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This Hero Shit has GOT to Stop, Mack
The climb isn't the easiest of her life, but it's apparently not the hardest, either. Chain link yields easily to small hands and feet and the teen ably makes her way up the vertical portion of the climb. The finish is, however, trickier... with the razorwire making the over-the-top portion a tricky proposition.
Welp. That's what a headscarf and jacket is for.
She takes a moment, carefully unlimbering both, and tries to carefully lever use them both to protect herself from the razor wire. It's actually probably not a bad iea. 5r
Probalby.
"Don't get mangled, don't get mangled..."
There's a ripping sound, foretelling of some explaining to do if her parents catch wind of it. Hopefully it was the scarf and not the jacket... the scarf's easier to replace and isn't her usual anyway. The jacket... well let's just hope it's not the jacket.
In any case, the bite of the razor wire finds nothing but cloth and she manages to remember how to pull the drape from the other side and disengage it without shredding it. She finds herself next to the large pit with about eight feet of scorched turf to walk alongside it.
She can't help it.
She puts her, now ripped, headscarf back on. It doesn't take long -- not even a minute or two. It's just autopilot, like something she's been doing since she was old enough to do in the first place. Which wasn't terribly long ago. Habits are easy.
Shadi, then, begins to make her way along the edge of the pit, keeping her profile as low as possible. Her smart phone is out, now, and she hunkers down by the edge of the pit and begins to take pictures. A few quick ones.
Flash flash flash.
There is a pause from Shadi.
The kind of pause that someoen makes when they ealize that they've just done somethiing *incredibly* dum.
There's no immediate reaction, of course, to her senses she's alone, at the moment, and there's no sign of anyone around to have seen - but it does fairly spectacularly hilight just how badly no one in their right mind would want to fall into that pit right now - the place is rife with broken off pipes and connections, sharp edges, rocks, bits of broken pavement, and six inches of stale water and leachate.
There's the rumble of an older car or truck on the road, moving slowly and running on either fumes or it's last spark plugs. The grumbling motor slows at about the same time those flashes go off, then quiets altogether.
That is so not promising. Still, she's gotten some photos of the interior of the pit, some of expended brass that she pocketed. It's a start, right? THe whole place looks incredible. Shadi backs away from the edge of the pit and turns, now, glancing in the direction of the nearby mobile homes. To see if anything happens, or anyone comes out. She's frozen, staying still, and breathing hard already.
There's no reaction from the mobile homes, no lights on either, they seem entirely dark - like the rest of the plot. The wind blows, the sounds of road noise in the distance flow here and there is - in the distance - the low bleat of a distant ship horn. A passenger jet flies overhead somewhere above the low clouds.
If there was a car nearby, it's either left the area or been stopped and shut down.
She looks relieved, of course, but she isn't about to chance fate. Still, she places her jacket over her shoulder for the time being and then makes her way in a circle around the pit, checking to see if there's anything, anything at all, that stands out that anyone might've missed. Aside from brass, anyways. The mobile homes are drawing her closer. She just can't help it.
They get across the street without being spotted. It means that the first sign of their approach is the very male clearing-of-the-throat and the click of the high-power LED flashlight in his hand. "I'm preettttyy sure," the sneering voice says, "you're what we like to call 'tresspassing.' See, in /this/ country, that's a crime. Hands where I can see 'em."
"Ooohhhh," is Shadi's grimaced groan. She puts her hands up, of course, promptly thereafter. "I am /so/ groudned/," she groans.
Mack lets the softest of groans rumble in her throat as she continues her path. She's taking extra care to stay tucked into the shadows now, approaching, if she can, from behind the two men.
There's a chuckle from behind that blinding flashlight. "Grounded is one word for it," the voice that belongs to one of them (there's at least two) says as he approaches. "You really gotta wonder about parents that'd let you go wandering around out here alone like this..." They begin to diverge, but are careful to remain behind the light - and the way it spoils any hope of identifying them. "Keep walkin' little girl," the one holding the light says, "put your hands against the wall of that office shed."
...uh oh.
This is worse than she thought, really, and the alarm bells are /definitely/ sounding. She moves in that direction, though, eyes flicking to and fro. Waiting for a moment to bolt. She won't have much time, but she's getting ready.
Mack frowns deeply at what she hears and pulls her hood up over her head. She hurries then to look around for some large piece of debris that would be suitable for throwing, and should she find it, she's chucking it at the mobile home furthest away from the one the men are directing the girl.
"That's it..." the voice says, the owner holstering a weapon. "Nice and..." the crackle of the debris landing off to one side makes the light swing as the man takes the distraction hook, line, and sinker. His partner brings a light on now, and his voice - a bit higher than the first - calls out, "I'm on it!" The two beams sweep in all the wrong directions.
Sweet, mecfiful distraction!
