Boom Boom cocks her handgun and places it against the back of River’s head. “If you so much as attempt to stand up, I will blow your brains out. Do you understand me?”
River slowly nods her head. I know precisely why Boom Boom is acting so bad-ass. She would never in a million years really shoot River in the back of her head, but she has to make her believe she will so she doesn’t continue to struggle. If Pitbull runs over here and sees River putting up a fight, he will not hesitate to bash her skull in. River has no way of realizing it, but Boom Boom is actually saving her life.
Speaking of the devil, Pitbull is the first one to catch up with us. He explodes out of the brush and skids to a halt, nearly careening into me.
Keeling over and struggling to catch his breath, Pitbull pants, “Did you… you… you got her?”
“No, we smuggled her aboard a plane and helped her escape,” Boom Boom says sarcastically. “Yeah we fucking got her!”
“Bitch,” Pitbull says with a smirk. He slaps me across my back, nearly sending me face-first into the dirt. “Good work, by the way. It would have sucked major donkey balls if the jungle bitch escaped.”
Almost everyone else arrives moments later. I roll my eyes when Alex rushes over to Boom Boom and gives her a hug.
“You okay?” he says, his forehead touching hers.
Boom Boom smiles and says, “Yeah, I’m okay.”
Someone slaps me on the shoulder, causing me to twirl around and pull back my first.
Jesse grins and says, “What, you gonna punch me out?”
I lower my arm and stammer, “Sorry about that. I’m just on edge.”
Jesse glances over at River, who is still on her knees, her head lowered to the ground. “Awesome, you got the jungle bitch.”
I furrow my brow and frown. Does everyone really need to keep referring to River as a jungle bitch?
Jesse saunters up to River and kneels down in front of her.
“Hey.”
River ignores her.
Jesse grabs River by her hair and pulls it back, forcing her head up.
“Hey, I’m talking to you!”
River spits in Jesse’s face.
“You fucking cunt!”
Jesse punches River right in her mouth, sending her toppling into her side. She then starts kicking River in the ribs.
“Jesse, stop it!” I shout, pulling her away.
Jesse tears herself out of my grasp and hollers, “Whose side are you on anyway, Lance? In case you’ve forgotten, she’s the enemy! She’s helping Klaxton!”
“That may be true, but she’s not a threat at the moment! Her hands are cuffed behind her back! There’s no reason to attack her when she can’t even defend herself.”
Jesse scoffs. “Quit acting like a little bitch, Lance. That’s a huge turn off for me.”
Jesse storms over to Pitbull, muttering under her breath.
Krystal bursts out of the nearby brush and keels over in front of me. She’s the last member of our little group to arrive.
“Krystal, are you…?”
I’m interrupted by the sounds of Krystal puking. I jump back just as copious amounts of vomit explode out of her heaving mouth and splash all over the jungle floor.
“So gross,” I mutter as I rub the toe of my vomit-splattered boot against a tree.
“I’m too voluptuous for this shit,” Krystal gasps, wiping the vomit from her chin.
She then vomits some more. Pitbull cackles, finding the whole situation quite hilarious. The rest of us look away so we don’t get sick.
“You sure you meant to say voluptuous?” Pitbull chortles. “Didn’t you mean to say morbidly obese?”
Still keeled over and wiping chunks of vomit from her lips, Krystal pants, “If I wasn’t so… so damn exhausted… from all that damn running… you assholes made me do… I would march over there… and punch you in your cyborg balls.”
Krystal’s cheeks bulge out like a chipmunk’s and she starts spewing vomit all over again. Ax holds the back of her wig while she empties the contents of her rather large gut. The rest of us keep our distance and do our best to ignore Krystal’s unpleasant heaving noises.
Pitbull marches over to River, grabs her by her throat, and lifts her high into the air. River gags and kicks her feet in a desperate attempt to suck precious oxygen into her constricted windpipe.
I dash over to Pitbull and start pounding on his metallic arms.
“Pitbull, what the hell are you doing?! Put her down!”
Pitbull sneers down at me and says, “I’m beginning the interrogation process, chump. Now get out of my way.”
Pitbull shoves his right shoulder into me. A explosion of pain rocks my body as I collapse onto the ground. Getting hit by Pitbull’s metal shoulder is like getting hit by a truck.
I slowly push myself up and watch in horror as Pitbull slams Journey up against a tree. Against my better judgment I stagger back over to Pitbull and pull back on his right arm. Pitbull slams his shoulder into me yet again, sending me flat on my ass.
I’m just about to blast him with my electric glove when Grenade storms over and barks, “Put the girl down, Pitbull, or I’ll tear out your intestines and shove them down your throat!”
Pitbull sneers at Grenade. “I’d like to see you try, old man.”
Now Yang marches over, wielding her katana blade. “Both of you shut up! You’re acting like petulant children. And Pitbull, put the girl down. We can do the interrogation back at the compound.”
