He approached closer, now only about 3 feet away from me. With each step I became more confident he wasn’t going to shoot me at close range. He was within a foot and then I heard a hesitation from him. I wasn’t sure what he was doing but I didn’t want to open my eyes yet.
What I felt next was a result of Hunter putting his boot down on the leg he had shot. I tried to remain as still as possible as I gritted my teeth and flexed every muscle from the waist up. He must have been convinced enough at my act as I heard him lay his bow down on the ground and felt him lean in.
As soon as I could tell he was close enough I opened my eyes and threw my head forward and head butted him. I grabbed the knife at his side, something I had spotted when I first showed up to his place, and as he fell backwards I pushed myself forward.
“You’re a hell of a fighter,” he said after being pushed onto his back, me kneeling over him with his own blade pushed against his neck.
“Not so bad yourself,” I said. “Tell me, who told you I was coming?” He smiled.
“Let it go kid,” Hunter said. “You and I both know you’re going to kill me whether I tell you or not.” His perception of reality was spot on. I began sawing at his neck and as I did he raised another knife I hadn’t seen and stuck it into my side. The knife was long enough that it pierced my lung as I felt my breath leave me and it was harder to breathe.
Hunter’s eyes went cold as the life left him from bleeding out, turning the snow red, and I turned to head back to the truck. I knew I had to get help immediately or I wasn’t going to make it and with every step the wheezing became worse.
My side, insides, and leg all hurt but I tried not to focus on them and just focused on getting to the truck. Several times I stumbled on the path, willing myself to go on as the snow continued to fall on me. By the time I got to the truck I felt like I was going to pass out but urged myself to stay awake.
I threw the truck into gear and headed down the mountain I had traveled up. The turns became harder and harder to navigate through as I sped up. I knew I was five minutes away from the hospital but it was getting harder and harder to keep my eyes open.
Finally pulling up to the emergency room entryway I let off the gas and let the truck gently roll to the doors. It was the most I could do and my will to press on left me. I opened the door but fell out of the truck, unable to keep going. I thought I saw feet running towards me but everything blurred as I blacked out.
Recovery
When I came to a doctor was standing over me checking my eyes. He didn’t say anything at first, typing something into the computer next to me.
“Hello,” he said to me. “How are you feeling?”
“How long was I out?” I asked him, panicked about losing days on my mission.
“Three days. You weren’t in very good shape,” he told me, “Which leads to other questions, but we’ll get there later. Can you take a deep breath?”
I breathed in as deep as I could and while my chest felt tight the wheezing had subsided. The doctor listened to my breathing a couple more times and then began talking again.
“Your friend Justin visited. He wanted me to tell you to recover quickly so you can get back to work. They must not give you much time off?” he asked.
“Something like that,” I said.
“Well that leads to the question we’ve all been trying to figure out,” the doctor said, “With the side laceration and the puncture that appears to be an arrow through your calf, and all the blood that was on your hands that doesn’t appear to be yours what the heck happened? And who are you? You don’t come up in any records.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, “It was just a bad hunting experience.”
“Well, unfortunately the police outside your room seem to think it matters and I don’t think they’ll accept the same answers,” he told me. My record was still wiped clean even after accepting the position with the police and I didn’t think they could charge me with blood on my hands with no body to go with the blood.
I looked out of the opened door and saw the uniforms but couldn’t make out what district I would be dealing with. I weighed my options and thought about bolting with the blinds shut I couldn’t even tell if I was on the first floor.
“When will I be free to go?” I asked him, still considering my options.
“I’d prefer you stay a day or two,” he said, “But your recovery rate has been pretty amazing and as soon as the police are done I can sign you out. From the scars on your body I am going to assume this isn’t the first time you’ve had a weird hunting experience.”
“Thanks doc,” I said. “Go ahead and send them in.” The doctor nodded silently, did something to lock his computer and then went outside the door. I could see him talking to the officers but I didn’t know what was being said. A few seconds later they knocked on the door and walked in.
“How are you feeling?” one of them asked me. I noticed his nameplate on his shirt read Bennett.
“Fine,” I told him; I wasn’t in the mood to make friends so felt no need to tell him any real details.
“Tough guy like you,” the other one said, “I’m sure you can take it. We saw some of the other scars,” he paused, “looks like you’ve been through hell. As you can imagine we have some questions for you.” His nameplate read Rodgers and it appeared as if there was a good cop, bad cop feeling and he was the bad cop.
“I’ll do my best to give you answers you need, but only the ones you need,” I told them. I wasn’t going to tell them everything they wanted to know but I would tell them what they would need to know to leave me be.
“What happened out there?” Rodgers said.
“Out where?” I asked him. I wasn’t going to answer vague questions and if they asked specifics I’d try and tell them specifics.
“I think what he is asking was how these injuries happened to you. Are you in trouble? Did somebody specifically do this to you?” Bennett, the good cop, jumped in.
