Citizen-Patrol
Title: Citizen-Patrol
Characters/Pairing: Sylar/Maya
Rating: R
Word count: 3,016
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: A young border patroler tells a shocking tale.
Note: AU. What if it was just Maya and Gabriel on the road?
His father, John, hadn't seen his son cry since he was fourteen and even then it had been because of the death of his mother. Sadness played a part now but really it was because he was terrified and confused. Everyone was. All they knew was that something horrific had happened at the Border that night and Glen was the only survivor.
And they needed to get their story straight before the police begin to ask questions.
They sit him down at the desk and place a warm blanket around his shaking shoulders as he peers nervously in the mirror over the fireplace. Checking his eyes. John grimaces and takes a seat opposite and draws Glen's attention back to him. He's met with wide, flickering eyes but as they focus on his father they settle, but overflow with emotion.
"She was a demon, I mean she...They're all dead, I - I thought I..." He swallows with difficulty and looks around at the people ringing him, as if seeing them for the first time. He straightens and clears his throat but his legs bounce continuously. In taking a deep breath he tells them what happened, eyes on his calm father the whole time.
~
Glen never really expected anything to happen, not after weeks of just sitting in the shack with the other guys. New fencing was being introduced and had been a ongoing process for over a year and so a bunch of the guys had formed into a patrol to watch the unfinished sections of it. Butnadda . No suspect movement or any crossings, no violent gunfights like they had told him in hushed, wise tones. Not that he hoped for that but after Rob's son died last year they had all equipped themselves with firearms and grew increasingly more wound up and impatient for some action.
They teased and ratted on him for being being the youngest there but most of them were a good bunch. Most.
When the call came in of an approaching car coming from the Mexican side, headlights dim and traveling slow in the cover of night; Glen had felt the first prickles of excitement and fear. It was his first time out and the shotgun was gripped tight in his fist. All were in a raucous mood, a heady mixture with the spirits they had been consuming previously. He couldn't help feeling that they were getting into trouble and getting off on it. He knew they weren't meant to be caring guns but they assured him that no one knew and wouldn't give a shit anyway. After Rob's son had been killed by a bottle thrown at him by one of the coyotes, they weren't taking anymore risks. Or prisoners.
Charlie had told him stories about those coyotes and the hellish things those bastards do and Glen waited with bated breath in the back of the SUV as the car crawled closer. But the Rogue that crossed over the Border turned out to hold only two occupants. A young man and a woman. A white man and a Mexican girl.
His heart in his mouth Glen had followed the others as they ringed the car and started shaking it, hollering drunkenly at the top of their lungs and he found himself joining in, giddy. "GET OUT! GET OUT!" He was on the drivers side and he could see the woman bent over, hair obscuring her face as the guy in the passenger seat talked to her, stressed until he finally slammed his fist down on the dashboard, his face twisted in annoyance. The girl jumped and lifted her head to him and shook it, mouthing no. She was stunning, thick soft black hair spilling around her shoulders and smooth bronzed skin.
~
Glen looks up at his dad, swallowing. "After I got a look at her I didn't want her to get out, you know what the guys are like. I just got this really bad fucking feeling that things would turn to shit for her." He comes to a stop and snorts, his eyes loosing focus. John leans down and gives Glen's knee a squeeze.
"Come on son, tell us the rest. Before the cops get here."
~
But she does get out, shaking and her hands raised in surrender; she kept her eyes on the man who exists with her. Surrounded they move them away from their car to the SUVs, guns pointed at them all the while. When they all get a good look at her wolf whistles had cut the air and her mouth had down turned, her arms crossing protectively over her breasts.
"Gabriel?" Her voice was thickly accented and it transforms his name into the feminine form.
"It's ok, just keep calm..." He said low but his voice seemed to carry, and he was clearly American, judging from accent. The Mexican girl bit her lip and closed her eyes and then did the strangest thing. She started to sing, like a mother trying to get her kid to sleep.
