Pump

by Gary Denne

  While the crowds in the lineup witnessed the incident and were shocked as they looked on in disbelief, not one soul stepped forward or tried to stop Roberts as he proceeded to walk through the entrance, casually stepping over the two sacks of muscles, out for the count. In fact, some of the crowd discreetly followed behind him, walking into the club and taking the opportunity to bypass the lineup and get out of the rain.

  Roberts made his way deep into the club, pushing through bodies, searching for his mark as a rock band on stage assaulted his ears with high-decibel amplified noise. He received several stares from the crowds, passing by people as they wondered who the old man in the cowboy getup was ... the owner perhaps? But after a glance, they simply went back to enjoying their night. The night was young, and they were there to let their hair down, not ponder why an old man was getting his thrills dressed up as an Underworld sheriff.

  Roberts face scowled as he scanned around the venue. His one good eye was heavily bloodshot and its pupil dilated as large as a black moon. As his heartbeat rose to match the intensity of the club, the Pump flowed through his body and Robert’s lust for violence began to seep through his wrinkled, leathery skin. He was not in a partying mood…

  Red Planet

  At the mezzanine level of Red Planet, Sean watched the band below belt out their loud, hard rock to an adoring crowd of fans. At the entrance, a constant stream of people flowed into the venue, cramming it to capacity and making bar staff even busier than they already were. But this was not an unusual night at the Red Planet.

  “It’s like this every night!” the vivacious young blonde in the green dress yelled enthusiastically into Sean’s ear over the music.

  “Really?” Sean politely replied, mesmerized by the pureness of her brown eyes.

  “There’s so many clubs in the Underworld, you can party every night for a year and get something completely different,” she exclaimed. “The great part about this district is whatever gets you off, you’ll find it here. After all, you found me, right?”

  The blonde faced Sean with a coy smile, flirting with body language as she sipped a tropical fruit drink through a straw. She was dressed in a simple green slip that plunged down her front, revealing a classy glimpse of cleavage, her breasts filling out the light cotton dress nicely. Her hair flowed down her back, dancing whenever she turned her head to take in the sights. Sean seemed unsure of the girl’s flirty nature, but perhaps he was just being cautious. He’d heard enough about the Underworld to know that while the girl was telling the truth—this district did seem to have it all—he also knew that meant it probably had its fair share of seedier elements. The fact of the matter was that the Underworld was known for its ‘anything goes’ policy in which Maddox consistently turned a blind eye to many of the district’s activities, including homemade concoctions of drinks, drugs, sex clubs, gambling and an assortment of fight clubs.

  “Do you like what you see so far?” the girl asked him, her cleavage the obvious elephant in the room.

  Sean smiled. She smiled back like a giddy schoolgirl. He placed his arms casually on the small balcony ledge, leaning against it as he glanced around just to check he wasn’t being setup by Benny. That guy certainly did seem like the pranking type. And this girl almost seemed too good to be true. Or maybe this really was what the island life was like.

  “Of the city you mean?”

  “Sure,” she replied, again with the lingering enjoyment of flirtation.

  “Yeah,” Sean replied, albeit half-heartedly. “It’s great, it’s amazing. But I feel like I’m so far out of my comfort zone, it’s not funny. I’m going to take a while to get used to it all.”

  “You know...” the girl began, looking around her, “when I was a little girl, I used to imagine leaving this city. I’d plan an escape and have this crazy idea of exploring the world. I wanted to see it for myself and make sure what I saw on news reports was the truth. I even planned an itinerary. That completely freaked my parents out at the time...”

  “You were born on the island?”

  “Yep, I’m a native. I’ve never seen the outside.”

  “Seriously?” Sean said in disbelief.

  The girl nodded, taking another sip of her drink.

  “So, what’s it like?” she asked.

  Sean paused for a moment, perhaps reluctant to speak of the harsh reality he knew all too well to this innocent and naïve native New Yorker.

