Part 7:
Time’s Up
Mo slammed on the brakes
of the truck, his head crashing into the steering wheel as the grill of the
truck smashed into Brian’s back, sending him up and over the hood and into the
windshield with a loud thud.
Cursing, Mo grabbed at his
bleeding forehead. Then, throwing the
truck into park, he fumbled for the knob to turn on the headlights, flooding
the woods with light, as he and Gus scrambled to exit the truck, leaving the
engine running and the doors wide open as the chase began.
It only took Brian a split
second to realize what had happened, as he rolled back down the hood of the
truck and fell to the ground. Running on
pure adrenaline, he quickly got up and started to run, veering off into the
thick wooded area to his right, the headlights from the truck lighting his way. Bobbing and weaving, he made his way quickly
around the gnarled tree trunks, well aware that Mo and Gus were making their
way through the trees behind him, the sound of their heavy breathing echoing in
his ears. As the three men wound their
way further into the woods, Brian prayed for some kind of miracle….
***
Howie sat in the backseat
of the town car, nervously tapping his legs, his eyes glued to the passing
scenery outside. It was as if he thought
he might see Nick standing by the side of the road, waiting for Howie to come
and rescue him. Wishful thinking, he
guessed.
The two words “I’m dying”
played over and over in his head like a broken record. The last time he and Nick had even spent any
substantial amount of time together was when the group was doing some promotion
for “Drowning.” Things had been tense;
the single wasn’t doing so well, and everybody was blaming everybody else. Howie and Nick had barely spoken two words to
each other throughout most of the interviews and appearances. And when they did speak, Nick reverted to his
old childish self of name- calling and mimicking Howie until he would walk away
in disgust.
Howie wondered why their
relationship had always been so strained and why he had never tried to do
anything about it. Taking a shaky, deep
breath, he pushed away at a tear that slid down his cheek, wishing he had the opportunity
to change things now and knowing that if he didn’t get to Nick in time, he
would forever be haunted by Nick’s final words, begging for help on the other
end of the phone.
***
Collette paced nervously
through the hotel suite, feeling sick to her stomach, as her mind ran wild with
images of where Howie was and what he was doing. She wished that she would have forced him to
stay or call the police or anything besides letting him walk out that door. She was desperately in love with Howie, and
she knew that they were destined to spend the rest of their lives together; all
she had to do was convince him of that. His mind always ran wild with “what ifs.” What if they got married and they weren’t
happy? What if they ended up wanting different
things in life someday? What if there
was someone better waiting just around the corner? She knew most of these things he said out of
fear of commitment and not to hurt her feelings. But it did hurt, and last night, she had told
him so.
The fighting had gone on
and on and on. He would try to steer
them off of the topic of long-term love, but she would steer them right back on
course. She wanted to know where things
were going with them. She wanted a
promise that he would stick around. He
had not been able to give her that promise before they fell asleep, exhausted
from going around in circles.
Walking back into the
bedroom, she threw herself onto the bed, dragging Howie’s pillow to her and
inhaling his sweet scent, as her heart pounded in her chest that was heavy with
dread. She couldn’t shake the feeling
that something terrible was going to happen, and she couldn’t shake the feeling
that Howie would somehow be involved.
***
Mo’s head was throbbing,
and the blood that was dripping from the gaping cut in his forehead was now
blurring his vision as he tried to focus on Brian, who was weaving in and out
of the trees in front of them. The
sounds of his own heavy footsteps on the ground echoed loudly in Mo’s ears, as
he turned to see where the hell Gus was.
Gus had fallen slightly behind,
out of shape and out of breath. In
reality, neither one of them were much of a match for the kid, but lucky for
them, the blow from the car had slowed him down some, and Mo could see that
Brian was limping a little, which was good for them.
Smiling to himself, Mo’s
mind was filled with all the ways that they could make the kid pay for making
them look like fools, when, all of a sudden, the sound of sirens in the
distance snapped him back to reality.
Brian’s prayers were being
answered.
***
Two police cars turned
onto the dirt road, their sirens screaming, as an ambulance brought up the rear. The two officers in the first police car
quickly noticed an old pickup truck up ahead of them that was pulled off to the
side of the road with its headlights on and driver’s and passenger side doors
open.
