Brainrush 04 - Everlast 01: Everlast (14 page)

“
A
HH!” SARAFINA SHOUTED
, as she and I and the bears charged at
the guard.

The running man glanced over his shoulder, his face filled
with terror. His friends at the far end of the building were already speeding
toward one of the shacks behind them, the woman and her partner leading the
way. The SUV was still parked at the end of the row of vehicles, smoke coming
from its exhaust. The driver was inside, his face frozen in shock. The boss man
was in the back yelling at him as he rolled up his window.

An instant later, Ahmed popped up on the opposite side of
the car, swung open the rear passenger door, and jumped inside. The driver’s
head snapped around. His hands went up in the air, as did the boss man’s, and I
knew my brother was pointing a pistol at them. The driver shook his head, probably
refusing to get out to face a gang of attacking bears. But when a warning shot
shattered the driver’s-side window, the door flew open, the driver scrambled
out, and he fled toward the shack faster than a jackrabbit chased by a pack of
wolves.

I slowed and the bears slowed with me. Growls turned to huffs
as we approached the SUV.

Ahmed had the pistol aimed at the man in the backseat. Timmy
ran around from behind the car and jumped into the driver’s seat. “Get in!” he
shouted, slamming the door closed so hard that the remaining glass fragments
spilled onto the ground.

Sarafina slid into the front passenger seat. I turned toward
Mama Bear and the others. They all looked my way but seemed confused, moving
about restlessly, their skin twitching under their fur.

I pointed up the ridge and the darkness beyond.

Freedom!

The thought unified them, and all but Mama Bear raced up the
hill. She hesitated a moment, and it was like she took one last look into my
soul. Then she turned and raced away. I clambered into the backseat next to
Ahmed and pulled the door closed.

“Go!” Ahmed yelled.

Timmy backed us up in a spinning turn that threw me against
the door. When the SUV’s nose was pointed down the road, he put it in Drive and
stomped on the gas. The car jumped forward just as one of the guards rushed out
of the shack. I recognized him as the man from the truck who had enjoyed
hurting Mama Bear with his electric prod. His discolored teeth were bared in
anger as he raised his assault rifle, its muzzle matching the movement of the
vehicle.

“Duck!” Sarafina cried.

I couldn’t move. Everything seemed to slow in my mind as I
stared at the AK-47. It was a weapon I’d used hundreds of times online, when
damage was more important than accuracy. I was deadly with it on short-range
maps, and got a chill when I imagined what it would feel like when the bullets
struck real flesh. The shooter was so close he couldn’t miss and it looked like
the gun was aimed directly at me. The man’s eyes narrowed, his grimace changed
to a leer, and I realized he was looking forward to tearing us to shreds. The
woman rushed into view and shoved the weapon aside just as he squeezed the
trigger. The muzzle flashed but none of the bullets struck the car. We sped
away, shimmying in the ruts, leaving a cloud of dust behind us. As we exited
the pools of light cast by the floodlights, there was movement on the hill. I
saw one of the first six bears disappear into the trees. Then I caught a
glimpse of Mama Bear scampering along the ridgeline in the opposite direction.
She was headed back to her territory to find her cubs.

“You are all dead,” the boss man growled. He had a thick
Chinese accent.

“Shut up,” Ahmed said, jamming the pistol in his side so
hard that the man winced. “Hands up. Grab the hand grip.”

The boss man glared but Ahmed didn’t waver. Finally, the man
raised his hands over his head and wrapped his fingers around the handle,
squeezing it so hard his knuckles went white.

 Timmy glanced in the rearview mirror. “They’re following
us!”

I got up on my knees and looked out the back window. There
were at least three sets of headlights on the road.

Sarafina swiveled around and followed my gaze. “Faster,
Timmy, please.”

“Oh, dear,” the boss man said when he saw her face for the
first time. “Aren’t you a pretty little thing. My men are going to love—”

Ahmed swung the pistol across the man’s jaw, whipping his
neck to one side. Blood flowed from a gash in his chin.

“I told you to shut up,” Ahmed said, pressing the muzzle of
the pistol into the boss man’s temple. The pulsing vein in the man’s forehead
looked like it might burst.

If he gets his hands on the gun...

