Green Desert - Chapter 3.2.2 - Bhanar

It wasn’t bad guys who were chasing Zhíno. It was the police. Did Fírí think I hadn’t been here last night? Did she think I was an idiot?

I half-jogged across the soft carpet of the living room to the front door.

Tamé blocked me. “Pí‘oro said not to open it.”

I sidestepped him. “It is the police.”

Bam! Bam! Bam! “It’s the police!” came an angry woman’s voice.

Tamé grabbed at me, caught only my tshirt. “Stop,” he hissed.

My shirt stretched out behind me as I reached for the doorknob. “Let go, you idiot. I called the police. Now they are here.”

“I can hear you in there. Open the door!”

Tamé tugged my shirt, tried to reel me in, breathing loud.

“Hold on a minute,” I called. “I will open the door.”

The middle-aged man hissed, “You’ll get us all killed.”

My tshirt started to rip, little tearing sounds. I switched tactics, leaned toward Tamé, let him yank the shirt over my head, off. He thumped loud on the floor, my tshirt in his hands.

I turned towards the door just as it slammed open. A policewoman, handgun pointed straight at my chest, both hands gripping and regripping the gun, a twitch in her eye. “Hands up!”

“But. . .” I put my hands up. The door must’ve been unlocked.

The wide barrel of her gun still facing me, the policewoman leaned to look past me, biting her lower lip.