by Robert Boren
“Follow us, but stay at least a block behind when we get across Prairie Avenue, and don’t drive through until we’ve taken them.”
“What about Alice?” Morgan asked.
“I’ll tell her she has to go,” Sparky said. “Hell, the rest of the table took off after we wasted those UN slugs anyway. It’s not like we’re doing any business. The boss will understand.”
“Am I coming back tomorrow?” she asked.
“Wait for my call,” Sparky said. He rushed back inside, came out with Alice, and locked the back door. Tex was in his big Cadillac sedan, sitting at the driveway waiting for the UN vans to line up behind him. Sparky motioned for Morgan to get behind them as he jumped into the last van.
The caravan took off down the empty street.
Tex was getting nervous as he approached Prairie. His big revolver was on the seat next to him, the BAR on the back-seat floor. Keep it together. He drove under the 405 Freeway bridge, slowing as he approached the checkpoint. He slipped the big revolver between his legs as best he could and stopped where the UN Peacekeeper directed him.
“What is your business here?” asked the UN Peacekeeper. He had dark hair and olive complexion, with an Italian accent. His partner was approaching the other side of the car.
“None of your damn business, Eurotrash.”
The officer looked outraged and went for his sidearm. Tex pulled his revolver and blasted the man, throwing him several feet back, then shot the man on the other side of his car, shattering his window.
“Take that, cretins,” he said, rolling out of the car as it was hit with machine gun fire from the men off to the right. Tex opened the back door and pulled out the BAR, leveling it at the running men and opening fire through the broken window, cutting the shocked men down. Gunfire erupted from across the street, coming from the east-bound checkpoint. Jules’s men piled out of the UN vans and opened fire with their M60s, killing everybody in sight. Somebody tried to drive a van from that checkpoint away but several of the men opened fire on it, the 7.62 caliber rounds making it into Swiss cheese. It rolled into the curb and stopped.
“You, watch that side of street,” yelled Jules at two of the men. “You two take other side. Blast UN van if you see. Rest follow me with bodies.”
Tex laughed, watching the men throw ropes over the traffic lights on Hawthorne Boulevard. They tied the dead UN Peacekeepers by their ankles and pulled them up, out of reach of people, then tied the ropes off.
Sparky motioned to Morgan. She drove up to him cautiously.
“My God,” she said.
Tex looked at her, grinned, and tipped his cowboy hat. “See you later, little lady.”
“Get home,” Sparky said to her.
“Okay,” she said. “Be careful.”
“You too, pumpkin,” he said. She nodded and drove across the intersection.
As soon as she got in the driveway, she pulled her phone out and called Robbie.
“Hey,” Robbie said. “You okay?”
“Oh my God,” she said. “I’m already home. How long are you gonna be at work?”
“Not long,” he said. “Nobody’s here. Deadsville.”
“Come home now if you can,” she said. “Things are gonna go crazy.”
“What’s happening? Are you safe?”
“Yeah,” she said. “You don’t have any checkpoints to go through, right?”
“Nope,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Love you. Be careful.”
“Love you too,” he said.
She ended the call, then parked the car in the shadows and rushed to the door, fumbling the key in the lock, pushing the door open in a panic.
“You home already?” Gil asked from the front bedroom door.
“Yeah,” Morgan said, shutting the door and locking it. The back bedroom door opened and Steve peered out. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you when I get upstairs. Justin’s still gone?”
“He moved in with Katie,” Steve said. “Big surprise.”
Morgan went up the stairs and slipped into the bedroom to change out of her cocktail waitress dress. When she came back out, the others were there. Gil had the TV on.
“Wow, look at that!” Gil said, pointing to the TV screen. “Somebody’s attacking that checkpoint. They got chopper video!”
“Where is that?” Morgan asked.
“Looks like someplace near Inglewood,” Gil said.
“What’s happening?” Colleen asked, eyes filled with fright.
“Taken down already,” Gil said as the TV screen went blank for a moment. It came back up on a commercial.
