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Joshua Jones’s Miami PD police cruiser skidded to a halt only a street across from where the action had started. He’d only been there a few seconds, and the near, endless wail of endless numbers of squad cars already seemed commonplace. Less than a minute away from him was a small road, crammed with apartment buildings. The street was so narrow that it was drowned in the red and blue tsunami of police sirens lighting up the road.
Joshua swung open the door of his patrol car. Ripping open his glove department, he grabbed his weapon of choice – a powerful-looking Taurus Raging Bull revolver. He loaded a few bullets in the chamber, snapping it shut just as quickly. Stepping out into the damp, cold night, dressed in nothing more than a loose shirt, some denim jeans and a pair of trainers, he didn’t let the light rain bother him. He immediately sprinted down the remainder of the road, hugging the wall when he arrived at the street.
Tightly hugging the wall, he peered around the corner. A long line of police cruisers – most forming blockades – littered the road. At the far end of the road was a large, derelict warehouse. It had gone unused for decades; that was, until a small group of thugs decided to import some of Columbia’s finest powder. The local police force had found out within half a month, and they had made the decision to raid the building and arrest the drug pushers. Unfortunately for the officers, these thugs were also carrying some pretty impressive firepower.
Checking if the coast was clear, Joshua dashed over to the nearest police car, taking cover just as a high-powered bullet smashed through the vehicle’s back window, coming within inches of his head. He resisted the urge to curse out loud, turning to the officer taking cover with him.
He drew his breath, speaking to the policeman.
“Hey, buddy,” he said in his usual carefree tone, “how long has thing been going on?”
“T-T-T-Two hours, sir!” The officer replied as another few bullets ploughed into the vehicle. Some officers further ahead of them exchanged fire.
“Two hours?” Joshua said angrily, “Man, what are these guys packing?”
“I don’t know, sir.” Came the nervous reply, “But something tells me that our Berettas just aren’t gonna cut it.”
Joshua looked at the younger man, pointing to his Taurus.
“Are you telling me I’m the only one packing some decent heat around here?” he growled
“Sir…” the young man gulped, “I’m out of ammo. Those bastards killed two of my friends on the force…I don’t know what to do!”
Joshua looked at the man, seeing the unmistakable fear in his eyes. It was clear he no longer wanted to be there. Was he even supposed to be there in the first place? He gestured to the man, signalling with his hand, making quick waving motions away from the shootout.
“Go on, get outta here, man!” Joshua snapped
“Sir, I’m too scared--”
“Don’t give me that!” Joshua yelled, “You don’t need to be here! Go! Run! Just get out of here, kid!”
“Sir, I’m not completely sure--”
“That is an order, man!”
The younger officer dropped his empty gun and blindly ran anywhere his legs would take him. The next thing Joshua knew, the man’s blood was sprayed against a nearby brick wall as his skull exploded. Joshua didn’t need to be a genius – it was sniper fire.
Taking a deep breath and turning away from the body, he looked around. There was a sea of police cars in front of him. His eyes scanned the army of officers, looking for just one. He found him, ducked behind another patrol car. Had he not taken cover when he did, it would’ve been more than just a few shards of broken glass raining down onto his shoulders.
As much as Joshua wanted to return fire, he couldn’t. He was too far away from the gunmen and armed with a weapon that was ideally used for close-range combat. He chastised himself. Crouching on the floor, taking up a running position, he checked the scene again. He ran like a madman through the city of cars, seconds later throwing himself to the ground and sliding up against the squad car of his closest friend on the force.
“Josh!” the man gasped, surprised, “Are you okay? What happened back there? That poor kid just got his brains blown all over the sidewalk!”
“Yeah, and he was damned stupid, too. He fancied himself as a moving target.” Josh spat angrily, “And don’t bring me up on that, Tim. Now, I have to ask you a question…”
There was a very brief silence.
“WHERE ON EARTH IS OUR SWAT TEAM?” Josh bellowed, “IT’S BEEN TWO HOURS!”
Tim wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, quickly cleaning his glasses. He replaced the spectacles on his head, turning to his friend.
“We’ve been trying to contact them!” he said desperately, “The guys back at the precinct must be asleep or something. We’ve been trying different lines, but so far we can’t reach anybody.”