The car went into a sharp turn and I had to grab hold of the
headrest to keep from falling into Ahmed. The man’s eyes narrowed and I could
tell he was looking for his chance to make a move. Ahmed must have noticed it,
too, because he pushed the pistol harder against the man’s temple, forcing his
head against the window.

“Don’t even think about it,” Ahmed said.

The boss man spat a glob of blood. “You’ll be wearing a
green hat in our brothel before this night is out,” he said. “Have you ever
even shot a man, monkey? It’s a lot different than putting a bullet through a
car window.”

“Not yet,” Ahmed said. “But this is as good a time as any to
give it a try. I suggest you keep your ugly mouth shut.”

The boss man laughed and his grip loosened on the overhead
handle.  “You don’t have the balls—”

Ahmed shot him through the biceps. The man shrieked. The
window exploded in a spray of blood. Ahmed jammed the smoking muzzle into the
man’s crotch.

“My balls are fine,” Ahmed said. “How about yours?”

 The boss froze, his eyes wide, blood leaking from the
fingers gripping his wound.

My ears were ringing, my heart was racing, and my mind was
astonished by how easily my brother had slid into the role of protector...and
aggressor. If necessary, he’d kill the man, and I suspected he’d not regret
doing so. The violent reaction to the man’s threat had seemed like an
instinctive response, no different than that of a bear protecting her cubs.

Is that what I would have done?

We pulled out of the turn and the road began to climb. Wind
swirled into the car from the two missing windows and a blur of trees rushed
past us. I looked out the back window again and saw the first set of headlights
clear the corner behind us, getting closer.

“Dammit,” Timmy said, giving it more gas. The SUV rocked on
the uneven road.

The road steepened. The moon broke through the clouds,
illuminating the view. The landscape dropped off behind us, where two cars and
a truck followed.

“This is their territory. We’ll never lose them,” Sarafina
said. She glanced at the boss man. “But maybe we can slow them down if we pull
over and let him out—”

“No!” Ahmed and Timmy said at the same time.

“As long as he’s with us, they won’t shoot,” Timmy added.

“But they’re getting closer,” she said in a choked voice.

“The money,” I said.

“Huh?” Timmy said.

“Give them the money,” I said.

“What money?” Ahmed said, never taking his eyes off the boss
man.

“That’s right,” Sarafina said, pointing to the back of the
SUV. “There are three bags of money back there. From the drug deal.”

Ahmed risked a quick peek over the seat. “Timmy, can you
roll the back window down from up there?”

“No. It’s a flip-up.”

“Never mind,” Ahmed said, keeping an eye on the boss man as
he removed the pistol from between his legs and aimed it at the back window. He
waited until I dropped low and covered my ears before he fired two shots. Then
he turned the gun back on the boss man. When I peeked over the seat, I saw that
the window had shattered and most of the glass had blown outside.

“Get back there and open ’em up,” Ahmed said.

I climbed over and unzipped the first duffel. It was filled
with bound wads of colorful money.

“Start ripping off those rubber bands,” Ahmed said. “Timmy,
I need you to slow down.”

“Dude, are you nuts?” Timmy asked.

“They’ve got to be close enough to see what we’re doing.”

“Oh man, oh man,” Timmy said, easing off the gas.

I pulled off one band after another and before long there
was a pile of loose bills in the bag. The headlights rushed toward us. A few
moments later the lead car was close enough that I could see the heads of four
people silhouetted by the lights from the car behind it. One man leaned out a
side window and looked like he held a rifle.

“Now!” Ahmed shouted. “Start tossing it.”

I grabbed two handfuls of bills and pitched them out. The
wind grabbed hold of them and a cloud of money swirled and danced like confetti
at a parade, whisking around the cars behind us. The man leaning out the window
seemed distracted.

“More,” Ahmed said.

I threw wad after wad, and suddenly the caravan behind
screeched to a stop. A figure jumped out of the lead vehicle. He waved as
though he was issuing orders to the other drivers. A moment later the occupants
of the second car were scurrying along the road gathering money, and the lead
car and the truck were speeding up to follow us.

“One down,” Timmy said. “Two to go.”

I heaved more wads out the window.

“Nooo,” the boss man moaned.