“I’m fine,” I responded. “It was a freak accident.”
“What kind of accident?” Rodgers asked.
“We can offer protection if you’re in trouble,” Bennett said. The back and forth was funny to me and they were doing it well enough that I couldn’t tell if it was planned or just their personalities coming through.
“I don’t need protection,” I told them.
“We want some answers damn it,” Rodgers said a little louder.
“Rodgers,” he seemed insulted when I called him by his last name like that, “So far I’ve answered every one of your questions.”
“I don’t like your tone,” Rodgers said.
“I don’t like yours either, so we’re even,” I said.
“Let’s get back to the task at hand,” Bennett said. “Rodge,” he called Rodgers, “take it easy man. He’s been through a lot, obviously, and we just want to understand what happened and how we can help.”
“No offense Bennett, but there is nothing to help with,” I said to him. “I am fine.”
“What about the other person?” Rodgers asked.
“What other person?”
“The one who bled all over your hands,” he said.
“Oh,” I responded. “No, that deer isn’t fine. He’s dead.”
“Those blood results are going to come back and they aren’t going to be of a god damn deer!” Rodgers yelled.
“Well, if that’s the case you can come talk to me then,” I told him. “Until then I believe I’m free to go, am I not?”
“I’ll do what I can to make sure you can’t go anywhere until we find out exactly what we need to find out to put you away you piece of shit,” Rodgers said.
“Rodgers!” Bennett yelled. I smiled at Rodgers, unamused by his scare tactics and tough guy act.
“Fuck you,” I said to him.
“I’m going to arrest you right now,” Rodgers said and began to pull his cuffs out.
“The hell you are,” a familiar voice said. Rodge
rs and Bennett turned to see my former chief of police with his badge opened.
“This man is on a very high priority case that he can’t discuss with you or even me. You need to run my credentials do so, but I know your boss and I can reach an agreement to make sure the most you’ll be doing is handing out parking tickets,” the chief said. Rodgers and Bennett didn’t speak; they were stunned.
“See you Rodgers,” I said.
“Any questions guys?” my chief said. They just shook their head and filed out of the room.
“That’s all I showed up for,” chief said.
“How’d you know I was here?” I asked him.
“Anonymous tip,” he said. I knew it had to have been Justin and it pissed me off that he could coordinate so much. “I’m back out of here, but good luck with what you’ve been up to,” he said. “Try not to end up like this again and please catch that mother fucker.” As he walked to the door I called out to him.
“Matt,” I said. He turned and looked at me. “Thank you.” He just nodded at me and left. I found my clothes in a closet in the room. They were bloody and dirty but I put them on anyways after removing my IV’s. I walked out of the hospital and located my truck after a decent search of the parking lot; it also had blood all over inside. My leg must have bled more than I thought.
I went back to my place and cleaned up. I showered and changed my clothes and just as I sat in a chair to rest my leg, which still caused a slight limp, my phone rang.
“Hello,” I answered, knowing it was probably Justin.
“Feeling better?” he asked me.
“Do you really care?” I asked.
“Of course,” he said. “I need you to finish the list.”
“Why am I doing this?”
“I’ve already explained everything you need to know,” he said, sounding irritated. “Don’t ask more questions.”
“What happens if I don’t do it?” I asked him.
“Then Emma dies,” he said.
“Right, but what else happens? I get that you’re hanging that over my head but I killed a lot of people for many years without feeling an ounce of regret. What happens if I just decide to cut ties? Do you have to complete the job yourself?”
“You won’t decide that. Just do your job James,” he said. I couldn’t help but feel he had a small sound of panic in his voice.
“I need more time,” I told him. “I lost time while recovering and I need at least another day to recover.”
“I thought you were tougher than that?” he asked.
“Call it old age,” I told him.
“I’ll think about it. You’ll hear from me later tonight.”
“Can’t you just tell me now?” I said.
“No, I want to think about it. So take today and I’ll think about giving you another day or two and extending the timeframes from your recovery time.”
With that he hung up the phone but I had obtained the information I was trying to get. It became quite clear to me when he wouldn’t give me the answer and had to think about. I didn’t exactly know what was going on but I did know that he was getting orders from somebody else. I had no clue who it was or where to even start to find out but I was that sure.
After getting some items ready for my next job and jotting down the last few days events I decided it was time to rest for the day and get back to work later that evening.
Dealers
I didn’t wake until late that night as my cell phone was ringing. I fumbled for it and answered on the third or fourth ring.
“Hello?” I answered.
“You have two extra days. Get to work,” was all Justin said before hanging up. I had started to ask him a question but he was already gone. I prepared for my next job and got everything I needed loaded up into one of my cars. It was an older Mazda that would be good for remaining inconspicuous.
Three counties over five crack heads who used to run the drug portion of the organization were still moving product and they were on my list. Apparently whatever new organization was starting up didn’t want them moving product anymore.
