by Jim Goforth
"And we better do it fucking quick," Desiree said. "Pretty sure bellowing like that is going to be a homing beacon to Raven."
Fucking Lee, Corey inwardly cursed his thoughtless friend. Should have left him up in the goddamn tree.
Lee might have had a little brush with scary times when he and Tasha were dragged out into the centre of the clearing, but this encounter was only the tip of the iceberg compared to the hells Corey and Desiree had witnessed and been through and Lee knew nothing of what that was like.
His calamitous yelling was a classic example of Lee flying off the handle or acting without thinking.
It reminded Corey of Lee jumping backwards on the fallen piece of corrugated roofing tin, alerting the Plebs. Getting Tim killed.
Now shouting like a stubborn fool in the woods in what was supposed to be serving as cover for them on a stealth mission to the car.
Getting the rest of them killed.
"Everyone run," Desiree commanded. "Keep to the track; it should turn into the road we drove up. Right?"
"Right," Melissa nodded. "Move fast."
Then she was gone. Blaise was gone. Both of them cat-like. Incredibly quick, agile and never wasting a second.
Just like in the church. Ruthless, painfully fast and so brutally efficient.
"Come on," Desiree urged Corey and ran too, her hand in his compelling him along with her.
He heard pounding feet behind him, shoes thumping on the ground, swishing in the grass.
Though he knew it was the others taking heed of the brief warning they had been issued and making the most of following the leaders before they were left behind to deal with whatever Lee's impetuous yell might have alerted, it still sounded a little spooky to be running and hearing something chasing after him.
Soon they were all racing along the dirt track, coming down the length of road they would have continued to drive up perhaps if not for Ryan's unexpected collision with one of the possible two random Plebs roaming loose.
Considering the remainder of the Plebs out and now free range were -or rather had been- locked up until they'd managed to free themselves, the couple of loose ones made Corey question why or how they'd been skulking out and about when ninety per cent of them weren't, but he merely filed that away for later reference.
He found it curious how that came to be unless the two strays were transported to the Spot separately, but didn't dwell on it because now the vehicles were in sight.
BIGWES sat out in the dirt track where they’d left it, pale and still in the moonlight.
It might have looked just how they left it before resuming the trek on foot.
Except it didn't. Its doors were standing wide open.
Corey distinctly remembered all the doors being shut when they left the car, same with the van.
Pete and Dennis returned to get Wesley Drake and after they did, Dennis slammed the only door that was opened on the van.
Neither Melissa nor Blaise had opened the doors; they hadn't quite reached BIGWES yet.
They slowed to a walk, a slow cautious one both with guns up. Melissa held her pistol in a one handed grip, her other hand with fingers dancing over the haft of her knife while Blaise brought her shotgun down from her shoulder.
Noticing Melissa's fingers flexing near her knife as if itching to draw the deadly implement and wield it Corey suspected that the tattooed alpha woman had a distinct preference for doing her damage with blades.
After all, why the hell wouldn't she? Corey was a prior witness to the lethal carnage she and Blaise wreaked with four knives between them.
If what they said was true, and he knew in his heart it was, and Desiree joined them in violent knife play versus any of their perceived enemies the bloody mayhem resulting from that would be frighteningly phenomenal.
"Has anyone been back to the cars?" Pete whispered. He dug his hand into the pocket of his jeans, just confirming once more that those keys to BIGWES actually were still there and he hadn't been jingling some loose change before. "I've got the keys right here still."
"None of us, you know that," Jess murmured.
"Desi? Corey?" Tasha asked.
"Not us," said Corey. "Neither of us have been down this end since we split up once Drake tried to do a runner. We went straight up round the side of the woods, ended up in hell."
"Shit, I don't like this," Lee moaned. "This gets worse and worse. Maybe fucking Dennis has been down here messing around. I knew it was a bad idea trusting him. Told you all, Dennis, fucking Dennis King, bad news thinking anything worthwhile is going to come of having him around."
