Death cheaters

Death cheaters - Changed direction, chapter 5

"I'm pretty sure we'll meet again. Now, go. I need to catch a bus, and you need to contact your family. See ya soon, Dan." That was Lara's answer, the redhead girl, to Dan's obvious question: "Will I ever see you again?" She took off in the opposite direction from Dan's way in the city right after they left the ruins of the structure where they met. And now, he wonders if that also meant that their lives where to be apart from now on.

As he walks through the destruction, despair and death that the quake left behind in this city, he keeps staring back as if he was making sure that nobody's following him, yet, his wish is the absolute opposite.

He arrives to the apartments building. It's oddly undamaged. The adjacent buildings are but a pile of rubble, but not this.

"What are you planning now?" he mutters.

Death may be preparing something for him, but there hasn't been any visions since the quake. He goes in. There is some damage, but nothing that could alarm him. The building seems to be in perfect shape, considering the actual damage to the rest of the city.

He enters to his apartment. As expected, the interior is a mess, a worse mess than it was before anyway.

Dan tries to switch the light on, but there's no power. Luckily, there's enough natural light coming in through the windows.

He picks up the phone. The hard line works fine. He dials his mothers home number. They live far enough from this city, so they most surely are OK. Yet, they can't know for sure if Dan is.

"Hello?" A deeper version of Dan's voice asks.

"Dad?" his voice changes. Now he sounds like a different person, solemn and respectful.

"Dan? Are you OK?"

"Yes, dad. I'm fine. Did you feel it?"

"No. We saw the news. How did you survived? We saw a quick image of your building, and it was completely destroyed."

"I had some help. From a very intuitive person."

The memory of Lara comes back. Is she OK? Is she already on her way to wherever she's meant to go?

"Thank God." his father says.

Dan tries to keep an ironic laugh inside his mind. Is ironic how his father believes that God had something to do with his survival today, when actually was Death herself whom helped him live, or at least some sort of connection with her.

Dan didn't used to believe in God. Ever since a kid he found hard to believe that one guy created the earth and that humanity must pay tribute to it. But now, he believes in Death, and that is kind of a God. So, in some way, Dan now believes in a God.

In the end, father and son believe that "God" had something to do with Dan's survival, although, not the same God. Ironic.

"Indeed." Dan answers.

"Will you come home?"

"My apartment is almost intact. I'll stay, unless we're ordered to leave. Meanwhile you can reach me to this phone number until I get another cell."

"Understood."

"Thanks, dad. Gotta go now. Tell mother that I'm fine and that I'll call her later. I guess she's at the hospital with grandma. "

"That's right. Take care, son."

"You too, dad."

Dan hangs up the phone and change his clothes. He now wears a dark blue sweat pants and a sleeveless black shirt that reveals a tattoo on his back, a black sun over his right shoulder blade.

He starts to rearrange his place. When he grabs a lamp and tries to clean it, some dust manages to get into his eyes. He rubs his eyes. When he opens them again, he's not seeing his room. He's staring at the back of an old bus chair. He then glances towards a man arguing with the bus driver right outside his window. He then looks at his watch, a small silver watch: 2:14pm. His arm is also thinner and whiter.

"That's not me." He thinks while his eyes go back to the man outside. The discussion is getting louder.

Then, a lock of red hair falls in front of his eyes. The pale arm appears again to put the lock back. That's definitely not him. Is Lara. He can't be wrong. The hair, the skin and the bus. It must be her.

Lara's attention stay in the discussion. Then it all goes wrong. The angry man pulls a hand gun out from the back of his dark loose pants. The bus driver tries to stop him from using it. They wrestle. Then, when the gun is pointing to Lara, a shot. Dan can feel the pain. She looks at where the bullet entered. Her heart.

"f**k! Not cool." She mutters in pain. "Sorry, Dan. May be in the next life..." She whispers. The vision ends.

Dan is shaking. He instinctively looks at the clock near his bed. Is off, there's no power.

He lost his cell phone, he doesn't have a wrist watch and he doesn't even know for sure where Lara is. There are three bus stations in the city. He can only reach the nearest bus station by foot given the status of the city, and it will take at least twenty minutes running.

He looks desperately for his running sneakers. He has no more time to think, Lara is going to die if he doesn't leave now.

Right outside his apartment door is a man walking the aisle. Dan takes a quick look at him. He's wearing a watch.

"Sir! Sir!" Dan screams. The man gets startled. "Please, could you tell me what time it is?" Asks Dan trying to lower his tone.

"Umh, y-yeah." The man stares at his wrist for a couple of seconds. For Dan, it feels like an eternity. "Quarter to two." Finally answers the man.

"Thanks! You might've saved a life!" Says Dan while storming away from the man.

"Why she? What are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to kill me by killing her?" Dan keeps thinking. "What if I shouldn't be saving her?" That question makes Dan stop for a second at halfway. He doesn't understand exactly why he feels so compelled to save her. The vision is about her death, not his. For all he knows, by saving her he could die. "Is it worth the risk?"

Then he remembers how she blindly risked her life to save him back at the building. She had enough time to leave him behind and save herself. But there's something behind that reason. He feels something else. He felt it when he understood that she was living the same kind of life for the past six year. And knew it when he hugged her. Somehow, they were kind of meant to be. That there's a greater reason for that coincidence. And he cannot die, or let her die without knowing the answer.

Dan resumes his run. He lost a minute while thinking. He can only reach one bus station. Either is the right one or not, there's no more time to choose different. If that station is not the right one, then there was no real reason, because there's no way to reach any other. If there's a reason, he'll find it by saving her. Even if it means risking his life.

He keeps running, faster than he has ever run before. He barely notices the people asking for his help on his way to the bus station. Running for her and, may be, his life.

He gets to the station, and old grey building, very much like a over-sized barn, with a big round clock in the front. Even though the building is old, it was very well built, it held its own during the quake. The clock seems to be working fine too, or at least that's what Dan hopes. 2:10. Dan has four minutes to fine the man with the gun. And when he gets to the boarding platform, he does. He can hear a man already arguing, just four buses ahead from him. Another clock, this one is a digital one, on a wall in front of the buses. 2:13.

"What's this?" He whispers frowning.

The man is already pointing his gun to someone. Dan cannot see to whom, all he can see is the man in blue jeans and black t-shirt standing in front of the bus, screaming and pointing his gun.

2:14. No time left. The man swings his arm and hits someone with his gun.

"Now!" He thinks.

The man is distracted. There might not be a better chance to do something.

Dan runs again. The man doesn't notice him, he's still pointing his gun to whoever is on the floor now. He tackles him. Dan can hear the gun falling from the man's hand. Once in the floor, Dan hits him as hard as he can, repeatedly, until the man doesn't defend himself anymore.

Dan stands up. He freezes. The gun is now being pointed at him. Two shaking white hands hold it. A bloody swollen eye stares at him through the gun's sights. Red hair. Silver watch. Lara.

A loud bang and followed by a sharp pain on his right side of his chest. He falls on his back. Something hits his head. Everything turns black.