Rampage

by Roy A. Teel, Jr.

  Debbie Atwater sat on a bench in Reseda park right next door to her high school on a picnic table, throwing scraps of bread and potato chips down for the ducks near the edge of the pond. Tim was off in the distance with Alan, Jerry, and Mark. The four were talking near the edge of the lake out of earshot. She looked over at them and threw some bread on the ground when she heard Vickie Delgato call out to her. She turned to see Vickie walking slowly in her direction.

  Vickie was five foot four, buxom, and blond. Debbie sat shaking her head as Vickie approached in a pair of short cutoff jeans that showed off way more of her eighteen-year-old ass than they covered, a belly shirt that allowed the bottoms of her braless breasts to be seen as she walked, as well as her belly button piercing that hung free and sparkled in the afternoon sunlight. While Vickie was thin at only a hundred and twenty pounds, her mediocre face with deep set brown eyes and plain Jane features offset her curvy shape. She sat down next to Debbie and handed her her cell phone.

  “Where did you get my cell?” Deb asked. “You left it in first period when you busted out the door with those four over there. What the hell is going on, Deb? We’ve been friends since kindergarten. What are you into with those geeks?” Debbie got an angry tone to her voice and said, “They are not geeks. They are my friends, and if you can’t deal then go away!” Vickie just shook her head as Jerry looked over to see her sitting with Debbie. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, batting her brown eyes and making a kissing gesture. Debbie looked at her and asked, “What the fuck are you doing?” “Saying hi.” “No, you’re not. You’re being a tease. You hate Jerry. You have gone out of your way to treat him like shit since you got those damn tits three years ago.” Vickie laughed and said, “Well, I think that he’s handsome, and I have seen a more masculine side of him over the past few weeks.” Debbie just shook her head and said, “Yeah whatever…thanks for bringing me my phone. I didn’t realize I left it. I’m a little scattered today.”

  “I noticed. I also know that Jerry and Timmy are into some bad shit, Deb. I hope you’re not involved.” Debbie looked over at Vickie and asked, “What are you talking about?” Vickie took some of the crumbs from her and started throwing them to the now quacking ducks. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Jerry told me all about it before he came to the school to get Brian the other night.” Deb sat silent, staring at the water. “Oh, don’t play dumb with me. I know you and what Jerry did to Brian.” Debbie sat silent, throwing the remaining crumbs to the ducks then stood up and walked to the water’s edge with Vickie hot on her heels.

  “It’s not that Brian didn’t have it coming for God’s sake. He was a mean ass mother fucker who was no good…the last time I let him fuck me, he told me how great it was to be eighteen and to have his childhood sealed in the eyes of the law,” Vickie said as Debbie stared out over the water.

  “So…what…he was going to turn over a new leaf? He was going to be a better person now that he was an adult, Vick? Is that what I’m to believe?” Vickie laughed and said, “Oh, hell no…he had all kinds of bad ass plans for keeping up the same behavior and worse. I hated the fuckin’ guy, Deb.” Debbie laughed and said, “Yeah, you hated him…yet you fucked him every chance you got.” Vickie laughed and said, “Yes, yes I did. I let that fucker fuck me anyway he wanted, and you know why?” Debbie just shook her head slowly. “Because I’m not pretty like you. Because I’m not popular…when I started seeing Brian the hate messages and ugly posts stopped on the boards. Because I was popular despite my plain looks.” Debbie looked at her and said, “You have that body…and you don’t miss a chance to use that. You don’t get it, do you Vickie? You would be popular no matter who you were with. You’re hot. You have a great body, and every guy in school wants into those tight ass jeans. You didn’t have to take Brian’s abuse to stop the cyber-bullying or the bullying at school. All you have to do is be yourself. Shit…if you didn’t put out as much as you do, you would probably be even more popular because all the boys would be clamoring to get into your pants, so no one would want to make you angry or say or message bad things about you.”

