by Nye, Laine
“Sure.” Steve said. “Mom, Dad, this is Gorilla, Smack, J and Spam. It doesn’t matter if you know which one is-which because they all have stupid names attached to stupid people.”
“Steve, don’t provoke them.” Brad told his son.
“They came here provoked. They’re always ticked.”
Gorilla put his face up into Steve’s. “Good to know I don’t have to put up with you much longer.”
They gestured for the family to go out to the living room. As soon as they cleared the doorway, Steve was knocked to the ground by Smack. Brad and Charlene were pushed onto the couch which faced the big picture window at the front of the house.
“Now that we’ve got you all gathered together, I guess you guys would like a real introduction.” Gorilla said while pointing his gun in Charlene’s face. The barrel was only about six inches from her face. She sat there and glared at Gorilla with a look of complete disdain. That expression bothered Gorilla, but she really did it, so he would not see how afraid she was. These creeps had already tried to shoot her once. If it were not for Steve, she and her son would probably have died that day.
She had already surmised that it was that confrontation that led to them being found by Jeff Rowley. The police and everything else that had happened were because of these four punks. Now the creeps were back. She knew they were dangerous. Had become more so.
Gorilla continued with his words of explanation. “Here is your introduction. We are the ones that are going to put you in your graves. Stevey messed with us too many times and now you poor folk have to get punished right along with Stevey boy.”
“You’re a fool Gary.” Steve said to Gorilla. “We were here to do a quick in and out, so the police would not catch up to us in the few minutes we would be here. But like an idiot, you have kept us here too long. Now the police will come bursting in the windows and doors any second, and you will all go down with us.”
Gary the gorilla looked incensed at being called a fool on top of being called stupid but was unsure about the reference to an imminent invasion.
“Just for that, I’m going to shoot your mom first while you watch.”
Steve concentrated very hard. Afraid to use any g-force directly, he tried a different tactic. His concentration began to pay off.
Windows upstairs suddenly began breaking one after another as he put increased gravity in the walls opposite the windows. With a different kind of concentration, he caused the floor above them to start creaking.
“Your too late Gorilla. The SWAT team is already here.” Steve said to him.
Gorilla and his group all looked up at the ceiling as the noises of people stomping around grew heavier supposedly as more men entered the upstairs.
“They are storming the upstairs before they barge in the downstairs, so we won’t have anywhere to go. I think they will shoot on sight as bad as they want us. Mom, Dad, I love you guys.”
Then the group could hear creaking on the stairs getting closer.
Steve changed his concentration to the wall above the couch his parents sat on; Above the heads of Gorilla and Spam. He threw incredible force into the wall and the front picture window blew inward with such force that the curtains were torn right off the wall. Fortunately, the curtains also contained the shattered glass, so it did not hit Brad and Charlene.
The four hoodlums spun as one with their guns pointed at the front window. Steve instantly picked up the couch with his parents on it and flung it through the open window out onto the grass just past the sidewalk that was across the front of the home. The couch landed upright but the forward momentum threw Brad and his wife out of the chair onto the ground.
As the couch was hurtling at the window, Charlene kicked Gorilla in the head with both feet knocking him down. He dropped his gun. Brad scissor locked Spam with his feet and legs and let go only when Spam hit the window frame and tumbled outside. He dropped his gun before he went through the window. Smack was knocked down by the couch onto the floor. Steve then picked Gorilla off the floor as he had done Jeff a few days ago and began to violently slam him up, then down ever increasing the speed. Gorilla lay on the floor stunned when it all finally stopped. Broken glass from the big window had cut his back in several places. Spam and Smack got off the floor and Spam went to jump over the window frame to grab a gun, but Brad grabbed him from behind. Brad had a hold of his head, hands around his face. Brad jerked backwards slamming him onto his back forcefully.
Spam was stunned but he still lashed out by lifting his legs and kicking Brad in the face while Brad was still bent over. Brad staggered back but he would not allow three people to attack his son or for Spam to recover his gun. Spam jumped up and caught a hard blow to his chin before he had straightened up. He shrugged it off and stepped forward to hit Brad when he caught Brad’s foot in the stomach hard enough to double over. Then Brad shoved him backwards so that he fell, hitting his head on the wall of the home. This time he laid still trying to catch his breath and holding his head. Brad was not entirely helpless. His father had taught him a little about how to fight and Brad had not forgotten.
J was still just standing there with his gun arm hanging down. He was confused. He wondered where the SWAT team had gone. Steve turned to J and told him, “I told you these guys weren’t good for you and now I’m going to show you why.”
