Seeing people from outside the college was one of the reasons Katherine enjoyed coming to this gym. Since she and Baxter were both professors, it was nice to break out of her limited social circle.
“Hey!”
Katherine looked over her left shoulder.
“You dropped your towel.” A freckled woman with a curly cap of short dark hair held a white towel out to her. Katherine had seen her before. She liked the rowing machines and regularly lifted weights.
“Thanks.” Katherine reached back and grabbed it, then folded it in thirds and placed it on the small bar below the control panel on the treadmill, all the while never slowing her pace. “Are you waiting for this machine?”
The woman shrugged. “I’m good. I’ve got time.” Her eyes seemed focused farther down the row of equipment.
Katherine glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’m just warming up before the five-o’clock yoga class. I’ll be done in a few minutes.” It was 4:40, and she would need at least ten minutes to walk to the yoga classroom and set up. Katherine hated being late for anything but especially classes. She slowed her treadmill to cool down.
“I can wait.” The woman’s eyes swept around the gym before coming back to rest again on whatever she had seen down the row. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t move from her spot near the wall.
Katherine returned to the closed-captioned television that was broadcasting the local news. There was something about the classic-car show on Beach Street that weekend. The weather forecast jumped onto the screen. Seventy-five and sunny on Friday. Seventy-three. Seventy-six. Yep, pretty much perfect all week. When you lived on California’s Central Coast, you didn’t get to complain about the weather.
At 4:44, she stopped the treadmill and grabbed her towel. She dabbed her forehead and looked for the dark-haired woman to point out the machine, but she was already on a different treadmill.
Gymgoers were shuffling locations as some left for the day and others switched routines. Katherine saw the color-coordinated blond woman heading toward the hallway where the yoga classroom was located and wondered if she was a new attendee.
Katherine walked toward the aisle, passing another college-aged man running fast on a treadmill. Unlike the people around him, he was running at full speed. A blue-and-green hoodie covered his head, and something familiar about him made Katherine pause at the back of his machine.
It came to her in a flash.
The world around her washed into shades of grey as Katherine saw the man stop and pull a black handgun from under his sweatshirt. It was black and had an odd bar sticking out from the handle. Everything around her moved in slow motion as the young man raised the gun and started firing across the gym.
The sound of screaming was sharp in her ears.
Once, twice, the gun fired again and again. He didn’t stop. The world around her seemed watery and out of focus, but she heard people screaming. Glass shattered. More screaming.
She blinked and her ears popped. The world around her came back into focus and vivid color. No one was screaming. The gym was filled with the familiar sounds of treadmills and pumping workout music. The clock on the wall read four forty-five.
Katherine was frozen at the base of the young man’s treadmill when she saw it start to happen.
He braced his feet on either side of the treadmill, unzipped his blue-and-green sweatshirt, and reached toward his waistband.
This isn’t a daydream.
“Gun!” Katherine screamed and dived for the man, knocking him off-balance. He toppled back and fell on her. The spinning track shot them off the rear of the treadmill and into the next row of machines. “He has a gun!”
The world compressed around her. She was struggling with the man, but he was so much stronger. Where was the gun? She saw it in his hand and reached for it.
He elbowed Katherine in the temple and rolled away, trying to lift the firearm and take aim. She felt something cold and hard strike her temple.
“No!” The blond woman stood over them, her face red and angry. She reached her hand out, and the gun jumped into her palm.
Katherine blinked.
Sounds of chaos filled the gym as people ran and yelled. Someone shouted, “Police!” Throughout the chaos, the sounds of loud electronic music filled the air.
The young man elbowed Katherine again, snapping her head to the side. She saw stars and rolled into the still-spinning treadmill as the man scrambled toward the blond woman who had his gun. He was on his knees when the compact, dark-haired woman leaped over two treadmills and jumped on the attacker, forcing him back to the ground with a thud and a solid punch to the jaw.
“Stay down!” She looked to be about a third of the size of the guy, but the woman grabbed his shoulders, forced him to the floor, and yelled into his face. “Calm down! Stay down!”
As if by magic, the man’s body went limp and he relaxed completely.
The blond woman was holding the gun on him, but her hands weren’t even shaking. She glanced at Katherine. “Ma’am, you doing all right?” She spoke with a pronounced Southern accent. “He hit you pretty hard. Think you might be bleeding on your forehead a little.”
The dark-haired woman glanced at the woman with the gun. “You a cop?”
“No.” The blond woman laughed a little. “Just grew up with a lot of good ol’ boys. You doin’ okay?”
“I’m good.” The dark-haired woman didn’t move off the man. “Please tell me someone is calling the police.”
Katherine rolled up to sit and propped herself against the front of a stair-climbing machine. “I’m okay.” She watched their attacker lying completely still under the small woman. “I think I’m okay.”
Almost everyone in the gym had fled and most were milling around outside on State Street. Katherine could see them
