After making her choice, Megan certainly wasn’t shy with sharing details. She energetically told us about how she was the best in her class at reading and writing, while math and numbers were still giving her some trouble. She had a group of three other friends that she liked to have sleepovers with on the weekends. She really loved to play video games with her friends and family, but her console was destroyed in the attack. She insisted that her teddy bear was her “favoritest friend in the world” though.
“It’s getting dark, guys.” Lori hadn’t stopped driving since we got Megan. We were in Columbus after over ten hours on the road. Lori told us that the detour to Pittsburgh had delayed us some. With winter reducing our daylight, she didn’t want to be on the road for much longer. “I’m going to get off on the next exit, we’re going to fill up the tank, and we’re getting a hotel room. I am tired and Megan needs a bath.”
It didn’t take us long to find a very well-lit gas station that was maybe a five-minute drive away from a respectable hotel chain. Lori pulled in next to a pump close to the building and Megan was practically bouncing in her seat, asking us if we could get her a chocolate milk. Sadly, she didn’t sleep at all during the drive. I assumed she hadn’t slept much since half her house was destroyed, but I didn’t really know. Kids and all their energy were a mysteries to me.
Lori groaned and thumped her forehead on the wheel. We all looked at her with concern before she looked up and pointed toward the front of the building. There were at least ten people loudly and playfully shoving each other by the door. “Didn’t think about this being a college town and a Saturday night. Come on, man. We’re not even really in the city or by the university.”
Reluctantly, she got out of the car and went up to the crowd. There didn’t seem to be a way to pay at the pump either, bafflingly. I didn’t follow her, but I did get out to stretch my legs and keep an eye on the rowdy group. Alex stayed in the SUV and so did Megan, thankfully. It was colder there than it was in Pittsburgh, which surprised me. It might’ve been a cold front moving east. I hadn’t checked the weather or bothered to ask Lori about it.
“Excuse me, just need to squeeze by you,” Lori said, trying to wiggle her way through. One drunk girl in stiletto heels heard her and stumbled trying to move. The beer can in her hand flew into the parking lot and the other grabbed onto the first thing it could, which was the hem of Lori’s shirt.
The girl was tall, so she nearly brought Lori down with her. There was a ripping sound and the drunk girl came away with a handful of shirt, while Lori came up gingerly holding the shoulder that was forced down from the pull. She shivered with the small patch of skin being exposed to the cold. The drunk girl looked between Lori and the scrap of fabric. “Whoa...are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” Lori said through what sounded like gritted teeth. A long, labored, and sharp breath exited through her nose, audible to me despite our distance.
“You should really...be more careful,” the drunk girl said, the words coming difficultly to her. She got up to her feet and I was worried she was about to break her ankles.
“Maybe you idiots should drink somewhere else and you could change out of those stupid shoes,” Lori snapped, marching her way into the store. Oh boy, did those guys look pissed after that. I couldn’t really hear what they were saying. They were glancing at Lori in the store, so I inched my way closer to the front of the SUV. She paid the guy at the cash register and he didn’t seem to register the presence of the drunk college kids outside. Drunk college idiots were probably a common occurrence for him.
“What’s your problem!?” the drunk girl shouted at Lori as she exited. She threw the scrap of shirt she had held in Lori’s face, which hardly got any reaction at all. When Lori just tried to shrug it off and walk back with her bag, the drunk girl grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. “You should...should watch where you’re going.”
“Look, just please shut up and I’ll get out of your hair, okay?” Lori was clearly exhausted and frustrated. Her attitude was not helping. “I just want to get my gas and go to bed.”
Instead of letting her go peacefully, the drunk girl put the palm of her hand on Lori’s face and pushed her out in the parking lot. It wasn’t a strong shove, but Lori was so small that it didn’t matter. She stumbled back and nearly slipped, but she managed to avoid falling on her butt. “What’re you going to do about that, bitch?”