“Not a muscle,” Ahmed said, the pistol digging into the
man’s ribs.

When the last of the loose cash was gone, I looked up and
saw that the two cars had caught up to us. Men leaned out of either side of the
lead vehicle and they didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the scattering
bills.

“Guns!” Sarafina cried out.

Timmy floored it and the SUV leaped forward just as the
muzzles flashed. Sparks skipped along the road behind us and two loud thunks
hit the back of the car.

I ducked and unzipped the next duffel.

“They’re going for the tires!” Ahmed said.

I started throwing out the bound wads of bills. They
cartwheeled this way and that, several of them disappearing down the steepening
slope on the left side of the road. The lead vehicle closed the gap and the men
swiveled their heads to watch the money disappear. But the car didn’t slow. In
another moment it would be close enough to fire at us again.

I glanced forward and saw that the road was about to bend to
the right. I gathered the nearly full duffel in my arms, lifted it to the sill,
and waited. The men were leaning out of the car with their rifles raised when
the SUV went into the curve and I heaved the duffel out the window. It slid
across the dirt road, the centrifugal force sending it flying over the edge and
down the slope.

The sight was too much to bear for the drug dealers. The car
swerved to a stop, disappearing from sight as we completed the turn.

“Way to go, Alex,” Timmy said.

Ahmed turned to the boss man. “I guess your boys back there
decided you aren’t nearly as important as the money.”

The man glared at him. “We shall see,” he said through
clenched teeth. He still gripped the wound on his arm; it wasn’t bleeding much
anymore. “This ride is far from over.”

The road took several more turns, and at one point the
headlights of the truck were still on our tail. They weren’t that far back and
soon enough the two cars would be back in the chase. At best, I figured, we’d
bought ourselves a minute or two. Timmy braked to a sudden stop, then backed up
and angled the headlights up a steep side road.

“Take it slow,” Ahmed said. “So there’s no dust trail.”

Timmy steered the SUV up the hill, turning off the
headlights as soon as we cleared the road. He moved slowly, guided by the
streaks of moonlight that pierced the thickening foliage overhead. When we were
completely hidden from the road, he cut off the engine.

“There,” Sarafina said, pointing to a flicker of lights
through the foliage behind us. We heard the truck’s engine as it sped past the
intersection and around the next corner. When the sound of its motor faded away,
we let out a collective sigh of relief. Timmy started up the SUV, keeping the
lights off as we climbed the narrow road. A minute later, the road leveled off
and we found ourselves in a clearing.

“Wait a minute,” Sarafina said, pointing out the front window.

Timmy stopped the car. The clearing looked familiar, and
when I saw the shredded remnants of the bamboo cage that had trapped Mama Bear,
I knew we’d come full circle.

“It’s the same place,” Ahmed said.

“But why is the cage hacked up?” Sarafina asked. “When we
left it was still in one piece.”

The stout bamboo cage bars had been hacked through by a
blade so sharp that it seemingly had sheared through in a single stroke. The
walls had collapsed, with some of the pieces still tied together at their base,
sticking out this way and that. The damage was man-made, and it reminded me of
the prickly feeling I’d had when we were here before. Someone
had
been
following us.

“Who cares?” Timmy said. “What matters is that the road ends
here. It’s a dead end.”

“Dead is right,” the boss man said.

Ahmed smacked the butt of the pistol into the man’s temple.
The man’s eyes rolled and he slumped forward in the seat. Ahmed reached over
him, opened the door, and shoved the man out. He hit the ground with a
sickening thud.

“Y-you killed him,” Sarafina said, her hand over her mouth.

“Not yet,” Ahmed said, pointing the gun at the prone body.
“But I probably should.”

“No!” she cried. “You mustn’t.”

Ahmed frowned, and I knew a part of him wanted to do it. But
he lowered the pistol and yanked the door closed. “We have to go back.”

“It’s our only choice,” Timmy said, turning the car around
on the promontory so that it pointed downhill. The jungle canopy was bathed in
moonlight, stretching to the valley below. There were probably several
intersecting roads under all those trees, and one of them would take us to my
mom and dad. Timmy turned off the motor. “Keep an eye out. We’ll wait until the
other two cars drive by and then we’ll double back behind them.”