by James Cox
“Head shots,” Beau said.
“I shot his carotid,” I mumbled, keeping watch. The guy would bleed out right there. He was probably already unconscious. More shots sounded, they were getting closer, louder, more frequent. I steadied my nerves. Then more peacekeepers came running from the battle. Three emerged. I shot one in the chest, Beau missed his, and Tage shot both his and Beau’s. We glanced at him.
Tage smiled. “We did not participate in intercourse every time he visited. Deviant truly trained me well for this battle assignment.”
“What?” Beau asked, aiming again.
“He said after Deviant fucked him they practiced shooting,” I quipped, talking louder than I should have.
Beau chuckled. “Deviant’s so big enough I wouldn’t be able to walk afterward, let alone shoot straight.”
Another man approached. I shot him in the stomach and Beau got him in the leg. Tage had the kill shot. Again. The son of a bitch was going to make me look bad. I smiled. Good for him. The lights in the construction site dimmed. One or two went out. I wondered how long it would take as shots rang out into the night. Would the guys be done soon? Would the other peacekeepers show before we were able to set everything up? The questions were another distraction. I aimed, staring into the growing darkness. The construction site was hard to see now. Most of the lights were out, either shot or smashed, who knew.
It was Prospect that came running around the corner. “We got Amazons down!” he yelled.
“Fuck,” I blurted, hunching down as I ran toward him. “Watch that street.”
“I got it,” Tage said and went back to aiming.
“And for fuck’s sake don’t get shot,” I muttered as I ran down the street. If they got shot, their lovers would probably kill me, then Mayhem would kill them and we’d lose too many good fighters. Plus, I wanted to fucking live. I ran fast down the street where the gunshots were growing louder. I had thought it was the battle at the site but apparently, not all the peacekeepers were at the landing strip. Some of them were here and they were about to overrun the Amazon MC.
Chapter Twelve
There were four Amazons behind a hover car, two were on the ground with blood seeping out from underneath. One was tending to them. I had a moment to yell at Prospect to help them then leaped toward the others as gunshots rang out. I landed a few feet away and a blonde woman grabbed my shoulder, half dragging me so I was fully covered. “How many?”
Her eyes were as blue as Deviant’s. “Five left but they're damn good.”
We had limited time. Once the Outlaw’s and the Underground MC finished clearing the construction site, they were going to blow up the nearest two buildings so that they created a wall as our front lines. We had to do that before more peacekeepers came by. I had no doubt word of our firefight was already all over the radio. It’d take maybe half an hour to get here. I used a squat walk to get to the end of the hover car. A few Amazons shot but didn’t hit anyone. I heard more blasts from the construction site, but it seemed like that battle was quieting down. All we had to do was knock these guys out of the fight and then join the others for the big boom. I peeked over the car, took a glance, and ducked when someone fired at me. The five peacekeepers were hiding behind a hover car that was smoking. We couldn’t blow them up, they didn’t use fuel like in the olden days. That meant I had to get up close and personal to get these fuckers out of their hiding hole. “I’m going to draw them out. Shoot if you can.”
The blonde nodded.
Looks like even as an outlaw I was playing hero. I grabbed one of the women’s guns. She was too shaken to help anyway. I took a deep breath then made a run for the next hover car. It was parked on the street and I made it as gunshots rang out. I heard the pings as they landed too fucking close. I stretched my back quickly, making sure I was limber enough not to cramp up. Too bad there wasn’t any cameras around here. This was either going to be epic or my last chance to do something good for the club. I held one gun in each hand and stood. I ran to the nearest car, taking shots as I went. I knocked out all the car windows as I ducked.
They returned fire.
I was closer. A few feet and I’d be at their heels. “Fuck.” I sputtered the word then stood. I took two shots, one from each gun as I started to run toward them. It was like the world slowed down around me. The shadows grew the closer I got. The air smelled like sweat and blood. Glass crunched under my feet and then I slammed into the hover car they hid behind. The panel creaked. I was on the other side of them and one came charging around the corner. Idiot. I shot him before he could even see me. Then I lay flat on my stomach, trying not to get stabbed by glass, and aimed at the peacekeepers feet. The three remaining men scattered. Two jumped back so I couldn’t get the right angle. The third ran for it. One of the Amazons took him out.
