Through the blurry haze of the smoke filled basement, Holly saw Daniel drop to his knees. She screamed and stepped towards him but behind her Gary shouted, “Holly.” She stopped, looking back to see him standing in front of the temporal device, the door open, his face twisted in exasperated fear. She could see nothing […]
Kim was still laughing over her lame joke about my clothes when the bell over the door jingled. I slunk sideways, figuring it was a good time to slip away, but stopped two inches from the chest of her new customer. One of Rorbauch’s friends. Or at least I figured it was one of his […]
Upstairs, Restrepo winced as bullets struck the wall around him. He took another step down, firing his rifle at a multitude of moving targets. “Shit,” he yelled, “we need help.” Mike stepped forward and shot at whatever he could see. Restrepo turned to Steven, “Tell Daniel we’re coming down and to get ready. We can’t […]
Steven, Mike, and Restrepo were near the top of the stairs but they had been pushed back a step or two. Inside the stairwell, the angle of the wall helped to create a slight funnel, giving the three men enough cover to temporarily stave off the attacking horde of ARLIS men. They were holding their […]
From the top of the stairs, Restrepo yelled, “Come on, guys, they’re getting noisier up here,” and Holly thought it was a indistinctive claim considering the banging, shooting, and shouting had not ceased for a moment since they began. From her work, she spared a glance for Daniel sitting beside her on the floor wrestling […]
The back of his skull struck the concrete floor, bursting stars and numbness slammed his senses for a moment before the pain swelled. Gary remembered toppling over, slipping on a stair as a bullet whizzed by and hit the wall above his head. He heard gunfire and screaming, Holly shouting as he fell. She wanted […]
Gary almost cried when he first saw Holly, but fortunately he was too jacked up on adrenaline, nerves and fear to do so. If he would have started crying then she would have started and then they would make a scene in the middle of the most inappropriate circumstances imaginable. So he simply embraced her, […]
Vanderhoff fired his pistol three times. Two bullets struck Daniel Hobbes in the chest knocking him back against the Marshall Temporal Device. The third bullet flew past Daniel, missing Gary’s head by a few inches and slamming into the wall. In the brief humming pause, Gary watched in mute horror as Daniel sunk to his […]
The Commons was an outdoor mall, blocked off to cars by chipping concrete bollards. Shops and bars filled closet-sized spaces in old-timey buildings, and screaming, laughing kids blew across the cobblestones like confetti. I dodged a group of the racing toddlers, wincing as my Chuck slipped on a tilted paver. Vincent had wanted me to […]
It was hectic after the gunshot, the confusion and the screaming and the pushing and shoving… Holly came out of her daze slowly, realizing James had his hands on her shoulders and he was speaking to her, saying something… ”… come on, we need you. Holly!” Her eyes focused and James smiled, “That’s my […]
Lawrence Queen knew he had one job to do when he split off from the Ankura group thirty-five minutes earlier. His job would make the difference between the success and failure of Holly Marshall’s desperate plan. Until the sharp crack of a single gunshot being fired nearby startled the three of them, he felt he […]
Guns raised, tempers growing more volatile and unstable with each passing second. Gary couldn’t think, there was only a blank white slate where an idea should have been. Then someone said, “Let me explain,” and he looked around, trying to locate who spoke. He was more surprised than anyone was to realize it was he […]
I led Vincent to the blissfully Grandma-free living room, guzzling Fir’s coffee as fast as the heat let me. It was an excuse not to start talking. Unfortunately it was a small coffee, so my excuse ran out before I sat down. I frowned into my empty cup. Stupid tiny drink. “So. Me and Arabus. […]
It was Holly’s idea to plant Brandon in the laboratory crowd thinking it could be a way to sway opinion without force having to be applied. Now she could only hope that she had been right. It comforted her to know Steven and Carla were there, guns raised at the detained scientists, reminding them that […]
I woke up to the sun stabbing me like an angry serial killer, its rays piercing my eyes and beating my skin. Everything hurt, all the way to my fingernails. Rolling onto my stomach and shoving my head under the pillows didn’t help. That bitch of a star found me through the gaps in the […]
The elevator door slid shut behind them. Gary, Daniel and Restrepo stood silently on Level B3, the grey tiled floor of the dim halls complimenting their moods. Gary shook off his warm creeping nostalgia. Christ, he thought, looking at Restrepo, unable to believe it had only been ten days. All of this, all of that, […]
Fairies. Pissed at me? It almost sobered me up. “It’s because of the crap Damian gave me to drink. I don’t normally shoot lines out of my, well, out of my anything.” “Now isn’t the time to discuss the how and why. Now is the time to get airborne.” Arabus wrapped whiskers thicker than a […]
In the few minutes that passed between taking her position at the table and Steven and Cassie entering the room, Holly had time to think. She was positive that this was not a good thing. She periodically glanced up from the clipboard she feigned reading and each time saw at least one set of eyes […]
My grandmother was waiting for me, hovering over my bed like the Ghost of Christmas Future. With the lightning shooting from her eyes, she was about as scary, anyway. “Whasup?” I slurred, my tongue too stupid to form English. Which probably wasn’t going to help my case. She sniffed, a dry, harsh sound that matched […]
It was only a seven second pause but it felt like a million years to Holly, standing in the elevator car, leaning back slightly to keep her face hidden behind Steven and Carla. She forgot to breathe, caught herself and took a quick gulp of air. Vanderhoff was facing forward but still had his head […]
Down Hall C, turning left and then left again a little further, Daniel and Gary walked slowly with Restrepo positioned behind them a few meters. They passed scientists, guards and security cameras, finally taking a right and ending up in an empty hallway about thirty meters long. Restrepo took a few quick steps, closing the […]
Holly wasn’t sure how much more she could take. The pressure was building, welling in her chest, constricting the muscles of her shoulders and neck as she walked with Gary beside her, both of them close behind Restrepo and Kate moving down the long, busy corridor as casually as possible. Ahead, she could see Daniel, […]
The dragon swiveled his head in my direction, his very large, and very gold, face filled with laughter. “Please don’t stop on my account. I’m not one to interrupt a good flirtation.” “Oh, my God,” I mumbled. “I was not flirting.” Arabus’s whiskers, sprouting from his cheeks like weeds, twitched. “Damian was, and there’s no […]
Restrepo kept his rifle raised and pointed at Queen’s chest. This was it, both men knew it: the moment of truth. Scanning the dim room, Restrepo saw nothing noteworthy and turned his attention back to Queen again. They silently watched one another a moment before Queen raised his hands and stepped forward, “It’s just me, […]