"What do you mean, not yet?"

☆

The ear piercing sound of a bullet ricochets across the dash, but its target is located as the taxi's meter is met with a splintering blast. The car swerves from left to right, tyres trying to keep their grip on the rain soaked road, as the driver does his best to restore control. "Have I made it clear enough? Now shut up and drive!" The passenger cards his fingers through his dampened hair as he again lets the gun fall by his side, still in his grasp.

The driver's tense demeanour, accompanied with the slight nod of the head, showed he had finally got the message, loud and clear. The car goes quiet, with the only sound being the wipers making a repetitive squeak on the now drying screen. The passenger looks ahead, through the front window, the sound growing, until the irritation becomes too much to ignore. "Turn them off. You can see the rain has stopped. Or do you want a bullet through the window too?"

The driver again does as he is asked, but dares to look in the rear view mirror once again. He notices the nervousness of the passenger. How he was fidgeting in his seat. The way he kept looking out of the back window. He wondered if the man was just being extra cautious, or maybe he was just a rookie taking a chance. Did this make him a loose cannon, or did this give the driver the opportunity to change the course for them both?

The time is now. The passenger is distracted, eyes everywhere but on the man behind the wheel. The driver swallows hard. The saliva in his throat feels thick as it goes down, the grip on the wheel tightens, making his knuckles whiten. Eyes fixed on the road ahead. A gap, a space to manoeuvre. He pulls down hard on the wheel, along with a foot to the brake. The car screeches, spins, in danger of getting out of control.

The sudden motion pulls the man across the back seat. The gun gets separated from its owner as it falls into the foot well. "What the fuck…" The passenger now has a new task to hand. To stop himself from heading through a window as he braces the sudden change of course. His hands reach out to grab a hold of something… anything to brace what may lie ahead.

The driver ignores the spontaneous insult as he stays focused on his own mission, which in truth he was unaware of even to himself, as what he thought was initially a good idea, soon turns into a car crash.

The rain soaked road resisis the grip of the tyres, with the car doing a one hundred and eighty. Wheels screeching as they try to keep a hold of the ground below, but losing the fight as the car finally ends up mounting an unoccupied curb, with the right headlight crashing against the solid streetlight

The instant hiss of the car's engine can be heard, with the two people inside remaining silent. The driver is the first to come around. Probably due to the belt he is wearing and the airbag deploying in his face. It takes a moment for him to focus and quickly remember the situation he was in as he glances up at the rear view mirror. The passenger in the back seat cannot be seen and causes the driver to turn in his seat. There, laying in the back seat, with his head slumped against one of the doors was the man. Blood poured from his head as he lay motionless and caused the driver to realise the true consequences of his impulsive action.

"Hey …HEY!" The driver calls out but the other man remains unresponsive. "SHIT!" He curses as he tries to pull his phone from the holder, still attached by a thread to the dashboard. With shaking fingers he is able to make a call. "....Ambulance. I need an ambulance. There's been an accident…"

***

He sits on the embankments, his legs huddled against his body as he looks at the street which seemed as deserted as could be. The pain to his temple seemed like a mere flesh wound in comparison to the man who laid as still as still on the back seat. He knew he should do something. At least some kind of first aid but the fear of the man's true fate scared him. He was convinced the man was dead and that he had killed him. Whoever the man was, he didn't want a death on his conscience. He burries his head into his knees and closes his eyes. He would be honest. Tell the truth. He was a victim. He didn't mean for it to happen. He didn't mean to kill him. He had feared for his life.

"Aaaahhh."

The sudden noise makes the driver lift his head, to see the passenger pulling at the car's interior door handle, managing to open it before his body spills out onto the grassy verge. "Y…you're alive." He exclaims, having that brief feeling of relief that he hadn't ended someone's life, soon to be replaced by the fact that he was now once again in danger.

"Course I am, no thanks to you." The man mumbles, as on his hands and knees, he turns around to rummage in the footwell of the car, locating the gun.

"They'll be here soon." The driver says as he takes in the blood stained face of the man.

"Who?" The man turns to look at the other, maybe a little too fast, when he suddenly feels dizzy, as his body falls back onto the car's bodywork.

"The ambulance." The driver looks at the man as if it were obvious.

"What? No. You didn't?" The man drags himself to standing. "What did you tell them?"

The driver edges back on the grassy verge on his bottom as he looks up at the man. "Just….there was an accident. Where we were …my name. "

"Your name?  What is your name?"

"Rio."

"You idiot." The man runs a hand down his bloodied face.

"What do you mean? That's my name, Rio is my name." The driver named Rio now stands up.

"Don't you get it? I've got a gun….A GUN!" He waves it in front of him. You have given me less time. They will be looking for us both and now you've crashed the fucking car and called for help..."

"Who? The police? I've done nothing wrong. I'm a victim!"

"Not the police...." The man feels exhausted with it all as he feels his body want to sink again to the ground. "The others. They are after me, but now they are after you too,  You could have just taken me there, slipped away unknown...."

"Who are you? Who are they?" Rio questions, not really sure if he really wanted to know or not.

"That doesn't matter." The man replies, making Rio shrug his shoulders.

"If I'm now in danger from someome other than you, I need to know. But I don't know you, am I meant to know you?"

The man is quiet for a moment as if to deliberate the question. "I should kill you." He waves a finger at Rio. "You not knowing who I am is a good thing. A nice clean break… but not yet."

Rio backs away a little from the other male. "What do you mean not yet? I can stay quiet, I won't say a thing." Rio raises his hands up in defence.

"I don't trust you." The male looks Rio up and down. "But you may still be useful."

"Why, what for?" Rio wonders, watching the other male swaying more and more with every second.

"Because…." He lifts a finger, wagging it at Rio. "I'm gonna….pass out…" The man stumbles, falling forwards into Rio who steps forwards, just in time to catch him as his heavy head falls into his shoulder.

Then in the corner of his eye he sees it in the distance. The flashing of the blue lights, just coming into view. "Shit." He curses under his breath as he wonders what he should do next. Rio caused the crash. Should he stay and wait for the lights to get closer, hold his hands up to whatever situation he had found himself in, or should he hide? Who were those people chasing his taxi? Had this stranger suddenly become his protector from the unknown?