“Peacekeepers! Put your weapons down.”
I said the only thing that popped into my head. “Suck my dick!” Mayhem would have been proud. Actually, he probably would have just grunted. I almost laughed at the thought. Then I gripped the guns tightly and leaped over the back of the car toward them. One was startled enough to freeze. I shot him in the chest and rolled so I landed without breaking anything. The other guy shot twice, both way too fucking close. I jerked to my knees. We were facing each other, guns lifting like some old western movie from Earth days. I saw his fingers squeeze the trigger at the same time mine did. Well, fuck, this wasn’t going to end well.
But it did. Kind of.
Both our weapons clicked empty. I smiled and it wasn’t entire happy, more satanic. I dropped both guns and leaped at the peacekeeper. He fell back with me on top. His dark helmet fell off and I got to see his face. No one I knew. That meant the fight was on.
He aimed for my face, but I was fast enough to shift to the right. His fist deflected across my shoulder. Painful but not crippling. I grabbed handfuls of shirt, rolling and bringing him with me. When he was on top, I jammed my knee between his legs. The guy moved so I missed his junk. I punched him in the face. He grabbed one of my hands, but being on the bottom had its advantages. I slid my leg around his waist, squeezing and digging my heel into his back. The guy winced, tried punching me. That’s hard to do when a heel is grounding into your spine. I moved my head, his fist slammed into the hard ground. I could see his scrapped up knuckles bleeding as he pulled back. He jerked all his weight right and we rolled again. My legs got trapped underneath him. He grabbed one wrist, but I clocked him in the face with my free elbow. Blood sprayed across my arm and his face. Nose broken, maybe. I gave him credit because he didn’t hesitate at the pain he must have been feeling. Instead, he jerked his head back at the same time he hit me in the hip. That ache radiated up my body until I hissed out a breath.
“Traitor!” he screamed at me.
He didn’t have to fucking yell. I wrenched my arm free and sat up. My legs were still trapped under him, his weight making my ankles twist at an awkward angle. I punched him in the stomach, which made him wrench upward. It was enough to jerk my legs free. I tumbled backward, landing on my ass at his feet. Shit, this fight wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped. It was taking too long to subdue the fucker. He kicked at me and I lay back to avoid it. Then he rolled to the left. I went right, spinning so I was on my knees and facing him and the gun he was now holding. I swallowed hard, staring at the gun with one thought. I wanted to fucking live! I surged upward as he fired. The shot grazed my shoulder, but I slammed into him before he could take another shot. I grabbed his face, some ear, some cheek, some hair. Anything I could hold and slammed his head into the ground. The gun came up and I leaned heavily on his arm with my knee so the shots were fired across the ground and not at me. I pulled his head up and then slammed it back down again. The gun fell out of his hand. I kept going. There was no way I was going to give up now. I was so close to winning the fight, so close to surviving. One. Two. Three hits and his body went still beneath me. Blood was pooling underneath him. I was gasping when I let go of hi
m. My body ran on pure adrenaline.
Then the guy I shot in the chest sat up.
Fuck you all! I ducked as he aimed, one hand holding his wound and the other his weapon. Then his fucking head just exploded. There was a pop and then boom, nothing left of the guy’s face. I sat up as the blonde came around the car, her gun still aimed.
“You going to stare at me all day or get the hell up?”
