Fight Or Flight (standard:drama, 2844 words)
Author: Tony Dungate	Added: May 12 2008	Views/Reads: 3067/2222	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A father takes desperate steps to protect his family and home. But does he go to far?

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

stolen the DVD player and he wanted to get a hold of that person. He 
now moved quickly to the kitchen. If there was anyone in there, he 
would rip them apart! He saw the room was empty and quickly grabbed the 
broom. Keeping any eye on the living room, he started to take the 
handle out of the broom. It would make a nice weapon! 

Once he had taken out the handle, he put the broom end on the
countertop. Grabbing an end in each hand, he carried the like a 
quarterstaff as walked out of the kitchen. He walked the few steps 
towards the living room quickly ready for a sudden move. Caution was no 
longer necessary. He was primed to attack. Adrenaline was coursing 
through his body. There was no longer any question about fight or 
flight. Fleeing was no longer an option. He had been victimized. 

The wind blew the blinds in and out like the gills of a fish. He tensed
as he heard the sound of the back yard creaking as it moved.  Was it 
the wind or did someone move it? Thinking quickly he moved down the 
last two steps from the dining room and quickly looked to his left down 
the front hall stairs. He started to walk down the steps towards the 
front door and instinctively looked back towards the patio door in the 
living room. He crouched on the steps as he looked towards the living 
room in case someone was coming back. Would they be so cocky to think 
they could come back for more? God, he hoped so. 

The blinds moved to the right differently then they had been doing. It
wasn't the wind as a face appeared. Indistinguishable by the darkness, 
the face looked cautiously around the room. Seeing no one, he stepped 
into the house and headed towards the TV stand. The bastard walked 
across the rug with his shoes on. Wendy was going to be pissed. He 
leaned behind the TV and played with cables no more than six feet away 
from Rick. He seemed to actually be considerate enough to not damage 
the cables. 

Rick tensed like a cat ready to pounce on an unsuspecting mouse. He was
ready to kill this person. The adrenaline was charging through his body 
like a power surge ready to explode. Just before he moved he relaxed. 
What was he doing! This person could have a knife or gun.  Rick had a 
moment of weakness, the time when reality sets in. The moment when he 
wanted to cower and hide until the bandit left the house. Then the 
feeling of being violated hit him again. But he would wait. Wait until 
the bandit's hands were full. 

The bandit finished undoing the plugs totally oblivious to the Rick on
the stairwell. When he was finished undoing the cables he took a quick 
look up into the dining room and up the stairs towards the bedrooms but 
failed to look downstairs. He must of only expected potential trouble 
to come from upstairs which left him totally off guard to Rick's 
attack. Just in case he thought to look downstairs, Rick stepped lower 
and crouched so that he could barely see over the lip of the top step. 
The bandit seemed satisfied that no one was around and picked up the 
TV. The bandit seemed to strain under the weight of the one hundred 
plus pounds and walked towards the patio doors. 

Rick waited until the bandit made his way to the patio stairs outside
the doorway. Better for the bandit to drop the TV on the grass than the 
stairs or patio stones. As the bandit walked out of the house, Rick 
quietly climbed the stairs and started to move towards the patio doors. 


As he reached the door,  Rick could see that the bandit had made it half
way across the patio stones. Rick ran over to the phone in the corner 
of the room and picked up and dialled 911. Knowing that the call would 
be traced and police, fire and paramedics personnel would be 
dispatched, he dropped the handset on the couch and ran towards the 
doors. He could see the bandit struggling to reach the back gate. Rick 
ran out silently in bare feet across the wet patio stones. As he 
reached the wet grass, his bare foot slipped. 

Rick screamed as his knee twisted awkwardly under him using the broom
handle to stop his fall completely . He quickly stood up and peered 
towards the bandit who was looking over his shoulder towards Rick. The 
bandit dropped the TV and started to run. Rick moved quickly to bridge 
the distance. The bandit moved past the gate and turned left towards 
the parking lot. Rick quickly narrowed the distance between them each 
step in agony.  Moving his hands up the handle of the broom to grip it 
like a baseball bat, he came within two feet of the bandit. Reaching 
back and swinging as he closed the gap to about a foot, he swung with 
all of his might at the bandit's ankles. The handle caught the bandit 
just above the ankle causing the bandit's right foot to wrap around his 
left foot tripping him in the progress. 

