POV: John, the first
Date: February 17, 1995
Time: 12:05 PM

I've been in a few dangerous situations before, but I have to admit this is the first time I've ever been pinned down by a sniper. Fighting girls, on the other hand, not a new thing for me. Yes, I know it's a girl, and I know she's pregnant. No man who's a professional sniper would let himself get tricked into shooting a playing card after missing two opportunities to hit a person. She's hormonal and impatient, but also trying not to kill anyone. Weird mission for a sniper, so she might just be a terrorist whose conscience got the best of her. On the other hand, she has to be going after either me or this guy, otherwise what's up with the spike strip on the road? Yeah, I noticed that.

I have to wonder, cause there's literally six people in this town. That might not be exact, but you get the picture. The fourth card I pulled was the Ace of Diamonds, which is me, and that means the other three are all representative of people who are right here. I was just getting used to things being quiet, and this happens. Not a fan of snipers all of the sudden. Not that I ever was. I knew I shouldn't have come back to Nevada. Bad things only happen in Nevada.

I'm never leaving Detroit again.

Well, I've got three cards to think about. Five of Spades, and the Four and Five of Diamonds. That's interesting. Generally speaking, Diamonds seem to be good people. So are Hearts. Spades and Clubs are mostly bad, or just really annoying. Case in point, Madine. Better examples would be like Adrian Moroe and Melany Snow, and of course Nara Vandekut was the worst of them. Now, I can sort of tell who the cars are referring to. The Four of Diamonds is tugging towards the guy hiding across the isle from me, so I know it's him.

"Hey." I wave the card at him to get his attention. "What's your name?"

He stares at me blankly for a few seconds. I think he's a pothead. Finally, he snaps out of it and answers. "Bromine. Bro is fine."

Like the element? Quite unusual, but not a bad thing. "Okay, I'm going to go out the back and circle around."

"What? How are you gonna get out the back?"

Fair question, as the back door is several isles away from me. Two isles, actually. I'd have to expose myself to cross each one, though, and that's asking for it. This is easily remedied, however, as these shelves are mobile. They're not, they're actually bolted onto the floor. If only I had a way of breaking those bolts.

Time for another card trick. I pointed to the legs of the shelf I was sitting up against and produced a card. "Like this." With a flick of the wrist, the card shot out of my hand and cut through the bolt, snapping it free. Turning to the other side, I repeated the process for the other leg. Now, with both legs free, I can lift the shelf and move it.

Okay, I can't lift it. New plan, and new card trick. I slide two cards under the legs of the shelf and let them do the lifting for me. This works perfectly, and I guide the shelf over towards the back door, keeping myself hidden from the sniper the entire time. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Setting it down, I repeat the process on the next shelf, lifting it and moving it over closer to the door. And just like that, I'm at the door.

I turn back to my audience and give a bow. He claps. How kind of him.

I open the door and... it's a broom closet. Fucking cleaning supplies. This is not the great outdoors. That presents a problem, but not that much of one. Actually, now that I think about it, this is probably visible to the sniper, and so they're about to see me hide in a small room with no other way out. That means they know exactly where I am, which in turn means that they'll be very disappointed to learn that they're mistaken.

Sticking to the plan, I dive into the broom closet and slam the door closed behind me, like I'm hiding from something I'm afraid of. Of course, any shot from that rifle will be deflected by the cards I've commanded to protect me. Not a problem. But playing the part of a scared victim gives me the advantage. As soon as I close the door, I guess the sniper put a round through the door about a foot to the side of the knob, right where I was. A card slapped itself over that spot on the door, and returned to my jacket after, leaving a hole behind. I backed myself to the wall anyway, just in case. Safe or not, being in the sights of a sniper is not my idea of a good time.

Now it was time to get to work on the sneaky parts of the plan. I figure the wall back here isn't going to be more than four cards thick, so I line them up like a knife, gripping the bottom card firmly. I stab the cards into the wall at the back, just over my head, and pull down, slicing through whatever light material the wall is made from. Turns out it's actually only a few millimeters thick, so I didn't need to over-prepare like that. Cutting along the top, and then the other side, and finally the bottom, I kick out my new door and step out into the day.

Ah, the fresh desert air. Now I remember why I lived here in the first place. Ah, the bright desert sun. Now I remember why I left.

Hopefully Bromine can sit still long enough for me to put an end to this madness. I'm also concerned about the girl at the front counter, don't worry, she's on my radar too. But now that I'm out of the building, I have to get across the street. I know flying is out, because the sniper would see that, so that leaves me with going around, or under. I haven't figured out how to burrow with these yet, so it's around. Dashing from behind this building to the next one would put me out in the open, tipping my hand. On the other hand, when I look down the side of the building, I can see a Buick on the side of the road.

Sorry, Bromine, but this is for all our benefit.

Flinging a card into the Buick's gas tank, I have the card spin to create heat until the fumes catch fire. And the car explodes. I'm pretty sure the sniper is on the roof of the garage, directly across from the convenience store and directly above where the car was parked, so they've got to duck and cover for a second. A second which I use to run across to the next building. Now they have no angle on me, and I can move more freely, running all the way down to the edge of town. No bullets flying my way means good things, so I can finally cut across the street and get behind this bitch.

Once I was out in the open, walking across the street, I could finally get a good look up at the roof. There was definitely someone there, looking for whatever had caused the explosion. I noticed she was also keeping her eye closely on the convenience store, and I'm starting to think I might not be the target. Still, better to get out of the street before she sees me, so I dash away again.

If she's any sort of alert, she's got an ear open listening for anyone running up to the garage. That means me. She's listening for me. Which she can do, I don't care. I slow down to a walk as I get closer to the garage and finally arrive behind the building. Now I have to get to the roof. That's easy, but now that I think about it just floating up there is a great way to get shot at. As much as I trust these cards to do their job, I want to avoid bullets as much as I can. They can't be the answer to everything, and I need to stand on my own two feet.

There is a door on the back of this building, a step up from the store. Opening it will definitely alert her, but by then I'm inside. On the other hand, she may just think it's someone in the garage trying to escape. I'm assuming that she's not so concerned about that unless they try climbing up to the roof. So I open the door quietly, closing it quietly behind me like a scared employee who doesn't want to be heard would do. The scared employee in question is in the garage, hiding behind my car.

Now I'm in the building, which is a better position for sure, but that leaves me with the tougher puzzle. How to deal with the sniper herself. I guess intimidation always works.