Night of Vengeance

by Miller, Tim

  “I’m sure you’ll find someone to keep you company. Gotta run.” He hopped up and walked out the door without even a kiss. As he climbed into his truck, he smelled himself. Shit. He still smelled like Breanne’s pussy. He dug around in his console and found an old bottle of Old Spice. Pouring some into his palm, he rubbed it all over his neck and hands, hoping it would mask any sex smell he may be carrying.

  On his way to pick her up, he stopped to get gas. His truck was a 1995 Silverado, and rather expensive to fill up. But he had no payments on the thing and it was reliable, so he kept it. As he was pumping gas, there was another truck across from him. The guy pumping gas was tall and ugly, with a nasty scar down the middle of his face. He was wearing a denim jacket and was smoking a cigarette.

  “Hey buddy,” Chad said. “You’re not supposed to smoke near a gas pump. You trying to blow us all up?”

  The ugly guy took a drag of his cigarette, then blew some smoke.

  “You a fire inspector?” the man said.

  “No dude, I’m just—-.”

  “Then how about you just shut the fuck up. Or come and take it from me.”

  Chad’s shoulders tightened and his jaw clinched. He didn’t know who this asshole was, but no one talked to him that way. He put the pump back on the cradle and closed up the gas cap. He walked to the back of his truck and grabbed a tire iron, but before he turned around, the ugly guy was standing right there. The man grabbed his wrist and wrestled the tire iron away.

  “What were you gonna do with this friend? Doesn’t look like you got a flat to me,” the man pushed Chad up against the truck, holding him by his shirt.

  “No, I was just…I,” Chad stammered.

  “You must think you’re a tough guy. Are you a tough guy?”

  “No, no I’m not.”

  “Are you a pussy? You sure smell like pussy.”

  “No, I mean, yes…I mean.”

  “Tell you what. I’ll let this be your warning. I don’t knock all of your pretty teeth out. And you get in your truck and drive the fuck away,” the man said and then he waved the tire iron in front of Chad. “I’ll keep this as souvenir.”

  Another man came walking out of the gas station carrying a case of beer and a bag, walking toward the man’s truck.

  “There a problem Colt?” the man said.

  “No problem,” Colt said. “Just a little misunderstanding. Right boss?” Colt stepped back and patted Chad on the cheek.

  “Uh, right,” Chad said as Colt walked over to his truck and got into the passenger side. As they drove away, Chad watched them, feeling relieved but also angry he’d let himself get punked out like that. Next time he runs into that asshole, he’d be ready. He got into his truck and left the gas station, heading to Melissa’s. He pulled in to the driveway. She still lived with her parents, which didn’t bother him. He just hated going to the door and talking to them. So he sat in the driveway and honked the horn several times before she came running out. She was practically skipping out with a big dumb grin on her face.

  “Hey baby!” she said as she climbed into the truck. He leaned over and kissed her, as she buckled in. “Mmm, you smell good!” she said.

  “Thanks! Just some cologne I found,” he said.

  “Well I like it! So where we goin’?”

  “Well, I thought we’d go to Burt’s Barbecue for dinner.”

  “Burt’s Barbecue?”

  “Yeah! I thought you liked Burt’s,” he said.

  “I do, but it’s Valentine’s day. I was hoping for somewhere nice, like the Brick House.”

  “Shit girl, that place is expensive as hell. Overpriced and they don’t give you shit either. Nah, Burt’s it is.”

  He put the truck in reverse and backed out of the driveway. As he pulled onto the road he almost got hit by a police car as it sped past them.

  “Holy shit! You see how fast they were going?” he said.

  “Yeah, I wonder what happened.”

  “In this town, someone’s windows probably got soaped.”

  Chapter 5

  Clay pulled the truck into the warehouse. There were several other men gathered around a table. They all stood when the truck stopped. Colt and Clay hopped out as the men approached.

  “Hey guys,” Clay said. “We’re back.”

