Desperate Times 2 Gun Control

by Nicholas Antinozzi

  He rode the Skidoo at a little more than idle speed, creeping within a quarter mile of Bailey’s before killing the engine. Jimmy wished for some type of weapon. He rummaged in the machine’s tool kit, but there was nothing there that seemed even remotely lethal.

  Rubbing his stiff neck, Jimmy set out into the woods on foot. The warm temperatures of the past days followed by the freeze had hardened the old snow, and the three inches of fresh powder absorbed the sound of his footsteps. He moved quickly, choosing a route that would take him well behind the mess hall and around the main house to the fish shacks. He would follow the shoreline roughly two hundred yards, and with any luck Julie would be waiting alone inside her cabin. He knew it was a poor plan, but he couldn’t see any other options.

  Jimmy was certain that this is what Ken would want him to do and knowing that is what drove Jimmy now, just as it had motivated him in the past. Jimmy could see lights glowing inside the mess hall. He was perhaps one hundred feet behind the long building, moving like a shadow from tree to tree. Jimmy knew that the inside lights would make it nearly impossible for anyone inside the mess hall to see him.

  Jimmy slipped behind the mess hall, and then it was a five-minute jog through a pine forest to where the fish shacks stood at the far end of the shoreline. Jimmy reached the final tree at the end of the wooded point and stopped to catch his breath. This was where things would get dicey. There was still plenty of light to see him, and he had two football fields of open land to cross. If anyone was watching for him, there was no place to hide. Jimmy found that his strained neck was positioned perfectly for peering around trees. The next sound hit him like an avalanche.

  “Jimmy,” Bill’s voice called softly from barely ten feet away. “It’s me, Bill.”

  Jimmy’s heart began to mule-kick, and his stomach fell flat. He couldn’t believe his ears.

  “Mars is waiting at Julie’s; he thought you might turn around,” Bill quietly called from somewhere very close.

  “Why would you tell me that?” Jimmy asked. “Why did you throw me under the bus?”

  “I didn’t throw you under the bus. Mars is a pretty smart dude, man.”

  “Quit talking like that!” hissed Jimmy.

  “He thought Ken would leave you a gun, and he was right. He made me do the search at Julie’s while he watched. I didn’t throw you under the bus.”

  “You told Julie about Jasmine.”

  “I did not! I didn’t tell anyone!”

  “Keep quiet, liar.”

  “I ain’t lying. Somehow he knew about that; maybe Jasmine really did tell him. How the heck should I know? I wouldn’t rat you out. You’re my best friend.”

  Jimmy closed his eyes and groaned. “You sure have a strange way of proving that. I’m not leaving here without Julie, understand me?”

  “That’s why I’m here. I’m your wingman.”

  Again, Jimmy groaned.

  They made their way into Bill’s shack and slipped inside as the storm really began to rage. The little shack looked as if a bomb had exploded inside of it. “Unbelievable,” said Jimmy. “You’re such a slob.”

  Bill turned down the blinds, and they sat in near darkness, speaking in hushed tones. Jimmy still had a lot of questions, and they had some time. They still needed to come up with a plan to rescue Julie. “How did Mars find out about Jasmine?” Jimmy asked for a second time.

  “I told you, I don’t know, man.”

  “If you call me ‘man’ one more time, I am going to break your neck.”

  “Sorry. How’s your neck?”

  Jimmy could feel his left earlobe involuntarily touching his left shoulder blade. He gave Bill a cold look and said nothing.

  “Yeah,” said Bill, “that’s what I thought. Look, Doc knows everything. He’s in there with Julie and Mars, taking off her cast. I filled him in, and he suggested that I wait for you out there in the woods.”

  Jimmy cursed himself for being so transparent. Everyone seemed to know what he’d do, even before he had. He was going to have to change that. “Does he want to leave here? What about Burt? Is he ready to come home?”

  “You don’t get it. We don’t want to come home. We just want to get rid of Mars.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Bill reached over and grabbed Jimmy’s wrist and did so with considerable strength. “We like it here, Jimmy. We like it here, just fine. Pluto is a good man, and I like not having to carry a gun. I like the idea that nobody here carries a gun. We all feel the same way.”

  “Burt never said that. You’re full of shit.”

  “Okay, maybe not Burt, but Doc and Julie did. Cindy is never going back, either. They don’t want to leave. We’re all hoping that you’ll find a way to get rid of Mars. He’s a crazy bastard.”

  Jimmy groaned. Why couldn’t they see the truth? They needed to get out of here before something really bad happened. He stood from the table and walked over to the window and cracked the blind with his finger. What he saw there was enough to make his heart grow cold. Mars stood outside of the window. He held the .45 in his right hand and was smiling at him. Four solid men stood behind him, each armed with a wooden baseball bat. They stood still, and Jimmy wondered how long they had been there. “Oh shit,” Jimmy said.

  “That’s right,” Mars said from outside in the snow. “Oh shit—that pretty much sums up your situation. Can you hear this? That was the sound of your door being padlocked. These men are here to make sure you two don’t try anything stupid. Good night, gentlemen. Julie’s waiting for me in my bed or I’d take care of you both right now. That woman is insatiable.”