  Vickie looked thoughtfully as Debbie spoke, and when she had finished Vickie said, “I had never thought of it like that. I will have to give it a try and see what happens. But you changed the subject. What do you know of further plans from those four outside of what Jerry did to Brian?” “No comment!” Vickie threw her head back and said, “Jesus…for a chick with a genius IQ you can be dense. You don’t get it. You’re in this shit. I’m your friend. I’m trying to save you.” Debbie looked down into the sparkling water and said, “It’s too late, Vickie…it’s just way too late for saving me. You are better off getting the hell away from Jerry and the rest of us.”

  Vickie stood for a moment looking at Debbie then huffed and turned to walk away. She was headed for a small bridge that connected the park from the street next to the school, and Debbie watched her walking away and then ran after her. She caught Vickie at the edge of the bridge and said out of breath, “School…school…homecoming is in the next week. Are you going?” Vickie nodded. “DON’T!” Vickie’s face dropped as she looked into Debbie’s tired eyes. “Why not?” “Don’t ask me questions you know I can’t answer. Just don’t come to homecoming. Stay as far away from the dance and the whole thing as you can…okay?” Vickie shivered and Debbie saw it. Vickie looked her straight in the eyes and asked, “Will something bad happen to me if I go to homecoming?” Debbie looked away and said, “I don’t know…if you truly are my friend just listen to me and stay away.”

  Vickie reached out and hugged Debbie and said, “Okay, okay, whatever you say, Deb, whatever you say.” Vickie walked across the bridge and on to school. Debbie watched her until she disappeared between bushes and buildings, and she leaned against the concrete bridge and started to cry.

  Tim had been watching the girls talking while Jerry was ranting on and on about the deep web and the cell sites he was able to access to pull down more and more information for their plan. Tim pulled himself back into the conversation and asked, “How deep are we in the web?” “Deep, brother. Really mother fuckin’ deep. It’s all encrypted shit, man. I’ve been writing code in there for years. None of this pop culture social web for us, man. We are leaving our message to the world with our actions, not on social media in the one percent web world.”

  Tim looked at Alan and Mark and asked, “Where are you two in the planning? Are you in the deep web, too?” They both nodded, and Mark said, “We have a lot of support, man, a lot of support. There are so many of us out there all over the world fed up with the cliques and the school bullshit. It’s really cool when I log into the chat rooms and talk. People are not just listening…man. Tim, they understand…they understand what we have been and are going through and support us a hundred percent. It’s love, man; it’s pure love.”

  Mark was tearing up, and Tim and Jerry looked at him, and Jerry said, “Dude…we know you’re gay…we know you liked the ass fucking you got from Rocky and Brian and the rest of those fuckers at camp. We didn’t, and two of those fuckers are dead. Now, you want to turn your attention to your homo lover target, who, last month, first pissed and shit in one of the school toilets along with Rocky, Brian, Johnny, and Billy then ripped off your pants and underwear, bent you over the bowl, shoved your face into their shit, and raped you with ten different bottles and pipes?”

  Mark started to tear up again but with the tears came a look of rage. “Those fuckers…Jesus Christ. I was in the hospital for two weeks.” “You remember it, Mark? Remember when Tim and I walked into the bathroom?” Mark nodded. Tim said, “And there protecting the door was Coach Hameln and Coach Dell while those fuckers did that to you.” Mark nodded slowly and said, “I’m their star running back, and Hameln just laughed as did Dell. I remember hearing them both taunting those fuckers, ‘Give it to him hard, boys…he likes it hard.’ Fuckin’ Dell was there watching, and he has fucked me at least fifty
times in the past three years. He told me later that he couldn’t step in and stop it. He said if he did then they would know he was gay and that he loved me.”

  Jerry said, “Well, you have some targets here, and we don’t want them alive for the rest of our event, so what are you going to do about it?” “I’m having dinner at Brad Dell’s house tonight. Now that my ass is healed he wants to ‘get him some of that’ as he said to me this morning, and I will kill him in his sleep.” Tim handed Mark a field knife that he got from his father and said, “This fucker can practically field dress an animal with the slightest touch…it will kill real good for you.” Jerry said, “Okay…so Mark takes out Dell tonight. I’m going to take out Hameln, and Tim, you’re going to take out Johnny.” There were head nods all around, and as they were preparing to part, Debbie walked into the middle of the four.