Shadi squeaks at the thunk sound, then bolts as soon as they're looking away. Let's be honst: she is not made to run. She does not have a lean, runner's build or anything of the sort. And so she goes, circling around the pit and going /straight for the gate/.
The Supremes pages: That'll take her right past MAck.
With movement erupting, Mack looks from runner to men. Once more she scrambles for a piece of debris to pick up and throw toward the mobile home, and though her gaze is steadied on the men, she's keeping an eye on the darting rabbit as well.
It's a piece of thrown rock, not a hologram. It takes the two men only a second more to figure out that there's nothing there, and the lights swing back in the direction of the footfalls, just as Mack looses the second round. The two women are illuminated for a moment and the sudden revelation of Mack by the sweep of the lights gives both men an 'oh shit' moment. The one nearest her literally says it. The surprise is not welcome - the weapons are coming out again.
"Just keep running, just keep running." It's like Findign Nemo, except running insteado f swimming. Shadi rushes the gate, best as she can, intent on getting the hell out of there. A glimpse of Mack is caught, though, which gives her momentary pause... which is all it takes for her to faceplanet in the dirt briefly.
"Fuck!" comments the girl that had caused the distraction in the first place. "Get up and run. Two blocks down. Beat up truck." Lessons have been learned the hard way, and it takes only one good look from Mack before she's made her decision on the course of action. Her own weapon is drawn out of her jacket but not brandished in a way to show her cards. "Gooo!" she urges to the girl, "I'll be behind you."
Their weapons are drawn, but aside from the first sweep of their lights, they didn't have a solid fix on either of the two women... until Mack started speaking and the lights converged on her. To hell with the teenager, this is who they decide to focus on now. "Hands up!" The one that had been ordering Shadi around, barks. "Hands up and on the ground!"
"AHHH," is Shadi's response as guns are coming out. This is awful! She's back up on hr feet and running again! Run run run. Her heart is pounding and she's a mess and terrified and gone totally pale and OH MY GOD.
"You're no cop, and I'm no dummy. We're done here. The girl was being an idiot. It's over." Mack starts backing away as soon as her damsel in distress is on the move again, and while she's still not pointing the gun at them, her hand is on it and the safety is off now.
"Don't need to be a cop," the lead man says, "just need to be within my rights to shoot, sister. This is private property, and I know for a fact you don't own it, and you don't belong on it." His grip shifts on the flashlight, suggesting the weapon is now co-axial. "So one last time, hands up. And you on the ground."
What's Shadi doing? Running. Away. So she keeps running. Unfortunately, the pit is big and it' staking her a wahile to get there. She's not very fast, okay? At least she didn't drop her smartphone... did she?
"And no one's on it except you, pal. So we'll just leave it that way." With her finger straight and off the trigger, Mack turns to start running herself. The gun comes out of her jacket then, ready for firing at the first sign of needing it, but for now her main focus is running after the girl and getting the two of them into her truck and out of the area.
There's a saying among those who've been in firefights: you never can tell what someone will do when you point a gun at them. In this case, the response is instinctual and protective. Seeing the weapon swung in their direction all thought of pursuit is checked and instead both men flinch and seek cover, their move given away by the way their lights swing wildly. Of course, there's basically no cover left on the old lot, so an instant later they're following their other instinct, and giving chase.
Shadi is not even lookign behind her at this point. She's just.. sprinting. She's not much of a sprinter, as has heen noted.
It's a sprint down terrain that's poorly lit, not exactly even, and full of dark shadows and things that /look/ like false steps. The two armed goons don't care as much about where they put their feet - chalk it up to their combat boots, which stomp heavily behind the two women, or to the fact that their quarry's already run over the same ground, which bolsters their confidence in how good the footing actually is. Either way, the two get half a block before the first of them lays a hand on Mack's shoulder, grabbing hold and putting on the brakes. The other moves deftly past those two and gives Shadi a hard shove, rather the reverse of that tactic.
"AHHH," is what comes out of Shadi's mouth. As the goon closes in on her to give her a shove, she reaches down inside herself and pushes harder, gasping for air as she springs harder than she has in her life. Adrenaline is coursing through her veins. And fear. It's fear that gives men wings, after all. Also, apparently Shadis.
Mack lets out a little grunt as she feels that hand reach her, but does a quick little dip-dodge to try and shake him. Luck seems on her side as she finds herself moving forward again, with increased effort now.
Slamming ito an already battered passanger car door, Shadi fumbles with the handle, breaks a nail, opens it up, sflops into the passagenr seat, and flails wildly as she rights herself and shuts the door with a quick slam.
Mack makes a mad scramble for the driver side, gun set barrel down into the cupholder as she forces keys into ignition. As soon as the grumpy old truck turns over, she's dropping it into gear and slamming on the gas.
