Huck couldn’t sleep. Today was the day he was expected to “deal” with the homeless woman, after all. So rather than toss and turn in a futon for hours, he got up, dressed up in a suit, and began typing away at his laptop. The sun rose after some time passed and Huck got ready to drop the kiddos off to their class. Once they were dropped off, Huck took a deep breath before driving off into the Ghetto. After a few turns, he parked on the curbside and walked through an alleyway to find the homeless woman huddled next to a blue trash can. The woman heard the crunching of gravel approaching, and she peered around the bin. Her eyes widened in excitement as she slowly scampered as fast as her body would allow her.
“Flicker. Now.”
The sheriff paused for a moment, staring at the woman with a somber expression. He sat on the dirty ground as he pulled out two items from his backpack. One, a plastic baggie of flicker (to which the woman instinctively reached for). The other was a plastic baggie with a syringe containing clear liquid. The sheriff held onto the flicker baggie, but placed the syringe baggie on the floor. As the glass syringe clinked on the floor, the sheriff looked upon the woman with sorrowful eyes. He had sat down in this same position with hundreds of citizens. Only one had accepted his offer.
Huck straightened out his tie and cleared his throat. “Madam. I am Sheriff Huck. It is an undeniable pleasure to meet you. Yesterday, I made you a promise and I fully intend to keep it. However, before I give you this flicker, could you answer a few questions for me?”
The sheriff already knew that the woman was undeniably long gone: it was evident in her orange eyes and withered body. Still, on the miniscule chance that there was hope in saving her, he asked anyways. The woman grunted, not even reacting to Huck’s declaration of occupation, her eyes trained onto the orange bag of flicker.
The sheriff pursed his lips, his soul pleading to God. “Madam, what is your name?”
The homeless woman scowled, growing more irritated with each passing second. Huck let ten seconds pass before giving up on mutual introductions, and proceeded along.
The sheriff gripped the bag in his hands with white knuckles. “Madam, do you have any aspirations in your life? Do you have any regrets that you wish you could undo? Say, for example, your flicker addiction?”
The homeless woman growled, slowly reaching for the flicker baggie in the sheriff’s grasp. The sheriff, in response, slowly pulled away and spoke in a more rapid voice, desperate to get his words across to her.
“Now, madam. I am more than willing to honor my promise and give you your payment for yesterday’s job. However, what will you do after? Will you continue to beg and steal for more flicker? Is that a life worth living, one where your every waking moment is spent on fueling a drug addiction?”
The homeless woman roared and pathetically lunged at the sheriff’s hand. The sheriff’s heart tore as he pulled his arm away and spoke even more hastily, stumbling over his words slightly as he did. His pleas were thrown towards a brick wall.
“Madam. I’m here to give you an ultimatum. Yours is a tortured existance, and I will put you down if you don’t change your ways. However, if you want to take control of your life again, I am more than willing to help you reclaim what is yours. I can help you recover your mind. I can give you a job. I can give you a house. I can give you everything you strive for. Please.”
The homeless woman smelled of aged sweat and urine, but the sheriff didn’t gag even as she began to crawl over his legs in a frenzy, her arms straining for the bag that the sheriff was now actively holding away from the woman. The man grit his teeth and grabbed the woman’s shoulder with his free hand.
“Damn it! Can’t you hear me? Do you understand? I will kill you if you take this bag. I’m giving you a chance to change your life for good. Please, could you listen?”
The woman pawed the sheriff’s face and pushed his face away, reaching for the bag. The sheriff closed his eyes in sorrowful frustration, and let go of the bag. As the flicker clattered inside the bag, the homeless woman grinned as she crawled to her next high.
Huck’s failures were evident, but he faced the woman as she went through the flicker baggie. The contents of the bag contained two months of flicker…but the woman went through the bag’s entirety within hours. All Huck could do was watch quietly as the woman slowly dosed herself with flicker. It was a long and agonizing process. Inject, get high, and snap back. Inject, get high, and snap back.
On her last dosage of flicker, her eyes rolled up to her skull. Huck quietly removed the syringe from its plastic container, tested the syringe with a few squirts, then prayed. The prayer was probably meaningless, but Huck prayed regardless. After a minute, he injected the syringe in the same vein that the woman had used to dose herself with flicker. After a minute, Huck could hear her exhale deeply, and the homeless woman’s eyes had become dull, her breath staying still. The Christian said nothing, pocketed the items he had laid out, then scooped up the woman and took her to his car.
