“Copy, 2600?” the dispatcher asked.
Taylor waited, hoping that Commander Evans would respond. When he didn’t, she did.
“Does anyone have eyes on the commander?”
When no one responded, Taylor pulled her weapon from the holster, keeping it ready to fire as she ran down the alley in pursuit of her boss. She wasn’t halfway down the alley when she heard shots fired, about five. She slowed and jogged along the garages, using them as shields. She passed a garbage can, and that was when they came into view.
Both her commander and the offender were pointing guns at each other, but it was her commander that fell to the ground.
Taylor fired, striking the assailant, but he didn’t fall. Instead, he grabbed his shoulder with one hand and pointed his weapon at her commander’s head with the other.
“No!” Taylor screamed, running toward him, firing her weapon.
She was hitting the offender center mass. When his body jerked, but he remained on his feet, she realized that he was also wearing a bulletproof vest.
He fired, shooting her commander in the head. Taylor gasped and fell to her knees. She fired a round and hit the offender in the neck, but that didn’t stop him from raising his weapon to her. When she pulled the trigger again, her weapon went into slide lock.
She was out of ammo.
The ruthless assailant smiled and fired another bullet into Commander Evans. Taylor could hear sirens over the radio, the frantic transmission of other responders. Unfortunately, there were none in sight. If she was going to survive, she would have to save herself.
She pulled a fresh magazine from the pouch on her gun belt and dropped the empty magazine to the ground. With an almost unnatural speed, she stuffed the full magazine in the weapon and racked the slide. Taylor aimed and fired, just as the offender was firing at her. All of a sudden, she was stung by what felt like a jolt of hot lightning piercing her left shoulder. The pain was familiar. She’d been shot before.
Taylor cried out in agony and lurched backward before stumbling to the ground. She could hear the footsteps of the shooter approach. Thankfully, she was right-handed. She mustered every bit of energy she had to raise her right hand and fire a bullet into the offender’s cheek.
He still didn’t fall. It was like a goddamned zombie apocalypse.
What would it take to drop his ass? The motherfucker was inhuman. Or, so she thought until he was hit by a volley of bullets. He took so many rounds that pieces of his head spattered unto Taylor’s face. Even then, it took about five long seconds for him to fall.
“Tay! Tay, are you okay?”
Taylor finally exhaled at the sound of Maria’s voice. But she needed to make sure the shooter was really down.
She raised her head just enough to see the brain matter that decorated the alley’s dirty pavement.
Taylor winced when Maria pressed her palm to her wound.
“You’re okay,” Maria promised. “You’re okay.” She yelled in the radio while adding pressure to the wound. “Squad, roll fire! We got an officer down.”
Officer down? Commander Evans!
Taylor struggled to raise up, but Maria held her down.
“What are you doing? Wait for the ambulance.”
“Commander Evans?” came out in a whisper.
Just saying his name out loud left her with a feeling of dread. Even if she hadn’t seen him take a bullet to the head, the sadness in Maria’s eyes was confirmation that he was gone.
Her breathing increased erratically as blinding tears pooled in Taylor’s eyes. “Oh God, no.”
