by Martha Woods
“One mook with a gun isn’t going to do much against them, but a group of them all shooting at once… now that would push them back. Won’t kill, but it’ll sure sting.” Reaching into his pocket and pulling out the cellphone, he scrolled through the address book until he reached the number of two of the only people who he’d kept in constant contact with, though he could only imagine the circumstances that they found themselves in at the moment. For all he knew, though he hoped otherwise, they could be some of the ones that were after him.
He was just going to have to hope otherwise.
“Come on, pick up…” He said, listening to the droning dial tone as the call went through. The tone stopped, a hollow click sounding through before a tired voice answered the call.
“Hello?” They asked, with a crackling yawn drifting through the line and bringing a smile to his face, “Shane?”
“Helga, I’m sorry about the time,” He said, looking over at the clock, “Actually it’s ten in the morning, you should have been up by now anyway, I don’t feel so bad now.”
“Well it’s been a stressful couple of days, but I’m sure that you heard about that.” The shuffling of bedsheets, a whispered apology to her sleeping husband and soon she was speaking again, “How was he? I haven’t heard much other than all of you are being hunted now, but he did get in contact with you right?”
“He did, and it was about as awkward as you could imagine. To be honest I’m surprised you didn’t give him my number sooner.”
“You told me not to, so I didn’t. I would have kept that promise forever but… well, I figured all of you having a fair warning was more important than just one little promise I made over the phone five years ago. I just hope Megan doesn’t get too sore over it.”
“How are they doing? Megan and James? Have they spoken to you lately?”
“James is fine, or at least he was, he’s going to school in Florida, don’t remember what he was studying. Megan is… well, we haven’t heard from her in just about as long as everyone else, she called us once a few years ago but we haven’t heard anything since then, weren’t able to dig anything up so she might have changed her name, or maybe she just decided to go dark completely.”
“That sounds like something she’d do, for better or worse. Just hope that Orson can actually get through to her, I think of everyone she’d be the one who’s still the most pissed off at him.”
“Well, if he can’t get through to her then I’m inclined to believe that she’ll be fine anyway. You grew up with her, you know how she can fight, you think the people going after her don’t remember as well?” Helga sighed, switching the phone to her other ear as she sat down, “You didn’t answer me before, how’s Orson doing? I called him once but he didn’t pick up and… well, we’ve been hearing some details about what happened that night.”
“I thought you’d be the ones to know but…” Shane shrugged, falling back into his couch and biting his lip. “I don’t know the exact details of what went down, but he ended up killing someone in the fight. I don’t know what they were doing, or what he was doing, but that’s… it doesn’t really matter to everyone else does it? They’re after all of us now because he killed someone while he was trying to save all of them.”
“He knew this was going to happen, but I’m sure that he’s feeling all kinds of torn up about it, even if he isn’t really talking properly about it. I know that this is a big ask, given how your last meeting went but… when you see him, can you make sure that he’s alright? He needs his brother, and I think that you do too.”
“I’m still gonna bust him in the jaw for everything but…” He sighed, “Fine, I’ll try my best. I remember what it felt like back when we were all fighting together, taking a life isn’t just some small thing that you can shrug off. Some of us were better at getting through it than others were, but we’re not all made of the same things.”
“At least he’s not alone right now, and he’s going to have more people looking out for him soon enough. When the four of you are together again, whenever that is, you call us and we’ll come and help you, no questions asked. You’re our friends, more than anyone else from that clan, and we’re not going to just sit by and watch you get butchered because of their pride.”
“So I take it neither of you are still with the clan in that case?”
“We left the night before everything went down, and to be honest we’d been planning to do it for months before. The world is just too big and too amazing to spend it all in just one forest, starving slowly because no one knows how to work together. We needed to reach out to everyone else in the world sooner, and since none of them were going to do it Frank and I decided to just do it for ourselves.”
Shane smiled, letting his head fall back over the backrest and close his eyes. “It’s not such a bad world out here, is it? Dirty and shitty most of the time, but if you look real close… sometimes you can find something genuinely amazing.”
“We just need to keep chipping away at the muck and dirt, and eventually we’ll be able to find more amazing things than not. But we can’t do that alone, and we can’t do that in isolation, so it’s time for all of us to turn and face the future, don’t you think? You can start small.”
“Yeah yeah…” He laughed, “Have you and Frank had kids yet? You already mother us so much it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“You’re lucky that I’m not there with you right now or I’d show you just how ‘motherly’ saying that would make me.” He shivered, he’d known her long enough to have the memories of how hard she could punch ingrained in his mind forever. “That’s what I thought, I’m the same age as you, not my fault you still act like a child.”
“Oof, guess I struck a nerve,” Shane chuckled, feeling like a circus tamer taunting a lion, “Don’t worry, you’d look really cute knitting in a corner, I hope half-moon glasses do it for Frank.”
“I take back the offer of help, you can all go ahead and die now for all I care.”
He tilted his head back and barked out a laugh at the ceiling, able to hear her giggles on the other side of the line. “God… it’s gonna be good to see you again Helga, I missed this.”
