A Touch of Blue - 5. Bang Bang

Zafiro

I need cat food for Yinx. There is a little bit left but that will probably run out today.

Since it is lunchtime, I decide to also stop by Ama’s.

I park my bike and then jog up the stairs to her kitchen.

As soon as I walk in, I can tell that something feels different.

Frowning, I make my steps quieter and listen for anything out of the ordinary.

The kitchen and living room are empty. That is strange. Ama should be homeschooling the kids right now.

I pull out my guns and ready them.

Noises can be heard down a hallway that leads to Ama’s room.

Quietly, I move towards the door.

I check the kids rooms along the way. They are all empty.

From what I can tell, there were signs of a struggle. Toys are thrown out everywhere. Sure, kids can make a mess with toys, but they at least organize it in a way that tells a story.

No, these are put in ways that tells me that they tried to fight back from their attackers in their room.

A muffled scream can be heard from Ama’s room. I also hear crying.

I press my ear to the door.

I can hear the kids crying and what I think is Ama struggling with something.

There aren’t any other noises.

Do I open the door? What if the attacker is on the other side? They might have a gun and shoot them if they notice me.

Stepping away from the door, I quietly move back towards the kitchen. I move down the stairs and back outside.

Extending the metal claws in my gloves, I begin to climb along the shop.

I try to be quiet to not alarm whoever might be in there.

Reaching the side of the window they are in, I peek inside.

A man and woman dressed in black and red outfits are standing to the side on their phones. They have guns in their hands.

Ama and her three kids are on the floor. Ama lays on her side, she has her mouth covered, her hands tied behind her back, and her ankles tied as well.

Her kids are side to side behind her. They are also gagged and have their hands tied behind them. Their eyes are puffy and red from crying.

Ama struggles against the restraints.

For a moment she looks my way and sees me. She makes eye contact with me.

I bring a finger over my lips to tell her to be quiet.

Slowly she nods and looks back up at the two men.

Pulling out a gun, I aim it at the man. He is the closest to me.

I pull the trigger.

Screaming can be heard from the kids as the man falls over onto the ground.

The mysterious woman drops her phone and tries to run for the door.

I shoot again and it hits her leg.

She screams and collapses somewhere in the hallway.

“Can I break the window?” I shout to Ama.

Ama nods frantically.

I grab the top of the window and place my feet over the glass. I push with my feet and then pull myself back with force. As I am about to come back down, my legs break through the glass and I am in Ama’s room.

The kids scream again and they kneel over their mother.

“It’s ok!” I whisper. “I’ll keep you guys safe.”

They continue to cry but they nod.

I stand and walk towards the door.

Just as I am about to walk out, a bullet flies past me and hits the frame of the door.

Quickly, I hide back in the room.

Ama watches me and the door.

Biting my lip, I quickly go over and roll her away from the middle of the room. I move the kids with her.

I do not want them possibly getting in the crossfire if this bitch happens to run in this way.

“Come out already!” She shouts after some time.

I grip onto my pistols and keep still.

“Why don’t we take this outside and away from these nice people you so rudely decided to mess with?” I say.

Her footsteps can be heard coming my way. She is not very quiet.

I glance at Ama, her eyes are wide open.

My heart is beating pretty fast at the moment. I take a few breaths to try and calm down.

Her footsteps are right next to me. Carefully, I move and then I see the tip of her gun.

I lash out with one of my pistols and knock the gun out of her hands.

She runs in and tries to attack me.

I smack the side of her face with one pistol and then kick out at her stomach.

She grabs my leg and we both fall.

Aiming with both one gun, I pull the trigger.
The woman moves out of the way and it causes me to miss.

Rolling away from her, I stand and aim both guns at her. She has stood up as well and she swings her arm at my hands. That cause both of my guns to fall before I can pull the trigger.

She grabs a bat that was sitting against the wall and she swings at my head. I don’t duck in time. It hits me and I run into the wall, hitting the corner of picture frame.

The woman swings the bat again and I roll away.

I end up grabbing both of my guns again.

She runs at me with the bat raise in the air. With one gun, I shoot at her feet. She bends over and shrieks in pain. Not even a second after the first shot, I shoot again with the other pistol. It hits her square in the forehead.

Her body falls backwards and lands next to the man who came in here with her.

My breaths are short and fast. My heart is beating so hard that I feel like it is going to burst.

I look over at Ama and the kids.

The kids are crying and have their faces hidden into their mother’s back.

Ama lets out a shaky breath and closes her eyes.

I rush over and remove the gags from all their mouths. I untie Ama’s arms first and then we both help free the kids.

“Thank you, Zafiro.” She says after a while. Everyone is quiet from the shock no doubt.

I just nod and force a smile. “N-no problem. Just doing what I do!”

This was scary. I have never had to do something like this.