Pitbull glowers at Yang. For a moment I’m afraid he’s going to deck her, but he eventually decides against that and turns back toward River, who’s still dangling from his right fist. River’s eyelids start to flutter, a sign that she is on the verge of asphyxiation. Several nerve-wracking seconds later, Pitbull releases his iron grip, causing River to collapse to the ground, gasping for air.
“You all are a bunch of little bitches,” Pitbull growls as he picks River up and effortlessly slings her over his shoulder. “Let’s head back so we can get this shit over with.”
Boom Boom helps me up and quietly says, “You okay?”
“Yeah. Pitbull’s just an ass,” I mumble.
“I’m quite aware,” Boom Boom says, rubbing my left shoulder. “That was a brave thing you did. I was about to shoot Pitbull in the eyeball, so you thwarted not one but two homicides.”
“Bummer, if I had known that I would have waited longer to intervene,” I crack.
As we make our way back to the plane, I walk behind Pitbull so I can keep an eye on River. Blood oozes from her nose and drizzles down Pitbull’s back, but he apparently doesn’t notice or care. Occasionally River’s eyelids flutter open and she stares at me. At one point she even opens her mouth to say something, but then her eyes glaze over and her entire body goes limp. She put up a good fight, but Pitbull’s brutal thrashing was just too much for her small body to handle. She’ll probably remain unconscious for a few hours, if not longer.
All I know is that before this night is over, Pitbull will kill her. That is, unless we do something about it. What that something is, though, I have no idea. Well, I have one idea. But will it work? We’ll have to wait and see.
*
By the time we get to the chopper and fly back to the compound, it’s late in the afternoon. While Pitbull takes our new ‘prisoner’ down into the dungeon, Boom Boom goes to work treating my neck wound. First she cleans it out with a cloth, then she pours rubbing alcohol all over it. I try to act tough and macho, but the tears streaming down my cheeks give me away. To her credit, Boom Boom doesn’t say anything (although Krystal feels the need to point and laugh and call me a little bitch). Boom Boom just barely finishes applying a bandage to my throat when a horrific scream rings out through the compound.
“That came from the dungeon!” Boom Boom says, running downstairs. Krystal, Grenade and I follow suit, as do Alex and some of the others.
When we reach the bottom of the stairs and round the corner, I’m no
t entirely surprised to see Pitbull towering over River’s quivering body. River holds up a shaking hand and mumbles something in her native tongue.
“I don’t speak jungle, girlie,” Pitbull growls, holding his right first up over her trembling, tear-streaked face. “I know you can speak English, so speak fucking English!”
Pitbull smacks River across her face, sending her flying up against the wall. River’s squeals of agony are excruciating to hear.
I glance around and notice half the people in the room seem unfazed by Pitbull’s sickening display of violence. In fact, some of them are encouraging it. Those individuals include Jesse, Cobra, Snake-Eyes, Ax, and Bobby Lesnar. Then you have the ones with a a sense of morality and human decency, which includes Boom Boom, Krystal, Grenade, douche-bag Alex, and yours truly. Yang and Marco seem conflicted, as if they can’t decide if the end (Klaxton’s apprehension) justifies the means (Pitbull’s medieval brutality). The only person who doesn’t seem to give a shit one way or the other is Veil, who stands at the base of the stairs, continuing to give off excessively creepy vibes.
I’m on the verge of intervening when Boom Boom makes the first move. She rushes past me and yanks back on Pitbull’s raised right first.
“Leave her alone, Pitbull! This isn’t an interrogation, it’s attempted murder!”
Pitbull responds by shoving Boom Boom to the floor.
Grenade unleashes a feral growl and tackles Pitbull to the ground. He proceeds to beat the holy hell out of his old enemy. Grenade’s metallic left first furiously pounds away at Pitbull’s bionic face, creating a few indentations around the eyes. The beat down is so brutal, in fact, that Pitbull’s cyborg eyeballs start flickering on and off. I’ve certainly seen Grenade pissed off before, but never this pissed off. I guess there really is some hardcore bad blood between Grenade and Pitbull.
Jesse places the barrel of her gun against the base of Grenade’s neck.
“One false move and I sever your spine, old man,” she growls.
Grenade lifts his hands and, without turning around, says, “You sure you wanna go this route, toots?”
Before Jesse can crack some smart-ass retort, Boom Boom groggily stands up and aims her gun at the back of Jesse’s head.
“Drop the gun, bitch, or the front of your pretty little place will be splattered all over the wall.”
Cobra suddenly whips out a dagger and places it against Boom Boom’s neck. Alex pulls up his gun and points it at Cobra. I aim my gun at Cobra, and Snake-Eyes points his gun at me. Krystal wastes no time shoving the barrel of her pistol against the back of Snake-Eye’s head.
Pitbull sits up and cackles. “Well well well, an old-fashioned Mexican stand-off. Haven’t been in one of these in a while.”
