Ryan Westfield - Getting Out

But it didn’t look fine.

He bent down and examined the man. He took the rffle that was slung over the man’s shoulders. He tried to hold up the sight to his eye to examine it. Or maybe he was examining the barrel. Mandy wasn’t sure. She didn’t know much about guns. To her, a rifle was a rifle. A handgun was a handgun, whatever type it was.

“Here,” said Max, wincing in pain as he handed her the rifle.

Mandy took it gingerly. “Um, shouldn’t you carry it?”

“My wrist,” said Max. “I can’t work the gun.”

“I don’t even know how to use it.”

“It’s not that hard. Point and shoot, basically.”

“Basically?”

“Let’s go,” said Max.

“Go? Go where? If we go out there… there are a ton of people out there…”

“We’re going to have to risk it,” said Max.

He walked right out into the day through the doorway. The light seemed to illuminate him completely, even though it was cloudy. Mandy followed him and the brightness of the light surprised her.

The trees were all around them. They had never looked so beautiful. It had been a long time since Mandy had been out in nature. All last night had been dark, very dark, and she hadn’t gotten a look past the magnificence of the majestic trees.

“You see anyone?” said Max in a low voice.

Mandy shook her head.

They were out back behind the store.

“Maybe everyone’s inside,” said Mandy. “I bet they’re terrified.”

“Look over there,” said Max, pointing with his good hand. “A fire.”

Suddenly, they heard yelling.

“Look,” said Mandy, as they started jogging towards the fire. They could now see a group of figures around a man lying on the ground.

“I bet that’s Chad.”

Mandy didn’t know why they were running right towards a group of men with guns. She’d just moved automatically, perhaps sensing that it might be Chad.

But why was she trying to protect Chad? She didn’t even know him. And so far, he’d seemed more like a liability than anything else.

Max was running faster than she was. He had long legs, and good form. He ran easily across the slightly muddy field.

Mandy struggled to keep up, holding the rifle in both hands in front of her.

It started to dawn on her that this was a really bad idea. These men were dangerous. They were armed.

Up ahead, she saw one of them kick Chad in the stomach. Chad went limp.

What the hell was Max planning on doing when he got up there?

She found out soon enough.

“Hey!” yelled Max, waving his good arm.

“The prisoners!” shouted one of them.

“Stay back, Mandy,” yelled Max.

Mandy stopped in her tracks, doing as she was told. She held the gun dumbly, not raising it to a position from which she could fire it.

Was Max crazy? Normally he seemed intent on making the most practical decisions, decisions that would save his own hide.

But with Chad, it was different. For Chad, he’d risked their lives back at that mob. For Chad, he was rushing towards a group of armed men.

She hoped he knew what he was doing.

There were four men. Each now pointed a handgun at Max.

One looked at Mandy, and trained his gun on her instead.

Max was only about ten feet from them. Mandy was behind, but easily within ear shot.

Max held up his hands to show that he wasn’t armed.

The men didn’t speak.

“Listen,” said Max, firmly frozen in place. “We didn’t come here to harm you. We’re just like you… Confused and scared.”

“We’re not scared of nothing,” said one of men.

Another grunted in agreement.

The other two didn’t seem so sure.

“We’re not with any foreign government,” said Max. “If you didn’t notice, we have American accents just like you. I’m from nearby. I grew up right outside Philly.”

“That’s just what a spy would say.”

“Listen,” said Max. “I don’t care what you fellows think. Because I already know exactly what you’re going to do. And I’m going to tell you what that is, in clear and simple language so that you can follow along.”

“Looks like you’re not the one in the bargaining position.”

“That’s what it would look like, yes,” said Max. “To an untrained eye. But what you don’t realize is that you’re the ones in danger right now.”

“How’s that?”

Max didn’t say anything for quite a while.

Mandy had the distinct feeling that Max hadn’t yet thought of what to say. He was thinking on his feet.

“OK,” said Max. “That lady back there. You see her? She’s not what she appears. She’s not just some ordinary girl. She’s a highly trained marksman, or I guess they say markswoman now. Whatever. She can take you all out before you have time to pull the trigger.”

Mandy groaned internally. She was sure that this wouldn’t work.

But to try to make Max’s lie more convincing, she raised the gun, putting her eye to the scope the way she’d seen people do in the movies. She pointed the gun at one of the men and hoped she was doing it convincingly. She put her finger on the trigger, but made sure to keep from applying any pressure. She didn’t want to shoot anyone by mistake.

“You see,” said Max. “You actually did catch some spies. We’re nothing but the best. The best spies, that is.”

Mandy had the feeling that Max wasn’t used to lying. But she had to admit it wasn’t that bad of a plan. These guys were so terrified of spies that just maybe it would… maybe. But Max didn’t sound too sure of himself. He did, in a way, but he was pausing a lot when speaking.

“Yup,” said Max, again. “We’re spies… The best… And she’s the best sharpshooter…” He was starting to repeat himself.

The guys were looking at each other questioningly.

Mandy knew she had to do something.

“Listen up,” shouted Mandy. “Drop the weapons now. Or I open fire. I guarantee I’ll take out three of the four of you before you can get off a shot.”

Mandy didn’t want to make it sound too unrealistic. She had no idea if it was possible to shoot three people before they shot her, but in her mind three sounded better than four. That just sounded too boastful and unrealistic.

Were they going to buy it?

They didn’t look too smart. They had dumb looking faces and confused expressions.

Mandy wished she knew how to do that thing with a gun that made that noise, the thing they were always doing in movies. Cocking the gun? She wasn’t sure. This wasn’t that type of gun. Maybe there was a bolt somewhere. But she couldn’t exactly go groping around with her hand looking for a bolt.

Chad started groaning from down on the ground.

“Aw, shit, man,” he said, loudly. He sounded as if he was in pain.

The moments were dragging on. Mandy didn’t know what to do.

“That’s it!” she cried out. She felt like the best strategy was simply to be completely overconfident. “You’re all going down.”

She moved her body, pretending that she was adjusting the way the rifle sat on her shoulder. She moved her trigger finger around a little, hoping they could see it moving, hoping that it was twitching or something.

“Ok!” shouted one of the men. He started lowering his gun to the ground.

“Drop it!” shouted Mandy.

“What are you doing?” said his buddy.

“Dude, she’s going to kill us.”

“How do you know that?”

“You were the one who said they were spies in the first place.”

“Drop it,” shouted Mandy.

The man dropped his gun to the ground.

Mandy held her breath as it fell, hoping that it wouldn’t fire as it hit the ground. In truth, she didn’t know if that actually happened, but she was pretty sure she’d seen it in a movie somewhere.