A Date(Alex//Dylan

By the month's end, Alex was completely exhausted. She had spent the past eight days along with about five other skilled people, training the shop keepers and residents of the area in different tactics for defending themselves and their belongings. By the time she got home, ate a small meal, and showered it was well into the early morning hours, giving her a few hours of sleep before the laborious task began again. They ran training sessions all day in order to ensure that everybody was given a chance to attend the lessons despite their work schedules. It had been Will’s idea to convert the beach front into the training grounds where everything from sparring to archery was taught. A target range had been set up allowing a variety of fire arms to be shot off. Alex didn’t much care for the semi-automatic and automatic guns that some of the people had chosen to use, but she had to admit that they would certainly take out the intended target. Sam the butcher had made comment that the local gun suppliers were getting a little nervous with so many sales of weapons; seemed they feared that another war might be brewing. One thing was for sure, if there was a war about to happen, her neighborhood would be more than able to defend itself.

The last day of training finally came to an end with the setting of the sun. Alex and the other trainers packed up the supplies but decided to leave the targets in place for practice. Waving a farewell to the stragglers, she walked up the bleached wooden stairs to the street above the beach. To her surprise, Will was leaning against the railing waiting on her.

“You did a really good thing for this community this week. I’ve never seen them ban together like that.” Looking out over the darkening waters he seemed to become nervous and fidgety. “Umm, Alex, you know I had promised to take you to a nice place to eat before the month was over. Well, would you like to have dinner at the Minute Man Hotel Grande tomorrow evening?”

Even in the fading light she could see the blotchy red marks upon his cheeks, something that made him all the more endearing. Too tired to think of an excuse not to go, she agreed, and a time was set for six o’clock the following night. Will walked her back to Nelly’s with a slight spring in his step. Alex didn’t know why, but she was feeling a bit giddy about the upcoming evening as well.

When she entered the bed ‘n’ breakfast, she found the proprietor sitting on the bottom step grinning from ear to ear. “Did ‘e ask you?” Alex wasn’t a bit surprised that Nelly knew about their conversation tonight; the woman seemed to know a little bit about everything that went on in the town. Nodding her head the physically depleted young girl climbed the stairs to her room followed by the nosey older woman as if she were a dog waiting for scraps. Knowing that Nelly wouldn’t have a good sleep until the details of the day were disclosed, Alex proceeded to verbalize the events of the past eighteen hours.

Finally quenching Nelly’s curiosity while cleaning and stowing her weapons, Alex was left alone with the promise of a shopping trip after breakfast. It seems that jeans and boots aren’t appropriate attire for dining at the Hotel Grande. Too worn out to even move, the now sun kissed girl fell asleep on top of the comforter still wearing her clothes and boots.


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“Listen up, now that I’ve finally gotten you all together, let’s go over the plan for tomorrow night.” Dylan paced back in forth in front of the two dozen disreputable men gathered in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Red Lantern Alley. “Brake windows, steal, torch the place if you want, but don’t kill anybody.” An audible groan came up from the men. “I mean it, NO killing. Hurt them if it’s in self defense, but no killing. The cops can’t turn a blind eye if upstanding citizens start turning up dead.” Stopping in front of a particularly loathsome character Dylan stared down the group as if daring them to disobey his command. “Do you understand these simple instructions?” Affirmatives were given in various styles but the grizzly leader didn’t believe any of them.

The meeting was short and to the point, leaving the paid imbeciles in little doubt of what there objective was. They would meet at this same spot tomorrow at six to leave for the intended neighborhood. The offensive group dispersed into the muggy night, wagging their tongues about the upcoming conquest. More than one of them was a little leery about the “blind eye” of the law but because the money was good, they put their reservations aside.

Officer Riddles stepped out from behind a door at the back of the room where he was able to observe the meeting undetected. “I don’t know about these guys. Can they be trusted?”

“Of course not, that’s why they’re dispensable.” Dylan gave the officer a wicked smile that caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end.

“Just don’t forget about the clean up once all of this is done. Wont do me any good to get my neighborhood back if those fools go tellin’ everybody who they be workin’ for.”

“No need to worry about that. As far as they’re concerned – they’re working for me.”

“All the same, no one is to be left alive.” Peering out the window to make sure the coast was clear Riddles pulled the collar of his jacket up and the brim of his hat down over his face.

“Yea, you look inconspicuous.” Mocked Dylan at the ludicrous sight.

Ignoring his comment, Riddles stepped out into the dimly lit street to make his way back to his comfortable home.