...
Huck drove to the back of the hospital, and rang the doorbell attached to the back entrance. After a moment, the backdoor opened to reveal a bald man wearing glasses. The man’s eyes were bright.
“Ah, Huck. It’s been a while since you stopped by. How long has it been, a month?”
“I sent an email.”
“I know.”
The man stepped out to Carlos and lifted his trunk. There lay a black body bag. Huck, being the stronger of the two, scooped the body bag up and headed inside the building with the man excitedly following Huck’s tracks. Huck and the man eventually approached the cold mortuary, and placed the bag upon a table. The bald man excitedly unzipped the bag and peered inside with a squeal.
“A woman! These are so rare, and to get two in a row? Splendid!”
Immediately the man slipped on the gloves as he began to strip the corpse, causing Huck to tighten his lips.
“Henry.”
“Yes?”
“Treat her with some dignity.”
Henry threw the clothes in a crumpled pile on the floor as he waved Huck off. “It’s dead, who cares? Plus, look at how filthy its skin is, ick. Couldn’t you have given it a power wash or something?”
“She was alive an hour ago.”
“Well, it was an obvious waste of space. What a disgrace to life, bah. Hell, it could’ve been a prostitute at the very minimum but it couldn’t even do that. Useless, if you ask me.”
Huck flexed a forearm unconsciously as his arms folded. Henry lifted up her limbs, pressed her stomach, checked her mouth, massaged her breast, so on.
“Limbs are naturally atrophied, as expected of a flicker addict. Nearly no belly fat. Cavities on the few teeth she has. No sign of breast cancer. Hmm.”
Henry pulled off his gloves and threw them in the same pile that the homeless woman’s clothes lay crumpled. “Since flicker impacts the brain, I could probably find a few organs that are healthy enough to sell off. I’ll cut into its body soon enough to grab those organs. You can expect pay in about a month, fair?”
Huck slowly inhaled, trying to calm himself. “Yeah. That…that’s fine.”
Henry snapped his fingers. “Oh, about that one whore. The one you brought in last time?”
Huck’s eyes shot open in anger, but he controled his rage. “Her name was Rebecca. You-”
Henry rolled his eyes, waving Huck off. “Does a farmer name his cattle? Whatever. Well, I just wanted to say I finished fully dissecting the specimen, and it resulted with a very bountiful harvest! All of it’s organs were extremely healthy and sold off quite well. Bonus, it had an O- blood type, so I fetched wonderful prices! You should expect a decent chunk of cash in your account in a week from the transaction.”
Huck stepped forward and unfolded his arms, his eyes jaw locked in rage. After a moment, Huck trusted himself to speak in a calm manner. “Rebecca didn’t deserve her hardships. She cried as she took her last dosage. Don’t treat her as some…specimen.”
Henry raised an eyebrow, slightly chuckling. “Hucky, Hucky, Hucky. Wh-”
Huck’s eye twitched. “Don’t call me ‘Hucky’.”
The doctor raised his arms up and backed off slightly. “Fine, Huck, whatever you say. However, at the end of the day, ‘Rebecca’ was a slut who took the easy way out. You’ve defended every single person you brought in, but you’re the one killing them. You’re free to take the ‘moral high ground’, sure…but why?”
Huck opened his mouth to speak…but no words came out. Henry smirked.
“Preeeecisely. Justify it all you want, but murder is murder. However, can you really consider the people you bring in as ‘people’? They’re closer to animals than anything. Is a butcher a murderer? No! They’re just putting down animals.”
Henry frowned and adjusted his glasses. “Where was I going with this? Oh right. You can choose on whether you’re a murderer or just a butcher. You’re a big boy, so I’m not gonna choose for you. Buuuuuutttttt… it would be much better for your mental psyche to just treat these specimens as specimens.”
Huck grit his teeth, yet said nothing as he quietly bent down to grab the homeless woman’s clothes off the floor. Henry frowned.
“You don’t need to dirty your hands. I was gonna sweep them up later and chuck ‘em in the incinerator.”
Huck locked his jaw, and quietly exited the building with trembling fists as he held onto the woman’s rags.
...
Huck opened the door, and the familiar chime rang throughout the bar. Gustavo looked up from the register and nodded to the sheriff.
“Morning.”
“It’s noon.”
“Well, saying ‘good noon’ sounds stupid. When is Aaron getting here?”
“In an hour.”
“It's rare for you to be so early.”
