Highway To Armageddon

by Bloemer, Harold

We all run to where she’s pointing. It doesn’t take us long to find the man who’s caused us so much hardship and heartache.

  Caesar is slumped against a tree stump. There’s a trail of blood leading up to him, which means he dragged himself over. Blood gushes from a cut on his temple and trickles out of his nose and mouth. His right ankle is sideways, like it’s broken. He appears to be in horrendous pain. He’s probably got some internal bleeding going on.

  I’m surprised when I realize I no longer feel intense hatred for Caesar. I hate all the horrible things he’s done over the years. I hate that he killed my uncle. I hate that he put a bounty on our heads, making our journey to Alaska far more difficult than it ever had to be. But no matter how hard I try (and trust me, I’m trying pretty hard), I can no longer muster hatred for the man. Not in his current state, anyway. I feel nothing but pity, like I would for a wounded animal. He’s not long for this world, anyway. Why waste time allowing a cancer like hatred to eat away at my soul more than it already has?

  Caesar shakily swings a machine gun at all of us. None of us budge. Caesar’s so banged up he probably couldn’t hit a bulls-eye five feet in front of his face.

  “S… stand back!” he says in a half-sob. “I’ll shoot you all! STAY BACK!”

  Dorothy looks away. “I can’t stand to see anyone like this. Make it quick.”

  I cock my gun and point it at Caesar’s chest. “I intend to.”

  Caesar closes his eyes and takes deep, labored breaths. It’s taking everything he has to stay conscious.

  He slowly reopens his eyes and garbles, “What are you going to do with me? Take me to D.C.? Back to Cincinnati?

  “Nope,” Machete says, polishing her blade with a rag. “We’re taking you to your old pal Igor Bolshevik.”

  Caesar’s eyes widens in horror. He tries to scoot back even further, but he has nowhere to go.

  “No, don’t take me to him! Igor is a sadistic monster! You have no idea what he’ll do to me!”

  Arrow notches an arrow on his bow. “Don’t worry, we’re not taking you in alive.”

  Caesar fires off several shots. A few of the bullets hit Boom Boom in her chest. I respond in kind, blasting Caesar in the heart. Arrow sends an arrow hurtling into his neck. Caesar gags and drops his gun, clutching at the arrow. He finally stops twitching and his eye glazes over. His hands fall to his sides and he slides off the trunk until all that remains propped up is his ghastly, lifeless head.

  I feel no satisfaction in Caesar’s death. At this point it’s just a job, a means to an end.

  I turn to check on Boom Boom. Arrow is already by her side, helping her up.

  “I’m fine,” she grunts, clutching her stomach. “My armor deflected the bullet fragments. Did we…?”

  Boom Boom trails off when she sees Caesar staring up at the sky.

  Boom Boom sighs. “It’s finally over.”

  “No,” Machete says, whipping out her electric blade. “It’s only just begun. Now we go after the top dog. First, though, we need to send our friend Igor a little present.”

  Machete presses a button on the blade handle. A two-foot long blade pops out. She then presses another button. Within seconds the blade turns bright red.

  “Wait, are you going to decapitate him?” Dorothy cries.

  Machete kneels beside Caesar and yanks back his head, exposing his neck.

  “Uh, yeah. Igor wants Caesar’s head in a box, remember? Besides, I sure as hell ain’t dragging his fat carcass all the way back to Vegas.”

  “Oh God,” Boom Boom moans, walking away. Arrow follows her.

  “I may be one touch chick, but decapitation is too much for even my hardcore ass,” Krystal says, running back to the car.

  I wrap Dorothy in my arms and lead her away as well. Unfortunately we don’t move quite fast enough. I’ll never forget the sound of that heated blade slicing through human flesh.

  Our exhausting, heart-breaking journey is almost over. The question is, will I have to compromise my soul in order to get over the finish line?

  Or have I compromised it already?

  Chapter Sixteen: Boom Boom

  It’s a little after 1:00am and Arrow, Lance and I are back in Igor’s casino, riding the elevator up to his club. After Machete decapitated Caesar, she tossed his head in the trunk and we flew back home to change into our leather outfits. The boys and I couldn’t very well show up in our armor. We then stopped at a store to buy a box for the head before heading back over here. I can’t help but occasionally glance at the box in Lance’s hands. The bottom of it is leaking blood. I have to swallow to keep my bile down.