But Rob wanted answers and he started with the usual. "You two have sneaked over the border and -"
"I'm an American citizen, from New York." the guy interrupted firmly, brown eyes spearing into Rob. Now that he was out of the car Glen got a better view of him. Late twenties, tall and slim with dark brown hair and eyes. Very calm.
~
"It was weird man, I was trying to place where he might be from, what ethnicity, but I couldn't. That guy was..." He shakes his head and takes a gulp from the chipped cup before continuing. "So Rob kept on asking him questions but that guy - Gabriel - was smooth as silk."
~
"Got your passport?"
"It was stolen, along with our papers." Gabriel responded calmly, eyes still unblinking. He didn't appear fazed at all. Glen, shifting on his feet, looked towards the girl who's still got her eyes closed, still singing like she wasn't surrounded by armed men. Feeling slightly spooked Glen turned back to see Rob moving away from Gabriel.
"Our?" Rob snorted and turned to the girl and took her by the arm. She jumped and her eyes flew open and she stared, terrified. "Now calm down girl, no need to piss your pants." He pulled on her arm and moved her away, separating her from Gabriel. She stared after him, calling to him again and he made a move toward her but stopped when they twitched the guns at him. So he smiled at her reassuringly.
"Everything will be fine, just keep it together." She seemed to take heart from this and closed her eyes and prepared to start singing that lullaby again when Rob poked her in the ribs and she jerked.
"No more of that, you hear? You're gonna talk, comprender?" She stared at him with her full lips parted, large black eyes pined to his. Rob appeared entranced for a moment before he shakes his head and snapped out of it, scowling. "What's your name? Where you from?"
Glen saw her teeth grinding before she answered, her eyes flicking fast before she became firm. "No Ingles."
~
"We all starting laughing our asses off and she got all uptight. She was standing there with her arms wrapped around her chest." He demonstrates, hugging the blanket tighter around himself. "I could see that she had old sweat stains on her vest so I guessed she and the other guy had been travelling light and for a long time. That car was either his or they stole it...but she was really hot you know? I could see the guys looking her up and down. But Rob was still on ball."
~
"Don't even try it sweetheart! You understood him perfectly." She didn't respond and averted her eyes, shrugging her shoulders. Glen winced internally and Rob's already drink flushed face darkened and he wrenched her head forward by her hair. "Don't you shrug me off girl! You...bringing your deceiving, murdering, whoring ass in my country! You -"
"You're citizen border patrol right? Shouldn't you be reporting to the real authority now, instead of interrogating us? Should you even be carrying firearms?" Gabriel said steadily but was glaring hard at Rob who turned with a deep frown, hand gripping the girl's arm.
"You've had your turn, so don't interrupt. I'm gonna talk to this senorita as long and hard as I want to." This was meet by snorts and spiffles and those curious eyes heated to lust. He turned his back on Gabriel and turned to the woman, who's jaw was clenched with anger but she still shook. "Now, why don't you tell me what happened?" But he doesn't give her time to respond, offering his own explanation instead. "Looking at you I can see you're one fine looking woman but you also appear poor, judging from the state of your clothes." She was attired in a pair of shorts that show a long length of leg. "This man back here decided to go over the border for a fun time, found you and has decided to follow his dick instead of his mind and brought you back with him."
Again Rob was interrupted. "You better think carefully before you open your mouth again..." Rob turns to Gabriel who was pressed up against the men ringing him, totally ignoring the guns. A muscle twitched under his eye and his mouth was stretched into this strange grin, showing all his teeth. Wolfish. "She's my wife." Glen watched the girl's face as he said this and caught a plethora of emotions passing over her: shock, embarrassment, delight and then back to something more guarded as she ducked her head.
Rob must have caught her expression for his head fell back and he laughed loudly and letting go of the girl walked up to Gabriel. "Son, I've been doing this for more years then I'd care to recollect, and by Christ I'd be a millionaire for every time some pussy addled kid has given me that bullshit response."