"Lee, like it or not Dennis is one of us. Or desperately wants to be. He shot Big Wes and he also shot..." Here Desiree looked to Corey for confirmation of the other Haskellite Dennis killed.
"Pat Howard."
"He shot Wes before he could get to Errol and blow everything. He also killed Pat Howard down by the church."
Lee lapsed into uneasy silence. If he had any more choice words lamenting them all allowing Dennis King to jump ship he elected not to say them.
"Besides Dennis was with us for a while," said Corey. "We were all hiding under their cars for a while. I saw him running out trying to save Serena when the Plebs went mental, but I don't know what became of him."
"Maybe the Plebs got him," Lee muttered, and it didn't sound like a suggestion of what may have happened, more of a fervent desire for that outcome to be the case.
Now Corey descended into quiescence, ignoring the remark.
He could see that no matter what he said Lee wasn't prepared to budge on the subject of Dennis, though funnily enough the two of them were remarkably similar in some circumstances.
Yes, Lee had been extensively bullied and Dennis had been one of those responsible, but by the same token Dennis was also a victim of the same bullies though he was meant to be their friend.
He was the fall guy in their crew, the lowest point on the totem pole. Picking on Lee along with his cruel friends to make himself fit in with them and to please them probably made him feel that there actually were people he was slightly above on the food chain.
Corey and Desiree hastened ahead of the others somewhat, guns drawn.
As far as they could tell all four of the recently tree dwelling characters were without the firearms they’d started the night off with.
Lee and Tasha of course would have had theirs confiscated in the drug fueled hunting raid while Corey guessed Pete and Jess may have lost theirs in a mad scramble up the tree to escape the Plebs.
Ahead the two goddess warriors that were Blaise and Melissa approached BIGWES, splitting up with each one going towards the two open front doors.
Corey and Desiree came up slower, apprehensively moving in, but giving the other two plenty of room.
What he was expecting to happen Corey didn't know, but he had seen enough atrocity, horror and brutal bloodshed tonight to rule nothing out.
Just this time he hoped no more gruesome surprises or worse, gun toting maniacs ready to spit leaden death in their faces were lying in wait.
CHAPTER 49
Apparently none of the things Corey was fearing lurked in the front of the vehicle for Melissa checked the drivers side, Blaise the passengers and moved on down to the back doors.
"Fuck," Melissa said, and though it was evident that no hidden threats were inside BIGWES there was an alarming note in her voice that gave Corey chills. "There's nothing here."
"Ah well that's a good thing," Lee sighed with profound relief but others, namely Corey and Desiree quickly acknowledged why it wasn't a good thing at all.
"No dickhead, it isn't a good thing," Melissa retorted as the unarmed group gathered enough courage to assemble in closer to the car. "I mean there is nothing in here."
"So?"
"Nothing there Lee. We left the rest of the guns here remember?" Corey refreshed his memory, feeling that cold fist of fear starting to close itself around his heart.
"Oh fuck!" Lee r
ushed to the car, poking his head in between Desiree and Corey as if his presence might suddenly cause the sports bag of weapons to materialise.
Blaise was already stalking down to where the van hunched after its sudden collision with what most of them accepted was a random roving Pleb.
The way she just seemed to half vanish from view was enough of a sign to Corey to know that the sliding door had already been opened too, left that way.
She came out empty handed bar the shotgun she'd gone in with and walked back grim faced.
"Gone from there too."
Desiree was crouched down on her haunches and for a moment Corey thought she was in some desolate state of despair.
Then he realised she was looking under the cars.
Good idea. If only Haskell and his goons had been smart enough to look under their own cars earlier on...
"We're kinda fucked aren't we?" Pete announced.
"No, that's it," Lee shook his head furiously, his dreadlocks matted with leaves and twigs flying around his face. "We're not fucked, we're outta here! We are getting the hell out of here! Right now!"
