The sound of gunfire came from a few blocks away. Their guard sat up straight trying to tell what was going on by listening. He looked down the street then back at the two beat to hell guys in the alcove. With a resolute look on his face he hopped off his bike and holstered the shotgun. He rummaged around in his saddle bag until he found a pack of large black cable ties. LeBron put his head back sighing loudly. He’d been tie wrapped enough to know how bad it sucked.
A minute later LeBron and Billy were back to back on the sidewalk with their wrists painfully connected via an intricate tangle of tie wraps. The biker had kept flipping them upside down and screwing them up as he tried to do it too fast. To make up for how sloppy he was tying them up he’d tightened them extra tight. The ties were functioning more like a tourniquet than a simple restraint device.
“I hope he gets back before our hands fall off.” Billy muttered when their guard got on his bike and took off. He rode in the same direction as the other guy had gone in.
Chapter 19: Ridden Hard and Put Away Wet
LeBron started to lose his cool when they heard more gunfire from down the street. They were busy trying to get loose from the tie wraps they’d been bonded together with. The more they worked at it the more it felt like the skinny pieces of plastic were sinking deeper into their wrists. Neither of them said anything about the gunfire. It had to be Drew and Jeff taking on the bikers. Considering Drew only had like two bullets left the odds weren’t in his favor if he’d decided to get in a shooting match.
Long odds or not it was Drew who came riding up the street about ten minutes later. He was sitting confidently on the chromed out Harley their guard had ridden away on. Drew had stopped a block away and scanned the street trying to see if there were any more guards around LeBron he needed to deal with before riding up. He’d been happy to note there were none. He fumbled around parking the big bike then ran over to help LeBron and Billy get out of the tourniquet bond they were in.
“Have you seen anybody else around here?” Drew asked as he tried not to cut Billy or LeBron while sawing away at the tie wraps. He finally gave up on being gentle and just drew a little blood.
“Are you trying to kill me!” LeBron yelped when Drew cut him pretty deep getting the tie wrap off. Rubbing the blood off his numb wrist LeBron quickly answered the question. “Just the two who rode towards you. They were calling someone on the radio though. The first guy who rode off was supposed to be going somewhere to get a truck.”
“We wasted those two guys. Shot the first one when we heard the bike coming then stole his weapons and clothes. Then this second guy rode right into us. Jeff’s seeing if his clothes fit while he waits for us. I had a hunch you were alone back here.” Drew said. He snapped his new folding knife shut. Glancing down he involuntarily winced at the amount of blood he saw welling up from the cuts he’d made getting the tie wraps off his brother and Billy.
“Is the other bike still good?” Billy asked Drew.
“Yeah. I think so. Jeff doesn’t ride very well. These bikes are a lot harder to control than the ones he’s used to. If you two are good, we need to get the hell out of here.” Drew answered.
“Why don’t you give me a lift then I can get the other bike and come back for LeBron.” Billy said. LeBron was leaning back against a wall. At the mention of him not having to walk somewhere he immediately sat back down. Drew motioned for Billy to hop on. Before they rode off down the street, Drew handed LeBron a pistol in case someone came by before they got back.
LeBron leaned back against the side of the building with the pistol on the ground beside him. He was wearing ripped boxers and a pair of ill-fitting dirty white sneakers. He hadn’t been able to make himself slip on any of the clothes from the corpses on the roof of the parking garage. He was regretting that fit of prudishness now as he sat in the cold on the side of the street trying to rub some feeling back into his hands. His foot was regularly pulsing with pain. He was just so tired of everything.
Before he could get overly depressed about his current condition, he heard motorcycles coming down the street towards him. He worked his way shakily to his feet to wait for Drew and Billy to come riding up and whisk him away. He was bending down to pick up the pistol he’d forgotten on the ground when he realized the motorcycle engine sounds were coming from the wrong direction. Cursing under his breath he once again ducked too slowly back into the little alcove.
“We just saw you jump in there. Come out with your hands up or we’ll come get you. You won’t like it if we come get you.” A man’s deep bass voice rumbled over the sounds of the idling engines.
“How do I know you aren’t going to shoot me as soon as I come out?” LeBron yelled out the question to try and gain some time. What he needed was a distraction. He doubted these guys who’d just rolled up on him would be as easy to get rid of as the last two. These guys must have come in response to the radio call. They’d be wondering what the hell was going on.
“Does it really matter if we shoot you when you walk out or if we just drive over there and shoot you? We’re most likely not going to shoot you. I don’t know what else to tell you pal. Come on out of there or we’ll drag you out.” The response was delivered in a calm but authoritative tone. This guy was used to getting his way.
Moving slowly LeBron slid the pistol into the back of his ripped boxers. His boxers immediately started falling off. Reacting quickly he caught the gun before it could tumble out of the waistband. The man yelled out one final time that if LeBron didn’t come out then they were coming in. From a couple of blocks away the sound of a couple more motorcycle engines could suddenly be heard. LeBron gambled on those being the ones Drew and Billy were driving now. He stuck his pistol around the edge of the alcove and started blindly pulling the trigger.
