Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) (29 page)

Oddly, it was mainly the men in
the attacking group that seemed like that. They shifted, and looked like they
wanted to protect their women, but couldn't, since trying would just lead to
their own arrests, if not beatings. Then, Zack did mention there were
two
special and protected groups there. Well, he'd said entitled, but that was what
it meant.

"So, these are the
other
ones? Because I can't see this as reasonable behavior. Really, I've gotta say,
I
feel
pretty hated right about now." He didn't want to be mean
about it, but it was a mess, and Ty
was
the lowest person in the place,
meaning
he'd
end up having to try and fix it himself.

Zack nodded, and waved around the
store a bit.

"Yep.
These
are the
anti-male hate movement. They can't see themselves that way, but hate movements
never really do. It's one thing to be a bit into your own group, but another
when you start trying to harm half the Human race because you can't really see
them as people. Kaitlyn wasn't wrong though, about this situation here today.
These women mainly just feel threatened by what they see as a thing that
they
have a right to control, but don't. Sexuality. The question is, what was their
real plan? No one would come here and do this just to damage my inventory. Not
if they expected to live, anyway. So, what's the other shoe?"

The answer came about five
seconds later, when the gunfire started.

Zack vanished. There was no
stepping sideways first, either. It was kind of like what happened when Eve
moved like she did. He was simply, and totally,
gone
. There wasn't even
a hint of moving air to let him know something had taken place. The sounds were
coming from the outer hall, near the plus sized ladies clothing shop across the
way, which had the other Alede all doing different things. Alexis went wide
eyed, and froze, as Kaitlyn ran from around the counter, trying to leave the
store through the front.

The cops all moved that way, too.

As soon as they were gone, with
him still standing there, about halfway back through the store, walking slowly
toward the front with his camera held up, the whole thing changed suddenly. One
of the weak looking men who had been standing back the whole time reached into
the black bag that he was wearing, and pulled a small, efficient looking, black
firearm.

No one else seemed to see it at
first, as he aimed the thing at Alexis, his face going hard.

"
No sex
!" The
scream was shrill, more panicked seeming than girly, as he tried to pull the
trigger. Ty was too far away from him to do anything, even as he dropped the
phone and ran at the guy.

Oddly enough, it was another of
the men, a skinny, weak looking fellow with curly brown hair, that did
something useful, jumping between Alexis and the gunman as the firing began.
The girl ducked behind the counter as the booms rang out. It was
deafening
.

The skinny man that was fighting
with the larger fellow wasn't exactly a martial arts master, but he'd grabbed
for the weapon while shouting.

"No! Killing is wrong!"
Which was a sentiment that Tyler could get behind.

Especially since the bullets that
came out
all
managed to hit him. Right in the chest too, or the stomach,
but that was close enough for him, which was
far
from fair. The impacts kind
of hurt, he thought, but not enough to keep him from moving forward. He slowed
though, the impacts, three of them, pushing him back a bit.

He could fight regardless of
that. At any rate he kept moving toward the violence in the middle of the room.
When he got to the man that was trying to kill people, because of some kind of
skewed idea about... Tyler had been there all day, and honestly didn't know.
The fact of the matter was that there didn't really seem to be a reason for it.
Not one that was understandable from the outside.

Even if this group was upset
about the Alede being what they were, that couldn't be changed. It just wasn't
a thing that was going to happen. Then, if he had it right, feminism was, in
the end, about demanding that
men
be required to change what they were,
even though most of what was being called for would require massive biological
and chemical alterations to take place. That wasn't a thing that would happen
either.

Maybe it just made sense to them?
They were so entitled that they actually expected nature itself to bow to their
whims and desires? To make things fair for them, just because they chanted
things a few times?

Tyler didn't know, just hitting
the man with the gun hard and fast, taking him down to the ground, and then kicking
him in the head until he stopped moving. Then, reaching down, he pulled the
weapon from his fingers. The man was still moving, meaning alive, and all the
shooting had stopped, in both locations.