Huck sat down at a barstool. Gustavo looked up from his accounting book with a mild surprise, but said nothing. A few minutes passed of Gustavo quietly scratching numbers into his notebook before Huck spoke.
“I killed someone.”
Gustavo quietly closed his notebook and reached under the barcounter to pull out a Cola. He opened it and handed the slowly overflowing fizz drink to Huck.
“Mhm.”
“It was a homeless woman.”
“Flicker addict again?”
“Yeah.”
“Same choice?”
“...Yeah.”
Gustavo grabbed a mug from a shelf, then poured himself a mug of beer. After doing so, he walked around to where Huck sat, sitting right next to the tired sheriff.
Gustavo held up his mug to Huck. Huck clinked his Cola bottle with the mug.
“A toast, then.”
“Yeah.”
The men sat, simply drinking without any further exchange.
...
The chime of the front entrance jingled as Aaron entered the bar. Huck turned around and stood up to offer a handshake. Gustavo got up as well, only providing a polite nod before walking behind the bar counter. Aaron held up a hand of polite acknowledgement to Gustavo, and shook hands with Huck. After a firm handshake, the two sat down at a booth.
“So, did you deal with her?”
Huck cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
“So does Henry have the body?”
“Yeah.”
Huck pulled out some papers from his backpack and handed them over to Aaron. Aaron gave them a quick scan, nodded, then opened his briefcase to hand over two stacks of bundled papers to Huck in response.
“This bundle is just some paperwork I need you to fill out. Try to fill this out before you get payment from Henry.”
“Got it.”
“...and this bundle contains all the registry information you requested. Alphabetized citizen list, housing registry, the works.”
Huck flipped through the packet, confirming its authenticity. “Mm. Thanks.”
“These are official documents, so I’m going to need them back as soon as possible. How long will you be needing these?”
“Give me around a week.”
Aaron sighed, but nodded. “Got it. On a mildly related topic, how is it going with the bounty hunter situation?”
Victoria’s bulletwound flashed in Huck’s mind. “The group is getting more violent, but it’s still contained. I’m hoping to alleviate the situation somewhat with the documents you gave me.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes. “Are you…are you planning on selling out the citizens?”
Huck sighed. “Of course not, wouldn’t think of it.”
Aaron, not fully convinced, leaned back in the booth. “Mhm.”
Before Aaron could finish his thought, his cellphone rang. Mildly annoyed, he held a finger up as he checked the caller ID. Frowning, he picked up the phonecall and excused himself from the booth. Moments later, he returned with a perplexed expression.
“Would you mind accompanying me to the town hall? Some man is apparently hounding my secretary and is asking for me.”
...
Aaron and Huck drove off in their cars and met up at the townhall. Upon entering the building, the men were greeted with a one-sided argument. A man was complaining to a woman sitting behind a desk, as she kept trying to calmly explain things. Upon hearing the frontdoor open, the man turned to meet them with a relieved expression. However, his expression soured once he recognized Huck.
“Off-sir.”
Huck sighed. “Mr. Giddles, what are you doing?”
Mr. Giddles turned to face the men with an impatient expression. “It’s taking too long to find that boy, so I figured the next step was to go to the may-your.”
Aaron stepped up and offered a handshake. “That would be me. Aaron Bartos, pleasure.”
Mr. Giddles stepped up and gave a sweaty handshake. Aaron flinched, but still maintained a professional smile. After a second, he pulled away and gestured to the hallway.
“Please, right this way. We can continue this conversation in my office.”
As Mr. Giddles eagerly stepped forward, Aaron wiped his sweaty hand on a handkerchief with a disgusted expression. The men walked down a hallway, and as they approached a door, Aaron stepped forward to politely let Mr. Giddles in. Mr. Giddles sheepishly grinned as he entered the room. The three men settled down. Aaron, behind his desk. Mr. Giddles, across from him. Huck, standing in the corner. Aaron put his briefcase on the floor, and smiled.
“Now, to what do I owe the pleasure, Mr….?”
Mr. Giddles cleared his throat. “Giddles, sir. Mr. Giddles. I’m here looking for a boy.”
The mayor frowned. “Well sir, our town’s sheriff, Huck, is your best bet in locating a member of the youth. Have you submitted a missing person’s report?”
Mr. Giddles scowled. “Of course I have, Mr. may-your. However, this off-sir seems to be very slow in his work and I’m not getting results.”
Mayor Bartos gave a slight bow. “My apologies. I understand your frustration. However, I can assure you that our sheriff is working overtime to deal with multiple issues behind the scenes. I promise that he will sort out your issue in due time.”
