Violent Kisses and Violent Minds
Chapter Forty Six
Chapter Forty Six:
The shock of the gun firing made all three of the people on the wrong side of the barrel jump startlingly high into the air. The man chuckled that chuckle that he always chuckles as a scream of pain erupted from someone.
“Matt!” both of the others screamed at once.
Matt was on the ground, obviously - he couldn’t stand very well after being shot in the leg. The chuckling continued as Travis and Jess both moved to Matt’s side. But before they could reach him, the man said clearly, “Oh no.” Travis and Jess looked up to see the man shaking his hooded head. “Don’t you move a tiny little inch, now.”
Travis and Jess froze where they were as Matt continued to moan in pain. The man waved the gun around in the air as if it was as light as a feather. He waved it around as if life meant nothing more than a feather.
“Ah… the Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947... It’s the dream gun, I swear.” He continued to swing the AK-47 around.
While he did this, Travis had a passing thought. He could… but no, no no no, he couldn’t. It was far too risky. But he had to at least try.
He jumped to his feet and leapt forward, reaching out to grab the gun off the man. The man, staring stupidly up into space, didn’t see Travis until it was too late. His fingers ready on the trigger, he shot off a few bullets with shock. The gun, to Travis’ great relief, was pointing to the side of him and missed him - narrowly. Travis wasn’t the only person that the bullets scarcely missed - if Jess had have been a few more inches to the right they would have got her. Though there was a problem with this, still. Matt was a few inches to her right. The bullets hit Matt’s same leg with a bone-splitting sound, which was in fact Matt’s bone splitting.
The first bullet had hit the muscle in Matt’s lower thigh, but two of these three had hit the bone about halfway down his leg, below the knee. The third one had hit the ground and no one thought anything of it after that.
Matt’s screams were louder as Travis struggled to get the gun off the man. He tackled him to the ground and was on top - with the advantage. The advantage was very slight when you considered that the man he was fighting had a loaded gun jabbing into Travis’ side.
Travis reached his hand down to rip the gun from the man’s loose grip around it. He pried it from the man’s hand and jumped to his feet in a clumsy way which caused him to stumble over. This gave the man an opportunity.
He leapt from his feet and dived at Travis, but, mid-air, Travis fired a bullet off himself. It hit the man in the lower leg, but Travis didn’t hear the disturbingly unforgettable sound of the bone breaking. The man stumbled backwards, and the three took this as their chance to run for it.
Travis clambered to his feet and over to Matt who was still moaning in agony. He grabbed him bridal style before Jess could even react. She was still staring, shocked, at the man on the ground. Travis urgently tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Come on, we’ve got to go - now.”
Jess got to her feet and the three of them began to flee the scene. As they did so, they could here the man in the background, clutching his bloody leg and screaming after them, “The AK-47, all right. Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947, that’s it, for sure... It's the world's most popular assault rifle! A weapon all fighters love! An elegantly simple 9 pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn't break, jam, or overheat! It'll shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand! It's so easy, even a child can use it…”
They were too far away to hear any more of his ramblings about guns, and they certainly weren’t planning on hanging around to do so. However…
“Call the police and I’ll kill you! I know more than you think I do, dogs!”
This was much louder and clearer for the three to hear. Travis exchanged a worried look with Jess. Matt had his eyes shut, muttering a string of profanities in his pain. It appeared that he hadn’t even heard what the man had said.
Jess stopped abruptly. A few metres later, Travis noticed and turned around.
“Dogs?” Jess questioned aloud.
“What - come on. We have to go. Now.”
Jess had a dawning expression on her face and hesitantly continued and caught up to Travis. Matt was still letting off swear words as if it were International Swearing Day.
After a few minutes of walking, Travis in the lead, he spoke. “So… do you know where we’re going?”
Jess hesitated before answering; the answer was so obvious she was sure Travis had to be joking, though now was hardly a time to joke. “Um… the hospital.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” asked Travis. Jess considered this for a moment, but just as she opened her mouth to answer, he cut her off, saying, “Don’t answer that… please.”
He struggled, moving a hand from underneath Matt’s body, to scratch an itch on his dark-haired head. A piece of this said dark hair fell forward into his face and he effortlessly blew it out of the way, his brown orbs following it as it moved swiftly to the side.
“I meant,” Travis began, “which direction do we go?”
“I don’t know! I just moved here, remember? You’ve lived here your whole life, haven’t you?” Travis nodded. “Then you’d have to have some idea, wouldn’t you?”