He picked J off the ground, sent him flying through the front window all the way across the street where J landed on the grass and rolled all the way up to Mrs. Dickson’s house slamming into it hard. He didn’t move. Just laid there groaning with two broken arms and a sprained ankle.
Smack had held onto his gun until Steve had kicked it out of his hand while bouncing Gary up and down. Brad jumped back through the window landing on the unsteady surface of curtains and glass on the floor, just as Smack acquired a gun that had been dropped while Steve and Gorilla were fighting. Before Smack had been able to stand up Brad kicked him in the ribs. Hard. There was a cracking sound and Smack went back down groaning. He still managed to roll over to point the gun at Brad. Brad saw it coming before the gun even came up into firing position and he kicked Smack’s hand and the gun forcefully. The gun flew away cracking against the wall. Smack held the injured hand close to his body with the fingers crumpled up. His other hand wrapped around his stomach holding his ribs.
Spam got up and tried to jump into the house again. Charlene had been inspired by her husband’s moves. She grabbed his face the same way that Brad had done and slammed him back to the ground again, then she backed away to avoid him lashing out at her. Spam got up more slowly, but he wasn’t done yet. He jumped over the window frame back into the house and bent down to grab another pistol that was laying on the floor. Even Smack had managed to get off the floor, so he could retrieve the gun once again. Spam and Smack suddenly found themselves irresistibly drawn together in a tight squeeze facing each other. They could not separate. Forced gravity forced them to stay put.
While Brad contended with Smack and Spam, Gorilla got off the floor minus his gun which Steve had levitated into his own hands. He threw the gun through the open window. It bounced off the back of the couch hitting the ground.
“You and me Gorilla. No friends or guns for you, no gravity for me. Just us. Can you take me? You’re older than me, bigger than me and weigh more. I don’t know how to fight. But I’m going to kick your butt halfway to Mexico. I’ve had enough of you.”
Steve was taller than his father by about two inches. He was rail thin but had very broad shoulders. Gorilla attacked by charging straight at Steve. Steve sidestepped and stuck his foot out to trip Gorilla. He hit him in the back of the head as Gary went by. Gary went down.
He jumped up, turned around to face Steve and caught a powerful hit to the chest that knocked the wind out of him and another to his face that rocked his head back. That was all the blows that Steve would land. Gary started in on him with lightning fast hits to his head, stomach, arms and chest. Steve backed away from him and took a cou
ple of swings at Gary but missed. Gary just grinned at him. “First you. Then your dad. Then your mom.” He said. Then he hit Steve rapidly three more times.
At that moment Spam spoke up.
“Gorilla, I got my gun back, man. I can’t move enough to shoot him. Here, you take it.”
Gorilla turned and stepped toward Spam and Smack. Steve really didn’t like that.
“I said just us.” He roared at Gary.
Gary the gorilla grabbed the gun out of Spam’s hand and Steve picked him off the ground at the same moment and threw him headlong into the same wall that Frank had been pinned to a few days ago. Gary hit with such force, headfirst, that he crumpled to the same table that Frank had been introduced to. Then he rolled to the floor. This time he had a severe concussion after the last two he had already received from Steve. He did not get up. He would still be there when the police arrived.
“Steve, Brad, we have to go. I can hear sirens.” Charlene told them. “Someone must have seen what’s going on and called 911. Hurry Steve.”
Steve nodded to his mom then stepped up close to Spam and Smack.
“All I ever did was try to stop you guys from hurting Nancy. You guys decided to turn it into a war. You almost got me killed because of others that came after me as a result of you guys. For that, you two are going to be stuck together like this for at least the next twelve hours. The cops can arrest you, handcuff you, but they will not be able to separate you. Good luck losers.”
Then Steve punched first one, then the other in the face, hard. He jumped through the window knowing he would never see his family home again. Not wanting to look back because the damage and the blood on the walls and floor was an ugly reminder as to why he would never be back. Brad followed his son out the window.
Brad ran down to the closet at the end of the hall and grabbed a small first aid kit to treat Steve’s bleeding head. Head wounds have a-tendency to bleed heavily when cut open. Brad wanted to get his son’s bleeding stopped where he had been struck by the gun at the back of his head. He ran back down the hall full tilt and jumped out the front window.
They all jumped into the car as they heard multiple sirens coming from several directions. The woman across the street was peeking out her window talking on her phone while staring at them intently.
“Well Mrs. Dickson hasn’t lost her propensity to stick her nose in everyone’s business, I see.” Charlene said.
Brad floored the accelerator and they flew down the road and made a right turn just before a police cruiser came around the bend further down the way that their home was on. Brad made a left at the next intersection to get them out of the neighborhood as quickly as possible. Now he was paralleling the road that they lived on.
