Chapter 4 #2
“The pharmacists usually keep the keys on them. Or in the safe. Doubt we’re getting in there,” Kate said.
Standing back, Nick eyed the window. He assessed the structure, the thickness of the panes, and the materials surrounding the window.
The thought of their aggressor getting further away ignited sparks of rage through Nick until his body heat was near sizzling. He whipped the rifle around in his hands, aimed at the window, and squeezed the trigger until the window pane disintegrated into tiny fragments that cascaded to the ground.
Kate watched in amazement as Nick slung his rifle to his back, wrapped his hands around the metal grille, and yanked them from their brackets.
Veiny biceps throbbed as he tossed the metal bars to the ground.
Nick grabbed the next set and tugged at them until they loosened and gave way to his ire-fueled strength.
Once the opening in the window could accommodate his frame, Nick took his rifle in hand and peered around the outside of the building.
There was no sign of the assailant whose plan to trap them within the pharmacy had just been thwarted.
When the passing moments revealed a lifeless silence, Nick slid through and landed on the glass-covered pavement below. Once Kate was out of the pharmacy and back in the desolate, open world, she breathed with relief.
Nick kissed the top of her head and squeezed her hand. “There’s always a way.” His gaze was elsewhere; those calculating eyes were scanning the landscape for movement, eager for a glimpse of the culprit.
With swift, long strides, Nick walked along the street back toward the hospital. As they neared the looming, glass building, voices carried on the wind to their location. Nick started a light jog, his knees crouched and his rifle gripped in both hands.
“Stop!” Nick shouted at the group of men strolling along the sidewalk further up, just past the hospital. Nick’s M4 was trained on them, finger inside the trigger guard and ready to make new holes in their heads.
The men turned, each of them holding firearms of their own.
A burly man with a scruffy beard and a beer belly that the world’s devastation had not managed to chip away at raised his shotgun and aimed it pointedly at him.
The man took measured steps toward Nick.
It was a show—Nick did not inspire fear in him.
Nick positioned himself in front of Kate, cutting off the guns’ direct lines to her. Stepping in front of the danger was an act he performed often. Though he had been trained to protect, he pondered the reflexive act on occasion.
Two men pushed in from behind the burly man and trained their firearms at the duo. Their stance behind the weapons was fierce while their eyes were wild and unsteady.
“Are you the ones who trapped us in the pharmacy?” Nick attempted a calm tone, though the anger slipped through.
The rifle resting in his hands weighed on him.
The chill of the gun’s trigger beckoned him to pull, commanding him to annihilate the pieces of trash that thought ridding the world of his presence would be an easy feat.
The burly man looked Nick up and down, taking in his authoritative posture and tactical apparel.
“You military?” the man asked.
“Answer the question!” Nick yelled, his patience as empty as the bare streets.
“Let me see that girl with you.” The man behind the shotgun lifted his chin in Kate’s direction.
Another one of the men leaned his head to see past Nick.
The rifle was no longer beckoning. It was screaming, crying out to be used.
If these strangers took one more step toward the two of them, Nick planned on pulling the trigger until every round was spent.
He may take a bullet in the chaos. It would be worth it.
“Absolutely fucking not,” Nick’s voice darkened.
“Ain’t she that girl that fell from the window?” a man asked, standing with a revolver in his hand behind the burly man.
“The one we took to the hospital?” the third man asked, stepping forward and trying to peer around Nick’s body. Kate stepped out from behind Nick, lowering her hands.
“Yeah, that was me! You all live in the apartments back there?” Kate said. The men lowered their guns. Nick’s arm jutted out to push her back. Kate batted him away as her fear dissolved.
“Holy shit, it is you! We thought you were a goner!” The man with the revolver laughed.
“What can I say? I’m quite resilient,” Kate mused.
“Sorry about the pharmacy. Hard to trust people.” The burly man lowered his head, his apology appearing sincere.
“That’s what you all do? Go around trapping people?
We would’ve starved in there,” Nick said through gritted teeth.
He knew he should let it go. The men had lowered their weapons.
They were no longer a threat. Yet, what they did, what could have become of him and Kate, still burned a ring of anger in his chest.
“If you don’t have the upper hand these days, you don’t have anything at all,” one of the men said. “You might’ve done the same.”
The man was not wrong. Nick had thought his time making questionable decisions to protect the people he cared about had ceased with the war. In fact, it had only just begun.
“Listen, man. Sorry for what happened. We just gotta protect our people and keep the city in check. Tumbleweed, you should stop by and see Ryan and Grace. They’d love to see you.” The burly man smiled, his shotgun resting against the gut jutting over the top of his pants.
“I’ll do that. Thank you. Stay safe,” Kate replied. The man tipped his head in her direction, offered a nod of respect to Nick, and the men turned around to continue their trek home.
Nick settled his hand on his gun, just in case the men changed their minds.
Kate breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, thinking back to Ryan and Grace’s hospitality.
Her time spent with them seemed as though it was years ago.
Time in this new world traveled with simultaneous swiftness and stagnation. It marched on nonetheless.