Lazarus Rising (On hiatus)

Chapter 1 : A nice day for a gunfight

It was a beautiful sunny day in Hoxton, rare for England but welcomed none the less. Lachlan Morrow walked along Eagle Wharf Road gripping his girlfriend's hand. She stopped walking to rifle through the pockets of her jeans for her phone and Lachlan stood back and admired the woman he loved.
"God damn you're beautiful Lilly" Lachlan said a grin breaking out on his face.
Lilly looked up, one eyebrow raised, "I think I lost my phone" she said, her words slow, her voice worried. She turned around and began to walk briskly back the way they came.
"Heh" Lachlan snorted opening his arms wide and shouting after her "I love you too!" Lachlan lowered his arms and ran to catch up with Lilly.
"where are you going" "Going back to where we had lunch, I might have dropped my phone there" "ha! I thought you said that place gave you the creep "Fuck off " she said punching Lachlan in the arm.
They approached a large storage facility, the carpark of which they had used to sit and eat lunch. The large building cast a long shadow enveloping the car park, providing a welcomed break from the warm sunlight, the pair turned quickly into the carpark to find an expensive looking convertible in the space that they had previously occupied. Lilly crouched down to search under the car only to find the remains of her phone barely visible under the car's wheel.
"Shit!" she exclaimed, staring at the phone, she stood very quickly, the blood rising in her face. If Lachlan didn't know any better he would expect steam to escape from her nostrils any second now, she lifted her foot to kick the car but stopped. Lachlan looked up from her primed foot, a confused look on his face.
"What?" he said his expression remaining."Look" she said, lowering her foot and nodding in the direction of the corner opposite them.
Lachlan looked over to see what appeared to be some kind of meeting. There were 4 people in total with what appeared to be two sides. One side consisted of a single man facing toward the duo, he was tall, somewhere around six foot Lachlan estimated with a long coat the was hanging open revealing a black dress shirt and dark blue jeans, his face was stern and it was clear that he was attempting to comfort the others, his hair was short and his eyes were fixed on a member of the other group. A short, rotund man wearing a clearly expensive suit, even from this distance it was hard to miss his twitching and fidgeting, he was very clearly nervous and he expressed himself through very wide hand gestures and movement when he spoke. The fat man's peers were not nearly as nervous however, a woman, built like a tank with shoulders to match and a man wearing a cowboy hat who was (judging by his idle fidgeting) pretty bored with the whole ordeal. Lilly and Lachlan crouched down behind the car making sure they weren't visible to group over yonder.
"I wonder what's happening over there" Lilly said, excitement in her voice, obviously allowing her sense of adventure to override the violent anger that oozed from her earlier. "I don't care, we're currently hiding behind a car, which I'm guessing belongs to one of those weirdos, we need to leave before they see us""Nah" she said peering around the rear end of the car."Lilly, c'mon this isn't funny"
Lachlan peered over the passenger door of the car, trying to find an optimal moment to escape. He turned his head to see Lilly still peering enthusiastically around the car, he shook his head and returned his attention to the meeting. Lachlan froze; the tank was staring right at him, her eyes cold and focused. She spoke, her words unintelligible from this distance but the fat man turned locked eyes with Lachlan and for a second hat seemed to take for ever, stared back at Lachlan his confused expression mirroring Lachlan's, then time regained its pace and he reached into his coat and pulled out a pistol which he pointed directly at Lachlan. In a movement so fast it seemed to blur the man in the coat slammed an elbow down onto the fat man's shoulder knocking the gun from his grasp and sending it clattering to the ground, he followed through with a quick kick to fat man's back sending him reeling into the tank who had opened her mouth as if to scream but was now falling to the ground. The man in the coat turned to the cowboy but he was gone, this did not appear to comfort him however as he backed into a wall looking from side to side. A hand gripping his shoulder jerked Lachlan down; he had assumed this was Lilly until a gun was held to his head. Lachlan looked up to see Lilly scrambling to her feet her fists clenched. Then she was gone, and the car was gone, and the ground was gone. Lachlan felt sick to the stomach and looked down to realise he was now about 30 feet in the air, the hand left his shoulder and a soft popping noise emanated somewhere behind him. Lachlan fell ... fast, and he couldn't scream as the air was ripped from his lungs. His vision was blurring as the cold air dried his eyes and he could only just make out the chaos below.
There was clearly an intense fight happening below him and it took him a moment to realise exactly who was who, as he neared the ground one of the shapes moved toward the far wall then got much bigger very quickly. Before he know what was happening the shape collided with him, grabbing him around the chest and they landed. Lachlan pushed himself away from his saviour falling to the ground, he scrambled onto he hands and knees taking in gulps of air, blinking profusely. Lachlan rolled over staring up as the man in the brown coat retrieved a pistol from his jacket and fired a single shot before he was hit square in the chest by a beam of red energy, sending him flying backward into a car. The smell of smoke filled the air and Lachlan looked forward too see the cowboy standing by the fat mans side, twirling a butterfly knife in his left hand. Lachlan blinked and all of a sudden there was a boot directly in front of his face, he looked up to see the cowboy staring down at him, his eyes cold and his smile wide.
