The Road Sharks

by Clint Hollingsworth

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Guard This

  ****

  “God, I hate this!”

  Gordon truly did hate waiting around, so normally he wasn’t very good at guard duty. With everyone else stuffing their pockets and saddlebags, (everyone but him that was), he was terrible at it.

  He knew that a lot of the things he should be stuffing in his pockets as they fled this building, (and make no mistake, he realized they were fleeing) was winding up in the pockets of the bastards he sometimes called friends.

  He was supposed to guard the area around the mess and sick bay, to make sure Cook wouldn’t escape and what remained of the meds weren’t taken. He was also tasked with keeping an eye on the one unblocked stairwell to the upper levels. Axe had given him strict orders not to move, and not to let anyone go upstairs to talk to Shell. Gordon, being a little smarter than the average Road Shark, figured Axe had offed the old fart and wanted to keep it secret.

  “Like anyone would give rat’s ass,” he grumbled. “Everyone knows Shell’s a cripple, an’ I can’t really see anyone in this bunch wantin’ to play nursemaid to him. Dude’s better off dead.”

  He was wondering if there was someway he could leverage Axe Man with this theory, get a little extra to stay quiet and realized that he would need to actually see the body.

  He looked out toward the garage. He could be up the stair and into Shell’s room and back down the stairs in five minutes, and Axe Man was way too busy to check on him. If he took some of Shell’s swag with him, well, that was only common sense!

  He moved quickly, though he wasn’t that concerned that anyone would see him. The others were either guarding outside or were frantically loading the last of the supplies into the two solar vans they still had.

  “I see anyone,” he mused, “I’ll just say Axyl told me to take a turn around the place every fifteen minutes. No worries, I am the fucking guard after all!”

  Emerging onto the third floor, Gordon moved quickly to Shell’s room to see the bodily evidence. When he opened the door, however, he found the Shark’s former leader, not on the floor with a bullet in his head, but quite alive and being eased into his wheelchair by a huge black dude covered in camouflage.

  “Eli! Shit!” His eyes went wide, and he began to raise the old carbine he carried. He had it half way to his shoulder when he felt a huge impact to his back, driving him into the big man in front of him. Eli deftly plucked the rifle from his hands and shoved him backwards so hard his feet went above his head and he hit the floor very hard.

  As if the stars he was seeing weren’t enough, the air was driven out of his lungs by a knee, one connected to the muddiest woman he had ever seen. She put a huge, very sharp knife to his throat.

  “Would you like to live, little shark?” she asked him, her eyes just a little too open to be completely sane. “Just nod if you would.”

  Gordon nodded so hard he heard his neck pop.

  “Good for you. Flip over, I’m going to tie your hands.”

  He felt his hands bound, and he could tell after fewer than ten seconds the woman knew how to tie things. He couldn’t move his hands or his lower arms. She placed a foot against him and shoved him onto his back.

  Eli reached under his arms and lifted him to his feet like he was a four-year-old. Gordon knew the guy was strong, but seeing this, he was glad he was already captured. Maybe they wouldn’t hurt him too bad.

  “So. You want to live, and we need something from you. Seems like a good opportunity to make a deal to me, how about you?” Eli said.

  “Yeah. I’ll deal, man.”

  “Good lad. I simply want you to give Axyl a message when they find you tied up. You can do that for me can’t you… I’m sorry, what was your name?”

  “Uh.. Gordon. What message do I give?”

  “It’s so simple anyone can remember it Gordon. Just tell Axyl that Ghost Wind and I are in the house and there will be more booms to come.”

  “What…booms?”

  “Not for you to worry your furry little head about, Gord. When the time comes, we’ll put you where they can find you and you tell Axe Man what I just said. For that, we won’t cut your throat. So… deal?”

  “Yeah. Deal. I said I’d deal, man.”

  “Good. Go sit against that wall and do NOT move. Shenanigans will constitute a breach of contract, and you know what happens then, right?”

