by Jae Vogel
The major flaw in the plan was that while Rae looked most similar to Frederick, that didn't necessarily mean that he and Frederick were twinsies. Rae was a junkie, and if not a strict junkie, he was at least a poly-drug user. I had no idea how he was holding out this long without getting high, but he seemed like he was doing all right. The point was that his physique looked more like Hep than Russian Thugs. You can't be picky when improving an operation like this one though. So I rode in the trunk with my corpse and the groaning body of Frederick - smelling like shit, and basically hating myself for twenty minutes straight.
The car stopped for an extended period of time, and I imagined we had likely made it to the entrance to the lower gated community. The sound of the engine and the movement of the bound and gagged man next to me gave me something to focus on apart from the awful smell. In some fixated part of my mind, I was certain that my punishment for murder would most certainly be the continuation of the scent of blood, shit, gasoline, and rotting meat. There was absolutely nothing holy about that moment, no matter how hard I tried.
After a period of far too much anxiety for my own comfort, the sound of the gate opened, and the car moved forward once more. In spite of my circumstances, a wave of relief come over me. But it wasn’t long before my thoughts moved toward the great unknown to follow.
The idea of taking on a house full of armed corporate madmen all surrounding Hep and his Uncle came into my head. Of course, Hep was naked, and a handful of the men were busy fucking him. I can't speak for the sexuality of the uncle, and I didn't want to make any presumptive guesses, so in my fantasy, he was sitting, horrified in the corner of the room. Of course, Hep could handle himself. I had heard of slightly less exaggerated stories from some of the houses in this area from Hep's own mouth.
Kinky fucking. BDSM shit. Bored Housewives with ten inch strap-ons. Cum facials for you and six of your friends. Only Hep, and maybe Rae to help you out.
God damn.
You had to figure that rich folks were just making shit up in order to compensate for the less creative sex lives of the plebs. Some sort of psychic equilibrium for all of the two pump chumps in the world, just getting their whisky dick hard enough to offer a disappointing fuck to some woman they were lucky enough to pick up earlier that evening.
I'm sure that all parties concerned find that it's less satisfying than what one might imagine it to be. When it comes down to it—
The car stopped.
My smut-filled reverie was immediately cut short as I heard the sound of an argument in the cab of the car. The girl sounded incredibly unhappy, but I had never heard Rae sound so authoritative. I was concerned, because I knew that where we were going, there would be people with weapons. Maybe all of that other shit was just part of my own imagination, but the weapons were real.
Wilkins and Frederick had both been strapped, and I imagine if their orders had been any more flexible, or the neighborhood had been any more remote, they wouldn't have bothered using non-lethal force.
There was some shuffling, and the shouting died down. There was a period of quiet. The door to the car opened, and then closed again, and then we continued to sit there for another minute or two before moving forward again. When the car finally picked up once more, we must have taken a drive all the way to Solis HQ, and back down again before Rae pulled the car to the side of the road and put the engine on idle.
We were posed on a downhill, which meant I was involuntarily pressed up against Frederick, who was unfortunately pressed right up against Wilkins. The great thing about this whole arrangement was that it gave me time to put myself into position.
Rae didn't go into a lot of detail about what his plans were for once we arrived, but it was pretty clear that my job was to be the backup. If we got in trouble, and Rae was captured, then I would be in the trunk, armed with two pistols.
I began to breathe through my nose in order to calm myself. In through the nose, out through the mouth… ignore the scent of death, and the movement of the other man beneath my body. In through the nose, out through the mouth, prepare to be the agent of destruction.
Rae had basically told me that I should shoot at anything that looked dangerous as soon as the trunk opens. Of course, I didn't have the kind of training necessary to really be able to make that call, so I was nervous as hell. I could only pray that I didn't accidentally shoot Hep, or his Uncle by mistake.
I wondered about the car coming to a stop, and about the door opening up. I was insanely hopeful that Rae had the common sense to get the fucking kid out of the car. I knew she wanted to come, and I think it was probably important that she saw her dad again as soon as possible. The bitter reality of the situation was that she might not see her dad again, and I sure as hell didn't want to be responsible for why that didn't come to pass.
"Probably told her to go 'scout' or some shit," I said out loud. That's what I would have done.
There was some more noise inside of the cab of the car. Sounded like Rae was intentionally fucking around with something; something in the console, or underneath the seat. Then there was a voice that came out from the driver's side of the vehicle. The sound was far away at first, and then closer, and more frustrated. Rae continued to fuck around with whatever it was he was doing, and finally the man who was speaking came right up to the window.
"Fred, what the fuck was so important that you had to call me out here?"
More fucking around in the console.
"Where the fuck is Wilkins?"
"Oh god..."
My heart seized up in my chest, and behind me, the real Fredrick began to flail about in the trunk.
"Is that who I think it..."
Whatever it was Rae was fucking around with suddenly stopped being the center of his focus, and suddenly the bulk of the man's weight was being held close up against the car. I heard a brief struggle, followed by the sound of a window rolling up, and the sound of a man choking to death.