I smiled, standing, shaky on my legs. I ran from the gore. My shoulder was starting to sting enough where I winced with each movement. We ran from the scene toward the bikes. The women took to one side of the building. I saw Tage and Beau running toward us. There were three buildings between the construction site and us. The last one was the one that they planned to blow up. We all hid in the alcove between the two buildings as a loud roar ripped through the night. It was followed by the ground rumbling. Glass shattered, falling to the ground as the first building began to crumble. It fell to the left, stretching across the expanse of road in twisted metal and dust clouding the air. The other building began to fall to the right. The edge of the city was effectively cut off as both buildings filled the end of the road. Dust several feet high began to rise and whoosh toward us. The sound was incredible. This thick rumble. I ducked, covered my face as the dust cloud hit. It was warm, stuffy. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I heard more explosions going off as I stayed hunched and blind to the world around me. They were building a long line of debris. Long enough so the peacekeepers would have a hard time going around it. It would extend past the city limits.
When the explosions stopped going off, I heard the high-pitched sirens. They didn’t sound far enough away. I opened my eyes, blinking furiously at the grit and sand. Most of us were covered in a layer of red dirt as I looked around. “On the bikes,” I yelled. We filled them all up. I took Mayhem’s. The blonde jumped on behind me. We took off in a roar of sound toward the sixteen-foot wall. There was a small patch of flat land between the fallen buildings. Beau rode over it first, disappearing behind the mound of dirt. I waved the others on so I could get in last, keeping an eye on the road. Then I sped up between the gaps in the buildings and tried to keep us upright as we skidded to a stop. The club was there. They had the Underground MC members climbing the side of the downed building as lookouts. The Amazons were jumping off, splitting up to watch the side of our dam. I saw Outlaw giving orders. Justice was next to him, yelling at other guys.
I hopped off the bike after the blonde and stared at our front line. You’d think two buildings on their side with guys at the top holding guns would be impressive. But what was breathtaking was the darkness of Mars and all the people coming out of it. The shadows parted to reveal dozens of groups. Some were setting up makeshift medic areas. Others were joining the men on the wall. Another set were getting boxes of weapons. There were no big weapons that could break our line. Those resources were too precious to waste on war weapons. Especially considering the government didn’t know it was at war.
“The fuck happened to you?” It was Mayhem.
I turned around to see a cigar in his mouth, his clothes mussed with dust, and slightly singed at the rim. “Made myself some new friends.”
Mayhem grunted.
The sirens were louder. I heard shots ring out. Mayhem growled, sucking on his cigar as he ran. I was surprised when Justice spared me an angry glare and then moved to a projection machine. He hit the button and I saw a glimpse of it through the gap. The peacekeepers had pulled their cars to block the road, not that we were going anywhere. Justice’s holograph appeared. One idiot shot at it before the others pushed him away.
“I am Justice of the Underground MC.”
“Put down your weapons, surrender,” one of the peacekeepers yelled.
Yeah, good plan. I rolled my eyes. We took down two buildings, but we’d give up because you told us to.
“We will stand by your laws no longer. Our world will know war. Mars will be the battleground of a new fight for equality. We will not accept slavery. We will not be chained. There will be no more masters. You can join our fight or die in our path. The choice is yours.” The holograph ended. “Did it transmit?”
Whip nodded. The screen in his hands moved too fast for me to follow as he touched it. “Yes. It was sent to every station and holograph screen in the whole city.”
“Well, fuck me, we did it.” Mayhem actually grinned.
“Now what?” I asked, unsure if we started fighting the peacekeepers out front or not.
“We go to war, Torrin, we go to war,” Outlaw said. For the first time since I met him, he didn’t appear exhausted. The president of the Outlaw MC looked hopeful.
Everyone was on a schedule for wall duty. Every foot of our dam had an armed man. The side of our front lines was now lined with hover cars. We were near a large cave that led underground in case the fight started to turn on us. It was also a spot to rest, eat, take a moment to realize we fucking went down in the history books today. The Outlaw MC was up on wall duty with the Amazons. I was sitting on the building, staring down at the sheer amount we were up against. Dozens of peacekeeper cars were in front of us. They made their own barrier, their own guards, their own resistance against us. Wexmen went on the holograph screens a few minutes ago. He condemned our outrageous act of violence and deemed us beyond lawbreakers. We were to be shot on sight. Nice guy. He also said that the government would not negotiate with such abundant atrocities. Apparently, he knew a lot of big words. He declared the MC’s the enemy and put the city in a state of civil war. Looks like Justice and Outlaw got what they wanted.