Josh grunted angrily.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
Another angry grunt from Josh made Tim feel uneasy. Josh reached into the rear pocket of his denim jeans and ripped out a mobile phone.
“You see this?” he barked, “It’s called a cell phone! Get with the times, man! If the guys back at the precinct are being too lazy and making it being midnight right now seem like a big deal, there’s a little-known twenty-four-hour help line known as nine-one-one!”
Josh’s fingers moved over the buttons with carefully perfected grace. Within seconds, Josh had reached the centre for calls.
“What service do you require?” asked the woman on the line
“Yeah, this may seem a little out of place, but maybe some goddamned SWAT teams would be favourable for us, like, right now!” Josh grunted
“Sir, it is not without our power to--” the woman said before being interrupted
“You know who you’re talkin’ to, lady?” Josh barked, “This is Joshua Jones, I am a highly respected member of the Miami Police Department! And what I want, I’ll get, you hear me?”
“Sir, this is not a line for prank calls.” The woman droned on
“PRANK CALL?” Josh bellowed, “You think this is a prank call, lady? You want to know how this isn’t a prank call? Yeah, you listen to this and then you just try not getting me that SWAT team, sweetie!”
Josh held out his phone to the night air. As if on cue, gunshots rang out and the scream of an officer taking fatal shots to the chest filled the line. The woman on the line was mortified.
Josh put the phone back to his ear.
“YOU HEAR THAT?” He roared, “One of my buddies just got shot! Five times in the chest! His blood is currently sprayed over a patrol car five metres away from me! NOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET ME THAT SWAT TEAM?”
“Y…yes sir.”
“That’s good, honey. You keep up the amazing work you do.” Josh said half-heartedly before hanging up and replacing the phone in his pocket.
Joshua turned to Tim. He smiled.
“See, now that wasn’t too difficult was it, buddy?”
Another short pause.
“Our SWAT team should be here in about ten minutes.” He said confidently, “Then we can start fighting fire with fire, eh? Ah…bad pun, excuse me.”
His rugged face managed to form a smile. He readied himself to further his position, trying to get closer to the main warehouse.
“All right, Tim…” he said slowly, “I’m gonna make a run for it. I’m going to the cruiser about…ten metres or so from here, all right?”
“Josh…go!”
True to his word, Joshua got up and began a mad dash towards the line of police cars not too far ahead of him. As he did this, the thugs in the warehouse decided to unleash more hell upon the officers, two of them taking up AK-47 assault rifles and firing blindly at the cars below them.
As the bullets whizzed passed his form, Joshua reached his target and dived for cover just as a bullet grazed his ear. Two more rounds smashed out the front windows of the car he was now leaning against. Caught in the mad crossfire, two more officers fell.
Joshua cursed under his breath as the voice of the nearest officer filled his ears.
“We keep dropping like flies!” he said harshly, “Have these lunatics ever heard of fighting fair?”
Joshua turned to see who was presumably the officer in command. He was an aging man, balding and with a thick handlebar moustache. He must’ve been at least fifty.
“Hey, old man, you in charge here?” Josh asked, “You’re at the front and all. And, hey, we’re actually not too far from the criminals. Ever consider sending a few men in there?”
“Jones, you really are as crazy as the boys say!” the chief barked, “I’m not risking my men! We’ve already lost too many by my standards! Why don’t you go in yourself? You’ve got that big gun and all!”
“They’ve only taken out ten men so far!” Josh yelled over a new barrage of gunfire, “There are at least fifty or more here! Let me take a small team in! We’ll flush ‘em out! Take ‘em all down!”
“Oh, don’t get excited, Jones!” the chief snapped, “I’m not letting the likes of you command my men! What are you, insane?”
“Only according to nine out of ten doctors.” Josh joked, giving his trademark vampire-like smile, “All I’m asking for is a few men! Please! We could stand a chance!”
“Us? A chance? Oh, I’d laugh if we weren’t getting cut down here!” the chief coughed, “You, with your six-shooter and a few of my men…against an army of homicidal maniacs armed with machine guns that are locked in there with God knows how many pounds of marijuana and all that other stuff!”
Joshua was slightly angered by this.
“You ever considered the possibility of hostages being held in there! We need to get in there! I’ve called a SWAT team! We can bait these guys until some backup arrives!”