"Rachel and Dennis are still out here somewhere," Jess pointed out.
"I don't give a damn about Dennis King. They're probably dead anyway."
"We can't leave them."
"Can and will. Pete, let's get this car going."
Pete hesitated, looking from Lee to Corey, over at Desiree, Blaise, Melissa.
"Fuck it, I'll do it! Pete, give me the keys!" Lee lunged at Pete.
"Hold up Lee!" Pete put up his hands to ward off the fellow and Lee gaped at him in astonishment.
"Are you serious? These lunatics have an arsenal; all of us are going to die here if we stick around any longer. Do you want to fucking die?"
"Do you want me to die? You keep bellowing like that and I will because they'll know exactly where to come."
"Anyway, we don't know who took them. Maybe Rachel and Dennis have them," Jess chimed in hopefully.
"Bullshit," Lee snorted in derision. "We all know they don't."
"Give me the keys Pete," Melissa abruptly spoke up, her voice cold.
She stalked over, her face dark and stormy, her lips in a thin firm line.
She looked a great deal more imposing than Lee, his petulant demands for the keys a little less likely to succeed than her simple statement, an order not a request.
Fishing the keys to BIGWES out of his pocket Pete handed them over.
"Everybody in."
"Tight squeeze," Pete commented. "We only taking the one car?"
"Ryan had the van keys," Tasha murmured. "Seems like he'd still have them."
"Or somebody else has them," Lee said pointedly, still scowling in alternate measures between Peter and Melissa. "I know someone else has the keys I just asked for."
"Unless you'd rather walk, get in."
Shrugging his shoulders Lee finally decided he couldn't really care less who was driving, the main thing was they were about to get the hell out of here so quarreling over keys was a non-issue.
They were seeing things his way after long last and that was just how he liked it.
He was the very first into the car. Tasha followed.
"Go ahead," Blaise gestured for Pete and Jess to fill up the back, and the tight squeeze remark was an apt one; it was going to be a bit cramped and congested.
It was a good thing BIGWES was indeed big.
The van probably would have been a better option to accommodate all of them, but with only seats in the front, at least half of them would be doing the same unrestrained dangerous floating around in the back they had to do on the return from the lake to Corey's residence, trying to avoid slipping in the tacky mess of blood left by Errol Haskell's suspicious bag of body parts.
As Melissa prowled around to the driver side door Blaise also jumped in the front, sitting in the middle with her shotgun.
Corey glanced quizzically at the other space which realistically could only safely fit one person, though the four in the back somehow managed, albeit sardined together.
“How's this going to work?" He wondered.
"Corey, Jesus, use your loaf," Blaise shook her head. "If you can't figure it out you're less of a man than I thought."
"Oh." Corey put two and two together.
He launched up into the front seat of BIGWES and extended a hand out the open door to Desiree.
Grinning and shaking her head at how slow on the uptake he'd been Desiree grasped his hand and swung in after him, landing her delectable backside on his lap.
In the driver’s seat Melissa stuck the car key into the ignition, then turned and gazed hard at the foursome seated in the back.
"Ready? All buckled up?"
"As well as can be expected," Lee responded smugly. "But hey, who cares? You lot are finally...fucking finally...seeing sense and doing what has to be done. Getting out of here is probably the smartest thing you've done all night."
"Really? You know what the smartest thing you've done all night is Lee?"
"No. What's that? Climb a tree?"
"Nothing Lee, fucking nothing. You haven't done anything smart all evening."
With that Melissa turned her head back to the front, pulled her door shut and turned the key in the ignition.
It fired once, stalled and died.
Corey's heart thumped. Shit. Did they tamper with it?
Melissa tried again. This time the engine sputtered disagreeably, but caught and rumbled into life as she gave it a bit of gas.
"Fuck you," Lee muttered under his breath, but her assessment of him still couldn't put a dampener on his jubilation.