  “Yeah.” Gordon went and sat against the wall. To his surprise, he saw Cook hovering behind the woman, Ghost Wind. The scrawny woman looked like she didn’t want to get left behind when her new benefactors left and Gordon wanted to say something to her, something sarcastic, but he saw Ghost Wind’s eyes on him and there was little room for mercy in them.

  Gordon shut his trap as the two women moved on down the hall and Eli wheeled Shell to the doorway.

  ****

  Ghost Wind moved off the carpeted hall to the room Shell had pointed out, with the silent woman known only as Cook, right behind her. The scout carefully and slowly opened the door, thinking their captive might have set a guard on his room and not mentioned it but she found no one around.

  “I tell ya, the girl’s in there. They’s a room in the back where he keeps ‘em,” Cook told her. “Gets him a new one when the others get to the point they don’t cry enough. Sends the previous girls off to them slavers to the east, or sometime gives ‘em to his men. They don’t tend to last long.”

  “Wait here ’til I call you,” Ghost Wind quietly told her. She silently glided into the room, moving to the side of the doorframe once in. She noted that Shell was a man who liked the best that the old world could still offer. Fancy sheets and blankets were on the huge bed, with its fancy carved headboard and posts. To a person used to sleeping in wild places it looked ridiculous. Old sports team equipment covered the walls, much of it signed by long-dead athletes.

  She had moved to the side of the bed and was edging toward the second door when she noted it was ajar. She just had enough time to get fully to her feet when a huge bearded man burst from the room and tackled her. He straddled her and his massive hands found her throat.

  “Goddamn,” he growled at her, “a man just tries to sneak away for a little fun, and someone’s always gotta interrupt. It was pain enough to sneak past that stupid shit Gordo, now I got mud people gettin’ in my way!”

  Ghost Wind began to see spots in front of her eyes, and jabbed stiffened fingers towards his eyes. The Road Shark was not so easily taken, and ducked his head so that she only scratched his forehead. The world began to go dark.

  She heard a heavy impact, and the big hands loosened from her throat. She slammed her elbow into his forearms and tore loose from his grip when she heard another heavy impact and her attacker fell off her. Looking up, she saw Cook standing over her with a baseball bat, signed illegibly in black ink sometime decades before. With a snarling grimace on her face the thin woman began using the wounded Road Shark for batting practice, putting everything she had into each blow.

  “Where’s my dinner?” she screamed. “Well here it is, bitch! Here’s your goddamned supper. How’s it taste?”

  The big man tried to cover his head and her next blow connected mightily with his knee. When he reached for his shattered knee, the next blow went heavily to his forehead. He went down.

  Ghost Wind had made it to her feet, coughing and still a little dizzy when Eli came running through the door. He looked at the snarling woman batter with surprise and started towards her as she continued to rain blows on the kilabyker.

  “I wouldn’t,” Ghost Wind rasped out. “I sense issues here and we’d be wise not to get in the way of her resolution. Let her run down, he won’t be getting up again.”

  “He sure as shit won’t,” Eli replied, a slightly nauseated look on his face. “You okay?”

  “I will be. Don’t let our prisoners get away.”

  Eli looked back toward the hall with an irritated expression and went out the door.

&n
bsp; Cook had started to run down, and the blows she was raining on the remains of Ghost Wind’s attacker were getting weaker and slower. The scout walked over to her and gently removed the bloody and cracked bat from her shaking hand.

  “Thanks for saving me. We need to see what he’s done to the girl.”

  Cook nodded, breathing heavily from her exertions and followed Ghost Wind through the door. The girl was chained naked to the back wall, and seemed to be unconscious. It didn’t appear that she’d been raped, but the warrior woman noted that she had a water bowl in front of her, bone dry and the bare remains of a meal sat on a plate against the wall. If this had been the last meal she’d had, it had been some time ago.

  “Were you the one who was feeding her?”

  “I made her food, but ol’ Shell would get it and hand feed her himself.”

  “I don’t think I even want to know what that was about. Can you find her some water on this floor? She looks dehydrated and half starved.” Ghost Wind said, “While you do that, I’ll find away to break or open these links.”