There have been plenty of people I have had to kill. That comes with working for the gangs, so I can easily say that part was normal.

Never had I had to kill to protect people that are close to me. It was terrifying. Every second of it was terrifying.

If I died, they could have died as well! I would hate myself if I had failed. I actually almost did fail. That bitch hit me with a bat!
Oh god...what if I never came here? I don’t exactly come here often for lunch. The amount of luck that I had with choosing to come here…

If I chose to go somewhere else, they would all be dead.

“Zafiro?” Ama grabs my shoulder. “Are you alright?”

I blink and keep the fake smile.

“Of course!” I say, “I am just...my heart is still beating fast, you know?”

She nods and wraps an arm around my shoulders.

“Mine too.” She says.

I frown and stare at the dead bodies on the floor.

We already sent the kids out. We didn’t want them to see the death in the room.

“They were looking for you,” Ama says.

I narrow my eyes and look up at her. “What do you mean? Why were they looking for me?”

“They said that Arturo knows you stole his secret plans.”

Shit. How did he figure that out? This fast as well? How?

I bite my lip.

“You are really in some hot water now, Zafiro,” She sighs.

The woman’s phone is still on the floor.

I need to throw that out. Both of them. The man had one too.

They will have trackers on them and I don’t want them getting into innocent people’s hands.

Hmm...I think I have an idea of where to take them.

“Did they say anything else?” I ask.

Ama stands.

“They mentioned something along the lines of ‘Zafiro and Cody will be punished for working against Arturo’.”

I sigh and drag my hand across my face. It is then that I realize I have blood caked in my hair.

Ama sees it as well.

“Come,” She says, offering her hand.

She lends me to the bathroom. I sit on the toilet seat next to the sink.

Ama carefully moves her fingers through my hair to try and find what is making me bleed.

Did a bat really do that much damage to me?

“Why did you have to have such thick hair?” She says.

“I think it has something to do with having a Mexican Mama.” I smirk.

I look at my gloves. One of the fingers feels wet and it’s clinging to my skin. Pulling the glove off, I see that my pointer finger is bleeding and has a small gash along the side of the nail.

“You have a medium sized cut just over your temple,” She says. “I’ll get a needle and thread to stitch it together.”

I cringe and slowly nod.

“I’ll be back,” She says. “Again, thank you saving us, Zafiro.”

She walks out and I let out a breath that feels as if it has been stuck in my chest.

My hands are shaking and I hug myself to try and stop it.

Everything is fine. They are fine now. Nobody has gotten hurt. Ama had a yellow bruise on her cheek but she should be fine.

It was all just so scary!

Usually I am fine with things like this. I protect myself all the time out there. Killed plenty of people who either wanted to kill me or had bad intentions.

Yet, this is different. Why is everything shaking inside of me? My mind feels like it is still in panic mode.

Ama comes back with a giant med-kit.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a bottle of vodka would you?” I ask as she checks through my hair again.

She chuckles. “Nope, I’m afraid not.”

I sigh and stare at the wall ahead of me.

“At least it wasn’t my pretty face!” I give a shaky laugh.

I do not like needles. I especially do not like thread that is about to move into my skin as well.

“Oh yes...We couldn’t have that.” She shakes her head with a smirk.

Ama’s parents were once doctors over on the Rich Side. They taught her some things before they had all been scammed and lost everything.

It is strange hearing about Rich people moving into our side, but it isn’t entirely uncommon. Even over there, they all trick each other for their own good.

I bite my lip as she uses a warm sponge to clean around the wound.

“I think I can say that if you are in need of repairs again, it will be for free.” She laughs.

Smiling, I reach into the med-kit and pull out a regular band-aid.

“Something else broken?” She asks as she steps back to sterilize a needle and thread.

Looking at them causes a shiver to go through my spine.

“No,” I say. “Just for my finger.”

She grunts and then stands in front of me with a small canister that looks like pepper spray.

Ama leans in closer to the wound and sprays over the wound. I hiss at the stinging it brings but after about five seconds, the pain disappears.

“Sorry,” She says. “I should have warned you first, but now you shouldn’t feel anything.”

I bring my hand up to my head but Ama grabs it.

“The fuck?” She exclaims. “Don’t just touch it! That is incredibly unsanitary and stupid!”

I roll my eyes.

“I was just curious if I would feel it,” I say.

She lets out a huff and then brings the needle and thread up.

I bite my lip and squint my eyes shut.

“You don’t think they would come back do you?” She asks.

There is no pain, but I feel the pressure of her moving my head. I open my eyes again.

Well that is interesting.

“Zafiro?” She calls.

“Sorry,” I say, “No I don’t think so. I already grabbed their phones. I’ll be taking them far away from here.”

There is a small silence as she works.

“I do not think that will be enough,” She says. “Arturo sent them here. I will probably have to move somewhere else for a time.”

