by James Tow
She was…the most perfect person,” I told him.
“Then you remember her the way you remember her…and not in any other way.”
That’s when we heard a woman’s skin curling scream coming from down the street. Gabriel grabbed his blade from his belt and bolted through the house to the front door and I followed.
“Gun!” I yelled at Alyse.
“It’s in the car,” she said confused. “What’s going on? Was that a scream just now?” But I ignored her. I sprinted to the Mustang and grabbed the pistol from the passenger side door. Gabriel was standing at the end of the driveway.
“Where did it come from?” I asked as I jogged toward him.
“To the right,” he said pointing down the street and to the right on the perpendicular street. We began jogging toward the scream we heard. The street was silent. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Not even the trees were swaying. The only things breaking the pattern were random uninhibited cars in driveways. I was beginning to become impatient as we continued down the street. Other, smaller, streets began branching off this main road which got me thinking we went a little far.
“Where do you think they are?” I asked Gabriel. But he ignored me as he quickly examined every house we passed.
“Gabriel?” I pressed. He just sighed. “I think we went a little too far,” I added. He remained silent. I stopped in my tracks and Gabriel did the same. “Dude,” I said.
“What?!” he snapped irritably.
“Easy,” I said. “I was just wondering where the scream came from…I think we went a little too…”
“Man…we are definitely on the same road. We are looking at the same houses. We also happen to be jogging right next to each other,” he said in his condescending tone. I just stared at him with no emotion. He continued, “So…when I see something, you will definitely see something at the same time I will.” I continued to stare. “Moral of the story…shut the hell up. Contrary to popular belief…there is such a thing as a stupid question. And you are full of them today.” He finished, and at that instant I forgot about the woman’s scream and shoved Gabriel. He looked at me with a crinkled face, took a step forward and shoved me with both hands—forcing me to take a step backward.
“Asshole!” I yelled.
“Bitch,” he grumbled.
I threw a quick uppercut aimed at his gut, but he blocked it and elbowed the side of my face. The force of the elbow knocked me senseless. I fell to one knee and Gabriel stepped back. We took a second to reevaluate the situation. The bastard is going to get his.
I charged the unsuspecting Gabriel, landing a shoulder in his stomach and he fell back on his ass. As soon as he landed, he rolled backward on to his feet and he lunged forward with his fist up. He threw a wild right hand haymaker aimed in my general direction. I stepped to his outside and dug a knee into his ribs. As he was doubled over I pushed him over.
I did a lap around him taking in the victory.
“What’s up?...asshole,” I said and a triumphant laugh escaped my mouth. That was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. With one fluid motion, and with astonishing power, Gabriel landed a punch on my solar plexus that sent me to my knees. I gasped for air, but had no luck. He stood up laughing…the bastard. He pushed me on my back and straddled me—leaving my arms under his legs.
“What’s up?...bitch,” he said and begun to slap my face.
“Dude…get…off!” I grunted between slaps. I tried to wiggle free, but it was no use.
“That’s what she said,” Gabriel said and laughed as he continued to slap.
“What about the girl!” I screamed and he paused.
He paused and thought a minute. “You’re right,” he said. “So now…I better get all my hits in with one massive slap.”
“No…please dude!” My plea only fueled his sinister grin. He raised one hand but we felt the ground shake beneath us. I tilted my head back to see a grey monster approach. The GT500 stopped about a foot from our position.
Alyse stuck her head out the window and said, “This car is awesome…” She climbed out of the car and took notice of my embarrassing position and started snickering. “What the hell are you guys doing?”
“I’m slapping him,” Gabriel stated very matter-of-factly. Then he finally got off of me, after a few moments of awkward silence, and offered me a hand but I didn’t take it. I just wanted to lie there and let the throbbing in my face cease.
“Well, when you guys are done fooling around,” she started, “We need…” Her sentence was cut short when gunfire broke all the windows in the GT500. The three of us dove behind the driver side of the car.
The bullets didn’t stop when I asked, “What the hell?!”
“I don’t know!” Alyse said.
Gabriel kept trying to take a peek but ended up taking cover every time.
