Wings From Ashes Trilogy

by Linda Nelson

  Max patted his shirt pocket. “Got it right here, there is more than enough.”

  Being fall the sun sets early. Rod knew this. He had a head light out and needed to be off the street with the car before the sun set, or the car would stick out like a sore thumb to the cops. He pulled off at the next exit into a small suburb town with an old motel all boarded up. It would be the perfect place for them to hole up for the night. Without asking any of the others, he pulled the car around the back of the building, so it was not visible from the street.

  “Here’s our castle for the night.”

  Carol eyed the building and glared at Rod. “You expect us to sleep here?”

  Karla wasn’t so sure about the place either. “Won’t we get arrested for trespassing?”

  Max laughed, “There is not a soul in sight for miles. I don’t think anyone would mind if we hung out here for a while. If anyone comes by, we can just leave. It’s that simple.”

  Karla still wasn’t too sure about this whole thing, the road trip, and now they were going to break into some abandoned building and stay the night. Her nerves were still on the edge from the gang incident. She wondered what could happen next.

  They all could be arrested and thrown in jail for trespassing, that’s what.

  “Maybe we should just sleep in the car for the night. That place is probably crawling with bugs,” Karla suggested in hopes of deterring a criminal act from occurring.

  “Nonsense,” Rod said as he got out of the car and began checking each of the doors of the units until he found one that wasn’t locked.

  “Careful,” Carol said, “someone might already be in that one.”

  Rod thought she might be right, so he moved down a few more doors only to find they were all locked.

  “Don’t any of you have a card, debit or credit card or license or something? Karla you must have one,” Carol said to Karla.

  The question stopped Rod in his tracks. He thought he was the only one there that knew how to break into a locked building.

  Karla began rummaging in her purse. “What do you need a card for? There is no one here to pay for a room.”

  Max palmed his forehead. He couldn’t believe his girl knew nothing, nothing at all but yet she was so smart. Even he knew how to use a credit card to break an entering, and he came from a well to do family. He took the card from her, it was her library card sealed in a thick poly coating and walked up to the door pushing Carol aside while he slipped the card in between the door jam and the door knob proving that he too knew how to get passed a locked door.

  The door clicked open, and he gave it an extra push exposing the inside. A couple of dirty dusty beds and along with a bathroom greeted them.

  Rod tried the lights and was not surprised to see that they did not work. What was surprising, was the fact that there was running water in the bathroom. It ran at a trickle, but that was more than he had expected.

  Karla was grossed out by the condition of the beds. “The floor is probably cleaner than the beds.”

  “I can fix that for you babe,” Max said while he pulled all the old linen off the bed exposing an old stained mattress that was minus the dirt and dust, but it still did not look that appealing.

  “I can’t sleep on that.”

  “Oh come on Karla, it’s not gonna kill yah,” Rod said while he took his last joint from his pocket and lit it after taking a seat in one of the chairs, “Carol, why don’t you pass out what you have in that bag, sweetie pie.”

  While Carol had been in the store she had purchased a couple of things, after which she had walked around the front of the store while the cashier was busy answering Rod’s questions about directions of how to get back on to the high way and all. He had done such a great job at keeping the cashier occupied that she was able to pick up four premade sandwiches an extra big bag of chips and a bottle of liquor to go with the soda she had purchased.

  Rod took the bottle of soda for Karla and added some of the whisky to it and gave it back to Carol. “Now she won’t drink it,” Carol scolded him.

  “She won’t even know,” he replied, “I didn’t put that much in.”

  Carol handed the bottle of soda to Karla while she was busy trying to keep Max’s hands off her. Ever since they had got behind closed, doors he was trying to get her to undress just a little for him.

  All she kept doing was telling him no and slapping his hands away while he laughed. Apparently it was a game for him. But his game was working too. She was beginning to feel silly and started laughing at his attempts.

  “Hang on, I need to get a drink, I’m really thirsty,” Karla said to Max. He wrapped his arms about her waist while she opened her soda and began gulping it down. The first gulp burned like that time she had gone to Carol’s house the night of the party. She hoped to hell they hadn’t put that stuff in her soda. She didn’t want to be taken advantaged of like how Gerry had done to her.

  “What the hell did you do to my soda,” she said to Carol.

  Rod held up the bottle of whiskey. “It’s to keep you warm. There is no heat here so you better drink up or you will freeze.”

  Max let go of Karla’s waste after seeing the whiskey and the joint. It reminded him of the bag of weed in his shirt pocket he would share with everyone later. He could really use a hit about now, and he moved closer to accept the joint Rod was holding out to him to share.

  “So what did you buy earlier?” Rod asked him. “Did you get enough to share?”

  Max pulled the bag of weed out of his pocket along with a packet of papers, making Rod and Carol smile approvingly.

  “Cool,” said Carol. “I could really use some of that about now.”

  Max rolled up a couple joints and passed one to Carol. She took a drag after which she passed it back to him.

  Max then took his drag and passed it to Rod to pass about the circle. The only one who kept passing up on the joint was Karla. It was just as well. She had all she could do to handle the small amount of whiskey she had ingested rather quickly, the effects of which were already being felt. Her light headedness told her so. The bottle of soda had gone down quite a bit too.

