Black and White and Red

[Jack Campbell (DELETED 5897)]

I was bleeding.

My ears were ringing as well, but that didn't seem as important right now. I fell behind the crates to my right as more gunfire cracked to life in the old warehouse.

I struggled out of my suit jacket to see how bad the injury was. Blinding pain raced up my left arm as the sleeve slid down. The bullet had grazed my left shoulder, catching mostly meat. It was going to hurt like hell, but it could have been much worse.

I could have been dead.

Bullets tore into the crates over my head. I had to get moving, or the damn thugs that meant to kill me might actually get the chance. I had scared someone in my investigation; they had decided to scare back by grabbing me off the street and taking me to an abandoned warehouse. While the fact that I had pressed someone higher up the chain's buttons meant that I was going the right way with my investigation, I was particularly smiling about it. Grimacing was closer to it. My pistol was on one of the goons, so suppressing them to make a run for it was out of the question. I would have to wait for one of them to reload.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! click.

I ran. I sprinted toward the nearest goon, a well build man in his thirties, struggling to contain his bulk in a cheap suit. I rammed into him as hard as I could with my right shoulder. The man was caught in the bottom of his rib cage, knocking the wind from him. I rode him to the ground, and used my momentum to roll and carry me past the other man, who was fumbling to reload his revolver. Even with my adrenaline pumping there was no way I could take him in my condition. I bolted for the door in the corner.

I stumbled out into the week light of winter. We were near the docks, which meant help was at least several blocks away. I gritted my teeth and began the long run to a phone.