Death seemed to be following me and picking off everyone I came into contact with. I lost two men to gangs, one to a drug overdose, and one just vanished in the rain. Just when everything I had worked for seemed to be solid, things were coming down like a house of cards. I never knew the end was so close.
I knew it was a mistake, but I had let Maab pull in some guys she knew from her gang days to fill out the crews. After they all passed the test, I spread them among my reliable people. Since I didn’t know them and they didn’t know me, there wasn’t any trust or loyalty and it made me uneasy. As a precaution, I pulled in a marker with Kemper and got a few of his off duty shooters on the crews to keep an eye on the newbies. Maybe I hadn't lost my mind entirely.
In the next two days, there were only a few inter-crew problems, the worst of which was when a newbie tried to talk some shit to one of Kemper’s guns. His brains got plastered all over driver side window and I walked up to the truck while the mech crew was hosing him out of the cab. Red water and meaty debris trailed to the trench in the floor as one of the guys tried to pry a 10 gauge slug out of the door frame. Vans was the one who did it and I figured he would be talkative. He was sitting on the rear step of the truck cleaning his gauge when I found him and he started first when he saw me.
"Hey Mason, the guy asked for it, ok?" he said standing up.
"What started it?"
"He, uh, made a remark about my family so I kacked him. Called my Mum a rat fucker or something." Vans looked sheepish as he told me about it. Maybe he thought the whole thing was a silly reason to blast someone, but I doubted it. You can never tell how seriously a guy from clan will take something, but insulting their Mom isn’t something they let pass.
"I understand and it’s ok. How did the other newbie take it?"
"’Bout shit himself, but he didn’t try anything if that’s what you mean."
"Yeah, that’s what I meant. I wondered how well they knew each other. Keep an eye on him and let me know if you smell anything."
"No problem. Is there something I ought to know?"
"No, but watch your back." I answered and walked away to collect my crew.
It seemed odd that Maab didn’t ask me about Vans’s argument since she had known the guy she brought in, but I didn’t pry. Instead she stayed close by and seemed to be watching over me. It was good to know that I had someone nearby and I didn’t want to ruin it.
Even though the heavy drizzle made a miserable night to bag trim, I managed to fill the truck to near capacity. My waterproof jacket and boots were waterlogged and the chills were worse, but the old Mason was back. Maybe Lady Luck was on my side again, but then it still looked like a cold was in my future. I made a mental note to get it taken care of as I climbed out in the rain for a pit stop.
We had half drained the cooler I kept in the floor and my bladder was screaming about it. On the stop, we pulled in on the edge of Cross Court Bazaar where I could take care of business and get some decent food for the crew. I pulled my collar up high and stepped into the rain. Maab started to follow me, but I stopped her before she got out.
"I’ll only be a few minutes, you three stay in the cab." The three were Maab, Jacob, and Kristopher who was one of the shooters I had borrowed. Mostly Kris had been bored out of his mind, but seemed to get a long with Jacob well. Something about a favorite Gorezone team I think. I didn’t know there were teams on Gorezone, so I guess you learn something new every day.
Working my way under an eave, selfishness got the better of me and I decided to relieve myself first instead of getting the food.
Since I was sort of in public, I headed towards the concrete facilities. Cross Court used to be some sort of playground and the facilities still worked. I unsnapped my holster in case of problems and headed in carefully.As I finished up, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I felt a bad sense of déjà vu. There’s a reason I really hate these places and it’s probably because I get jumped about half the time I go into them. I waited and listened to the sound behind me. If this turned out to be some dumbass in a pig mask, I swore I was going to put a stake in his heart after I shot him and chopped his head off.
As I started to turn, someone slammed me into the urinal. It was Brion, Macy’s boy and he looked like he’d seen better days. His face and arms were bandaged and his eyes were dilated with some sort of painkiller. I managed to pull my pistol, but he pinned my wrist to the wall and gritted his teeth as he tried to crush it. His other hand pushed my head into the flushing lever and the thing started to gush into the floor. The effort seemed to hurt and he cursed under his breath as he shoved me into the wall harder. Even though his strength was waning, he was still much stronger than I was.
My hand was going numb and my grip loosened, but I didn’t drop the pistol. I wasn’t able to get my arm free, but the wrist could move and the pistol was pointed down touching his forearm. I pulled the trigger and the sound in the small room was deafening. He screamed and he let go, clutching what was left of his wrist. I still had the hollowpoints loaded and it had made a mess of his arm. Blood spurted from the near stump and he slumped into the wall moaning. For a moment I stared at him and watched him cower then I shot him in the side of the head and stepped out of the stall. I walked into the rain and figured the rain would wash off the gore.
The hollow feeling I had returned and the sound of the rain seemed muffled like it was falling far away. Macy was probably still alive and I needed to find her and kill her. I always pay off markers as soon as possible and I really owed her. I found her as soon as I stepped into the open, or rather she found me.
She tackled me from behind and slammed me into the pavement. I took most of the fall on my shoulder, but the concrete scraped my hand and face anyway. As I tried to push her off me, I caught an elbow to the jaw that left me seeing lights. Macy had me pinned to the pavement in a puddle and my pistol was too far away to reach. Bandages covered her right eye and neck and she didn’t seem to be herself. If she had been, I’d probably have been dead already.
She growled and punched me in the head, but I half blocked and she started pounding on me like a kid. I struck back and caught her square in the face where something snapped. Red began to spread across the bandage on her eye, and weakly grabbed me by the throat with her left hand. She had problems holding on so she started to use both hands and leaned into it. That took care of her grip problem and I had to fight to breathe. A ringing had started in my ears. If I could only reach my pistol
I punched her in the ribs on the left side and she leaned over in pain. Hitting her again in the same place, she slumped and lost her grip. I took the chance and grabbed her broken nose, cranking on the pressure. She yelped and I managed to tip her off me then kicked her in the ribs. Something else popped and she laid on her side, groaning and holding her midsection. Whatever painkillers she was on that let her keep moving had pretty much worn off.
I scooted back and strained to grab my pistol, but she saw me and snagged my ankle. I kicked out with the other foot and connected, sending her backwards onto the pavement. When rolled over again, she was clawing at an ankle holster but I was quicker. Her eyes went wide when she realized she wasn't going to get the holdout free in time. I pulled the trigger and shot her square in the chest. She started screaming and kicked backwards when the holdout came out of her holster. She fired back as she was trying to crawl away with one arm.
Numbness and disbelief. Then the bright light and pain hit me like a hot iron. I’ve never felt anything like that before and I screamed. We fired at each other again and again. We were only a few feet apart and probably couldn’t really miss.
The growing ringing in my ears was drowned out by the sound of the rain. Where it had been muffled earlier, now it rumbled like distant thunder. A deep cold flowed up my legs and torso, and I could no longer feel or move. I was no longer afraid and the edges of my vision were dark and fuzzy.
As the splashed into my face, I saw Maab, Kristopher, and Jacob running up. I tried to laugh as I saw flashes of a pistol as Maab shot Macy’s body. What a waste – the bitch was already dead. Maab kneeled over me and cradled my head, wiping the rain out of my eyes. After a moment she pulled a phone from her jacket and put it to her mouth.
Distant thunder, this time with lightening. Kristopher slumped to the ground and Jacob lowered something from behind him and stood watching me in silence. His face blurred and the world faded out.
And the blessed darkness took me.
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