I grabbed my keys, and headed out the door to the coffee shop a couple blocks down where a couple of my friends were working. From the outside looking in I could tell that business wasn't bad at all, it wasn't crowded, but it wasn't painfully empty either. I walked into the shop, and my smile widened as my friend waved over to me calling out with a smile of his own, "Matty! How's it been? You haven't stopped in for almost a week." It was Darrel, a business student I met while we were in university together. It was a lucky coincidence that he set up the store so close to my apartment, makes it easy to stay in touch and hang out. He was always a bit of a gossip, but with a moderately popular coffee shop he tends to hear a lot of what goes on in the city. Darrel straightened the cap holding back his mid-length brown hair as he continued pouring the foam on another customer's drink.
The line was luckily rather short and I soon found myself to be the only one in line. "So what's new around town? I haven't been paying too close attention." My hands were crossed, but I still had a small smile on my face. The city was an interesting place sometimes, and I knew that Darrel loved to talk about it.
Darrel started making another drink without prompt, prepping espresso and milk to steam. "Where do I even start? How about today? It's been a weird start of the day. The military sent a group up to the collapsed Mercer Hospital building and they've got the place on lockdown. Something about needing to do research to see if it's a biological threat. Dunno about that, but they even went as far as blockading the roads in and out of town. Kind of bullshit for a bit of research, but it looks like they're going for the 'better safe than sorry' methodology." He kept working on the drink as he talked, placing a finished cappuccino in front of me, "And this is on the house."
I picked up the steaming drink, putting a lid from beside the till. "Thanks again Darrel. It does sound a little extreme, and I can't imagine people being to happy with it if it keeps going." Darrel simply nodded with what I was saying as I started sipping the cappuccino. It was sweet and rich with a hint of bitterness from the espresso. The flavor made it pretty obvious why his shop was popular.
"Right, another thing. Here's a weird rumor for you. You know the bank robbery from last night? Apparently there was a witness that saw the robber that got away, but the police wouldn't accept his statement on record because of what he said. He said he watched the robber run out the back and through a solid brick wall into the apartments a couple buildings down and across the street. Crazy right?" He laughed, "The guy was probably pretty out of it to see something like that, but it still makes for an interesting story."
I nodded, "That does sound pretty unlikely. The robber isn't Harry Potter." Sipping again on the delicious drink I decided to talk a bit about last night, "So I was at the bank last night." Darrel gave a rather puzzled look, but he didn't stop you there. "I was actually the one that knocked out the two robbers. No idea what came over me, but it was like I knew exactly what they were going to do before they did it."
Darrel was floored at the mention of what I did at the bank, completely thrown off from what he was expecting, "Alright, chalk that up to one hell of a crazy night for the city. You could have been killed, man. This isn't an action movie and you're no martial artist." He paused, making sure there was still no one in line, "How the hell did you do it?"
I simply shook my head, because even I didn't know why or how I did what I did. "No idea. My heart was pumping and I was doubting myself the entire time." I checked my watch out of habit, it was about 11AM. "To tell you the truth, I was scared out of my mind."
Darrel gave a wide-eyed stare at me, "No shit. I'll buy you a drink or two if you happen to be at the Mountain Hall pub, just text me and we'll meet up." He pushed away from the counter giving a slight grin, "It's been good talking to you Matt, but I gotta do a bit of bit of paperwork before the noon rush." He gave a small wave as we said our goodbyes and I headed out of the coffee shop.
It's about 11AM, and there's still a decent amount of time left in the day. I suppose I can check out the collapsed ruins, even if it's closed off I might get a decent look at what's happening. Otherwise I suppose I can check out the apartment block across from the bank out of sheer curiosity, if I can't think of anything else to do.