About the Contest

This story is an entry to @tristancarax’s 31Sentence Contest. The contest is exclusively on Hive.

If you fancy participating, you can find the contest here.

Prompt

Here is the expected sentence order:

20, 8, 17, 14, 13, 21, 1, 25, 15, 31, 19, 22, 28, 4, 5, 18, 9, 10, 3, 12, 26, 7, 29, 27, 24, 6, 30, 16, 23, 11, 2

Defunding the Good Guys

“Just keep an eye on my grandson, George,” the retired Colonel said, “he has a habit of getting into trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” The Sheriff was curious.

“I am not sure but these days he has got into this ghost hunting thing,” Colonel said. The colonel was referring to Shaun joining a group which staked out at night. “I often fear if it has to do with anything nefarious and illegal.”

George knew what the Colonel was referring to as he had handled enough cases where youth went bad in bad company.

“Coffee?” Colonel had a significant impact in shaping George’s career and life as he bumped into George as a teenager in an environment with dreadful influences.

“Ah, thanks, Colonel,” George stood up to leave, “any reason for your worry about Shaun?” A system which discriminated on colour could have easily led George’s life to the other side of law but for Colonel’s intervention at the right time, and George always felt indebted.

“Just that he always leaves at night and sleeps the whole morning,” now Colonel’s apprehension was clear to George.

Despite having a long and strenuous morning shift, George decided to tail Shaun and his unsuspecting companions at night as a civilian. Their vehicle came to a halt at a dilapidated structure outside the town which resembled everything that a drug-dealing cartel would be using at the night wee hours. The foursome got down.

“Check cameras,” Shaun called out. Like clockwork, the other three members opened their pack, took out their cameras and focused into the distance.

“All fine,” the three said one after the other. George, on the other hand, got worried for the group.

“Let’s get in.”

George noticed the four of them walking towards the dark burnt structure. George feared that Shaun and team were planning to capture a cartel in action and that was far more dangerous than what Colonel was worried about. He wondered if he should radio backup.

As the group entered the building, they hardly did enough to conceal their creaking steps which bothered George as he knew that the cartel would have been tipped off. If that was not enough, the team switched on their flashlights lighting up the entire floor with rickety furniture, mouldy smell and dilapidated stairs on either side.

George could stand it no more as he held his gun and called for backup, and just then the floor gave way swallowing Shaun.

“Filming haunted locations is our work.”

“I don’t know about the supernatural, Shaun, but you could at least watch your step,” George advised as he was relieved that he could save Shaun from a near-fatal fall. George decided to give the kid some slack as advice was flowing around thick and fast.

“I couldn’t thank you enough,” Colonel followed George, “and saddened that despite your good work, there is a growing chorus to defund cops.”

“One wrong cop,” George sighed, “and we fight a new battle.”

“Battle, indeed!”

Image Courtesy:: Pixabay