  “Took you long enough,” one of them said. He was tall and muscular, wearing a wife beater that exposed his tattooed arms and chest. “We got everything.”

  “Colt, this is Joe. Joe, Colt,” Clay introduced them both.

  Colt put his hand out, shaking Joe’s hand.

  “I’ve heard good things about you. Hopefully this will be easy enough for your crew,” Colt said.

  “It’s a unique job. That’s why we took it. I’ll show you what we got over here,” Joe said as he turned and walked toward a stack of crates. The men followed him over as he pulled the lid off one of them. In the crate were several sticks of dynamite. He opened the crate next to it which had several hand guns.

  “It’s all here,” Joe said. “Just like you asked. Single sticks of dynamite, small arms and we’ve put together a few dozen Molotov cocktails.”

  “Perfect,” Colt said.

  “All this and we’re not stealing anything?”

  “You can keep anything you steal. For me, this is not about money. There are a lot of stores in this town, plus two banks. I’m sure you can get a lot out of either.”

  “Hey, works for me man. What time are we getting started?”

  “At dusk. Let them all be enjoying Valentine’s Day with their honeys when it starts. Have your men set up outside of town now though. Get everything ready. They won’t know what hit them,” Colt said.

  “You’ve thought this all out haven’t you?” Joe asked.

  “For the last twenty years.”

  “Can’t beat a good plan,” he turned to his crew. “You heard the man. Start moving out to set up! It’s gonna be showtime soon!”

  The men scattered getting into different vehicles and heading out. Joe began unloading items from the crates as Clay turned to Colt.

  “It’s here brother. This is what you’ve been waiting for.”

  “That’s right. It can’t start soon enough.”

  Colt grabbed a duffel bag, and filled it with several sticks of dynamite, Molotov cocktails and one of the guns with a few boxes of ammo. The guns were Ruger SR45s. He carried a .45 when he was sheriff, so it seemed fitting that’s what he used now. Once he had everything, he threw the duffel bag into the passenger seat of the truck.

  “You need me to come with you?” Clay asked.

  “Nope. My part needs to be done alone. You stay here, make sure the rest of the crew is taken care of. Get them anything else they need.”

  “No problem.”

  Colt started the truck and headed into town. The warehouse was just on the outskirts. Peace, Texas had grown since he went away. When he was sheriff, the town’s population was just over two thousand people. The sign when he arrived earlier said they had over ten thousand now. Not a big city by any stretch, but it would definitely make things more interesting.

  He drove by the mayor’s house. He had no idea who the mayor was related to. It was some guy named Stephens, he didn’t know the first name. Briggs’ son was the sheriff. He would be taken care of as well. It was just too bad his dad was already in the ground. If Colt thought digging him up and desecrating his corpse would cause him any suffering, he’d have done it.

  He drove out to where the high school used to be. Now it was a strip mall. There was a Buffalo Wild Wings where the football field used to be, and a Gamestop where there used to be a gymnasium. The new high school was just out past town. It would be outside of their perimeter, so it didn’t concern him. He pulled into the parking lot and shut off the engine. He looked at his watch, it was a quarter after five. Almost time.

  Chapter 6

  Sheriff Briggs raced through town with lights and siren on. He hoped the call was just a prank. Bu
t as he turned onto Main Street and reached the court house it was obvious it wasn’t. He pulled up and climbed out of the car. Deputy Small was already on the scene, of course. Small was always Johnny-on-the-spot, which was fine by Briggs. Let the over achiever have his fun.

  “What in the hell is this?” Briggs asked.

  “It’s a dead body Sheriff,” Small answered. They were both looking at the large tree in the court house lawn that currently had a dead guy hanging from a rope.

  “Well no shit genius. I mean what’s it doing there? Is it suicide or what?” Brigg said.

  “That’s why we do an investigation. I was gonna call the Texas Rangers in a bit so they can get a crime scene team here,” Small said. There was already a crowd of bystanders gathering around.

  “You’ll do no such thing. Cut it down and get it out of here.”