  Rod took her soda and added some more whiskey to it. She allowed him to do so since he told her it would keep her warm. He couldn’t believe how naive she was.

  “The whiskey is making you feel pretty warm isn’t it,” Carol chuckled at Karla’s silly behavior with Max. There was about a hit or two left. She offered the joint one last time to Karla. “Try some of this. It will help too.”

  There was no way Karla would say no to Carol, especially since she held it in front of Karla’s face. She figured, what could that little bit do anyway? Certainly not make her overdose and it did make her feel pretty good the other night. So she took a hit off the thing, making her head feel real strange and giddy. It made her feel great in no time at all and quickly forgot where she was and who she was with. None of it mattered anymore. She felt free to do as she pleased for the first time in her life.

  And she was hot for Max.

  Chapter 10 – Lessons in Car Hopping

  The next morning Karla woke up to find she was topless and cold and with a bad headache, lying on the dirty mattress next to Max. She didn’t remember lying down let alone how her shirt had been removed and by whom.

  She snatched it up and put it back on before the others awoke.

  Carol lay fully clothed on the other stripped mattress while Rod was sound asleep in the chair.

  Max woke as Karla pulled her shirt over her head. He reached up to touch the disappearing skin of the stomach just before the shirt fell to her waist.

  They had been so good together last night. He remembered it all too well. It was almost like a dream. Or was it a dream. Now that he thought about it, maybe he had been dreaming since his pants were still on his body to his dismay.

  It wasn’t long after that that Rod and Carol began to stir, probably due to Karla’s rummaging about one of the bags in search of something
to eat. She was starving. There wasn’t anything left but empty wrappers in the bags.

  “What happened to all the food?” Karla asked Carol.

  “We ate it.”

  “Who ate it?”

  “We all did. Don’t you remember? You had the whole bag of chips to yourself,” Carol replied.

  Karla shook her head. She didn’t remember one thing about the night before. This was the second time this had happened to her. The last time was when she was somehow slipped some sort of substance that allowed Gerry to do what he had done to her and to top it off she had almost died of an overdose from ingesting too much of that substance. This made her wonder, had it almost happened again. She looked questioningly at Carol since she always seemed to remember what went on the night before.

  Carol smiled and replied, “You actually don’t remember, do you? First you helped polish off that bottle of whiskey and then you had a couple of hits.” She looked at Max to see if he was listening. “Then you laid down and messed around for a bit with Max, here and passed out.

  You honestly can’t drink can you? Can you? It seems like you pass out shortly after one or two drinks.”

  Karla couldn’t remember a thing about last night. Her greatest fear hadn’t happened apparently. She hated the fact that she didn’t remember a single thing about last night.

  “I guess I can’t drink,” Karla mumbled. She felt a bit humiliated by the fact that she seemed to be the only one who had this problem. She looked shyly at Max.

  “Just face it,” Max said, “You’re what they call a cheap drunk, that’s all and there’s nothing wrong with that. It saves money in the end.” He reached his hand up to her to take.

  Karla figured he wanted her to help him stand up. Instead he surprised her by pulling her down on the bed with him, and he began to fondle her. All she could do was laugh and push herself away from him. She didn’t feel comfortable with him touching her like this while they were in mixed company.

  Max fought to hold on to her, and his grip was a bit too tight on her wrist.

  Karla let out with an Ouch.

  “You two need to get a room,” Rod joked while he rose out of the chair he had been sleeping in.

  “We got one,” Max said, “and I want to use it.”

  “Well you’ll have to get another one. I don’t want to watch, unless you want me to join you.”

  That got Max’s attention. He wasn’t the type of guy who liked to share anything, especially his girl. He was sure that Rod was joking but still just the same that comment did get to him, and he released his grip on Karla’s wrist.

  She stood there warily rubbing the redness out of her wrist. No one had ever grabbed her like that before and it kind of scared her.

  “Can we get going,” Carol asked Rod, “I want to get something to eat.

  “You got more money,” he asked suspiciously.

  “No, don’t you have some?”

  Rod put his hand in his pocket checking to see if his wad was still in place. “No,” he lied. “So how do you intend on getting food if we have no money.”

  “I’ll find a way. I always do. Let’s go, I’m starving.”

  The four teens piled once again into the car. It's motor sounded rough when Rod turned the key. He knew that the motor was not going to last much longer. It leaked oil and was probably low, and he wasn’t going to spend money on more to put into it. They were going to have to abandon it and find another one at some point in time. This wouldn’t be much of a problem for him. He had a knack when it came to car theft. But first things first, his lady needed some food, and he could tell she was not the type to be arguing with, he would always lose.

  It was still pretty early in the morning, and it was Sunday. Apparently this was one of them church going communities. Not one soul was seen on the street. Most of the citizens were probably at the local pancake breakfast, sitting in church, or at home sleeping off the effects of the night before.

  The car rolled into a gas station convenience store. It had not one customer, and there was only one person that could be seen working behind the counter. Rod considered holding up the place and robbing it, but he wanted to see what Carol was going to do instead, so he allowed her take the lead. He parked the car and waited for her to get out.