Not even a carlength away as the two pull their doors shut, the two goons are - realizing their quarry is now properly escaping their grasp - reaching for their guns. The headlights give them pause, wrecking their vision for a moment, and their hands come up to sheild their eyes. Each of them is wearing a uniform, but Mack's intuition proves correct: neither is a Detroit Police Officer - instead they have some corporate security logo on their shirts. As the truck speeds away, the brakelights illuminate the shape of the two men as they assume firing positions and moments later, the reports ring out.
"AHHHH," yells Shadi as they're shot at. She's ducking and covering and trying her best to NOT GET SHOT. THIS WAS SO NOT A GOOD PLAN.
Mack eyes the rear view mirror one last time as she gets speed under the wheels. It may not be the newest vehicle, but the old Yukon has heart, and more importantly, grit. As distance increases between them and the men, the driver reaches over to grab up her gun, flip the safety back on and put it back into hiding within her jacket. "Red Tail has /holes/ in him now thanks to you." A glance is given to the girl. "The fuck were you doing in there?!"
The Supremes pages: As the moment becomes many, Mack has the time to reflect on the fact that the direction those men came from... the only place they could've been was across the street, in a neighboring facility.
She's a mess, Shadi is. Her eyes are huge. Welling up with tears. She's pale as a girl like her can get. The green undertones that make her skin 'olive' are more pronounced.
"BLRUUUUGGH!" into the paper bag she grabbed (thank goodness Mack had some) is the only answer she gets.
Mack has to clench her teeth to avoid an involuntary sympathy vomit of her own, and the window is hurriedly rolled down. "Seriously?" It would seem that Shadi's rescuer handles the adrenaline rush in a far different manner; a fired up belly and an antsy scowl. A deep breath is taken, but does little to settle the driver. "Calm down, alright?"
"...right... next time turn the camera flash /off/," says Shadi, after she's done gasping and shaking for a moment. She holds the bag tightly, white knuckled.
Mack turns a hard look at her. "What?! No. There is no next time. There's no reason for you to be /in/ a place like that? Why would you even consider it?" Her fingers clench tight around the wheel of the truck. "And where the hell am I taking you anyway?"
"Uh... Dearborn. That's all you need to do. I can make my own way from there," says Shadi, looking to the window and the burnt out street lights they pass by.
Mack lets out a grumbled sigh as she wipes under her nose with the back of one hand. "What were you doing in there? Do you even realize how close you were to being in a seriously bad way?"
"Well, I do /now/. I wasn't expecting there to be armed corporate security there. And they only saw me becasue the flash went off! What were YOU doing there?" She turns the question around on her, eyeing her coat and taking her headscarf off to inspect it. "Aw, man. Sis is gonna /kill/ me. This was her favorite!"
Mack looks over, "Call it fate I guess, because I was there to save your ass. And you know what? Legitimate security people don't pull weapons on some punk kid being an idiot, and they certainly don't give chase to them once they've left the private property!" A beat later, "/and/ shoot holes in their damn truck!" The girl driving does, in fact, start heading away from crapville and toward the better areas. "What were you even taking pictures of?"
She's quiet a moment.
A long moment. She doesn't seem to want to answer immediately. "Yeah, they weren't legitimate. I got that impression pretty fast. Do you know what MDCI means?" she asks. "That was on their badges. Anyways, that whole thing! With the firefight! It was just /crazy/. And the news about it doesn't make any sense, like /whoa/, you know? So, it was like... like there was A COVER UP!" She sounds excited about this potentiality.
Mack glances over again, "MDCI. Nope, don't know what that means." It will, however, be tucked away for contemplating later. "And no that event wasn't well documented or reported. But that's because this whole area is a shithole that even the cops don't want anything to do with. So the news on it was probably all garbage, just to get people to stop thinking about it. Someone like you has no place snooping around there though. Least of all at night like some wannabe Sherlock. You're gonna get yourself killed or worst. You got me?"
"Well, I guess I'll have to find out, then! Can't be hard to google it. Probably private security for what's his butt. But that doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, the whole thing. Over eight thousand rounds of ammo were used and only /five/ bodies? No way you do that and drop only five bodies. There's a big cover up, and that's, you know, interesting. I was thinking if I could get some of the brass -- and it was everywhere -- maybe I could figure out mroe about stuff. You know, like on CSI!" She's entirely excited about this, ignoring the part about getting killed for the moment.
Then she pauses and eyes her. "The whole place was demolished, too, and that's just... you know. It's like they're not even trying very hard because they don't have to." That bugs her.
Mack clenches tighter around the steering wheel. "Girl! Listen to me. If I had not been there, you'd not be on your way home right now. Does that not even filter into your thoughts? How old are you even? Why the fuck do /you/ have to try and figure this out? It's not a damn game."
"I have to do /something/," says Shadi, looking out the window. "I can't just go on pretending all the tuff that's happening isn't happening, least of all when it's making it hard to sleep at night -- literally, in some cases. I mean, don't you hear the noise sometimes too?"
