Family Line // B. Wayne

seven

 The whole building shook as fire leapt into the sky somewhere off to the right. Lily rolled off of the couch and hit the ground in one swift move. Gun fire ripped through the air, sounding incredibly close. Someone screamed on the street and tires squealed across pavement. Lily shut her eyes for a moment and covered her head as more gun fire sounded.

"Lily!" Geena shouted from somewhere near the kitchen.

"Stay down!" Lily roared. "If you can, crawl to me but do not stand up!"

Sirens wailed in the distance and got closer and closer before zipping past them and heading west. The gunshots seemed to slow for a moment and Geena took that as her chance to bolt across the room and lay down next to Lily. Miles and Kallie were close behind. Lily laid her arm on top of their backs and held them close.

"We're alright," she soothed. "We're gonna be alright."

"What the fuck is happening?" Miles asked. Crime was normal for the area, but this was more than normal and explosions were rare. Lily rested her chin on her forearm and sighed.

"I don't know. But we'll be okay."

They waited for five minutes before Lily slowly pulled herself up into a seated position. She snatched the remote off of the coffee table as the other three gingerly picked themselves off of the floor and settled their backs against the couch like she was. They were out of the way of the windows and down on the ground. Aside from being on the sixth floor, they were in the safest position they could be in the apartment.

"Breaking news out of the East End. It appears that a gang battle has erupted into a full on turf war. GCFD has just arrived at the scene of the initial explosion at a warehouse, but the increasing gun fire is making it difficult for fire crews to safely put out the fire. GCPD is placing an emergency curfew over the Narrows and East End neighborhoods until seven in the morning. Lock your doors and stay safe."

Lily set her jaw and extracted herself from Kallie's tight grip on her arm. She crawled across the floor to the kitchen and then to their front door. They always locked it, but she wanted to be sure. After double checking the lock, Lily grabbed onto the bookshelf they had next to the hall and tugged. It was full of textbooks and books they had collected over the years and it was the heaviest piece of furniture they owned. She yanked it in front of the door and then settled a chair under the handle just to be sure.

"Lils? Are we in danger?" Kallie whimpered.

"We're okay," she answered calmly. "Just sometimes people use opportunities like this to rob places since all the cops are occupied." Her mutter of, "as if cops helped in the first place" was just for her.

Lily went to her room at the end of the hall and kneeled down to pull something out from under the bed. She twisted the dial until the lock came off and then she lifted the lid off of the long box. The dark haired woman ran her hands along the long barrel of the shotgun and carefully lifted it out of the box. She rested it on the floor next to her and grabbed the pistol next. Lily checked the chambers and filled them both up with bullets before engaging the safety. She grabbed them both and headed back to the living room.

"You can sleep if you want," she informed them. "I'll be up all night just to be sure."

Geena glanced at the two guns in her roommate's hand. "Will you be alright?"

"Yeah, you've seen me do this before. I'll be fine."

Geena and Miles pulled themselves off of the couch and patted her on the shoulder as they left with murmured thanks. Lily laid the guns on the coffee table and settled herself down on the ground next to Kallie.