Among the Living (Tyler G Book 1) Read online

  Finally he did reach out, to take the slightly chubby arm, to get her to move along. That got her to pull away sharply. "Don't touch me! Rape! Touch rape!"

  She started to slap at the police officer, only to be tackled instead, by Kaitlyn. It was a very clean double-leg takedown, that slammed the heavier seeming woman to the ground with a smack.

  She stood up immediately as the formerly insane sounding screeching woman started to cry and hold the side of her face.

  "I'm going to sue you! Arrest her." This was said to the cop that Kait had clearly just saved her from assaulting. The man snorted, as the whole place went silent.

  Tyler spoke out loud, still capturing the whole thing on his camera.

  "Is... This some kind of performance art? None of it makes sense. Or... I don't know, mind control? I can't work out how any of this makes sense. No one acts like that. I don't care if they're feminists or not, this isn't normal. Touch rape? That's insane, isn't it?"

  The woman on the ground glared up at him, still holding her face, which to be fair, Kait had helped smash decently well. There were a lot of high school wrestlers that couldn't have done it as quickly or gracefully. The woman didn't seem to appreciate that though, and tried to kick at the Alede woman, aiming roughly for her upper thighs.

  "Male pig! You and your kind have been keeping women down for millennia! Down with the Patriarchy! Pigs!"

  Then she started to cry, scream and fight as the police flipped her over, and put her in handcuffs. That meant several other women tried to get involved, even as their men made an effort to pull them away. They at least, seemed to get that being a girl wasn't going to excuse assaulting the police.

  Ty was freaking baffled though, and looked around, hoping someone would be able to explain it to him. Finally, Zack took pity on him, and did just that.

  "This isn't mind control. Not directly. The issue here is that we have two entitled groups colliding. These women believe that they can't be hit, harmed or touched by men, since to their minds they have a shield of protection that way. Which they do, by and large. The police however get a cultural exemption from that, so they can do their job, since it comes up. Most women aren't like this. This is kind of a perfect storm type of thing." He looked at the place, his face bland as he examined the wreckage.

  Tyler still couldn't make his brain understand it all.

  "So, this is feminism?"

  The Greater Demon went on then, shaking his cute head a few times first, and seeming charming about it. Which was, no doubt, for the camera.

  "Nope. Feminism is really two different movements. One of them is basically female centered egalitarianism, with a slight focus on gaining special privileges for their group. They can't understand that special treatment isn't the same as equality, or that having the same right to work hard is all that's needed for that in the long run. They see that there are more men leading, or that are captains of industry, and understand it as a sign of inequality, when it's actually just a difference in how hard people have worked to get into place. They aren't bad. Just too self-centered to get what they are doing all of the time. Not that you can tell them about it. Those kinds of feminists have a broken idea of reality, but they don't hate all men. They aren't a hate movement at all."

  There was loud crying from several points, as a few ladies started to realize they might just be in trouble for what they'd done. A few of them called out that they were being hurt by the process of being arrested, too. Even though he knew they were guilty, it still left him feeling bad, hearing that. He wanted to help them. It was clear from the expressions on people's faces that he wasn't alone in that feeling.

  Oddly, it was mainly the men in the attacking group that seemed like that. They shifted, and looked like they wanted to protect their women, but couldn't, since trying would just lead to their own arrests, if not beatings. Then, Zack did mention there were two special and protected groups there. Well, he'd said entitled, but that was what it meant.

  "So, these are the other ones? Because I can't see this as reasonable behavior. Really, I've gotta say, I feel pretty hated right about now." He didn't want to be mean about it, but it was a mess, and Ty was the lowest person in the place, meaning he'd end up having to try and fix it himself.

  Zack nodded, and waved around the store a bit.

