Highway To Armageddon (5 page)

           
Except it’s not. I look up at the skylight. Where the hell is she?

           
A sharp pain explodes throughout my skull. Maxwell waves a bat in front of my
face.

           
“You like baseball, kid? Batter’s up!”

           
Another sharp pain shoots through my head. I cry out in agony.

           
“Stop it, you jerks!” Krystal cries, thrashing around in her chair.

           
Maxwell points his bat at Krystal as all the gangbangers in the factory shout
and cheer. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ll get to you soon enough. Sit back,
relax, and enjoy the show.”

           
 The biker chick with the serpent tattoo loosens my chains and yanks out
my right arm. She grabs my wrist and places the pliers around my index finger.
I try to break out of her grasp, but she’s too strong.

           
“Can we go back to the bat?” I shout frantically.

           
The biker chick applies pressure on the pliers. I close my eyes and grit my
teeth. I feel the bones in my finger beginning to crack.

           
I squint through my tear-filled eyes up at the skylight.

           
Come on, Boom Boom! Where are you?

           
Maxwell pushes my head back and places a blade near my eye. He leans in so
close I get a whiff of his breath. It smells like crap.

           
“You have nice, green eyes. They’ll look good with my collection. I keep the
eyes of all my victims.”

           
The blade inches closer… and closer… and closer. And the pliers squeeze
tighter… and tighter… and tighter… And I smell gasoline. Someone’s pouring it
under my chair.

           
“No!” Krystal screams. “Stop it! STOP!!!”

           
I stopped believing in God the day my parents died. But I find myself doing
something I haven’t done in years.

           
I pray.

           
I’m stunned I would do something like that.

           
I’m even more stunned when my prayers are answered.  

           
Just as my index finger is about to be snapped in half, the skylight shatters
in a shower of glass. Maxwell and the biker chick both jump back and cover
their heads as shards of glass rain down all over us. Several of the shards
slice my exposed skin.
          

           
But I don’t care.

           
The cavalry has arrived.         

           
All the orphans run for the exits. That makes sense to me. They just want food
to eat and a place to sleep. They don’t want to die for their
King Caesar
.
Maxwell and the gangbangers, however, are a different story. They all stand
their ground and point their guns and rifles at the shattered skylight.

           
“You okay, Lance?” Krystal asks.

           
I spit out a mouthful of blood. “No, but sadly I’ve been worse.”

           
“How did the feds find out where we are?!” Caesar shouts. “We just moved our
base here two days ago!”

           
Poor, stupid Caesar. He thinks the feds are about to raid his factory. It’s
actually much worse than that.

           
He’s about to be attacked by my psychotic ex-girlfriend.

           
The gangbangers spend several frantic seconds spinning around, pointing their
guns up at the skylight and peeking out the factory windows.

           
Maxwell finally shouts, “I don’t see anyone out there, boss. Maybe it’s
nothing.”

           
“You idiot,
nothing
can’t shatter a freaking skylight!” Caesar hollers.

           
I look up at the skylight just in time to see a small, spherical object fall
inside the factory. A split-second later the object detonates in a brilliant
burst of green light. All the lights in the factory instantly fizzle out. We
are once again plunged in darkness.

           
“That was an EMP bomb!” Maxwell screams. The fear in his voice is unmistakable.

           
Orange flashes light up the pitch-black factory as Caesar’s thugs unload their
guns. I watch in horror as bullets pour through the open skylight.

           
 Someone drops through the skylight from a grappling hook, miraculously
avoiding the bombardment of ammunition. I assume it’s Boom Boom. I lose track
of her as she hits the ground. Then I hear screaming. Lots and lots of
screaming.  

           
Every few seconds there’s enough gunfire to allow me to see what’s going on.
Electric-blue streams of electricity begin spiraling all over the room. Bodies
pile up on the floor. The biker chick with the serpent tattoo is standing less
than ten feet away from me when a stream of electricity sends her flying across
the factory.           

           
That’s when I realize a spark of electricity has ignited the puddle of gasoline
under my chair.

           
I’m about to be burned alive.

           
I begin to panic… again. I thrash around like crazy, struggling to loosen my
chains. Some of the flames flicker up my pant legs.

           
“Lance!” Krystal screams. Her chains are rattling around so loudly that they
almost drown out all the screams and gunfire.

           
The flames have now reached my thighs. There’s so much chaos around me that I
can’t think straight. People are screaming, tentacles of electricity are
spiraling all over the place, and the incessant flashes of gunfire is about to
cause me to have an epileptic seizure.

           
I cry out. The flames have burned through my pants and are starting to cook my
skin.

           
“Boom Boom! Help!”

           
I see a flash of movement in the dark, then I topple backwards. My head slams
against the steel floor.

           
A gorgeous, red-headed girl hovers over me. She’s wearing night-vision goggles,
and she’s holding wire-cutters in one hand and a semi-automatic machine gun in
the other. Dozens of rounds of ammunition are strapped to her bullet-proof
vest.    

           
Boom Boom.

           
Without saying a word my, my ex kneels down and cuts through the chains wrapped
around my feet. I try to keep quiet, but I can’t. The flames are scorching my
legs.

           
Seconds later my feet are free. Boom Boom grabs my inflamed pants and rips them
off. I glance up just as she tosses the flaming pants on top of an injured
mobster lying in a pool of blood. The mobster screams as the pants engulf him
in flames.

