Here is a rough draft on my 3rd out of 4 people who will be main characters in Spark: Corruption. I may add more onto the end of the chapter, I'm not sure about it yet. As always and as stated at the start of ALL my posts, I won't have perfect grammar, and any mistakes that I find later I won't come back here to edit.
Comments are highly appreciated. 3,068 words by the way
Chapter 8
The cold snows of winter set in full force on New DC and in a few short months it gave way to the thawing of spring. Spring descended upon land and prepped it for summer. Summer ended later then normal and fall was creeping in with its cooler temperatures and the changing of green to something less lively.
Two guns fire simultaneously; a third gunshot leaves the barrel of one of the first guns.
Deep in a back alley between two local businesses three men lay on the cold and dirty ground in puddles of their own dark crimson blood.
A woman cries out loudly and frantically throws herself on top of one of the men, her husband, only to realize that the gunshot he received killed him seconds after it entered his body.
She slowly lifts herself off of him with tears rolling down her cheeks and runs over to the police officer that came to their aid.
She inspects the officer and can tell from his eyes still blinking that he is alive. Off to the side of them lays the gunman that was the cause of the scene. He gasps for breath between crazed laughs. His sickening laugh turns to choking as the blood enters his lungs from the bullet that pierced his chest.
The officer realizes his hearing is starting to fade as he sees the woman’s lips moving from her crying out for help but is unable to hear more than muffled sounds.
He tilts his head forward puts his hands lightly on the gunshot wound. They feel warm and wet; he tilts his palms so he can see the color change on his hands. Slowly takes his hands completely off his stomach and watches blood continue to gush out of his abdomen onto the ground beneath him.
Two people come from behind him. Once they are in his view he recognizes them as his fellow officers responding to the radio call he made only minutes ago.
The woman gets off of him and the officers lean down and try to talk to him. He is unable to comprehend what is being said and attempts to speak to them unsure if what he wanted to say is heard. His own voice is distorted and his consciousness fades further.
One of the other officers responding to his backup request is on their own radio calling for an ambulance.
He pictures the cold hands of Death reaching for him and decides that he doesn’t want the last things he thinks about to be the dank alleyway.
He forces his thoughts to a previous memory as his consciousness drops him into a dream state. Inside his dream he recalls the previous memories and thoughts he had as if he was living them over again while remaining unknowing of the future.
Outside the front of a high school, on a park bench, sat one of the city’s proud men in blue watching a group of young teenagers grouped at the front of the school. While he waited he scanned his peripheral vision for any wrong doing or anything that would seem suspicious.
He turned his complete focus on the group as one of the girls waved goodbye to her friends and turned to walk in his direction.
She walked up to the officer.
“Hi Dad.”
“Hey Tiffany, how was school?” the officer said.
“Same old stuff.”
“Isn’t it always?”
“You know it,” she smiled at her dad.
Officer Alan Specks was taking time out of his otherwise boring day to walk his daughter home from school. She enjoyed the time she spent with her dad and unlike most of her friends wasn’t embarrassed by her dad. What she didn’t like is that he always walked her home in uniform.
“Why can’t you just be my dad when we walk home instead of Officer Specks?”
“I don’t know. Isn’t it cool that you have a police officer as a dad?”
“I think so, but…”
“But what?” He said staring further down the street at a pair of men next to a parked car.
“But you aren’t my dad right now. I’d bet you are glaring that those men standing around the red car ready to spring into action if one of them pulls a three foot crowbar out of their jean pockets,” a smile illuminated her face because she knew she was right.
He stopped looking abruptly, not expected her to know that he was doing exactly that, well, except the crowbar part anyways.
“I can’t help it. Can’t I be dad and Officer Specks at the same time?”
“I guess so,” Tiffany said looking down disappointed that she was no longer gaining any ground on the conversation.
“Cheer up. Here,” he put his hand into his front pocket and handed her a single coin.
“What do you expect me to do with one click, you can’t buy anything with that anymore, it’s the year 2128 dad, not the twenty-one hundreds when you were a kid.”
“Humph,” he stopped and pointed over to their left. “Go throw it into that fountain and make a wish.”
“Can I just put it in my pocket?” she smiled at her father. “I think I’m a little too old for wishing stuff you know.”
Alan glared at her, causing her to give in with a sigh.
They walked together over to the fountain, Alan continuing to search out of the corner of his eye for anything that could need police attention.
They got to the park’s fountain and saw many other assorted values of clicks down at the bottom of the large fountain.
Tiffany closed her eyes and smiled before throwing her coin into the fountain.
“You going to tell me you’re wish?” Alan asked.