"If you touch her I will kill you." He said and there wasn't a flicker of emotion on the man's face, he was still completely serene. But for that twitch. Glen was heavily reminded of animals on the prowl, deathly still and ready to pounce. Shit, snap out of it, he's harmless, he thought but he couldn't let go of that ominous sensation. It was hanging thick in the arid air.
Rob's eyes widened and he took a step back, giving the younger man a once over. "Really? What the hell for?"
"Because she's mine." He answered simply and then looked beyond Rob to her, his face softening. "Maya? These bastards have seen our faces, they know what kind of car we drive...I know you're scared about prison, about killing, but I guarantee you that will be the least of your worries if the Company finds you. You can do this, I trust you."
The girl - Maya - shook her head, her mouth wobbling open. "I can't Gabriel! You'll die!" At this point Glen had moved back from her, staring between them with confusion. While the guns that had been hanging loosely rose up and pointed at her but Rob rolled his eyes and yelled at them.
"Why y'all scared for? They only thing she can hit us with is her clothes!" This is met with nervous chuckles and the guns lowered slowly. Maya breathed heavily and fast, shifting on her feet. She closed her eyes and that weird lullaby started again. But Rob, already at the end of his patience, grabbed Maya's arm and gave her a sharp, hard shake. "TALK YOU SILLY BITCH!"
Glen saw her eyes widen and then she wrenched her arm back, her nostrils flaring. But his attention was drawn back to the other guy as he barrels into the men ringing him, his teeth bared, finally loosing control. Rob turned and seeing this, swore. "Fuck...knock him on his ass." His orders were followed to the letter and a butt of a gun was sharply slammed into the guy's face and he fell to the ground, bleeding heavily from a gash on his forehead.
~
Glen drains his cup and settles it down on the desk for refill and only speaks again when it's half full. "By then I was ready to high tail it out of there. I never really expected anything like that would happen....But I stayed where I was, by one of the SUVs and watched. When her man had been knocked out that girl went fucking ape-shit."
~
Maya had bolted forward and it took two of the guys to keep her still. She was wild. She started muttering under her breath in Spanish which just pissed Rob off even more. So she does it louder, speaking directly into his face until she was screaming it. Glen knew it was going to happen but still winced when she's struck across the face. What he didn't count on was her socking Rob one back, hard. Everyone stood still and silent, to shocked to act as Rob straightened, hand to his nose and turned his face to stare at the now furious girl looking up at him.
As Rob gripped his gun in a choke hold Glen found himself coming forward and standing off to the side of the enraged woman, stared into Rob's face imploringly. "Dude, just stop and take a minute here, OK? Lets just call the -" But Rob didn't want to hear it, he was staring at Maya liked he wanted to take a baseball bat to her. He shoved Glen aside with a sneer.
"Get the hell out of it! Sticking up for some Mexican whore."
~
Glen stops here and breathes out a long shaky breath. He scrubs a hand through his hair and looks at his father desperately. "This is fucking nuts, I - I don't know how to describe it without sounding like a loon."
John takes his hand and looks into his eyes, smiling softly. "It's ok, we believe you. I saw what they look like Glen and I'm not crazy."
But still Glen shakes his head, his eyes rimming tears. "It's was like something from a horror move, Twilight Zone shit..." He takes another breath and exhales, looking into his cup as he continues speaking. "Well if she wasn't angry enough before she was in a fucking fury now. She started hollering at the top of her lungs."
~
"I'm not even Mexican you stupid cono!" She spat furiously, throwing her hands in the air. Glen doesn't take it in at first, her eyes but when Rob suddenly backed away, recoiling in fright Glen saw it and crossed himself. And he hadn't done that with so much conviction since Sunday School.
The whites around her eyes were obscured by a filmy blackness, shiny and wet in the beams of the headlights. And as he watched the blackness spilled from her eyes to roll down her cheeks. She was crying black tears.
~
"Like that ghost story dad, like that ghost." He whispers, horrified.