  "Yep. These are the anti-male hate movement. They can't see themselves that way, but hate movements never really do. It's one thing to be a bit into your own group, but another when you start trying to harm half the Human race because you can't really see them as people. Kaitlyn wasn't wrong though, about this situation here today. These women mainly just feel threatened by what they see as a thing that they have a right to control, but don't. Sexuality. The question is, what was their real plan? No one would come here and do this just to damage my inventory. Not if they expected to live, anyway. So, what's the other shoe?"

  The answer came about five seconds later, when the gunfire started.

  Chapter fifteen

  Zack vanished. There was no stepping sideways first, either. It was kind of like what happened when Eve moved like she did. He was simply, and totally, gone. There wasn't even a hint of moving air to let him know something had taken place. The sounds were coming from the outer hall, near the plus sized ladies clothing shop across the way, which had the other Alede all doing different things. Alexis went wide eyed, and froze, as Kaitlyn ran from around the counter, trying to leave the store through the front.

  The cops all moved that way, too.

  As soon as they were gone, with him still standing there, about halfway back through the store, walking slowly toward the front with his camera held up, the whole thing changed suddenly. One of the weak looking men who had been standing back the whole time reached into the black bag that he was wearing, and pulled a small, efficient looking, black firearm.

  No one else seemed to see it at first, as he aimed the thing at Alexis, his face going hard.

  "No sex!" The scream was shrill, more panicked seeming than girly, as he tried to pull the trigger. Ty was too far away from him to do anything, even as he dropped the phone and ran at the guy.

  Oddly enough, it was another of the men, a skinny, weak looking fellow with curly brown hair, that did something useful, jumping between Alexis and the gunman as the firing began. The girl ducked behind the counter as the booms rang out. It was deafening.

  The skinny man that was fighting with the larger fellow wasn't exactly a martial arts master, but he'd grabbed for the weapon while shouting.

  "No! Killing is wrong!" Which was a sentiment that Tyler could get behind.

  Especially since the bullets that came out all managed to hit him. Right in the chest too, or the stomach, but that was close enough for him, which was far from fair. The impacts kind of hurt, he thought, but not enough to keep him from moving forward. He slowed though, the impacts, three of them, pushing him back a bit.

  He could fight regardless of that. At any rate he kept moving toward the violence in the middle of the room. When he got to the man that was trying to kill people, because of some kind of skewed idea about... Tyler had been there all day, and honestly didn't know. The fact of the matter was that there didn't really seem to be a reason for it. Not one that was understandable from the outside.

  Even if this group was upset about the Alede being what they were, that couldn't be changed. It just wasn't a thing that was going to happen. Then, if he had it right, feminism was, in the end, about demanding that men be required to change what they were, even though most of what was being called for would require massive biological and chemical alterations to take place. That wasn't a thing that would happen either.

  Maybe it just made sense to them? They were so entitled that they actually expected nature itself to bow to their whims and desires? To make things fair for them, just because they chanted things a few times?

  Tyler didn't know, just hitting the man with the gun hard and fast, taking him down to the ground, and then ki
cking him in the head until he stopped moving. Then, reaching down, he pulled the weapon from his fingers. The man was still moving, meaning alive, and all the shooting had stopped, in both locations.

  The skinny man, who was one of the protestors, stared at him. It was the kind of thing that would have been rude in most cases, unless he wanted a date. Looking down he got the idea though, since he was bleeding in several places, having been shot.

  Really though, while he leaked red stuff, it wasn't all that bad. It stained his shirt, but not the floor yet, for instance. Sure, he felt a bit weak and sick now, after looking at it, but Ty could still walk, which he did, after dropping the gun and kicking it away. If he went down, then the fat fellow on the floor couldn't be allowed to get it again. If he didn't, then holding it was a poor plan, because the police were coming back.

  The other man that had tried to protect Alexis gestured at him.

  "Maybe... You should sit down?" He seemed scared. Which he probably should have since the incoming cops tackled them both to the floor, one of them ending up kneeling over one of the bullet wounds.