She snapped at him quickly. “I can’t tell you the wish! It won’t come true if I do.”
Alan chuckled at her sudden interest in what he made her do. “Oh so now your suddenly not too old for this sort of thing?” She put her hands on her hips and glared at him in response. “It might still come true, you never know,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
She hesitated and said, “I wished for pepperoni pizza for dinner,” she squinted at him and stuck out her tongue for getting her to tell him.
“Now that there,” Alan scratched his mustache before continuing, “is a reasonable wish.” He started walking again. “Come on, let’s get you home. I have two more hours on duty and I’ll bring home something from Pizza House.”
“Sweet!”
Alan smiled to himself as they walked home together. He was happy that his daughter, even though she was now a teenager, still enjoyed the simple things in life. Later that night, true to his word, Alan brought home pizza for him and his daughter.
They took over an hour to eat because Tiffany was trying to explain a recent chemistry lesson to him. Alan is a smart man, though it had been a very long time since he was in high school and had never ran into situations that chemistry knowledge would be important to him. Due to that she had to take some time to explain some of the terminology associated with what she was trying to tell him.
Alan put the leftovers away while Tiffany cleaned the table. They did the dishes together as was routine for them.
After her regular chores were completed Alan told Tiffany to do her homework before she did anything else.
“I did it before you got home,” she promptly said. “Come on dad, you expect me to get straight A’s waiting for you to tell me when to do my homework?”
“Um, I guess not,” it was the same thing she always said when he asked though it was a habit and had probably been a good factor into her always having good grades in school. “What are you going to do now?”
“Can I go next door and hang out with Jackie?”
Alan shrugged. “Sure, just be home before 9 o’clock. It’s a school night you know.
She rolled her eyes at him and walked to the front door. “Yes dad, I know.”
“That’s a good girl, now go have fun.”
Alan retired to the living room to put his feet up and relax. He picked up the stereo remote and turned on some soothing piano to listen to.
Often he thought about the kind of life he was providing for Tiffany. He tried very hard to not let that concern turn into babying her. He knew she was getting older and with only his male influence and no mother she was much more mature then other girls her age.
He reached down at the side of his chair and pulled on his a lever. Leaning back his eyes made contact with a portrait of him, a very young Tiffany, and his wife.
Alan smiled at the memory of his wife and couldn’t help it when his eyes watered up from viewing the picture.
His wife Nichole died around seven years ago in a car accident when Tiffany was six. Alan had been driving their car when they got into the accident.
He recalled the circumstances of how he came to raise Tiffany by himself since she was just a little kid.
It was the same sort of situation with him that Tiffany pointed out during their walk home. His eyes were focusing on what other people were up to instead of putting his full attention on what he himself was doing.
Alan ended up with minor injuries but Nichole and Tiffany were in critical condition. Nichole didn’t make it, but thankfully Tiffany was able to pull through without permanent damage.
Alan loved his wife very much. Her death crushed him so much that he had to take two months off work to recover emotionally. When he broke out of his depression, he thanked God for leaving him with his little girl. From that point on he dedicated himself to being the best father he could be.
He felt he had succeeded in being a good father as well as a good role model for her. As she said, Tiffany was as straight A student in school and was a good girl. She had the right kind of friends who stayed out of trouble while still staying popular.
Alan was very proud of her, he loved her very much.
He reminded himself again that Tiffany was getting older and that he was glad she still let him walk her to and from school when he could.
As a police officer, he sometimes had odd hours, and he truly treasured the time that the two of them spent together. She understood what type of job he had, and supported him all the way.
Alan let a long breath out as his mind switched over to his work. He could have been a detective by now he thought. After fifteen years on the force, he had accumulated a good reputation for himself. Twice he had been offered the promotion and he declined it under the premises that someone needed to be out on the street, and no offense to his fellow officers, but someone needed to be out there doing a good job.
Enough hard thinking had been done already today and it was time to try to relax his mind in sync with his body.
He lifts his hand and points the remote at the stereo to turn up the music and became lost in the soothing sounds.
Tiffany walked back into their house a few minutes after nine but he knew he didn’t need to say anything to her about it. He knows she is responsible and was already aware of her tardiness.
A few minutes later Tiffany had gotten herself ready for bed and they each said their goodnights before turning in for the night.
The next day arrived in the same manner as always.
Officer Specks was walking the sidewalks sometime around noon keeping a watchful eye out for anything suspicious. So far it was a normal day. Fall was settling in and it was starting to get chilly.
He walked down the street of the neighborhood he was stationed in, he said hello to the familiar faces and stopped to make light conversation.