“Yes, of course we’ve considered hostages!” the chief roared furiously, “And we’re not letting you or your psychotic episodes jeopardize their safety!”
Joshua raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, so you heard about my…episodes?” Joshua sneered, “I’ve left that behind. I have a wife, I have a kid. I’m not letting you remind me of who I used to be.”
“Used to be?” the chief mocked, “Only two weeks ago you completely obliterated a target on the firing range! With an Uzi! All of the men there that day saw the look in your eyes! You haven’t left it behind; you’re still as crazy as ever! Why, I’m surprised you haven’t been thrown in an institution, man!”
Joshua was enraged now. This annoyance was getting in his way. He wanted to take a chance and try to storm the building and he was not about to let this upstart tell him what to do. He’d probably get fired for what he was about to do, or promoted after what he planned to do inside the building, but as he blocked out his superior’s constant babble, he only had one thing in mind; revenge.
“And does your wife trust you with your child?” the chief spewed, “Why, she’s probably going to file for divorce and-”
The next thing the chief knew was that his world had gone dark. He slumped against the side of his patrol car, unconscious from a blow the head. Joshua casually shook his knuckles, blowing on them gently. A few officers stared at him in shock. As a new barrage of gunfire surged towards the sea of cars, Joshua took on a commanding tone, and began pointing at random officers.
“You, you, you, you, you, you and you!” he said, authority consuming his vocals, “You are going to accompany me into the building! You will not back out! You will follow me inside and you will put up the best fight of your entire lives, you got that?”
The seven selected officers nodded. Joshua signalled for them to come over to him and they hurried over, crouching as they went. Once they were all surrounding Josh, he spoke up.
“All right,” he said, “We’re going to enter the building and split up into groups. I’ll take three and you, yeah you, can take another three. When we enter, there will be no backing out. If you kill somebody in there, pick up their weapons; it is almost certainly capable of kicking more ass than these peashooters you’ve got. All right, that’s enough talking, let’s go.”
Joshua checked the clip in his Taurus – still ready to cap some unlucky criminals. He quickly took a breather before getting up and leading his small group into the warehouse. As they ran, the gunmen inside popped off a few more rounds. None hit their targets.
Rolling into the building commando-style, Joshua got up and closed the door behind him. The door was thick, and the endless wail of the police sirens outside was muted down. Inside the building, it was quite dark, with only a few dim lights giving the officers any visibility.
“Okay, sir.” Came the reply
“The other guy who thinks he can handle being a team leader can take the remaining three.” Joshua said, “All right, let’s split up. These guys are playing hide and seek and we’ve sat outside counting for long enough – let’s play a nice little game of Seek and Destroy, gentlemen.”
Footsteps were audible in either direction of the large main room as the two teams split up to search the building for the drug dealers.
A minute later, Joshua and his small team found themselves in a long, dark hallway. It was lined with old, decayed wooden doors on either side. Joshua felt around in the darkness for a light. His fingers found what felt like a light switch on the wall. He flicked the switch. The ceiling lights illuminated the hallway, revealing the path that lay ahead of the group.
“Should we check every room down here, sir?” one officer asked
“Well, you can never be too careful.” Joshua said, “Kick ‘em down and see what’s behind ‘em.”
Not two minutes later, Joshua had found something. Inside the third room down to the left, an officer had kicked down the door exposing what must’ve been hundreds of thousands worth of illegal cocaine, hundreds of packets all neatly piled on top of each other.
“White gold, gentlemen.” Joshua said with a smile, “Whoever stashed this dirt, they can’t be too far. Check the other rooms.”
Three minutes later and the men had finished checking nearly all of the rooms. Inside each and every one so far, they had found the same thing; walls in a state of decay with plaster and sawdust shavings from years long passed on the floor. Apart from that, nothing much at all lay inside.
There were only two more rooms left to check. Joshua signalled for his group to stay back, a feeling of uneasiness settling on him. As he approached the door on the left, something inside him told him not to. He had never been one to listen to his so-called ‘conscience’, but this was probably the first time he felt like obeying it.
