A Touch of Blue - 9. Defending Our Ground

Zafiro

Well, I think it is safe to say that I have completely screwed myself.

Honestly I am not even sure if I accidentally killed Cody. Would that be such a bad thing? He just tried to rape me!

I never thought that he would have it in him to ever actually try something like that, but I am lucky to have gotten out when I did.

The ringing from before has pretty much doubled.

I am very certain that Cody is simply knocked out cold. When he wakes, he is going to remember everything and then he will probably come for me too.

That is not at all what I need right now. Two gang leaders trying to find and kill me.

I bite my lip as Soul walks alongside me.

Right now I am mostly using him as a shield to keep safe.

What if someone finds Cody and they come running to get me? Obviously I was the last one up there, so all the fingers, and guns, will be pointed in my direction.

How am I supposed to handle hiding from two of the most dangerous men in Sector 4?

I can’t stay in Piggie’s apartment because then they will get in trouble.

Oh god.

Piggie and Vero!

Cody will go straight to them for sure. He might even go for Ama again. She is still packing her things to move out.

I will have to call her and tell her to plan on moving at least tonight.

As for Piggie and Vero, I will head over to their place right now. They need to know what just happened.

There is a small voice in the back of my mind. It says that maybe I should not have fought back. I could get everyone killed because I decided to keep Cody’s dick away from me.

Should...should I have let it happen?

“Zafiro?” Soul calls me out of my thoughts.

I smile and turn to him. “Yes?”

“These are for you,” He says.

He has finally decided to give me the small bundle of flowers. They are bit droopy and the stems have dirt on them, one even have the roots still intact. It should be said that half of them are weeds.

Nevertheless, I accept the gift.

“Thank you, Soul!” I grin. “That is incredibly sweet of you!”

I even sniff the flowers to really sell the cake. I can’t have Soul feeling bad. It would be like kicking a puppy!

“I am aware that you think I am capable of feelings,” He says, “but...I am not certain on how to act on them.”

Smirking, I pull him off to a nice empty alley.

“Well,” I start, “How are you feeling right now?”

Soul stares at me with a blank expression. Well, it is always blank, but somehow it feels even more devoid of emotion.

“I am unsure,” He says.

I grab his hand and bring it over his chest.

“How are you feeling inside?” I ask. “What is going on inside your heart at this moment?”

Would it be the heart? I am not so certain. I kind of guessed right there.

For once, Soul looks different. His face is no longer set in a way that looks as if he is a statue.

His eyebrows knit together and he narrows his eyes in thought. His mouth even becomes crooked.

He is thinking. That is good.

I know plenty about all the Androids lately that have been asking for their own rights and freedoms. I have even met some of them. They already seemed so alive when they were first created, why is it so hard for everyone else to see that they actually have...well, souls.

Me being the care bear that I am, I especially want that for Soul. He is a big sweetie and I always knew there was more to him than some robot who follows orders and feels obligated to protect Cody at all times.

“It feels,” Souls says slowly, “It feels…”

“You feel,” I correct him.

“I feel...blue.” He says.

I raise an eyebrow. “Blue? Is this a joke about my eyes?”

He shakes his head. “No of course not. I would never do such a thing.”

I smile.

It is also things like that, that make me feel that he is more alive than he thinks. Would a deadpanned robot apologize like that? No, I think not.

“Blue can also mean being sad,” I say. “Are you sad?”

Soul shakes his head again. “No, it does not mean that. Not to me. I think of it as...nice. Perhaps your eye color may have had a small part in my thought process.”

“Aww, Soul!” I laugh and hug him. “You are such a dork!”

I feel him hesitate as he slowly wraps his arms around me as well. He does not squeeze in the hug however.

Small steps!

“This is nice,” He says.

I laugh and pull him down to kiss his cheek again.

“Well I am glad you are willing to tell me this,” I smile. “If you ever want to talk with me more about this, just give me a call. You already have my number, alright?”

Honestly, I am not entirely sure if he hears me at the moment. Just like when I kissed him before, he has frozen in place. His arms are still around me and he just won’t move. When I lean back, I see his eyes are glowing again.

Sneaking out of his arms, I hold my arm in the air above my head, aiming with my wrist.

Looking back at Soul I see his eyes flickering and then he looks in my direction.

“See you later, Alligator!” I blow a kiss.

For the first time ever, Soul smiles. “In a while, Crocodile.”

Looks like today was not entirely a shit show.