They shot out to the major intersecting highway and made a hard right and went about a half mile before they saw a cruiser far down the road coming toward them. Brad immediately flipped off his headlights and braked to a near stop. They turned into a parking lot of a six-story office building. There were three large oak trees on three different sides of the building. Pulled up beside the building where the cop could not see them.
“Steve. Can you put us on the roof by yourself?”
“Yes. I think I can.”
Brad knew his son was tired and that made it harder to control the gravity forces. Brad knew that all too well. Once again, their car was lifted off the ground and when it cleared the height of the building, Steve pulled it over to land on the roof. The oak trees helped to conceal their position.
“What do we do now?” Charlene asked in a tense voice.
Brad answered by asking his son, “How tired are you after all this.?”
“I’m worn out, Dad. That blow to my head has knocked me silly.”
“Then we stay on this roof and get some much-needed rest. We will go down before dawn giving Steve a chance to sleep and rebuild his energy so that he can get us down safely. Meanwhile, we hide from the cops once again. Steve opened the first aid kit and took out gauze and a wrap that he could put around his head to try to stop the bleeding.
“What if they find us up here?” Charlene asked.
“I don’t think they will. But if so, we will improvise at that time.”
“We were so close to Nancy’s back there. I just wish we could swing by and pick her up.”
“We know Steve. It’s a terrible thing how you two are being forced apart because of all this.” Brad told him.
Conversation suddenly stopped. A helicopter flew down the highway with its search light on the highway. They all tensed up waiting to see if it would stop forward movement and hover over them with the lights holding them captive.
The helicopter went on its way. Never noticed. Who would think to look for a car on the roof of a building. The trees around them stopped most of the reflection of their front and rear reflectors. They sat there in the car slowly calming down.
“Can we just try to get Nancy to come with us?” Steve asked.
“What if she does come with us Steve?” Brad asked his son in a kindly voice. “What then? She just abandons her own mom tonight? Just like that? And what about when she gets home sick and wants to come back home? How do we deal with that? What if she inadvertently gives us away by trying to return home? There are so many complications with her coming with us, none of them would be good for your family or for her and her mother.”
“I just want to call her and see.”
Charlene spoke up. “Steve, she is back in our neighborhood where all the police are looking for us. We would get caught.”
“Well, what if she drives her car to us? We pick her up and take off.”
“What if she is under surveillance like we said before. There is a good possibility that she could lead the cops right to us.” Charlene reminded her son.
Steve sighed heavily then had an idea.
“Dad, you know how to lose a tail, right? You could tell her how to shake off the car that follows her and then we could meet her.”
Charlene knew her son would not give up. She had an idea hit her when she remembered the last time she had spoken to Nancy on their driveway.
“Okay Steve. Give her a call.”
She knew what was going to happen as a mother often senses things.
Steve punched in her number on a pay as you go cell phone they had purchased for him. The phone rang four times. Then…
“Hello?” a quiet drowsy voice answered.
“Nancy, it’s me.”
“Steve, are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. I got away but now we have to run. Nancy, I want you to come with us. With me.”
“You got away from the kidnappers?”
“Yes. Thanks to my parents and my grandpa. Nancy get some of your things and come with us.”
“Where are you going?”
“We don’t know yet but we can’t stay here.”
“No. I can’t come Steve. I won’t come. I’m glad you’re safe. But I can’t be with you. I don’t want to be an outlaw. Be on the run. I wish you the best and I will miss you. I love you Steve but… Goodbye.”
A sob. A long hesitation, then, click. The line went dead.
Steve called again.
The call went straight to voice mail.
“She has given you her answer Steve.” Charlene said to him gently. “She already told me that her mom wanted her to stay away from you.”
Steve slumped down in the back seat., head hanging low. Maybe he could try another time. He felt hope for him reuniting with Nancy slipping away into darkness. The subject was dropped by his parents to allow him time to grieve.
One hour later, the silence was broken at last. No one was sleeping.
“Are you sure Phillip will help us after all this?” Charlene asked about Brad’s business partner.
“I don’t know. After everything that has been on the news about us, it’s hard to tell. He now knows that Seth Collins is an alias and knows I‘m wanted in Utah. He may not trust me anymore. If no
t, we will have to find another way out of the country.”
“Will we make it?” She asked as she reached for his hand to comfort her. She put her other hand over her shoulder for Steve to take. They all held hands for several minutes.
“We’ll make it. Look at what we have been through already. The Collins will be just fine.”
“What about the Shaws?” Steve asked.
“The Shaws will be fine too.”