Sam stared down the barrel of the old colt semi-auto Dave held. It was an odd feeling, fear and liberation mingled in his chest.

“Dave, I’m not gonna lie to you, but your dad wanted me dead.”

“You’re a lier!”

Sam put his hands up, “I’m not; he had good reason.” Dave took a step back, the gun still steady in his grip.

“Your dad, him and I served together in the medical corp. we were not close, but he knew me. When we were medics though, your dad did something, something I learned about~”

BANG

The gunshot was close, putting a hole in the door behind him.

They both looked pained though Dave had missed, this tight space, all the bare metal around them, the shot echoed painfully around them.

As Dave’s eyes tried to focus, Sam lunged.

He grabbed the gun, trying hard to wrench it aside, but the kid was no slouch. Figure Frank would teach his son to fight, the man had been a paranoid delusional.

Dave punched him hard, favoring soft points at his joints.

They fell back together into the rack where all their gear was and~

BANG

This time he fell back, white hot pain made him stagger back, his leg felt like it was on fire and cold at the same time.

Sam looked down, trying hard to focus through the pain as he assessed it. Not his first time being shot, it never got easier.

The shot had gone clean through, through the fatty part of his thigh, it was gushing blood, a steady pulsing glug of crimson. He did what he could cramming his thumb into the wound quickly, looking around for anything useful.

“I didn’t,” Dave stammered.

“There’s no time, give me a belt out of that red luggage case there on the rack. Oh, and two tampons, you know what that is right? Dave!” He had to shout to get the boys attention, “A tampon, two of them! From the bag marked ladies products.”

“Uh, yeah, my mum taught me what that was,” he stammered.

“Okay, good boy. Go grab them fast.”

Dave scrambled about quickly, grabbing what was asked, returning to Sam’s side like a flash.

“I got it.”

He handed Sam the supplies.

“Okay, help me get the belt around my thigh.”

He did as he was told quickly.

“Alright now here comes the tricky part, put your foot here, and pull on the belt, tight mind you, real tight.”

He pulled hard, a wave of pain shooting up through him like lightning.

“Good,” he panted, “Now comes the gross part, take my knife and cut open my pant leg carefully, we have to find the bullet hole, but I don’t have a way to see it.”

Dave moved quickly, with trained precision, he worked well under pressure.

“Good, now you’re gonna shove this,” Sam tore open one of the tampon, “Shove this into the hole, push in on the cotton, and pull out the plastic. Got that?”

He nodded, carefully lining up with the exit wound. Sam heard the sound of the plastic hitting the ground.

“Its in.”

“So, you only have two choices you can make,” he growled through grit teeth, “You can help me,” he twisted his thumb awkwardly to pull it out, and replaced it with the tampon, “Or tell them I attacked you; show them the pictures, tell them I killed your dad or something.”

Dave’s eyes went wide.

“It wasn’t me buddy; I don’t have time to explain, but didnt kill him,” he was feeling faint already, “Get Henry, he can help, but you’ll have to go fast, I’m~”

A wave of nausea hit him.

“Are you?”

“Go!”

And Dave threw the gun down, bolting out the door, out into the storm.

Sam looked down at the picture; his eyes scratched out in the image. It was a sad day when brothers in arms were pitted against each other. Well, at least if he died, no one would ever find out that Dave’s father was the one who had smuggled the chemical weapon he’d hid after the crash.