Brothers At Arms

Dressed in jeans, a tank top, and a long duster type jacket, along with her well-worn cowboy boots, Marty walked along the streets of Fergus. She looked around at the dusty little town. It wasn’t a big place and she had seen a sign that claimed Crystal City as a sister city.

The sun was dipping in the sky but she wasn’t worried. Bars opened in the evenings so she kept walking as she looked for The Brothers’ Tavern. She’d found out that it was the last place where her sister might be and she really had to find Sami. Why, she wasn’t sure but it had been her father’s last wish.

She came through the alley and finally found the back door of the bar. Now all she had to do was wait for Sami to show up. She spotted a crate near the door and used it to climb a few feet up to hide her small backpack in between the branches of a tree at the backend of the alley. Once she deposited the backpack, she returned the crate close to where she found it and sat down to wait. She couldn’t afford to lose her bag and she didn’t want anyone else to know about the pack either. She figured it would be safe in the tree.

She settled in to wait and see if Sami would show up or not. The wait seemed long but it was because she had been on this search for a while now.

And then…

Everything happened so fast. One minute Marty was sitting against the tree alone while staring at the back door of the tavern when suddenly she heard a sound. She turned to see the back door being pushed open. 

Next, a little girl with long reddish hair was tossed out into the cold alley as the door slammed shut. She looked to be about four or five years old. Looking scared, the poor kid held a stuffed rabbit close to her tiny chest.

Marty wondered what this was all about. Who would throw a small child out into an alley behind a freakin’ bar?

The air felt a bit on the cool side tonight and the little girl had been put outside without a jacket. She kept crying as she wobbled backwards out into the alley with tears running down her face.The poor thing looked lost, cold and scared to death.

A rumbling sound broke the silence now…it sounded like a motorcycle coming down the alley.

The rider didn’t have a helmet on. He wore a look of hate and rage on his face. One of his hands left the handlebar as he pulled a wicked-looking knife from his waistband. His eyes were locked onto the little girl and it looked like he was going to hit her, either with the bike or the knife.

The little girl seemed to hear the sound of the rumbling motor and froze. Turning her head, she opened her mouth as if to scream but no sound came from her throat.

The man on the motorcycle wasn’t slowing down and it seemed like he was intent on running her over.

Marty moved to draw her weapon from the holster at the back of her jeans. Swiftly, she rushed over and swept the little girl into her arms…all while aiming her gun at the rider.

He snarled and swung out his arm jabbing the knife at her.

Marty didn’t even feel the blade as it sliced down her side. Instead of screaming, she glared at him.

He tried to snatch the girl from her arms.

Hell no, Marty wasn’t giving her up. She raised her foot as if to kick the biker away from her but he swerved and she missed.

This all happened fast as the rider revved his bike and he barely scraped by them in the narrow alley.

Marty got one shot off at the biker just as he made the turn at the end of the alley.

 It looked like the bullet hit him as he seemed to lose control of his cycle but he adjusted his ride and took off.

Marty took a deep breath as she almost stumbled now. Then she righted herself. “Well hell, we actually survived that, kid.”

With a loud bang, the back door of the bar was thrown open as men poured out of it with their guns drawn. They fanned out, standing almost shoulder to shoulder, forming a wall of muscle and testosterone ten feet wide and well over six feet high. They all had their weapons drawn.

Sadly, for her and the little girl those guns were pointed directly at them.

Holy shit, Marty thought to herself.

One of the biggest bikers she’d ever seen growled at her. “Sam, what the hell? I threw your troublemaking ass out of here a couple of months ago. I told you then to never come back here again.”

Marty shook her head trying to focus on what the big man had said, as she tightened her grip on both her weapon and the little girl. “I-I’m not Sam and this isn’t what it looks like.”

“Drop your weapon and then put my daughter on the ground,” the big man told her. “And you’d better put her down gently.”

“How the hell did she get Angel anyway?” One of the large men beside him growled. “One of us would have seen her if she’d come into the bar.”

“Yeah,” the big man replied. “Not sure how she managed to grab her.”

“Listen,” Marty cut in. “I’m putting my gun back into my holster now, nice and slow.” She lowered her arm slowly. “I’m not here to hurt the girl.”

The little girl whimpered. Then she wrapped her tiny arms along with the stuffed rabbit around her neck and hung on tight. She buried her face into Marty’s neck and refused to look at the men.