  “You’re full of shit, Mars!” Jimmy shouted.

  “I beg your pardon?” asked Mars, with a delighted touch of malice. “She says that she’d never met a real man before she met me. Sorry if that hurts. Do you know what I like about her, man? She never says no.”

  “Stop it!”

  “She doesn’t even know the meaning of the word.”

  “Stop it!”

  Mars then laughed like a screaming banshee, and his voice sounded muffled in the swirling snow. Jimmy’s fists were clenched so tightly that he thought his fingers might break. He heard Mars instruct the men to surround the fish shack and to bash the brains out of anyone who tried to escape. “I’ll deal with the two of you tomorrow!”

  “Coming here was stupid,” groaned Bill. “We’re screwed, man.”

  “Don’t say that!” hissed Jimmy.

  “Oh,” whispered Bill. “I’m sorry, poor choice of words.”

  Chapter 28

  Jimmy had never spent any time in a jail cell, but he was sure it had to be a hundred times better than this. He tried his best to push what Mars had said out of his thoughts. Bill began complaining about his own stupid problems, and Jimmy had to block him out, too. Minutes seemed to last for hours. He could hear the men outside, talking and laughing. Jimmy searched Bill’s shack for a weapon, but all he found was plastic silverware and stubby fishing poles. He cursed his luck and studied his limited options. He thought about kicking out the door and throwing Bill out. And the more Bill began to complain, the more seriously Jimmy contemplated following through with that plan.

  Sometime after dark, Jimmy quit his pacing and finally fell back on the rumpled little bed opposite from where Bill lay. Bill had quit grumbling and seemed to have fallen fast asleep in only a few short breaths. Jimmy closed his eyes and waited for sleep to take him. He would be waiting for a very long time.

  “What time is it?” Bill asked, standing up in his baggy white underwear and scratching himself.

  “Time to get dressed,” Jimmy said. “I think something is happening out there.”

  “I hope so, I’m really hungry.”

  Outside the storm seemed to have tapered off, but the wind had really picked up since last night. Jimmy stared out the window, and he could see that the storm had dropped at least a foot of snow that was now drifting into blinding white dunes. Jimmy thought that their cont
ingent of guards had been reduced to a single man, although he couldn’t be absolutely sure. The tall man, whoever he was, looked angry as he slowly circled the fish shack. He was armed with a wooden baseball bat he held it against his shoulder like a soldier carries a rifle. Jimmy turned away from the window and was happy to see that Bill had dressed.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Bill asked. He held an open jar of peanut-butter; he scooped two fingers full and stuck them into his mouth. He then held the jar out to Jimmy.

  “No, thanks,” said Jimmy, shuddering. “Something was going on, I heard someone screaming up there, somewhere.”

  Bill scratched his ear with his peanut-butter fingers as he thought about this. “Screaming, huh?” he asked. “That can’t be good.”

  Jimmy shook his head. He was wondering about how Mars was playing this out with the others. Where was Doc or even Burt? Jimmy knew that if either man knew that he was being held prisoner, that they would demand his release. Mars must be keeping it under wraps. Jimmy watched as Bill continued to devour his breakfast. Bill’s mouth opened and closed as he mechanically worked his jaw, and the smacking sounds he made began to turn Jimmy’s empty stomach. Jimmy suddenly heard a familiar voice. Mars was outside the door talking to their guard. A moment later Mars opened the door and walked inside.

  “Is it time to eat?” Bill asked, setting the jar down on the table. “I’m starved.”

  Mars looked at him and chuckled as he brushed the snow from his perfectly feathered hair. “No, it’s not time to eat. You’ve eaten your last meal here.”

  “So, you’re letting us go?” asked Jimmy. “What about Julie? What about the others?”

  Mars held up a finger as he unzipped his jacket. The Colt was stuffed into the front of his blue jeans. “Jimmy,” he said. “I don’t like you, not even a little bit. I could kill you. I could kill the both of you, and believe me I’ve thought about it. But what would that solve? Sure, you’d be out of the way, but another guy like you would just show up and take your place.”

  “What do you mean?” Jimmy asked, standing at the window and watching Mars as he sat down heavily at the table.

  Mars removed the .45 and placed it on the table. “You don’t understand anything, do you? Ya know, when I first met you, I thought you were pretty sharp. I can see that I was wrong about that. Let me spell it out for you. I was the one that put this all together. Sure, it took Pluto’s money to make it all happen, but I was the guy who arranged everything. I made all the provisions and saw to it that we had the right people in place to make this thing work. I was very careful about that. I was very selective about who I chose to live up here. Can you dig it? I didn’t want any competition and then you showed up.”

  Jimmy shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to compete with you. I already had someone and you knew that.”

  Mars pointed across the table to Bill. “This guy was telling everyone about how all the girls melt when they see Jimmy Logan. And you know what? I was fine with that until your precious girlfriend smashed her face in. Did you think that gave you the right to steal from me? Your woman was damaged goods, and you thought you’d just take one of mine? Did you really think that I would allow that to happen?”

