made of brown dyed leather, I’d gotten it in Germany shortly after the war. I shook it slightly and put it back in my pocket.
Houses began to become more frequent and before long we were deep in the heart of the city. There were a few cars on the streets and the even fewer people were scuttling to the nearest open door, “If you want to pull up along here we can go find a place to eat.”
I nodded and parked between a green hatchback and a brown 4wd, took the keys out and popped my door which resulted in my face being hit by a breeze so cold it burnt, it quickly dissipated and I stepped out into the street.
I heard the car door behind me close and I turned to face Kate and smiled, a gesture which was promptly returned, “Which way?”
She seemed to shrink into her jacket, digging her hands deep into her pockets. “Umm, if we go left there’s a few Asian restaurants and a hot dog stand aaand to our right we’ve got a fish and chip shop. Your choice.”
I juggled the options, a restaurant would be classy and nice, but the fish and chip place would have burgers. Big juicy burgers, Kate tilted her head to her right, “Fish and chips has meat, and a pinball machine.”
A massive smile played across my face, this person is cool, I like this one, “Let’s go then.” We made our way down the street, in silence for a moment, which just felt wrong.
“So, what were you doing before you came here, I’ve read you’re file, but a lot of what was written seemed to be hear-say.” I pushed my hands further into my pockets in an attempt to stop them from freezing off. Unfortunately the cold had seemed to have pierced the very fabric of my clothes.
“Most recently I was a bartender at a small place in Brisbane. Before that I fought and sustained myself on the spoils of war, which, as it turns out, is highly profitable. The first war I was in was also the war when I was changed, the American Revolutionary War. It was 1776, I fought with the British and I had taken a shot to my left lung which led to me promptly bleed out. But someone found me, he turned me, took care of me, we wandered around for a while before he finally killed himself, he was a good man... if you look at the big picture. After he passed I went back to the war and fought until the final days. When the war was over I took an extended holiday, I decided to truly live. I spent the majority of my time in London, but also travelled to Italy, France, and several more times to the States. I soon became bored and began to study everything, learn every possible skill that was out there, it was a wondrous time. That’s all I did for many, many years.”
We took a turn down a well-lit street with large potted plants where I felt the road should’ve been. I noticed how my shoes reacted to the cobblestone as opposed to the flat pavement, occasionally dipping into the ground.
“After my years of rest, I served in World War I and II, spent most of my time in France and Belgium from 1915 to 1918, then Germany and Japan in the 40s. I did some mercenary work during the Cold War and then went to Vietnam. As unlikely as it sounds I initially went there to begin a new time of relaxation, study the many new things the world had to offer. Psychedelics, music, food, I needed it all. But after a few weeks the bullets went flying and I was put in a position to bear arms again. '92 onward to '03 I did more contract and operative work, mostly hits and whatnot.”
A bright neon sign was above a door made of glass read ‘Peter’s fish and chips’. There was an image of a blue fish painted on one of the windows which took up almost the whole wall.
“This is the place.” We crossed the street and pushed the door open to be hit with the strong smell of fried goods and burning cheese.
A young, blonde, bearded man came running out from behind a large refrigerator filled with various drinks and containers of what appeared to be chocolate pudding. “How can I help you today?” His voice was low, although somehow perky.
I waited for Kate who was looking up at the men. “You want to order first?”
She looked over at me, “Yeah sure, um, could I get the beef burger with no cheese or onions, and a chocolate thick shake.”
I look over the menu once more and settled on a meal. “Could I get a works burger and a medium chips.”
I reach into my pocket for my wallet and found a bank card with the numbers ‘7825’ written on sticky tape wrapped around it. I peeled it off and stuffed it in my pocket. Our server punched in the last of our order and looked up at me, “Any drinks for you?”
I pushed my wallet back away, “Just water thanks.” He smiled and scratched his beard lightly. A twinge of sadness fell over me as I remembered Pat doing the exact same thing and how I would probably never see him again.
“That’ll be $12.50.”
I shook off the slight depression, “Yep, just on the card thanks.”
He lifted a small EFTPOS machine and punched in the numbers. “Just on savings?”
