Plebs

by Jim Goforth

  "Thanks. I thought it was an okay job." She beamed.

  "Did they have...well, guns or anything?"

  "HAD guns. Past tense. They're now over there in a nice little spot on the off chance I need something else to fall back on." Blaise pointed back towards the direction of the woods where she had been situated before, probably watching Corey and Blaise with amusement for who knew how long before announcing her presence.

  "All the shots going off after Dennis shot Drake," Corey asked, "did you see what that was about?"

  "Sure did," Blaise nodded. "After we all split up most of your buddy Errol's mates just kind of spread out around the front of the church, but I guess didn't want to wander too far afield, just lurking behind whatever they could. Except one guy. For whatever reason. I guess to go check on Big Wes or something he just came bolting out across the clearing. That's when the first volley of shots came and just dropped him in his tracks, not too far from where Big Wes face planted."

  "See who shot him?"

  "Nope. Quite a few people I think. I think all of them back where we started out hadn't really moved too far from that area and were taken by surprise by this idiot openly charging towards where they were. They were probably expecting more to follow. So they just opened fire. Caroline was supposed to be with me, but she hightailed it back that way, silly girl. I figure Big Wes might have caught a few stray bullets too so if he wasn't wormfood before, it's a fair bet he is now."

  "The second round of shooting? Us too?"

  "Yeah. Didn't see too much of that. I figure that lot drove them inside to regroup. Some of them were spreading out to the fringes of the woods, I assume our folks were trying to stick to Melissa's suggestion of raining shots from a few directions," Blaise continued. "Two of them came around this side. They ran into me."

  "I see." Corey had indeed seen what had become of the unfortunate duo who'd run into Blaise, and she hadn't needed to advertise her location to anybody else by shooting; she struck with a killing blade, silent and lethal.

  "What happened round there?" This time it was Blaise doing the questioning. "Heard a single gunshot that seemed to incite a bit of excitement."

  "They had a guy stationed in one of the cars," Desiree said. "We tried to nullify him quietly, but Dennis thought shooting him was a better option."

  "Dennis shot another of his ex-pals?" Blaise seemed moderately impressed. "I'm liking this guy more and more. Stepping out of the shadow of these scumbags in a big way."

  "Shot him in the back of the head at that," Corey murmured, still a bit stunned at the thought of Dennis King's actions. "At close range. It was a bad decision, definitely an unnecessary one and as near to the church as we were by then it brought Haskell and his goons running out. And Raven."

  "Raven hey?" Evil sparks of interest flared in Blaise's green eyes. "So the murderous wench is here after all."

  "Yep," Desiree nodded. "She is. Jett too, probably all of those who belong to her group. Speaking of which, how many of them are there? Since I wasn't there when, well since...since I don't know how many allied with those bitches."

  "About ten," Blaise responded curtly, the event Desiree hadn't been present at and now just skipped around having to mention still naturally a raw, sore sticking point, caused most of the mischief to vanish from the redhead firebrand’s visage, supplanted by more of the menace. "So when they came out in a rush, what did you guys do?"

  "Hid under the cars. As soon as Dennis pulled that trigger we knew it was going to bring company fast. Looked like he was in shock, but he managed to snap out of it long enough to hide too."

  "Where is he now?"

  "No idea. Probably still under the car."

  "They didn't find you obviously."

  "They didn't even look for us," Desiree snorted with derision. "Raven called them amateurs. Said she wasn't very impressed by a thing they'd done yet, big noting herself and so on, pointing out that they should have been searching a little more extensively. That's when we hightailed it."

  "Not before learning a few things though," Corey put in.

  "Such as?" Blaise raised an eyebrow in query.

  "Such as the Plebs are all still in this truck. Haskell wanted to set them loose, Raven convinced him otherwise since they want to take some of us alive."

  "Really?" The raised eyebrow lifted a little higher. "I can just imagine why."

  “Yeah, not pretty." Corey felt a little sick just reliving the conversation and skimmed over it in his final note. "Right now they are all back inside tweaking and getting hyped up on meth, and Raven has them psyched to come out hunting."