  The elevator door finally opens and we step out into the club. It’s even more packed than it was the night before. On our way to the back some girl bumps into Lance, nearly knocking the box out of his hands. The last thing we need is for a head to roll onto the dance floor.

  We make it to the back stairwell, where Winston and Bob are chatting about how much they hate their wives. They seem like such great catches.

  Lance saunters up to the guards and says, “How’s it hanging, fellas?”

  Winston grins. “Hey, it’s my favorite teenage gangbangers! I was afraid I’d never see you guys again. Did you find Caesar?”

  Lance holds up the bloody box. “Yep.”

  Bob gasps and nearly drops his gun. “Is that… did you really….?”

  “Don’t embarrass yourself, Bob,” I say. “We’d like to see Igor before our ‘gift’ starts to attract flies.”

  “Of… of course!” Winston stammers. “Follow me!”

  Winston leads us up the spiraling staircase and out onto the roof. Igor, Norma, and the rest of the gang are swilling vodka and watching security footage. They don’t immediately notice us.

  Winston hurries over to his fellow gangbangers and bellows, “Boss, you have visitors! Ruby, Arkady, and Vladimir have brought a gift!”

  Igor and his cronies look over at us in a combination of shock and delight. I take it they, like Winston, weren’t expecting us to survive our encounter with Caesar.

  “We weren’t expecting you guys back so soon!” Igor exclaims.

  Lance hands Igor the box. “What can I say, we’re eager to meet the ‘Great Leader’.”

  Igor tears open the box and gasps. “By the White Wolf, you kids did it!”

  Igor grabs Caesar’s severed head and holds it up for all to see. “They got him! They got Caesar!”

  Norma, Fred, Frank, and the rest of the gang give us a rousing standing ovation. I’d never seen so many people so excited about a murder. It makes me feel a little sick to my stomach.

  Norma smacks me on the back. “I bet you’re the one who hacked his head off, aren’t you, Ruby?”

  I force a weak smile. “You got me.”

  Arrow crosses his arms. “So when do we get to meet Rasputin?”

  Igor juggles Caesar’s head. “Actually, I just talked to Rasputin this morning. I told him all about you kids, how you had the potential to be our most successful recruits yet. He had a good laugh when I told him you decided to go after Caesar. But I don’t think he seriously believed you’d do the deed. When I show him this, however…”

  Igor spins Caesar’s head like it’s a basketball.

  “… he will be a believer. We’re having a big meeting tomorrow night with Rasputin and some other high-profile Purple Dragon executives.”

  I try not to smirk. It’s hilarious how Igor and his cronies are treating their criminal enterprise like it’s a legitimate business, with ‘executives’.

  “I’m sure Mikhail won’t mind if you all tagged along,” Igor rattles on as he goes back to juggling Caesar’s head. “He definitely won’t mind when he finds out you removed one of the biggest thorns in his backside. Caesar here has been stealing a lot of our business over the last few years. With him gone the rest of his black-market operation should crumble, leaving us to fill the void. Our profits will skyrocket!”

  “So we’re actually going to
get to meet Rasputin tomorrow?” I blurt out. At first I feel stupid for acting so excited, but it turns out my sincere outburst works to our advantage (even though I’m not excited for the reasons Igor and his cronies might think).

  “See how eager they are to meet the Fearless Leader?” Norma gushes. “If only more Russian teens shared your enthusiasm!”

  “Yeah, if only,” I grumble, massaging my throbbing back.

  “Yes, yes, you will get to meet the Great Leader,” Igor says, apparently moved at my convincing display of Russian patriotism. “The meeting is taking place at an undisclosed safe-house sometime tomorrow after midnight. Even I won’t know where it’s at until hours before the meeting. It could be quite far from Vegas. I suggest you get here tomorrow by 10:00 in case we must travel.”

