THE CHRISTMAS SEARCH

GANGS AND QUERIES.

  "Naomi! Naomi!!" I was woken up by the sound of my name being called out loud. "Can you hear me?" Owen asked. I laid on the floor, still trying to regain my consciousness fully. My head rested on his hand as I laid on the floor, he knelt down beside me. I could hear people screaming and crying, the sound of gunshots filled the air. "What's happening?" I asked, trying to sit upright, but I felt a sharp pain in my head which made me lay back.

"Relax, you were hit on the head by a bottle. I tried stopping you but you didn't hear." Owen said.

"Isn't that the sound of gunshot? What's happening, Owen?" I asked.

"Gang war. Another gang is here to spoil the party. I managed to get to you and drag you here to avoid getting hit by a bullet. Those idiots were shooting sporadically, spraying bullets to anyone in their way. A guy standing beside me at the bar got hit." He replied. I looked up and saw we were behind the bar, broken bottles lied around me. I was finally able to sit upright and rest my back against the bar. I saw a blood stain on Owen's shirt, "Jesus! You are bleeding."

"Oh, that's not my blood, it's from the guy that got hit, I was trying to help him, but he got hit so bad he didn't make it." He responded. We heard another gunshot and a lady screaming, begging not to be killed, then we heard another gunshot and we couldn't hear the lady's voice anymore, we concluded she had been killed.

"I'm scared, Owen." My voice started to shake, so were my hands, I was indeed scared.

"Relax. We have to get out of here. There's a door over there which I think leads to the back. I saw the bar attendant go through there when it all started." Owen stood up slowly to peep at the scene, then he said, "C'mon, let's go! They're not looking." We started to crawl silently, trying to avoid the broken bottles and not make a sound so loud we would be heard. We crawled past the bar and got to the door, Owen opened it gently and signified for me to go through first. As I crawled, I took a moment to turn back and have a look at the scene, I saw people laying on the floor, some half-dead, coughing and asking for help, I saw guys with masks on and guns in their hands walking around. One of them shot a man lying on the floor, begging for help. The gunshot brought my senses back to the fact that we were escaping. I crawled out and Owen followed. Immediately we got to the back of the club, I took my heels off and stood upright, Owen and I began walking fast towards the road, we saw people running helter-skelter, then we heard voices coming from where we came out from, we thought it could be the gang members so we began running towards the road, holding each other hand in hand. We got to the road and saw some guys bearing arms outside the club. "Look, my car's over there." Owen pointed to his car parked on the other side of the road. We crossed to the other side of the road and bent down beside a car, then we started walking speedily with our bodies bent to remain hidden beside the cars packed on the road. Luckily, we made our way to Owen's car without being spotted, he unlocked the car and got in through the passenger's side, I got in too after he made it to the driver's side. He kickstarted the car and zoomed off, not caring if we were going to get shot at or not. "Thank goodness they didn't spot us." I said.

"I wonder why we were hiding beside those cars," He began laughing. "People were running on the streets and weren't shot at. We were acting like suspects." He continued laughing. I laughed too.

"At least we are still alive, they are people dead inside there." I responded. After some minutes, Owen started hitting the steering with his palm, saying, "I knew it! I told you!"

"Told me what?" I queried.

"I told you that woman was lying."
"The bar attendant?"

"Yeah." He answered. I had forgotten we were on a search.