Ignoring his own wariness, he carelessly kicked down the door, watching the dust settle slowly. Three simultaneous sounds filled him with dread. The all-too-familiar click-click…
Joshua managed to dive away just in time as bullet after bullet mercilessly ate away at the wall behind him, reducing it to nothing more than heaps of plaster and wood. His men immediately returned fire, one running towards the source of the shooting. His head was blown clean off his shoulders.
Joshua barely had time to scramble to his feet as the three gunmen, their faces hidden behind somewhat cliché ski masks, skidded out into the hall and opened fire once again. Joshua just managed to throw himself into the nearest empty room, clutching his Taurus so tightly that his knuckles began to turn white.
Moments later, a terrified African-American officer ran into the same room, blood dripping from his lower lip.
“Sir, they just killed the other two guys!” he cried, “What are we gonna do?”
Joshua saw the hallway drowning in plaster dust. If he was going to shoot, it would have to be blind shots. Wasting no time, he rushed out of the room and fired two shots at the direction of more shooting. Had he been stood there two seconds longer, let’s just say he would’ve been half the man he used to be.
The bullets hit their mark, a gurgling cry coming from the far end of the hallway. Joshua quickly assessed how he was going to try and take out the other two men. He quickly came to a conclusion that most people would’ve called insane. Handing his Taurus over to the surviving officer, he gave a brief smile and ran back out into the hall.
The last thing the two gunmen heard was a furious war cry unlike any on earth. The first goon was forced to the floor, his neck twisted backwards, landing on the ground with a sickening crack. The second goon was dispatched by means of his own weapon. In the hazy atmosphere, Joshua was able to rip the machine gun from the man and smashed his face in with it. The final fatal blow to the head ended the man’s short life.
By now, the plaster had settled down, allowing for a better view of the hallway. Joshua saw the bodies of the two officers as well as the two henchmen he had just killed. The first thing he did was scramble over to the officers and retrieve their pistols – standard-issue Beretta M9s – and checked the clips before slotting them inside his belt.
He then picked up the two assault rifles – Colt M4s. With the weapons in hand, he ran back to the officer who was huddled in the room he had been left in. Joshua picked up his Taurus and handed the man the M4.
“You know how to use one of these babies?” he asked coldly
“Yes…I think.” The officer replied slowly
“You shoot and you fire.” Josh said bluntly, “Now come with me. We’ve got more of these guys to take out.”
“Come on, now, men…” he said, the nervousness evident, “Keep going, we’ll catch these monsters. We’ll avenge our fallen comrades.”
The officer’s life was cut short by a volley of bullets. Another was cut down before anybody realised what was happening. The remaining two pulled out their weapons and attempted to return fire.
In the furore, none of the bullets hit their marks. From out of the darkness came five men in camouflage outfits, wielding Uzi submachine guns. The two officers now did the only thing they knew how to do properly – they ran.
The first was cut down in a hail of bullets before even reaching the bottom of the stairs. The second officer made it to the door leading out into the main room before his ankles were deliberately targeted. He screamed in mortal agony as the men approached, one of them blowing a hole in his hand with a sawn-off shotgun so he couldn’t use his weapon.
The next thing the officer knew, the steel barrel of an Uzi was being pushed into the jelly of his eye, the hot tip burning furiously. The man screamed in pain, made worse when two shotgun shells were unloaded into his genitals. The wielder of the Uzi wasted no time, and fired.
Now on the first floor, Joshua turned to his fellow officer. Sweat was drenching his brow, and the fear showed on his face. Joshua grunted – he didn’t like to see policemen show fear. It made them look weak.
Pulling open the door here, the two men advanced cautiously down the hall, aiming their rifles in all directions. They reached the end of the hallway without any incident.
Then, from behind the doors, they struck.
The endless stream of bullets smashed through the glass doors at the end of the hall, the attackers yelling furious Spanish curses. Joshua’s fellow officer was directly in the line of fire, and was cut down before he could even comprehend what was happening. His rifle dropped to the floor, glass raining down on him, his body riddled with bullets.
Joshua was furious. The man hadn’t even had time to respond. He picked up the man’s rifle and held both weapons at arm’s length. The shooting from the other side of the doors stopped, and Joshua kicked them open, pulling back the triggers on both weapons, unleashing hell. His furious scream drowned out even the mighty blaze of the guns and the two gunmen were fallen in seconds. As the last rounds fell to the ground with small clinks, Joshua dropped both of the weapons.