The front door opened.
“Robbie?” Morgan called out.
“Yeah,” he said as he ran up the stairs. “I’m hearing that all the checkpoints are under attack.”
“Wonder who’s doing it?” Steve asked.
“I know,” Morgan said.
“Who?” Robbie asked.
“My boss and the mobsters that run the card club,” she said. “Along with one wild-ass Texan.” She told them the whole story as they sat mesmerized.
“Wow,” Robbie said. “It’s on. I’ve got to go look up Ivan the Butcher.”
“Don’t put anything online that ties us to this,” Morgan said. “We’re probably already in danger because of where I work. They’re going to figure out where this started.”
“I know,” Robbie said. He grabbed his laptop from the kitchen and rushed to the couch in the front room. He opened his favorite message board and started reading, his eyes getting wider. “Holy shit.”
“Didn’t take them long to get it off of TV,” Gil said.
“It’s all over the internet,” Robbie said. “This is more widespread than just the South Bay. It’s going on all over LA County.”
“Good,” Steve said.
“Hey,” Gil said. “Something’s going on. I think the TV station just got hijacked.”
Robbie looked up at the screen. Morgan sat next to him, trembling. The picture showed a dim room, with a desk and overstuffed chair behind it. A man sauntered in, wearing an expensive suit and a fedora. He sat behind the desk and leaned back in his chair, a smirk on this face.
“Don’t he look gangsta?” Steve quipped.
“Shut up,” Gil said.
“Good evening. My name is Ivan. Some of you know me as Ivan the Butcher. That’s a decent name for me, as you can see here.”
The screen changed to video of the checkpoints on Redondo Beach Boulevard, showing several dead UN Peacekeepers hanging from the traffic lights on the east side of Hawthorne Boulevard.
“That’s where I was,” Morgan said. “My God. They hung more men than I expected. That blonde German in front was the jerk that grabbed me at the club.”
The screen went back to Ivan, still sitting behind his desk.
“We will attack you, UN thugs, and the filthy Islamists you are aligned with. We will kill you where you stand and slip away into the night. You don’t own LA County. We will destroy you.”
Ivan got out from behind his desk and got closer to the camera, his face filling the screen.
“We ask for the people’s help. The UN is not legitimate, nor is the Government of California. They wish to subjugate the people of this great land. It will not stand. This is only the beginning. Tell your friends. Take back your country. Stand up. Become a terror to the oppressors.”
The screen went black.
“Wow,” Gil said.
“I’m scared,” Colleen said, clutching Steve.
“I’m not,” Robbie said. “This is where the worm turns.”
Chapter 9 – Ransacked
“You sure it’s gonna be safe?” Emma asked as they fled from her apartment.
“You wait in the car when we get there,” Seth said. “I’ll go check it out.”
“Something doesn’t seem right,” Emma said. “Feel it?”
“It feels like this all the time to me,” Seth said. His ph
one rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it.
“Hi Trevor. What’s up? Where are you?”
“I’m still up at Ji-Ho’s house,” he said. “You see what’s going on?”
“No,” Seth said, “but we just got attacked at Emma’s apartment. I killed a couple of Islamists there. They were in a UN van.”
“Wow, really?” Trevor asked. “Something big is happening. All of the checkpoints in the South Bay have been hit by the mob. It’s all over the internet. There was some video on TV from a chopper, but it got pulled.”
“Wow,” Seth said.
“What’s he saying?” Emma asked.
“The mob hit all the checkpoints around here,” Seth said.
“Where you guys going?” Trevor asked.
“My apartment, if it looks safe.”
“You should come back here,” Trevor said.
“Who’s still there?”
“Matt and Kaylee. Angel’s on his way, now that the checkpoints are down.”
“Want to go back to Ji-Ho’s place?” Seth asked Emma.
“Let’s check your place out first, okay?” she said.
“Trevor, we’re going to check out my place. If it’s bad, we’ll show up there.”
“Okay, man, watch out…” Trevor said. Then he paused.
