This was all like some TV show I’d seen, too.
When two thugs come after you and you’re waiting for them around a corner, you always let the first one by and go for the second one, the laggard. I don’t know why. Maybe so that the guy who’s lagging doesn’t come up behind you. They never explain that in the movies. It’s just what smart guys do, they seem to imply.
It didn’t matter, though, because all of that TV and childhood ninja training suddenly went out the freakin’ window. As soon as I saw their shadows, I had a revelation about what an idiot I was being, trying to play tough guy again. I managed to bring up the hand holding the rebar, but it suddenly weighed a ton. To top it all off, the thugs both came out of the alley at the same time, as in side by side–there was no guy lagging behind. What do you do when that happens? All those years in front of the tube hadn’t taught me even that most basic lesson.
I brought the rebar down in spite of myself and caught the guy closest to me on the shoulder. The rebar vibrated and bounced off, flying out of my hand in the process. When he spun around, I saw that he was wearing a dark blue jogging suit. So was his partner. Jogging suits? I thought. Each guy had a hand inside his unzipped jacket. Both didn’t even seem to be breathing hard. The one I hit began to draw his hand from his jacket.
I panicked and heaved the brick at him. It wasn’t a good throw – more like playing hot potato than anything else. I don’t think he was expecting it, though, because I was sure he’d dodge it and maybe even laugh at me. Instead, the brick landed square on his chest at the exact moment we was drawing the gun (which seemed rather small and harmless; I guess I’d imagined something a lot more fearsome looking considering all the damage it had done). There was a sickening THUMP on impact. The gun left his hand as he crumpled to the ground, cursing.
Now, weaponless and still panicked, I still managed to think, OK, now for the other guy – he’s probably already got his gun out. I should probably dive for cover. Which I did.