  “It’s ... different. It’s tough. Everything just collapsed. It all started out slow enough, little things, you know? Everyone was too slow to realize what was really happening. It was like a car crash, but in slow-motion.”

  “Why didn’t people do anything, why didn’t anyone see it?”

  “Well, things just got to a point where something had to give, you know? That’s when the actual collapse happened, and it happened in an instant. I mean, you’re probably talking to the wrong guy here—I’m no economic major—but while everyone knew things were bad, no one imagined the global markets would just melt down to nothing. The country went to bed one night during a long, drawn out depression and woke up the next morning in an economic collapse. From what I heard, there was no time to react. It was over before it began. And from there, things got crazy really quickly.”

  “I guess I need to study my history a little more,” she said to herself.

  There was a pause between them to rid the air of the somber topic.

  “Do you tutor by any chance?”

  Sean was amused at her persistent flirting.

  “Actually, I’m some kinda engineer for the subway system. But don’t ask me what my official title is … I have no idea. I think it’s really just a fancy name for babysitting a computer. Today was my first day.”

  She smiled and told him, “When I spotted you down on the floor, I knew I hadn’t seen you in here before.”

  “Yep, I’m straight off the boat ... so to speak,” Sean answered.

  “You get to know the faces after a while. This place has its regulars,” she said casually. “You know, if you ever need a guide around the city, I’d be happy to play host and show you some sights?”

  “Thanks. That’s a nice offer. I’ve been told there’s a lot to see...”

  She leaned closer towards him.

  “Oh, absolutely. There’s so much to cover...”

  She seductively whispered into his ear. “We could even start exploring tonight if you were eager.”

  She pulled away, a mischievous smile on her pretty face.

  “Oh really?”

  She moved back in to whisper slowly to him, pausing on each idea. “You could start with my neck ... then visit my chest, travel all the way around my breasts ... and then continue downtown from there. Like I said ... so much to cover.”

  “You don’t waste any time, do you?” Sean said, surprised.

  “A guy like you is hard to find,” she said, giving him an admiring eye up and down. “Strong, handsome, rugged ... you’re going to have women in this city all over you in no time, trust me. I’m just trying to get in first.”

  “Right. And I don’t even know your name.”

  “Xanthe...”

  She quickly seized the moment and leant in, kissing him gently at first, but Sean quickly responded back and they passionately locked lips for a long kiss hello.

  “Nice to meet you, too,” Sean said after the kiss.

  “A first night in this city has to be a night you’ll remember forever...”

  “It’s sure shaping up that way,” Sean told her with a smile.

  “See? I’ve already got competition,” she said, gesturing for him to look over his shoulder. As he did, he saw a young raven-haired girl wearing heavy eyeliner and bright lipstick staring intensively at him from the bar. She was sitting alone on one of the bar stools, wearing a heavy-set black leather jacket and biker pants to match. Her luscious locks hid her face as she quickly turned away, not wanting to be caught leering with her intense blue eyes.

>   “Oh, I wouldn’t be so worried. Biker chicks don’t do it for me,” Sean quipped to her.

  Xanthe glanced at the biker chick once more, then turned to Sean and said coyly, “That’s too bad, I think she’s hot.”

  Sean was amused.

  “You’re going to love the Underworld,” she happily assured him.

  “What say we find a quiet table and get more comfortable? You can tell me more about the city. Seems like you know your way around,” he asked.

  “You have no idea…” she said mischievously, adding “Let me go freshen up and I’ll meet you back here. If the biker chick makes a move tell her she’s going to have to wait her turn ... well, unless she wants to join us...”

  Sean watched as Xanthe slowly walked away, leaving her drink behind as she headed for the club’s upstairs bathrooms, stopping along the way to chat with regulars. He stayed put, against the railing, admiring the crowd from above with a birds-eye view of the mosh-pit and stage. People danced, drank and enjoyed every single second of life. This was the moment. Tonight, this was the place to be.

