by Laurèn Lee
“Please,” Wayne moaned. “Please don’t.”
“There, there, Wayne. It will all be over soon.” The smirk on his boss’s face revealed pure evil and malice. He showed no remorse for the loss of life he’d caused. He thirsted for more wicked deeds.
“C’mon, pussy,” Jack had teased. “Get up and finish what you started.”
Silence hung in the hair and the tension felt palpable.
Wayne stood. “What did you just say to me?”
“What? You can’t hear me over your own sniffling and begging?”
Wayne spun around, finally removing the shackles of hands which had held onto him all this time. I held my breath and clenched onto Sammy even tighter. It had all come down to this. Would we get out of here alive? And then, in a whirlwind of chaos and hysteria, shots began ringing out and I covered Sammy’s body with my own.
51
Wayne
What my body wanted me to do and what my brain wanted me to do were two entirely different things. My brain knew I should listen to Gino before anyone else died, but my body, my heart, couldn’t let the injustices continue. I decided to let my carnal instincts do the talking instead of listening to the voice inside my head.
In a split second, I grabbed the gun in another guard’s hands and pushed him in front of Jack and shot five quick rounds. As planned, the bullets pierced through this guy’s body and shot straight into Jack’s.
Both men crumpled to the ground, completely lifeless.
Go to hell, Jack.
All hell had broken loose and I knew I had to be quick and get us out of here, or die trying. At this point, I had almost nothing left to live for. Sammy had been taken from me. I couldn’t protect Serenity from these animals. But, I couldn’t die lying down.
The other guards reached for their own pieces and another grabbed my boss and hurried him upstairs and out of the basement. I ducked and a bullet just grazed my ear, but it hadn’t done any kind of damage to slow me down. I tackled the guy who’d fired the shot and consequently avoided several other bullets aimed at my head.
“Kill him!” a voice erupted.
“Not if I kill you all first,” I shot back, literally.
I didn’t have time to cause any further damage to the guard I’d tackled, but I pressed the gun against his stomach and blasted off two more shots. Blood spattered back onto my face as I rolled off him and used him as a human shield against the other two goons coming for me. Luckily, the fat bastard took the most of the shots, saving me from any additional wounds.
I knew the other two men were closing in on me. It was only a matter of time before they tore their friend off me and carried out my death sentence. I knew death was coming, so I closed my eyes and prayed it would be a swift ending. I prayed I wouldn’t suffer. Soon, I’d be with Sammy. We’d be together forever.
And, then a few more shots rang out and silence blanketed the room. I blinked and realized I hadn’t been killed. I was still alive to fight another day.
52
Serenity
Wayne had done some damage, but now they were coming for him. The dead guard lay on top of him, but the other two men staggered closer and closer, each holding their own wounds as they approached Wayne and their fallen friend.
I felt stuck, completely and utterly frozen and useless. I wanted to help Wayne, but what could I do? Then, as if a sign from the big man upstairs, something glittered in the corner of my eye. A gun had been kicked to the side of the room and no one noticed.
I kissed Sammy on his forehead and carefully eased him off my lap. I dashed toward the piece in the corner of the room. Once I’d picked up the gun and felt the heaviness in my hand, I knew our luck was about to change. I had the power, now. The two men didn’t even hear or notice me behind them.
I took a deep breath and tried to steady my hands. If I missed the shot, I’d surely be seen and killed. But, if I could surprise them, I’d save myself and Wayne from the murderous hands of these barbaric assholes.
You can do this, Serenity. Do it for Sammy.
Ready, aim, fire!
One man went down and as the other turned around to find the source of the bullet, I shot him too, square in the forehead. He went down before taking one last, final breath.
I fell to my knees and tried to hold back the vomit lurking in my throat. I’d just killed two guards of a mob boss while my friend, lay dead a few feet away from me. I had to pull myself together, though. I needed to check on Wayne.
Please still be alive. Please don’t be dead.
I army-crawled over to him and heaved the dead man off him. Wayne looked up to me and grinned. “Nice shot.”
“I learned from the best,” I replied. “C’mon, we gotta get out of here!”
For a split second, I nearly forgot Sammy had been killed. Once I saw the white of Wayne’s eyes, relief soothed me and I knew we’d be okay. But then, as it tends to happen, reality knocked me over like a tidal wave.
I helped pull Wayne up and off the floor and he grabbed me by the arms. He closed his own arms around me. The tears I’d successfully banished had returned. We held each other, bruised, bloody and broken.
“You saved me,” he croaked.
“It was my turn to do the saving,” I said as I nuzzled into his shoulder. “How are we going to get out of here?”
Wayne looked around at the scene before us. “I have an idea.”
53
Wayne
I picked up the lifeless body of my fallen brother and put him over shoulders. I couldn’t leave him here. I needed to bring him home.
Serenity gathered all the weapons which had been left behind or belonged to those we’d managed to kill.
“Check how many rounds are left in each,” I instructed.
She opened the cylinders of each of the three weapons and counted each remaining bullet. “We have seven bullets left,” she announced.