“Should we pull over and
see what’s going on?” Officer Park asked, gripping tightly to the steering
wheel as they bumped along the dirt road at high speed.
“No. We have backup coming. We’ll radio them to check it out,” his partner
Officer Martin answered, grabbing for the radio. “We were told it was important to get to the
address that dispatch gave us ASAP. That
warehouse is at least a mile or more down at the end of this road.” Looking over his shoulder as they flew by the
truck, Officer Park gave it one last glance in his rearview mirror, wondering
if that could somehow be the key to whatever the hell was going on.
***
Brian heard the sirens,
and they were like sweet music to his ears.
Throwing his head back in laughter, he raised his arms up and pumped his
fists into the air.
“Fuck you! Fuck you, you dumb ass bastards!” Brian
screamed, turning to run backwards so that he could watch the beautiful sight
of the police cars and the ambulance, sirens wailing, lights flashing, as they
sped down the dirt road towards the warehouse. Brian’s laughter echoed all around them,
making Mo’s head spin even harder as they gained some more ground on him.
“We totally won. We won, and you lost!” Brian taunted. “They are going to save Nick, and then they
are going to come and get me, and you stupid bastards are going to rot in jail
for the rest of your natural born…”
BAM!
A single shot was fired
from Mo’s gun, ripping a hole right through Brian’s heart.
Brian felt the searing
pain as the bullet burned into his flesh.
And then he felt nothing.
Mo stopped, his finger
still on the trigger, the smoking gun still aimed at Brian. Gus stopped beside Mo, trying to catch his
breath, a slight smile on his face. Brian
just stood there, eyes wide and full of confusion, his body teetering. He tried to speak, blood bubbling up in his
mouth, choking him. He stumbled forward
a few steps, arms outstretched, and then he fell face first to the cold ground.
***
Officers Park and Martin
climbed from their squad car and approached the warehouse. They stood side by side, observing the large
structure, as the second police car came to a stop beside their car, the
ambulance hanging back with its engine running, waiting for word on what needed
to be done next.
Park and Martin instructed
the second set of officers to search the perimeter around the warehouse for
signs of anything that seemed odd or out of place as they approached the garage
door on the far left of the building, guns drawn. Park noticed that the garage door seemed to
be slightly ajar, and he could also see a tiny sliver of light coming from
beneath the door, alerting him that someone had been or still was inside. He signaled to Martin to stand on the right
side of the garage as he stood on the left.
Then, pulling the door up quickly, Martin advanced in first, his gun
drawn, as Park brought up the rear.
The two men moved quickly
towards the Excursion, working their way around to the driver’s side door. Park pulled the door open while Martin
stepped in, gun pointed into the empty cab.
They then moved around to the back door, going through the same motions,
until they had worked their way around to the tailgate doors, satisfying
themselves that the vehicle was empty, despite the brightly burning headlights
casting eerie shadows on the wall.
Standing arms’ width apart,
the two officers then looked down towards the opposite end of the warehouse. It was dark and appeared to be empty on first
scan, but on his second scan, Park noticed something on the floor, down towards
the fourth or fifth garage bay. He
motioned to Martin, who nodded that he, too, saw the figure on the floor. Moving in step with one another, they walked
silently down the center of the warehouse, their eyes shifting around to the
shadows on either side of them for any sudden movement or surprise.
“Hey!” Martin shouted, his
voice echoing in the empty spaces. “Hey,
can you hear me?” He thought that it could possibly be a dead animal that had
wandered into the warehouse and had gotten trapped somehow and died. But the closer they got to the figure, the
more it began to take the shape of a human.
“I said, can you hear me?”
Park tried again, as he and Martin both aimed their guns at the figure lying on
the floor. The closer they got to it,
the thicker the air became with the foul, metallic odor of blood.
“It’s the police. Put your hands where I can see them!” Park
shouted, his right foot sliding forward.
Trying to regain his balance, Park pulled his flashlight from his
waistband and aimed it down at the ground where he had just stepped. A large pool of blood was spread out beneath
his feet. As he moved the flashlight
slowly along the floor, he could see that there was blood everywhere. All of it seemed to be coming from the body
that was now a mere six feet in front of them.
