It had all happened so fast, one moment they were stuck in the snow – not much to worry about, she’d had it happen plenty of times before. But Alexis had been acting odd. She just looked so worried – and not wanting anyone to leave the car?
But then… how had she known that was going to happen?
At first she thought they were going to help them out. But they didn’t look like a nice sort of people…
When the knives came out it dawned on her what was going on, what was going to happen. She’d looked at Alexis, how had she known? But the look in return was so… submissive. Calm – almost bored. It was strange, she must have known that these men were dangerous, what they were capable of.
She didn’t react through the whole thing. Jane watched as they pulled Beth, screaming through the window. She watched as that awful man assaulted her. The only thing she seemed to respond to was Beth’s struggling, it was eerie.
But then when they’d hurt the poor girl… First she heard was the growling. There was an animal snarl and within moments there wasn’t anyone still standing near Alexis. There was just screaming, men screaming.
When she turned, already running, her face, it was covered in blood – around her mouth, obviously not her own. And her eyes, Jane would never forget that sight.
Everyone else was as stunned as she was to see it. It was a surprise, the savagery of her attacks. Jane couldn’t even follow them it was so fast. She remembered seeing her get punched and not even notice. One of them stabbed her right in the back and she just turned and tried to tear his face off!
It took her a good long while to finally react. While one of them was staggering around clutching his face she saw Alex and that man twice her weight and height wrestling over a knife. Freaky strong, Beth had said.
She threw herself into the car. She knew that it was in there – in one of the compartments. She’d got it years ago, the school had a big drive for staff safety and they’d handed them out free.
It took her a few valuable seconds to work out where the switch, trigger, whatever was.
Jamming it in the man’s back and switching it on was easy enough. But what Alexis did afterwards… She could see the cut on her throat, but her hand just went to her ankle and re-appeared with a lethal looking knife. Had she always been carrying that? Before she could even say anything the girl had stabbed him in the eye. Just like that.
Oh and then the other man grabbed Jane from behind, she thought she’d lost then but he screamed and let go after a few seconds. Alex was screaming, and tearing at his face from behind.
Jane Tasered him for his own sake more than hers, except the girl didn’t stop. She just kept on hitting him, her eyes wild, screaming…
How do you stop something like that?
She tried to hold her, but she was so wild she wouldn’t let Jane touch her.
Jane had to call the police, and an ambulance, maybe even more than one. The only one of them that wasn’t on the floor was that woman – who appeared to have just ran as soon as things started going wrong.
And she’d ran off with her handbag. Her phone…
Beth, she’d have one. Jane turned to get her. She was still lying on the ground, unmoving.
Her heart skipped a beat, after all that… Please just be unconscious. Alexis was already at her friends side, but she was just still. Pale.
Then she leaned down, and kissed her. Right on the mouth. Jane had wondered briefly if they were more than friends but discarded it after seeing them together. Alex seemed to be trying to keep a little distance, physical at least.
This… it was totally out of character for her, and in this situation? Something so intimate, gentle after all that brutality?
Except it wasn’t intimate, it looked… Hurried, frantic, desperate.
She’d seen it before, years ago. As a trauma nurse. She was watching someone who didn’t have a clue try to do CPR.
Shit.
A Grey World 