Life can change in the blink of an eye.
One minute you’re alive and well, the next you’re bleeding sludge in the rain. I don’t usually think about how short of a time we have here, but that Wednesday made me think about it again and again. I just lost my best friend.
In the morning meeting with my six truck crews I couldn’t help but enjoy lording my position over Macy. She wouldn’t meet my eyes and I felt like I was finally an Alpha and everyone knew it. Talk about ego coming before a catastrophe, however that old saying goes.
Last night my mind had been too active to reset and I had been shorted my normal six or so hours of sleep. I’m not sure if it was just excitement or some sort of bad feeling that kept me awake. Around our break, I told Chaz to park the truck near a foodmart since I was buying. The nine guests in the rear were numb enough to not raise any noise while we made a pit stop, so I wasn’t worried. I loaded a clip of hollowpoints just to make sure.
"Don’t get me none of that cheap-ass fake pork BBQ", Chaz said as I opened the door of the cab.
"What, you’re worried about? Your figure?"
"No man, it gives me really bad gas. But hey, you’re the one that’s gonna pay for it either way. You make the call."
I laughed and climbed out into the rain. Large cold drops pelted me and slicked my hair into my eyes. I wasn’t about to risk that kind of fate and motioned to Maab.
"C’mon, I’m going to need help carrying this stuff" I said and she followed me into the store.
I made sure to look for the "genuine" BBQ so I wouldn’t die of methane poisoning later and picked up enough to keep for a second meal for each of us. It never hurts to think ahead and I saw that Maab picked up enough drinks to keep us wet the rest of the night. When we stacked the food and drinks in front of the old man working the counter, he looked at us like I was crazy.
"We’re throwing a party. Just ring it up."
He shook his head and started tapping prices on an adding machine that was as old as the WOP and about one step up from an abacus. Each click spooled out more tape and I saw a growing pink line down the paper. After he had slowly shifted about a quarter of the food into a new pile, the paper ran out and he vanished under the counter to search for more. I shook my head and walked up to the front window to let Chaz know to hold his horses for a while. He gets irritable if he doesn’t get his regular feedings.
The window was badly fogged, so I wiped it with my sleeve and peered out. I didn’t see him in the cab of the truck, but what I did see made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Three men were walking from the direction of the truck and one cradled what looked like a shotgun.
"Fuck, let’s go", I said to Maab. She started to protest, but pulled me towards the rear of the store when she saw what was coming. The old man still hadn't come up for air, which was probably better for him.
There was a boom and condensed soup and potato chips sprayed the air. Maab knocked me behind a magazine rack and pulled a handgun, firing back. I started to pull my pistol but shielded my eyes instead as crap fell on me. The chip rack in front of us came apart and I got hit with some sort of cherry soda from behind. Firing back through the rack, I was scrambling backwards when Maab grabbed my arm. She half-dragged me out the back of the store and swung a fire door closed behind us. Three holes punched through the door and screamed off the alley’s far wall. Cursing, she jammed a skid under the door’s handle and pushed me into the street.
"DOWN!" she screamed and pulled me behind a dumpster across the street and aimed at the mouth of the alley. I crouched next to her and tried to catch my breath, but wasn’t having a lot of luck. My hands were shaking so badly that I nearly dropped my pistol.
A few moments later two men came to the edge of the alley and looked around. The slide on Maab’s pistol recoiled and the first man’s head snapped back without its forehead. He crumpled to the ground and his partner flattened himself next to the wall. Maab fired again and clipped him in the shoulder, spinning him into the open. She fired three more times and he tumbled backwards in red sprays to flop into a puddle.
"Chaz, we gotta –"I started.
"Shut up. We have to get the fuck out of Dodge."
"Chaz.." I started again, but she cut me off with a hard look.
"Is probably dead. We’re getting the hell out of-"
"No. We circle around to the truck."She nodded and took the lead. I followed her e in what seemed random turns, but we managed to come out on the other side of the truck. The rear doors were open and Chaz was sprawled on the pavement against the driver side step. I felt my guts tighten and started forward, but Maab stopped me. She kept me watching from cover for what seemed like hours, the whole time Chaz’s body didn’t move. I knew he was gone and my stomach knotted.
Eventually Maab let me go to the truck and I knelt down next to him. His throat was cut from ear to ear and his white shirt was soaked crimson. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think. The person who had been my closest friend for years was gone. Death had not been that personal in years, and I felt the tears begin burn my eyes. The cold rain overtook me and I shivered.
Maab got me into the truck and drove us back home, but I don’t remember the trip. We left Chaz’s body in the street, the only burial it would have was in the rain.
Comments to rw