They shined and he gazed upon them, shining.
((Josh James continued from Take Me Somewhere Nice))
He had been tromping angrily through the snowy landscape, blood dripping down the side of his face near his ear. He fumed, fingers clenched, gun gripped tightly.
Maybe he had killed Cassie, maybe he hadn't. He didn't really care either way as long as she was hurt. Then he stopped his stomping and slowed to a typical walk.
Was that right?
He felt a little bad now. But he told himself that she slashed him, he was within his rights. What were rights anyway? If she hadn't slashed him, Josh wouldn't have shot her. If she hadn't run, he wouldn't have shot her. There were so many choices she could have made that ended in him not shooting her. She just made all the wrong ones.
And what about your choices?
What about them? Josh wasn't used to making them. He was used to being there, being led to the next event, pulled forward aimlessly by the current of daily life.
What about my choices? he thought in angry denial.
Then he saw two figures up ahead, a boy and a girl sitting around an unlit fire pit. Behind them was a cabin, and a row of some shapes he wasn't sure about. Josh held the gun in a ready position and walked up just in time to hear the last bits of conversation and see the handcuffs sway as the boy pulled them out.
Josh shook his head and approached.
"Um, are you hungry?" he asked softly. "Y-You asked for food just now?"
It was Karin, someone he knew the name and face, but basically nothing else.
Josh looked cautiously at the boy and took a seat near Karin, gun pointed at him and his gun, but not yet hostile.
"If you help me, um, with my -- 'cause I'm hurt. I have some extra."
Josh plopped his two full bags down in front of them, three people's worth of food and supplies within.