  Cook went out in search of water and Ghost Wind took a close look at the chains. They weren’t thick, almost ornamental looking, but considering how thin and frail the girl looked she doubted much heavier ones would have been needed. A good chop with the big knife would probably bite through them, and the gold leafed shackles could come off later.

  “Hey! Wake up. You in there?” Ghost Wind shook the girl lightly and the young one’s eye’s snapped open, terrified. She tried to curl up in a the fetal position but her bonds got in the way.

  “Please… please don’t hurt me…” Tears leaked from her eyes.

  “Okay. Was actually planning on getting you out of here. How does that sound?” Ghost Wind said. She saw a slight glimmer of hope in the girl’s eyes. “What’s your name?”

  “Carly,” the girl replied, watching Ghost Wind search around the room.

  “I’m Ghost Wind. Ah! Just what I need!” Ghost Wind held up a lacquered wooden tray with the words “Made in China” written on the bottom .

  Moving back to the chains, Ghost Wind carefully held it against the wall with one hand and drew her big Khukri knife. The girl cringed.

  “Oh, for the love… this is not for you. Hold your hand up here. Good, that’s the spot.” Holding one part of the chain in the hand that steadied the tray, she raised the big knife in the other and chopped down. The mild steel links parted like butter cut with a hot knife. A few more blows and the girl was dressed only in shackles with a few dangling lengths.

  “I found some water,” Cook said, re-entering with a pitcher of lukewarm liquid.

  “Great. Get Carly here hydrated and dressed as best as possible.” Ghost Wind pulled the older woman aside. “I’ll toss a sheet over handsome out there on the floor. Don’t linger there. I’ll be at the other end of the hall with Eli so bring her when she’s ready, but don’t take long.” Cook nodded.

  Eli and Shell were waiting at the head of the stairs, with Gordon sitting against a wall.

  “You two are quite mad, if you think you’re going to make it out of here without my help,” Shell told them, quite calmly. “No one could sneak out past that garage without being seen.”

  “I seem to remember doing that very thing on the way up, Darwin,” Eli said. “And as I remember, there was an actual guard on duty.”

  “That’s debatable.” Shell looked with disdain at Gordon.

  Ghost Wind looked back toward the room and saw Cook and Carly coming down the hallway. The girl was dressed in a man’s suit pants that only stayed up because of the belt of rope from the bed decoration. She also wore a baggy black dress shirt with fancy rose embroidering, the shirt hanging on her like a tent. Cook carried her bloody bat.

  “That’s my best shirt!” Shell yelled.

  “Go ahead, make noise, Darwin,” Eli told him, “Die quick.”

  “Sorry, sorry,” Shell said cringing slightly. “I’m just not used to my new station in life. Axyl was going to leave me here to fend for myself and I find I must throw myself upon the mercy of strangers.”

  Ghost Wind and Eli exchanged a flat skeptical look.

  “Gordon.” The guard looked up at Ghost Wind’s call. “Up. Over here.”

  “Okay, lady. What do you want me to do?”

  “Open your mouth.” She took a perfumed handkerchief, one of several she had pilfered on the way out of Shell’s room, wadded it up and stuffed it in Gordon’s mouth. “Eli, you have that tape?”

  Eli pulled the remains of a roll of military tape from his pocket, peeled off a short section and carefully laid it over Gordon’s lips. The Road Shark’s pained expression said volumes about how that felt.

  “Be glad you’re still alive, dipstick,” Eli told him. “Now, walk with Ghost Wind to the bottom of those stairs. You make a break for it, or do anything to make us nervous, and you know what happens, right?”

  Gordon nodded, and started down the stair. He stopped when he felt a sting on his throat and looked down. Ghost Wind’s knife was pressed against it.

  “Just so we understand each other, Road Shark,” she said. Gordon started down VERY carefully.

  “You’re next, Darwin,” Eli said.

  “How am I supposed to get this damned…” Shell shut up as Eli lifted him chair and all, and began to follow Ghost Wind down the stairs. The two women followed.

  At the bottom of the stairs, the warrior scout already had Gordon tied to the railing and was peeking out the doorway. Her eyes were calculating and as she turned back to Eli she gestured towards Shell’s mouth.

