Into Darkness We Walk

Greatness in Fear

"No... Help! Help me...!"

Gavin frowned, lifting his head as he removed the earbuds from his ears and turned off his music. Was that... a lady screaming? Unsure, he broke off from Evan, who was shadow fencing, and climbed up the huge concrete slab of Interstate Nine to see who was screaming.

There, down below wearing burnt clothes and carrying a bulky bag, was a woman, maybe in her early-to-mid-twenties. A man stood over her, for she had been pushed down.

He was holding a knife.

"Gimme the bag, bitch! Or I'll cut him open!"

"NO! Please! We need this bag!" The woman was crying and holding the bag while reaching out to the man.

"Mommy, he's hurting me!" A small voice whimpered.

Gavin gripped the edge of the concrete slab in shock. The looter was holding the lady's KID.

Growling, he knew he had to act, so he pulled out a metal pole from the concrete and silently jumped down, hiding behind the rubble.

"GIVE IT TO ME, BITCH! DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!? I. WILL. KILL. HIM."

Out of nowhere and completely by surprise, Gavin jumped out from behind the concrete he was hiding beside and cracked the looter upside the head. His skull cracked with a resounding snakt; if one dropped an egg, that would be his head. Huffing from his effort, the teen twirled the pole in a circle and then slid it into the strap on his backpack in one movement. "Are you alright?" He asked the lady, who was now holding her son protectively. "Did he hurt your kid?"

The woman shook her head, her son doing the same, but from behind his mother's coat. "Thank you, thank you so much, I... I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't showed up!" she cried, hugging Gavin with both arms, which made her temporarily let go of her child. Gavin barely hugged her back; human affection wasn't something he was used to quite yet. He didn't have to put up with it for long, though, for after only a matter of seconds she let go, seemingly bashful.

Combing some loose hair behind her left ear, she decided to try and strike up conversation with the teen seven, eight, or nine years her junior. "I-I'm Amber, Amber Lochter. A-and this is-is my son, Grayson-son,"

She appeared to have a bit of a stuttering problem, but that didn't seem to stop her from trying. Grayson, her son, barely waved from his hiding place behind his mom's coat. Gavin waved back, and then said to Amber, "Gavin; nice to meet you," Holding out his hand to shake, Amber took it shyly, cheeks flushing in such a way that Gavin took notice. Although intrigued, he didn't say anything of it. "Where are you headed?" he asked her, taking out a water bottle from the pocket on the side of his pack and opening it. Amber watched him take a drink with a strange amount of fascination. Snapping out of her reverie, she answered, "Oregon; my son and I are from there, and were only here to visit my dad when the fire destroyed everything while we were at the store."

Gavin winced, but tried not to show it. "Well, best of luck to you," he pulled at his undershirt, trying to cool himself down, "Hot day for spring, isn't it? Especially here."

Amber nodded, eyes not on Gavin's face but on the spot of sweaty, shiny skin that showed each time he pulled out on the shirt. "Yeah, it is..."

This time, Gavin took notice and decided that now was the time to bail. "Well, I hope you and your son make it to Oregon. I best be going,"

Amber frowned, holding out her hand as if to stop him. "Can't you stay? I mean, w-with me?"

Yup, definitely the time to bail. "I'm only a teenager, ma'am; 'nd besides, I'm with a friend who's probably looking for me right now."

Amber tried to hide her disappointment, eyes searching the ground. "Oh."

"Sorry," was all Gavin could say.

Turning to leave, he waved goodbye to both her and Grayson before leaping from rubble pile to concrete slab to a pole support inside a destroyed offramp, which he grabbed to swing himself up onto the road. He hesitated, as if contemplating turning back, but then continued on and was gone.