Title: U-Turn
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Nope, still not ours.
Summary: The Big Island has lots to offer, intrigue, mystery, and oh, did I mention whump?
A/N - As we 'threatened' on the blog, Cokie and I are working on a rather unique writing experiment. We're having a lot of fun with it, and we hope you will enjoy this too.
And if after reading this teaser you decide you have to blame someone, well, THIS time it is all Cokie's fault. She had the idea. ;-) …Sam
A/N – OK, maybe it was my fault. But I swear I didn't twist Sam's arm in any of this. She was ready and willing to contribute. Now… I just hope everything works out to make a "real" story!
We were calling this "Your Turn" until Sam came up with the great title of U-Turn. This is a story full of twists and turns because neither Sam nor I know where it is headed. I was bored one day and thought "what if I write a paragraph and then send it to Sam and she writes a paragraph and passes it back…". The thought was "where could this go?" I shared my thoughts with her and she immediately asked "Where is your paragraph?" So, I began. Wrote a bit more than a paragraph, she cleaned it up and wrote a bit more and we were off and running. So far, we have somewhere around 10 pass-offs and we're in Chapter 4.
So, WE can't wait to see where this is going. There will be some intrigue, mystery, and oh, did I mention whump? Yeah, there's some of that, too! I hope you enjoy this story as much as we have! … Cokie
U-Turn
By Sam and Cokie
Teaser
A trickle of sweat slid down the side of his neck, adding another drop to the already-soaked tee shirt. A fly buzzed around his head before landing on the blood that was encrusted around his nose and mouth, joining two more of his family members.
Yet the man did not react. He had known nothing for the last several hours - ever since his body had been thrown in the dumpster. He had been working a lead on the Big Island and his assailants had lured him to the waterfront with the promise of information. There, in the shadows, they had jumped him.
He was much stronger than they had been told and six of them had broken bones or bodily damage courtesy of the unknown man. But they had been told to come at him in waves, and that they did... three at a time. By the time the third group had attacked, he had been weakened and was easy to subdue.
Once he had been beaten senseless, they had tossed his body on top of the garbage where it should be picked up early the next morning.
H50 – H50 – H50
Two glazed over eyes blinked open, but were tightly shut again when the brain caught up to the intense pain the battered body sent out. Even the miniscule movement of the head brought tears to the already watery eyes.
The smell assaulting the half dead man's nose was a mix of blood, old vomit, stale beer and alcohol, mixed with the distinct odor of other bodily fluids.
The man only very slowly became aware that he wasn't the source of all those smells. Blood. That he definitely contributed to the mix, and he wasn't sure if there wasn't his vomit adding to it. At least he felt like it was a strong possibility that he was the culprit for that awful smell.
Again he blinked open his eyes and looked directly into two small intense eyes, seemingly piecing through him. It took him a moment to realize that a big rat stared at him curiously. Still he wasn't able to conclude that he was lying in a dumpster among the worst kind of garbage.
The man tried to move, but sucked in a breath when his left arm exploded in agony. A moment later he was able to get his mangled forearm into focus. The unnatural angle a clear indication that it had been shattered; by what he had no idea.
Slightly discouraged and almost at the end of his strength, he tried to roll over, but had to stop any movement when his breath was taken by an incredible pain shooting into the lower part of his back.
The slightly raised head fell back down, and the brief moment of consciousness ended when his eyes rolled back into his head.
Sometime later, a lurching movement brought him once again to his senses; the jolt shocking his entire system into awareness. Pain exploded in his head, quickly traveling the length of his body when he was tossed to his left; his weight landing on his mangled arm. A strangled cry was ripped from him but was stifled by bile that pushed upward, quickly spewing forth, mixing and blending with the other odors in the crate. A loud screech and the box he was in lifted, shuddering as it left the ground.
He was unsure what was happening, but instinct told him that whatever it was wasn't good.
H50 – H50 – H50
Sammy Molokai really wasn't in the mood to work that Monday morning. Picking up people's trash just wasn't on his top ten list. Number one on that list was his girlfriend, Ami. It had been rough crawling out of bed at 4:30 that morning. It was still dark outside and he had been wrapped up in Ami's warm arms. They had been on the outs for the past couple of weeks but Sammy had soon discovered that make up sex was all that people had said it would be. Leaving Ami had been rough.
Sammy's partner, Kaihe Biggs was driving the garbage truck and was fairing no better. Kaihe barely remembered doing the pub crawl back to his apartment sometime after three. His alarm had buzzed for a good thirty minutes before he rolled off his couch and headed out the door on auto-pilot. Only a cup of coffee had gotten his eyes open enough to even see the early morning streets.
The truck rumbled to a stop and Sammy jumped off the bumper and watched as Kaihe attempted to pick up the dumpster with the truck's long arms. He made it into place on the third try and the brown bin jerked up into the air. It reached the top of the truck and flipped to its side, ready to empty its contents onto the bed of trash. Sammy's hand was on the lever ready to compact the haul before they headed to the next location.
He watched the container stall and glanced toward the cab. Kaihe had dozed off and had to jerk himself awake and take another swallow of his coffee. With another shudder, the dumpster turned again to empty.
"Hey! Kaihe, stop!" Sammy yelled.
The bin lurched once again causing a large black bag to tumble into the truck.
"What the hell?" Kaihe screamed back, looking out his open window at his partner.
Sammy climbed onto the truck's bumper and tried to see through the first, weak rays of sunlight. He double checked what he thought he saw.
"Hang on, Kaihe. I see a boot. And… I think it's got a leg attached to it."
H50 – H50 – H50