  “S… sounds good,” Lance stammers. He’s as shocked as I am that our plot to infiltrate the Purple Dragons has actually worked. We had to commit a murder to prove our loyalty, but that’s irrelevant at the moment. The important thing is we did the impossible… we penetrated the Dragon’s inner circle. And in roughly 24 hours we’re going to come face-to-face with the world’s most wanted man. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a tinge of excitement. Sure Rasputin is a mass-murdering terrorist, but he’s also one of the most famous people in history. As an amateur historian I find it exhilarating I will get to meet someone of significant historical stature.

  Igor pours us all a glass of vodka. He then raises his glass into the air.

  “To Ruby! To Arkady! To Vladimir! To the death of Caesar! And most importantly of all, to Mother Russia!”

  The rest of us raise our glasses and shout, “To Mother Russia!”

  I do my best to choke down some of the foul vodka so I don’t blow our cover. But I don’t think it would matter if I did spit it out. Igor and his cronies are treating us like royalty for taking out one of their most hated foes. If things continue to go our way, we’ll be cashing in our $25 million in no time. It’s almost like we’ve been in a dark, dank tunnel for a long, long time, and all of a sudden we see a light. I just hope what we see is daylight and not the headlights of an oncoming train.

  We chill out with Igor and the gang for about an hour. Lance finally yawns and tells our new ‘friends’ we want to get some rest before our big meeting with Rasputin.

  “Of course, of course, you’ve all had an exhausting day,” Igor says. “Go! Go! We’ll see you tomorrow!”

  I’m relieved when we finally get out of the casino. I was getting extremely sick seeing them toss around Caesar’s head like it was a hot potato. I almost screamed when Norma tossed the damn thing into my lap.

  We make our way back to the rendezvous point on the Strip, far from Igor’s prying eyes. Lance and Arrow can barely contain their excitement.

  “Can you believe this?” Lance says giddily. “We’re actually going to meet Rasputin! I can’t believe this crazy plan worked!”

  “What should we do tonight?” Arrow asks, side-stepping some drunk gambler stumbling along the sidewalk. “Should we try to capture Mikhail the instant we see him, or should we play it cool and earn his trust like we did with Igor?”

  “Let’s take down the bastard tonight,” Lance exclaims.

  “Oh yeah, that’s real smart,” I say. “Mikhail will probably be surrounded by tons of security, and they’re not going to let us go to the meeting armed. We’d be slaughtered within seconds.”

  “But Machete and Krystal will be nearby, they can back us up,” Lance says.

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better about our chances?” I ask.

  “Quit being so stubborn, Firecracker. We have gone through hell and back to get to this point. The world is on the brink of war, and we’re going to be in the same room as the most wanted man on Planet Earth. We may never see him again after tonight. We need to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

  Lance makes a lot of sense, but that doesn’t change the fact that an attempt to take down Rasputin in a roomful of Russians is suicide.

  Lance and I begin having one of our trademark verbal sparring matches. Profanities and personal insults fly freely between us. People on the Strip start to stare.

  Arrow grips both of our arms. “Knock it off. You’re drawing attention to us. We can talk about this back at the motel.”

  Before Lance and I can respond, Krystal, Machete, and Dorothy lower out of the sky in our banged up, stolen Chariot XX. The boys and I hop in the back and we fly off.

  Machete, Krystal, and Dorothy stare at us eagerly.

  “Well?” Krystal blurts out from the front passenger seat. “Did it work? Are you members of the Purple Lizards?”

  “It’s the Purple Dragons,” I say. “And yep, we’re in!”

  “You should have seen their faces when we showed them Caesar’s head,” Arrow says, chuckling. “They couldn’t believe we caught him.”

  “Even better, they want us to come back tomorrow so we can meet Rasputin,” Lance proclaims proudly.

  Machete and the girls hoot and holler, like we just won the lottery or something. And I guess in a way we have.

  “I knew you guys would do it!” Krystal leans over her seat and swallows me up in a hug. Machete grumbles as Krystal bumps into her.

  “Congratulations!” Dorothy gushes, turning around on Lance’s lap and planting a kiss on his lips. I do my best not to scowl, but I’m pretty sure I fail miserably.

  “So Rasputin is coming to Igor’s casino?” Machete asks, sounding a bit confused.

  “No, we’re meeting up with Igor and his cronies at the casino, then they’re taking us to some undisclosed location,” I explain.