Lori opened and closed her right hand a few times. She was visibly shaking. Worried about my friend, I started to walk over to make sure she wasn’t crying. The drunk group were all pointing and laughing at her like bullies picking on a defenseless kid. I considered it a blessing that none of them looked particularly violent at a glance. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t get there with all the booze hitting their systems.
About halfway across the parking lot, it was clear that Lori wasn’t shaking because of crying. She raised her right foot and brought it down on the drunk girl’s left ankle. There was a yelp and a snap. I nearly broke out into a sprint thinking the snap was a bone. When I got there, I sighed in relief that it was just one of her shoes’ heels breaking off. No matter what, it didn’t help my worry about everything going south.
The drunk girl started to tumble toward the ground again, but instead of catching Lori, Lori caught her with a handful of black hair to help prop her up. Her free hand was balled into a fist and she launched it into the girl’s face. Lori let go of her hair and she collapsed on the ground. She grabbed at her face and began screaming. That was when I decided to break into a full sprint.
I got behind Lori and wrapped my arms around her waist, pushing aside any apprehension I had toward touching other people. I was able to dodge a stray elbow from her to drag and carry her back to the SUV. The group was stunned. They all prioritized helping their friend instead of immediately trying to beat Lori to a pulp, thank God. With all the motion and adrenaline, it was hard for me to see if she was bleeding on the pavement. I just had to hope she wasn’t. Meanwhile, Lori was swearing at the group from the top of her lungs, ignoring all my attempts to calm her down.
“Lori, Lori!” I yelled, which did finally manage to bring her back to the real world. “You need to fill this gas tank and we have to get out of here. We need to be gone yesterday.”
Panting and still trembling, she moved strands of her short hair out of her face. Wordlessly, Lori did start to pump gas into the SUV. Looking back over to the front of the store, they were helping their friend up to her feet. She had to kick both her shoes off because of that broken heel. Again, it was hard to see with all the movement, but it looked like she might’ve had a small nosebleed.
“Rip my shirt and putting her hand on me,” Lori muttered, her voice laced with anger. Her breathing was short and shallow. She looked past me and back to the group. “And if you think about calling the police, remember that she grabbed me twice! She’s lucky that’s all she got!”
“Shut. Up.” I gritted my teeth, glancing back toward the group. They clearly heard her. “You made your point. You won. Fill up the car so we can get out of here.”
“She had it coming.” Lori crossed her arms and looked away from me. Finally, she actually seemed to be calming down for real.
“Yes, she did,” I agreed. I tapped the window to get Alex’s attention. When I did, I pointed to the driver’s seat. He got the message and exited the vehicle. “She had it coming, but we have a kid who’s supposed to be dead in our backseat. You have to think these things through.”
“Ethan’s right,” Alex said, getting behind the wheel. He kept the door open and watched the group. “We can’t afford to get into drunken brawls right now. But she did have it coming.”
He shut the door to keep some warmth inside and left us with our thoughts.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She really did have it coming, though I doubted her friends saw it that way. They were practically stuffing her in the backseat of one of their vehicles. One of them looked around in a haze and spotted Lori. A chill ran up my spine when he lumbered toward us. Something about it didn’t feel right. Lori had just wrapped up pumping the gas and we had no way of getting us all back in the SUV and out of the parking lot before he got to us.
Lori didn’t even seem to notice him, instead focusing on putting the gas pump away and sealing the tank’s cap. When she turned to walk past me, he was by the front door, putting me between both of them. He was about my height and well-built, albeit still smaller than Alex. Before Lori could open her mouth, he reached into his coat and pulled out a handgun. I heard a small noise from behind me in the car, which I could only assume came from Megan.