Just wait till Soul learns about what happened. I bet he will be changing his mind about me real quick.

~~~

I make my way to Piggie’s place.

It is awfully quiet right now.

Not that, that this is exactly new or out of the ordinary, but it starts to leave me more on edge.

I know Arturo’s little pawns are out here. Just where could they be?

The only ones I have seen were the two people who had broken into Ama’s home. You would think that for people looking for me, they would be making more of a ruckus.

Cody knew I had stopped by Tin Can’s home. How did he do that? Obviously he has spies or something, but if he has that, would Arturo not have the same?

While the two hate each other, both tend to think alike.

Both sell the same things, especially now that Cody has Arturo’s plans, and both are assholes.

Today makes me think that Cody is the worst of the two.

Arturo never tried to rape me. Sure, he maybe wants to kill me now, but even before, he respected me in a way that I knew he would not ever try anything like that.

Fuck Cody.

Actually fuck them both.

I am just someone in the middle of their crossfire.

I freeze when I see some people standing on some of the rooftops in front of me.

All of them are wearing red and black.

How the hell did they get all the way over here without being noticed by any of Cody’s people? It is broad daylight and Arturo’s people could easily get noticed. Are Cody’s nerds that stupid?

This is fairly close to Piggie’s place so they are scoping out the area. If they are sitting on here keeping a lookout, then this means there is a group on the ground and they are most likely in Piggie’s club.

Biting my lip, I reach into my bag and pull out a small metal baton. I then creep along the edge of my rooftop.

There is only one person standing on the building in front of me.

I need to only keep one alive. When I do that, Tin Can can finally help me. I just need to kill six other people.

That should not be a huge problem.

Yes, I struggled with that one bitch at Ama’s, but this time I have distance. I will not miss any of my shots this time.

First, take out anyone that can easily be taken down without anyone knowing.

I jump from my building and grab onto the ledge of the one in front of me.

It does not grab the attention of the thug standing up here.

The man has headphones in his ears and is bobbing his head to random music.

I see he is like me. I like listening to my music in the middle of a job as well.

Sneaking up behind him, I let my baton extend out, it is about two feet long and I know it hurts them.

When I am behind the man, I swing the baton hard into the side of his head. He makes a small grunt and then he is on the ground.

I would have used my sleeping darts, but I really needed to let my frustrations out on something. His head will have to do.

I reach into his pocket and pull out his phone, turning his music off. I can’t have his battery die. I will want to bring it to Tin Can as well.

The man and his phone will stay here until everything is done.

Quickly, I tie him up to a rusty rail that snakes in and out of the roof. He definitely won’t be going anywhere.

Thankfully most of these rooftops have pretty tall parapet walls. It will make it easier to hide from others.

There are three buildings with Arturo’s people on top of them. All of them surround Piggie’s building.

They are all split up pretty weirdly. Three are on one building, two on another, and then some other nerd is off on his own.

All of them have guns in their hands and they all look bored, clearly not doing their jobs well.

I guess Arturo has not been paying them well lately.

The one on his own will be the easiest to get, though, he is the farthest.

Hmm...I think I will just go backwards then. Save the easiest for last.

Two people are chatting together on the roof on the building next to me.

Pulling out two darts, I think about how I am going to do this.

If I am lucky, they will not scream in fear. Hopefully they will be nice and just flop over into some sweet dreams.

Well I can only see how it goes!

Quickly, I throw the darts one after the other.

The two thugs reach their hands up to where they were hit. They give each other a confused look before they both end up collapsing. One happens to fall over the edge.

Well, I guess that is one way to kill them.

I jump over and pull out a knife. I harshly slice it across the sleeping man’s throat.

Yeah, I am not going to risk keeping one alive. They have their guns, so obviously they may have the intention to kill.

Now there are the tree grouped together.

I throw more darts. They all fall.

Seriously? This is so easy. They all had one job and they could not even handle that.

The last guy is sitting on a chair on his rooftop. He has the gun placed on his lap and he is reading out of a small book.

I roll my eyes.

Careful to not possibly be tricked, I grapple through the buildings around us. I take the longer route, just to make sure there aren’t any more of Arturo’s men around here.

None that I can see.

Finally I climb up the last building the with final guy on top.

When I reach the top, I see he is standing and looking over at the other rooftops in front of him. He radios in, trying to ask where everyone went.

Poor guy. He thinks they just ditched him.

Sneaking up behind him. I tap his shoulder.

He jumps and looks over at me.

“Hi!” I smile and wave.

I then lift up my baton and swing it across his face.

He goes backwards and over the edge, screaming the whole way down.

Looks like all those people are over with. Time to go inside.

Grappling over to Piggie’s place, I slowly ease myself down. I check all the windows along the way, checking to see if anyone is there or if anything is out of the ordinary.