I’d been hoping for more, but that’d have to do. She tossed me one and kept the other two for herself. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand.”
Carefully, we climbed the basement steps to the first floor. We listened quietly at the door to see if we’d be ambushed upon stepping out of the doorway.
“I don’t hear anyone,” she whispered.
“Me neither. Remember, make sure to clear the corners before going into a new room,” I reminded her.
“I know. I’ve seen a ton of Law and Order episodes,” she smirked.
How this girl could find humor in a situation such as this was beyond me. I envied her spirit, though. She was stronger and more resilient than she looked.
She nudged the door open and she stepped out first holding both guns in her hands like in the Boondock Saints. She nodded her head which let me know it was safe to come upstairs, too.
Sammy weighed down on more than just my shoulders, the loss of my little brother weighed down my soul. I had to get him out of this shit hole, though. Thankfully, Serenity volunteered to take the lead in our soon-to-be harrowing escape.
“Where do you think your boss is hiding?”
“If I know him, he’s not hiding at all. He’ll be waiting for us somewhere close. We’ll have to outsmart him if we want to live.”
We sidestepped worn-out cardboard pieces on the floor and empty cans which littered the way to the exit. Musty scents lingered in the air, but all I could smell was the rusty, iron scent of blood. Serenity led the way and as I’d instructed and cleared the corners as we approached them. The flickering “Exit” sign hung less than ten feet away above the steel door ahead of us.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” she said. “Where is everyone?”
“Like I said, they’ll be waiting for us somewhere close. If it’s not inside this warehouse, it will be outside. We’re not going to escape so easily. Especially, since we killed some of his men.”
Serenity gulped. “Are we going to make it out of here alive?”
“I honestly don’t know,” I admitted.
Just before Serenity reached to open the door to the outside yard, I told her to wait. “Come here,” I asked. “Look outside.”
She peered out of the window holding her breath. “What? I don’t see anything.”
“Exactly,” I assured her. “But, look, there’s my car.” I reached for my back pocket and retrieved the keys which surprisingly hadn’t been lost in the shuffle.
“Your car!” She gasped. “You mean, we might actually have a way to escape?”
“Tough to tell, but at least we’ll have a shot,” I said. It didn’t look as though my car had been damaged significantly. The tires remained intact and hadn’t been shot down.
“What if they’re hiding outside?”
“It’s a chance we gotta take. Ready?”
“I guess so,” she squeaked.
“Hey,” I said soothingly. “We might not make it out of here alive, but we owe it to Sammy to try. Okay?”
“Okay. If we die, though—”
“Shhhh, try not to think about it,” I interrupted her.
“Please listen,” she urged. “If we die, I just want to thank you for coming into my life. You’ve changed my world and I couldn’t imagine going out in flames with anyone else.”
“C’mon, my pink-haired punk rock princess. Let’s get outta here.”
54
Serenity
You know the feeling of the “walk of shame?” Your hair’s a mess, your makeup is smeared across your face and you feel like everyone is watching you? You feel the heat of fear on your body and wish that in that moment, you were somewhere, anywhere else. That’s exactly how I felt as Wayne and I crossed the threshold of the warehouse’s entryway into the crisp, cool air of the night.
We couldn’t see anyone watching us, but oh, we felt their eyes.
Wayne’s car stood less than a hundred yards away. Freedom was near and yet so incredibly far away. Would we make it? Or, was his boss lurking in the shadows until we felt safety was near only to pounce and kill us both once and for all.
“Almost there,” he said.
“Wayne?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m scared.”
“Me, too,” he admitted softly. “On the count of three, we’re going to run to the car.” He tossed me the keys. “I need you to drive. Start the car as soon as you get in. I’m going to get into the back seat with Sammy. Drive as fast as you can and don’t stop for anything.”
I nodded.
“One, two, three!”
I sprinted to his car and waited for the shots to ring out. Nothing happened, though. I clicked the unlock button repeatedly as we approached the vehicle, so it would absolutely be open once we reached it.
The driver’s door flew open when I yanked on the handle and I jumped inside. I fumbled to put the keys in the ignition. Anxiety and desperation took hold of me. Wayne had gently set Sammy onto the backseat and urged me to hurry up.
“I’m trying!” I cried.
After a few more fruitless attempts, I finally managed to insert the keys in the ignition and start the car.
“There you go! Now, drive!”
I hit the gas and heard the screech of the tires as smoke escaped the rubber. My body flung back against the seat as though I’d actually started a spaceship lifting off into the atmosphere. The yard, fully complete with knee-high grass and abandoned cars passed us faster and faster. The entrance gate was twenty feet away, ten feet away, five feet away, two feet away.
Shots rang out and I violently swerved left; I wasn’t sure if we’d been hit or not. The car stalled out and fear had swooped back into the atmosphere.
Wayne’s boss stood before us with a new set of goons behind him. I counted eight men including his boss. They all had semi-automatic rifles pointed toward us.
We’d come so close to escaping. Now, we’d be killed.
“Get out of the car!” the mob boss demanded.
