The Man the City Swallowed

But when he turned into a narrow passage stacked with old cables and broken signage, Maria stumbled and fell. Her knee was cut open by glass. One of the men raised his rifle. Ethan stopped thinking. He ran back. That was the first time in his life he chose danger on purpose. He smashed the man's rifle stock with his wrench. The metal crack made the shooter flinch. Another man lunged, and Ethan was slammed into a wall hard enough to knock the breath out of him. Yet the echo memory in his skull had never been clearer. He could tell where each boot would land on the slick concrete before it happened. He grabbed a broken street sign and drove it into the nearest man's knee, flipping him into the drain.