"I dropped you" he said, his thick American accent giving reason for his attire.
Lachlan scrambled to stand but the boot cam crunching down onto his forearm, pinning it to the ground.
"Nah, Nah, Nah. You aint goin nowhere" The cowboy said as he crouched down grabbing Lachlan by his hair. "I'm goin to kill you, and aint nothin in the verse gonna stop me" The butterfly knife clicked into it's open position as it was held to Lachlan's throat. "and that's a promise" Lachlan stared into the cowboy's eyes, they were cold and filed with anticipation. Then a cracking noise echoed in Lachlan's ears as his assailant's eyes fell into non-expression, the cowboy fell, his knife skittering across the asphalt. Lachlan peered up to see Lilly standing there holding a brick in her left offering help with the other. Lachlan accepted her hand and together they sprinted toward the street. They were almost to the sidewalk when a huge stream of red energy hit the ground in front of them causing the concrete to explode into debris and dust. The two of them fell to the ground rolling to their knees to see situation in front of them. The man in the coat was currently engaged in a vicious fist fight with the tank who appeared to be responsible for the stream of energy that had almost crippled the duo. The fat man was very slowly getting up off the ground wiping blood from his face, only to be knocked back down by a stray kick from the tank. She moved in to punch the man with the coat but he moved into her attack pressing his body up against hers, even from this distance Lachlan could make out his wink as he pressed his pistol into her shoulder and fired, blood spraying against the wall behind her, she stumbled backward but could not regain her composure before the mans fist collided with her face, she fell. The man returned his gun to it's holster and turned toward the two of them.
"CAR!" he yelled as he turned around catching a hay maker to the face from the fat man who had regained his footing among the commotion.
Lachlan and Lilly sprinted to the convertible, not questioning the orders they had been given. Lilly slammed into the driver's seat and Lachlan threw himself awkwardly into the passenger side. He looked up to see Lilly staring at him her expression panicked.
"keys!" she shouted searching frantically through the console.
Lachlan opened the glove box and a set of keys with a key chain portraying the letter Z in polished metal fell at his feet. He fumbled with them as he half passed half threw them to Lilly, who slammed them into the ignition and started the car. The car had quite a kick and launched backward as Lilly put it in reverse, she slammed the car into drive and they shot forward just as the man in the coat landed clumsily in the back seat, falling between the back of the front seats and the back seat. The car shot down the street attracting stares and glances from the already frantic public as they ran from or toward the gun fight that had just occurred, Lachlan went to close the glove box when he noticed a pistol sitting up the back. Lachlan grabbed the gun and spun, as the man in the coat sat up in the back seat.
"Whoa" said the man in the coat "lets all just keep our heads about us""Give me one reason I shouldn't just blow your head off right now!" Lachlan screamed his voice betraying him and breaking. The man chuckled his facial expression radiating smugness."You weren't paying much attention during that fight were you" "What the hell is ..." the car went over a speed bump, lifting off the ground, jolting the whole car and causing Lachlan to squeeze the trigger and fired a shot directly at the man's forehead.
"Shit!" Lilly cursed as the car landed "what the fuck Lachlan!"
Lachlan dropped the gun staring at the man whose smug expression had not left his smiling and perfectly intact face.
"You shot me!" the man said, clearly trying to suppress laughter and sound offended "I can't believe you shot me!""Who ... what are you!" Lachlan said as Lilly began to pull the car up on the side of the road"Uh, uh uuh" he said pulling his pistol from beneath his jacket and placing it against the side of Lilly's head "keep driving"
Lachlan's hand darted for the pistol he had found in the glove box, but the man got there first and kicked Lachlan back into his seat and pointed the second pistol at him. "I said, keep driving"
Lilly obeyed and pulled out onto the road, the car now traveling at a more reasonable speed.
"Now that I've got your attention" the man said relaxing slightly "who do you work for""what?" Lilly said her expression now confused."It's a simple question, who sent you""what?" Lachlan said turning to look at the man."Oh" he said his smugness leaving him as he lowered the guns "Oh shit!"
Lilly grabbed Lachlan's chin turning it vigorously forward to see the cowboy, now standing in the middle of the road ahead of them holding an assault rifle. Lilly slammed on the accelerator as the cowboy sprayed bullets across the front of the car. The man in the coat raised his guns in the space between them and began to unload them through the windshield. Lachlan panicked and compressed himself on the floor of the passenger side, he heard the same soft popping noise as before and poked his head over the dashboard and the cowboy was gone.
"Sweet fucking Jesus!" he heard Lilly scream, he turned his head to see the grey hoodie Lilly was wearing slowly grow black around her ribs.
The car swerved into a lamppost and Lachlan was thrown through the windshield, the darkness was almost instantaneous as his whole world went black.