Mack narrows her eyes at this, takes a deep breath to try and further calm down, and then inquires. "What kind of noise are you talking about? Gunshots and craziness like that? Just where do you live anyway?" A pause follows. "And what's your name? I'm Mack-" a gloating smile follows, "But you can call me 'my hero' if you prefer."
"Sorry, that's reserved for Muhammed, peace be upon him," adds Shadi, leaving little to no doubt as to the nature of her religious affiliation, if the hijab didn't give it away. "No, I mean the noise from Zug Island. /That/ noise."
An eyeroll follows, but the girl continues driving, and pressing for information. "What kind of noise? How long you been hearing it?"
"You really don't know what I'm talking about? It's even been in the news, sometimes. People think it 's the steel mill and it is. Well, sort of is. It's not the steel mill. It's how they make the steel. It's making this, I dunno... buzz. I hear it when I'm trying to go to sleep sometimes. It's... unsettling." She rubs her face. "You really don't know what I'm talking about? Sometimes, they call it the Windsor Hum?"
Mack gives a shrug, "Maybe I'm just used to crappy city noise. Still, seriously. You're not in any place do anything about any of this, and you're only going to get yourself in a heap of trouble if you keep poking your nose where you don't belong."
"Then who? The cops? Come on. You just said they won't touch it," counters Shadi, firmly. "And I don't buy the whole 'fate' argument. You were there for some reason, watching for some reason, and intervened armed for some reason. You didn't mind staring down two armed security guards, so you wanna tell me what that was about?"
"I'm looking for someone. And I've grown up on the streets so I know how to carry myself on them. That's all." This is said with a very matter of fact tone that speaks of some amount of honesty to the statement. Mack turns to look her over once more, "Seriously. You're in over your head. Take tonight as a mulligan; a warning that you lucked out and managed to survive, and then let it go."
"/That's/ not gonna happen. Sure, I made a mistake, or two. Or three. But I got what I wanted." She pulls the brass out of her pocket. "Oh, and the photos. I at least kept my smart phone, too." She pats her phone, the nadds, "I'm Dee."
"Then you've got a death wish Dee. Which is unfortunate- because the world needs people like you who actually seem to care a bit. I'd just prefer you, you know, finish school, maybe get into law or something... live to do good things instead of run off into gang land at midnight, by yourself." The car makes another turn as they draw close to Dearborn. "If those guys see you again. They will grab you."
"No, look. Plenty of people go into law. And you know what happens? They become lawyers. They get so emeshed in the system they stop being able to see outside of it. See what's really happening to people out, you know, /here/. They think they can solve the problem with moderate fixes because nobody wants to upset the apple cart. Well, the apple cart's already done been upset. Hi, measure two. You're right: I care. I care enough to walk into a dangerous situation, and if that'd gone bad, well... I'm thinking I could've gotten out of that too." She wets her lips with her tongue, not answering to her age. She's young, of course. "So you can't talk me out of it. Sorry. But if you ever wanna talk about the real reason you were watching that place, you can shoot me an email at pinkunicornattack@gmail.com."
Mack raises up a brow as the car settles to a stop. "Maybe that happens. Maybe you'd be the one it didn't happen to." She shakes her head then and nods at the street signs. "Dearborn. If you're going to keep doing what you're doing, at least do it during the day. It's still not safe, but might give you an extra odd to bet against."
"So who /are/ you, 'hero'?" asks Shadi, peering at her.
"I told you. I'm Mack. I really am just looking for a friend that's gone missing, and shitty as it is, some of the gangs up here might be connected to it." The girl lifts a shoulder at this. "Be careful. Extra careful now."
"Yeah, I know. You're Mack. But that's not who you are. That's just your name. I just.. you know. Who's your friend? Maybe I can help." Shadi seems eager to do that.
Mack grins a bit, "Probably not Dee, but thanks. And I'm not much more than my name, really. Just a street kid that's too old to be called kid at this point. You sure this is good enough for a drop off point?"
"Yeah, here is fine, I guess," says Shadi, disappointed. "Well, it's the least I can do, you know, and I'm pretty good at finding things. I mean, that's why I have inventory reports from the steel mill at Zug Island. Welp! THis is my stop. Take care!" And with that, she's gonna slip out of the car.
"A thank you woulda been appreciated, pink unicorn!" she grumps as the girl slips out of the car.
"Hey, I offered to help you find your friend," points out Shadi, "but thanks, all the same. "Fi Amaan Allah, Mack. You'll need it, I think."
"Sure, whatever that is." She hehs as the car empties and the door is shut. Mack stays put for just a bit longer, not so much to watch where the girl is running off to, but to make sure there are no immediate boogiemen waiting to ambush her.