  She had heard enough to know what they had planned and said, “That’s too many killings for one night. If you do it, the cops will know right away that there is a much larger plot afoot, and we will all get caught.” Jerry pushed her and asked, “So what do you want us to do, just sit on our hands? We have a plan.” Tim pushed Jerry and said, “Don’t you ever treat Debbie like that again. She is only looking out for all of us, you asshole.” Debbie had no reaction. She just looked at Tim and said, “It’s true, Timmy…you know that what I’m saying is true.” Tim nodded and said, “Jerry, stay the fuck home. Do more of your deep web shit and post more of our manifesto. There’s still a lot that you need to put up on the plan, so others can follow in our footsteps. Debbie is going to stay with me at my place tonight, so we have alibis in the event we need one.

  “Look, Mark, you take out Dell tonight, but don’t let anyone see you at his house.” Mark started laughing, “The fucker’s the assistant coach of the varsity football team. He’s in the fuckin’ closet. Do you think that he and I have been carrying on for years at his house in plain sight? Shit, man, you don’t know the lengths that closet fags go to to keep their secrets. No one has ever seen me with him, and no one ever will. I will, however, make sure that I leave a bloody and fucked up crime scene that shows he’s a closet fag, and that he got killed by a jealous male lover.”

  Tim laughed and asked, “And just how the fuck are you going to do that?” “Coach Dell doesn’t know it yet…but his wife got a text from his phone, telling her to be home at ten p.m., that her man has a special surprise for her.” Jerry and Tim started laughing as did Alan and Debbie. Alan said…“You didn’t?” Mark nodded emphatically, “Oh, but I did…I grabbed Dell’s cell while he was in the gym and sent that bitch a text. She is going to walk in while he’s pounding away on my sweet, tight, eighteen year-old ass, and there’s a shotgun that Dell keeps next to the dresser in his bedroom that is next to the door, and Mrs. Dell is going to grab that fucker and blow his balls off before she gets her throat slit by the jealous other man.”

  Tim asked, “And you have the clothing and other belongings to leave behind from the ‘killer?’” Mark nodded slowly. Debbie asked, “And who is the killer supposed to be?” Mark started laughing and said, “His secret lover, Coach Trent Hameln.” The whole group broke out into laughter as they started to walk back to the school and into the battle zone.

  Margo Dell was typing away on her keyboard at her law office when she got a text from her husband, Brad, about a surprise for her later that night. She smiled and put her cell phone back on her desk as she continued to type on the brief that was due in court for Judge Larry Robinson in a case she had been assigned as a public defender. She was typing like crazy, trying to get the brief completed, so she could leave the office before midnight for the first time in several weeks. She was excitedly humming and said to herself, “I hope he makes the garlic chicken. It’s so great.”

  Chapter Seven

  “She’s just a casualty of war,

  babe. Collateral damage.”

  Sara had just finished her rounds when she got a page from Karen that she needed her, but she had been too busy to respond timely. Sara pulled some charts from one of the nurse’s stations and put the cup of coffee she was drinking from one of the ER vending machines between her teeth to hold as her hands were full and walked to the elevator to head for Karen’s office. Sara had her medical records computer in her hands, and she was reading an electronic chart while waiting for the elevator. She looked down at her watch, and it was twenty after three. Sara was so into her log computer and other things that she didn’t notice the buxom blond girl standing next to her waiting for the elevator as well. The two entered, and Sara stood with the cup clinched between her teeth reading as Vickie Delgato asked, “What floor, Doctor?”

  Sara looked down to see Vickie’s bright eyes beaming back at her and said, “Five, please,” with the paper cup still in her mouth. Vickie pressed the button and said, “That’s where I’m going, too, and you must have office hours up there?” Sara laughed into her cup and said through its echo, “No. A colleague of mine has buzzed me for a consult.” The elevator opened, and Sara walked on to Karen’s office with her little friend right next to her. Sara wasn’t paying attention, and she heard the ring of a cell phone, and the girl stopped and stepped off into a corner of the hall. Sara shrugged and kicked the outside of Karen’s office door until Karen answered it.

