Teaser Tuesday returns with Shootings and Chances of Explosions

Going to steal this from my friend Sue Laybourn's blog, because she said it so well: I'm happy to say that the AW Purgatorians have revived the fine tradition of Teaser Tuesday. It's a chance to catch a glimpse of works in progress from a diverse collection of awesome writers.

For those of you who haven't come across it yet, here is the opening of my dystopian fantasy EMPIRE OF LIGHT. Enjoy!

 Funny how I always had to be the guy who ended up with a gun to his head.

“I thought you said this was going to be easy,” Aris said somewhere to my right. His voice was thick, the words choked out past the gun shoved underneath his jaw. The two Reds who kept us pinned were all broad shoulders and raw muscle. Built like fucking tanks. The low light of a fading sunset spilling into the empty warehouse made their leather coats gleam like congealing blood.

The run had started out simple enough: get in, dump the cargo – a couple dozen barrels of fuel we’d snatched off a derailed train – and get the hell out. The place had been abandoned for years, just one of the slouching ruins on the outskirts of Low Side. It was the perfect hiding spot to stash away things you didn’t want the Watch to find, while waiting for the highest bidder to jump the gun. A sure-fire way to some quick and easy cash. Standing here with my face mashed against the crumbly brick wall of this dump with the cold steel of a gun barrel against my skull, it looked more like a sure-fire way straight to a windowless cell in the Finger of Light.

“Guess Jay was sugar-coating it just a little bit when she said there might be slight complications.” Someone ratted us out. No way the Watch had just shown up here, far from their usual patrol routes, without any reason. The whole thing’d been a sting from the get go and once I found out who’d set us up— 

My fingers twitched for my Colt. My Colt that lay cold and useless about five feet away from me.
“You know, I’d really appreciate a little more leg room here,” I said and squirmed under the Red’s grip. Honestly, by now I probably should’ve memorized some of the regulars’ names or something. To me they looked all the same. Male like female, all fists ready to punch and guns ready to fire; the Empire’s omnipresent watchdogs neatly-wrapped in black uniforms and their trademark red coats. Not like this was the first time either. By now the Watch should really issue us a punch card for frequent visits, maybe something with a rewards program.

 “Shut up.” The Red jerked me around and slammed my head into the murky stained-glass window to my right. Point taken, I thought past the distant rushing that filled my ears and the spots that started to slow-dance in front of my vision. I went down hard, twisting away from the Red’s reach, blindly fumbling for my Colt. I’d barely moved before his boot came down on my fingers with a dry crunch. I bit back a grunt that really came out more like a breathless scream.

“Next time it’ll be your head,” the Red - I mentally tagged him as “Captain Crunch” - said, towering above me, gun aimed at my forehead. If he shot me from that angle, there probably wouldn’t be enough of my head left for Aris to scrape out of the wall cracks behind me.

The Red didn’t shoot me. Instead, his free hand went for a pair of handcuffs. “In the name of the Empire of Light, I hereby place you under arrest for—“

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Aris said cheerfully. He’d been standing perfectly still, his head slightly bowed, a model of the “hands above your head and don’t make a move” arrestee. The unthreatening kind. The kind that came quietly and wouldn’t even think about making any trouble for our dear upstanding Officers of the Watch who only did their job.

When he looked up now, absentmindedly brushing away a few errant blond curls that’d slipped out of his loose ponytail,  a slow smile curved his lips. It was a dangerous smile, turning positively radiant, until it teetered on the edge of manic as he looked from the guy above me to the one who was holding him.

“In fact, I suggest you two start running, because this is going to get messy in about two seconds.”