“Hey, my hands are up. I’m not moving them ok?” Stacy tried to keep her voice calm. “Guys, back off alright. I need you to back off; he has a weapon pointed at me.” She spoke loud enough for the officers to hear her as she slowly stepped backwards until she was almost at the end of the aisle. If I can just get to the end, I can throw myself to the side and they will take him out.
Stacy was completely unaware that on either side of the end of the aisle she was slowly making her way to, were two more officers. They had responded to the 911 dispatch along with two other patrol cars and had positioned themselves on either side of the aisle, hoping that one of them could snatch him as he rounded the corner. Unfortunately the situation had deteriorated when he pulled his weapon, threatening to kill the officer who had been following him through the store. Now their plan had changed to hoping one of them could dive around the corner if they had to and get a shot off at him.
That was before Randy recognized the voice of the officer in the aisle with him. Her heart constricted like someone was putting it in a vice grip. No, it can’t be Stacy. Shit, how did she get herself in this mess? She could hear that Stacy was very close to the end of the aisle and she motioned to Jeff on the other side that she would push her out of the way as soon as she saw her.
“What are you doing? Stop fucking moving!” The man yelled at Stacy, his hand was shaking with the gun in it.
Stacy gauged that she had one more step backwards before she would be able to throw herself to the side. She kept her voice soft, using her training to try to defuse some of his anger. “I’m not going anywhere; tell me what you want from me?”
“I don’t want a fucking thing from you. You’re dead regardless of what you say to me, you fucking pig. You and as many others as I can take.” He screamed again.
Stacy took one last step backwards, catching a quick movement in the corner of her eye from her right side. A blue blur hurled towards her, leaping in front of her body as she heard a loud boom, followed quickly by three more loud booms. The wind was knocked out of her as she fell to the floor with someone else’s body landing on top of her. Stacy struggled to get her breath back as she heard angry shouts and then felt the weight lifted off her as someone rolled the person to the floor.
“Randy! Randy, talk to me! Fuck, fuck, fuck! I need a medic here! 10-13, 10-13! Officer down! Officer down!” Jeff screamed into his shoulder mic. He rolled her flat on her back, searching quickly for the source of the growing blood pool underneath her. “Fuck! Goddamnit!” He pressed his hands hard over the hole in her pants, high on her inner thigh. “Where’s the fucking medic??” He screamed as more officers ran to help him.
Stacy struggled to comprehend that the officer lying on the floor in a pool of blood was Randy. Do something, help her! She shook her head and struggled to her feet, pulling her t-shirt off as she stood. Thankfully she was wearing a tank top underneath, but she wouldn’t have cared if she wasn’t. She quickly knelt down next to Jeff.
“Lift your hands and put this under them quickly.” She commanded Jeff . He obeyed without questioning, his hands shaking from adrenaline and stress. He briefly looked up into Stacy’s eyes and she could see the raw emotion in them.
The paramedics sprinted down the aisle towards them, sliding on their knees as they reached them. Stacy jumped out of the way as one paramedic took out pressure dressings, taking over for Jeff as he inspected the wound briefly before pressing down on it with them. The other shook his head quick. “Let’s load her and go now! She’s losing too much blood; it might have nicked the femoral artery.” The officers helped lift her onto the gurney and they ran with it out to the waiting ambulance. It took off with a police escort ahead of it.
Stacy looked down at her clothes, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Her pants were covered with blood, probably from Randy when she fell on top of her. She looked at Jeff, whose hands were covered with blood from holding her shirt to Randy’s wound. “Did they say where they were taking her?” She asked Jeff.
“Carolina’s.” He answered. “I need to get there.” He wiped his hands on his pants and turned to go.
“Wait! I’ll drive you. I don’t think you should drive right now.” Stacy called after him.
“Okay, thanks. I want to get there before we get stuck talking to internal affairs.” He said, jogging towards the door.
Neither of them said a word as Stacy sped down the streets. Jeff had flipped her dash light on to hopefully help clear traffic out of the way so they could get there faster. God please don’t let her die. Why did she do that? Why did she get in the way of what was meant for me?
Stacy whipped her car into the closest parking spot to the ER door and they sprinted inside. They ran up to the registration desk, where they were told that Randy had been taken back to one of the trauma rooms.
“Is there someone we should call for her?” Stacy asked Jeff, knowing that family should be notified so they could come.
Jeff glanced at her. “Her parents are dead. She doesn’t have any other family.”
Stacy stared at him. No one? She has no one in this world who would want to know she’s been shot? She sat down numbly and rubbed her forehead. She pulled out