It took me a little over three hours to get there. I pulled onto a street a couple blocks away from the house, grabbed my bag and walked the rest of the way. If the information given to me was correct there would only be one guy in the garage either counting money or doing something with the drugs. They separated cocaine and weed into smaller bags, cooked meth, and numerous other things and the other four would be out moving product.
I walked up to the garage and saw there was a garage door for car entries and a regular door to walk in and out. I sat my bag down, pulled out my pistol, and tried the door. To my surprise it opened right up and I walked in, immediately spotting the guy left behind sitting at a table with his back to me.
“Back already?” he asked without looking at me. “Was it a slow night or did you sell out that fast?” I quickly spotted a meat cleaver used for who knows what and grabbed it.
“You should really be on guard better,” I told him. I could see his body tense up when he realized it wasn’t one of his partners but it was too late for him; I had already raised the meat cleaver and brought it down as hard as I could, entering into his skull.
I left him sitting there as I retrieved my bag and a propane tank I had seen on a grill outside of the garage. I opened the garage door and quickly set up. The garage was filled with chemicals used for making meth so I was hoping the other four would show up quickly but in reality it took a couple of hours. When they got there I stayed back in the shadows so they couldn’t see me but I could see them. They all seemed to be pondering about why the door was open, clearly showing some of the drugs and activities that were going on inside.
As they got out of the car they drew their guns and walked towards the garage.
“Jay?” one of them said, calling for the guy I had killed. I had kept him in his chair but put his head down and moved him more into the shadows with me.
“Put your guns down or I kill him,” I said. They redirected their eyes towards me and could see I was holding a gun to Jay’s head.
“Who the fuck are you?” the guy that had called out for Jay said.
“I’m just here for some money man,” I said, pretending to sound scared. “Just put your guns down, nobody gets hurt and we can go separate ways.” The other three looked at the guy who had done the talking, indicating that he must be the leader. He hesitated and seemed to be thinking but finally nodded his head at them. They all four put their guns down.
“Kick them towards me,” I said. They did as I said and kicked their guns towards me, scattering them throughout the garage. “Hands up,” I said and they listened, putting their hands up in the air. I pushed Jay backwards in his chair. As he fell backwards they could see that he had already been dead.
“What the fuck?” one of the other guys said. As he did I shot him and moved my gun to shoot another but as I pulled the trigger it jammed. It was only the second or third gun I had ever had jam on me.
I tossed it aside and moved towards the other three. Jay appeared to be the leader and was the biggest of the three. Out of the other two one was very short and the other was medium sized.
The guy on the right, the medium sized came at me first. He swung with a left and I leaned back to evade it and kicked him as hard as I could in the nuts. It was a great go-to move and I didn’t mind fighting dirty when it was three on one. He went down hard and the smaller guy came at me.
Before he could swing his arms I kicked his knee and drove my foot through, bending it backwards until it cracked. He began screaming and I felt Jay jump on my back, wrapping his arm around my neck and pulling it tight with his other.
I regained my balance and flipped him over my shoulder onto his back. As I did he kept his hold on my head and I fell forward. We both got up at about the same speed but he began swinging right away, hitting me right on the side with the stab wound.
I bent sideways and winced, showing I was in pain
by reflex and it showed him where I was weak. He swung at it again and I blocked with my arm but he punched me with his other hand in the face. I stumbled backwards and put some distance between us.
“Looks like we aren’t your first stop,” Jay said, noticing I was injured. My leg was also beginning to affect me more and more, causing a noticeable limp. “Maybe you should sit down and relax.”
“Maybe you should worry about yourself,” I told him. “Two dead, one won’t walk out of here on his own power; how do you think you’re going to end up?” As I was saying this the guy who was kicked in the nuts got up and stood by Jay.
I noticed a hammer behind me hanging on a pegboard on the wall. Apparently, on top of being the drug lab they also had some actual tools in the garage. I grabbed it quickly and threw it, nailing the other guy right in the head. He went down like a ton of bricks and it was back to just Jay and me.
Jay approached quickly and started swinging right and left. I dodged as many as I could but he was quick and he landed a couple shots on my wound several times. I pushed him backwards and moved forward quickly; jumping in the air and punching him in what I had always heard called a superman punch.
He was fast and pretty big but he didn’t take the punch very well. He swung at me again and I ducked and socked him right in the stomach, taking the air away from him. I grabbed a nearby glass jar and hit him in the face with it. It shattered, cutting his face as well as my hand.
I could tell he didn’t have much fight left so I grabbed another jar and did the same thing with the same result. His face and my hand were both bleeding and he fell to his knees. I pushed him back towards his buddies by kicking him. He sat there knowing he was defeated and looked up at me.
“I give,” he said. “I give. Just take the money and go please.”
“I tried to warn you,” I told him. I grabbed the bag I had brought with me and put a bunch of money in it. I figured while I was doing Justin’s dirty work I might as well make a profit on it.
A Killer's Memoir 2: New Contracts Page 5
