(011) Eleventh Report [>>Accidental Video]
[The feed begins abruptly: the picture spins before the tablet clatters noisily to the ground, providing an awkward but clear view of a long, shadowed alley between two stores in the market. Against the lefthand wall is Jill, her back pinned against the brick; all but on top of her is a rail-thin black woman a good several inches taller, her strong hands locked effectively around Jill's throat. The phantom's yelling, but unless someone knows some Swahili, the snarls of Murderer and Child killer are probably lost.
Jill's hands are fastened on her attacker's forearms -- but that's not cutting it, so she manages to draw back a hand and strike hard at the other's face. It stuns the woman long enough for Jill to get a leg up between them and kick against her chest, knocking her back; before the attacker can recover, Jill's whipped out her sidearm, taken aim, and fired -- a dead-on headshot that knocks the figure out of the tablet's view.
...Right as a second attacker lunges from the side. Jill swerves, redirects her gun, but the phantom's already within striking distance and slashes at her with a simple kitchen knife. She catches his weapon arm and uses the momentum to swivel him around, which brings him into the light -- and this one, male, can only be twelve years old at the most. If it registers on Jill, she doesn't show it -- she just relieves him of the knife in a swift disarm that she makes look all too easy and shoves him away from her, raising her weapon.]
Don't--!
[But he's already diving at her again. At the last second, Jill reacts in two ways that she never does.
First, she looks away, closing her eyes.
And when her gun barks, she actually flinches, a full-body shudder that has nothing to do with recoil.
The second figure drops. Jill's absolutely, perfectly still for several seconds, her face a numb-looking blank. Slowly, she leans back against the brick wall, her gun hanging limply by her side. She shuts her eyes tight again, exhales sharply, and leans back to stare blindly upward, the look strained -- still unaware of the feed's presence.]
Jill's hands are fastened on her attacker's forearms -- but that's not cutting it, so she manages to draw back a hand and strike hard at the other's face. It stuns the woman long enough for Jill to get a leg up between them and kick against her chest, knocking her back; before the attacker can recover, Jill's whipped out her sidearm, taken aim, and fired -- a dead-on headshot that knocks the figure out of the tablet's view.
...Right as a second attacker lunges from the side. Jill swerves, redirects her gun, but the phantom's already within striking distance and slashes at her with a simple kitchen knife. She catches his weapon arm and uses the momentum to swivel him around, which brings him into the light -- and this one, male, can only be twelve years old at the most. If it registers on Jill, she doesn't show it -- she just relieves him of the knife in a swift disarm that she makes look all too easy and shoves him away from her, raising her weapon.]
Don't--!
[But he's already diving at her again. At the last second, Jill reacts in two ways that she never does.
First, she looks away, closing her eyes.
And when her gun barks, she actually flinches, a full-body shudder that has nothing to do with recoil.
The second figure drops. Jill's absolutely, perfectly still for several seconds, her face a numb-looking blank. Slowly, she leans back against the brick wall, her gun hanging limply by her side. She shuts her eyes tight again, exhales sharply, and leans back to stare blindly upward, the look strained -- still unaware of the feed's presence.]