Mr. Giddles paused briefly, before turning to confront Huck directly. “Off-sir, I have a question.”
Huck nodded to the man. “Yes?”
I’ve been in town for a few days. I’ve visited your police station multiple times. I haven’t seen any other off-sir stationed. Why’s that?”
Huck felt the air around him shift. “That is because I am the only employed sheriff in this town, sir. We’re unfortunately understaffed.”
Mr. Giddles’s eyes gleamed coldly. “I see. So who keeps you accountable, off-sir?”
Huck’s momentary pause was deafening. “Pardon?”
Mr. Giddles got up and met Huck’s eyes. “Oh, off-sir, I run a business myself. I know how easy it is to oh-mitt information from record books.”
Aaron coughed. “Mr. Giddles, if you would please take a sea-”
Mr. Giddles turned quickly and jabbed a finger to Aaron. “Mr. may-your, you’re equally suspicious. Law enforcement is paid for by officials, so you should be dissatisfied with this under-ployment. What excuse do you have for not hiring more off-sirs?”
Aaron’s eyes flickered if ever so briefly. “Not many candidates wish to apply for a dangerous job, sir. That’s all.”
Mr. Giddles grinned even more widely. “Ah, but Mr. may-your…I tried applying for a off-sir position in this town. Your sec-tary said you weren’t accepting positions. I wonder why.”
Aaron and Huck froze, completely stunned by the trap this man had left them in. Mr. Giddles waved his hand.
“Now. I don’t care about this town and what you do. However, I would do anything for my boy. Help me fix with issue, and I’ll leave without any questions. If not, well… I’ll bring help from other town off-shals.”
Huck’s mouth went dry. Aaron leaned forward with a furrowed brow. “Now, Mr. Giddles. I don’t mean to make harsh accusations so forgive me if I’m misinterpreting, but are you threatening us?”
“I put in a note-us at my work that I left, and to where. If you fellas try anything to detain me, other city off-shals will come here regardless.”
The mayor pursed his lips. Sweat rolled down the sheriff’s temple. The air stood still. Mr. Giddles’s glare darted between both the mayor and the sheriff. This sweaty man in an open-buttoned shirt suddenly held a tremendous amount of power, and had the potential to disrupt the peace of Blackerd.
“Two weeks.”
Mr. Giddles and Aaron turned to the voice from the corner of the room. Huck looked up, with strong determination in his eyes.
“I’ll find him in two weeks.”
Mr. Giddles got up to Huck, his yellow teeth snarling at the sheriff. “One week. Any more than that, and I bring my city’s off-shals.”
“Understood.”
Mr. Giddles backed up and straightened his crumpled buttonup shirt. “Very well. If you’ll excuse me then. Off-sir. May-your.”
Mr. Giddles exited the room with a huffy slam. A minute of silence passed until Aaron’s secretary alerted him through the telephone that Mr. Giddles had left the building. Once the message got through, Huck groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. Aaron scowled.
“What the hell, Huck?”
Huck slumped in the chair adjacent from Aaron. “What the hell, indeed.”
“I don’t think it’s a damn coincidence that you find a kid and shortly after, some disgusting slob bumbles in demanding a child. Explain yourself, now.”
Huck hesitated. “I…I can’t.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes. “Pardon?”
Huck locked eyes with Aaron. “I can’t. Not yet. Give me a week though, and I’ll sort everything out.”
Aaron clenched his jaw. Huck held his gaze.
“I can trust you, right?”
“Do you have a choice?”
Aaron glanced at the calendar behind him to calculate the days. After a short moment, he turned back to face Huck once more.
“You have four days to resolve all this.”
“Seriously? A week is already pushing it for me.”
“How do you think it looks if you find someone on the exact day you said you’d find them? The latest you can find him is in four days.”
“...and if I can’t?”
Aaron leaned back in his chair and held his hands up. “Nothing. No punishment. There’s nothing I can do. However, Blackerd collapses. Are you able to shoulder that guilt?”
Huck’s eyes gained another wrinkle. He glanced at the calendar behind Aaron. “Fine. I’ll try.”
Aaron’s gaze held strong. “You don’t have a choice.”
...