Even with the gun pointed at her, Lori didn’t seem too bothered. Maybe after Shelly did the same thing, she just wasn’t as surprised. I was lucky that she was at least surprised enough that she didn’t get the chance to agitate the gunman further. As quickly as I could, I put a barrier up about two inches away from the barrel of the gun. I stacked up as many as I could in a line behind the first leading back to Lori. If one of those couldn’t stop a punch from Alex, there was no way in hell it was stopping a bullet, so I was hoping quantity over quality would work out. Putting all of them up that fast wore me out and I had to lean back against the SUV for support. To the guy holding the gun, I must’ve looked like I was scared shitless.
“You like hitting girls, do ya?” he asked, every word slurring coming off his tongue. Jesus, he was in worse shape than the one Lori beat up. “Think it’s fun to hit my girl like that?”
“You know that I am also a girl, right? You idiot.” She rolled her eyes. Even with a gun pointed right at her, she was still making poor decisions. Or maybe it was because of it. She could have been freaking out behind the tough look. “Besides, she threw something in my face and grabbed me. I was just defending myself.”
“Yeah, you really are just a bitch, aren’t you?” He waved the gun around like the idiot Lori said he was. I tried to guess where Megan was in relation to me and put as much of myself between him and her. “Jealous because she’s prettier than you? That it?”
“No, she hurt my shoulder, ripped my shirt, threw what she ripped off back at me, and then grabbed me.” Lori sighed with frustration and shook her head. She got a bit of a smug grin on her face and pointed toward their car. “I don’t care what she looked like before, but after what I did, I’m not sure she’ll be prettier than anyone.”
“Lori, let’s calm down now,” I said, trying to diffuse a situation that was right on the verge of potentially becoming deadly. I turned to the drunk guy and put both my hands up in what I hoped looked like a peaceful gesture. “Look, man. I’m sorry that we messed up your night drinking on the town. Can we just get out of here and you guys can still have fun?”
“Ha! Not anymore.” He pointed the gun back at Lori. He already seemed to be sobering up a bit. At the very least, he was speaking coherently. “Maybe you shoulda listened to your boyfriend here earlier and this wouldn’t get ugly.”
There was a flash, an explosion, and it felt like someone punched me in the back of the head. I lost track of how many barriers I put up, but I was glad they were all there. Most of them were destroyed instantly, with only two managing to survive the bullet. The last one ended up standing perfectly strong. That was good, because I sure didn’t feel the same way. I fell to one knee with a steady trickle of blood coming out of my nose. I forced myself to remain conscious and willed my body back up to both feet. I found it impossible to get my vision to focus properly.
“Ethan!” Lori shouted. It was hard to hear anything through the slight rushing sounds in my ears. Through the roaring, I could tell that her usual compassion came back. In front of me, the driver’s door burst open and Alex tackled the drunk to the ground. It ran through my head that I was glad he only fired one shot, because a second one was absolutely getting to Lori with little resistance. I felt her arm around my shoulder and saw her point to the drunk. “Alex, the gun!”
She opened the SUV door and helped me inside. I was able to see enough at that point that I could see Alex wrestling the gun away from the vastly overwhelmed man on the ground. Most of his friends looked to be running away or standing there dumbfounded. Probably because anyone who was stupid enough to fire a gun a few feet away from a gas pump wasn’t exactly a home run for expected survival chances. They called out the guy’s name and Alex barked some orders for him to get going. Smartly, he had no intention of returning the firearm to him.
Alex got back in the driver’s seat and Lori raced to sit across from him. She put her head in her hands, rubbing her eyes over and over. I ran my hand over my mouth and, unsurprisingly, it came away with a decent smear of blood. Not nearly as big as when I blacked out at Luna, which provided me with a mixture of pride and comfort. Those didn’t do anything to help the headache I could feel forming.
“Are you okay?” Megan asked, her voice shaking. I almost forgot about her, since she’d been the quietest of the four of us. I looked over and saw tears running down her cheeks while she tried to put on her best brave face. “He shot at you guys! Did he hit you?”
“Nope, all good here,” I said. I gave her a laugh and a thumbs-up. I wasn’t socially awkward enough to want to make the little girl more upset than she already was. “When I use too much of my power, I get a bad nosebleed.”