  “I assure you, that the Road Sharks have thrown me over for Axyl, I have no reason to…” His sentence was cut short as Eli slapped more tape over his mouth.

  “Darwin, you do ANYTHING to give us away, and I’ll turn Ghost Wind over there loose on you with her big knife. You dig me?” Like Gordon, Shell nodded.

  “Good. Most people like to think they’re brave, but facing grisly death usually disabuses them of that notion.” Eli looked at Ghost Wind, who gestured for him to roll Shell out the door. He glanced out, saw there was no one in the section they were in.

  Moving across the floor, they came to a side door leading back to the way they had come in. When they reached the blocked fire door, Eli quickly moved much of the furniture out of the way and rolled the former Shark boss into the darkening twilight.

  “I think we’re done here,” he said as Ghost Wind joined him.

  “Not quite,” she told him as she reached into his pocket. She pulled out the detonator, and led the group through the broken remains of the parking lot. They reached the cover of an adjoining building, one that has been half destroyed by fire at some time and she turned back to look at the Road Shark’s headquarters.

  “Mind if I do the honors, Eli?”

  “Please, be my guest.”

  ****

  Axyl was thinking to himself that thirty men was still a fairly formidable force at the moment when Hell came to Sharktown.

  The first indication that anything was wrong was a tremendous BOOM from the other end of the building, and he and most of his men were knocked off their feet. The follow-up to that was the sound of windows breaking and bricks and debris falling off the building.

  “What the FUCK!” he screamed, as everyone began to get to their feet, looking apprehensively at the ceiling of the garage. The building rocked as if in the aftershock of an earthquake and everyone looked upward as a slow moving fissure made its was steadily across the ceiling.

  “Ballsy! Take Skunk and Beau and find out what the hell just happened. It came from the other end of the building. Move! Everyone else, finish gettin’ your shit together, that ceiling don’t look too stable,” Axyl commanded. “Cooler, get out and tell the guards to get in here and get ready to roll. We leave in a half hour!”

  Axyl put the last few items worth taking into his saddle bag and was stopped in his haste for a moment by thoughts of Shell. The old man was probably la
ying up there in his own filth, and Axyl began to have second thoughts about leaving him there. The old man had taken him in when he was just a punk and Axyl had once thought him the smartest dude alive.

  “Not so fuckin’ smart lately though,” he said to himself. “Couldn’t listen to me when I gave him some good life-saving advice. And he shouldn’t have been such an a-hole when he was the one that caused most of our problems.”

  He looked at the two vans, now filled with food, parts and supplies, realizing to take Shell now would mean dumping a load of stuff. His second thoughts ended at that moment.

  “Axe!”

  Axyl looked up to see Ballsy bringing Gordon down from the far end of the garage, the guard looked worse for wear. Then he saw the man’s hands were still tied behind him and felt a chill down his spine.

  “Gord, why the fuck are you tied up?”

  “It was that Ghost Wind, Axe!” Gordon whined, “Her and that damn Eli said to tell you they’re still in the building and to expect more booms.”

  Axyl stood for a moment, staring at the wall while his men waited with varying degrees of patience for him to give them orders. Men like these needed orders to do anything besides their baseline debauchery, and their leader’s lack of leadership was making them very nervous.

  “Hey,” Ballsy said, “Anyone smell smoke?”

  “Shit!” someone yelled, “There’s smoke comin’ from the stairwell! We’re on fire!”

  Axyl’s head snapped up. “Everyone on their bikes! Anyone not ready in five gets left behind.”

  “Looks like Shell is staying here,” Axy thought. “Tough break, old man.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  H'ast la Vista

  ****

  Ghost Wind watched as the north end of the building developed a decided sag and began settling. Pieces of building, glass and brick and plaster fell out of empty window sills and exterior facades crumbled. She noticed one more thing. There seemed to be smoke coming from where the bomb had gone off.

  “The C4 somehow set all that cordwood afire’” Eli said softly. “Ain’t NO one gonna be using that headquarters again.” Ghost Wind didn’t answer. He saw she had retrieved her carbine and was gripping it tightly, her expression intense.