Huck came home to an empty apartment. He walked over to the kitchen, downed a glass of water, then put his backpack on the table. However, instead of unpacking his backpack, Huck simply stood there with limp arms. The weighty realisation of everything that had happened today was slowly crashing down around him. His murder. Henry. Gus. Aaron. Mr. Giddles. Joel. Blackerd’s impending collapse. That wasn’t even considering the events that were already occurring before today. Zephia and Bera. Dante. The bounty hunters. Victoria and Ally. It felt as if Huck’s mind were tearing at it’s seams. Huck was just one man, why was he forced to burden all these issues?
Huck quietly unpacked his backpack and quietly looked at all the papers before him. Aaron’s words echoed back to him as he stared at one pile of paperwork.
‘Try to fill this out before you get payment from Henry.’
Huck chuckled. Then he rested his head in his hands. Suddenly, Huck began to laugh. Bellows of hysterical laughed echoed across the entire kitchen. Huck laughed… and laughed…and laughed…andlaughedandlaughedandlaughedandlaughedandlaughedandlaughedandlaughedandlaughedan-
Suddenly, time stopped.
...
‘Can you walk?’
‘Hun, I only drank three bottles. That isn’t going to get me drunk.’
Huck stood up, mildly wobbly. Lorraine frowned as she stared at her husband.
‘...Maybe we should’ve brang the car.’
Gustavo chuckled as he waved his hand. ‘Nah, big man is losing some muscle. He could use the exercise.’
Lorraine hesitated. ‘I mean… I could always run back and get the car. If you knocked out mid-walk, then we would be stranded.’
Gustavo frowned. ‘Sugar, you’re pregnant. Don’t be stupid. You want me to close down early? I could give you two a ride.’
Huck waved of Gustavo. ‘Gus, you worry too much. I’m fine, really. I’m genuinely not drunk.’
Gustavo pulled a lime out from under the counter and threw it to Huck with an underhand toss. Huck easily caught the lemon without as much of a flinch. Gustavo shrugged.
‘Guess you aren’t.’
‘Told you.’
Lorraine scowled and jabbed Huck’s gut, causing him to flinch. ‘Whatever. However, no more drinking at least until I give birth. Seriously, this is getting annoying.’
Huck raised an eyebrow with a sly smile. ‘Oh? Guess I’ll be ordering virgin Cuba Libres.’
Lorraine rolled her eyes. ‘Ha. Ha. Now hurry up, let’s go. I hate the cold.’
‘Explains why you’re so hot.’
‘Holy crap, shut up.’
Lorraine turned from Huck, but both Huck and Gustavo could see glimpses of her smile. Huck turned and gave a small wave to Gustavo. ‘I’ll be heading out, then.’
‘Alright.’
As the pair entered the brisk night, Huck draped his coat over Lorraine’s shoulders. She graciously accepted with a warm smile.
‘Won’t you be cold then?’
‘Ah, the alcohol in my blood is warming me up just fine.’
The couple took their time as they walked down the sidewalk, with Lorraine excitingly pointing out random cats crossing the street or various constellations in the midnight sky. After a few minutes, Lorraine cleared her throat.
‘Hey, babe.’
‘Mm?’
‘Why’d you agree to the mayor’s proposition?’
Huck frowned. ‘Told you we weren’t supposed to talk about it.’
‘Too bad. So why’d you agree?’
Huck slowed his stride as he moistened his lips, thinking about how to phrase his thoughts. Lorraine looked up at her husband, but said nothing. After they turned the corner of a building Huck took a deep breath in.
‘What do you consider to be living?’
Lorraine frowned as she pondered the question. ‘Eating…breathing…crapping…uh…fuc-’
Huck stared at Lorraine. Lorraine shrugged. ‘Fine, not the last one…maybe. However, living is just…surviving, no?’
Huck rubbed his neck and stared at a possum dashing across the street. ‘Eh, not to me. I think humans need some level of drive and motivation. If a human is in a repetitive lifestyle, then I consider them worse than dead.’
Lorraine looked up and tilted her head. ‘Elaborate.’
Huck looked up at the blinking night sky. ‘Surviving to simply complete an action? Being chained to repeat something monotonous? Let’s put it like this: would you rather live one exciting year, or thirty bland years in a jailcell?’
‘Well…the first option. Being imprisoned for that long would suck.’
Huck looked over at his wife with a nod. ‘Exactly. I think being forced to live through all that is worse than death. Now, replace jail with, say, a repetitive life. It could be an abusive nine-to-five office job, a drug addiction, homelessness, so on. At some point, I think that dying is a more considerate option.’
Lorraine hesitated. ‘Well…anything can change while you’re alive.’