Pitbull stands up and turns to the rest of his gang in the back of the dungeon, the ones who decided not to get involved (which would include Yang, Marco, Ax, Bobby Lesnar, and Veil).
“Ain’t you assholes gonna help?” he barks.
Ax and Bobby reluctantly point their guns at Krystal.
Krystal turns her head and hollers, “You bastards! That’s the last time I let you eat me out!”
“Aw man,” Ax mumbles, clearly dejected that he won’t get any more of Krystal’s delectable ‘poontang pie’.
With his eyeballs still flickering like crazy, Pitbull says, “You’re all vastly outnumbered. Drop your weapons now and I may allow you to escape this dungeon with nothing worse than a vicious beating.”
“They’re not quite outnumbered yet.”
Yang shocks us all by placing her 3-foot long katana blade against Ax’s throat. Marco does the same to Lesnar.
“After all we’ve been through, Yang, and you pull a stunt like this?” Pitbull snarls.
“I could say the same to you,” Yang fires back. “You know this is not how my cousin and I operate. We’re willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish our mission, but this is highly unnecessary.”
Pitbull hollers at Veil, “You gonna help us, or just stand there looking creepy??”
Veil turns her back on Pitbull and heads upstairs.
Pitbull clenches his fists and growls, “Jesus Christ. Good help is impossible to find these days.”
“You have two choices, Pitbull,” Boom Boom says, her gun still placed against Jesse’s head. “We can either blow each other’s brains out, or you can be the better man and leave River alone. We’ll all lower our weapons and act like none of this ever happened. Your choice.”
Pitbull responds with a growl that would scare off a grizzly bear.
I clear my throat and say, “I have an idea. Why don’t we give River one night to decide if she wants to help us? I think Pitbull’s already given her a pretty good idea of what will happen if she doesn’t. If we come back down here tomorrow morning and she still refuses to talk, Pitbull can do whatever he wants.”
Boom Boom turns toward me (which is gutsy, considering Cobra still has a dagger pressed up against her neck) and shouts, “That’s just delaying the inevitable, Lance! She’s not going to talk! We need to…”
“Boom Boom, trust me on this one, okay?” I snap.
Boom Boom grits her teeth, but she doesn’t immediately say anything. I can tell that she’s studying me… looking into my eyes… trying to figure out what I’m up to. We know each other like we know the back of our own hands. Better than we know our own hands, actually. She can always tell when I’m lying or telling the truth… when I legitimately have a plan or when I’m full of crap. It’s because of this borderline psychic rapport we share that she can gaze into my eyes and realize I do have a plan, one which I will share with her shortly.
Boom Boom gives an almost imperceptible nod. “Alright… but Pitbull can’t touch her until dawn.”
Pitbull grumbles something under his breath, then finally says, “Fine. If it’ll make you little punk-ass bitches happy, we’ll wait until morning. But if she doesn’t give up Klaxton, I get to have my fun without any interference. Do we have an understanding?”
“Yep,” I say. “Now can we stop pointing our guns at each other and go to bed?”
Yang sheathes her sword and barks, “Everyone put your weapons down, now!”
We all lower our firearms and daggers and back away from each other.
Pitbull grabs River by her arm.
Boom Boom raises her gun again. “What the hell are you doing?! Put her down before I…”
Before Boom Boom can finish her threat, Pitbull shoves River into one of the jail cells and slams the door shut. Boom Boom lowers her gun as Pitbull locks the door with a key and sneers at her.
“You’re just looking for any reason to shoot me, aren’t you, darling?”
“Why are you using a lock and key?” Boom Boom asks, changing the subject. “Surely an electronic door would be harder to escape from.”
“We like to use old-fashioned jail cells in case the power generator goes out,” Pitbull says, twirling his key around his bionic index finger. “That way if the generator goes down, the prisoners can’t escape. Make sense now, sweetheart?”
Boom Boom responds by giving Pitbull the finger. Pitbull laughs as he hangs the key up on the opposite wall, well out of River’s reach. He then marches back over to Boom Boom and gets right up in her face.
“I wanna set something straight with you before we all go off on our merry way,” Pitbull says. “Usually people who interfere in my business end up with a one-way ticket to the afterlife. Because I like you, I’m giving you a one-time reprieve. But if you ever pull something like this again, I will snap your little neck. Remember, this is my show. We do things my way… or you die. Understood?”
I know Boom Boom is just dying to shove a sword down Pitbull’s throat, but she smothers all of her rage and fury and replies in a cool voice, “Yep. Now get out of my face. Your breath smells like monkey shit.”
Pitbull scowls before storming upstairs. Cobra, Snake-Eyes, Jesse, and the rest of Pitbull’s loyal lackeys follow suit. The onl
y ones to remain in the dungeon are me, Boom Boom, Krystal, Grenade, Alex, and to my slight surprise, Yang and Marco.
I turn toward Yang and extend my hand.
“Thank you for having our backs. It made all the difference tonight.”
World War Forever (Highway To Armageddon Book 2) Page 28