~
Rob took one stop back and then another and he was ready to bolt. "Jesus Christ, fuck me...what the hell are -" But then Rob choked, gun slipping from his lax hand as he grasped at his throat, eyes bulging out of his head. As his legs buckled Glen was already running but was brought down to his knees when he tripped on a root. His lungs squeezed tight as if in a fist and he breathed raggedly. Mouth gaping open for air he turned and peered through the dry shrub and saw all his comrades squirming on the dusty ground, gasping and choking. All had black tears pouring from their eyes and that thing, that girl, was still standing before Rob who didn't move. Glen could feel his eyes welling up but he seemed to be withholding better then the others and he watched her as she started yelling.
~
"She started calling for Gabriel, over and over again and she ran to him and got down on her knees. My eyes, I couldn't see right at first but then it started to clear and I could breathe again. She sounded like she was hyperventilating and she started praying I think. Or I did..." Glen stares into space, biting at his lip and his eyes appear foggy with drink. "The tears on her face were gone and I wiped my hands over my face but there wasn't any of that black stuff. It was gone - at least from me. Anyway that guy was alive and when she saw that I could hear her laughing and she started kissing him and hugging him. She kept saying that it was a miracle, saying that she loved him..."
Glen sits back and sighs, not looking at anyone. "She started to lift him up when the gun went off." Glen snorts very softly, shaking his head in wonder. "It was Rob, he was barely alive but he wasn't gonna give in without a fight." Glen lifts his fingers and separates them an inch apart, "he missed that woman's head, another inch and he would have got her."
"But he didn't." John says softly, staring intensely.
"No, he didn't. When that happened the guy pushed Maya to the ground and saw that it was Rob that tried to kill her. So he just - just picked up a gun and fired at him. Killed him, just like that...She was shocked and I think that guy was, because I don't think he's ever fired a gun. Those things are like rockets if you're not prepared...The last thing I remember them saying was that he did it to protect her and that she was a gift to him. Then they got in their car and drove away."
They all sit in silence, digesting his strange tale until the sound of sirens started echoing strangely in the dark.
Characters/Pairing: Sylar/Maya
Rating: R
Word count: 3,016
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: A young border patroler tells a shocking tale.
Note: AU. What if it was just Maya and Gabriel on the road?
His father, John, hadn't seen his son cry since he was fourteen and even then it had been because of the death of his mother. Sadness played a part now but really it was because he was terrified and confused. Everyone was. All they knew was that something horrific had happened at the Border that night and Glen was the only survivor.
And they needed to get their story straight before the police begin to ask questions.
They sit him down at the desk and place a warm blanket around his shaking shoulders as he peers nervously in the mirror over the fireplace. Checking his eyes. John grimaces and takes a seat opposite and draws Glen's attention back to him. He's met with wide, flickering eyes but as they focus on his father they settle, but overflow with emotion.
"She was a demon, I mean she...They're all dead, I - I thought I..." He swallows with difficulty and looks around at the people ringing him, as if seeing them for the first time. He straightens and clears his throat but his legs bounce continuously. In taking a deep breath he tells them what happened, eyes on his calm father the whole time.
~
Glen never really expected anything to happen, not after weeks of just sitting in the shack with the other guys. New fencing was being introduced and had been a ongoing process for over a year and so a bunch of the guys had formed into a patrol to watch the unfinished sections of it. Butnadda . No suspect movement or any crossings, no violent gunfights like they had told him in hushed, wise tones. Not that he hoped for that but after Rob's son died last year they had all equipped themselves with firearms and grew increasingly more wound up and impatient for some action.
They teased and ratted on him for being being the youngest there but most of them were a good bunch. Most.
When the call came in of an approaching car coming from the Mexican side, headlights dim and traveling slow in the cover of night; Glen had felt the first prickles of excitement and fear. It was his first time out and the shotgun was gripped tight in his fist. All were in a raucous mood, a heady mixture with the spirits they had been consuming previously. He couldn't help feeling that they were getting into trouble and getting off on it. He knew they weren't meant to be caring guns but they assured him that no one knew and wouldn't give a shit anyway. After Rob's son had been killed by a bottle thrown at him by one of the coyotes, they weren't taking anymore risks. Or prisoners.