Travis considered this for a moment. “Now that you mention it… I vaguely remember this area… yes, it looks like this is the place… the guys and I used to hang around here when we were kids, about eight… stupid cops had to ruin it - I mean, arresting us was just fucking ridiculous!”
“You were arrested when you were eight?”
“Yeah, nothing huge, though. We were just hanging around in some of the abandoned warehouses and apparently weren’t meant to… boy, were our parents mad!”
“Okay, so apart from re-living… odd… childhood moments, do you know anything that could be useful right now?”
“But the re-living is useful! It’s jogging my memory, wait…”
Travis gently rested Matt on the cool cement against the dirty external wall of a neglected warehouse. He looked up at the sky, then turned a complete circle like a ballerina would. He threw his hands elegantly in the air and twirled around again, on tip-toe.
“Seeeee me twirrlllll on tippyyyy-toooe!” he sang.
Jess gave him a look that said ‘What the hell are you doing?’ and Travis ceased his dancing and twirling and singing.
“I was trying to jog my memory. Besides, I’d make a kick ass ballerina.”
“Trying to jog your memory? Trying to jog your memory! You were dancing!” Jess said, coming off mock-angry; the effect of acting angry didn’t work too well when you were struggling to suppress a laugh.
“Excuse me, but I was singing too, and…” he thought for a moment, “I didn’t jog my memory.”
He walked over and picked up Matt, who was still moaning swear words under his breath, half out of it and sweating despite the chilly night breeze.
“But, I think we go this way now,” Travis stated, pointing to his right.
They continued walking, turning a few more corners, silence upon them except for the soft humming of the wind and the occasional distant unidentifiable loud noise.
Travis broke this silence a block later when he said, “Here’s somewhere we all know…”
“CANDY!” Matt screamed; the first word that wasn’t a swear word he had spoken since being shot.
As Matt had described, the dim-lit, long-closed for the night, new to town, candy store that he loved so much had appeared in view, the sugary smell drifting out into the immediate street. Matt smiled a big, toothy grin that showed, if you looked close enough, the evidence that he was indeed in pain.
Travis and Jess couldn’t help but smile too. “Only a few blocks from here,” Travis said proudly. “It turns out that I’m as good a navigator as I am dancer.”
“Pretty fucking awful navigator then,” Jess muttered, under her breath.
“What did you say?” Travis asked her, hearing noise.
“Nothing!” Jess said slightly cheerily.
A few minutes later, the hospital was in sight.
The shock of the gun firing made all three of the people on the wrong side of the barrel jump startlingly high into the air. The man chuckled that chuckle that he always chuckles as a scream of pain erupted from someone.
“Matt!” both of the others screamed at once.
Matt was on the ground, obviously - he couldn’t stand very well after being shot in the leg. The chuckling continued as Travis and Jess both moved to Matt’s side. But before they could reach him, the man said clearly, “Oh no.” Travis and Jess looked up to see the man shaking his hooded head. “Don’t you move a tiny little inch, now.”
Travis and Jess froze where they were as Matt continued to moan in pain. The man waved the gun around in the air as if it was as light as a feather. He waved it around as if life meant nothing more than a feather.
“Ah… the Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947... It’s the dream gun, I swear.” He continued to swing the AK-47 around.
While he did this, Travis had a passing thought. He could… but no, no no no, he couldn’t. It was far too risky. But he had to at least try.
He jumped to his feet and leapt forward, reaching out to grab the gun off the man. The man, staring stupidly up into space, didn’t see Travis until it was too late. His fingers ready on the trigger, he shot off a few bullets with shock. The gun, to Travis’ great relief, was pointing to the side of him and missed him - narrowly. Travis wasn’t the only person that the bullets scarcely missed - if Jess had have been a few more inches to the right they would have got her. Though there was a problem with this, still. Matt was a few inches to her right. The bullets hit Matt’s same leg with a bone-splitting sound, which was in fact Matt’s bone splitting.
The first bullet had hit the muscle in Matt’s lower thigh, but two of these three had hit the bone about halfway down his leg, below the knee. The third one had hit the ground and no one thought anything of it after that.
Matt’s screams were louder as Travis struggled to get the gun off the man. He tackled him to the ground and was on top - with the advantage. The advantage was very slight when you considered that the man he was fighting had a loaded gun jabbing into Travis’ side.
Travis reached his hand down to rip the gun from the man’s loose grip around it. He pried it from the man’s hand and jumped to his feet in a clumsy way which caused him to stumble over. This gave the man an opportunity.
He leapt from his feet and dived at Travis, but, mid-air, Travis fired a bullet off himself. It hit the man in the lower leg, but Travis didn’t hear the disturbingly unforgettable sound of the bone breaking. The man stumbled backwards, and the three took this as their chance to run for it.