The three women in the front all exchanged looks with each other and Corey knew something unspoken was transmitted between the trio, something they were all privy to.
As Melissa sat for a little while warming up the engine some, Desiree swiveled and stared Corey in the eyes with hers, bewitching and soulful, as captivating as ever.
"Are you with me Corey?" She asked him.
"Forever. To the death. And beyond." He realised his words could have been chosen a fraction more wisely, but nonetheless they pretty much constituted a genuine response.
"I want you to know if it seems like the end, if it seems things go pear shaped, that won't be the case. If you think it is over, or its curtains for all of us, it won't be. At least one of us will always be a Phoenix."
Corey didn't exactly know what Desiree meant, he wasn't sure if he was even supposed to.
Her words were cryptic and obviously intended to be although spoken in a way meant to alleviate fears and generate solace.
The unspoken bonds and connections that seemed to flow between her and the other two in the front suggested that they did know, but they weren't about to enlighten anybody else.
Melissa stamped on the accelerator. The car shot forward. They were in motion.
Lee couldn't suppress a whoop of triumph, but Corey just then acknowledged that the triumphant gleeful mood of Lee's was going to be very very transitory.
Corey knew exactly what Melissa's intentions were.
With her face set in a hard dangerous expression of resolution she raced BIGWES up the dirt road.
The track was wide enough to comfortably make a U-turn without too much trouble, head the nose of the Range Rover back in the direction of the highway and make for smoother sailing.
But it wasn't, and never had been in Melissa's plan to do so.
The tyres of BIGWES kicked up dust and stray pebbles and rocks as Melissa gunned it along the uneven rough terrain and then she swung it into a hard right and the car left the end of the dirt.
Driving up over the flattened grass path.
Lee realised she wasn't seeking out the most suitable place to swing BIGWES into a U-turn.
"What the fuck are you doing? Have you lost your goddamn mind?"
Blaise stared at Lee in the rear view mirror, though her even flat gaze encompassed all of them.
"We're not running away," she declared simply. "We're finishing this."
"More like you're finished!" Lee thumped on the back of Melissa's seat with a kick and then pounded his fist on her headrest. "You are fucking insane! Turn the car around."
Melissa didn't turn the car around.
It roared up the grassy entry to the church grounds and entered the clearing, jostling as it bounced severely over a few rougher patches.
"Fuck this!" Lee unbuckled his seat belt and without warning he opened up his back passenger door.
Looking out he changed his mind about leaping out as he saw the grass rushing past at an alarming rate.
Instead he inexplicably lunged up from his seat and started attempting to lean over into the front, possibly attempting to restrain Melissa, go for the keys, manually turn the wheel himself, it was nigh on impossible to decipher his train of thought.
What he was doing was obscuring Melissa's vision from the side.
"Sit the fuck down Lee!" Corey bellowed, alarmed.
Everybody was shouting now, it was a storm of vocal bedlam and BIGWES had a change of straight trajectory, instead zigzagging erratically as Melissa tried to maintain control and steer at the same time, attempting to correct the position of the vehicle.
Tasha tried to grab Lee and pull him back down; falling instead into the space he’d created by standing up.
"Knock him fucking down Blaise, damn Lee, you fool!" Melissa blasted. "I can't see shit!"
Too late to acknowledge the danger or to be able to take evasive action Melissa couldn't, and didn't see the other speeding vehicle tearing across the clearing.
Half lying across the seat, virtually under the standing, scrambling, reaching impeding figure that was Lee Tasha saw it.
"Look out!" She screamed in a panic, roughly simultaneously with Blaise delivering a rattling punch that knocked Lee off Melissa, down and right out the open door, his scrabbling hands taking Tasha with him.
Then the other car ploughed into BIGWES.
Melissa's arms went up, elbows bent forward and she went flying through the windshield.
Corey felt the Rover get lifted, going up on its side.