The bikers returned fire immediately with automatic rifles. LeBron snatched his hand back behind the cover of the wall. He shrank back against the deepest part of the recess he was in. The second he heard more guns joining the battle he edged over closer to the side again. Drew had stopped the bike he was on and was shooting at the men down the street. LeBron popped his head out and started shooting at the guy he saw about fifteen feet away. The biker was hiding behind his motorcycle exchanging fire with Drew. From the angle LeBron was at it didn’t take many shots to end the impromptu firefight.
Jeff ran into view immediately after LeBron ended the biker who’d been shooting at Drew. Jeff ran over and made sure LeBron was ok. Once he’d verified LeBron was ok, he checked to make sure the men on the ground were really dead. Drew and Billy rode their confiscated motorcycles over to help. They moved quickly taking anything and everything they could off the two dead men. It turned out LeBron had already killed one of them with his random shooting. When the others came riding back, they’d only had to exchange fire with the one guy.
Rummaging through the saddlebags they found more ammunition and other supplies. They shoved those into their own bags. They tossed LeBron and Billy some clothes to pull on. The impromptu looting session ended when they heard more engines off in the distance. That was the signal to get gone.
They left two of the motorcycles on the ground next to their recently deceased and partially stripped owners. LeBron got on the back of the bike with Drew. Courtesy of the bikers he was now wearing a leather trench coat, a plain white t-shirt and the same old ripped boxers. Drew had offered up the boots off one of the dead men. LeBron had tried to trade up from the sneakers he was wearing but with his swollen ankle he hadn’t been able to pull the boots on.
LeBron looked like a homeless flasher in the trench coat and boxers. Especially given his current state of extreme sweat covered filthiness. He still couldn’t help chuckling at the image of Jeff riding behind Drew on the other motorcycle. The tall gangly Jeff was having to hold his feet up to keep them from dangling on the ground. This was leading to his knees poking Drew in the side. Even without the awkwardness of daddy long legs snuggling up behind him on the bike the outfits that Dr
ew and Jeff were wearing were worthy of some serious eyebrow raising. Billy had gotten the much better end of the deal with trench coat flasher LeBron riding with him.
Jeff and LeBron both had pistols and extra magazines shoved into their pockets. If they ran into trouble, they’d be responsible for shooting at said trouble. Drew and Billy would be responsible for getting them away from the trouble at a high rate of speed. None of them wanted their mug shots taken in their current ensembles. Not that the men who’d be coming after them would be overly concerned with capturing them alive.
Once on the bikes they weren’t able to hear much of anything over the sound of the engines. Unclear on exactly which way to go Jeff had said to head south until they hit a major highway that they could use to get their bearings. Right now it was all just side streets and random businesses interspersed with inner city suburbia. They rode at a reasonable speed down the streets. Typically they’d be dodging around debris at this point, but someone had made an effort to keep these streets cleared off.
They made it two blocks before coming face to face with a pickup truck coming down the road straight at them. The truck was a jacked up red neck daydream complete with chromed out dual diesel exhaust pipes leaving streams of ebony smoke stretched out in the air behind it. A man was standing in the back of the truck with an M-16. The driver of the truck honked the horn and shot his hand out the window indicating they should stop and talk. Since the guy in the back wasn’t shooting at them yet Drew decided to stop and say hello.
Drew stopped his bike and Billy followed suit. Billy making sure to stop it so that he was able to use his good foot to keep them from tumbling over. Good foot being a relative term currently. Both of his ankles were pretty shot from death hopping out of the parking garage earlier. The truck came rumbling up to them. The driver barely glanced down at them until he got closer. The man in the back was busy looking around them for any danger. The driver’s eyes widened when he actually focused on the men sitting on the bikes.
The second Jeff saw the man’s eyes widen he raised his pistol and started plugging away. Drew snapped the AK-47 he’d taken off the other bikers up to his shoulder and started blasting away at the man in the back of the truck. The truck jerked forward smashing into the front tire of Drew’s bike before it started idling again. That was enough to throw Jeff and Drew down on the ground and bend the front tire of the bike though. They quickly pulled themselves up and off the ruined bike.
Billy ignored the pain lancing up his leg with every step he took. Focused on surviving the next few minutes he hopped up on the chromed out runner going around the side of the truck. Hanging on to the door handle he stuck his rifle up so that it was angled into the cab. On fully automatic he emptied a magazine wildly into the small space. LeBron had meanwhile painfully limped his way around to the other side of the truck. He was standing there with his pistol raised ready to kill anyone who jumped out trying to escape. He was really hoping Billy didn’t shoot him by accident.
Drew and Jeff covered Billy as he yanked open the door to the truck and climbed in. A few seconds late they were all working on stripping the weapons and clothes off the men who’d been in the truck. Billy was put in the driver’s seat with LeBron riding shotgun. Since Jeff had a workable ankle, he was relegated to riding in the back of the big beast. Drew tossed his leg over the seat of the bike Billy had been riding. He was thinking the more vehicles they were moving around in the more confused the enemy would be if they saw them again.
