Safe Haven - Perspective pt.1

[...Posted by Ted H]

Starting new job, and not quitting the old one so I pull 2 jobs now....all meaning I have little time to write up a new "Oblivion" piece (which should be evident by the half ass job from last week)
...so instead you get more Safe Haven! Probably more SH over the next week since this is part 1 of a 3 part sequence...youll see why...

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[Safe Haven - Perspective pt.1]

Everything was gone. John then realized that his gun was at Perry’s, but there were more bullets and not to mention the fucking map. John knew he wasn’t going to make it home in time last night before curfew, so like a number of the homeless in Safe Haven do, he spent the night crammed in some apartment complex’s hallway with a bunch of other people.

First chance he got, John left in the morning and all but sprinted home out of fear that the ResEs were going to bust down his door and raid his goods. There was no conceivable reason they would know where he lived, but after what happened yesterday, his paranoia was running on all cylinders. He was still in just boxers and a pair of shoes, but instead of dressing when he got home, he all but threw the dresser out the window to check on his stash hole and all but panicked when he found it empty.

“Wait, why would they put everything back?” he found himself asking aloud. If the ResEs were there last night looking for something, they wouldn’t torn the apartment apart before coming across the dresser. Either they knew exactly where to look, which was unlikely, or someone else stole his map, and there was only one other person who knew where to look.

“Kate…” he said bitterly as someone knocked at his door. That was probably her. John immediately made for the door. “What the fuck happened?” he asked as he threw open the door, and almost jumped out of his skin when he saw that it wasn’t Kate, but a ResE instead. “You were expecting me? How sweet!” he said as he threw his foot through the door before John could close the door. “How did you…” John said before the ResE pushed him away and let himself in.

“You’re kidding, right?” he said “It’s not very hard to find a naked white guy running out in the early morning. So do you not own clothes or what?” John got back up and backed up to a wall. His guns were elsewhere and he had no way of escaping this time. “I’d rather you be dressed for this,” the ResE said as he looked about. John slowly made for his bedroom and reached into his dresser for pants.

“Wha-what do you want?” John asked, figuring the ResE wouldn’t want him to dress if he was only there to kill him. The ResE walked right by John into his bedroom and sat down on the bed. “Just some follow up questions,” he said as he leveled his rifle and pointed it out towards John. “Relax,” he said “If I was here to, I’d already have killed you.”

John could run, but ResEs travel in packs usually. The partner was probably waiting outside. “Seriously,” he continued “Why are you running around naked?” John was putting his pants one, but he knew the ResE wasn’t talking about right now. “They wouldn’t let me stay and curfew was coming last night,” John said as he then turned and dug out a new shirt, taking care not to pull out a red one.

“What color?” The ResE asked. “Huh?” John responded, playing dumb. “The shirt,” the ResE said “What color was your shirt? The one you left at the whore house.” John noted that the ResE had tightened his grip on his rifle. “Blue,” he said while maintaining a poker face “I wore blue that day.”

“What’s that, Mean?” the ResE suddenly said into his radio while holding a finger on his earpiece. He then nodded and turned his attention back to John. “You know,” he said “You were the only man there yesterday who wasn’t wearing a shirt, let alone clothes. My partner is there right now and he says there’s a red shirt. Funny how he didn’t mention anything blue. Mind helping yourself out and telling me where you may have left your shirt? Because you know, if we find a missing blue shirt, I guess you’re off the hook.”

John stood his ground. He was fucked unless he talked fast. “I kinda stripped on my way up,” he said “Must have left my shirt in the hallway. Someone might have stolen it.” The ResE looked at him with a blank stare. “You sure about that?” he asked “How about the pants? Where’d ya leave those?”

“The room,” John quickly said “I kicked them off and they must have gone under the bed or something.”

“There aren’t that many fat people in Safe Haven on my list, and that red shirt sure seems like a perfect fit for you.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Where were you yesterday thirty minutes before I showed up?”

“In…the brothel.”

“I wanna shoot you so badly. All I need is an excuse. I know you’re lying to me. Once I can prove it, we’re gonna have a more intimate chat.”

The ResE then stood up and shouldered his weapon. He was about to leave when he glanced down and stopped. “Your floor is scratched to hell,” he said as John looked down to see the scratches he was talking about. A deep, semi-circle scratch was on the floor by the dresser, indicating it had moved from against the wall. John had moved his dresser countless times without making that kind of a mark on the floor, but someone considerable weaker, like Kate, couldn’t move the dresser without dragging it like that.

The ResE quickly pointed his rifle at John and told him to face the wall. He then grabbed the dresser with one hand and threw it off the wall. He then slammed his rifle butt on the floor in three different places. The last slam caused one of the loose floorboards to pop up slightly. “Oh baby, is this my excuse?” he said as he slammed his rifle on top of the boards, harder this time, and broke right through the floor into John’s hiding place. When he noticed nothing in the hole, he swore and shouldered his weapon again.

“Why did you break my floor?” John asked, playing ignorant. The ResE shot him a cold glance then walked out of the apartment. “Don’t leave town,” he shouted as he left “Though it’s not like you could anyway.” John walked over to his bed and collapsed on top of it. He wanted to kill Kate, and the reasons for wanting to were already mounted pretty high. Still though, he felt paranoid, even after the ResE left.