I frown.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “This is my fault.”

She sighs. “No it’s not, Zafiro. It is Cody’s fault.”

I guess that is true. He hired me to go after the folder. It isn’t like I knew it was Arturo’s at first. If I did, I would have declined the job immediately. Obviously Cody would have gotten mad, but he is easier to manipulate than Arturo.

Cody has some weird fascination with me. Arturo does not. If anything, he hates me because of my Mama.

He wanted her but she wouldn’t let him get it.

“What are you going to do about all this?” Ama asks.

I glance past her elbow and see the bodies on the floor.

“I’ll deal with the bodies and help you clean,” I say. “That is all I’ll tell you. I don’t want you learning things you might not need to know.”

“Hmm...don’t worry about cleaning then,” She says. “Just take the bodies and phones with you.”

I almost nod but thankfully I don’t.

~~~
~~~

Roy

First day out of a job.

I must say, it isn’t so bad honestly. So far I have been watching a series about a group of monster hunters. There is one who is one of the best but people are trying to corrupt him with some kind of evil club.

It is all pretty interesting.

I started it this morning. When I was about seven episodes in, I needed a break.

Eventually, that break led into a documentary about Mekaias.

I don’t really believe much of it. Nobody really knows much about him. He has become ‘the universe’s latest mystery’.

Whenever Mekaias is present at a U.U.P.P. interview with Norian, the questions immediately change to talk about him. He clearly gets uncomfortable and sometimes has to leave.

I wish everyone would just leave him alone. From what I know, he has done his service and deserves his peace.

That being said...I would very much like to meet him.

I guess you could probably say that I am a bit of a fan. Not a big one, but a fan.

It is just a bit terrifying to know that he could probably kill me with a snap of his fingers.

There is something I do not like about being stuck in this house. The temptation to stuff my face with potato chips is so easy to listen to.

I ate a whole bag! I even opened up another one before I even realized what I was doing.

That was something that I desperately needed to stop. Thankfully Avery decided to stop by to give me a heads up on Zafiro. It was a good distraction.

I was not exactly expecting anything I didn’t know, but yes, he did in fact get away.

There is always a small part of me that hopes that maybe somehow he will get caught. Maybe a cop on the side will happen to see him and arrest him.

While I wish for that, more than anything I would like to be the one putting him in cuffs.

Bringing in the famed thief would feel amazing.

Actually, now that I think about it, he probably isn’t considered famous anymore. Nobody seems to care about him anymore but me.

Avery probably cares still because of me. I know we had met because of Zafiro.

Avery and I were set to work together for our first assignment. To bring in the thief with unnatural blue eyes.

Zafiro had broken into a brand new jewelry store that had just opened up.

We were chasing him along the rooftops. Avery was in a helicopter and I was running along with a few other U.U.P.P. officers.

This happened to be the first day that Zafiro got his new tech. When he jumped over the edge of a rooftop, we all panicked, thinking he commited suicide.

Next thing we know, we see him swinging from building to building like some kind of superhero.

I can easily say that failing my very first assignment sparked the obsession with trying to catch him.

Avery did not seem as annoyed as me, but that is pretty normal. She is very calm and doesn’t let things get to her head.

She does like to keep in touch with me about things related to Zafiro. She wants to know how things went and if I was close.

It makes me smile because I know deep down, failing her first assignment did the same thing to her as it did to me. Even if she tries to deny it.

We both want to catch him. They may have said we failed, but we are still trying to get him.

I make my way upstairs.

Zafiro is getting in my mind again. I really need to stop.

Distracting myself with shows and movies tends to help. Maybe I should finish that Mekaias documentary?

Eh, I don’t know. Mekaias himself doesn’t ever speak in it and he has never come out and said if any of that was true.

I guess I can continue watching that show about the monster hunter.

It is a bit hot tonight, even inside it has gotten hotter.

Tossing my shirt off, I put on some track pants and my workout shoes.

Maybe running on the treadmill will do me some good.

My gym area is set up on the roof area next to my room.

My room has a wall of glass windows that looks outside to the house next door. Not much to look at and since the other house has been empty for years, I move my gym equipment outside.

I push open the glass door and step over to the treadmill.

Pressing a few buttons brings up a holovid in front of me.

I press play and my show start. The treadmill starts as well and I get to running.

This episode, the hunter learns that he has been called into a war.

Oh god! He better not die! I know that the writers of this show have killed off their main protagonist plenty of times before.

“Nice tits!” A voice calls to my left.

I look over to the voice and freeze.

That was a bad idea.

I get sent backwards and land hard on the concrete.

“Oh damn,” Zafiro giggles. “I don’t know if you know...but you kind of want to keep running on those.”

He is on the other building laying on his stomach. He balances his head on his hand and drums the fingers of his other hand along the edge of the roof.

“Hey there, Tin Can.” He winks.