“Still there?” Seth asked.
“Gotta go. The mob boss that did this just hijacked the TV stations. I want to listen. Be careful.”
“Later,” Seth said. He put the phone back in his pocket.
“What happened?” Emma asked.
“He said a mob boss took out the checkpoints, and now he’s hijacked the TV stations.”
“This sounds phony to me,” Emma said.
“I don’t know what to think,” Seth said. “I’m sure we’ll hear all about it.”
Seth made a right turn off Hawthorne Boulevard, a block away from Pacific Coast Highway. He followed the alley down to the dark parking lot behind his small apartment building.
“Doesn’t look like anybody’s around,” Emma said, eyes wide in the dark. “I’m scared.”
“Stay here and keep the doors locked while I go check this out,” Seth said. He slipped out of the 4Runner and grabbed his Winchester from the back seat.
“Lock it. I left the keys in. If anything happens to me, get the hell out of here fast. Go back to Ji-Ho’s house.”
“Hurry,” she said as he left.
Seth’s heart hammered in his chest as he rushed around the dark building and climbed the steps. His feet crunched broken glass at the top of the stairs. He crouched, looking around, gun at the ready. His apartment was three doors down. He crept towards it. The door was hanging open, the window next to it broken.
“Dammit,” he whispered, stepping in cautiously. He pulled his cellphone out and turned on the flashlight app, then looked around. The place was ransacked. He grabbed some clothes and put them into a pillow case, then slipped out the door. There was blood on the walkway past his unit. He crept up slowly, trying not to step in it, and peered in the open doorway. The girl who lived there was naked, spread eagle on the couch, blood all around her torso. Her boyfriend was dead on the floor in front of the couch, half his head gone. Seth turned around and raced to the stairs in a panic, not slowing down until he got back to the car. Emma was in the driver’s seat. She unlocked the doors and he raced around to the passenger seat.
“What happened?” Emma asked.
“Drive. Head for Ji-Ho’s house. Remember how to get there?”
“I think so,” she said. “Why don’t you drive?”
“I might need to shoot,” he said, cocking the Winchester.
“What’d you see in there?”
“My apartment was ransacked,” he said. “My next door neighbor and her boyfriend were dead on the floor in their unit.”
“Oh my God,” Emma said.
“Drive,” he said.
She started the car and put it into gear.
“Dammit,” Seth said.
“What?”
“I had a pillow case full of clothes. I dropped it after I saw the bodies.”
Emma stopped the car. “You want to go back?”
“Not on your life,” he said. “Get us out of here.”
She nodded and went back to Hawthorne, then turned right on PCH.
“Look at how many people are on the road now,” Emma said, watching the cars. “It almost looks normal.”
“Yeah,” Seth said. “I wonder what that mobster said on TV?”
“Trevor will tell us all about it. That checkpoint was up there, remember?”
“Yep, Calle Mayor, just up ahead,” Seth said. “Turn left there.”
“You sure? We could go to Palos Verdes Boulevard.”
“I’m sure,” Seth said. “Look. The UN van is riddled with bullet holes, see it?”
Emma’s eyes got wide. “Is that a man hanging from that traffic light?”
“Wow, Trevor was right. Yeah, there’s three UN Peacekeepers hanging there.”
“I don’t like this,” Emma said as she made the turn.
“Watch for that broken glass,” Seth said. Emma nodded and drove around it.
“Aren’t they going to come down hard on all of us for this?” Emma asked.
“They’re gonna try,” Seth said. “Wonder if Trevor has called Gus back yet.”
“You aren’t really gonna do that, are you?”
“Hell yes,” Seth said. “This can’t stand. Look what happened tonight. You know how close you came to being raped and killed earlier?”
Emma looked at him, tears running down her cheeks. She nodded yes.
“Watch the road,” Seth said softly. She refocused.
“Is that what happened to your neighbor?”
Seth shot a grim look at her. “You sure you want to talk about that?”
“Tell me,” she said.