  "Um, not to be complaining, but I'm shot here? Me and this other guy stopped the chubby one over there? I could use some medical treatment, and if you could stop using me as a foot stool? Maybe?" Not that the guy was, just putting all his weight on him in order to keep him down.

  The officer looked at the wounds, and was smart enough to figure out that he might not be the bad guy. That was enough to buy him a bit of space. He was still frisked.

  So were the others, which meant he didn't worry about it too much. He was starting to hurt enough to get that things were not going well for him, which was a thing that he'd known abstractly, the whole time. Thankfully enough, he blacked out about then. At least he kind of went blank, like when he slept at night. There was still an awareness of what was going on around him, but it didn't really impact him.

  Tyler felt himself moving, a few times, and could hear people speaking, but didn't really come up for air, until a good while later. Not that he knew the time, since the operating room he was in didn't have a clock on the wall that he could see.

  It was the yelling that did it. For a long time it was pretty incoherent, but eventually things got quieter, and one of the voices, a man's, spoke gently.

  "Call it. Time of death, three-forty-two..." Opening his eyes he stared at the man, took a pain filled breath and shook his head.

  "That... Sounds a bit premature, doesn't it?" His words were raspy, and the man jumped back, squeaking a bit.

  "Holy fuck!" Then he started working again, his words rational enough. "It must be an equipment problem. Crap! Get back in there, stop the bleeding and close..." It sounded like a medical program anyway, though also like he was talking to himself, rather than telling the other people in their light blue hospital attire what to really do.

  Even he could tell that. After all, you didn't close until after the work was done. He didn't let himself go out again, and while the work hurt, he didn't complain. It was bad, but not unbearable.

  The thing was, none of the machines they hooked him up to after that seemed to work. His heart wasn't beating, as far as anyone knew. That didn't seem right to him, since other than Vampires, he didn't know how anyone could survive that way.

  Given that he didn't feel a sudden, overwhelming, desire to drink blood, it wasn't that, he didn't think. Ginger had described that part of things to him, and while he was a bit thirsty, it was just for water. Which, as it turned out, he wasn't going to be allowed to get to. There was no one with him when he came to, but he had tubes in his arms, which did seem to be dripping something into him. Not that it was working.

  The line was filled with unmoving clear liquid. Which made sense, given that his heart wasn't pumping blood.

  It was hard to wrap his mind around, but he was alive. At least he could move, and though he didn't feel good about being shot, the pain wasn't so bad he couldn't have gotten up and walked away. Still, it was pretty clear to him that something just wasn't right that day. Not at all.

  As soon as someone came in, who happened to be a nurse, he tried to ask after that water.

  "No... You were shot in the stomach, so that would be a poor plan for a bit. Also, no carbonated anything until you heal up fully. Intestinal wounds don't handle that well. I always tell people that, and half of them ignore me, then end up screaming most the night after having a coke."

  Sounding a little raspy still, but much like himself, Ty shook his head.

  "I don't do soda, so not an issue."

  That got the woman, who was busily examining the lines, to shake her head.

  "Good. This isn't working." She tried to adjust the thing, but nothing seemed to work. Even sticking him again ten times didn't do much. The liquid just wouldn't feed. "I..." She used a stethoscope, but then shook her head. "It's on your chart that you don't have a noticeable heart beat. I can just barely make it out, listening. What I can't understand is how you're moving around like this. How do you feel?"

  He paused for a moment, knowing what she really meant. She was asking how he felt physically. Still, it was nice to have someone to talk to, so he decided to do the whole thing. She asked, so could suffer through it, he decided.

  "I feel all right. I mean there's pain, kind of, but I think I can move. My breathing is fine, just laying here, which is good. The whole not having a heart beat, or not much of one, is kind of a scary thing. I don't know, maybe I'm just weird?"

  That got a bit of a smile, and a nod from the woman.

  "Aren't we all? Still, if you feel good, that's something."