“Well make sure that you don’t die, that’s a pretty important first step to meeting up again. And right now I’m going to go back to sleep and make sure I’m ready for whatever happens, I suggest that you start preparing as well.”
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s coming for me yet, but that doesn’t mean they’re not thinking about it. I’ve just got to make sure that I’m ready for them whenever they get here, what kind of host would I be if I wasn’t prepared to take care of them?”
“God,” She said, the eye roll audible in her tone, “How people sometimes got confused you and Megan were related really weren’t paying attention. Just don’t make too much of a mess, and try not to kill anyone that comes for you, that’ll just end up pissing people off more.”
“Even if they’re coming to kill me?”
“Well… I guess you could call that self defense, forget I said anything.”
“Already forgotten. Send Frank my love alright? We’ll all be with you soon.”
“That’s a promise Shane, and I’m going to hold you to it.” She hesitated, tone so much softer when she said, “Don’t die.”
“You alright?” Todd asked, leaning on the handle of his ax, “You look kinda distracted, a bird shit on your car or something?”
“I live out in the forest Todd, when aren't birds shitting on my car?” Shane waved his hand, lifting his ax off his shoulder and sinking it into the base of the tree. I’ve just been thinking about some things, you know how it is. It’s just been a weird couple of months.”
“I hear that, things are never normal around here, ever. But don’t think I didn’t see you leaving that bar with Holly…” He leaned closer, smiling widely. “Anything happen? Or is this a ‘Gentlemen don’t tell’ kind of deal?”
“It’s a ‘Stop talking and I won’t be
at you over the head with this ax’ kind of deal,” Shane laughed, “Seriously, nothing happened, it was just a talk over some drinks, that’s all. I’m sorry to be so boring.”
“Oh please, I’m glad you’re boring, anyone else who would have tried to get even a beer with her probably would have been picking his balls up off the sidewalk outside.” Walking over, Todd nudged him in the side with his elbow, smiling with a hint of something serious in his eyes. “Now I know I might not look it, but I do care about old Holly. And even though it is kind of weird with how I’ve been talking, she’s almost like a kid sister in a way, so I want you to know that if it was anyone else, I probably would have dragged them out of the bar myself and let them have it.”
“Any reason you didn’t do it to me?”
“Because you actually seem halfway decent, not juggling another woman or into any drugs, you haven’t been to jail, at least not for too long, you’re the closest this town has to stable.” Todd grinned, leaning against the tree and sighing, “Holly’s been through a lot, I’m sure you’ve heard that from her, and even though she wants to say she’s fine… I grew up without parents for the most part too, I can tell you that it’s really something that sticks with you forever, no matter what. If she trusts you enough to let her guard down every now and then, you need to know what a huge deal that is.”
Shane nodded, leaving his ax embedded in the wood and letting himself slide down to sit at the base of the tree. “I never had a mother, lost my father about seven years ago, he wasn’t really much of one anyway to be honest. I had my siblings and my friends to look out for me, but I do wonder every now and then what it would have been like if I’d had actual parents, you know? Maybe that’s why I ended up running away…”
“I tell you, if you ever end up having kids, whether you meant for it or not, do them a favor and actually stick around to do the work. Kids aren’t just some… thing that you can throw away when you get bored with it, they’re living, breathing people that need guidance. Not everyone wants kids, but if you end up having them you’d better end up taking responsibility for it.”
“You think I’m just planning to drop kids’ country wide if I get the chance?” Shane grinned. “You don’t have to explain to me about being careful dad, I had the lessons in school too.”
“I’m just saying, in a roundabout way, to not be an idiot about this whole thing ok? Holly’s a friend, and I guess by now you are too, so I just want both of you to be taken care of through this whole thing, and if that means that I’ve gotta have some weird conversations with you that make me feel old, then so be it.” Looking over Shane’s shoulder, Todd screwed his eyes together to focus off in the distance before he sighed, “And I guess I’ve gotta stick with you through this bullshit now too huh?”
“What bullshit?” Shane looked back, feeling himself deflate at the sight marching towards him. “Oh fantastic.”
“Shane! Todd!” Matt barked out, fists clenched and his jaw set, the absolute picture of anger. The heat in his face very well could have melted the snow around him if he buried himself in the ground, but the look in his eyes was enough to turn the two men next to him to ice. From the clench of their own fists, it wasn’t exactly a friendly chat that they’d come by for.”
“Hello Matt,” Shane said, waving lightly and standing to his feet, “What can I do you for? Come for tips on working?”
“The fuck is you doing kid?” Todd whispered, “This is not a road you want to go down.”
“I’m not going down a road, he’s marching right down mine,” He replied, before stepping towards Matt and his cronies, “You’re not seriously still sore about the other night are you?”
“Still sore? You drained me for eight hundred dollars! Do you know how much everyone in this town drinks?”
“Seems to me like you knew when you made the bet,” He said, crossing his arms, “That is why you make the bets right? You like to see the new guys squirm?”
