42nd Country Road

Redwick

I woke up in a bed this time. I was sandwiched in between Mark and Jack. I moved a bit toward Mark, his warmth surrounding me. He wrapped his arms tightly around me. Light streamed in through the curtains, while birds sang outside. It had been so long since I felt comfortable. A knock came on the door behind me. Jack shifted and answered it.

"Good morning, sir," A voice came.

"Uh... morning," Jack said sleepily.

"If you live here you have to go by a designated schedule," The voice said

"Ya, ya, we've been through this, designated schedule...dump us if we don't do it, blah blah blah blah," Jack said

"Sir..." The voice called.

"Goodnight," Jack said slamming the door and waddling back to the bedroom. He flopped onto the  bed and hugged his pillow.There was another knock on the door.

"Go away," I squeaked. The door smashed down and We all sat up. I gripped Mark's chest. He held me up with his other arm. Two men with guns ran into our room. One of them ripped me away from Mark. Mark reached for my hand but one of the men pointed his gun sharply at him and the other pointed his gun at my head. A man entered the room.

"I heard you won't comply," He said with a smile. The man holding me, touched my shoulder. I squeaked.

"Careful," Mark said, "You'll hurt her...."

"My name is Colonel Redwick," The man said, completely ignoring and interrupting Mark's threats, "Here we have a schedule that you follow and if you don't, you get kicked out,"

"Dude, we just got here. My girls hurt, and we travelled a long way to get here, please, cut us some slack," Mark said. The man dropped me and Redwick grabbed my hair.

"Fine," He said looking deep into my eyes, staring at me. He let go and left the room. Mark crawled down from the bed and held me.

"Jack we're getting out of here," Mark said

"Hell yeah we are," Jack agreed. I was still trying to process all of the pain that just came with waking up. Mark looked down at me. I was biting my nails like a little kid.

"You okay, Ems," Mark asked. I looked at him and nodded. Suddenly Jack's voice got heavy.

"Redwick, huh?" He said, "Pretty, what do you think,"

"I think that we're as good as dead here. I say we grab some food and guns and leave," I said the heaviness in my voice. I crawled out of Mark's embrace and stood next to Jack. Mark stood up after me.

"Good idea, Pretty," Mark said

"Right now?" Jack said eagerly

"Right now," I said smiling. The normal came over me and I fell backwards into Mark's arms. I looked up at him. He kissed me and smiled. I smiled back.

"We're leaving," I said

"Ya, good idea," Mark said. Jack nodded in agreement. I grabbed Mark's leather bag. The gun sitting behind it. I froze when I saw it. Mark came up to me.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing," I said in return and picked the gun up. I swung the bag over my bad shoulder. The moment the strap hit, I dropped the bag and gripped my shoulder. Mark grabbed the bag. He checked my shoulder.

"I'm fine," I whimpered. He looked at me in concern. I gave him clarification that I was okay and followed him out the door.

After a search for the front door we finally found it. We started to walk out when Redwick stopped us.

"Where do you think you're going?" He bombed.

"Home," Mark replied.

"No," Redwick replied, "You're paying off your stay," I shoved Mark and Jack aside and walked right up to him.

"We are not staying here. It is a life and death situation," My voice altered to dark, "Now let us through,"

"Oh, so you're one of those," He said pointing a gun at my head. The dark me smiled. Mark hit the gun out of his hand right as he shot.

"You stay away from her, crazy or not, I love her and if you hurt her, you might as well be a dead man," Mark said gripping his arm and holding our gun against his temple. We had a crowd now.

"You can leave, if you earn it," Redwick said.

"Let me do it," I said, the heaviness in my voice, "I've been waiting to do this to someone,"