  He made eye contact with Xanthe through the crowds and smiled at her. She was talking with friends; perhaps reporting back to them about the dark and handsome stranger she had just met. As discreetly as they could, one by one Xanthe’s friends briefly glanced over, checking him out. Sean smiled politely at them from afar. He was still amazed that such a beautiful girl would simply walk over and introduce herself cold. No pickup lines or gimmicks, just the start of a simple conversation. That was it. It meant everything to him. It made him comfortable. More relaxed. It wasn’t about taking a girl home as much as it was about arriving into this city alone. Now, he had a whole new layer of perspective about the island. Perhaps it wasn’t going to be so daunting after all, finding new people, friends and connections. Right then, he smiled to himself, perhaps realizing he needed to stop worrying about life in a new home and simply start living it. This city was going to be good for him. He could feel it.

  Roberts circled the inside perimeter of the Red Planet. He brushed passed Benny, who was busy chatting with a group of women, playing perfect host and trying to amuse them enough to accept his after-party invitation. He was oblivious to Roberts, a man quite out of place for a party, who slowly stepped past him and continued through the club. Roberts was not here to party. Roberts was here to kill. The look on his face was terrifying, but hidden in the darkness. He paused for a moment. The blue light from his Quartz device suddenly beamed up and softly lit his wrinkled face. No sooner had it turned on did it turn off, leaving him again to hide in the darkness. He simply needed the tracker to confirm with one-hundred percent accuracy what his gut had already told him ... the target was here. Inside the building. This was the place.

  As he slowly inched his way through the club, Roberts reached down and undid the two metal buttons holding his long coat together. It flopped open, revealing his 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, barely visible in the darkened club. No one dancing the night away was any the wiser to the threat. As far as others assumed, he was simply an old man out of place, probably from the Upper Side, wanting to immerse himself into a world he rarely knew from his five-star silver-service life.

  As the rock music saturated the walls of the Red Planet, seemingly louder than ever, Roberts looked up to the mezzanine level and cast his bloodshot eye left to right. There, up above, leaning on the railing, was the unlucky bastard he was here to tear to pieces, enjoying himself with drink in hand. Slowly and ever so calm, Roberts reached for his shotgun, pulling it out and gripping onto it tightly, those around him too drunk or high to notice. He moved in, carefully making his way up the staircase to meet him.

  Xanthe came back down the stairs from the first floor of the Red Planet, as Sean turned and saw her green dress weave through the crowded mezzanine, knowing she was heading back towards him.

  “Miss me?” she said, arriving back with a cheeky smile.

  “Of course,” Sean replied, turning from his comfortable position against the railing.

  After a stop in the bathroom, the girl named Xanthe looked even prettier than before. She sported freshly tousled hair, a touch-up of makeup and lip-gloss, and cleavage that curiously enough seemed to be a little bit lower than Sean had noticed earlier.

  “What say we get out of here and head back to my place? I’m just around the corner in this amazing brownstone townhouse. You have to see it. Besides, I’ve decided not to let anyone else steal you away from me tonight,” she said with a mischievous smile.

  Sean was amused. “Lead the way...”

  Suddenly, from the bar, the young biker chick looked alarmed and sprung up from the barstool, rushing towards them both. From the corner of her eye, Xanthe noticed the raven-haired girl coming towards them both, but it did not look like she wanted to join in the fun. This looked serious.

  “Get down!” the biker chick screamed at Sean. She quickly grabbed his arm and pulled it like a jackpot lever, forcing him to lose balance and fall to the ground. At that moment, a gunshot rang out with a loud crack through the air. A shotgun blast suddenly ripped into Xanthe, the force throwing her to the ground like a ragdoll. No sooner had Sean hit the deck, did a girl’s scream start a chain reaction of panic on the mezzanine level of the club. A second shot from Roberts blew a large chunk of railing clean away and as debris fell onto partygoers below, the ground floor also began to sense the disturbance. But what might’ve been an accident or prank, quickly turned real for the club’s patrons. Reactions started to overpower the music as sheer terror took hold.