Rae's voice came out clearly, and the car started moving slowly down the street and away from the front of the house.
"Why don't you and I take a walk?"
There were more choking sounds, and a fist slamming against the side of the car. The trouble continued to grow until I heard the sound of a high-powered thud, muffled against the body of the car.
"Hold on tight!"
I didn't have anything to hold onto.
I grabbed the guns in both hands and twisted myself so my feet were pressed hard against the rear end of the car. The engine roared, and the car ran over a bump that I can only assume was a curb or a body. The speed climaxed for a moment, and the car crashed, rear end first, causing a horrible, loud scraping noise.
Then, to make things worse, I heard Rae's voice, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"He's been hit!"
Chapter 18
The first thing I heard after the impact was the driver's side door opening up.
I was cramped in the back, and feeling incredibly claustrophobic. The impact hadn't pushed any metal inside of the back of the car, meaning that whatever we hit wasn't really made that well. I was certain it was the garage door, though there was no way of telling for sure until I was let out.
As if by magic, or the will of my own thoughts, the spring to the back of the trunk unlocked, and bounced up slightly. Some reflected light crept in through the bottom of the trunk, though most of everything else was in darkness. I pushed up a bit on the trunk with my feet. Whatever metal lay there on top of the trunk was able to be moved alright, but Rae's voice warned me to take cover.
"We got hit! They took us on both sides. Fucking raped, god damnit!"
Another voice, and muted shadows at the base of the car.
"Right here! I've got him right here!"
"What the—!”
The sound of gunfire deafened my ears, and I knew nothing but fear.
The astonishing thing was that I didn't feel fear for my own sake, but for Rae. I felt fear for Hep, and his uncle,
and I felt fear for the child that may or may never see her family again. Guns went off in the violated garage of a posh, gated community, and I was too afraid not to join in the fray.
Using my left leg, I kicked the garage up roughly as well as the trunk of the sedan. My leg extended fully, and suddenly I was given a view of two more men with suits, with weapons drawn, all firing at Rae.
I opened fire, not caring how loud the sound of the bullets were.
In slow motion, the men in front of me began to wane in their attention, while a new source of movement began to interrupt their scene. Guns were now neither focused on Rae, nor on myself. Both weapons were in the process of changing their tack, in order to target the newly appearing threat on the scene - me.
One fell, followed by another. I watched their blood spray a final poetic statement on the suburban white wall behind them. I can’t say it was beautiful.
The police would be here soon. There was no time to do anything else but run into the garage, and hope that if any other men were inside of the house, they were busy doing their best to escape.
Rae had fucked up proper, and sometimes when you fuck up loudly enough, something fundamental begins to shift within the power dynamic of a situation. Things which were previously unattainable, are suddenly within reach. Now, it was up to me to maintain that same level of daring, or we were all going to get fucked.
“No!”
I heard Rae cry out from behind me.
Probably a sensible course of action, but I was already called by the spirit within me. Something intuitive pushed me forward, and I didn't care to stop and give it time to reconsider its decision. As soon as my shoulder opened up the door into the house, a feeling overwhelmed me - jarring my consciousness with its raw presence.
Banality.
I was surveying the room, and I saw nothing except complete and utter void. The house itself was nothing more than a prop. The actual contents of the house were nothing more than a few wrappers of trash on the floor, and a couple of chairs in the center of the room. The room was empty, and the distance between myself and the people on the other side of the sliding glass door was small enough to be covered in a brief sprint.
The door was already slammed shut, and on the other side, I could see a man raising his gun to shoot me. Hep was there, and a man whom I vaguely recalled from the restaurant, but couldn't pick out of a line up in any other context. The man with the gun seized, and tilted unsteadily. The gun rose into the air, and fired.
The shot shattered the glass, and the sound stunned me. I ducked, instinctively, though in retrospect, the movement wouldn't have been helpful at all if his shot hadn't been interrupted. As the glass fell to the ground, I saw the man had fallen down as well, forward into the cheap, cookie-cutter class pane.
The two men on the other side of the fallen body turned away from me, and started running. I was confused, though the confusion lasted only for a moment. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I could see a twelve-year-old girl, with dirt on her face, standing in the tall grass outside of the bullshit home that had imprisoned her father. She was standing there silent, and stern, while her innocence bled through the chest of her most recent target.
Suddenly everything came clear to me. It wasn't the first time today that she had taken a life, and yet she held herself with the composure that many grown adults wouldn't have been able to manage in a similar position. It was that moment that I knew this had to stop. The police could come and face their own fuck up. Let them find the piece of shit bleeding out on the carpet, and the bodies left behind in the garage. Let them come face to face with the sub-conscious expression of their own failure to do their job. Let them wilt before the stare of a twelve year old girl who had to save her own family, because they were too incompetent to serve and protect.
"Rae!"
My voice screamed shrill into the hollow structure around me.
"Are we good?"
"Start the fucking car!"
I watched as Hep's eyes met up with mine. Gratitude and concern all at once. I blew him off. I didn't need that right now, and he knew where he belonged. Someone was going to need to be around to put the pieces back together.
