At Great Cost

Through the gunfire, Daniel was able to hear the sounds of sirens as more police cruisers entered the fray. They stopped amid the wreckage and bodies of their fallen brothers and sisters, each patrolman exiting their vehicles and opening fire at the maniac with whatever weapon they had at hand. This included 9mm pistols as well as shotguns, but unfortunately they seemed to do no good. No matter how many times the homeless man was hit, the bullets just seemed to bounce off of him.

"Fucking pigs, I'll show you!" the maniac shouted. His dirty clothing was all but rags now, hanging in tatters on his body. He smiled menacingly at the assembled officers, then raised the hand holding the paperclip once more.

"Shit, not again!" Daniel raised his gun and began to fire, his bullets slamming into the thin frame of the homeless man with no effect. "Die, dammit!"

Suddenly, a patrolcar roared down the street, its engine at full throttle, headed at full speed directly towards the screaming mad man. The policeman driving looked young, barely in his twenties, but his face held grim determination and courage. He slammed his foot harder down on the petal and screamed, his loud wail a battle cry of hate and fury.

Daniel watched the car sweep past him, the air whipping at him in its wake. He muttered a silent curse when the young patrolman slammed directly into the homeless man, then directly into the parked sedan behind him. Both cars crumpled from the massive impact, their frames crushing inwards like an accordion. The wrecked patrol car's horn blared out loudly, and all was still from the car.

Daniel got up to his feet and rushed towards the impact site, followed by the surviving uniformed officers. Their guns were aimed towards the wreckage, their hearts and lungs burning with all the adrenaline pumping through their blood. Although nothing could have survived the crash, the policemen weren't about to take a chance. The homeless maniac had exhibited some very strange and dangerous abilities, and they weren't stupid enough to let their guard down. If horror movies taught them anything, it was that the monster didn't die so easily.

Daniel was the first to get to the wreck. He took a second to peek into the patrol car's driver's seat to check on the driver, but unfortunately it looked like the officer had died in the crash. The detective cursed before turning his attention to the hood of the car.

Sandwiched in between the two wrecks was the homeless man. He was pinned in between the hood of the police cruiser and the parked car behind him. Although he should have been cut in half by the impact, the bum still looked to be in one piece. He also seemed to be in a lot of pain. Even though his body looked like it didn't have a scratch, a thick stream of blood was leaking from the corners of his mouth, dripping down to stain his scraggly white beard.

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like the son of a bitch wasn't invincible after all.

"Y-you fucking c-cunts," the injured psychopath coughed, spattering red across the car pinning him. "I'll fucking kill you!" He snarled, then raised the hand with the paper clip.

"Fucking hell!" Daniel grabbed the fist, trying to yank the paperclip out of his hand. Although it made no sense to his usually logical mind, his instincts screamed at him to take the clip away.

The other officers had the same idea and grabbed at the bum's hands. A struggle began as five policemen began to wrestle with the injured maniac, trying to prevent the psychopath from calling whatever demonic powers he had brought down earlier. It proved to be rough for the officers since the old man was much stronger than he looked. Whether this was from his weird powers or a side effect from all the **** he was on no one was sure.

Eventually, the old bum's strength left him and he began to convulse and shake. The cops backed away from him, afraid that he was going to do something violent again. But their fears were misplaced, as the shaking was just the homeless man's ruined body's dying convulsions. Eventually, the bum became still, and his lifeless eyes stared up at the sky.

"Jesus Christ," said a thoroughly shocked officer. He rubbed at his forehead to wipe sweat and blood from it. "I thought this fucking psycho was gonna kill us all."

The policemen, both uniformed and not, stood around in total shock at what they had just witnessed. All around them was pure devastation, with the wreckage of cars and human bodies strewn all over the place.

Daniel, still slightly in shock, suddenly realized that there was something in his hand. He brought the object up to his eyes and realized it was the old bum's paperclip; he had managed to pry it out of the old bastard's grip before he had died.

The sounds of more sirens could now be heard, as other police cars from numerous other departments in the city arrived to lend assistance. Emergency vehicles had also arrived to tend to the injured, though sadly there weren't that many of them. The homeless man's massacre had left more dead than injured.

"Jim?" Daniel called out, suddenly remembering his partner. He thought the older detective had been with him this whole time, but now that his nerves had gone down, he realized that the tall beefy cop was nowhere in sight. "Jim?" He called out again, yet the response was the same, there was no answer.

It wouldn't be until an hour later that Daniel would be informed that Jim had been one of the ones who died during the incident, the big man torn to pieces by a whirlwind of razor-sharp shrapnel.