“Lisa was on the couch, naked and spread eagle, with blood all over her stomach. I think they stabbed her to death after they raped her.”
“Oh, geez,” Emma said. “What about the boyfriend?”
“Shot in the head,” Seth said.
“You know them well?”
“Just barely,” Seth said. “You met her once, remember? At that party we had.”
“I remember,” Emma said. “She was nice.”
“Turn left on Palos Verdes Boulevard there,” Seth said, pointing.
“Yeah, I remember,” she said as she made the turn. “Maybe you better call Trevor and let him know we’re coming. They’ll have to open that gate for us.”
“Good idea,” Seth said, pulling out his phone again. He hit Trevor’s contact.
“Seth, you guys all right?” Trevor asked.
“We’re on our way there,” he said. “Can you get the gate opened for us?”
“Yeah,” Trevor said. “How long till you get here?”
“Ten minutes,” Seth said. “Unless we run into problems on the road. I’ll call if we do. If I can, that is.”
“Roger that,” Trevor said. “See you soon.”
Seth ended the call. “We’re all set.”
“What are we gonna do when we get there?” Emma asked.
“Wait and watch,” Seth said. “Decide what to do next. Neither of us can go home.”
“I wish your parents still lived here,” Emma said.
“I’m glad they’re in Idaho. Hope this crap isn’t going on up there.”
“But what about us?” Emma asked. “Where are we gonna go?”
“I don’t know yet,” Seth said, “but the attack on the checkpoints was a good development.”
“Just looks like more dead people to me,” Emma said.
“Remember the UN van that those guys at your apartment came in?” Seth said. “These thugs deserve to die.”
“I guess,” Emma said. “Turn here, right?”
“That’s right, PV Drive West,” Seth said.
They made the rest of the drive
without incident, pulling up to the gate of Ji-Ho’s house. Trevor was behind it. He texted on his phone when he saw them, and the massive wrought-iron gate opened. Emma drove in and parked behind Angel’s car.
“You let Emma drive your 4Runner?” Trevor asked as they got out.
“Don’t think I can drive?” Emma asked.
Seth shook his head. “Hey, man, I thought it would be better to man the rifle after the stuff that happened tonight.”
“That’s good thinking,” Trevor said.
“When did Angel get here?” Seth asked.
“About five minutes ago,” Trevor said. “He just went inside.”
“What’s been going on here?” Emma asked as they walked towards the door.
“We’ve been watching the news, mostly,” Trevor said. “It’s nice and quiet up here.”
They walked into the entry way. Ji-Ho heard them and rushed over, followed by Kaylee.
“Welcome back,” Ji-Ho said. “Glad you make it.”
“Thanks for letting us come back,” Seth said.
“I hear what happen at your apartments. Nice job on UN pigs.”
“Thanks,” Seth said.
“Weren’t you scared?” Kaylee asked Emma.
“Terrified,” Emma said. “Why are you still here? I thought you were going home to your parent’s house.”
“They told me to stay here,” she said. “It’s safer.”
“Hey, Seth,” Matt said, walking into the entryway. “Nice job on those Islamist slugs. Bad-ass, man.”
Seth smiled and nodded, and they walked back into the living room. Angel got up off the couch and walked over. “Tell him yet?”
“Tell me what?” Seth asked.
“Gus is on his way over here to chat,” Trevor said.
“I thought we were gonna wait a little,” Seth said. He glanced at Emma. She shook her head and walked away with Kaylee.
“We were gonna wait,” Trevor said. “Ji-Ho asked us to call him after the action tonight, and after Ivan the Butcher’s speech.”
“Yes, he right,” Ji-Ho said. “Now time to keep up attack. We knock them out.”
“You’re scaring me, uncle,” Kaylee said from the other side of the room.
“Who’s Ivan the Butcher?” Seth asked.
“He’s the Russian Mobster who coordinated the attacks tonight,” Trevor said, “and it wasn’t just the South Bay. Checkpoints all over LA County were hit.”
