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Acceptable
Losses
Beneath the late night sky, Everett burst out onto
the roof. Sunstorm in hand, he stopped
just outside of the entrance, reconnoitering what he could see. Directly before him was a short distance to
the rear edge of the building and the alley beyond. He took a few careful steps towards the
edge, his feet crunching beneath the surface of the roof.
He stepped to the edge, looking
over the side at the empty alley below.
He turned around, aware of the buildings that continued off to the
left of the club, creating a network of rising and dropping roofs. He walked around the door of the roof
entrance.
On the ground, near the front edge
of the roof, was a pool of blood. Everett took the first
step into a sprint towards the blood, but stopped. He glanced around the empty rooftop,
cautious, aware of the topography and the hiding places it could
contain. “Edgar!” he called. “It’s Everett. Come out, man. I know you’re…”
From behind the border to the next
roof, Edgar stood up. His face was
pale and coated in a sheen of sweat as he held his left side, blood pouring
down his pants. “Oh my god,” Everett said, racing to
him. He just barely caught Edgar as
the senior knight collapsed. Everett knelt down
slowly, guiding Edgar onto his back.
“Edgar?” he called as Sydney and Roland came out onto the roof. “Edgar!”
In a flash, Sydney
was next to Everett,
supporting Edgar’s neck. She laid him
down carefully, feeling his breathing.
“Edgar, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” he groaned. “I’m dying, not deaf.”
“You’re not dying,” Roland
said. He looked up as the others filed
out onto the roof, each taken by shock at the sight of the downed
knight. “Can you feel your toes?”
“Yes. They hurt.
A lot.”
Everett snapped his fingers and said
“Ledger,” as he held out his hand.
Without hesitation, Ledger put his cell phone in Everett’s grip. Everett
quickly searched through the saved numbers and selected one. He looked down over Edgar, feeling his
head. “He’s got a fever,” he said.
The phone picked up. “Mmmullo?” came an exhausted and violently
disinterested voice.
“Melissa,” he said quickly. “It’s Everett.”
“Ev? Yeah, what?” she asked, waking up. He could hear her shuffling out of bed.
Edgar took a deep breath, looking
at the others. He winced in
anticipation. “Um…” he started to say.
As Everett began to speak, Edgar reached up
and yanked the phone out of his hand.
“Honey,” he said into the phone.
“I’ve been stabbed.” He looked
down at his blood-covered body.
“Repeatedly.” He handed the
phone back to Everett.
Everett stared at the phone, then
Edgar. “I hate you,” he said. He held the phone to his ear, then
immediately jerked it away as a barrage of harsh-sounding shouts came
through. He held the phone at arm’s
length, occasionally looking at the others to make sure they were as
apprehensive as he. When Melissa’s
raving seemed to calm, he leaned into the phone. “Listen, we don’t have time to…” He yanked the phone away again, giving her
a moment to shout some more.
“Melissa,” he yelled over her.
“Edgar’s hurt and we’re going to get him to the hospital. Marilyn’s going to take him there now.”
“I’m what?” she exclaimed.
“Please, Marilyn, not now,” Sydney implored.
“He’s on his way,” Everett said before
hanging up the phone. “Donovan,” he
said to the European knight. “We don’t know how man of Vick’s boys might
still be in the area or anything, so I want you to go with her.” He nodded.
“Wait, then what are you guys
going to do?” Marilyn asked.
“We’ve got to scour this place
from top to bottom before the cops get here,” Armand said, standing next to
her. “Alan didn’t run away, he left.”
“Meaning he left for
somewhere else,” Ledger said. “We need
to find out where and why, fast.”
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