Short Stories

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"The Third Gunman"
By: Michael N Lovdal

"He's got a gun!" His entire class dove behind their desks. Girls screamed. The son of an ex-marine, Joshua was on high alert. He had to take this guy down - fast. The boy fired a shot into a desk.
"Everyone down! Get yer head down or I'll shoot y'all!" Joshua was stealthily approaching the gunman from the far side of the room, following the wall to the exit. Several overturned desks and screaming teens disguised his approach.
Joshua was nearly beside the gunman when a second boy barged in, rifle in hand. He was outnumbered, and outgunned. The outgunned part was really the stickler. He was already frantic when he saw a third gunman in the hall, holding up several teachers.
"Awaiting your orders, Füror!" Joshua noticed that the kid with the rifle had some sort of old German medal on his chest. The class cowered. Terrified.
"Haul the white trash down to the basement and lock 'em up dungeon-style with whatever you can find. Take the blacks into the lunchroom, and anyone who slurs too. The Jew's coming with me." He glared through the room, searching. Searching for Joshua. His eyes seemed to penetrate a student, who shuffled to be out of the way. Their eyes met.
"Hello, worthless," said the lead gunman. He was about to say something else too, but Joshua decked him first. The other gunman struck him over the neck and he fell to his knees. *Click.* The pistol was cocked back. The leader rubbed his jaw mildly, recovering his broken stance.
"You're gonna die for that, Jew. Jesus'll burn you in hell!"
Joshua spat on the boy's feet. "You don't even know who Jesus is."
The boy stuck the barrel of his rifle into Joshua's skull. "Maybe I am Jesus. What would you know? You Jews don't even believe in Jesus, devil-worshipper!"
One of Joshua's friends finally chimed in. "He's a Messianic Jew, dude. A Christian."
Joshua could tell by the look in this kid's eyes that his mind was incapable of taking that in.
"It's all the same to me, I hate them too." *Click!* The rifle trigger pulled back and cracked as it lurched forward.
Nothing.
The boy looked at his mistakenly unfired weapon. Joshua wasted no time decking him again with the force of desperation. Thrice the school's boxing champion, he buried a jab into the gunman's pale face and broke it. His friend brought a desk down over the other gunman's head and knocked him to the ground. He fired instinctively, once through the desk at the ceiling, and a second time, straight into his own leg.
Another two bicep-powered blows put the neo-Nazi leader flat out on the hard floor. A gunman fired from the hall, skimming Joshua's shoulder blade.
"Jesus, help me!" he said as he lunged out into the hall and tackled the last gunman. The hit put the kid's knocked the kid's skull off of the concrete wall, and then Joshua laid a blow down just in case. Another gunshot echoed from the classroom! He heard a boy cry out and hit the floor. He prayed that his friend hadn't been a victim of the last gunman. Spinning around, he saw a policeman with his gun still pointed in the gunman's limp body.
"Are y'all alright?" He asked around.
"Most of us," said Joshua under his breath. There was no pulse to find on the third gunman.

© 2008 Michael N Lovdal.

Term of Use:
This work may only be used or reprinted with the explicit permission of the author, Michael N Lovdal. Please send your requests to michaelnlovdal(@)gmail.com. (Remove parentheses).

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