Charlie had told him stories about those coyotes and the hellish things those bastards do and Glen waited with bated breath in the back of the SUV as the car crawled closer. But the Rogue that crossed over the Border turned out to hold only two occupants. A young man and a woman. A white man and a Mexican girl.
His heart in his mouth Glen had followed the others as they ringed the car and started shaking it, hollering drunkenly at the top of their lungs and he found himself joining in, giddy. "GET OUT! GET OUT!" He was on the drivers side and he could see the woman bent over, hair obscuring her face as the guy in the passenger seat talked to her, stressed until he finally slammed his fist down on the dashboard, his face twisted in annoyance. The girl jumped and lifted her head to him and shook it, mouthing no. She was stunning, thick soft black hair spilling around her shoulders and smooth bronzed skin.
~
Glen looks up at his dad, swallowing. "After I got a look at her I didn't want her to get out, you know what the guys are like. I just got this really bad fucking feeling that things would turn to shit for her." He comes to a stop and snorts, his eyes loosing focus. John leans down and gives Glen's knee a squeeze.
"Come on son, tell us the rest. Before the cops get here."
~
But she does get out, shaking and her hands raised in surrender; she kept her eyes on the man who exists with her. Surrounded they move them away from their car to the SUVs, guns pointed at them all the while. When they all get a good look at her wolf whistles had cut the air and her mouth had down turned, her arms crossing protectively over her breasts.
"Gabriel?" Her voice was thickly accented and it transforms his name into the feminine form.
"It's ok, just keep calm..." He said low but his voice seemed to carry, and he was clearly American, judging from accent. The Mexican girl bit her lip and closed her eyes and then did the strangest thing. She started to sing, like a mother trying to get her kid to sleep.
But Rob wanted answers and he started with the usual. "You two have sneaked over the border and -"
"I'm an American citizen, from New York." the guy interrupted firmly, brown eyes spearing into Rob. Now that he was out of the car Glen got a better view of him. Late twenties, tall and slim with dark brown hair and eyes. Very calm.
~
"It was weird man, I was trying to place where he might be from, what ethnicity, but I couldn't. That guy was..." He shakes his head and takes a gulp from the chipped cup before continuing. "So Rob kept on asking him questions but that guy - Gabriel - was smooth as silk."
~
"Got your passport?"
"It was stolen, along with our papers." Gabriel responded calmly, eyes still unblinking. He didn't appear fazed at all. Glen, shifting on his feet, looked towards the girl who's still got her eyes closed, still singing like she wasn't surrounded by armed men. Feeling slightly spooked Glen turned back to see Rob moving away from Gabriel.
"Our?" Rob snorted and turned to the girl and took her by the arm. She jumped and her eyes flew open and she stared, terrified. "Now calm down girl, no need to piss your pants." He pulled on her arm and moved her away, separating her from Gabriel. She stared after him, calling to him again and he made a move toward her but stopped when they twitched the guns at him. So he smiled at her reassuringly.
"Everything will be fine, just keep it together." She seemed to take heart from this and closed her eyes and prepared to start singing that lullaby again when Rob poked her in the ribs and she jerked.
"No more of that, you hear? You're gonna talk, comprender?" She stared at him with her full lips parted, large black eyes pined to his. Rob appeared entranced for a moment before he shakes his head and snapped out of it, scowling. "What's your name? Where you from?"
Glen saw her teeth grinding before she answered, her eyes flicking fast before she became firm. "No Ingles."
~
"We all starting laughing our asses off and she got all uptight. She was standing there with her arms wrapped around her chest." He demonstrates, hugging the blanket tighter around himself. "I could see that she had old sweat stains on her vest so I guessed she and the other guy had been travelling light and for a long time. That car was either his or they stole it...but she was really hot you know? I could see the guys looking her up and down. But Rob was still on ball."