He clutched his left arm. In his rage and amidst the adrenaline rush, he had hardly noticed that in their final moments, the gunmen had managed to get a hit on him. He cursed under his breath, ripping off his shirt. Tearing off some of the material, he tightly tied the cloth around his upper arm, trying to stop the bleeding.
His bare chest was now exposed; well-formed pectoral muscles, a sculpted six-pack, the result of hours spent at the gym. Joshua breathed out, tensing his muscles. Pulling his Taurus out of his back pocket, he opened the chamber and reloaded the weapon with the few remaining bullets. He then ran across the room to the double-doors, leaving the bodies behind him.
As he ascended towards the top floor, Joshua replaced his Taurus and removed the Beretta pistols from his belt. Checking the magazines for both weapons, he clutched them tightly. There was going to still be some goons left in the building. And they were going to be greeted by hot lead.
Amidst all of the recent fatalities, Joshua had not forgotten his original aim; to go and check for hostages that the gang may have taken during the shootout. So far, the gang didn’t seem very big to Joshua. He’d expected more men to stop him and even for him to have probably died back there. He’d had no luck with digging up any drugs, either.
Smashing the glass door into pieces with his foot, he stepped through the huge gap he’d made and into a large, rectangular room, with only the moonlight giving the room any visibility, the shattered and chipped windows being of little use to anyone.
Joshua glanced around the room. The ceiling lights were smashed in and the switch on the wall was crushed. The ceiling pipes were soundless, giving the room an eerie silence, broken only by the light rain hitting the roof. The roof was so corroded that some of the rain was dripping through into the room, leaving small puddles.
Joshua moved slowly, hoping to make his way to the other end of the room without incident. He crept over to the window, looking out into the night. The sea of police cruisers stood unyielding, the wailing of their sirens continuing, their drivers crouched behind their doors, looking ready to shoot anything that moved.
Joshua exhaled deeply. Suddenly, amongst all of the noise surrounding him, he could’ve sworn he had heard a faint footstep near to him. He stood perfectly still, his ears picking up the sound, trying to isolate it.
Seconds later, an aggressive cry came from a shadowed figure behind him. Joshua dropped his guns and swung his elbow backwards, connecting with bone, presumably the would-be-assassin’s nose. Joshua turned to see a tall man dressed in attire similar to that of a Japanese ninja.
He was tempted to say something along the lines of ‘Oh, give me a break’, but a knee to the stomach caught him by surprise. Two punches delivered expertly to the face stunned him. The henchman would’ve been ready to flip Joshua to the ground, had not the man, from years of experience, quickly recovered and rammed him against the back wall of the room.
The unfortunate henchman was given a succession of hits to the face, barely able to fight back. When Joshua backed in to stance typical of self-defence, the man made his move. It was ill timed, however, allowing Joshua to knee him in the gut.
The man reeled, clutching his stomach in pain. He let out a whimper that was presumably meant to be a cry used by ninjas, but that was all he could manage when a solid fist connected with his windpipe.
The henchman got up quickly, doing a succession of back-flips and running at Joshua again.
“You’ve been watching too many movies, buddy.” Joshua jibed
Joshua rewarded the man’s gross incompetence with an attempted blow to the back of the neck. The man quickly dodged this, and spun around, tripping the officer up with a low kick. Joshua’s legs managed to intertwine with his attacker’s, bringing him down to the ground with him. At that moment, his Taurus slid from his belt, out of reach. He left it for the moment, pulling his legs back, thrusting his entire body upwards and forwards, getting him on his feet.
Joshua, always one to believe in a fair fight, allowed his attacker to get to his feet. The two ran at each other, punching and kicking furiously, each one desperate to avoid the other’s blows.
“I’ve got to…hand it to you…buddy…” Joshua said in-between the attempted blows, “You’re…pretty…good.”
“When you know my true power,” the ‘ninja’ hissed in an oriental voice, “You will fear me, weak one!”
Joshua only had one response.
“Fear this¸ bitch.”
The unfortunate man was grabbed by the shoulder, the monstrous grip giving the impression it would be crushed into dust, then spun around, Joshua grabbing the small knife from the attacker’s belt and kicking him towards the broken window nearest the police cars.