  “What? It’s a death investigation. We can’t just cut it down. This is a crime scene.”

  “I’m the Goddamn sheriff, something you keep forgetting. Now this is Valentine’s Day, or night or whatever. People in this town are gonna be going out to dinner and heading to the VFW hall for the Valentine’s Day ball. They don’t need to see this dead fucking corpse hanging from a tree downtown! Now cut him the fuck down and get this body out of my site. And keep the Rangers out of this.”

  Small shook his head and turned away from Briggs.

  “Suit yourself, we’ll cut it down.” He and the other deputies walked toward the body as a fireman went to get a ladder. As they were standing there, they heard the sound of an explosion. It was so loud Briggs jumped and the ground shook. Then there was another one. From down the road, there was a plume of smoke coming from the fire station, and another from the Sheriff’s department.

  “What the hell?” Brigg said as a caravan of large pickup trucks came rolling down the street. There were at least a dozen of them. In the back there were men all waving guns. They were hootin’ and hollerin’ as if their team just won the Super Bowl. The trucks stopped as the men all jumped out of the back. Townspeople were looking on, some were laughing and taking pictures and videos with their cell phones as if this were some kind of parade. The laughing stopped when one of the men walked up to a woman with a cell phone and shot her in the face.

  From there people began running and screaming, but the men began shooting. Some were just tackling random people and beating them. Briggs drew his gun and ran over to one of the gunman.

  “I’m the Sheriff! You’re under arrest!” he said. What he didn’t see was the other gunman come up behind him and pistol whip the back of his head, knocking him to the ground but not out. He pointed his gun at Briggs but the other stopped him.

  “No, don’t. We’re supposed to leave the Sheriff,” the guy said.

  “Oh, right.” So they took Brigg’s gun and extra magazines, kicked him a few times each and ran off. Brigg’s sat up only to see all hell had broken loose. Across the street, the windows had been busted out of the Subway. Two men were dragging out a female employee, while another was cutting her clothes off. They held her onto the hood of a car and took turns raping and beating her.

  Another man was chasing a woman who tripped and fell right in front of Briggs. She looked at him and screamed. He recognized her right away. It was Donna Price, she worked at the post office.

  “Help me Sheriff! Please!” She reached out to him, but a man kicked her in the back of the head. She rolled onto her back and began kicking, landing a shot to his groin. The man grunted. Briggs saw he had a hammer in his hand. He grabbed her by the hair and smashed her in the face with the hammer repeatedly. After just three or four blows, her face was already unrecognizable. She had stopped fighting, but Briggs could tell she was still alive by the whimpering noises she was making.

  “Aw man, you fucked up her face,” another man said who just walked up.

  “The bitch was kicking me. I had to do something.”

  “Well shit, I guess I can find another one, there’s plenty running around.”

  One of them looked at Briggs who was still sitting on the ground watching the whole thing.

  “Enjoying the show Sheriff? Keep watching. It’s just getting started!” The men high fived each other as they tore Donna’s clothes off and began raping her from behind. Briggs found himself staring at her bare tits and ass. Donna was in her fifties, but she was in great shape. He was almost getting aroused. For a minute he mistook her whimpers for moans as the men took turns with her. The dirty bitch was enjoying this!

  At one point, she got her fight back and began resisting them again, kicking, punching or whatever she could do.

  “This cunt has spirit, I’ll give her that,” one of the men said.

  “She sure does. We gotta save our energy though,” the other one said as he took the hammer and bashed in her head until her brains were oozing through her caved in skull. It didn’t slow the two men down at all. One would fuck her until he was done, and then the other would take his turn.

  “You want a turn Sheriff? She’s still warm. Pussy’s nice and juicy too,” one of them said. Briggs just looked on without saying anything. “Fine then, we’re almost done anyway.”

  Finally Briggs got to his feet and began walking to his car. There was another volley of explosions that rocked him so hard he fell over. As he looked around, he saw buildings were burning, cars were flipped over, and people were running and screaming as there was murder, rape and everything else happening right out in the open. He crawled to the squad car and climbed inside, backing away from the court house. There was nothing he could do here. Time to get out of town.