~
"Don't even try it sweetheart! You understood him perfectly." She didn't respond and averted her eyes, shrugging her shoulders. Glen winced internally and Rob's already drink flushed face darkened and he wrenched her head forward by her hair. "Don't you shrug me off girl! You...bringing your deceiving, murdering, whoring ass in my country! You -"
"You're citizen border patrol right? Shouldn't you be reporting to the real authority now, instead of interrogating us? Should you even be carrying firearms?" Gabriel said steadily but was glaring hard at Rob who turned with a deep frown, hand gripping the girl's arm.
"You've had your turn, so don't interrupt. I'm gonna talk to this senorita as long and hard as I want to." This was meet by snorts and spiffles and those curious eyes heated to lust. He turned his back on Gabriel and turned to the woman, who's jaw was clenched with anger but she still shook. "Now, why don't you tell me what happened?" But he doesn't give her time to respond, offering his own explanation instead. "Looking at you I can see you're one fine looking woman but you also appear poor, judging from the state of your clothes." She was attired in a pair of shorts that show a long length of leg. "This man back here decided to go over the border for a fun time, found you and has decided to follow his dick instead of his mind and brought you back with him."
Again Rob was interrupted. "You better think carefully before you open your mouth again..." Rob turns to Gabriel who was pressed up against the men ringing him, totally ignoring the guns. A muscle twitched under his eye and his mouth was stretched into this strange grin, showing all his teeth. Wolfish. "She's my wife." Glen watched the girl's face as he said this and caught a plethora of emotions passing over her: shock, embarrassment, delight and then back to something more guarded as she ducked her head.
Rob must have caught her expression for his head fell back and he laughed loudly and letting go of the girl walked up to Gabriel. "Son, I've been doing this for more years then I'd care to recollect, and by Christ I'd be a millionaire for every time some pussy addled kid has given me that bullshit response."
"If you touch her I will kill you." He said and there wasn't a flicker of emotion on the man's face, he was still completely serene. But for that twitch. Glen was heavily reminded of animals on the prowl, deathly still and ready to pounce. Shit, snap out of it, he's harmless, he thought but he couldn't let go of that ominous sensation. It was hanging thick in the arid air.
Rob's eyes widened and he took a step back, giving the younger man a once over. "Really? What the hell for?"
"Because she's mine." He answered simply and then looked beyond Rob to her, his face softening. "Maya? These bastards have seen our faces, they know what kind of car we drive...I know you're scared about prison, about killing, but I guarantee you that will be the least of your worries if the Company finds you. You can do this, I trust you."
The girl - Maya - shook her head, her mouth wobbling open. "I can't Gabriel! You'll die!" At this point Glen had moved back from her, staring between them with confusion. While the guns that had been hanging loosely rose up and pointed at her but Rob rolled his eyes and yelled at them.
"Why y'all scared for? They only thing she can hit us with is her clothes!" This is met with nervous chuckles and the guns lowered slowly. Maya breathed heavily and fast, shifting on her feet. She closed her eyes and that weird lullaby started again. But Rob, already at the end of his patience, grabbed Maya's arm and gave her a sharp, hard shake. "TALK YOU SILLY BITCH!"
Glen saw her eyes widen and then she wrenched her arm back, her nostrils flaring. But his attention was drawn back to the other guy as he barrels into the men ringing him, his teeth bared, finally loosing control. Rob turned and seeing this, swore. "Fuck...knock him on his ass." His orders were followed to the letter and a butt of a gun was sharply slammed into the guy's face and he fell to the ground, bleeding heavily from a gash on his forehead.
~
Glen drains his cup and settles it down on the desk for refill and only speaks again when it's half full. "By then I was ready to high tail it out of there. I never really expected anything like that would happen....But I stayed where I was, by one of the SUVs and watched. When her man had been knocked out that girl went fucking ape-shit."