I let out a small laugh while involuntarily pulling a semi-deranged smile, “I don’t know, yeah, let’s try savings.”
He regarded me for a moment and slowly handed me the machine. “Just… enter your pin… and push ok.” I swiped my card, punched in the digits and after a few seconds the satisfying ‘Approved’ popped up. At which point I put the machine on the counter.
“Rightyo then, I’ll go set that up for you, about ten minutes or so.”
“Thanks. You want to go for a walk?”
Kate smiled at me and nodded “Yeah, a walk would be nice.” We stepped back out into the cold street, I was slowly acclimatising. We walked toward the road, I looked over to Kate and caught her smiling over at me, “This is nice, not so fast paced as the rest of life.”
I began to cross the road just ahead of her, “Yeah. Calm, peaceful.” I stopped halfway across the road and gently grabbed her by the waist and looked into her eyes. She smiled up at me as I lowered my head to hers where her soft lips collided with mine. It felt so nice, so perfect, I couldn’t help smiling slightly.
We stayed that way for a few seconds before I pulled away, “That was magnific…” I was stopped as I was hit by a force as hard as a car and thrown a few feet in the air before landing flat on my face. I struggled to turn my head to see, yes, I was, in fact, hit by a car. My entire body felt sore, I could feel I’d definitely fractured something; I must’ve subconsciously jumped at the last second.
I saw all four of the black sedan’s doors open, producing four men in long black overcoats, a red cross sitting above the heart. Each was wielding a baseball bat, low end guys. I silently laughed to myself.
“Stay away ma’am, this here is a very dangerous monster.”
The men made their way toward me as I rolled onto my back. “That one actually hurt a fair bit, nice job fellas, though the outfits, bit nineties German-techno scene for my taste.” One of them, I’m guessing the ringleader, balanced with one hand on his bat. He used the other to rub his bald head down to his strong jaw, all the while giving me a wicked smile, revealing his sickly yellow teeth.
“Oh, you liked that huh? Then you’ll love this. But first, any last words?” He bumbled out in a slightly Irish accent, or drunk, I don't know honestly.
“Yeah, just a question, why do you guys keep coming at me with less numbers? It clearly isn’t working.” I grabbed the base of his bat and pushed it up, resulting in a powerful cracking sound and me getting covered in broken teeth and blood as he reeled backward.
At this point one of them had gone to hit me with his bat yet had quickly been thrown from view, giving me enough time to get to my feet. There was a sound of bending metal and smashing glass as I took a swing at the one on my left. I felt a massive stabbing pain shoot like an electric shock through my arm as it connected with his soft jaw. His head cracked to the left and a light burst of blood and saliva hit the cobblestone as he fell.
I gripped my arm, exhaling sharply as a grunt came from my right and a bat collided with my leg. Sending another shock from my calve to my hip, eliciting a howl of pain that I didn’t know I could make. I fell involuntarily to my right as
I heard another snap and a body fell next to me with its head on a slightly demonic angle.
The pain began to subside in my leg but my arm was still killing me. The sound of a set of light footsteps closing in on me had upgraded from annoyance to possible problem. Getting ready for another hit I was pleasantly surprised as I felt soft hands slowly helping me up.
“Come on, let’s take a seat for a minute, police will sort them out.” Kate guided me to a bench that sat behind one of the large potted plants and we did as the plant did and sat. I could feel the pain quickly rushing away from my leg, probably only a fracture I thought to myself. My arm was a different story though. I was acutely aware that it was severely damaged; the being run over thing probably didn’t help. Throwing the punch would've made the situation worse.
I must’ve torn something, but I was much less worried about that than how Kate was, “You alright love?” She seemed slightly disturbed when I faced her directly.
“I’m fine, are you? You just got hit by a car and it looks like your face took a Hell of a beating.” A light breeze touched my face; it felt as if I’d been slapped with a glove laden with needles. A drop of blood fell on my now torn up pants, “It’s healing though, quite well, should be fine in a few seconds, if not, a minute, how’s the arm?”
The chill in the air was acting as a full body ice