It's alarming just how easy it is to watch someone get shot. It could have been years of action movies and westerns that have desensitized him. It could be the war torn streets of some of the places he's been. It could have been that he was living in a world where survival of the most violent has purloined the definition of the fittest.
It's too easy to watch someone die. Too easy to turn away from it.
When he watches the red spray of the exit wound he has a fleeting, silent thought There is no going back.
The woman looks at Nate, recognizes him and he looks back at her with the same recognition on his face. He can't look away. That would be dishonest of him. It would be cowardice. This is the decision he'd made and now he has to live with it. She is first to look away and he nods. It's done.
Desperation is the heart of improvisation. He has his gun with him, but he picks one up from a corpse as he moves by. He has a feeling they'll need the extra bullets eventually.
This prophecy is quickly made truth as a wave of remaining patrolman and whoever else has the guts to go up against the intruders. Those that want to take them down seep into the DoJ.
The gun Nate has brought with him remains holstered. The gun that he stole is handled precariously when Rodeo gives him the ID. There's a chip. It ain't no simple swipe and he sticks it in the slot and waits. The machine thinks, lights lighting in succession but when they hit the end of the line the last light flashes red and it buzzes negatively.
Nate tries again, focused on getting them through the door rather than looking back at the bodies that are moving up on them little by little.
BAHHHH is the discordant denial the machine's been programmed to bleat out at the unwelcome.
"Fuck it..."Nate hisses, taking the gun he's holding and taking a step back so that he can shoot the fucking lock instead of fighting with it. Sparks fly when he pulls the trigger and the bullet tears into metal but the bleating, buzz sloops to a stop and the lock comes undone.
He kicks the door open and pulls Rodeo in with him.