chest, Liam used his other hand to unbuckle the older male’s seatbelt. He pulled the man from the car, laying his body next to it, just in time for the ambulance to arrive.

While everyone’s attention was distracted by the EMT officials, Liam slipped away quickly, heading in the opposite direction he had before. One woman called to him, asking him what his name was, but he continued walking with his head low to the ground. Using the massive crowd for cover, Liam was able to walk away, virtually unnoticed.

After turning down an alleyway, Liam moved behind a large green dumpster. He pressed his back against the brick wall, slowly falling to the ground.

The grease covering his pants was now paired with stains of blood, all around the knees. Liam rolled the pants up slowly, until they reached mid-thigh. Small pieces of glass dug deep into his knees and blood slipped from the cuts, running down his legs.

After pulling the shards from his knees one by one, he brushed the glass underneath the dumpster, successfully hiding the fragments from view. His knees were bleeding less now, and were still pain free.

With his head pressed against the brick wall behind him, Liam let out a deep sigh. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Penelope’s name still flashed across the screen, announcing the text he hadn’t answered.

Flipping his phone open, he typed out a quick reply, smiling as he sent it.

Liam: Just busy saving the world.

After placing his phone gently into his pocket, he stood from his spot in the alleyway. Despite the fact that blood still covered his clothes, he hoped he could make it back to his flat without attracting too much attention.

The crowd was still standing around the overturned cars, so Liam moved down a series of alleyways that would allow him to stay out of sight. His phone vibrated once more, as he hopped over the last of the brick walls.

Penelope: So, you’re a firefighter, then?

Laughing, Liam shook his head.

Liam: Keep telling yourself that.



Pressing her fingers against her keyboard, Penelope Powell quickly typed out the last line of code needed to finish her relatively simple computer program. In less than 16 hours, Penelope had managed to create a system which allowed her to tap into nearly every traffic light camera within a 10 mile radius of London.

Penelope pressed the enter key, which finalized the code and started up the new system. A black screen filled her computer, and she continued typing. Using the six digit codes, she was able to move from camera to camera, slowly weaving her way in and out of London’s traffic system. She typed quickly in an attempt to verify each of the codes and its corresponding address.

Her eyes darted around the screen, moving back and forth, until they landed on the flashing lights of an ambulance. Penelope stopped on that camera, staring for a moment at the EMT workers who were tending to the lives of a man and two children. Behind them, one car was turned completely over, while the other was crushed on one side.

Penelope tapped the backspace key, which set the camera to rewind. In a flash, the cars were there, and then they weren’t. Playing back the footage, Penelope watched as the two cars collided, sending one of them flipping through the air.

The footage didn’t have sound, but Penelope could have sworn she had heard the screaming of the people inside the cars. A crowd of people surrounded the crash, as a few of them tried unsuccessfully to pull open the door of the inverted car.

After only a few moments of trying, the people were pushed out of the way, by a young man about Penelope’s age.

Despite the fact that the young man didn’t appear to be overly muscular, he ripped off the car’s door with relative ease, and had pulled the people out of it in what seemed like seconds.

Penelope was so amazed by the footage that she could not pull her eyes away from the screen. When the man slipped away from the crowd, Penelope’s mind was sent racing. She quickly typed in a series of codes, the cameras switching their views as she typed.

As the different bits of footage passed in front of her, Penelope searched the crowd for the boy’s face.

When she finally found a camera that was at the right angle, she slid her fingers against the screen, successfully closing in on the man’s face. His cheeks had bits of grease swiped across them, hitting just below his eyes, while his nearly shaved head had sweat pooling at the tips of his hair.

Penelope’s attention was only taken away from the screen when she heard the light buzzing of her phone against her desk. She pulled the phone open, smiling when she saw the text that flashed across the screen. Even though she and Liam had never met, and she knew nothing about him, other than his first name, a smile still fell across her lips as she quickly typed back to him.

Penelope: One day I’m going to find out who you are, what you look like, and where you live. Then we can finally meet and I will know everything there is to know about you.