  "Is that so?" Blaise absorbed these segments of information, gazing over at the giant dark bulk of the truck. "Sure seems quiet on that front. Maybe its sound proofed. Maybe they're dead in there."

  'They're more cunning than you might think' Desiree’s voice resounded in Corey's head, her statement from what seemed like an eternity ago.

  "I think these drugged up fuckers are going to be more of an issue than the Plebs when they come out. They're going to be..."

  They came out much sooner than Corey would have anticipated, and they came out with such a violent whirlwind of noise and aggression that the remainder of Corey's warning was drowned out under a gale of furious sound ripping through the fabric of the night.

  They came en masse and they came at great speed; pouring out of the church with a sheer crescendo of shouting, whooping, cursing, insane laughing and threatening warnings, even blasting shots from random guns skywards.

  They vaulted over obstacles they formerly used to hide behind at the front of the church, flooding across the clearing, crashing into the woods.

  It happened so suddenly and ruthlessly quickly the element of surprise was very much on their side despite the unexpected charge being soundtracked by so much ear damaging noise.

  "Fucking hell!" Even Blaise was taken aback by the sheer ferocity of the rolling wave of Haskellites and Raven hordes.

  Within a matter of minutes, less, seconds even they were virtually all plunging into the darkness of the forested regions.

  "What do we do?" Corey panicked, stupefied by the intensity of the war party.

  There was no way that bizarre fast moving squadron wasn't going to be in some way effective.

  A gunshot roared somewhere over on the side that Corey, Desiree and Dennis previously came down and Corey flinched like he'd been the recipient of the bullet.

  He couldn't recall who, if any of the others aside from Dennis King, might have followed their trajectory and though they might not have at the time, possibly they had later.

  He certainly did remember sounds behind his trio as if somebody had been coming down after them.

  "Hang on," urged Blaise, and then vanished, presumably to regain her stash of appropriated guns and the one she'd originally carried.

  They’d all armed up prior to departing the vehicle back on the dirt track where the van collected a Pleb and a Pleb collected Britt, so consequently the bags with the remaining weaponry were left to reduce the weight they needed to carry.

  If only those bags were in handy reach right about now...

  Desiree hastened along the dark wall of the church, keeping close to it.

  For whatever reason this rear half of the disheveled entity possessed nothing in the way of windows, though it did have missing stones and large holes in it, none of them right through from one side to the other, so Desiree remained upright until she reached the next section.

  Here there were windows, mostly stained glass and mostly pretty extensively damaged.

  Cracks zigzagged along the more solid panes still holding together while others were full of holes looking suspiciously like they were the result of bullets, stress marks and spider-webbing lines spanning out from the impact spot.

  Some were entirely free of glass altogether and merely had tiny fragments of it like sharp little teeth marching around the rims of the window holes, but these few hadn't been left to
allow the elements in too much.

  They had been boarded up from the inside or perhaps there were cupboards or other furniture pushed up against them.

  Corey would be willing to stake a good sum on the fact that these completely busted up windows weren't obscured or blocked up to avoid the rain, but rather to prevent any prying eyes who might be foolhardy enough to be wandering around from catching a glimpse at what may be going on inside the Spot.

  Here Desiree elected to duck down below the window level, regardless of those boarded up or otherwise.

  Corey wondered however if anybody was still in the church.

  There was a lot of them coming out in the mad, hooting hollering horde of drug addled lunacy so that could have been all of them exiting which wouldn't really have been the smartest of ideas, but then again when it came to smart nobody was about to pit Errol Haskell against Albert Einstein in an intellectual battle of wits.

  Methed up to the eyeballs, speeding off their chops and swimming in more snow than Siberia the sudden violent exodus could have included each and every one of them, including the more together members like Raven, leaving St Agnes unmanned not even a priority.

  As Corey joined Desiree at the church wall, constantly turning back to see if Blaise resurfaced from the woods, a commotion erupted from elsewhere in the thick stands of trees where multiple psychotics first barged.