“There must be four or five!” he yelled. We remained behind the car, helpless, for about forty-five seconds—glass and hunks of the car raining on us the entire time. Then, suddenly, the barrage stopped. I began to get up and I realized I was covering Alyse.
“Hold on,” Gabriel said as he put his hand on my shoulder to keep me down. We stayed put for a few moments when we heard the girl again.
“HELP ME!” she shrieked. This was followed by a “Shut that bitch up!” from an unknown source. I attempted to stand up again, but Gabriel pushed me back down. Alyse began wrestling around with the bottom of her white undershirt.
“What the hell?” I asked as she ripped off a strip of her shirt and reached over for the broken antennae which lie on the ground.
“Good idea…” Gabriel said as he glared at the piece of clothing. Alyse tied the strip to the tip of the antennae and waved it around in the air. She continued to wave as she slowly stood up.
“No,” I objected and put my hand on her shoulder, but Gabriel protested.
“Let her be.” Reluctantly, I took my hand off her shoulder.
“It’s a girl!” some guy said on the other side of the vehicle…probably twenty feet away.
“Put your guns down,” another said. Alyse was fully standing now and slowly started behind the car while continuing to wave her makeshift flag.
“Girl, we about blew your head off!” their leader said. He sounds awfully familiar.
“Sorry…” she said. She tried to say something else but it didn’t come out. All that did come out was a serious of stutters and incoherent mumbling.
“What?” their leader asked.
I know that voice. Taking a leap of faith, I stood up. As soon as I did I found four assault rifles pointing at my general direction.
“It’s The Army!” a heavy set man in the back said. “Kill ‘em!” he added. But the leader held his hand up for them to stop.
“Paul?” Alfred said unconfidently. Oh thank God…it is him.
“Fred!” I called out and we both laughed.
“Holy shit! If it isn’t a Reed brother himself,” he said smiling. “Where’s your brother?” As soon as Alfred asked Gabriel slowly stood up. “Gabriel!” Alfred exclaimed. “Damn…we got both brothers! Get your asses over here!”
I almost didn’t recognize Alfred. I remember him as this nerdy, scrawny, black kid, with an enormous afro, who used to come by, knocking my door asking my dad if I could come out and play. Now, he’s the massive ball of muscle—with short hair. I used to follow his football career while I was in college. He was the star linebacker for the Hurricanes. He was a bull on the field.
As we were walking over to greet Alfred, Alyse asked, “So, how do you know each other?”
“We met in middle school. We used to cause all kinds of mayhem. Once, when the neighborhood was still under construction, we decided to ‘test out’ the equipment the construction workers used. There was this steam roller that we named ‘Vicious’, which we loved to do most of our terrorizing with. I would throw stuff, from bricks to two-liter sodas, in the middle of the street while Alfred would run them over. Our adventures with Vicious ended
when Alfred took too sharp a turn and ran into the sidewalk—breaking the power steering line. He was covered in power steering fluid…it was hilarious. But the next day, the areas under construction were taped off. We were pissed.”
I walked up to Alfred and we shook hands. He wrapped one arm around my shoulder and I followed.
“It’s good to see you man. I’ve been trying to tell these people you’re real,” he chuckled. He looked behind him to the three other black men and introduced them. “This is Mike,” he said, pointing at the heavy set man who didn’t trust us at first. “This is Aaron,” he said pointing at the skinniest of the bunch. Aaron seemed more scared than relieved. “…And this is Kevin,” he said while pointing at the massive ball of muscle standing next to him. He waved at us and I waved back.
“This is Alyse,” I said and she waved shyly.
“So, what’re you guys doing here? Don’t you have some people to kill?” Alfred said and they all laughed.
Gabriel spoke up, “Actually we were here because of the screams we heard.” After saying this, Alfred’s face went grim. He nodded toward the open garage door a couple of houses up.
“Let’s go,” he said. They were quiet the entire time we walked toward the garage. When I saw what was waiting for us, all I could say was, “What the hell?!”
There was a woman tied to a metal chair in the middle of the garage. She was wearing ragged jeans, a white tee shirt, and a ball cap with a Lieutenant emblem pinned to the bill of the hat—her blonde hair was messily tucked in under the