“You used your power?” she asked, confused.
“Sure did. I put up a bunch of shields between Lori and that guy. They’re connected to me somehow, so if I put too much into them and too many get destroyed, I end up bleeding.”
“You saved her!” Megan cried, getting a bit too close to my personal space. Her yelling seemed to startle Lori out of her funk. Despite my inefficient method of saving my friend, Megan’s overjoyed reaction made me feel proud of what I managed. “You stopped that shot! Alex took him down! You guys are real heroes.”
“Thanks for that, Alex,” I said, never being too proud to thank someone who might hate my guts. I rubbed the back of my head and leaned against the cushy seat. I rolled my head side-to-side in rhythm with some weird pop song that was quietly playing on the radio. “If you didn’t get him when you did, we were hosed.”
“Good work yourself,” he replied. My face flushed from actually getting some recognition from him. It was one thing when the praise came from a little girl, but from him? I might as well have been getting a direct thanks from the president. “Genuinely, I’m impressed that you could stop a bullet when you could barely stop a punch a week ago.”
“I lost count of how many I put up to stop that one bullet, so I’m not really a world-beater.”
“Doesn’t matter how. The bullet was stopped and no one was seriously hurt. The girl that Lori handled won’t be winning any beauty contests for a bit, though.” I swore he said it through the tiniest smirk.
He pulled us into a non-descript business park, safely away from the gas station. Alex looked around to make sure no other people were nearby, but there was little reason for anyone to be there on a Saturday night. “I’m switching over the plates. Keep an eye out.”
I didn’t know what he meant by plates at first until he dug out a new car license plate, this one from Pennsylvania instead of New York. He did...whatever you do to change out plates on a car. I’d never done it, seen it done, nor thought about it really. All I knew was that it was probably pretty illegal. Considering that someone opened fire on us at that gas station, I thought it was a good call to change them.
“What’re you thinking, boss?” I asked, leaning closer to our leader. She was visibly exhausted, and her slender shoulders were slumping. “Do you still want to get a hotel room in Columbus?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Her response was short, almost curt. “I need to think, and I really need to sleep.”
“Look...” I began before trailing off. The words were having difficulty coming to me and I wasn’t even sure what I really wanted to say. “Sorry that things became such a mess back there.”
She looked back at me with her face scrunched up. “What are you talking about? I was the one who nearly got us all shot. I’m not sure what happened. That drunk idiot ripped my shirt and it just went downhill. Maybe I’m just tired, but it felt like something nasty took over. If you hadn’t pulled me back when you did, one of us would probably be dead by now.”
She sounded scared and small. Her composure was totally different from the person at the gas station, and I believed what she said. If someone hadn’t stepped in, Lori would have either beaten that girl or someone would have attacked Lori. Or that guy would have just shot her earlier than he tried to. If that guy didn’t have that gun, I had full confidence that Lori would have done the same thing to him as she did to the girl, or she would have gone down trying.
Lori looked like she wanted to say more. I was about to prod her for some more information, but Alex got back in the SUV. I’d expected him to be more upset about the whole thing. He put his hands on the wheel and sighed.
“I think we should be fine to sleep here,” he said. He pulled up the address for the hotel on his phone and got the directions going. “There’s probably security footage of that girl harassing you first and that guy pulling the gun on us, so they’d be stupid to think they could really come after us legally.”
We never drifted far from the original hotel chain we planned to rest at. The building itself was quiet and unassuming, which felt weird, given that we could hear club music not too far away. I expected a club in a college town, but not a hotel so close to it the music was audible from the parking lot. There was probably a pissed off manager who had a lot of pissed off customers in there.
“Don’t be sad,” Megan said. Our mood hadn’t rebounded since the gas station. She then brought up perhaps the most agreeable point of the night, at least in my eyes. “You guys were so cool! Even heroes need to sleep sometimes.”