I see two of his men each take a bullet to the chest, their bodies flying backwards, slumping against the brick wall behind them. Red now coats their white shirts, and I know this isn’t going to look good, but there was no way I was going to back down. Not this time. We have given him more than enough chances, yet he still thought it was better for him to start firing than for him to tell the truth and leave the bloodshed to another day.

I look left and right and see all my team still upright as we wait for the rest of the party to join us outside. Inside would have been a better option for bloodshed this morning, but I will take it out here on the footpath just the same. The door to the club flies open, and gunfire rages again, as the remainder of his men stalk out shooting, with no consideration for the outside world. Glass shatters from the broken windows of the cars nearby where stray bullets have found their surface. The sidewalk is beginning to be coated in red as another one of his team falls to the ground.

My gun is constantly firing, while I also keep an eye on each of my team, making sure crimson doesn’t coat their frames. I am not losing anyone in this shitshow. No one is getting injured on my watch. My frustrations rise more and more as the popping sound encasing us all. We came to ruffle feathers, not to kill the entire goose.

Just as his team storms closer, I catch a movement to my left and I see her. She is like a rabbit caught in headlights, and I don’t even think, I just do.

2

Annie Peterson

My feet slap against the pavement in perfect rhythm as I move through the quiet dark streets, lost in my own thoughts. Running has always been my savior, my north star, the one thing that calms and soothes me. I need a moment to center myself after taking a terrifying speeding cab through the city after jumping off the red eye into New York this morning.

After I got to the safety of my room, I had little time to rest my beating heart. Although the room looks like the photos from the website, it was clear that they took creative license with the photography. It is much smaller than I thought it would be. The bathroom has mold, the TV doesn’t work, there is no internet, and I am reasonably sure that I need to place the broken armchair in front of the door when I sleep to ensure I don’t get stabbed in the middle of the night.