Too hot to haoo hot to ignore

  “Torch that bitch!” someone yelled outside the car. Celeste was curled up on the driver seat, which Cooper had dropped down and rolled back as far as it would go, afraid the windshield would give out any sed. All the windows were solid white except for the passenger side, and it reminded her of winter, of being in a car with all the gss fogged up or covered ihe world outside moving along in muffled sounds and hazy forms, disected from the ess inside.

  Except now the world screamed and exploded and showed itself in fatigues and gual through the window just behind Cooper. He on one knee in the passenger seat and had mostly gotten off of her, but his was still thrown over her knees and he had one arm across her chest and was white knug his headrest with the other, as he looked from window to window like he had some x-ray vision she didn’t know about. It felt like they had been in the car for hours sihe crash, but the clo the dash said it had only been a few minutes.

  There was a thump on the passenger dss.

  “You see this, bitches?” A red gas ressed against the window and Cooper s it like the two of them were about to get into a fistfight.

  “Better get out, it’s about to get toasty!”

  Something sloshed overhead for a few seds before more bullets cracked everywhere and the gas man ducked down with a “shit!”

  “They're gonna try to burn us out,” Celeste said calmly as more rounds cracked outside. EP didn’t respond, though she seemed to have been the only one listening. Celeste was alo seemed. Time to take matters into her own hands. She took her pistol, a Beretta PX4 Storm pact, out of her purse. The gas guy was taking cover o the passenger window, sungsses and bandanaed face bobbing in fear, his movements screaming “meth and adrenaline”.

  “Hey!” he yelled suddenly and showed off a pstic lighter with a fme two inches long. Celeste pulled Cooper to her chest and put the gun to his head. Cooper was still and quiet as a corpse but the guy outside started jumping around.

  “Shit! This bitch is gonna kill him!”

  No one was listening. The gunfire had whipped up again like a sudden downpour in a drizzle. The mae gun burped up on the hill and something cracked away from the car.

  During a ce lull in the gunfire, one of the gunmen close by moved positions and their boots ched on a pile of auto gss. The sound, heard clearly irange silence, once again reminded Celeste of a snug winter day. The feeling was snapped up as the roar resumed and she wondered if it had been real at all.

  Something cracked and the back window was smeared with blood as a body fell onto the bumper.

  “Fuck!” More scrambling of feet as fresh guhis time single, trolled shots that spoke like ands, erupted from the dire of the river.

  “East! East!” someone shouted into a radio, his voice down low like he was talking to the ground. The guy who had poured the gas was now crouched dht outside the passenger door, with the front tire of an abandoned car between him and the river. Rounds were crag through the air at a steady pace.

  Gas ma her through the clear part of the window, and she smiled at him. He snarled like a dog and yelled things that made Cooper move toward the door. For a moment she thought he really would open it, but the mae gun started again, and he moved bad grabbed her in his arms.

  Out the back window, she saw the square of sky between the roof of the beetle and the top of the car that had rammed into them fill with red and yellow tracer fire. Shouts of joy and whoops came from all around her and her heart sank. She had thought Luke would have shot more of them by now.

  The guy outside got up and patted a front pocket for something before pig up the gas . He was yelling something at her, but the gunfire drowned most of it out. She got enough to know he was sick of getting shot at and ready to do something about it. More fire from Luke’s direade him crouch down again and start yelling for someoo give him a light. Celeste decided she was just as doh this shit as he was.

  “Baby. I need you to do something for me?”

  He looked at her with sad eyes and she didn’t know why.

  “I don’t think I shoot you, girl.”

  “No, I want you to open that door really fug hard wheeps in front of it.” She was almost whispering and wasn’t sure if he heard, but a head bobbed in the window and Cooper sprang into a.

  He threw his entire body into the heavy armored door and it opened halfway before smming into gas guy with a g thud. Gas guy grunted and Cooper, now hunched down on the passenger side floorboard, started to move outside, snarling like a dog. Celeste grabbed him by the ear and shoved him down, and he respoo her pressure like a trained dancer and put his chest ft on the seat.

  Gas man was ft on his back just outside the dring at them. His hao his rifle ae screamed. She pulled the trigger as fast as she could. Rounds sparked off his chest pte and the road, but he took two in the groin, one in the shoulder, and ht through the eye before she wey. Her earbuds were the stealth model, uo dampen the sound, and her ears started ringing immediately. Again, the world took on a nostalgic muffled aura as the sounds died away.

  “Close it!” She pushed Cooper toward the door, shell gs rolling off his back. He reached out, and bullets ripped into the door as he smmed it closed. One of the gunmen broke into a sprint when he saw the door open, yelling at anyone who could hear to catch it. He skidded to a stop in front of the door and puhe window, then took a round through his head as he stood there and crumpled into the street.

  Celeste ughed out loud, blinking back tears, and then the god damned mae gun started again aed the roof in gng shots.

  “ I leave please?!” Celeste screamed.

  “W on it! And don’t open that fug dain!” EP yelled back.

  Fight fire with fire. ime, a Spirit is tested, and lives are gambled. episode, Light in Darkness.