Tom Schreck: Out Cold

To my left, the guys from the gym stood in a semi-circle. In front of the three of them, I counted seven guys on their backs. It looked like all held their faces or their midsections. I surveyed the landscape, and it looked like the crew had done its job. Rocco should-to-shoulder with me, yelled, "Let's load 'em up, and get out of here!"

The hounds in the truck, the opponents finished off, and everyone was in the process of running to the Deuce. That was when the shotgun blast almost deafened everyone.

Ten feet in front of me, holding a shotgun, stood Luther Campbell.

"You piece of shit, what the fuck do you think you're doing, comin' in here and messin' with my hounds?" He looked down the barrel of his shotgun.

AJ's Army grew silent. Though we won the first battle, Luther held the great equalizer.

"I ought to blow your fuckin' head right off," Luther said.

"I-" I had no idea what I to say.

"Point the gun at me you fat piece of shit," Karl said.

"Who you callin' a-"

"I'm calling you a piece a shit." Karl had a smile on his face and smiled, looking as calm and relaxed as I was tense.

"Karl! Take it easy," I said.

"Duff, this is it man. This is where it stops. This is where the score gets evened. I'm stopping it right here."

"Karl, what the fuck are you talking about?"

"Get ready, fat man. I'm going to shove that shotgun right up your ass." Karl started to walk right toward Campbell. He approached unarmed and it looked like it was an act of suicide.

"Karl!"

"I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired and I've had it."

"I swear to God I'll shoot you if you come any further." Luther's voice cracked.

"Fuck you!" Karl responded.

"Karl!"

Karl smiled, walking without hesitation toward Campbell's gun sites.

"Don't come any closer or I'll-" Campbell said. I sprinted toward Campbell screaming as loud as I could. Al charged with me and Campbell looked quickly toward us while Karl closed within five feet of him. He glanced back toward Karl and fired.

Karl went down.

The recoil sent Campbell backward and I tackled him a split second after the shot fired. The two of us rolled over and the fat bastard caught me in the temple with an elbow. I saw a flash of light and went a little woozy for a second, which gave him the time to get up and run toward the storage barn. Al was hot on his trail and I fell in behind Al. The bastard could run for a fat man. I ran, gaining ground on Campbell. He went through the doors and around piles of canned goods. When I came through the doors he had disappeared. Mountains of canned goods on pallets with a forklift filled the corrugated steel structure.

"C'mon out, asshole," I yelled but got no response. Al sniffed the ground and I could tell he was looking for a scent. He worked his way around the giant pile of Vienna sausages. Then he sat perfectly still and stared at the pile of cans.

"C'mon, Campbell, you fuckin' coward!" A can of Vienna Sausages whizzed past my head and slammed into the corrugated steel wall behind me. It missed me, but not by much. I looked in the direction from where it came and heard movement. I noticed a sour gasoline smell and, turning, saw the wall ablaze.

A second Vienna sausage can whizzed past my head. This one missed by a larger margin, but it made an explosion when it hit the wall. I heard Al bark and I had no idea what the hell was going on.

Three cans of sausage came from over the pile this time and I realized he wasn't even throwing at me. Al barked like a mad dog and starring at the mound of canned goods. Then it hit me.

Al recognized the explosives. The Vienna sausages were mini-explosive devices!

Al ran around the pile. I followed the barking as it went from behind the pile, figuring Al headed in Campbell's direction. I ran toward the corner of the cans where I could best estimate from Al where Campbell ran. Another handful of cans came over the pile and blew up where I had been standing. I dove as hard as I could over the corner of cans hoping Campbell would be on the other side.

I judged mostly correct and slammed into his side, but I didn't get him right on and he bounced out of my way. He threw more cans at my feet and I could feel the heat up my jeans as the fire climbed. I didn't stand around for them though and jumped Campbell and slammed him to the ground.

I hit the fat bastard with a closed fist right on the chin. I jumped on top of him and put both hands around his neck, choking him out. Campbell gagged from my hold and his eyes started bugging out. I've seen the face of a man dying before and this is what it looked like.

I squeezed tighter until I heard my name and a force knock me off Campbell. Campbell rolled over and puked down the front off himself.

"Duffy, get out of here!" Karl's shirt was matted with blood from his shoulder to waist. He grabbed Campbell and pulled him up and the four of us ran out the side of the storage building. The storage building filled with three-foot high flames. We got out and slammed the door; though we couldn't see the flames, I knew they were climbing.

Outside the building, trucks and sirens and all sorts of cops fueled the confusion. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew we didn't have much time to get out of there. We all ran toward the Deuce.

"Duffy, Duffy-get over here!" I squinted toward the voice and saw Kelley.

"Kell-what the hell is going here?"

"Was that place filled with canned sausages?"

"What?"

"You heard me. Sausages-was it sausages that caused the explosions?"

"Yeah, yeah-how did you know?"

He handed me a piece of fax paper from the Department of Homeland Security.

"This came over our fax at around 10:00 p.m." Intelligence reports point toward the use of small cans of VIENNA SAUSAGES as explosive devices. The plan appears to be that they are being sent to US soldiers in CARE packages and will be detonated in mass quantities when they arrive in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"What the hell?" I said. "That kid at Notre Dame had Vienna Sausages in his back pack."

"He got arrested two days ago and found with a cache of weaponry in his dorm room," Kelley said.

"What the hell?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe I ain't as crazy as everyone thinks."

"Maybe," Kelley said.

Another cop-type guy came over to Kelley and grabbed at his elbow "We gotta evacuate ASAP. That whole place could blow. Hazmat fire personnel are on their way." A flash of bright headlights ran across our faces, blinding us for a second. We could hear the rumbling of a large engine coming through what used to be the gate.

A black Hummer, and it was pulling a trailer.

"Who the hell is that?" Kelley said.

"Holy shit."

"Duffy, who the hell is it?"

"Oh my God."

"Duffy!"

The head cop yelled instructions into a megaphone, telling everyone to evacuate ASAP. He repeated it over and over. Meanwhile the hummer and the trailer headed for the storage shed.

"Duffy, what the fuck is going on?" Kelley said.

"They're coming for the sausages. Holy shit. They're coming for the sausages."

"Who?"

"Newstrom! The guy no one has believed us about. The guy behind everything. He's part of this."

"He's headed for the shed?"

"He doesn't know about the fires. He can't tell," I said and watched Newstrom and his men file out of the Hummer. They came to load up the trailer.

"We can't-" Kelley started to head toward the shed. I grabbed him by the arm.

Kelley looked at me with his mouth open. I shook my head.

"But Duff, it's going to blow-"

I just held him by the arm and shook my head.

I looked over to the ambulance taking Karl. They had him on the stretcher, but he was awake.