Travis clambered to his feet and over to Matt who was still moaning in agony. He grabbed him bridal style before Jess could even react. She was still staring, shocked, at the man on the ground. Travis urgently tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Come on, we’ve got to go - now.”
Jess got to her feet and the three of them began to flee the scene. As they did so, they could here the man in the background, clutching his bloody leg and screaming after them, “The AK-47, all right. Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947, that’s it, for sure... It's the world's most popular assault rifle! A weapon all fighters love! An elegantly simple 9 pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn't break, jam, or overheat! It'll shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand! It's so easy, even a child can use it…”
They were too far away to hear any more of his ramblings about guns, and they certainly weren’t planning on hanging around to do so. However…
“Call the police and I’ll kill you! I know more than you think I do, dogs!”
This was much louder and clearer for the three to hear. Travis exchanged a worried look with Jess. Matt had his eyes shut, muttering a string of profanities in his pain. It appeared that he hadn’t even heard what the man had said.
Jess stopped abruptly. A few metres later, Travis noticed and turned around.
“Dogs?” Jess questioned aloud.
“What - come on. We have to go. Now.”
Jess had a dawning expression on her face and hesitantly continued and caught up to Travis. Matt was still letting off swear words as if it were International Swearing Day.
After a few minutes of walking, Travis in the lead, he spoke. “So… do you know where we’re going?”
Jess hesitated before answering; the answer was so obvious she was sure Travis had to be joking, though now was hardly a time to joke. “Um… the hospital.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” asked Travis. Jess considered this for a moment, but just as she opened her mouth to answer, he cut her off, saying, “Don’t answer that… please.”
He struggled, moving a hand from underneath Matt’s body, to scratch an itch on his dark-haired head. A piece of this said dark hair fell forward into his face and he effortlessly blew it out of the way, his brown orbs following it as it moved swiftly to the side.
“I meant,” Travis began, “which direction do we go?”
“I don’t know! I just moved here, remember? You’ve lived here your whole life, haven’t you?” Travis nodded. “Then you’d have to have some idea, wouldn’t you?”
Travis considered this for a moment. “Now that you mention it… I vaguely remember this area… yes, it looks like this is the place… the guys and I used to hang around here when we were kids, about eight… stupid cops had to ruin it - I mean, arresting us was just fucking ridiculous!”
“You were arrested when you were eight?”
“Yeah, nothing huge, though. We were just hanging around in some of the abandoned warehouses and apparently weren’t meant to… boy, were our parents mad!”
“Okay, so apart from re-living… odd… childhood moments, do you know anything that could be useful right now?”
“But the re-living is useful! It’s jogging my memory, wait…”
Travis gently rested Matt on the cool cement against the dirty external wall of a neglected warehouse. He looked up at the sky, then turned a complete circle like a ballerina would. He threw his hands elegantly in the air and twirled around again, on tip-toe.
“Seeeee me twirrlllll on tippyyyy-toooe!” he sang.
Jess gave him a look that said ‘What the hell are you doing?’ and Travis ceased his dancing and twirling and singing.
“I was trying to jog my memory. Besides, I’d make a kick ass ballerina.”
“Trying to jog your memory? Trying to jog your memory! You were dancing!” Jess said, coming off mock-angry; the effect of acting angry didn’t work too well when you were struggling to suppress a laugh.
“Excuse me, but I was singing too, and…” he thought for a moment, “I didn’t jog my memory.”
He walked over and picked up Matt, who was still moaning swear words under his breath, half out of it and sweating despite the chilly night breeze.
“But, I think we go this way now,” Travis stated, pointing to his right.
They continued walking, turning a few more corners, silence upon them except for the soft humming of the wind and the occasional distant unidentifiable loud noise.
Travis broke this silence a block later when he said, “Here’s somewhere we all know…”
“CANDY!” Matt screamed; the first word that wasn’t a swear word he had spoken since being shot.
As Matt had described, the dim-lit, long-closed for the night, new to town, candy store that he loved so much had appeared in view, the sugary smell drifting out into the immediate street. Matt smiled a big, toothy grin that showed, if you looked close enough, the evidence that he was indeed in pain.
Travis and Jess couldn’t help but smile too. “Only a few blocks from here,” Travis said proudly. “It turns out that I’m as good a navigator as I am dancer.”
“Pretty fucking awful navigator then,” Jess muttered, under her breath.
“What did you say?” Travis asked her, hearing noise.
“Nothing!” Jess said slightly cheerily.
A few minutes later, the hospital was in sight.