           
Boom Boom moves at lightning speed, snapping through all my chains. Seconds
later I jump to my feet. Just in time, too. The entire chair is now bathed in
fire. I tear off my smoldering shirt and toss it off to the side. Great, now
I’m down to my boxers.

           
I glance around and notice the mobsters are still being electrocuted. But Boom
Boom is standing next to me.

           
“Did you bring someone with you?” I ask.

           
“Nope,” Boom Boom replies. “Just a UFO.”

           
I look up and see a tiny flying saucer whizzing around the factory, releasing
dozens of electrical blasts. A bullet suddenly slams into it, causing the
flying firearm to plummet to the floor.

           
“Well that was a waste of $15,000,” Boom Boom gripes.

           
Now that the UFO’s destroyed, the gangbangers focus their firepower on us. Boom
Boom drags me behind an assembly line just as a trillion bullets streak over
our heads. We both peek under the assembly line and gasp. Krystal is still
bouncing around in her chair in the middle of no-man’s land.

           
I start to stand up, even as bullets careen overhead. Boom Boom yanks me back
down and shouts, “What the hell are you doing?”

           
“I’m helping Krystal!” I shout back

           
I try to stand up again, but Boom Boom elbows me in the stomach.

           
“You’re going to get yourself killed. Let me handle this.”

           
Boom Boom unlatches a grenade from her utility belt and hurls it toward the
rear of the factory. A blinding explosion shatters most of the factory windows.
The blast rattles my ear drums, causing an incessant ringing sound. The screams
multiply.

           
“I hope that missed Caesar,” Boom Boom says, her back against one of the
massive iron legs of the assembly line. “We need to take him down alive.”

           
I nod in the darkness. This is the reason Krystal and I allowed ourselves to be
captured in the first place. Maxwell thought we were after him. What an idiot.
His $100,000 bounty would
maybe
cover our expenses for a couple months.
We need a more lucrative reward… like the
one million dollar
bounty
sitting on Caesar’s head.

           
“We’ll
help Krystal in a minute.” Boom Boom uploads another round of ammo into her
machine gun. “First we need to clear the weeds.”

           
Boom Boom fires into the rear of the factory. Bullet casings cascade out of the
gun and clatter to the ground. Some of them bounce into my leg.

           
I snatch a handgun from Boom Boom’s utility belt and fire off several shots of
my own. Since I don’t have any goggles on I have no idea if I’m hitting anyone,
but it makes me feel useful.

           
“Where did you get the machine gun?” I shout over the roar of gunfire.

           
“From the guard I killed on the roof!” Boom Boom replies

           
“Oh,” is my response.

           
Caesar’s goons suddenly stop firing. Boom Boom peeks over the top of the
assembly line and curses. “Crap, they’re getting away!

           
Boom Boom dashes over to Krystal and snaps her chains with the wire-cutter.

           
“Took you all long enough!” Krystal cries as soon as she’s free. “I saw my life
flash before my eyes. I never realized how horrible it was!”

           
“Let’s roll,” Boom Boom growls.

           
 We sprint toward the back exit, hopping over crumpled bodies lying in
puddles of blood.  Most of the gangbangers are dead. A few are not.

I shouldn’t feel
queasy hearing the shot-up mobsters moan in agony. They’ve raped, tortured, and
killed countless people. A lot of them were around my age. Some were younger.
Still, I hate seeing people in pain. I block out the screams and keep running.

We reach the
back of the factory and skid to a stop. The back door is wide open, but I’m
hesitant to dash outside. We could be heading into an ambush.

“Can you see
what’s going on?” I ask, gasping for air.

“No,” Boom Boom
grumbles. “I’m not getting a signal from our mosquito. I think it got destroyed
in the crossfire.”

We cautiously
step outside. I swing my gun toward the right and Boom Boom swings hers toward
the left. Krystal stays in the back since she’s not armed.

           
“Oh crap, I think that’s them!” Boom Boom points toward a dozen insanely
expensive Lightning XL convertibles zooming off toward the horizon.

           
“Look, an extra car!” Krystal shouts, running toward a Lightning XL parked
about 100 feet from us.

           
“Krystal, get back here!” Boom Boom shouts.

           
Krystal ignores her and opens the front door. “Wait, what’s that beeping
sound?”

           
“It’s a car bomb!” Boom Boom cries. “Get away from it!”

           
“Aww hell!” Krystal runs toward us like a woman possessed. Boom Boom and I dash
away from the car as fast as we can. A split-second later a deafening explosion
sends us all flying through the air, colliding into the walls of another
abandoned building.

           
It takes me a few seconds to regain my bearings. The ringing in my ears drowns
out all other sounds. I lift my head and stare in horror at the raging fireball
that used to be a $200,000 car. Krystal is about a dozen yards away from me,
face-down on the ground.

           
“Krystal…,” I grumble, crawling to my hands and knees.

           
“Krystal?” Boom Boom cries, kneeling over her prone body. “KRYSTAL!”

           
I swallow a lump in my throat. “Is she…”

           
Krystal coughs and pushes herself up.

           
“Krystal!” Boom Boom and I exclaim at the same time.

           
Krystal sits up and shakes her head. “I am getting too old for this crap. I
need a new job.”

           
“You and me both,” I say with a sigh.

           
We all sit down on the ground and look up at the sky. By now Caesar and his
goons are long gone. Even if we found another car to steal, we’d never catch up
to them.

           
“Well guys, our dream of taking a couple years off from bounty hunting just
went down the toilet,” Boom Boom says. “I guess it’s back to picking up
small-time crooks.”