CHAPTER ONE: Cole's Journey: Lock & Key

[Garrett]

"DAMMIT" I yell as I begin to sweat. I charge forward at her with the intention of tazing her while she can't dodge.
-If I succeed I quickly look for the safe and move to try and crack it. If its one of those portable ones I just pick it up and run.
-If she escapes or I hear sirens I follow her out the window and sprint for the woods/farmland outback. Intending to cut my losses and run from town.

[Laraqua]

Colehits her in the small of the back and she thrashes against the window sill, drawing blood and slashing open her belly and back against the shards of thick stained glass. She twitches and twists and her feet lose their grip against the floor as she begins to pitch forward out of the window. As Cole glances around, he can see the book he'd had described to him in one of the glass display cabinets to his right. He could try to grab her and save the woman, but he'd get blood all over himself.

[Garrett]

error

[Garrett]

DON'T BE STUPID, YOU'LL MESS UP THE JOB! I yell at myself as I fight the urge to help her. She wouldn't be hurt if she did what I said, its her own fault. I quickly turn and smash open the case by kicking it as hard as I can. Whatever, if the book is damaged I'll just give my employer a discount.
-If the glass is reinforced I blast it open with my dessert eagle, careful not to hit the book. When I have it I leave via the window, lowering myself as much as I can before jumping and fleeing as I planned.

[Laraqua]

She pitches forward through the window and hits the ground below with a sharp snap followed by a dull thud as her head hits first followed by the rest of her body.

Cole heads to the display case and tries to kick it in but to no avail. He fires a shot at it and the bullet ricochets off the glass. Is that bulletproof glass? Something else?

He could try picking the lock but that gun shot will have definitely been heard.

[Garrett]

Oh well, the police are probably already on their way. I quickly try to pick the lock before running away through the window, as described above. If the lock is unpick-able I run without the book.

[Laraqua]

It's a numerical lock similar to that found on suitcases but it's relatively easy workto remove the mechanism so that it pops open without having to enter the code. He grabs the book, confident that he's still got time, and heads out onto the balcony, smashing the shards of glass out of their frames and then lowering himself to drop down without injury. Unfortunately, in his haste, he drops down onto the unmoving body of the woman and slips to the cement driveway, bruising his leg. He's in a foggy yard overlooking the street. Luckily, it looks to be a pea souper. He can barely make out the outline of a car parked on the opposite side of the road. He can head around the back or simply leg it down the street away from the town center to grab his car.

[Garrett]

I quickly head around back, hurrying back to the bar. Upon arriving I immediately get in and start driving out of town, back to Boston.

[Laraqua]

Cole heads back through the side gate, glancing over at the blood-streaked dog lying within its kennel, reaches out and grips the edge of the fence in preparation to haul himself over. He takes a deep breath, and jerks himself up, swinging his legs up and over to the ... yawning, fog-shrouded abyss below. He startles, his legs swinging back against the corrugated iron with a clatter, and he clings there, peering down, scarcely believing his eyes. A cliff drops away into nothingness revealing a few broken pipes seeping brackish water down the side of the tumble down rocks. If it weren't for the flashlight he'd held in his hand, that had briefly flashed down into the gloom, he would've vaulted out into nothing.

[Garrett]

WHAT THE FUCK? Was their alcohol in that coffee or something, am I hallucinating? As I land back on the ground I start breathing heavy. DAMN IT! I run around quickly, intending to take the street, still trying to cling to darkness and stay out of sight. I don't know where the hell that came from but it doesn't change that fact I'm on the run.

[Laraqua]

A police siren lends its mournful cry to the silent air as Cole runs around to the street itself, the sound coming from the direction of the town ... and his car. He could run off to the right into the farmland itself but it will be more difficult to get to the pub that holds his car.

[Garrett]

SHIT! I quickly run around through the forest, desperately hoping that the police don't have a good description of me. At the least they probably don't know my car, I've gotten out of worse situations. I'll be fine.

[Laraqua]

Cole ran down the sidewalk into the fog, passing the odd parked car, and seeing no lights in any of the windows. It's like everyone switched off to keep him from approaching them. At least he'll be well hidden under the cover of darkness and all of this fog. The sirens increase in volume as the police car draws nearer, then there's a terrific crash, the squeal of brakes, and an explosion of glass. The sirens twist and mangle as though the speakers were suddenly damaged. Up ahead, the gap between houses widen as he enters the more rural areas. Behind him, the street lights begin winking out, one after another, as though the darkness itself were chasing him.

[Garrett]

I sigh and grip my gun a little tighter, Whatever at least those poor bastards wont bother me. I continue making my way around behind the houses, making a mental note of where those cars are so that I can avoid them when I get back in mine.

[Laraqua]

It's somewhere south of this road so if he crosses the road to the other side and passes through the farm land on the other side of the wavy road and then again crosses the road west to the next street, he should be able to avoid them with relative ease. The lights wink out overhead and overtake him, leaving him in darkness. He'll need to use a flashlight if he doesn't want to stumble over lawn mowers, either that or move very slowly.

[Garrett]

Light is a bad idea, I could be spotted; just take it slow and steady. I think as I slow my pace and look carefully.

[Laraqua]

Cole steps carefully through the farm yards, hands held out in front of him as all the stars in the sky are blotted out by cloud and fog, and his fingers rasp against the edge of a wooden post-and-rail fence. His ears, hyper-sensitive to the smallest sound, can detect the rustling of branches and grasses all around him, and the sound of some small creature brushing through the undergrowth. Somewhere, in the distance, wood claps against wood repetitively, and the wind whistles through a gap in some building or another. The tang of smoke and ash teases his nostrils but he continues onward, stepping into a muddy slush that soaks into his sneakers with cold, before continuing on. He reaches the side of a wooden clapboard building and traces his way along it, finding boarded over windows and a verandah he walks cautiously around, and he continues forward until he reaches another fence, hops that, and comes out onto a dirt road which he crosses in the hopes that he is heading west. A dog barks distantly, angrily, but there seems to be no one around him.

He cuts straight across this farm, moving through the trees in the orchard, and comes out along another dirt road that he turns left on and follows in the hopes that it reaches Crichton Street, thus allowing him to have successfully doubled back to his car. There's a scent to the air - one of apple pie - and he can make out a vague blur of light in the distance, as though through windows. The wind seems to whisper to itself about him and the creaking of a nearby gate almost sounds like a guttural laugh. He stumbles over a pit in the road and falls forward against the edge of a ute, following it around to its dented side, and finding its bonnet folded up around a tree, the engine still ticking over and the metal still warm. He can't see if there's anyone inside through the cracked glass of the windshield. In fact, he wouldn't be able to tell it was cracked in the dark if his fingers hadn't felt the evidence itself.

[Garrett]

What the fuck is going on? Whatever just more reason to get the hell out of town as fast as I can. I ignore the car and continue trying to find my way back to the bar.

[Laraqua]

The dirt road hits a paved road with a street sign that he can't see in all of this darkness. He could simply go left and hope for the best, or risk flashing a light around. He can still hear the mangled sirens in the distance. Has no one thought to turn them off? His shoes are wet and the cold is starting to get to him.

[Garrett]

It'll just be a second, I'll be fine. I quickly turn my flashlight on, aiming in advance, and read the sign. Still heading towards the bar.