As the bandit went down, Rick slipped down to both knees the pain
searing right up into his groin as he slipped past the fallen bandit 
who was trying to get up. Rock stopped his slide and started to come up 
in one motion, a practiced drill from his hockey days. He was between 
the bandit and the cars in the visitor's parking. As the bandit started 
to get up, Rick noticed he was just a kid about the same age as his 
sixteen year old son. For a second, he felt a twinge of sorrow, but 
that dissipated quickly as the bandit reached inside of his coat. 
Rick's Tai Chi training returned after five years of dormancy, his left 
hand swung up from his left knee with the broom handle firmly grasped. 
The handle whacked the bandit's right hand and caused the still 
concealed object to drop to the wet grass. The shiny object fell 
between the bandit's legs as he grasped his left arm and screamed. This 
scream started to cause lights to go on throughout the complex 
courtyard. The bandit recovered enough to start towards the dropped 
object while holding his left arm. Rick took the proper step forward 
and swung the handle parallel towards the bandit's face. The handle 
caught the bandit across the left chin, snapping the handle in half. 
The bandit dropped like a sack of potatoes. 

Rick quickly moved forwards and drove his knee into the exposed back.
There was no movement from the unconscious body. Rick looked around as 
neighbour's started to appear throughout the courtyard. Someone shone a 
flashlight in his eyes as the sirens from the local fire station 
screamed through the night. He shielded his eyes. “Turn that off”, he 
screamed. He realized that he had spoken for the first time. He also 
realized that the fire trucks had arrived in less than two minutes. Two 
minutes that he had chased the bandit, cornered him, fought him, 
knocked him unconscious and now it was over. He was in shock; he had 
fought a child, a child that had pulled a weapon on him. He was still 
on top of the bandit when he heard “Police, drop the weapon.” 

He realized that they were talking to him. He slowly raised his arms and
dropped the sticks he was holding. Nervously he yelled back, “I just 
caught this guy robbing my place, he pulled a weapon on me, and 
somewhere near here is a weapon he dropped.” 

The police officer spoke to his partner who swung his flashlight nearby
until he stopped. Pulling a pen out of his pocket, he picked up a small 
calibre gun by the ring under the trigger. “Put your hands behind your 
head.” 

Rick put both hands behind his head, just like in the movies. He felt a
hand grasp his wrist firmly behind his head and put a cuff on it. It 
hurt as the police officer tightened the clasp. The other hand was 
grabbed and pulled down to the already clasped wrist and locked into 
the cuffs also. He was almost physically picked up by the armpit. 

As he was being led to the car, he heard his youngest son scream “Where
are you going with my Dad?” Rick's wife screamed, “What is going on 
here. Why are you taking my husband away?” 

The other police officer turned to Rick's wife and said, “We have a man
down and unconscious over there”, pointing to the bandit being attended 
to by a paramedic that had arrived a moment earlier, “and your husband 
was found holding two pieces of a tick and a gun nearby.” 

“My husband doesn't own a gun and our TV is lying in the middle of our
backyard. Someone was probably robbing us and my husband caught him”, 
Rick's wife pleaded. 

“I'll look at your house, but for now your husband has to remain where
he is.” 

Rick's wife looked over to see walking towards the police car as Rick
looked over his shoulder. He yelled out, “Wendy, call John T. and tell 
him the Police have me.” He was then put into the back seat of the 
cruiser. 

The police officer closest to the bandit yelled to his partner, “Bob,
take care of this one here. He may have been burglarizing the place 
over here. I'm going to check out the unit.” 

The police officer moved towards Rick's house as the second officer
moved up to the bandit. The bandit was coming around. Other than a welt 
on his chin and his left arm being splintered, he looked okay. The 
police officer moved towards the paramedic, spoke softly to him, then 
took out his handcuffs. Another police car came onsite and two officers 
got out of their vehicle. 

In the back of the police cruiser, Rick reflected on what happened since
he got out of bed and closed his eyes. What had he done? Had he gone 
too far? Was the kid okay? 

About twenty-five minutes later a small Chevy Chevette pulled up in
front of the cruiser. The driver got out and walked up to one of the 
two officers who first reported to the scene. They talked for about 
five minutes while Rick eagerly looked on. Then the drive of the 
Chevette started to walk over to Rick's cruiser with the officer. The 
officer opened the rear door and started to help Rick out of the car 
and then began to remove the cuffs. 

“You were lucky Rick, that kid had a loaded .38 in his pocket. He might
have shot you.” 

“I know John, I didn't think, I just reacted. If I had known he was
carrying, I would have not chased him hit him with the handle.” 

“Not only are you lucky you weren't hurt, you could have been charged
with assault with a weapon. We got the kid to give us all of the 
details of his little robbery spree. He'll get a reduced charge for 
it.” 

“I owe you John. I also learned that being a hero is not all it's
cracked up to be. I have to live with breaking that kid's arm for the 
rest of my life. Next time I will call 911 and hide in my closet.” 

“Good idea Rick. Let us deal with the bad guys.” 

As John opened his car door, Rick said “Thanks again John, sorry to have
to drag you out of bed for this. My apologies to Karen.” 

“No problem and take care of yourself.” 

Rick watched John's car drive away then started towards his own home. He
saw the back light was on and the living room light was left on for him 
and silently thanked his wife for her thoughtfulness. 

“I guess I should think about what I could lose before I react next
time.” 


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