Billy turned the big truck around on the narrow street. Driving quickly but cautiously they kept going in their original southerly direction. They were all hoping they didn’t run into anyone else. The trail of corpses they’d already left behind was going to be pretty easy for someone to follow. Jeff had been briefed on the movements of the different refugee groups. The satellite images showed that the groups tended to be pretty well spread out. It was one of the reasons they’d been able to survive the crawlerz for this long. There was a chance that the men they’d taken out so far may be the only real fighting forces the Living Zombies had deployed in this area.
Drew goosed the throttle to get out in front of the truck. Eyes roaming wide he wasn’t able to see any signs that’d lead them back to an interstate or anything. The further south they went the more in the sticks they were getting. At least out here in the middle of nowhere they should be pretty safe. Moving along at a good clip they left Lancaster in the rear views and kept moving towards Weathertop. They were able to jump on US-30 to pick up the pace. In the truck LeBron was busy tracing his finger along the lines in an atlas that’d been in the glove box. Once they hit I-83 they’d be back on track.
They hit Columbia headed towards a river with a ridiculously long Native American tribal name attached to it. They were feeling pretty good about making their escape permanent when they heard the dual rotors of a large helicopter. The chinook roared overhead then set down on the road ahead of them. Both of the large machine gun barrels were aimed in their general direction. Knowing the pilot was a friend of theirs didn’t make them feel any better about staring down that war machine. There were no close exits for them to turn and make a run for.
They stopped their vehicles about thirty yards in front of the helicopter and waited. Eventually a couple of armed men came out of the chinook and walked towards them. They were yelling for everyone to get out and put their faces on the ground. Billy looked like he was ready to try his luck with ramming the chinook. LeBron actually considered telling him to go for it. Then he got another look at the large barrels protruding from the nose of the hardened war machine.
The two men moving forward lost their patience and sprayed a few bursts into the engine block of the truck Billy was driving. Steam and smoke hissed out from under the hood. That effectively ruined any dreams of a revenge ramming by Billy. Drew pulled the shotgun hanging off his bike halfway out of the holster before thinking better of it. A third man with a long gun had climbed down out of the chinook. It was a hunting rifle with a really big scope on it. The man was pointing it right at Drew. He didn’t have to be Annie Oakley to hit a stationary target at a distance like that.
“Fight another day boys!” Jeff called out from his post in the back of the truck. What he really wanted to do was jump out of the truck with his guns blazing. As the leader of the group he had to hold himself to a higher sense of responsibility though. If there were a chance any of them could still come out of this alive, he had to take it. Maybe they’d just drop them off on another parking garage somewhere. One thing was clear. They wouldn’t be able to survive a gunfight with the chinook. They might as well be armed with slingshots going up against that thing in the open.
Drew let his shotgun stay in the holster. He climbed down off the bike and lay down on the sun warmed concrete. Jeff climbed down out of the back of the truck and did the same. Billy looked like he might rebel for a moment or two. He eventually fell in line and put his face on the ground right beside Jeff. LeBron came hobbling around the side of the truck to get into position as well. He was really hoping this crew had proper handcuffs. He wasn’t looking forward to another tie wrap tourniquet. He wished Jeff had asked before surrendering what type of restraints they’d be placed in. He honestly might have just gone ahead and blaze of gloried it. If he passed an adult novelty shop anytime in the near future, he was going to buy a few pairs of fuzzy handcuffs. He could keep them in his back pocket so that anyone who needed to take him prisoner could just use those. That was assuming that they survived yet another round with these motorcycle freaks.
Chapter 20: Blue Collar Gangsters
It was déjà vu all over again. The bikers stripped their weapons off them and marched them into the helicopter. The same man who’d had them tossed out on the top of the garage was there to greet them again as they were loaded in. This time he introduced himself once they were all strapped in and ready to fly. After he told them his name was Tommy, he launched into a quick spiel about how impressed he was
by them. It actually sounded pretty authentic. Not that it was going to help them out of this mess.
“We’ll be taking off here in a minute. I just wanted to tell you I’m super impressed. If you’d just made it out of the parking garage alive, you’d be certifiable bad asses. You survived that hell then killed half a dozen men. When I dropped you dudes off you were all mostly naked. Just damn. I don’t even know what to say.” Tommy said smiling. He clapped and asked if they wanted to take a bow.
When none of them took him up on the bowing offer Tommy took a seat across from them. He pushed back his grey mane of hair to slide on the headset that would let him talk to the pilot. Jeff was pleased when he heard Tommy address the pilot as Lynn. That meant that it was indeed their very own Lynn piloting them around in this gigantic eggbeater. Jeff wasn’t sure how that helped them, but it was nice to know these guys didn’t kill everybody they met.
“We’re super stoked to have Lynn on the team. Getting planes and helicopters is no big deal. Lots of bases and airport with inventory just sitting there for the taking. Finding pilots to fly them is the hard part.” Tommy said. He must have seen the relief on all their faces when he dropped the pilot’s name. Thinking about it now the four prisoners wondered if Tommy had done that on purpose. If he wanted to chat it was their mission to try and get this group to come over to their side.
Crawlerz: Book 5: Off the Rails Page 17
