The Nightwatcher

Chapter TWO

CHAPTER TWO

Riley wasn't out long. He slowly opened his eyes, and from what he could tell, he was upside down, as he felt the blood rushing to his head. Some shards of the broken windshield struck him in his face due to the aftermath of the explosion. He could smell a mixture of leaking oil and gas, and burning smoke in the distance.

"Jason," he weakly said.

No response from his partner.

He slowly lifted up his arm, and tapped Drake.

Still no response.

Riley grunted as he unbuckled his seat belt. Gravity caused him to fall down onto the caved-in roof, landing right on the back of his neck. Riley gritted his teeth, and groaned slightly. The passenger's side front window was busted out, and he attempted to crawl out over rough blacktop and shattered glass. When he was fully out of the car, he rolled onto his back, and stared up at the dark, cloudy sky.

Gingerly, he stood up. From what he could tell, no bones were broken, but every inch of his body was in pain. He stumbled over to the driver's side, and opened the door. He unbuckled Drake's seat belt, preventing him from falling down like he did, and carefully pulled him out. He sat him up against the car.

His short black hair had a thick layer of sweat on it. There were cuts all over his face. Blood crept out of his nose and bottom lip. Much like himself, Riley couldn't see any broken bones on Drake's body. He lightly shook his body, and said his name, attempting to wake him up.

Drake grunted, and mumbled something unintelligible. He squinted his eyes, and placed his hand on his cut up face.

"What the hell?" Drake asked.

"Jason," Riley said, relieved.

"Wade, what the hell happened?"

Riley was going to say something, then he looked up above the police car. They were at a street corner. Riley was staring at a concrete wall with a big, smoking hole in it. Riley then noticed that the building was the Sterling City Municipal Bank.

A robbery, Riley thought.

"Can you stand up?" Riley asked Drake.

"Yeah, I think so."

Drake then slowly stood up, as Riley drew his gun. He aimed it in front of him towards the bank. Drake then did the same.

"Robbery?" Drake asked.

"That's what I'm thinking," Riley said.

Drake looked around.

"Doubt the cavalry's gonna come" Drake wondered.

"I was just thinking that," Riley replied.

Slowly, they made their way closer to the gaping hole in the wall of the bank. Riley wasn't sure what the plan was, as he and Drake had little hope of back-up. But they needed to do something.

They then heard voices and footsteps coming from the hole. Riley stopped in his tracks, as did Drake. They saw the outlines of several thugs in the smoke. After a few more moments, the outlines became clear. There were seven of them, all emerging from the smoking mass at once. Six of the thugs Riley and Drake could tell were just expendable no-names, each equipped with a black gym back and an AK-47.