NOVEL WEB Chapter 26: Firefight
Bang—!
The baseball bat struck the empty can, crushing and twisting it before sending it flying high into the air. It landed on the ground and was run over by a passing car, turning into a flat piece of metal.
It had been an hour since Chris argued with his sister. He was now deeply consumed by guilt, constantly rubbing the baseball bat in his hands, unable to calm his emotions.
"What's wrong with me? Why would I say such things to my sister?"
Chris kept questioning himself. The empty beer cans piled up by the flower bed were already several layers high. As a shut-in, he almost never touched alcohol, but this time, he had already drunk several cans within an hour.
Several cigarette butts were scattered on the ground, all of them freshly lit, only to be extinguished after a single puff. Chris hated the smell of cigarettes, the pungent and choking smell always made him feel nauseous when it passed through his lungs. Even the "good cigarettes" that were so popular in this country didn't interest him in the slightest.
But after taking the first puff, even though he quickly extinguished it, a few minutes later he subconsciously lit the second one.
This addiction pulled at his already fragile mind, and intense pain gnawed at his heart.
His sister's surprise, anger, fear, regret, every detail of her expression was imprinted in Chris's eyes, and it was precisely because of this that Chris felt even worse. Because his sister's expression seemed to confirm his suspicions.
Although he often saw strangers' shoes, Chris always avoided thinking about it. After his parents died, his sister quit her original job, and spent that difficult time with him. He was unwilling to believe that his strong sister would fall so far.
Just as Chris was sitting on the flower bed by the roadside, lost in his thoughts, several police cars drove up, kicking up dust, and stopped smoothly in front of him.
"Chris, you're under arrest."
The police quickly surrounded Chris, snatched the baseball bat from his hands, and handcuffed his hands behind his back.
"Under arrest? Why? I didn't break any laws!" Chris struggled constantly. The police's words sounded like a fantasy to him. He had never committed a crime before in his life.
"You're being charged with murder. The victim was a young police officer." The lead police officer didn't care about his protests, and forcibly dragged him towards the police car.
Even the naive Chris knew that even if the police wanted to arrest someone, they had to provide a relevant arrest warrant. But now, not only had these police officers handcuffed him right away, they had also directly named him as the criminal. A gut feeling told him that once he got into the police car, he wouldn't be able to clear his name.
"I didn't do it, let me go! I'm going to file a complaint against you." He struggled constantly, and Chris, who lacked any exercise, managed to break free from the police officer's grip. But the next second, a baton struck him directly on the head.
A sharp pain came, and his vision went black. Chris fell unconscious.
·
After an unknown amount of time, when Chris woke up again, he felt that his hands were firmly handcuffed. His cheek was pressed against the floor of the vehicle, and the constant bumps made his head hurt.
"Yes, the scapegoat has been caught."
The police car transporting him was pitch black, and Chris could only hear faint voices talking, as if someone was on the phone.
"I understand. The people from the Fang He Gang went too far. That guy was one of the direct descendants of the mayor of Oaxaca, for him to die in our city just like that, the impact is too negative."
"That's your own business. The reward is 300,000."
"300,000? Are you kidding? That's not the price we agreed on. The dead police officer was…"
Chris didn't dare move a muscle, afraid that the police around him would discover that he was awake. But his heart was pounding. That young police officer, who had died in front of him yesterday, actually had a prominent background, and had been killed by a local gang. However, the more important issue now was that Chris seemed to be the scapegoat.
"As long as the matter is settled, it doesn't matter if the price goes up a little."
"How much can it go up by?"
"##########"
"Okay, I got it. Bloodstains were found on the brat's car window, and the surveillance footage from that time has already been cleaned up. As long as they investigate, all we have to do is send him up there."
"If the people up there really want to investigate to the very end, then let them. Those rats down there are monsters that devour people, bones and all."
Beep—
The call ended. The lead police officer hadn't even bothered to hide the sound of his call, and the other officers didn't react. After hearing that the price could go up, several of them even smiled.
These guys were already colluding with the gang. Chris's heart sank. He understood his situation. He wasn't the first scapegoat to be pushed out, nor would he be the last.
Unease, mental breakdown, an indescribable sense of oppression gave Chris a strong warning. But he was just an ordinary person, and now he didn't even have the strength to resist.
Just because he witnessed a shooting, he would be used as a scapegoat, just because there was blood on his car windows, he would face death.
This damned world.
This damned country.
The cases he saw on the news every day suddenly came to mind. How many of them had been pushed out to die by the demons hiding in the darkness?
If he appeared in the news in the next few days, what would his sister do?
Thinking of this, Chris suddenly regretted saying such harsh words to his sister before running out of the house.
Rat-a-tat.
Just as Chris felt despair, the sound of intensive gunfire suddenly rang out. The police car escorting him was targeted directly, and even the sturdy bulletproof windows couldn't completely block the gang's firepower.
"Aha, Fang He's(gang) dogs, good morning!" A strange, sharp voice came from outside. Chris pressed himself tightly to the floor, not daring to move a muscle. Even as the police officers in the car stepped on him as they moved around, he didn't dare let out a single whimper.
There was no reason, no excuse, no warning.
The firefight between the police and the gang broke out like this in this city.
Bang—!
The police car was suddenly hit. A collision at high speed would end in death.
The vehicle rolled, crashed, and burned.
Fortunately, Chris, who had been lying on the ground, turned out to be the least injured person in the entire car.
The police car burned in a raging fire, at risk of exploding at any moment. Chris's head was covered in blood. He struggled desperately, moving his body as he tried to climb out of the car.
Click.
A gun was cocked.
Chris raised his head. The dark muzzle of a gun was pressed to his forehead.