  I see Machete frowning in the rearview mirror. “I don’t like that. You guys are going to be cut off from us. You won’t be able to wear your goggles, and we certainly can’t follow you. Criminals like Igor are experts at spotting trails. It’ll be especially obvious if they take you somewhere secluded and we’re the only car behind them.”

  “You can still follow us, just from a distance,” Arrow says. “Red still has that GPS chip in her shoe, remember?”

  “I know, I tried to dig it out but I can’t find it,” I grumble. I don’t like the fact Arrow is able to follow my every move. I’m definitely getting new shoes when we get back to Sanctuary 7. If we get back.

  Krystal greedily rubs her hands. “Alright, so all we gotta do is follow you guys to Rasputin’s secret lair, and then we burst in and shoot up the place. Should be a blast!”

  “See Boom Boom, I’m not the only one who thinks that’s a great idea,” Lance says smugly.

  I massage my throbbing temple. My headache has returned with a vengeance.

  “You can’t seriously think that’s a good idea, Krystal,” I say.

  “Boom Boom’s right, you both are mentally retarded for thinking such an idiotic plan would work,” Machete says.

  I’m stunned. I figured Machete would be all gung-ho for a suicidal charge into a building full of bad guys.

  “But why should we wait?” Lance says. “We worked so hard to get this one opportunity to come face to face with Rasputin. What if this is our only chance? What if after tomorrow we don’t ever see him again?”

  “You have to convince him it is worth seeing you again.” Machete looks directly at me. “You know what I’m talking about, Boom Boom. I see the way Arrow and Lance look at you. I see how every perverted man looks at you. You are very pretty, with a fiery personality to match. Use your sex appeal to convince Rasputin you’re worth seeing again… alone.”

  I nod. While I’m not particularly thrilled at the idea of ‘whoring’ myself out to Rasputin, it is a brilliant plan. If I can get him alone, we should easily be able to take him down. Then we just have to drag him up to D.C. and voila, we’re all multi- millionaires.

  “I don’t know,” Arrow says. I can tell he doesn’t like me ‘whoring’ myself out, either.

  I gently touch his arm. “Don’t worry, nothing will happen. Yo
u know this is our best shot at getting him. We’re not doing this just for us, you know. America and China are on the verge of a nuclear war. We’re doing this for the entire planet.”

  Arrow rolls his eyes. “Fine. But if he so much as touches you inappropriately, I’m breaking his nose when we take him down.”

  Why do I always gravitate toward such violent guys?

  We arrive back at the motel and try to get some sleep, try being the key word. I spend most of the night staring at the ceiling. I have so many emotions boiling up inside of me. Excitement, fear, trepidation, sadness, happiness…. I have no idea how tomorrow night will go down. We could be one step closer to apprehending Rasputin, or we could all be dead. The Ruskies don’t play around.

  Before I know it, the sky outside our window turns a soft gray, the first signs of the approaching dawn. I feel smothered in our small, cramped room, and roaches keep crawling over my legs. I slide out of bed, grab my leather jacket, and reach for the door handle. I hesitate when I realize I’m unarmed. I grab my utility belt off the table and buckle it around my waist. I instantly feel safer. I open the door and softly close it behind me.

  The cool, morning breeze refreshes me instantly. Leaves flutter around me, swirling in the wind. The trees are getting more and more barren with each passing day. I walk toward the wooded area in the back of the motel and enter a small trail. I walk for about a mile, until I come across a bubbling brook. I haven’t felt this relaxed in a long time. Something about being alone in the wilderness always puts me at peace.

  A sharp, stabbing pain suddenly shoots up my spine and slams into my brain. I crouch down and clutch my skull. My pangs of withdrawal are slowly getting easier to tolerate, but every now and then I have a relapse and it feels like my entire world is coming to an end. Slowly yet surely the pain dissipates back to the dull, constant pain that is always there in the background. I can deal with that. The excruciating pain is what makes me long for a bottle of pills.

  A branch snaps off in the distance. I whip out my gun, twirl around, and come face to face with Arrow.

  Arrow holds up his hands and backs away. He cracks a grin and says, “When will I ever learn?”