  “C’mon!” the biker chick screamed, loud and angry. Sean quickly got up and scrambled towards her out-stretched hand. Screaming became louder and began to completely fill the club, causing mass panic in the darkness. No one stopped to see what was happening. If they saw someone running in fear, they ran too. Everybody started to flee. People scrambled in every direction. Sean and the biker girl quickly blended into the crowd. Roberts angrily pushed people aside as he tried to get a glimpse of his target’s whereabouts. He turned and quickly fired a shot at the club’s mixing console, killing the music dead before the rock band on stage even knew what was happening. With the music gone, it was now only fearful screams, panicked cries and the sound of mass exodus ringing throughout the building.

  Roberts lost sight of his target in the thick crowd. He scanned in front of him but it was too dark and chaotic to lock onto anyone. The anger seething from his face was palpable. Without a second thought, he raised his shotgun and let another blast off in Sean’s last known location to clear a path. Shotgun pellets struck dozens of patrons trying to escape the madness. Bodies collapsed like bowling pins after they were struck, as souls crashed to the floor with bloodstained clothing and spattering on their skin. Some had been killed, while some simply lay wounded, bleeding with their legs and arms tangled every which way. Roberts pumped the shotgun, expending the spent shells, as he started moving around the mezzanine. In his path, Xanthe, the girl in the green dress, lay on the floor as she coughed and spluttered from the close-range shotgun blast Roberts had inflicted. Lying on her side, her eyes were wide open but she was stunned, frozen in shock. Shotgun pellets had embedded into her body. A pool of blood had begun to form from the weeping stomach wound, staining her pretty green dress in a dark red, like a fine wine had been spilt in her lap. As she took shallow breaths between coughs, a trickle of blood flowed from her mouth and down her pale-white neck on porcelain skin.

  Roberts stepped over Xanthe without even a glimpse. He scoured the mezzanine for his target. Many souls were crouched down behind furniture, underneath booths or risking exposure to head for the exits. Some were lying down and playing dead, or simply prayed for their life. Many had shock written all over their faces. Shock that if this was indeed a PUMP game, then something had gone horribly horribly wrong. After all, this was Manhattan. Things like this simply did not happen here. Despite being sitting ducks, some of the club’s patrons simply stayed still
and watched Roberts push his way through panic-stricken people, each wondering if they were the intended targets of the game.

  Sean followed the biker chick’s lead, as she stayed crouched down low and headed down the back stairs to the ground floor of the Red Planet. “Stay down, and if you want to live, do exactly as I say,” she told him aggressively.

  His heart was pumping like hell. With no idea as to who the old man was or what the hell was going on, Sean saw no option but to stay close to the girl, dodging and weaving through the crowd as best he could. But halfway down the stairs, the biker chick knew they were far too exposed for someone with a shotgun. She had to improvise.

  “Jump!” she screamed, as she climbed over the stair railing and dived into the crowd below. Sean followed her, stepping over the railing and leaping off, just as the old man spotted movement and got a quick shotgun blast off towards them. It narrowly missed, hitting rows of bottles on the shelves of one of the ground-floor bars. Sean came crashing down onto people, unfortunately knocking some to the floor as they broke his fall. The biker girl quickly helped him up as Roberts tracked them from over the mezzanine railing and then began to double back, angrily reloading his weapon.

  “This way!” yelled the raven-haired biker chick, motioning at the club’s entrance.

  Sean turned to look behind him. He could see Roberts slowly descending the stairs as he finished reloading. The barrel of the shotgun lifted up and pointed right at him. He quickly tried to duck down as best he could in the split-second moment. Roberts fired a blast directly at him, but hit several innocent victims as they unfortunately shielded the full force of the shotgun blast. A guy next to Sean yelled a short burst of pain as he fell down to the floor with a bloodstained back. Looking at his face, if only for a flash, Sean was horrified and felt sick.