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 A month ago, part II

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Mjolnir

Mjolnir


Posts : 2467
Join date : 2010-10-09
Location : London, England

A month ago, part II Empty
PostSubject: A month ago, part II   A month ago, part II Icon_minitimeFri Dec 03, 2010 3:54 am

It was just a matter of a few seconds, that time period between the shocked silence descending over the bar as the miner hit the ground, and all hell breaking loose. But in some ways, to Kyle and Joey it seemed like a lifetime. There was enough time in those few seconds for a hundred questions to race through their minds.

"Is that really Shand?"

"Why is he here?"

"Did he really kill that guy?"

But of all the questions they were asking themselves, the most immediately pressing was how the hell they got out of this bar alive, then out of this town, and out of this nightmare. Unfortunately, they had yet to formulate an answer, and blind panic was rooting them to the spot, rather than directing them toward the exits.

Then it happened, the miners, desperate both to see their falling comrade and to get at the man responsible, rushed toward the ring. As they did so, they all but stampeded over the truckers, who in turn took umbrage and attacked the miners. Never ones to avoid a good fight, the bikers then got involved, and pretty soon fists, chairs, and teeth were flying.

In the centre of it all, inside the cage, Shand / Reaper/ Asterson was stood. The locked cage door prevented the mob getting to him, but he didn't seem to care about any of them. Instead, the hooded head had turned directly toward Kyle and Joey. He was watching them.

For their part, Joey and Kyle were now beyond terrified. As a beer bottle crashed into the wall beside them, and two brawling men nearly took them off their feet, finally, the survival instinct kicked in and they bolted for the door. They'd taken maybe half a dozen steps before Joey suddenly felt something smash into his back. He was sent sprawling forward by the force of the blow, crashing into a table which broke under his weight and sent its contents of beer glasses and bottle flying. He hit the ground hard, and when he felt his hairline, it came back sticky with blood.

Kyle watched this with a strange sort of surreal detachment. Quite unable to comprehend how his life had reached this point. But a moment later he felt a hand grab the back of his hoodie and slam him up against the wall of the bar. The side of his head smacked into the plasterboard, and the air was driven from his lungs. He was then spun around.

Before him stood two men who were obviously miners. The first was maybe in his forties, stocky and with stained teeth and rancid breath. His friend was younger, with a gaunt face and beer shot eyes. He was holding a chair leg, which was what had brought down Joey.

The older one spoke, questioning his friend

"Noah, you sure this is them. Sure it was these two, eh?"

"I'm sure Alex, they're the son-bitches who warned him!"

"Alex" reared back, and a second later his fist smacked into Kyle's ribs. Kyle grunted in pain and slumped against the wall. This seemed to please Noah.
"Yeah Alex, fuck him up good!"

Alex responded with a kick from his work boots which caught Kyle in the chest, and then bent down and pulled him back to his feet. He barked at Noah.

"Get the other one"

Noah nodded and dragged Joey back to his feet and then back over to Kyle. By now, blood had run down the side of his face, but it was a superficial cut that looked worse than it was. A few more people in the bar had stopped fighting long enough to take in what was going on, and a crowd had started to gather.

Alex was actually smiling. He told Noah to hand him the chair leg he was holding, and brandished it at the pair. Joey had the horrible realisation that right now was about as good as the rest of the evening was going to get, and it was never going to be this good again. They were in serious trouble.

Alex raised the chair leg, but then something else happened. He just suddenly collapsed, as though he'd been pole-axed, he just crumpled to the floor.

Then they saw why. Standing directly behind him, was the Reaper.

Shand now had the hood on his top pulled back, and his eyes were burning as he stared a hole in the rest of the assembled crowd. In each hand he held a splintered half of a pool cue, and from a few streaks of blood that now stained the tape on his hands, he'd probably used them to get this far. The mere face that he's made it out of the cage alive was stunning enough, and the crowd seemed to appreciate that.

Now he spoke, and his voice was like the gods yelling down from Olympus.

"Back off!"

Two words that carried more menace than if he'd have stood there with a gun in his hand. No-one moved.

His head turned toward Kyle and Joey.

"Walk toward the door. Do NOT run, just walk." They both remained frozen to the spot "I said MOVE" he barked, and fin all they did. As the moved, Shand followed behind them, still facing the crowd.

Finally the tension broke. Noah, incensed at the attack on Alex, broke ranks and charged Shand wildly. If you looked closely, there was almost a smile on Shand's face, as if he'd been hoping that might happen. He brought the pool cue around in a sweeping arc, smashing it into the side of Noah's jaw and splintering teeth. Noah stumbled away from the bar and fell across a table. Shand pounced and drove the pool cue down. the jagged point pierced Noah's shoulder and kept going, going through him and through the cheap chipboard of the table top, pinning him to it. As he screamed in agony, Shand turned to face the rest of the crowd.