Matt didn’t have a reply at first, not quite ready for someone to actually stand up to him in any substantial way. When he did speak it was with closed teeth and a fleck of spit on his lips, hands shaking at his sides. “You must’ve done something to the drinks, no one can outdrink me, so the only reason is that you cheated!”
“I cheated? At your stupid little drinking contest that I’d never heard of before I walked in the bar? Are we really doing this right now? Because there are literally thousands of things that I would rather be doing than this.”
Matt’s two cronies fanned out on either side, walking around and trapping Todd and himself in between themselves and Matt, forming an impromptu fighting circle from what Shane could tell. He just rolled his eyes, holding his hand out at Todd and telling him, “If they don’t do anything, you don’t do anything. Just leave this to me, ok?”
Todd looked between his hand and Matt, who by now had started grinning with the anticipation of getting some revenge for his previous humiliation. “The hell are you doing kid? There’s better ideas than… whatever the hell it is that you’re thinking of now.”
“Sure there are,” He said, shrugging his shoulders, “But most of them wouldn’t be as fun, would they?”
Cracking his knuckles through the gloves he was wearing, he started circling around slowly as Matt did the same, both sets of eyes sizing up their opponents and looking for any hint of weakness. Though Todd had said that Matt hadn’t relished killing a man, and indeed never even spoke of it, Shane was having a hard time believing that there hadn’t been at least a little enjoyment to be had, with the way he was smiling it was clear that he’d smelled the chance for blood and he was going to shed it.
“Make your move Matt,” Shane said, an edge of warning in his tone, “You can just walk away, no questions asked, no one has to know.”
“Oh yeah?” Matt asked, leaning forward like a predator about to pounce, “And why would I do that?”
Shane sighed, knowing that what he was going to say next was only going to set him off, but he just had to do it. “Because you’d lose. Just like the last time you didn’t walk away.”
As predicted, Matt roared with anger and charged forward, swinging a mighty hook that would have knocked lesser men out cold, if only it had hit anything other than air. The missed punch made him stumble, turning around to see that Shane had barely even moved from his place, only standing there with his arms at his sides looking downright bored with the whole situation.
“Really?” Shane asked, “Throwing a hook right away, I’d suggest a jab. More controllable, doesn’t throw you off like running in and missing does.”
Matt threw a jab, watching as Shane leaned back perfectly to keep the fist just out of reach of his nose, before his hand shot up and grabbed Matt around the wrist so fast that he could barely even see the movement, tugging him down and planting his face right into the snow.
“Don’t get up Matt,” Shane warned, “Just stay down there and count the snowflakes, don’t get yourself hurt.”
Thumping his hand into the snow, Matt pushed himself up and went for an uppercut, clipping Shane on the edge of the jaw and throwing his head back, an expression of pure surprise written on his face as he stumbled back. Grinning as he saw the opportunity, he leaned in and threw two more punches into Shane’s sides, aiming for a straight right for Shane’s nose when his opponent did something he had definitely not been expecting.
Shane threw his head forward with all his might, his forehead colliding with Matt’s fist and breaking every small bone in his hand, a resounding crack echoing through the trees as Matt fell back into the snow and screamed, clutching his hand to his chest and rolling over onto his side. His two cronies rushed in, hoping to take Shane by surprise when he threw his leg back, catching one in the stomach and throwing him back, while the other found his head snapping sideways from a surprise hook from Todd, dropping him cold where he stood.
“Shit,” Shane said, wiping the side of his mouth and observing the drop of blood on his thumb,
“Been a while since that happened, I forgot what it felt like.”
Todd walked over, placing his hand hesitantly on Shane’s shoulder and asking, “Are… you alright man?”
“I’m just fine,” Shane said, spitting a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the snow and kneeling down next to Matt, still clutching his hand in agony, “I don’t think he’s doing too good though, looks like everything’s broken right down to the wrist.”
“Fuck you!” Matt screamed, trying to push himself up but giving up as the pain flared through his joints, “What the fuck are you?”
“I’m just a man trying to make a living, and I don’t appreciate people getting in the way of that.” Reaching down and grabbing a handful of Matt’s hairs, Shane pulled his head up to look right into his eyes, voice dropping all humor and becoming colder than the snow around them. “I let you off easy today, but next time I won’t. You might think that you’re the big dog around here, but I want you to know that compared to some of the people I’ve seen, the people I’ve fought, you’re nothing more than shit underneath my shoe, do you understand that?”
Matt stared up at him with nothing but malice in his eyes, but he wisely didn’t say or do anything to invoke Shane’s ire. Instead he just lay there, feeling the cold drifting up his elbows and seeping into his clothing.
“You’re going to go back to the bucket, you’re gonna say that you crushed your hand underneath a tree, and you’re going to go home and sleep all of this off. When you come back to work, whenever that is, you’re going to forget all about this and just move on with your life, no retribution, no more drinking contests, nothing, understand?” Shane dropped him, leaving him in a heap in the snow and shaking his head. “You were the big dog once. Don’t make me put you down.”