Park approached the
lifeless body first, his flashlight aimed down on the face, as Martin hovered
behind him, his gun ready for any sort of movement. Sizing up the situation, Park could see that
the body was that of a young man in his late teens, early twenties, with what
appeared to be blonde hair and a semi-stocky build. He was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, the
color of which Park was unable to make out through the dark red blood that had
seeped through the clothing. He also
noticed that the young man was not wearing shoes or socks and that his legs
looked to be bruised, cut, and coated with dirt. Kneeling down, Park reached a hand out and
pressed it to the pulse area in the neck.
The young man’s features appeared to be strained, most likely with the
pain from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.
“Be careful,” Martin
hissed, as Park began to press around the neck for a pulse. The skin was cold and clammy, but the blood
was not completely coagulated yet, alerting Park that the body has most likely
been shot within the last hour or so.
“Is he dead?” Martin asked, his eyes never leaving the body.
“I don’t know.” Park shook his head, pressing deeper into the
fleshy parts of the neck. “I’m not
getting anything. Go and get the EMTs.”
Martin shook his head. “No. I’m not leaving you here alone.”
“I’m fine; I have my gun. Besides, this kid isn’t going anywhere.”
Hesitant, Martin backed
away from the scene, yelling over his shoulder as he picked up his pace towards
the garage door that he and his partner had entered through.
“Get in here quick! We need help; a man’s been shot!”
***
“Shit, man, this is perfect!” Gus knelt beside Brian’s lifeless body,
rolling it over and feeling for a pulse. “I’m pretty sure he is totally dead. We got rid of both of those little sons of
bitches just in time. Now we just need
to get the hell out of here, and it’s smooth sailing.” Wiping his hands on his jeans, Gus stood up
and found that he was staring down the barrel of Mo’s gun.
“What the hell are you
doing, man?” Gus asked, pushing the barrel away from his face, only to have Mo
swivel it right back between his eyes. “This
ain’t funny, Mo. We don’t have time for
this shit; we have to get out of here. You
saw those cops, and there are probably more on the way. We have to…”
BAM!
A single shot right
between the eyes dropped Gus to the ground beside Brian.
Mo worked quickly. He knew that he didn’t have much time. Kneeling down beside Gus, he placed the gun
in Gus’s right hand. Gus had not noticed
that Mo had slid on a pair of leather gloves while they were bumping along the
gulches behind the warehouse, searching for Brian. The plan had been in place before Brian had
even escaped from the warehouse. Mo knew
that he would have to do away with Gus. He couldn’t risk the outcome if his dimwitted
friend was somehow left behind.
Placing Gus’s finger on
the trigger, Mo aimed the gun into the ground, firing three shots, which he
then covered with some dirt and leaves before standing up with a sigh.
“Sorry, old fella. I just
couldn’t risk the chance of the cops pinning this on me. You always were a big mouth, Gus; you just
couldn’t be trusted. So now they will
think that there was only one man involved instead of two.”
Backing up from the two
bodies, Mo swiped at the blood that dripped from the open wound in his forehead. Then, looking over his shoulder as more cop
cars turned onto the dirt road, he smiled.
“Time’s up,” he said,
stepping over the bodies with a chuckle as he picked up his pace and
disappeared into the woods.
***
“I’ve got a pulse; I’ve
got a pulse!” Park screamed as Martin returned, followed by the other two
officers, as well as the EMTs dragging a stretcher. The EMTs worked quickly, dragging Nick’s body
onto the stretcher, shouting instructions to each other.
They cut Nick’s shirt from
his body and attempted to clear some of the blood away in order to find the
source. Within seconds, he was hooked up
to tubes and IVs, as one of the EMTs climbed onto the stretcher, straddling
Nick’s chest, while the other EMT and Officer Martin quickly rolled the
stretcher towards the open garage bay.
“We’re losing him; we’re
losing him!” the EMT shouted, pounding on Nick’s chest with strong hands as
they rushed the stretcher across the gravel to the idling ambulance.
Officer Park followed
closely behind them, looking over his shoulder to the other two officers, who
were securing the warehouse crime scene.
Park knew that whoever had done this could not have gotten too far; everything
at the scene was still fairly fresh. The
blood, the headlights on the Excursion…
And then he remembered the
truck.
***
