Project Obsidian Moon

Chapter 7: One Last Day Together

A pool of red collected on the floor where the waiter now laid motionless. Before I could even process what happened, two more shots rang out, and this time they were pointed at me and Sarah. My instincts kicked in and threw myself and Sarah to the ground behind a few tables. "What the hell??? Where did they come from?" I could hear Sarah cussing at the attacker, How did they find us? Who even were they?? My body hurt just thinking about it. The shooter yelled out, his voice was high pitched and shaky, almost like that of a kid's, "I don't wanna shoot both of you, just the Adam guy, Come out and I'll let the lady go." I tried getting up but something wasn't letting me. I heard footsteps getting closer, I was almost out of time. I was gonna try standing up again but then Sarah grabbed my shoulder shaking me, "Any ideas on how to get out of this?... Adam..?" Her voice was getting farther away and more muffled. My vision got blurry and that's when I finally looked down to see my shirt soaked in red. "Oh my god Adam!! Adam stay with me!" I thought I'd dodged those bullets like in the movies, but I guess I overestimated myself. "Hah.. that was my only shirt.. It'll be a pain washing it off...." I tried to joke about it to calm Sarah down, but it all went black shortly after.

I woke up in a hospital room for the second time that week, and it didn't seem like it was going to be the last. My body felt like it was made out of concrete. I couldn't move anything, and Sarah was nowhere to be seen. "Mmfguh-" my tongue refused to move either, but I heard footsteps approaching, "Ugmfh-" I tried calling out to Sarah but my words came out as incomprehensible sounds. "You ain't gotta worry bud, Jenson's got you." The figure finally came into focus, revealing none other than Jenson. "Whfrs sra-" I didn't expect Jenson to understand a word I said but he did, that man surprises me even now. "Don't worry about Sarah right now, you've suffered major blood loss, if I hadn't happened to have been at the same restaurant, you guys would've been toast. Goners, poof." He motioned a balloon popping, "Just like that.", I guess the confused look on my face showed, since Jenson answered my question before it had even left my decrepit mouth. "In case you're wondering how and why I was there, I was on that date I was talking about. Wonderful lady, until I heard gunshots a couple floors up and I had to abandon that serene damsel all by herself. Oh but you ain't gotta worry, I told her I'd make it up to 'er." After that Jenson left the room for what seemed like a few hours, after which he returned with a small notepad and pen, "Here, use this for ya questions. Don't strain your throat, doc said it'd take you a couple more days to recover." He placed the notepad by my hands and I immediately got to writing. He made sure to read my question out loud, "Let's see.. where's the shooter... He's in custody, after I got there I put a bullet in his leg and he just passed out from the pain. What bothers me is that it was a kid, I wouldn't put him any older than 15.." I let out a grunt of satisfaction. It seemed like the best outcome, maybe me and Sarah could sneak into the holding cells and interrogate him at some point. Which reminds me, I wrote as recognizably as I could with the little strength I had. "Next question eh? You're quick.. Where's Sarah?.... I- I'm sorry to break it to you kid but.... How the hell do I put this, I've never been good at this darn stuff... She was shot too, shortly after you were. Only once, however unlike you she was hit in more... Important areas. She's receiving care but, she hasn't woken up yet.." Sarah was... Shot??? How.. she was the most careful person I knew.. "The cameras showed that after you were shot, the shooter walked around the table y'all were hiding behind and... shot Sarah.. She was hunched over you so she didn't even see him." This wasn't happening... This couldn't be happening. I can't lose two friends, two of my ONLY friends in under a week. Jenson didn't look me in the eye, it was probably hard for him too. Time passed by, the room was shrouded in silence, interrupted by beeps and chitters from the monitors hooked up to me. "It wasn't your fault ya know? You couldn't have done anything there.." There was silence again. I'd heard this phrase too many times these past few days, and every time there was something I could have done to stop it. Once again the silence was interrupted by the sound of a pen scribbling on paper, Jenson picked the notepad up once I was done, "Let's have a look... 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦'𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘩 𝘨𝘰 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯, Adam you can't seriously believe that, besides you'd already been shot, and who's to say he wouldn't have shot her anyway. There wasn't any possible way you coulda avoided that. Sarah would agree too." I couldn't argue further. I decided it was best to leave the matter alone..