  It issued way down beyond the clearing to the right (for Desiree and Corey in their current position) where Blaise and Melissa originally started to circle around after the decision for everyone to split up.

  Soon enough the reason for the uproar and thrashing about in the trees and undergrowth became horribly evident.

  The crazed impromptu hunting party had done exceedingly well out of the furious charge into the dark thickets.

  A throng of them were emerging from the woods already and they brought with them three captives. This trio didn't come voluntarily, they were kicking and screaming, but they didn't especially have a choice.

  With a thick muscular arm in a tight choke hold around her neck, Jackson Vickerman had the sulky Serena all locked up with nowhere to go, her feet virtually dangling and swinging in the air as he crashed out of the bushes, striding into the clearing.

  Off on his right side and only a couple of seconds behind him came two more captors, one of them Gordon Cooper of Haskell's posse, the other a hard faced woman with short brown spiked hair, evidently one of Raven's turncoats.

  Between them tightly held by the upper arms on each side was Tasha, being severely frog marched by the gleeful gloating pair. Both the captured women screamed and thrashed to no avail. Any attempts to kick free from Tasha would have resulted in her completely losing footing while Vickerman seemed unconcerned or oblivious to the futile swinging leg kicks of Serena, most of which merely punched holes in the air.

  A third captive was hauled from the woods by another of the maniac search party, evidently a newer addition to the Haskell army of sadists for he was unknown to Corey.

  His victim however was extremely well known to Corey.

  Dragged by his dreadlocks with a gun jammed against his head was Lee.

  "We've got some live meat!" Vickerman bellowed triumphantly, his voice booming and echoing around the clearing.

  "Oh, shit, no!" Corey exclaimed as he saw the third of the three unfortunates, bodily dragged through the grass and realised who it was.

  He lunged to his feet, but Desiree clamped a firm hand on his forearm, staying his desperate rush.

  From the woods streamed the bloodthirsty lunatics, coming from all directions, excited babble of voices resonating with gruesome relish.

  Haskell was there, Raven was there, Jett, everyone and they swarmed around the clearing, some of them bordering the main body keeping guns trained on the encircling woods, prepared for those still in there.

  They may have all been drugfucked to the umpteenth degree, but all that seemed to have done was make them into a more cohesive, coordinated deadly unit.

  Perhaps their functionality was vastly improved by their imbibing for they were certainly now working as a team.

  Those on the outside with weapons aiming into the treed areas kept moving around, never staying still, either unable to due to the effects of their illegal substances or attempting to present themselves as difficult targets to hit should anyone decide to shoot at them.

  They also were probably fully aware that if they were fired upon, their hyped sanguinary soldiers would swamp the scene and drag out more fresh prey.

  Of course anyone watching from beyond the trees would have realised this.

  It might have appeared to be a ramshackle haphazard attack plan, but it was executed with cruel calculating precision, and reaped results.

  Corey looked at Desiree with desperate pleading eyes.

  She resolutely shook her head, her expression grim and sorrowful.

  "What chance have you got Corey? Have we got?"

  "This is so fucked," Moaned Corey, that sick feeling Haskell and Raven's words engendered earlier swelling up in him again, stronger and more intense, horrifying. "I can't let Lee die. Not Lee too. Not any of them."

  "You'll die too Corey, that much is guaranteed. Look at this shit. One shot fired at them, at any of them and the rest are coming right at that shooter. They're so high they think they are invincible."

  "Ah fuck, oh Lee. Not you too man, no."

  Back in the clearing those with the prizes hauled their terrified prey right into the very centre of the field, surrounded by multitudes of the others, jeering, whooping and issuing abhorrent threats of the foulest nature.

  Lee's captor flung him down to the ground, delivering a nasty kick to the ribs that elicited a strangled utterance of pain from Lee before he flopped on his side, clutching at the abused area.