The next thing the assassin knew was a sensation of agonising pain. He briefly saw his own knife spurt out of his chest along with a spurt of blood. His world went black as his body fell out of the window and down towards the officers below.
Joshua walked up the window, looking down at the body below and some of the stunned officers. With a sly smirk, he remarked with a devilish smile, “Sorry I broke your heart.”
Joshua quickly rounded up his weapons, replacing his Berettas and taking his Taurus as primary weapon of choice.
After rushing through the exit doors and down the hallway and finding no idiotic, gun-wielding maniacs in his way, Joshua guessed that the head honcho of the operation must’ve been hiding in the room just ahead of him, behind the frosted glass doors. He crept closer to it, hugging the wall. To his surprise, he heard a muffled whimper from behind the glass.
“What the…?” he growled
It hit him. There was at least one hostage in the building. I knew it! He said to himself, I knew it. Not that I like playing the hero, but here I go.
With no warning (as was his way), Joshua came bursting through the doors…and stopped dead in his tracks. Just a few feet in front of him, in a large room brightly lit up, was a Jamaican-looking man aiming a revolver at a young girl’s head.
The girl must’ve been no older than twelve, he guessed, his eyes fixed on the Jamaican, with his long dreadlocks, tinted sunglasses and cheap dress sense. Joshua kept his gun firmly in the air, aiming it at the Jamaican.
“I’m only saying this once,” Joshua spoke coldly and firmly, “Let the girl go.”
“You drop yer gun, man.” Said the Jamaican, his accent having an English tinge to it
Joshua stepped backwards, his attention moving constantly between the man and the girl.
“Last chance; let the girl go and we’ll talk about this.” Joshua growled
Joshua made to move a step closer, but the gun was pushed further against the girl’s head, producing a squirm, muffled by the small piece of electrical tape covering her mouth.
“Leave the girl out of this.” Joshua said firmly, “Whatever you want, your fight is with me.”
“Ah, I thought my little ninja would’ve got ya.” The Jamaican growled, “I saw you throw ‘im out the winder from ‘ere. Drop yer gun or the girl gets it, yeah?”
“Well,” Joshua said mockingly, “Your little ninja’s been watching one too many movies. I took him out easily. That’s more than I can say for you if you don’t let her go right now.”
“It’s ‘er fault she was wanderin’.” The Jamaican hissed menacingly, “Yeah, early evening, it was. My boys grabbed ‘er no problems. Good to ‘ave some leverage in yer favour, ya see.”
“Five seconds, asshole…”
The gun was now forced against the girl’s temple, producing another panicked squirm.
“Drop yer gun.”
“Not until you…”
“DROP YER GUN OR SHE GETS IT, YEAH?”
Joshua dropped his Taurus.
“And those other ones. Police issue, no doubt.”
Joshua lifted his Berettas into the air, then knelt down and placed them on the ground. He stood firm now, and began to grit his teeth out of frustration. He’d expected hostages, but never somebody this young. Her safety was her main priority for him and nothing else. He had to get her safe and try and talk her captor out of shooting her.
“Hey, look, buddy…” he said slowly, “You just let the girl go and we can talk about this little drug-trafficking business you’ve got going, all right?”
“Yer bloody Yanks…” the man spat, his words like poison, “Yer think yer tough with yer ‘thetic accents, but yer not, man. I don’t care ‘bout this gi’l. I’ll shoot her whenever I feel like it. You can’t stop me.”
Joshua’s morale was given a huge boost by the sound of distance sirens in the distance. He stopped the Jamaican from talking any further. He smirked.
“Hear that, buddy?” he said, putting his hand to his ear, “Those are the SWAT teams. You are so screwed, man. Just let the girl go and we can talk about this in prison, all right?”
“PRISON?” the man spat, “I AINT GO’IN NO PRISON, MAN!”