I do not see anything until I reach the very first floor. Piggie and Vero are sitting on stools by the bar. In the middle of the dance floor, there are about five people standing.

One of them is speaking to Piggie and Vero.

“We do not wish to bring harm,” A man in a red hat says. “Just tell us where the thief is and we will be on our merry way.”

Piggie just smiles and takes a sip of his drink.

“Drop dead,” He says.

Both he and Vero jump off their seats and roll over and behind the bar.

Instantly the other four gang members open fire. They rain bullets down on the bar.

When they all pause to reload, Piggie and Vero pull out some big guns and start shooting at Arturo’s men.

The man with the red hat pretty much ends up looking like swiss cheese. Everyone else runs and dodges for cover.

They all have their backs turned to the main entrance so I might as well enter through there. The windows here have metal bars across them. I can’t exactly break in through them.

Gunfire and shouting is all I hear from the other side of the door.

Pulling out my two guns, I ready them and then I kick open the door.

Two of the gang members turn to look at me but I am already shooting in their direction while moving to the side for my own cover.

Both of the ones that looked at me end up with a bullet in their foreheads.

One of the remaining thugs turns their gunfire in my direction.

I dodge and roll behind a thick wooden wall. I am pretty sure the bullets won’t be breaking through.

“We need to get out of here!” One of the men shout.

What sounded like four guns going off soon turns into three.

I peek around the wall and see one of the guys running out the front door.

The last guy sees me and pokes his head out to shoot in my direction. As soon as he does, Piggie ends up shooting him.

Quickly, I run to the front door and look out through the parking lot.

The last guy is running on foot, not even looking back.

Raising one gun, I stare down the pistol sight.

He is running sideways at the moment but that will not save him.

Pulling the trigger once, my bullet flies fast and then the man falls sideways, dead.

Perfect!

“Nice shot,” Piggie says behind me.

Now that I have a better look at him, I see that his eyebrow is busted open, one eye is purple, his nose is crooked, and his cheek is swollen.

“Piggie…” I reach out and hovor my finger over his cheek. “I’m so sorry. They came here for me.”

“Relax, kid,” He pushes my hand away and then pulls me into a hug. “I am just glad you are alright. You had me worried there for a second.”

I bite my lip.

This was not as scary as Ama’s because I know that Piggie and Vero have been in plenty of shootouts before, but this is something I do not want to get used to.

“Come inside,” Piggie says. “We could all use a drink.”

I nod and follow him in. Vero is already pouring out three shots of vodka for us all to share.

Vero hands me and Piggie one.

“To our first family shootout!” Vero raises her glass to me with a smile before downing the shot.

Piggie does the same.

I just frown and place the drink back on the counter.

“I am not drinking to that.” I say.

Vero rolls her eyes and pours another shot for herself.

“Yeah well, you have to find the fun in everything.” Piggie grins. “Not everyday that we all survive a shootout together. Who’s to say we won’t survive the next one?”

I purse my lips at that.

“I do not want another one,” I say. I jump on top of the bar to sit on it. “I do not get how you are all so calm about this.”

Piggie raises an eyebrow. “This coming from the person who on the daily, swings hundreds of feet in the air? That’s cute.”

I roll my eyes. “That is not at all the same. At least with that, I do not have to worry about you guys.”

Vero scoffs. “And you do not think we aren’t worried about it? You think we want to hear about the day you are possibly found with your head burst wide open in the middle of a parking lot?”

I groan and toss my goggles off. “Fine, whatever.”

Piggie wraps an arm around my shoulders. “I can see you are still on edge, yeah?”

I nod and let out a long sigh. I might as well tell them about what happened with Cody now.

“I might have fucked myself,” I say slowly. “I-uh, I may have Cody coming after me now as well.”

Both Vero and Piggie look at me with wide eyes.

“What?” Vero exclaims.

I close my eyes and rub my fingers into my temples.

“Today I went to Cody’s to tell him that he needs to protect us since he dragged me into this mess with Arturo.” For the next part, my voice gets a little quieter. “In exchange, he wanted me to...to sleep with him. I told him no but he tried to force himself on me.”

Piggie’s arm around me tightens.

“Did...did he touch you?” Piggie grits out. “If he did, I am going over there with my gun right now.”

I shake my head.

“No. I smashed a wine bottle on top of his head and just ran out of there.”

Vero’s has her hands in fists, her knuckles have turned white.

“Did you kill him?” Piggie asks. “Please tell me you killed him.”

Biting my lip, I shake my head. “I do not think he is dead. It was just a somewhat empty wine bottle.”

Everyone is silent then.

My mind ends up wandering about things that it shouldn’t again. Mostly about how this gun fight could have gone wrong in so many ways.

“I also spoke with Tin Can,” I say.

Vero smirks at that, but Piggie looks angry.

“Zafiro,” Piggie says slowly. “Is there anything else? If so, tell me later so that I don’t end up having a fucking heart attack!”

Piggie marches upstairs and leaves me with Vero.

She chuckles and takes the shot that I left on the bar.

“You sure are like your mother.” She says before downing the shot.

I give a hesitant smile at that. Not really sure how I should feel about that honestly.