Three Wishes: This didn't go as planned!

Hands Up

We went to the grocery store.  

On our way there, I had Jeanie look up a list of ingredients on my phone while I drove.  Her grey eyes turned flinty as she spoke.  I told her to write it down, and it took her a minute to figure out how to type it in my notes.

"Hey."  She broke the uninterrupted sound of rubber on road.  "We'll get her back." 

I grit my teeth.

She glanced over at me.  "Stay cool.  You have to keep a cool head."

"Have you-- have you dealt with things like this before?"

She looked at the open notes app.  "Almost every person who wakes me, ends this way." 

"This way--"

She cleared her throat.  "In disaster.  Not like this specifically-- although... anyway, I can only give three wishes.  It's just enough rope to hang yourself on." 

"Don't say that."  I replied. 

"It's true."

"Not this time."

We arrived. 

When we'd bought what we needed, I called the door to me.  It appeared promptly on the graffiti scrawled wall.

"Take me to Kate."  I told it, once we'd assembled everything. 

It quietly opened, and I peeked my head through the door.  We needed to throw the hydrogen peroxide-bleach bombs quickly.  They were already fizzing dangerously. 

Kate was tied and gagged in a chair at the center of the warehouse.  Lights were directed at her, with groups of men in the shadows.

BAM!  A gun went off, slicing my forehead neatly.  The pain was acrid, a sharp almost numb feeling, in comparison to the desperate burning of waterboarding.  I drew back.  Jeanie gasped at my wound.  I grabbed a bomb and threw it towards the gunman.  He'd stepped into the doorway.  Caught the bomb, looking surprised. 

I barged past him, throwing bombs as fast as I could.   They were just peroxide and bleach in empty water bottles.  The gunman had Jeanie by the arm, the bomb in his other hand.  She kicked his shin, but he ignored her, dragging her forward.

The bombs rolled to the corners of the room. 

I ran back to Jeanie.  There was blood sticking to my eyelids.  I grabbed the gunman from behind, wrestling him towards me. 

BAM!  Someone shot the backside of my knee, and I fell.  My head it the pavement.  Everything became indistinct.  Shouting echoed in the room.  Jeanie whacked the bomb out of the gunman's hands, it tumbled to rest a few feet from my face.  She jumped after it, but the gunman had her by the waist.  It fizzed.  I could see the condensation.  The cap buckled outward. I rolled to the side, arms cradling my aching head.

CRRRRPOW!!

Darkness. 

Jeanie's face before mine, nose inches away.  She was speaking.  It came into focus. "Come on.  You're supposed to be healed.  Be healed.  Come on--"  She reached up a hand to wipe her eyes.  

I grabbed her wrist.  Her hand curled towards mine.  "I'm okay."  I told her, looking around.  There were men on the ground.  Toxic fumes whirled in the air.  Where was Kate? 

The roof above us creaked ominously.

I looked behind me.  We were in a corner, Kate was still bound to the chair, the chair which was tipped sideways, Kate limp.

I ran towards the warehouse's center. 

BAM!  A bullet whizzed past my ear.  Another gunman had risen, coughing.  BAM!  They were rising on  all sides.  A wound opened in my arm, red welling up from it.  BAM BAM BAM-- it became background noise.  I reached Kate, stumbling as my knee was shot out from under me.  I fell beside her before I felt Jeanie heal me.  Kate stirred as well. 

"Abel?"   She mumbled, blinking.  "Wait-- you have to get out of--"

My jaw disintegrated as a bullet burrowed it's way through my face. 

Her face went paper white, then her eyes widened as Jeanie healed me. 

Hands shaking, I pulled out a pocket knife and slit her bonds.

"We have to go."  My jaw moved smoothly as I spoke, as if freshly oiled.

We pulled back towards the door.

Almost there.

"Abel--"  Jeanie's tin-colored eyes sought me out, her face empty-- body fading like a wisp of smoke.  "Abel, I--"

And she was gone. 

I pushed Kate towards the door.  A bullet rammed through my shoulder, cracking it like an eggshell.  It jarred as I ran, pain pulsing with each footfall. 

We were almost there when a black-clack gunman stepped in front of it, pistol pointed straight at my chest.

"Don't move."  He growled.

Kate stopped.  I skidded beside her. 

"Put your hands in the air."

Beyond the door were our other supplies, out of reach now.  And Jeanie was gone. 

We put our hands up.