Huck shrugged. ‘I don’t think so. If someone doesn’t change their life for five years, what’s to say they’ll change it in ten years? Realistically, they’ll just live out their life doing the same thing because it’s the only thing they know how to do.’
Lorraine pouted. ‘I mean, miracles happen. Unpredictable events happen.’
‘How long should one have to suffer to wait for those miracles? If those miracles appear?’
‘We’re Christians, babe. Miracles happen whenever God wants it to happen.’
‘God uses us as vessels of his will. We can say ‘I’ll pray for you’ to a homeless person all we want, but if no one helps that person to their feet, then what will those prayers have been? It’ll have just been false hope, and that’s beyond cruel.’
Huck kicked a rock across the road. ‘Aaron sees it as ‘cleaning up the filth’ of Blackerd. I just see it as a way to relieve people of their burdons.’
Lorraine stopped walking. Huck turned to look at her. Her expression was…odd. It wasn’t anger…it wasn’t disappointment…what was it?
‘Do you really mean all that?’
‘Yeah.’
‘You’ll be killing people.’
‘...Yeah.’
‘Can you live with that?’
‘...I don’t know.’
Lorraine sighed, then reached out to Huck’s hand. Huck quietly grabbed it.
‘You don’t want to kill, do you?’
‘Of course I don’t.’
‘Dumbass. You aren’t responsible for everyone’s happiness.’
‘You influenced me, I guess.’
‘...Dumbass.’
They continued to walk in silence. It was odd, there was some obvious disagreement between their core values, but some level of mutual respect. After a few minutes, Lorraine squeezed Huck’s hand.
‘How many so far?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘...thirty-eight.’
‘It’s only been a month.’
‘The town feels safer though.’
‘There’s still criminals and thugs. There was gunfire last week.’
‘I’ll…I’ll think of something. I’ll look into it.’
Lorraine softly smiled and pinched Huck’s cheek. ‘If you ever want to quit, you can. Ok?’
Huck’s face felt warm as he coughed. ‘Not until this town is safer.’
Lorraine scrunched up her brows as she began to think. ‘Hm. Then, how's this? You aren’t allowed to drink alcohol again until you quit. Ok?’
Huck opened his mouth to protest, but stopped. He nodded. ‘Ok.’
Lorraine looked up to Huck with a surprised face. ‘Didn’t think you’d agree so easily.’
‘I’m killing people. This is the least I can do. Doesn’t feel right to be relaxing and kicking back while others are struggling.’
‘Do you think you’ll finish all this before I give birth or after?’
‘No idea, honestly. Blackerd is surprisingly big.’
‘Just hire some cops.’
‘Nah.’
Lorraine scowled as she stared at Huck, then let out an exasperated ‘GAH’ before pulling at Huck’s collar while going on her tippy-toes to kiss his cheek.
‘I can’t stay mad at you, but you’re still a dumbass.’
‘Love you too, hun.’
They walked in silence for the next few minutes, with Lorraine quietly hugging Huck’s arm. The couple had dated, bickered, married, shared financial accounts, and even conceived. However, this moment of disagreement and understanding sealed the moment where the two had fully come to trust each other and bonded them to a tremendous degree.
So, naturally, life chose this exact night to tear these two apart.
A man in a hoodie ambushed the pair from behind and shot his pistol into Lorraine. Lorraine collapsed with the air being sucked out of her lungs. Huck turned first saw his wife fall, pivoted to his attacker, then bolted at the man without a word. The hoodied man was startled, and fired a wild round in Huck’s general direction. The bullet merely grazed Huck’s ribcage, but the pain didn’t register as adrenaline coursed through Huck’s body. Huck dove at their assailant, knocking the two to the ground. Huck then proceeded to mercilessly beat the man as he was pinned, the gunman scrambling to block Huck’s heavy blows with scrawny arms. In minutes, the man’s arms gave out, and soon Huck was repeatedly slamming the gunman’s skull into the pavement with the force from his punches. Huck continued to punch through bloodied knuckles, the adrenaline throbbing in his brain. Once the hoodied man stopped moving as a pool of blood began to seep out from his head, Huck turned to his wife and sprinted to where she was sprawled out.
Lorraine lay motionless, her eyes glossed over.
Huck knelt, out of breath. With cracked, trembling hands, he felt her forehead. Then, he felt for her pulse. Then, he felt for a heartbeat. Then, he screamed.
And screamed. And screamed.
And screamed.
45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLKduXsHmCH
