Frightened Boy

Chapter Nineteen - Snakes

19. Snakes

The first police car to spot the rolling brigade immediately slammed on its brakes to avoid confrontation. As it began following from a distance, one of the Jeeps broke away from the train and turned around, racing directly toward it. Our group wasn't going to permit any tailgating.

The first shots popped out over the horizon as the patrol car was riddled with bullets; the Jeep squealed into a U-turn and pulled back up into formation.

I looked to my right at a family sedan. Two kids had their little faces pressed up against the window, wide eyed at Whisper's long leg and heeled foot pressed up against the dash of the Jeep. The wind whipped her cloak further back to reveal the giant revolver in her hand.

I saw Whisper extend the gun toward the skyline, aiming experimentally.

"Pow," she said, mimicking the recoil that the gun would deliver. She seemed to crave it.

"You're not scared?" I yelled over the rush of the wind.

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Whisper said. "We aren't even real, remember?"

It was a comforting thought in its own strange way.

A long line of blue and red lights met us at the entrance to downtown Banlo Bay.

A police blockade-great.

They weren't acting like the police I thought I knew though. They opened fire on the train of military vehicles before I was even in range to see their weapons. They seemed to know this was war.

Escher led the trucks into a line perpendicular to the direction of the road; the vehicles squealed into a perfect line to counterpoint the police blockade, something like an untouched chessboard. I pulled up behind one of them, breaking formation. I couldn't drive like they could.

Whisper turned to look at me with disgust in her eyes. "Get up there," she hissed.

I made a sloppy U-turn and pulled skittishly into a small gap, moving forward in halting steps. Whisper leapt from the vehicle before we came to a stop.

"Get down," I told Erika. "Hide somewhere."

"We need to talk!" she yelled from her position on the floor of the Jeep, with myself jumping out the other side, pressing myself between the wheel and the ground. We began to hear the volley of gunfire between the two sides. The dual lines were at least fifty yards apart, and it didn't seem like either side had an immediate advantage. Traffic behind us had stopped at a respectful distance.

It looked like some bizarre children's game; peeking over vehicles to see if the other side was watching; firing until they ran out of bullets, at which point the other side would peek their heads out and begin firing-like a sequenced dance in a bad musical.

"What is it?" I shouted to Erika over the sporadic gunfire.

"Whisper threatened to kill us both if I didn't-"

"Move!" Whisper interrupted with a shout from the opposite end of the vehicle we were using as shelter. She gripped my arm and led us to a thicker line of vehicles to hide behind.

As I ran, I saw bullet holes pepper the area where I'd been standing. "Erika!" I called out. I saw her hand rise meekly, signaling she was okay.

"They're trying to keep the fight out of the city!" Whisper yelled as she pulled me further away from her. "They want to engage us out here." She leaned out from the side of a Jeep and fired three shots into the body of the nearest car.

"It looks like it's working!" I shouted back to her. "What do we do?"

She didn't respond; her flawless face clenched into a snarl with each shot from her gun.