She takes off down the s street, heading for home, no doubt. Dearborn is a heavil arabic community so it's no surprised that a girl in a hijab would make her way down there. No immdiate boogiemen attack!
Welp. That's what a headscarf and jacket is for.
She takes a moment, carefully unlimbering both, and tries to carefully lever use them both to protect herself from the razor wire. It's actually probably not a bad iea. 5r
Probalby.
"Don't get mangled, don't get mangled..."
There's a ripping sound, foretelling of some explaining to do if her parents catch wind of it. Hopefully it was the scarf and not the jacket... the scarf's easier to replace and isn't her usual anyway. The jacket... well let's just hope it's not the jacket.
In any case, the bite of the razor wire finds nothing but cloth and she manages to remember how to pull the drape from the other side and disengage it without shredding it. She finds herself next to the large pit with about eight feet of scorched turf to walk alongside it.
She can't help it.
She puts her, now ripped, headscarf back on. It doesn't take long -- not even a minute or two. It's just autopilot, like something she's been doing since she was old enough to do in the first place. Which wasn't terribly long ago. Habits are easy.
Shadi, then, begins to make her way along the edge of the pit, keeping her profile as low as possible. Her smart phone is out, now, and she hunkers down by the edge of the pit and begins to take pictures. A few quick ones.
Flash flash flash.
There is a pause from Shadi.
The kind of pause that someoen makes when they ealize that they've just done somethiing *incredibly* dum.
There's no immediate reaction, of course, to her senses she's alone, at the moment, and there's no sign of anyone around to have seen - but it does fairly spectacularly hilight just how badly no one in their right mind would want to fall into that pit right now - the place is rife with broken off pipes and connections, sharp edges, rocks, bits of broken pavement, and six inches of stale water and leachate.
There's the rumble of an older car or truck on the road, moving slowly and running on either fumes or it's last spark plugs. The grumbling motor slows at about the same time those flashes go off, then quiets altogether.
That is so not promising. Still, she's gotten some photos of the interior of the pit, some of expended brass that she pocketed. It's a start, right? THe whole place looks incredible. Shadi backs away from the edge of the pit and turns, now, glancing in the direction of the nearby mobile homes. To see if anything happens, or anyone comes out. She's frozen, staying still, and breathing hard already.
There's no reaction from the mobile homes, no lights on either, they seem entirely dark - like the rest of the plot. The wind blows, the sounds of road noise in the distance flow here and there is - in the distance - the low bleat of a distant ship horn. A passenger jet flies overhead somewhere above the low clouds.
If there was a car nearby, it's either left the area or been stopped and shut down.
She looks relieved, of course, but she isn't about to chance fate. Still, she places her jacket over her shoulder for the time being and then makes her way in a circle around the pit, checking to see if there's anything, anything at all, that stands out that anyone might've missed. Aside from brass, anyways. The mobile homes are drawing her closer. She just can't help it.
They get across the street without being spotted. It means that the first sign of their approach is the very male clearing-of-the-throat and the click of the high-power LED flashlight in his hand. "I'm preettttyy sure," the sneering voice says, "you're what we like to call 'tresspassing.' See, in /this/ country, that's a crime. Hands where I can see 'em."
"Ooohhhh," is Shadi's grimaced groan. She puts her hands up, of course, promptly thereafter. "I am /so/ groudned/," she groans.
Mack lets the softest of groans rumble in her throat as she continues her path. She's taking extra care to stay tucked into the shadows now, approaching, if she can, from behind the two men.
There's a chuckle from behind that blinding flashlight. "Grounded is one word for it," the voice that belongs to one of them (there's at least two) says as he approaches. "You really gotta wonder about parents that'd let you go wandering around out here alone like this..." They begin to diverge, but are careful to remain behind the light - and the way it spoils any hope of identifying them. "Keep walkin' little girl," the one holding the light says, "put your hands against the wall of that office shed."
...uh oh.
This is worse than she thought, really, and the alarm bells are /definitely/ sounding. She moves in that direction, though, eyes flicking to and fro. Waiting for a moment to bolt. She won't have much time, but she's getting ready.
Mack frowns deeply at what she hears and pulls her hood up over her head. She hurries then to look around for some large piece of debris that would be suitable for throwing, and should she find it, she's chucking it at the mobile home furthest away from the one the men are directing the girl.
"That's it..." the voice says, the owner holstering a weapon. "Nice and..." the crackle of the debris landing off to one side makes the light swing as the man takes the distraction hook, line, and sinker. His partner brings a light on now, and his voice - a bit higher than the first - calls out, "I'm on it!" The two beams sweep in all the wrong directions.
Sweet, mecfiful distraction!
Shadi squeaks at the thunk sound, then bolts as soon as they're looking away. Let's be honst: she is not made to run. She does not have a lean, runner's build or anything of the sort. And so she goes, circling around the pit and going /straight for the gate/.