  “Oh for crying out loud, Sara. You’re not a damn circus performer. You look like a trained seal.” Sara laughed as Karen took some of the files out of her hands, and she was able to take the cup out of her mouth and said, “Well, there are times when I sure as hell feel like one.” Karen laughed and walked Sara back to her office.

  Vickie was standing in a corner two doors down from Karen’s office talking quietly on the phone. “You have the night free? I thought you had things to do tonight?” Jerry Pinskey was standing in the student parking lot at the high school off in a corner away from eyes and ears as he spoke to Vickie. “Well, I don’t have a free night. I have some homework, but outside of that I’m horny. You want to come over and fool around?” Vickie sighed into the phone, “Is that all it’s ever going to be, Jerry? I come over, and you get your rocks off in me, and then I sit and watch you play one of your stupid video games or work on your laptop? I want some romance. At least take me out for dinner.” “Okay. Where do you want to go?” “Um…somewhere romantic!” she said with excitement.

  “I don’t do romantic. We are not a romance, Vickie. You fill my needs, and I fill yours.” “Yeah, well, you haven’t been keeping up with fulfilling my needs sexually lately, so if I’m going to get fucked I at least want a nice meal.” Jerry was curt, “Fine. Where?” “Brown’s Place.” Jerry’s face got red as he yelled into the phone, “Brown’s Place…Jesus, Vickie, that place is expensive.” “Well, so are my assets…and you know exactly what I mean. I give you all those porno fantasies that you want to fulfill with my body. You can buy me a nice damn meal, Jerry, unless…” There was a pregnant pause before she continued, “you just want straight vanilla missionary sex with no other holes in play.”

  Jerry pulled the phone close to his lips and said in a whisper, “So, I take you to Brown’s Place, and I get to do whatever I want to you?” “You got it, big boy…within limits…I don’t mind the bondage stuff, but I don’t want you to hurt me like you did a few months ago with those whips…what’s the sense in having a safe word if your partner isn’t going to listen?” Jerry had a raging erection, and he looked down to see his pulse in his jeans. “I will recognize your safe word. I will do anything you want. A romantic dinner, it is. Money is no object.” Vickie laughed and asked, “Are you going to have Tim, Alan, and Mark over to play? I know how obsessed you are with thinking that you can swing Mark straight with straight sex, but it isn’t working. He did me once, and it was in the ass and in the dark, and I couldn’t say anything. He told me he was fantasizing about you.”

  Jerry got pissed off and said, “He didn’t fuckin’ say that, and you know it. He told me he enjoy
ed the sex with you. You’re just trying to piss me off.” Vickie laughed and told him that he caught her. She asked, “So, will the guys be with us?” “No…Tim is hanging out with Debbie, and Alan has some homework to do as well, but he’s doing it alone, and Mark…well Mark has a date with his boyfriend.” Vickie laughed and said, “He’s going back to fuckin’ Dell after what he and Hameln helped the others do to him?” “Well, yes and no…there’s going to be a touch of revenge…okay… a shit load of hardcore revenge.”

  “Like what you did to Brian?” “Oh no. What he’s going to do to Dell makes what I did to Brian look like candy land.” Vickie looked around the office corridor and asked, “When is he doing it?” “Tonight about ten. That’s why I need you. I need an alibi, and if I get you fed early, I can be fuckin’ you while he’s fucking up Dell and his wife.” “What does Coach Dell’s wife, Margo, have to do with anything? She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  “She’s just a casualty of war, babe. Collateral damage.” Vickie was quiet for a few seconds and then said, “Pick me up at home at six.” “What time is it now?” he asked. “Three thirty-five.” “Okay, I will see you then.” Jerry hung up and started back across the student parking lot for classes. Vickie hung up and looked down at the phone and then the floor and then Karen’s office door. She whispered to herself, “I have to have someone I can talk to. I can’t keep this all in. This doctor has to help me and Debbie and maybe save Mark and Margo.” She walked down the hall and knocked on Karen’s door.