The skinny man, who was one of
the protestors, stared at him. It was the kind of thing that would have been
rude in most cases, unless he wanted a date. Looking down he got the idea
though, since he was bleeding in several places, having been shot.

Really though, while he leaked
red stuff, it wasn't all that bad. It stained his shirt, but not the floor yet,
for instance. Sure, he felt a bit weak and sick now, after looking at it, but
Ty could still walk, which he did, after dropping the gun and kicking it away.
If he went down, then the fat fellow on the floor couldn't be allowed to get it
again. If he didn't, then holding it was a poor plan, because the police were
coming back.

The other man that had tried to
protect Alexis gestured at him.

"Maybe... You should sit
down?" He seemed scared. Which he probably
should
have since the
incoming cops tackled them both to the floor, one of them ending up kneeling
over one of the bullet wounds.

"Um, not to be complaining,
but I'm shot here? Me and this other guy stopped the chubby one over there? I
could use some medical treatment, and if you could stop using me as a foot
stool? Maybe?" Not that the guy was, just putting all his weight on him in
order to keep him down.

The officer looked at the wounds,
and was smart enough to figure out that he
might
not be the bad guy. That
was enough to buy him a bit of space. He was still frisked.

So were the others, which meant
he didn't worry about it too much. He was starting to hurt enough to get that
things were not going well for him, which was a thing that he'd known
abstractly, the whole time. Thankfully enough, he blacked out about then. At
least he kind of went blank, like when he slept at night. There was still an
awareness of what was going on around him, but it didn't really impact him.

Tyler felt himself moving, a few
times, and could hear people speaking, but didn't really come up for air, until
a good while later. Not that he knew the time, since the operating room he was
in didn't have a clock on the wall that he could see.

It was the yelling that did it.
For a long time it was pretty incoherent, but eventually things got quieter,
and one of the voices, a man's, spoke gently.

"Call it. Time of death,
three-forty-two..." Opening his eyes he stared at the man, took a pain
filled breath and shook his head.

"That... Sounds a
bit
premature, doesn't it?" His words were raspy, and the man jumped back,
squeaking a bit.

"Holy fuck!" Then he
started working again, his words rational enough. "It must be an equipment
problem. Crap! Get back in there, stop the bleeding and close..." It sounded
like a medical program anyway, though also like he was talking to himself,
rather than telling the other people in their light blue hospital attire what
to really do.

Even he could tell that. After
all, you didn't close until
after
the work was done. He didn't let
himself go out again, and while the work hurt, he didn't complain. It was bad,
but not unbearable.

The thing was, none of the
machines they hooked him up to after that seemed to work. His heart wasn't
beating, as far as anyone knew. That didn't seem right to him, since other than
Vampires, he didn't know how anyone could survive that way.

Given that he didn't feel a
sudden, overwhelming, desire to drink blood, it wasn't
that
, he didn't
think. Ginger had described that part of things to him, and while he
was
a bit thirsty, it was just for water. Which, as it turned out, he wasn't going
to be allowed to get to. There was no one with him when he came to, but he had
tubes in his arms, which did seem to be dripping something into him. Not that
it was working.

The line was filled with unmoving
clear liquid. Which made sense, given that his heart wasn't pumping blood.

It was hard to wrap his mind
around, but he was alive. At least he could move, and though he didn't feel
good
about being shot, the pain wasn't so bad he couldn't have gotten up and walked
away. Still, it was pretty clear to him that something just wasn't right that
day. Not at all.

As soon as someone came in, who
happened to be a nurse, he tried to ask after that water.

"No... You were shot in the
stomach, so that would be a poor plan for a bit. Also, no carbonated anything
until you heal up fully. Intestinal wounds don't handle that well. I
always
tell people that, and half of them ignore me, then end up screaming most the
night after having a coke."

Sounding a little raspy still,
but much like himself, Ty shook his head.

"I don't do soda, so not an
issue."

That got the woman, who was
busily examining the lines, to shake her head.

