L Akers - Fight Like a Man

She hiked her pack onto her shoulders and jangled her keys in the air. “I have transportation. I have a full tank of gas. And, I have protection.” She turned and lifted up her shirt.

The guard gasped and backed up. He was stunned silent.

“I’m walking out of here and you can either radio someone to open the gate on the car park, or I’ll drive right through it. Your choice, Sir .”

She gave him a firm nod and walked out.

Gabby was already making her way toward her sisters when she heard Olivia scream. They’d been gone too long. She broke into a run and slid to a stop at the edge of the clearing with her pistol ready.

She froze, barely believing her eyes.

On the outside of the small clearing stood three Harley Davidson motorcycles; one holding a pig. On the inside, her sisters were fighting—with bikers, no less.

Olivia was a flurry of knees, feet and elbows, trying to dislodge a mammoth of a man who held her from behind against his chest with heavily tattooed arms. He laughed at her pitiful struggling against his strength. She screamed, “Let me go!”

Five feet away Emma was a blur, turning in a half-circle, whipping a metal branding iron through the air back and forth between two very scary looking guys, one on each side of her. The two-foot long tool whistled as it arced, barely missing taking their nose off each time. As they ducked and dodged and laughed at her, grabbing at her clothes, she spit at them in fury.

A small Asian woman, mid-twenties, squatted in the middle of the mayhem on her knees, frantically trying to button her shirt with only one hand while holding her shirt shut with her other arm that ended at her wrist. She snatched up a small tattered purse from the ground, and held it close to her chest, shaking in fear.

And the pig wore a fancy skirt.

Was this even real?

She shook off her confusion and shot into the air.

It was deafening. Everyone froze.

Except the pig. The pig squealed and snorted, frantically twisting to try to free itself free from the strap that held it to the bike.

Everyone scattered.

Two of the men froze with their hands up and mouths open. Olivia and Emma broke free and rushed to stand behind Gabby. The man who’d held Olivia reached out for the Asian woman and shoved her behind him.

“What the hell is going on here?” Gabby screamed, once she had their attention.

Trunk, as his vest announced, wore a look of amused astonishment. “Damn. I thought you girls were joshing me. You really did have someone out there with a gun.” He stared at Gabby, then back at Olivia. Then back to Gabby again.

He gave a long, slow smile.

“Hey boys, look what we have here…” He turned to them and winked. “Twins.”

His crew hooted and hollered and pumped their fists into the air. “Worth more than a one-handed Asian on the list, Boss,” one of them said. “We could win the hunt.”

“Damn straight. As long as they’re pretty, and there’s no denying that ,” he said with a slow drawl, smiling ear to ear. He straightened up to stand taller and ran his hands down his vest as though to impress them, and took one step forward.

Gabby’s hands trembled as she pointed the pistol directly at him. “Stop.”

Trunk’s smile slowly melted away.

Emma grabbed onto Olivia, gripping her shaking arm, and Olivia leaned in to Gabby. “Gabby, I wasn’t serious … you can’t just shoot him,” she hissed in a loud whisper.

Trunk’s charming smile was back. “Yeah, don’t shoot me. Shit ain’t that bad yet. There’d be lots of trouble for you over that.” He spread his hands out, palms up. “Look, how ‘bout we negotiate? You ladies ride with us, and she can go, if she wants.” He jerked his thumb behind him, toward the young woman. “When we get back to the club, we’ll tally up our points for the hunt. We’ll feed you, pack you up with water, and then you can leave. I think we’re going the opposite way you were heading—assuming you’re going south if you’re on this side of the interstate—but it’s only an hour away. I’ll even get these two to drive you home on their bikes.” He jerked his head toward his crew who smiled suggestively at the girls.

Obviously, the dipshit couldn’t do math; there were three of them. How would two get them home? Gabby spread her elbows, pushing her sisters back and took a firm stance, raising the gun higher. “I don’t give a shit about your hunt . We’re not going anywhere with you. Neither is she. Get her, Olivia.”

Olivia hurried around Trunk to the young woman, who hung her head in shame. She and Olivia stepped back, farther away from Trunk, and circled back to stand behind Gabby and Emma.

Without warning, Gabby aimed and shot straight through the men. The women all flinched and covered their ears. The men hit the ground, screaming. Gabby shot twice more and her shots rang true. All that practice at the range was worth every hour.

All three bikes spewed air from their tires.

She pushed Emma and Olivia, shoving them back the way she’d come in. “Split up! You two go that way and get to the car. Drive south. We’ll meet you a few miles down on the highway,” she frantically whispered to her sisters. Grabbing the one available hand of the young woman, she took off the other way.

Gabby’s legs were jittery, her heart pumped wildly, and her backpack jiggled angrily against her spine, but they couldn’t stop. If they did, they’d be found and there was no telling what kind of punishment would be doled out for not only stranding the bikers at the rest area, but robbing them of two—three? —of their winning prizes for their stupid scavenger hunt.

At least she’d left them the pig.

The young woman, who said her name was Mei, had tightly held her purse and run straight onto a deer trail that threaded through the woods on the backside of the rest area. Gabby had followed, but soon took the lead. They’d ran on the trail as far as it took them until it had ended with an army of tall trees, each looking dark and sinister, their trunks blocking out the sun.

They fought with every step, as gnarled and twisted branches caught at their clothes. Gabby felt like if they could cut through the dense woods, they’d be able to easily circle back to the interstate, where hopefully Larry and her sisters would find them.

If they were going the right way.

She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard at least one of the bikers somewhere behind them. This had turned into a very long game of hide-and-seek, and she was tired of playing.

What to do with Mei when we find Larry?

That question had been flipping and flopping around in her mind, along with false starts to a dozen different plans. They could probably squeeze Mei into the car, but did she really want to take her home? The girl looked like a prostitute, and had tell-tale marks of drug use.

Gabby couldn’t stand drugs. When it came to drug users, she gave no quarter. Everyone had choices and she gave no sympathy to people who made that particular choice.

Mei was probably high now. That would explain why she paid the seeping burn on her arm no attention. Gabby’s stomach rolled every time she looked at it. Grayson wouldn’t be too happy at them dragging this one in; one more mouth to feed and probably nothing but trouble.

But she couldn’t just leave her with the bikers. The girl was barely older than Grayson and Olivia’s daughter, Graysie. Hardly more than a child. She needed their help in more ways than one. What if the drugs came after the abuse she was enduring? What if it was the bikers who’d given her the drugs? Maybe she wasn’t a regular user. Women in abusive situations did crazy things.