@dcvilkid
Screams echoed off buildings. A car alarm blared as men threw themselves over it to get out of the way faster. A desperate family banged their fists against a locked door, begging to be let inside. An angry bruise was forming beneath M’gann’s left eye, where someone had elbowed her hard trying to escape. She hardly even felt it.
Amidst the chaos, several people had fallen. Dragged down by the panicked crowd. Most had managed to pull themselves from the path, but M’gann felt certain that she had glimpsed a body as she and Eddie pushed past the crowd heading towards the shots instead of away.
More shots rang out. There. One of the snipers was in a third story window apparently shooting into the air and letting the bullets rain down on the crowd below. Her right hand clenched and the sniper’s rifle bent in half, nearly tearing in the middle. She released the energy in her hand. The awning of the store beneath the Hydra soldier flew off its hinges with a twang and bound the sniper.
There was another shot. The people continued to stampede through the streets. M’gann gripped Eddie’s arm, long since having dropped the little ceramic teapot she had bought only minutes before this all began. “We have to calm them down,” she yelled. She didn’t know if Eddie could even hear her over the noise. The only thing she knew for certain was that they must not be separated in this confusion.
The door of a Chinese restaurant swung open and a man in a cook’s uniform tried to usher people inside to safety. He was knocked aside in a matter of seconds. M’gann’s arm swept right and the poor man was put back on his feet, and almost immediately he was trying to help again. “I’m going to do it. I have to.” She pressed a hand to her forehead and in an instant, everyone froze. Screams hung in the air for a short, bitter moment. If not for the pouring rain it would have seemed like time had stopped for everyone except M’gann and Eddie.
Only minutes ago, this was a perfectly normal day in the heart of Chinatown. Street vendors were hawking fresh fruit. Tourists bought everything from knockoff handbags to plastic frogs which swam when they touched water. Delivery trucks double parked. And then, in a matter of seconds, everything had changed.
