Chapter 1

Thursday morning - Thanksgiving Day. I woke up feeling more exhausted then when I went to bed the night before. I hadn't managed to get in from work Wednesday till almost midnight. I had been so tired that all I wanted to do was go to bed, but instead I ate the dinner I had left in the fridge for myself that morning, grabbed a quick shower, and then started in on the stuff I was going need to get done that night if I wanted to make sure Thanksgiving dinner was ready tomorrow evening. I didn't get to bed till almost 3am, and now here I am at 8am, having to get up again. Oh well. I was pretty used to it by now. I had pulled stuff like this plenty of times before and always managed to survive.

As I trudged down the hall to the big bathroom I shared with my family I thought about what I would have to do today.

First I was going to have to get breakfast ready for the ladies, than I was going to have a few more things to do in the kitchen for dinner, like stuff and start the turkey. Then I would have to make sure I was out the door by 11:30 so I could catch the subway to work. I had agreed to come in and open the store for widow Tally, the owner. With it being the holiday we were only open from 1pm to 6pm but it was good holiday pay, so I couldn't complain too much. Then another train back home to finish diner, then clean up. Maybe then I might have a couple hours to myself to work on some of the new figures I had purchased last week for my tabletop army.

As I waded through my morning routine I reflected on how my life was now and wondered for the millionth time what I was going to do about college. I mean I couldn't go anywhere because I needed to be at home to take care of my family. Oh well, for some of us college just wouldn't be a possibility.

Almost four hours later I was just getting off the subway at the station where I worked. I know I could have taken my car, but the subway was easier than trying to find a parking space in this section of the city. Even on a holiday. I was almost to the exit gates for the station when I heard a scream that made the hairs on the back of neck stand straight out. The scream was distinctly female and very much one of terror and pain. I knew I should continue to the exit gates and get the metro security guard out of his booth. But I didn't. Stupid me grabbed the arm of the old man who had been coming down the stairs as I was going up. I spun him around and yelled for him to go get help then I started running back down the stairs two at a time.

When I got to the platform my breath froze in my lungs. All the way across the tracks on the opposite platform a scene from a bad crime movie was playing out. A very attractive young lady with long red hair was trying to fight off a pair of thugs in old-looking ski masks. One of them was pulling out a wicked looking long-blade knife from under his winter coat. There were two sets of tracks and a large concrete divider barrier between them and me, so I was fairly certain I was about to watch as a horrible crime unfolded. It was at this point that I noticed it wasn't only the young woman screaming. Pressed close to the woman's chest was a little girl no more then maybe three or four. It was obvious that the woman was trying to protect the girl. It was also obvious that the thugs were going to most likely kill them both.

I had to do something. I just had to!

I couldn't wait any longer as I saw one of the thugs get a hold of the little girl's hair and try to pull her out of her mother's arms. With a scream of pure rage I ran as fast as I could toward the edge of the platform. My bellow must have caught there attention as all four stopped to turn and stare at me. When I reached the edge of the platform I used every bit of muscle I had in my legs to push off and jump straight out. I managed to land on the divider barrier between the two sets of tracks, my black leather trench coat billowing out around and behind me as I used my momentum to leap again for the other platform.

I was almost to the platform when I began to slow, so I tucked my legs up and dropped my head hoping I would land far enough onto the platform to roll further onto it. I tried not to think about the however many whatever- joules of electricity running through the tracks below me. If I had misjudged this jump I would miss the platform and tumble to the tracks. If I got lucky I would break my neck before I was electrocuted. With a particularly bone popping thud I landed on my back on the platform edge and rolled forward before coming up in a defensive crouch I learned in my martial arts classes.

When I stopped, the thugs seemed to come back to reality. The knife wielding thug came at me while his companion continued to try and pull the little girl out of her mother's arms. Staying in my crouch I watched the knife wielder as he advanced, hoping I remembered enough from my classes to not get myself killed. I wasn't the best student there and I was no martial arts master, but I hoped I remembered enough to stay alive.

When he reached me, knife wielder swung with his knife hand going for my throat or chest I would never know. He was definitely powerful but slow. Slow enough for me to see the swing coming and counter it. As he swung I dropped a little more and caught the arm in a wrist lock. I then ducked under the arm so it and it's knife were stretched out over my shoulder. I put all my leverage into a vicious turn and pull, snapping his elbow backwards and causing him to drop the knife. I then swung back under his arm as he dropped to his knees screaming. Keeping a hold of his wrist with one hand I grabbed the back of his head with the other and brought my knee up into his face crushing his nose in an explosion of blood and sending several of his teeth spinning into the air as he crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap. Well hell, I had managed to take out one thug with little difficulty and I was still alive.

The other thug must have realized something was wrong cause he let go of the little girl's hair and turned to me as I turned to face him. When he spotted his partner laying bleeding and unconscious on the ground he screamed at me a pulled a sinister looking .38 out from under his coat. Now it was in that moment as I stood there looking down the barrel of what I thought was certain death that I realized I was going to die. And for some ungodly reason I don't ever think I'll understand I wasn't afraid. All I knew was that I had to get to him and take him down before he could hurt the redhead and her little girl. Without a second thought I ran toward him at full speed as I heard the deafening explosion of the gun being fired. Suddenly I felt like I had been hit in the right shoulder by a sledge hammer as searing hot pain exploded to life there. I reeled but kept running as he began to squeeze the trigger a second time.