  Chapter 7

  Melissa sat across from Chad not trying very hard to hide the huge grin on her face. They had already gotten their food. She was nibbling at her food watching him while he stuffed his face with brisket.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said, still smiling.

  “You keep staring at me.”

  “I just like looking at you. You’ve barely said anything since we got here.”

  “I’m trying to eat. Quit staring. It’s weird.”

  She looked away, stung at his words, but figured he’d just had a rough day at work. Suddenly she wasn’t feeling very hungry anyway, especially for barbecue. As she picked at her food, there was a loud noise outside. Then there were gunshots and glass shattering all around them as a large pickup truck tore into the parking lot.

  Melissa fell to the floor as shattered glass fell around her. She looked around but Chad was nowhere to be found. She was afraid he’d been hurt by whatever was going on. After a few more shots, the men from the truck were running through the restaurant screaming and laughing. One of the diners pulled out a gun and opened fire. He hit one of the men, but the others shot the diner several times killing him.

  Melissa crawled under the table and placed her hands over her ears. Some the men went walking through the restaurant, jumping on tables. Some of them went into the back and came out with a bunch of employees at gun point.

  “What’s going on here?” one guy shouted. It was Mr. Darvis, he owned almost all the apartment buildings in Peace. “Do you have any idea who I am? Who you are messing with here?” One burly guy with long hair and a beard pistol whipped him right across his mouth several times. Blood and teeth went flying as Mr. Darvis fell to the floor.

  “Now you shut the fuck up fat man. I don’t give a shit who you are. The important thing is you realize that I’m the one in charge.” The burly guy looked at Mrs. Darvis sitting next to her husband. “This your wife? Hey guys, take this bitch in back. Actually grab all the girls, take them in back. We’ll take turns with them.”

  “What about the men?” another asked.

  “That’s a good question. Fuck it, don’t take ‘em in back. They can watch!”

  “Now you’re talkin,’” another man said as they all laughed.

  They went through and grabbed all the women, including young girls and elderly and dragged them
to the counter. Melissa tried to hold perfectly still as they walked by her table. They had been seated in a corner booth, so she was fairly hidden. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chad crawling toward the exit door near them.

  “Hold on a second champ!” the burly guy yelled as he ran over, grabbing Chad by the shirt and pulling him up. “Just where do you think you’re going?”

  “I was, um, just gonna get some air,” Chad muttered.

  “Right. Get the fuck over here asswipe. You’re lucky I don’t blow your fuckin’ head off right now.”

  “But I can maybe help you,” Chad said.

  “Help me. Help me how? How the fuck could your pretty boy ass help me?”

  “You guys are rounding up all the girls? Right? I’m here with a girl, Melissa. She’s under that corner table over there. It’s hard to see, because the way the seats are,” Chad said pointing in Melissa’s direction.

  What? Why would he do that? She had thought he loved her, that they had something special. And there he was, giving her up to these animals just to save his own skin. She was suddenly startled by a man’s face bending down, looking right at her.

  “Well well, here we go. Come on out of there.” The man reached in, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her out. She glared at Chad who only looked away.

  “Well lookie there. Guess you weren’t lying boss. Some boyfriend you are though huh? Selling your girl out like that on Valentine’s Day. Oh well, she won’t be your girlfriend much longer anyway,” the burly man said.

  “So you’ll let me go?” Chad asked.

  “Let you go? Are you out of your fucking mind? Little bitch like you? You’re gonna stay for the show son. We got lots of goodies planned. You can’t bail on us now.”

  They dragged Melissa to the front, as another man looked her over. This one was short and skinny. He had a beard and shaved head, licking his lips as he looked her up and down.

  “This one’s a fine one,” he took a knife and cut her shirt open, and then cut her bra off exposing her breasts. “Damn, these is nice!” he said as he reached out squeezing them. She pulled away but he quickly held the knife to her throat.