The Supremes pages: That'll take her right past MAck.
With movement erupting, Mack looks from runner to men. Once more she scrambles for a piece of debris to pick up and throw toward the mobile home, and though her gaze is steadied on the men, she's keeping an eye on the darting rabbit as well.
It's a piece of thrown rock, not a hologram. It takes the two men only a second more to figure out that there's nothing there, and the lights swing back in the direction of the footfalls, just as Mack looses the second round. The two women are illuminated for a moment and the sudden revelation of Mack by the sweep of the lights gives both men an 'oh shit' moment. The one nearest her literally says it. The surprise is not welcome - the weapons are coming out again.
"Just keep running, just keep running." It's like Findign Nemo, except running insteado f swimming. Shadi rushes the gate, best as she can, intent on getting the hell out of there. A glimpse of Mack is caught, though, which gives her momentary pause... which is all it takes for her to faceplanet in the dirt briefly.
"Fuck!" comments the girl that had caused the distraction in the first place. "Get up and run. Two blocks down. Beat up truck." Lessons have been learned the hard way, and it takes only one good look from Mack before she's made her decision on the course of action. Her own weapon is drawn out of her jacket but not brandished in a way to show her cards. "Gooo!" she urges to the girl, "I'll be behind you."
Their weapons are drawn, but aside from the first sweep of their lights, they didn't have a solid fix on either of the two women... until Mack started speaking and the lights converged on her. To hell with the teenager, this is who they decide to focus on now. "Hands up!" The one that had been ordering Shadi around, barks. "Hands up and on the ground!"
"AHHH," is Shadi's response as guns are coming out. This is awful! She's back up on hr feet and running again! Run run run. Her heart is pounding and she's a mess and terrified and gone totally pale and OH MY GOD.
"You're no cop, and I'm no dummy. We're done here. The girl was being an idiot. It's over." Mack starts backing away as soon as her damsel in distress is on the move again, and while she's still not pointing the gun at them, her hand is on it and the safety is off now.
"Don't need to be a cop," the lead man says, "just need to be within my rights to shoot, sister. This is private property, and I know for a fact you don't own it, and you don't belong on it." His grip shifts on the flashlight, suggesting the weapon is now co-axial. "So one last time, hands up. And you on the ground."
What's Shadi doing? Running. Away. So she keeps running. Unfortunately, the pit is big and it' staking her a wahile to get there. She's not very fast, okay? At least she didn't drop her smartphone... did she?
"And no one's on it except you, pal. So we'll just leave it that way." With her finger straight and off the trigger, Mack turns to start running herself. The gun comes out of her jacket then, ready for firing at the first sign of needing it, but for now her main focus is running after the girl and getting the two of them into her truck and out of the area.
There's a saying among those who've been in firefights: you never can tell what someone will do when you point a gun at them. In this case, the response is instinctual and protective. Seeing the weapon swung in their direction all thought of pursuit is checked and instead both men flinch and seek cover, their move given away by the way their lights swing wildly. Of course, there's basically no cover left on the old lot, so an instant later they're following their other instinct, and giving chase.
Shadi is not even lookign behind her at this point. She's just.. sprinting. She's not much of a sprinter, as has heen noted.
It's a sprint down terrain that's poorly lit, not exactly even, and full of dark shadows and things that /look/ like false steps. The two armed goons don't care as much about where they put their feet - chalk it up to their combat boots, which stomp heavily behind the two women, or to the fact that their quarry's already run over the same ground, which bolsters their confidence in how good the footing actually is. Either way, the two get half a block before the first of them lays a hand on Mack's shoulder, grabbing hold and putting on the brakes. The other moves deftly past those two and gives Shadi a hard shove, rather the reverse of that tactic.
"AHHH," is what comes out of Shadi's mouth. As the goon closes in on her to give her a shove, she reaches down inside herself and pushes harder, gasping for air as she springs harder than she has in her life. Adrenaline is coursing through her veins. And fear. It's fear that gives men wings, after all. Also, apparently Shadis.
Mack lets out a little grunt as she feels that hand reach her, but does a quick little dip-dodge to try and shake him. Luck seems on her side as she finds herself moving forward again, with increased effort now.
Slamming ito an already battered passanger car door, Shadi fumbles with the handle, breaks a nail, opens it up, sflops into the passagenr seat, and flails wildly as she rights herself and shuts the door with a quick slam.
Mack makes a mad scramble for the driver side, gun set barrel down into the cupholder as she forces keys into ignition. As soon as the grumpy old truck turns over, she's dropping it into gear and slamming on the gas.