“Wayne?” I cried. “What do we do?”
“We listen to him and get out of the car.” He sighed.
“He’s going to kill us!” I shrieked.
“Probably,” he said as though it was the most normal thing in the world.
Desperation punched me in the stomach and my breathing quickened. I couldn’t catch my breath. I felt as though I was drowning, sinking into the oblivion of darkness and death.
“I—can’t—breathe—”
Wayne grasped my shoulder from the backseat. “It’s okay. I’ll go first.” He sounded cool, calm, and collected, but I couldn’t figure out why.
He opened the passenger side door and stepped out with his hands up. I imagined as soon as he closed the door behind him, they’d mow him down and come for me next.
“Wayne, no!”
“Shhh. It’s going to be okay, kid,” he assured me.
I couldn’t bring myself to believe him. How the hell would we get out of this one?
“You killed my men,” the boss said angrily.
“You killed my brother,” Wayne growled.
“All’s fair in love and war. Now, lay down your gun and surrender. Your little escapade has taken up far too much of my time and resources.”
“You seem to go to extreme lengths against those who’ve betrayed you,” Wayne said.
“Wayne,” I hissed. “What are you doing?”
“Shhhh!”
“You know I always have punished those who’ve gone behind my back, Wayne. In fact, I believe you helped me out a few times to exterminate such rats. What’s your point?”
“My point is, that you murdered an innocent boy tonight to punish me for betraying you when you’ve got a rat standing right behind you.”
His guards looked around to each other confused.
“What are you talking about? Stop delaying, Wayne!”
“I’m talking about your precious little nephew. If you want to point a gun at anyone, point it at him.”
55
Wayne
All the men including my boss looked back to Jerry.
“Fuck off, Wayne! The only rat here is you, and you know it!” Jerry cried.
“Silence!” Gino called out. “Explain yourself, Wayne.”
“Well, when I was breaking and entering into your house, which by the way was far too easy, I noticed something in your sweet nephew’s bedroom.”
I paused, attempting to create a dramatic effect.
“Go on,” my boss requested.
“Well, you see, when we’d gotten into his room, obviously, we saw a pile of cash on his bed. Which, as you know, belonged to a teenage girl, not Jerry.”
“Are you seriously going to listen to this jackass, Uncle Gino?”
“I will put a bullet in your head right now, Jerry, if you don’t shut the fuck up,” Gino growled.
Jerry cowered and shut his mouth.
“What did you see?” Gino asked seeming intrigued.
“I happened to notice a set of keys on the bed which looked oddly familiar. Have you been missing any keys recently?”
My boss eyed Jerry carefully. “In fact, I have.”
“I figured as much. It was a key I recognized as one I’d used before. The key was to your safety deposit box where, as your closest employees know, is the place you store cash used to pay for your guns you supply to your hitmen. Now, why would little Jerry here have that key? He’s not one of your hitmen. He doesn’t handle your cash. He’s not even on your payroll.”
“Uncle Gino, please listen. He’s lying! For all we know, he planted the key there!”
My boss shot a full round of bullets into the air which showered down, hitting the ground and various parked cars. I cringed hoping one wouldn’t happen to ricochet and hit me, too.
“Please continue, Wayne.”
“Not only did he have the key, but he happened to be on the phone while myself and Serenity hid in his closet. He was talking to a friend about breaking into a safe, taking some additional cash and going on a hiatus. Now, who’s money do you think h
e’d be stealing now? He’d already robbed poor Serenity and her mother. Did someone else happen to have the same exact key as you with a heaping pile of money stashed in a safety deposit box, too?”
Gino turned around and faced his slithering, weak, nephew. “You came to me and cried about one of my men stealing from you, meanwhile, you were planning to steal from me?”
“He’s lying. I swear, I’d never do that to you! C’mon Uncle Gino, you gotta believe me!”
“I knew it was a mistake taking you in after your parents died in that crash,” Gino spat.
The rest of the guards slowly backed away and created a circle around Gino and Jerry.
“You nitwit!” Gino smacked Jerry across the mouth with his gun and caused his nephew to spit out several teeth while blood dripped out of his mouth. “You will pay for this!”
Taking advantage of the distraction, I swiftly opened the front passenger door and urged Serenity to make the next move. “Back up the car, and go out that way!” I’d pointed to the left of us. The car had regained its composure and discontinued stalling.
“Wayne? That’s a fence?”
“Yeah, I know. Drive through it!”
“You’re fucking crazy!”
“Again, I already know. Just do it!” I urged.
Gino pointed a gun at his nephew’s temple and pulled the trigger. Serenity screamed, then put the car in reverse, drove back several feet, put the car back into “Drive.” She blasted through the steel-wire fence to the left of the men blocking our exit. I couldn’t help but smile as shock spread across their faces while we drove away.
56
Serenity
The speedometer read fifty miles per hour as we headed straight into the fence and then through it. The windshield shattered instantly upon impact and both airbags deployed, but I didn’t take my foot off the gas. I drove on despite the bullets which showered us from behind.