Although the man would not admit it, he too could hear the distant sirens. They’d surely be on the scene any minute now. He started to get panicky. What did he want? To get caught and go to prison for life? Reveal the secrets of his drug-trafficking to the authorities? No, he didn’t want that. In a surprise move, he pulled the gun away from the girl’s head, kicking her across to Joshua. He then put the cold steel barrel of the revolver to the back of his throat and pulled the trigger…
The girl who had been involved in the incident was sitting on the back of an ambulance, with a blanket tightly wrapped around her. Around her were a couple of the ambulance crew, who had been continuously asking her over the past few hours if she was okay. She was getting rather tired of it, as well as physically tired from all of the stress she had been through in the last few hours.
An official-looking man walked out of the building along with Joshua, the faint scratching of his pen evident as it scrawled notes on a notepad.
“Mr Jones, a lot of people died in there.” He said slowly, “And you acted irrationally.”
“Irrational?” Joshua smirked, “Oh, that’s just me. On the plus side, we found a load of drugs in there.”
“Mr Jones, I really must ask you some questions regarding your inappropriate behavio--”
The man was met by a stern middle finger as Joshua walked away, ignoring the man’s calls for him to come back and answer questions. He found the girl at the ambulance, not in the company of the ambulance crew.
“How are you doing?” he asked
“Ah…I’m fine.”
Joshua sat next to her, looking at her.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Joshua sighed deeply.
“Look, however you got into this, I’m sorry it had to happen to you.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it,” the girl said monotonously, stroking some of her long brunette hair behind her ear, “It’s my fault, wandering around here at night. If there’s anybody you should put the blame on, it’s me.”
“Hey, we’re not blaming you for anything, kid.” Joshua said slowly, “We were here for a drug bust. It was Ime/ who suggested the vague possibility of hostages. I made the decision to raid the place and nobody else.”
Joshua looked over his shoulder, a grim look edging across him.
“…And I’m probably going to get fired for it, but I don’t care.”
Sure enough, the angry voice of the chief officer entered his ears.
“Jones! There you are! Me and the boys have been looking all over for you!” he barked, “Why on earth did you knock me out, man! I can have you fired for such insolence, and at the snap of my fingers, too!”
“Chill out, old-timer.” Joshua growled, pointing to the girl, “I saved this kid’s life, you could cut me some slack here.”
“Well, I’ll give you that.” The chief said slowly, “But you could’ve demolished the building, what, with all the shooting I heard was going on!”
“It was almost pitch-black in there,” Joshua said, “Real creepy.”
“You threw a man out of a window, officer!” the chief growled, “What warrants that kind of behaviour on the force?”
“Try ‘the guy has a knife and probably wants to kill me’, Chief.” Joshua said dryly, “What was I supposed to do? Stand there and await my oh-so stabby death?”
The chief grunted angrily, and walked away from the two. He couldn't take his back-chatting any longer. The girl turned to Joshua, looking at his patched-up arm.
“Hey, is your arm okay?” she asked
“What…? Oh, yeah, it’s fine.” Joshua answered with tired nonchalance in his tones, “I got it checked over, they said it should be okay in about month or so.”
The girl adjusted her position on the back of the vehicle, trying to get at ease in some way or another.
“Do you have a family?” breezed past his ears, then he finally heard it properly
“Yeah.” Joshua smiled, “Why, you interested?”
“No,” came the meek reply, “I was jus’ askin’, is all.”
“I got a wife and a daughter. She’s about your age. I regret that I can’t really keep track. Life in the force does that to ya. I mean, my wife’s only threatened divorce once or twice, and let me tell you I was crapping myself…” he finished on a humorous note
“What’s your name?” she asked
“Joshua. Most people call me Josh; it works out that way. What’s your name, then?”
With a sigh, the girl answered, “Katie.”
“Nice name.” Joshua smiled, “Why ever did I call my kid Domino anyway?”
“That’s a nice name as well.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
Joshua got up slowly.
“Well, I’ve enjoyed your company, Kate,” he said honestly, “But unfortunately…heh heh, my wife’s going to be wondering where I’ve gone off to and they’ve probably got a mountain of paperwork back for me at the station.”
“Can’t you stay a bit longer?” she asked hopefully
“I’d love to, really, but…” a short pause, “I have a family, too. I’m sure you have one that you can go back to. You’re not far from here, are you?”
“No, not at all.”
“I’m sure one of the guys here will take you if you ask nicely,” Joshua smiled, “As for me, I’m out of here.”
He turned away from the girl, walking briskly away and out of sight.