Not even a carlength away as the two pull their doors shut, the two goons are - realizing their quarry is now properly escaping their grasp - reaching for their guns. The headlights give them pause, wrecking their vision for a moment, and their hands come up to sheild their eyes. Each of them is wearing a uniform, but Mack's intuition proves correct: neither is a Detroit Police Officer - instead they have some corporate security logo on their shirts. As the truck speeds away, the brakelights illuminate the shape of the two men as they assume firing positions and moments later, the reports ring out.
"AHHHH," yells Shadi as they're shot at. She's ducking and covering and trying her best to NOT GET SHOT. THIS WAS SO NOT A GOOD PLAN.
Mack eyes the rear view mirror one last time as she gets speed under the wheels. It may not be the newest vehicle, but the old Yukon has heart, and more importantly, grit. As distance increases between them and the men, the driver reaches over to grab up her gun, flip the safety back on and put it back into hiding within her jacket. "Red Tail has /holes/ in him now thanks to you." A glance is given to the girl. "The fuck were you doing in there?!"
The Supremes pages: As the moment becomes many, Mack has the time to reflect on the fact that the direction those men came from... the only place they could've been was across the street, in a neighboring facility.
She's a mess, Shadi is. Her eyes are huge. Welling up with tears. She's pale as a girl like her can get. The green undertones that make her skin 'olive' are more pronounced.
"BLRUUUUGGH!" into the paper bag she grabbed (thank goodness Mack had some) is the only answer she gets.
Mack has to clench her teeth to avoid an involuntary sympathy vomit of her own, and the window is hurriedly rolled down. "Seriously?" It would seem that Shadi's rescuer handles the adrenaline rush in a far different manner; a fired up belly and an antsy scowl. A deep breath is taken, but does little to settle the driver. "Calm down, alright?"
"...right... next time turn the camera flash /off/," says Shadi, after she's done gasping and shaking for a moment. She holds the bag tightly, white knuckled.
Mack turns a hard look at her. "What?! No. There is no next time. There's no reason for you to be /in/ a place like that? Why would you even consider it?" Her fingers clench tight around the wheel of the truck. "And where the hell am I taking you anyway?"
"Uh... Dearborn. That's all you need to do. I can make my own way from there," says Shadi, looking to the window and the burnt out street lights they pass by.
Mack lets out a grumbled sigh as she wipes under her nose with the back of one hand. "What were you doing in there? Do you even realize how close you were to being in a seriously bad way?"
"Well, I do /now/. I wasn't expecting there to be armed corporate security there. And they only saw me becasue the flash went off! What were YOU doing there?" She turns the question around on her, eyeing her coat and taking her headscarf off to inspect it. "Aw, man. Sis is gonna /kill/ me. This was her favorite!"
Mack looks over, "Call it fate I guess, because I was there to save your ass. And you know what? Legitimate security people don't pull weapons on some punk kid being an idiot, and they certainly don't give chase to them once they've left the private property!" A beat later, "/and/ shoot holes in their damn truck!" The girl driving does, in fact, start heading away from crapville and toward the better areas. "What were you even taking pictures of?"
She's quiet a moment.
A long moment. She doesn't seem to want to answer immediately. "Yeah, they weren't legitimate. I got that impression pretty fast. Do you know what MDCI means?" she asks. "That was on their badges. Anyways, that whole thing! With the firefight! It was just /crazy/. And the news about it doesn't make any sense, like /whoa/, you know? So, it was like... like there was A COVER UP!" She sounds excited about this potentiality.
Mack glances over again, "MDCI. Nope, don't know what that means." It will, however, be tucked away for contemplating later. "And no that event wasn't well documented or reported. But that's because this whole area is a shithole that even the cops don't want anything to do with. So the news on it was probably all garbage, just to get people to stop thinking about it. Someone like you has no place snooping around there though. Least of all at night like some wannabe Sherlock. You're gonna get yourself killed or worst. You got me?"
"Well, I guess I'll have to find out, then! Can't be hard to google it. Probably private security for what's his butt. But that doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, the whole thing. Over eight thousand rounds of ammo were used and only /five/ bodies? No way you do that and drop only five bodies. There's a big cover up, and that's, you know, interesting. I was thinking if I could get some of the brass -- and it was everywhere -- maybe I could figure out mroe about stuff. You know, like on CSI!" She's entirely excited about this, ignoring the part about getting killed for the moment.
Then she pauses and eyes her. "The whole place was demolished, too, and that's just... you know. It's like they're not even trying very hard because they don't have to." That bugs her.
Mack clenches tighter around the steering wheel. "Girl! Listen to me. If I had not been there, you'd not be on your way home right now. Does that not even filter into your thoughts? How old are you even? Why the fuck do /you/ have to try and figure this out? It's not a damn game."
"I have to do /something/," says Shadi, looking out the window. "I can't just go on pretending all the tuff that's happening isn't happening, least of all when it's making it hard to sleep at night -- literally, in some cases. I mean, don't you hear the noise sometimes too?"