The declaration also had slaves fighting back, those not yet freed rose up. Some won and were trying to get to us. Others perished trying to be free. We had about a dozen black men arrive. They were welcomed with open arms. A few women also made their way here. Not as many. I think that would change though. Suddenly a whole new world was opening up for them. Life was about more than chains and punishment. I knew that now. I could see with new eyes. And when the sun came up, it was the dawn of a new day. It shone on the violence from the night before but the glass in the street looked like glitter from up here. The city was abuzz with activity. It wasn’t a win, but it was a fucking start. Now we’d keep the peacekeepers busy and find a way to get to the government building. We’d take down Wexmen and whoever believed in his corrupt ways.
The war had truly begun.
Chapter Thirteen
It was a few hours since I took my post on the wall. There had been a few anxious peacekeepers that tried to shoot us down, but we wounded all three and that shit stopped quickly. They had no way to get to us. The city in front was filled with government officials and curious citizens, but they couldn’t stop us. We were too organized. We had too many people. I’m sure they’d try something, but Justice was already planning ahead. As the sun began to rise for a brand new day, he’d start expanding. Building by building, growing our numbers.
“Hey, idiot.”
I actually glanced down. Yeah, it was Mayhem calling me. He grinned up.
“Your time’s up. Come down and suck my dick.”
I blushed heavily. I mean who the fuck yells that in front of all these strange men. A few whistled and one guy asked to join us. I just kept climbing down until I was on the ground and glaring at him. “Really?”
“You looked pissed,” he said quietly.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not used to sucking dick or having someone yell it out.”
“That fucking embarrassed you?”
“Kind of.” I had to let go of the awkwardness now that I was with another guy.
“Too bad.” Mayhem leaned closer. “And you’re going to love this.” He grabbed my hand and starting leading me away from the front lines.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
I followed him from the rising sunshine warming the day into the entrance of a dark cave. It opened up to show a large area busy with people. There was no
segregation here. It was black and white, men and women working together to create a better future for our species. It made me fucking proud. We took the right tunnel. The walls were rock, smoothed down until they almost looked curved. “Where are you taking me, Mayhem? I thought you wanted me to suck you off?” And I really wanted to. It was at that moment I realized how much I was going to miss the clubhouse. The last few weeks had turned it into a home. The first time I was with Mayhem was behind those walls. I found my courage, my path, in that place. Now, it was probably raided or destroyed. It was sad. We came upon a door bolted into the rock. Mayhem opened it, tugged me inside, and then closed it.
“This is the Outlaw MC’s new place.”
It was a huge area, dug out with rock walls. There were two poles of steel spaced a few feet apart. I was hoping they weren’t holding up the fucking ceiling because I’d never be able to sleep like that. The chapel table was here, tucked in a corner. There were blankets on top of it and boxes underneath. I stared around at the simple chairs made of rock and the four mattresses that were laid against the wall. This would be our new home? Soft laughter echoed through the room. That’s when I realized there was an archway toward the back. Mayhem pulled me along.
It opened to another room. This one had a pipe coming from the wall, water rushed into a barrel and made it sound like a waterfall. There were plants here, giving the plain room some color. There was even a table. One that the prospect was dancing on. I paused, tugging my hand out of Mayhem’s. Prospect was pulling his shirt over his head to the beat of soft music. Is this what the club did on their break? I could see Outlaw sitting on a bench, he was shifting between watching Prospect and working on a holographic screen that had images popping up. Grim was standing in the corner, his gaze seemed captured by the prospect as he bent and wiggled his ass. I had no idea he could do that. I mean, male dancers wasn’t something common around here. Chaos and Beau were lying on the floor on a blanket. They were watching him, smiling but also sharing brief kisses. Deviant was on a lip of flat rock, almost a bench. He had his arm around Tage as the shy man watched Prospect while blushing. Prospect started to unbutton his pants. Chaos pushed Beau to the ground and started kissing him in earnest.