Longbow was sipping his tea when Dash blurted into his ear, “I got Laura. I am getting her out of here.” Longbow had to toss his earpiece onto the table to avoid hearing damage and switch to putting the com on speaker, “Did you forget you don’t have to- what’s that noise in the background, Dash?”
“That’s the reason I’m yelling. We’re dodging incoming fire. I guess he had paid a lot more people than I thought to guard the place.”
“Dammit, Dash, this is why I tell you to gather intel before you barge into a place.”
“And this why I tell you that’s not my expertise.”
Longbow took a deep breath, “I am dispatching Pitbull and Nightshade to your location.”
“No need, the shit’s hit the-”
“You dope, that’s exactly why he’s doing it. Hold your breath.” Flashpoint hollered before Longbow heard a pop and the line went dead.
Those close enough to the flash of light recoiled as if a flash grenade detonated. Once their vision returned, they looked around them confused as to where their targets had gone.
A quarter of a mile down the way there was another flash of light and two people appeared outside of a gas station. Dash turned and vomited in the bush.
Laura shook her head, “I told you to hold your breath, Dash.”
“Yeah, a split second before you blinked out of the firefight. I need a little more warning than that,” Dash wiped his mouth on his sleeve, “My head is fuzzy.”
“Give it a minute. It will clear up.” She took her phone out of Dash’s back pocket, “Hey, Longbow, I got us out of there, but it isn’t going to take them too long before they start looking for us.”
“You need to warn people. I thought the two of you had been shot. The line went dead.”
Laura rolled her eyes, “Why does everyone want a warning? You guys know that’s my thing. I blink out of danger. That was dangerous. I blinked.”
“I can assume Dash is with you?”
“Yeah, and he threw up because he didn’t hold his breath.”
In the background, Dash sighed out loud, “I need more warning than that.”
Laura threw her hands in the air forgetting she was on the phone, “At what point did my eyes changing colors and my body glowing didn’t give you a hint. How many times have you blinked with me, Dash.”
“We were in the middle of a firefight, Flash.”
“Yeah, and you were looking right at me when I put my hand on your shoulder.”
“Laura,” Longbow shouted into the phone, “Nightshade and Pitbull will be there in twenty minutes.”
Nightshade was punching his com trying to get Dash on the other end. His growl started in the back of his throat when he heard the connection finish, “Dash, here.”
“It’s about time you answered.”
“I had to quit vomit- never mind. We’re in front of a corner store with a pizza special for lunch.”
“You do realize we have your coordinates, and if we didn’t, there are twenty stuffer shacks with the same damn special. We would’ve needed street names. Have they found-”
Nightshade heard Laura in the background, “Duck into the shop, Dash. I see a car with them in it coming this way.”
Nightshade smirked, “That answered my question. We’re ten minutes out.”
“Right, ten minutes,” Dash looked at Laura who rolled her eyes as she walked into the corner store, “We’ll be here.”
The storekeeper looked up at a young woman with unkept dirty blonde hair and nodded, “Flashpoint, you look like hell.” She smiled, “Thanks, Carl, hey you still got your safe room in the back?”
He gave her the side-eye as Dash walked into the store, “Yeah but no funny business back there.”
Flashpoint shook her head, “We’re hiding from some people that might be coming in here to look for us.”
“Got it,” He tossed her a card, “Here ya go.”
Dash followed her into the cooler and to the end of it where the beer was displayed. He watched as she moved a panel out of the way and slid a card through a slot. The wall slid to the left, and she pulled Dash into the safe room. Dash looked around at the folding chairs and small fridge in the corner. There were TV trays in one corner leaning on each other, and the solitary bulb threatened to short out at any second. Laura tossed Dash a soda and popped hers open, “Carl’ll get rid of them.”
Dash tilted his head down and moved his eyes to meet hers, “How did you find this place?”
“I wasn’t always with Longbow, dude. Carl was the first guy to keep an eye out for me, and I would help him out by sweeping the floor and keeping the shelves stocked.”
One human and one orc walked into the store with guns drawn and pointing them both at Carl who looked up at them and smiled, “What can I do for you fine gentlemen today?”
“A man and woman are around here somewhere, have you seen them?”
“You might have to be more specific. This is a barrio. There are a lot of men and women.”
“Don’t play dumb. The girl is blonde with a green streak in her hair and the guy is tall and thin.”
Carl shrugged and pointed to his troll head and smirked, ”Being smart ain’t normally my thing. Now, you say you’re looking for a girl. Which is it?”
“You’ve got two seconds to wise up before one of us shoots you.”
Carl scoffed, “With those pea shooters?”
The orc shoved his Barretta in the troll’s face only to have the troll crumble his hand along with the pistol, “You aren’t too bright, are ya, chum? You’re dumber than me if you didn’t know you can’t put a pistol in a troll’s face.”
The orc’s face contorted in pain as he held his crumpled hand.
Carl looked at the human, “You wanna give it a shot, too?”
The human turned and ran into a man that was a mountain of muscle with a flat top cut.
Pitbull looked down at the guy who bounced off of him, “You got a problem with Carl?”
The human shook his head making the back of his mullet move from side to side, “No, we were just looking-”
That’s when a pistol came from around Pitbull’s left and was followed by, “Looking for what?”
The slight growl made the man freeze. Nightshade continued, “How you answer determines whether you walk out of here or if they carry you out.”
The man fainted. That is when they noticed the orc holding his hand.
Pitbull pointed at the orc and looked at Carl, “What happened to him?”
“He stuck his hand where it shouldn’t be and got hurt for his troubles.”
The orc walked over to his partner, picked him up, and gave Nightshade and Pitbull a wide birth as he walked out of the door.
It wasn’t until Carl’s cam picked up the duo going around the corner in their car that he turned to Pitbull and Nightshade, “She’s in the safe room with Dash.”
House of Geek 