  Jimmy could see that he was dealing with a crazy man with an ego the size of Lake Superior. He knew he had better tread lightly or Mars and his Colt could go off at any moment. Mars was in control here, and as much as Jimmy wanted to bash his brains out, he knew that he’d be a dead man before he got halfway across the room. He thought about this as Bill picked up the jar of peanut-butter and dug deep.

  Mars turned away from Bill and continued. “I knew this was coming for six years. Pluto and I spent every hour of every day painstakingly planning this out. We wanted to create a beautiful world of our own. We called in favors. You don’t see the National Guard rounding our people up, do you? Can’t you see what I’ve created for myself? This is how I envisioned Utopia.”

  “That is so cool,” said Bill. “That’s exactly what I would have done.”

  “Shut up, Bill!” barked Jimmy.

  “I was just saying that he had a good plan,” muttered Bill. “He’s living my dream.”

  “Damn right I am,” said Mars. “And then Jimmy Logan shows up and tries to take it away from me.”

  “I did no such thing.”

  “What about Jasmine?”

  “She came onto me! Nothing happened, nothing at all. If she wasn’t dead you could ask her yourself.”

  “Oh, how convenient! After Jasmine it would have just been somebody else. Face it—you and I aren’t so different. The world is our bakery, and we just have to sample as much of it as we can.”

  “No, you might be like that. I’m not like that at all.”

  Mars grinned at Jimmy and shook his head, tossing his long locks from side to side. “Go ahead and lie to yourself if that makes you feel better. We both know the truth. You’re a horn-dog, just like me.”

  “That’s right,” smacked Bill. “You’re a horn-dog.”

  “Shut up,” hissed Jimmy. “That’s goddamn bullshit and you know it! I’m in love with Julie and would never mess around on her.”

  “I can see that you’re not going to make this easy for me,” Mars said, standing up and tucking the Colt back into his pants. He picked up his jacket and put it on, leaving it unzipped. “You know what? You’re a convincing liar, I’ll give you that. She might even believe you.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Mars only smiled as he moved towards the door. “Liar,” he said again. He then opened the door and stuck his head out into the wind. “You can send her in now!” he shouted.

  A moment later, Julie was pushed inside Bill’s fish shack. Someone had bound her hands with tape, and a wide hunk of it covered her mouth. She ran straight for Jimmy and tearfully buried her head into the crook of his neck. Jimmy could feel his face redden as molten anger raced through his veins. “What have you done to her?” he demanded. “You dirty son of a bitch!”

  Mars was now holding the Colt trained on Jimmy’s forehead. He casually stood there for a moment, wearing a confident smile. “I wanted her to hear what you had to say, that’s all. I was hoping that you’d come clean, but I should’ve known that you wouldn’t. Just sit tight. After the storm is over you can all head back to wherever the hell you came from. I’m done with you. I’m done with you all. Don’t you dare come back, do you hear me? If you do, you’re a dead man. I’ll kill you all, and I’m just the guy who can do it. I promise you that.”

  And with those last words, Mars gave them a quick wave and disappeared out the door. Jimmy quickly removed the tape from Julie’s face and held her by the sides of her head. She was crying, but her face looked as beautiful as Jimmy had ever remembered seeing it. Her hair had grown out some and looked to have been styled. Jimmy’s heart soared until Julie opened her mouth.

  “I was drugged,” she moaned. “Oh God, Jimmy, I don’t know what happened last night. I think he raped me!”

  “Are you sure?” asked Bill.

  “She’s a liar!” shrieked Mars from the other side of the plywood wall.

  “I am not lying!” screamed Julie, in such a tortured voice that Jimmy wanted to scream himself. His head was pounding with a furious anger.

  “I didn’t drug you! You loved it and you know it!”

  Jimmy roared with a primal scream that lasted nearly ten full seconds. “I am going to kill you, Mars, if it’s the last thing I do. Do you understand me? I’m going to make it painful!”

  Bill stepped in front of Jimmy and held his hands to his lips. “Quiet,” he whispered. “He’s got a gun.”

  Jimmy shoved Bill out of the way and ran to the door. He leaned back and kicked at the jamb. Jimmy’s rubber Sorel boot slammed hard against the heavy door, and suddenly the door was held only by a single hinge and the hasp lock on the outside. Jimmy reared back to finish the job.

  A single gunshot exploded from the other side of t
he shack. Jimmy suddenly saw a quarter-sized hole of light appear straight ahead at eye level in the center of the hanging door. He immediately ducked for cover, as did Bill and Julie.

  “Did I get you?” Mars asked, in a gleeful voice. “Sorry about that—my bad. These things are so touchy.”

  “You bastard!” screamed Julie. “You dirty rotten bastard!”

  Jimmy stole a look behind himself and saw the gaping exit hole. The bullet had missed him by mere inches.

  “Julie,” hissed Bill. “Let’s live to fight another day.”

  “Yes, Julie,” agreed the unseen Mars, his voice lilting on the vowels of her name. “That is sound advice and from the village idiot, no less. Just the same, I think you’d better take it.”