“Hey Ricky,” Alan called out to a young adult sweeping the front steps of a business.
“Greetings Officer Specks, how are you on this spectacular and fine day?”
Specks laughed, “Come on, talk normal to me, you know I don’t like your so called fancy talk.”
“It impresses the ladies, give it a try sometime,” he said smiling.
Specks laughs, “Maybe someday I’ll be ready.”
“When you do, don’t force it officer, let it flow out all natural like.”
“Heh, thanks.”
A few months ago Ricky had gotten himself into trouble holding up a barber shop of all places. He took a new drug that has been gaining popularity in New DC. On the street it’s called Shadow Dice or Black Ice. They’re concentrated black pills, often square, containing high doses of hallucinogens.
Poor Ricky tried it for the first time and had a bad reaction to it. He ended up in the doorway of the barber shop trying to get money by using the spray nozzle off a garden hose as his weapon. He also ended up breaking their shop windows while under the effects of the drug.
Officer Specks was first on the scene after the barber shop called in the peculiar robbery. The judge ended up being easy on Ricky because he didn’t have any prior offenses. His punishment was community service and had to get a part time job at the same shop he tried to burglarize until his damage was paid off.
It was a bright day and Specks had his typical cop sunglasses on. He once said that they filtered the UV rays while increasing his criminal vision, one of his very rare jokes. He was a very serious man, one of the types that were the last to get a joke, if he even understood it anyways. He was also the type to kill a joke with logic as well. Pretty much the only time his lighter side showed itself was when his daughter was around.
He was walking down a street doing the usual scoping out everything in front of him when he heard someone yell help.
He turned around anxious to do what they yelled for when he only saw a man calling for another man to help him load a dishwasher into a pickup truck.
Disappointed and relieved at the same time he went on walking his normal route. Each alleyway he walked by he would stare down it looking for anyone who wouldn’t want to be seen. It was something he did for as long as he could remember.
He decided that it was lunch time and walked into his favorite food chain, Pasty’s Subs.
Alan pushed the door open and noticed the place wasn’t that busy and there also wasn’t a line. The door closed behind him and made a loud banging noise that made him turn around just to be sure it was only the door.
Confirming that it was just the door he turned back around and walked up to the sneeze guard to order his food.
“Welcome to Pasty’s Subs, what can I get for you today?” A middle aged man that Officer Specks knew as David, the owner of the sandwich shop, waited for his answer.
“Today I’ll have a club on wheat.”
“Alright, sounds good Alan.”
As he watches David make his sandwich Alan yearned for the food to be in his belly. David took out fresh stick of bread and sliced into it. With the bread as his canvas, David uncapped the meat dispenser and pulled down on the ham, turkey, and roast beef levers.
Knowing his job on an instinctive level he made small talk with Officer Specks while he worked. “Anything interesting going on today?” David asked as he pushed a button and the pump kicked in to push out a nice thick layer of flavored paste onto the bread.
“Not today.”
“What kind of cheese?” he asked getting back to business while he wiped off the tube with a clean cloth and recapped it.
“No cheese.” Being there many times before, he knew the next question and said, “Light on the lettuce.”
“Sounds good. So how’s your little girl doing now days? Should be about twelve now right?” David pushed the sandwich under another tube, uncapped it, and pulled down the lettuce lever halfway.
“Thirteen actually, a teenager now.”
“Yup, they grow up on yah.” He pushed the button on the other pump turned on but nothing came out.
“Hold on, have to change the bag in back. It’ll be just a moment.” He left and Alan hummed to himself. He stared up at the menu and reminisces on what sandwiches he personally thought were good, decent, or bad.
After a moment David came back around the corner. “Lucky you, you get the first squeeze from a fresh bag.” The pump kicked on again and sputtered before putting a light layer of lettuce paste over the sub. “Anything else?”
“Nope, it’s good.”
Alan paid for his meal and sat down in a booth to eat.
While he was eating he heard a noise that sounded like a defibrillator going off. He looked up and saw that someone had walked inside the sandwich shop. The sound probably came from the loud door he thought. Before he could return his glance to his food another person came in and the door made the defibrillator sound again.
Such an odd sound for the door to make he thought. Another person walked into the store a few moments later and the door slammed making the same sound.
The sandwich shop dissolved and Alan was thrust into the present.
He heard a heart monitor beeping and a respirator pumping oxygen. Realizing what the second sound was he realized it was pushing oxygen into his own lungs.
Alan shifted his head to the side and saw a doctor fully dressed in their gown.
“Just relax Mr. Specks. You’re in a hospital for a near fatal gunshot wound.”
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