"Good.
This
isn't
working." She tried to adjust the thing, but nothing seemed to work. Even
sticking him again ten times didn't do much. The liquid just wouldn't feed.
"I..." She used a stethoscope, but then shook her head. "It's on
your chart that you don't have a noticeable heart beat. I can
just
barely make it out, listening. What I can't understand is how you're moving
around like this. How do you feel?"

He paused for a moment, knowing
what she really meant. She was asking how he felt physically. Still, it was
nice to have someone to talk to, so he decided to do the whole thing. She
asked, so could suffer through it, he decided.

"I feel all right. I mean
there's pain, kind of, but I think I can move. My breathing is fine, just
laying here, which is good. The whole not having a heart beat, or not much of
one, is kind of a scary thing. I don't know, maybe I'm just weird?"

That got a bit of a smile, and a
nod from the woman.

"Aren't we all? Still, if
you feel good, that's something."

"Yeah. Now,
emotionally
,
I'm a bit conflicted. On the one hand, some douche-bag shot me, apparently
because his support for ultra-feminism means that killing people is all right?
That's annoying. On the other hand, his gal pals and marginalized brothers in
the movement,
also
trashed the store I work at. That doesn't leave me
liking any of them much at the moment. I mean, I'm for equal rights, but what
about my rights? You know, to not be shot, harassed, or insulted?"

The nurse, who was clearly a
charming person, used to talking to others that were nearly dead, made a very
silly face, which involved rolling her eyes to the heavens, and puffing her
cheeks out.

"Spoken like a phalocentric
woman hating misogynist. Didn't you take a women's study course in college? I
did. That's why I know that you being shot was all your own fault. For being a
man. Obviously. If you hadn't been oppressing those women with your maleness,
then none of this would have happened. Now, if you'll kindly feel guilty over
that, I can go see if the doctor wants to let you try some water, since it
looks like we aren't getting fluid into you any other way."

Tyler nodded.

"I'll work on that. The
feeling guilty for the way I was born thing. Except, it seems a bit backwards,
doesn't it? Shouldn't we all try to understand where the others are coming
from? Part of my job is to try and help Humans and other groups of people,
Vampires, Shifters and all that, get along. There
are
differences, but
just by trying to learn what they are and allowing people to have them, we
should
be able to get along all right."

The nurse smiled at him, her blue
scrubs bright under the florescent lighting above.

"Of course. The thing there
is that feminism doesn't work if you have to admit
that
. Feminist theory
states that everything is socially based, learned traits, and part of a
conspiracy to keep women down and oppress them. There's a lot of science that
tells us that some things are hard wired, but they can't
let
that be
true, even though it is. To be fair, it isn't just
them
. Every group
that's wrong has to go through the same thing. If the facts don't mesh with
what you believe, you have to try and ignore them. Smart people won't do that,
but it takes a lot of work, and most won't bother."

"Oh. I can see that I guess.
Otherwise white supremacist, or anti-Vampire groups would have to stop thinking
the way they do."

"Exactly. Just remember,
after being shot like this, that not all women are part of that kind of thing.
Not even all feminists are. I mean, hey,
I'm
a feminist. I just don't
believe that it means hate is all right. Or that facts don't matter. The
problem here is that a lot of people will end up looking at this and thinking
that I'm a man hating would be killer, thanks to the actions of a few people.
All groups have that though, don't they?" She turned then and moved out
with a bit of spring to her step.

Not that she was all that happy
seeming about what they'd been discussing. She was probably right. All groups
really did have to deal with things like that. Christians got a bad rap,
because the loudest members of their faith were kind of evil and vile people
that hated others based on who they loved. Most of them probably didn't think
that way, but all you saw or heard were the crumb-bums that went around
screaming about how two men getting married would lead to people fucking baby
farm animals.

Though, was the same true of
groups like the Ku Klux Klan then? Did they sit around having picnics and
hanging out with their own, quietly not bothering anyone, only to have a few
hard liners make them seem like horrible people? Did the Aryan Nation do the
same thing?

Tyler didn't know, but it seemed
likely. Most people weren't
actually
for hurting others. They didn't
call for their deaths, and if those groups were
trying
to kill all black
people, there would be a lot more death from it, one way or the other.