  The pair keeping Tasha prisoner forced her down to her knees alongside his prone form, both of them being certain to run lascivious groping hands over her body as they did.

  Once released, she started to make for Lee's fallen figure, but was stopped brutally short, kicked in the spine by Spikes Hardface.

  Vickerman unhooked his hold on Serena and clasped meathook hands around her breasts in a tight deliberately agonising squeeze.

  "Yeah, you ain't so hot, but fuck it, I'll do you like a dinner, don't worry about that."

  He put a booted foot on her backside and punted her forward to sprawl in the grass with the other downed souls.

  Into the centre of the circle stalked the venomous Raven, shadowed by Errol Haskell who stood a few feet away, his arms crossed over his brawny chest, a spiteful smile stretched right across his mug.

  Raven proceeded to stalk all around the inside perimeter of the circle created by leering louts and feral females, occasionally lashing out with a kick or two at the three prisoners, not being overly particular where her feet landed.

  Tasha's thigh, Lee's head, Serena's back, all parts became recipients of the brutality.

  Raven halted, standing over Serena who was curled up into a sobbing ball.

  "Pathetic little Serena. Really did pick the wrong team didn't you?"

  She reached down with both hands, seizing Serena and hauling her upright.

  A second later she'd withdrawn a hunting knife, the blade glinting wickedly in the moonlight as Raven pressed it to Serena's throat.

  "Hear that you fucking pussies?" Raven's voice suddenly resonated in a strident abrasive shout. "All you cowards hiding out there in the trees? Thinking you can sit out there in the dark and take potshots in the hope of taking us out? Pathetic, the lot of you. Just like this pitiful little worm here, sniveling Serena."

  "Yeah, why don't you all come out now?" Errol Haskell joined in. "Make it a whole lot easier on yourselves. Just come on out and maybe we'll be able to negotiate a way some of you can stay alive."

  This he followed with a cruel raucous laugh which was taken up and perpetuated by many of the others thronging around the trio on the earth.<
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  "Come out, come wherever you are!" One of Ravens disciples chanted in a mocking singsong mantra.

  "How about..." Raven let go of Serena, but proceeded to stalk like some deranged feline around her, twisting the blade this way and that, pinning the hapless girl with her snake eyes. "We count to three...no, we'll make it five. And if nobody has shown themselves by then, we'll kill these three little pigs."

  "No Raven, please, you can't. I didn't even want to come here but...but they made me."

  "I got a better idea," Vickerman grated. "Before we kill them, we fuck them. All of them."

  "Sure," Raven smirked. "Be my guest. How's that sound, Serena? Actually it probably sounds pretty good to you. I bet you're hoping nobody comes on five so you can get a bit. That sound about right?"

  Suddenly one of Haskell's boys who'd been virtually bouncing from foot to foot, antsy and clearly unable to stay still, broke rank and lunged forward into the circle where Errol, Raven and the triumvirate of captives were.

  "Fuck waiting," He declared and hurled himself down onto Tasha, pawing at her clothes, thrusting hands between her legs while trying to get his own off or at least open to gain access, probably wishing he had more hands to achieve all his goals at once. "I'm getting me some of this bitch right now!"

  "The fuck are you thinking fool?" Vickerman lashed out with a boot, thumping the impatient would be rapist in the buttocks sending him sprawling atop Tasha.

  It didn't seem to cool his ardour any, the blow served to push him into closer contact with the young woman so that just drove him on.

  Lee tried to lunge valiantly in, but Raven stamped on his spine.

  "You stay put Flea. You're no hero and you know that."

  "Get up you stupid prick," Vickerman snarled, big hands grabbing Tasha's attacker, one by the scruff of the neck, the other by a shoulder.

  He yanked the fellow up and off Tasha, a fist cocked as if to deliver a savage knockout blow which he then reconsidered.

  Instead he just threw the over eager dunce away from him with a grunt of disapproval.

  "Just because you can't wait, don't listen too well and think you've got the right to get in before anyone you can fucking wait 'til everyone else has a go. And even then, you get the guy."