Mack narrows her eyes at this, takes a deep breath to try and further calm down, and then inquires. "What kind of noise are you talking about? Gunshots and craziness like that? Just where do you live anyway?" A pause follows. "And what's your name? I'm Mack-" a gloating smile follows, "But you can call me 'my hero' if you prefer."
"Sorry, that's reserved for Muhammed, peace be upon him," adds Shadi, leaving little to no doubt as to the nature of her religious affiliation, if the hijab didn't give it away. "No, I mean the noise from Zug Island. /That/ noise."
An eyeroll follows, but the girl continues driving, and pressing for information. "What kind of noise? How long you been hearing it?"
"You really don't know what I'm talking about? It's even been in the news, sometimes. People think it 's the steel mill and it is. Well, sort of is. It's not the steel mill. It's how they make the steel. It's making this, I dunno... buzz. I hear it when I'm trying to go to sleep sometimes. It's... unsettling." She rubs her face. "You really don't know what I'm talking about? Sometimes, they call it the Windsor Hum?"
Mack gives a shrug, "Maybe I'm just used to crappy city noise. Still, seriously. You're not in any place do anything about any of this, and you're only going to get yourself in a heap of trouble if you keep poking your nose where you don't belong."
"Then who? The cops? Come on. You just said they won't touch it," counters Shadi, firmly. "And I don't buy the whole 'fate' argument. You were there for some reason, watching for some reason, and intervened armed for some reason. You didn't mind staring down two armed security guards, so you wanna tell me what that was about?"
"I'm looking for someone. And I've grown up on the streets so I know how to carry myself on them. That's all." This is said with a very matter of fact tone that speaks of some amount of honesty to the statement. Mack turns to look her over once more, "Seriously. You're in over your head. Take tonight as a mulligan; a warning that you lucked out and managed to survive, and then let it go."
"/That's/ not gonna happen. Sure, I made a mistake, or two. Or three. But I got what I wanted." She pulls the brass out of her pocket. "Oh, and the photos. I at least kept my smart phone, too." She pats her phone, the nadds, "I'm Dee."
"Then you've got a death wish Dee. Which is unfortunate- because the world needs people like you who actually seem to care a bit. I'd just prefer you, you know, finish school, maybe get into law or something... live to do good things instead of run off into gang land at midnight, by yourself." The car makes another turn as they draw close to Dearborn. "If those guys see you again. They will grab you."
"No, look. Plenty of people go into law. And you know what happens? They become lawyers. They get so emeshed in the system they stop being able to see outside of it. See what's really happening to people out, you know, /here/. They think they can solve the problem with moderate fixes because nobody wants to upset the apple cart. Well, the apple cart's already done been upset. Hi, measure two. You're right: I care. I care enough to walk into a dangerous situation, and if that'd gone bad, well... I'm thinking I could've gotten out of that too." She wets her lips with her tongue, not answering to her age. She's young, of course. "So you can't talk me out of it. Sorry. But if you ever wanna talk about the real reason you were watching that place, you can shoot me an email at pinkunicornattack@gmail.com."
Mack raises up a brow as the car settles to a stop. "Maybe that happens. Maybe you'd be the one it didn't happen to." She shakes her head then and nods at the street signs. "Dearborn. If you're going to keep doing what you're doing, at least do it during the day. It's still not safe, but might give you an extra odd to bet against."
"So who /are/ you, 'hero'?" asks Shadi, peering at her.
"I told you. I'm Mack. I really am just looking for a friend that's gone missing, and shitty as it is, some of the gangs up here might be connected to it." The girl lifts a shoulder at this. "Be careful. Extra careful now."
"Yeah, I know. You're Mack. But that's not who you are. That's just your name. I just.. you know. Who's your friend? Maybe I can help." Shadi seems eager to do that.
Mack grins a bit, "Probably not Dee, but thanks. And I'm not much more than my name, really. Just a street kid that's too old to be called kid at this point. You sure this is good enough for a drop off point?"
"Yeah, here is fine, I guess," says Shadi, disappointed. "Well, it's the least I can do, you know, and I'm pretty good at finding things. I mean, that's why I have inventory reports from the steel mill at Zug Island. Welp! THis is my stop. Take care!" And with that, she's gonna slip out of the car.
"A thank you woulda been appreciated, pink unicorn!" she grumps as the girl slips out of the car.
"Hey, I offered to help you find your friend," points out Shadi, "but thanks, all the same. "Fi Amaan Allah, Mack. You'll need it, I think."
"Sure, whatever that is." She hehs as the car empties and the door is shut. Mack stays put for just a bit longer, not so much to watch where the girl is running off to, but to make sure there are no immediate boogiemen waiting to ambush her.
She takes off down the s street, heading for home, no doubt. Dearborn is a heavil arabic community so it's no surprised that a girl in a hijab would make her way down there. No immdiate boogiemen attack!