"Anyone else?"

No-one moved, and Shand quickly backed up toward the door, pushing Kyle and Joey through it. The three of them exploded into the street. Shand grabbed each of them in a hand.

"You two have a car?" he asked

By now, the situation had gotten so surreal that neither of them could actually function. Kyle was struck dumb, Joey stammered

"Wha....What the hell just......what"

Shand shook him violently

"A car boys, do you have a car?"

Finally, Joey's world started to fall back into place. He indicated the Toyota which was parked across the street under a lonely looking streetlight.

"Err, yeah that over there"

The Reaper half-dragged them both across the road. He grabbed the key from Kyle's pocket and blipped the central locking. Sliding into the front passenger seat, he turned back to the pair.

"Get in it and drive"

For his part, Kyle had now returned to the land of the thinking, and he wasn't very happy with the situation.

"Wait a second, hold on man. I mean you can't just...."

He didn't get any further. The burning glare from those ice blue eyes killed the words in his throat. Shand's voice was maddeningly calm, yet made sure there wasn't going to be any argument.

"Don't make me ask a second time"

Both bits jumped into the Toyota, with Joey in the driving seat. He started the engine, but didn't immediately drive away. They were still having a hard time processing what they had just seen.

"What the he'll just happened back there. I mean, with that guy... He's dead?"

Sitting in the back seat, Kyle had his head in his hands. His voice was almost a mournful wail.

"Joey, Man that was fucked up." He turned to their new passenger "What the hell did you do?"

The answer was dismissive, even exasperated

"There's no time for this. Don't ask questions, just drive."
Joey was incredulous

"Don't ask questions? You just freaking killed that guy!"

Kyle seemed bolstered by his friend's words. He nodded vigorously

"Right, I'm not going anywhere with you man. We, we gotta call someone. Cops, ambulance....fuck I dunno"

The Reaper turned in his seat, his massive body flexing and seeming to tense up. And yet his voice remained calm.

"Let me ask you two questions. One, how much time do you think you have before those bikers ad truckers come out of that bar? And two, if you have just seen what I did to that guy, am I a guy you want to piss off by not doing what he asks you? Now drive the car."

Joey started the engine, and the car peeled away from the kerb. After a few moments, Joey asked

"Which way am I headed?

"You two know this town?

"No, we're from Vancouver"

Shand looked around the interior of the vehicle. He noticed the GPS Navigation device stuck to the windscreen. It included a compass.

"Right, follow that and head South East. I'll direct you in a few miles"

"Where are we going?"

"Joey, what did I tell you about asking questions?"

Joey caught Kyle's eye in the rear view mirror. What choice did they have? The car continued in silence from about 15 minutes, heading toward the outskirts of Yellowknife. In that time, Kyle and Joey took the opportunity to get a better look at their passenger. His hair and beard were longer than they had been before - a full beard rather than the closely cropped one he usually sported. He also appeared to be leaner. Like he'd dropped 20lbs or so, but he was ripped so it was excess weight, not muscle. It was like he'd been training really hard. But there was something else, a sort of presence to him. A rawness, an anger. This wasn't the smooth and stylish man they expected. Finally, Shand spoke. He indicated an intersection ahead.

"Ok, turn right up here"

From the back seat, Kyle leant forward and put a hand on Shand's shoulder. "Look man, just tell us where we're headed"

Shand stared at the hand for a moment, until Kyle slowly withdrew it. As Joey took the turning, he finally answered.

"We have to leave town, so I need to pick up some things"

"What about our things? Most of the stuff is at our hotel."

"Sorry"

Joey chimed in "Wait a minute, when did this become "we" have to leave town."

"How about when I stopped the two of you getting killed back there? And what do you think, those guys are going to let that go? You head back to your hotel and they will find you and they will kill you. Even if they don't, the police will. And if the Police find you, you lead them to me. I don't want that"

Now seemed like as good a time as any to ask

"Look, I don't know why you want to avoid the police, but, well, you are who we think, aren't you?"

"I don't know. I don't know what you are thinking"

"We're thinking your name isn't Luke Asterson. We're thinking you're actually David Shand. The Reaper."

Asterson/Shand didn't answer for a long time.

"And suppose I am?"

"Then what the hell has happened to you man? What the hell are you doing in fucking Yellowknife fighting assholes in bars?"

"Doing something a friend told me I needed to do. I'm remembering"

"Remembering what?"

"How to be angry again"
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A month ago, part II
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