~
Maya had bolted forward and it took two of the guys to keep her still. She was wild. She started muttering under her breath in Spanish which just pissed Rob off even more. So she does it louder, speaking directly into his face until she was screaming it. Glen knew it was going to happen but still winced when she's struck across the face. What he didn't count on was her socking Rob one back, hard. Everyone stood still and silent, to shocked to act as Rob straightened, hand to his nose and turned his face to stare at the now furious girl looking up at him.
As Rob gripped his gun in a choke hold Glen found himself coming forward and standing off to the side of the enraged woman, stared into Rob's face imploringly. "Dude, just stop and take a minute here, OK? Lets just call the -" But Rob didn't want to hear it, he was staring at Maya liked he wanted to take a baseball bat to her. He shoved Glen aside with a sneer.
"Get the hell out of it! Sticking up for some Mexican whore."
~
Glen stops here and breathes out a long shaky breath. He scrubs a hand through his hair and looks at his father desperately. "This is fucking nuts, I - I don't know how to describe it without sounding like a loon."
John takes his hand and looks into his eyes, smiling softly. "It's ok, we believe you. I saw what they look like Glen and I'm not crazy."
But still Glen shakes his head, his eyes rimming tears. "It's was like something from a horror move, Twilight Zone shit..." He takes another breath and exhales, looking into his cup as he continues speaking. "Well if she wasn't angry enough before she was in a fucking fury now. She started hollering at the top of her lungs."
~
"I'm not even Mexican you stupid cono!" She spat furiously, throwing her hands in the air. Glen doesn't take it in at first, her eyes but when Rob suddenly backed away, recoiling in fright Glen saw it and crossed himself. And he hadn't done that with so much conviction since Sunday School.
The whites around her eyes were obscured by a filmy blackness, shiny and wet in the beams of the headlights. And as he watched the blackness spilled from her eyes to roll down her cheeks. She was crying black tears.
~
"Like that ghost story dad, like that ghost." He whispers, horrified.
~
Rob took one stop back and then another and he was ready to bolt. "Jesus Christ, fuck me...what the hell are -" But then Rob choked, gun slipping from his lax hand as he grasped at his throat, eyes bulging out of his head. As his legs buckled Glen was already running but was brought down to his knees when he tripped on a root. His lungs squeezed tight as if in a fist and he breathed raggedly. Mouth gaping open for air he turned and peered through the dry shrub and saw all his comrades squirming on the dusty ground, gasping and choking. All had black tears pouring from their eyes and that thing, that girl, was still standing before Rob who didn't move. Glen could feel his eyes welling up but he seemed to be withholding better then the others and he watched her as she started yelling.
~
"She started calling for Gabriel, over and over again and she ran to him and got down on her knees. My eyes, I couldn't see right at first but then it started to clear and I could breathe again. She sounded like she was hyperventilating and she started praying I think. Or I did..." Glen stares into space, biting at his lip and his eyes appear foggy with drink. "The tears on her face were gone and I wiped my hands over my face but there wasn't any of that black stuff. It was gone - at least from me. Anyway that guy was alive and when she saw that I could hear her laughing and she started kissing him and hugging him. She kept saying that it was a miracle, saying that she loved him..."
Glen sits back and sighs, not looking at anyone. "She started to lift him up when the gun went off." Glen snorts very softly, shaking his head in wonder. "It was Rob, he was barely alive but he wasn't gonna give in without a fight." Glen lifts his fingers and separates them an inch apart, "he missed that woman's head, another inch and he would have got her."
"But he didn't." John says softly, staring intensely.
"No, he didn't. When that happened the guy pushed Maya to the ground and saw that it was Rob that tried to kill her. So he just - just picked up a gun and fired at him. Killed him, just like that...She was shocked and I think that guy was, because I don't think he's ever fired a gun. Those things are like rockets if you're not prepared...The last thing I remember them saying was that he did it to protect her and that she was a gift to him. Then they got in their car and drove away."
They all sit in silence, digesting his strange tale until the sound of sirens started echoing strangely in the dark.