  “Aren’t you coming,” Carol asked Rod.

  He had no intention of going in with her, but the way she had said it meant that she wasn’t implying an invitation, she was expecting him to accompany her while she did what she was about to do.

  “All right,” he said reluctantly.

  “You know where we are heading, right? Do you know how to get there or back on the highway?”

  He knew then what she wanted him to do.

  Rod made an immediate beeline for the store clerk and began a strong conversation with him about directions on how to get on the high way. He gave the clerk a hard time too by making the clerk frustrated by his lack of understanding the directions the clerk was giving to him.

  The clerk finally broke down and pulled out a piece of scrap paper and began to draw out a small map showing Rod how to get back on to the high way. He even included some landmarks for Rod to make note of if he had gone too far and missed his exit.

  Meanwhile, Carol walked about the store taking easy to conceal items and stuffing them into a paper bag that she had received from the last store. She continued to fill the bag until a new customer entered the store. By this time, the clerk was just about done explaining the map to Rod. The new customer waited impatiently behind Rod to check out with a coffee to go, a newspaper, and a gallon of milk.

  As soon as the clerk began to check out the new customer, Carol walked nonchalantly to the front of the store with her bag and followed Rod out the door.

  For some reason, this did not alarm the clerk. Rod had never seen anyone shoplift like this before. He was surprised to see it worked.

  The clerk was so relieved to see Rod leave his store. It didn’t dawn on him that the girl with him had just shoplifted the bag full of groceries. He watched her walk out the door with her bag and never gave her a second thought. Even the longtime customer didn’t notice that there was anything odd about how Carol had just walked out the door without paying for a thing.

  In the car, Carol began passing out cans of soda, Twinkies, and other junk food to the passengers in the back seat. “It’s not gourmet, but at least it is something.

  Karla said, “I thought you didn’t have any money?”

  “Don’t ask,” Rod replied. He smiled at Carol, and she smiled back.

  “Did you get those directions I asked you to get,” she joked.

  He smiled again and tossed the clerks map to her. She held it up and began to make a show of studying it just in case the clerk was looking out the store window as they pulled away. This worked. The clerk did not put the connection together. He still had no idea that Carol had shoplifted the bag of groceries from his store.

  Three hours later, Rod pulled the car into a shopping center where a supermarket was full of customers.

  “I’m not getting any food here,” Carol stated.

  “We’re not here for food. If you haven’t noticed the sound of the motor for the last two miles, it’s going to die soon. We need new wheels or we’ll be walking. I personally don’t want to walk if I don’t have to.”

  “So you’re gonna steal someone’s car in broad daylight,” Karla asked.

  “Why – does that bother you? If it does, you don’t have to watch. I’ll tell you what, Miss Goody

  Two Shoes – you go into that dollar store over there and wait about 15 minutes, and I will pick you up over there in the parking lot across the street.”

  They all got out of the car together.

  Karla hated how he had just called her Goody Two Shoes. It infuriated her.

  Carol accompanied Karla to the dollar store while Max stayed behind to help Rod if he needed someone to be the lookout for him. Rod agreed that this would be of help.
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br />   Both Rod and Max walked to the end of the parking lot where the employees parked their cars. A rusty Bronco stood waiting for them. It was even easy to break in since the owner never locked its doors. In under a minute Rod had the car hot-wired, and the two of them drove off to the parking lot across the street to wait for the girls.

  It wasn’t long before Carol and Karla spotted them. Karla wanted to run and hurry to get out of there before they got caught. Carol stopped her.

  “You have to walk calmly and act like nothing is wrong or up, or you’ll give us away,” she said to her.

  It took a lot of self-control for Karla to walk like she wasn’t nervous or up to no good. She stayed slightly behind Carol to keep herself from walking too fast and drawing attention.

  “Nice,” said Carol as she took the spot in the front passenger seat that was previously occupied by Max.

  Max held the car door open for his lady to climb inside.

  “Don’t get too comfortable with this beast,” replied Rod, “It’s gonna eat up the gas real fast, unfortunately.”

  The Bronco had only a half of a tank of gas. This got them into Delaware before it ran out. They had two options. One was to stop for gas and risk getting caught for doing a drive away at a gas pump since no one wanted to spend their cash for gas, or they could abandon the car and walk until they found something else to ride in.

  They all voted to walk, except for Karla. She hated walking.

  But the others assured her that they were sure they would find something soon. But they didn’t. The teens found out soon enough, they had a five mile walk before they got close to the highway exit. The whole time they had to stay clear of the breakdown lane. One never knew if a car would come along with a driver who wasn’t paying attention. Last thing they wanted was to get hit by a passing car.

  By the time they got off the highway Karla’s feet were beginning to bother her. She wasn’t used to all this walking. But Max seemed to compensate for her feet. He gripped her hand tightly from time to time. Sometimes she wondered if he was going to cut off the circulation in her hand. What the hell was wrong with this guy, she wondered. Why did he keep hurting her all of a sudden? Maybe he just didn’t know his own strength, she reasoned.