Hep, his cousin, and her father turned around to run into the field beyond, and I turned to face the future that was laid out before me; this time with eyes wide open.
Chapter 19
Fredrick was popping his ugly head out of the trunk of the car when I got back into the garage. I grabbed him by the collar and whipped his own pistol across his face. I could see him wince with pain, but I knew it was a shuck. You don’t take a cinder block to the head and start poking around an hour and a half later if you aren’t a tough bastard to begin with.
“Get us into Solis HQ, fast!”
To his credit, and outstanding fortune, Rae didn’t question me, or show any signs of serious injury. I took the lack of response as a positive sign, and lifted the trunk open with one hand while pointing the barrel of a gun toward Fred’s bound mouth.
He complied.
Fucking unfortunate that this kind of obedience only accompanies abuses of power.
I shoved Fred back into the trunk with the corpse of Wilkins, jumped in after him, and then slammed the trunk shut behind us. It may have been a poor decision on my part, but the police would be here any moment, and I didn’t want to fuck around, dragging him from the trunk to the backseat of the car; it was easier to suffer the scent of death.
We ran into one another while the car jolted forward into the street. The sirens were already screaming their way up the hill behind us. I knew we didn’t have much time, so I tore the binding out from Frederick's mouth and yelled at him.
“I want inside Solis HQ!”
It was so difficult to talk. Everything around me was loud, and I was totally new to the whole intimidation, interrogation thing. To make things worse, Frederick began to laugh at me. It wasn’t a shallow bit of laughter either. This was a deep, resonant, all out kind of laughter that found its mirth at the very expense of my being.
I thought about how to respond, and I didn’t know what to do, so I grabbed his dick and squeezed. The barrel of my gun found its way into a mouth that was open in protest. I grabbed him harder, using every last bit of my strength to try and pop his scrotum through his pants. While I did that, I slid the barrel of his own gun in and out of his mouth. I was gratuitous, and silent. The Sirens were getting closer, and the sound of the engine was overwhelming.
I was so close to just pulling the trigger right then. There seemed to be no point in any of it any longer. I was fucking terrible at this whole action hero thing, and I couldn’t even hear myself think. Giving in to patience, I pulled the barrel out of his mouth and then slapped him in the face with the gun.
My Phone! The phone. You have a way to get into the gate through my phone. Access code: 4-9-1-7.
The numbers flashed clearly in my head, and I held onto them as though they were worth everything to me.
With a viciousness and a drive that was previously unavailable, I shoved Frederick to the side, and then clawed my way over the corps of Wilkins. My fingers sank into his eyes and mouth and instead of fleeing from contact in revulsion, I used the grip to my advantage and pushed the body away from the panels in the rear of the trunk.
The flooring was superficial only, and I was able to stumble around awkwardly with the back seat until I found the lever I was searching for. With a sharp spring, the passenger side back seat sprang forward, letting a blast of fresh air into my face, and sending the smell of death back into the trunk with Fredrick.
My crotch was just over his face, and he couldn’t resist opening his mouth wide to give me a bite. Pain pushed through my inner thigh, right at the point of contact. My pants were strong enough to prevent him from breaking the skin, but it was fucking uncomfortable and uncalled for. I reached the same hand that had just penetrated Wilkins’ skull over to Frederick's head and pushed my fingers into his eye sockets. He let go qu
ickly enough. If I had been in a better position, I might have given him more abuse, but I had other things on my mind at the moment.
“Phone!”
Rae tossed the phone back to me without pause. The fucking thing hit me in the face and then bounced harmlessly onto the back of the downed seat. The icon was there, plain as could be — a gate with the solar, emblazoned sigil behind it. Light piercing through like the elitist beacon of hope it promised everyone it would be. I tapped the icon with my spare hand, and when given the prompt, typed in the code Fredrick had given me.
4-9-1-7.
“Hurry it up, Daux, we’re running out of road!”
The winding path that had lead toward the peak of the mountain was not an easy thing to navigate at high speeds. I made a mental note that if we made it through this, I was going to have to give Rae some serious props.
As if to accentuate my though, we slid around the final corner, on the road and charged headlong toward a slowly opening gate.
“Get down!”
Rae’s cry scared the shit out of me, particularly because I wasn’t in a position to get anywhere. I brought my hands over my head and held onto my own skull with what little tenderness and care still existed inside of my body.
Glass exploded through the car, as the roof of the sedan was literally torn from the car like a can of sardines. My body bounced up into the air, and collided with the top of the hole between the trunk and the back seat of the car. My back was tweaked, and the car flung itself back into the ground like a mechanical bull when the controller is doing his best to be a total and complete tool.
The car stopped spinning, and my vision slowed down only moments afterward. I pushed my body completely through the panel, and sat up on my knees in the backseat of the car. Rae was covered in glass, and it looked like he was bleeding pretty badly. However, when I reached out to him, he smiled, and grabbed ahold of my hand. There’s no way he was untouched in a crash this incredible. His face was literally covered in blood, but he had protected himself for the most part, and it seemed like he was going to be just fine.