  "Yeah. Now, emotionally, I'm a bit conflicted. On the one hand, some douche-bag shot me, apparently because his support for ultra-feminism means that killing people is all right? That's annoying. On the other hand, his gal pals and marginalized brothers in the movement, also trashed the store I work at. That doesn't leave me liking any of them much at the moment. I mean, I'm for equal rights, but what about my rights? You know, to not be shot, harassed, or insulted?"

  The nurse, who was clearly a charming person, used to talking to others that were nearly dead, made a very silly face, which involved rolling her eyes to the heavens, and puffing her cheeks out.

  "Spoken like a phalocentric woman hating misogynist. Didn't you take a women's study course in college? I did. That's why I know that you being shot was all your own fault. For being a man. Obviously. If you hadn't been oppressing those women with your maleness, then none of this would have happened. Now, if you'll kindly feel guilty over that, I can go see if the doctor wants to let you try some water, since it looks like we aren't getting fluid into you any other way."

  Tyler nodded.

  "I'll work on that. The feeling guilty for the way I was born thing. Except, it seems a bit backwards, doesn't it? Shouldn't we all try to understand where the others are coming from? Part of my job is to try and help Humans and other groups of people, Vampires, Shifters and all that, get along. There are differences, but just by trying to learn what they are and allowing people to have them, we should be able to get along all right."

  The nurse smiled at him, her blue scrubs bright under the florescent lighting above.

  "Of course. The thing there is that feminism doesn't work if you have to admit that. Feminist theory states that everything is socially based, learned traits, and part of a conspiracy to keep women down and oppress them. There's a lot of science that tells us that some things are hard wired, but they can't let that be true, even though it is. To be fair, it isn't just them. Every group that's wrong has to go through the same thing. If the facts don't mesh with what you believe, you have to try and ignore them. Smart people won't do that, but it takes a lot of work, and most won't bother."

  "Oh. I can see that I guess. Otherwise white supremacist, or anti-Vampire groups would have to stop thinking the way they do."

  "Exactly. Just remember, after being shot like this, that not all women are part of that kind of thing. N
ot even all feminists are. I mean, hey, I'm a feminist. I just don't believe that it means hate is all right. Or that facts don't matter. The problem here is that a lot of people will end up looking at this and thinking that I'm a man hating would be killer, thanks to the actions of a few people. All groups have that though, don't they?" She turned then and moved out with a bit of spring to her step.

  Not that she was all that happy seeming about what they'd been discussing. She was probably right. All groups really did have to deal with things like that. Christians got a bad rap, because the loudest members of their faith were kind of evil and vile people that hated others based on who they loved. Most of them probably didn't think that way, but all you saw or heard were the crumb-bums that went around screaming about how two men getting married would lead to people fucking baby farm animals.

  Though, was the same true of groups like the Ku Klux Klan then? Did they sit around having picnics and hanging out with their own, quietly not bothering anyone, only to have a few hard liners make them seem like horrible people? Did the Aryan Nation do the same thing?

  Tyler didn't know, but it seemed likely. Most people weren't actually for hurting others. They didn't call for their deaths, and if those groups were trying to kill all black people, there would be a lot more death from it, one way or the other.

  So, did that make all those kinds of groups basically the same?

  Were all groups hate groups, if you didn't agree with them?

  He was busily thinking of that when Zack came in, along with Darla, the hot blonde Greater Demon.

  He waved to them both, his face working hard to form a smile. It was just his existential confusion stopping him, not discomfort. However that one worked. He was pretty sure no one had managed to give him any real pain meds yet.

  "Technician. Line Walker. I get to have visitors already? Neat. Thanks for stopping by." That ran him out of small talk, but Darla moved in and touched his arm in what looked like a comforting gesture. He remembered what Zack had told him however, about drinking in all the information he held within. It was almost certainly that one. Luckily he hadn't had any sex fantasies about her. Yet.