Chapter 3: The Scholar and the Renegade
Authors Note: Thank you all so much for your reviews and for your criticism. This is looking to be a very great story for us all. Now this chapter is going to get dicey. I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own GTAV.
Nathan and Anderson had taken a moment to, 'bleed their lizards,' before we headed back to the bar. Blake and I waited by the truck making small talk about my dealing with the Angels and the Cartel.
He asked me about a few mobsters, but I told him I didn't trust them and neither did he.
"So what, you have a bad run in with those guys or something?" Blake asked me while kicking away a pebble.
"No not really, they were pretty much business." I stated gruffly. "But once you did a deal with those assholes they pretty much thought they owned you. You weren't allowed to do deals without their say so, you work as hard as they tell you and just tough guy bullshit."
"Yeah, this is why I like to stay on the down low." He sighed. "But this deal of yours will help me get a lot of product out of my warehouse. Ever since those IAA assholes got bent over last year by the FIB, they're cracking down on anyone who smokes a joint."
"This is why I don't pay taxes." I scoffed.
The partners in crime come back to the truck and I grab my shotgun from the hood of the truck before making my way into the back seat. Everyone gets settled in as Nathan takes his seat in the passenger side and Blake sits next to me. Anderson takes his place behind the wheel and starts to drive off.
The sun had almost set giving the edges of the sky a pinkish hue as we drove down the road. With everything that had happened today no one really had anything to say, so I decided to break the ice.
"So how did you and Nathan meet, Anderson?" I asked. Stupid decision seeing as both of them tensed the moment those words slipped out. The two shared a look and I watched Nathan shrug before turning to me.
"What kind of parents did you grow up with, Noah?" Nathan asked me. I sat back in my seat and thought back to my mom and my dad.
"My mom was a good woman who raised me as best as she could." I explained while watching the sun set over the mountains. "She worked two jobs just to put me in school and as for my dad he stuck around until I was eight before ditching me and my mom. So aside from my father being a bum, my upbringing was good."
"Well both of my parents were bums." Nathan grunted. "I'll spare you the details and just say that they are no longer with us."
I chose to keep that skeleton in his closet while he continued his story.
"Anyways, I was in a bad situation when Drake found me."
"He wanted to end his own life." Drake explained. "But that is the coward's way out. We are all put on this Earth for a reason after all."
"Ugh, enough of that stuff please." Nathan said. "Anyways, Drake got set up in the bar and set up his small network in his office. He figured that by doing these bodyguard deals I would be able to channel my demons, call it philosophical, but it works."
"I won't argue with that." I chuckled. "If you ever need work I'll give you a call."
"That reminds me, why are you doing this?" Nathan asks. "I mean this seems like more than just a weed deal between you and the bikers."
"I use to run in a gang back in Liberty City. It was a great gang until we were screwed over by a rat and a snake. That snake was my boss."
"What a fucking punk." Nathan grunted.
"Why did he screw you over?" Drake asked.
"What?" I didn't expect anyone to ask me that.
"Why did your boss form a gang only to screw you all over?" He asked me. I didn't miss that doubt in his voice. He knew there was more to his story, just like I knew there was more to Nathan's story, but if he wasn't going to share then neither was I.
I was about to answer his question when a loud thud on the side of my door. Everyone of in the care, including myself, jumped when the back of trucks windshield shattered. I looked back to see four cars following us down the road and from the looks of it, each one was filled with Ballas.
"You guys might want to get those guns ready!" I shouted as I grabbed the shotgun. "We got twelve pissed off gangbangers tailing us."
"Shit, Drake where are the bullets for my guns?" Nathan asked as he frantically tore apart Drake's glovebox.
"You took those for your job with Blake earlier this morning!" Drake shouted. "Why, are you out?"
"Pretty much, I only have half a clip for my carbine and my pistol only has two shots!" He holds up a combat pistol similar to mine, but his has a small scope and a laser attachment. I reach into my back pack and pull out a clip and a box of bullets.
"Here, that gun is the same as mine!" I shouted out. "Make those shots count!"
"Thanks."
"Blake, are you okay?" I asked before cocking my shotgun. Blake gave me a nod before loading a clip into his pistol. "Alright people, make those shots count!"
I rolled down my window and angled my gun out to get a shot at the Ballas. One of the cars cruised up next to us and I tried to get a shot off, but Drake pulled off out of the road and caused me to miss.
I watched the buckshot's scatter on the side of the Balla's car door, but not the driver himself. One of the Balla's drove over the small hill and three of the passengers started shooting at us.
Nathan fired off a few shots from his handgun and managed to clip the gunman in the front. He was sent tumbling out of the window and into the dirt, forgotten by his friends as they sped up behind us.
The driver pulled out his pistol and started shooting at us as well, but with one well-placed shot from my shotgun, I shot out his front tire and the four of us watched as the car lost control and started rolling down the hill.
"Holy shit!" The four of us shouted as the remaining three cars followed us.
I fired off my last round from my shotgun and quickly fumbled for my combat pistol. I looked up at Drake.
"Yo, where the hell are you taking us?" I shouted.
"We don't have the bullets to fight them." He explained. "I know these mountain roads and how unstable they are to drive at fast speeds. One wrong move and they will be sent tumbling over the mountain side."
"Smart, but dangerous!" Blake shouted as he fired back at the Ballas.
"Why the hell are these guys after us?" Nathan said as he loaded a clip into his gun. "You would think after having their asses kicked they would call it a day!"
"The Ballas are desperate!" I explained. "They haven't had any deals or action in almost a year. My guess is they wanted to kill you and steal your grass for something bigger."
"Fucking punks, what happened to honor amongst thieves?" Blake shouted.
"Drugs happened, then that honor and trust went out the window, but look on the bright side, we'll be making a killing off of the weed with my Angels contact!" I shouted back as I fired off a few more bullets.
"Dammit, we're not losing these assholes!" Blake shouted as he fumbled with the bullets he was loading into his empty clip.
He was right, these dicks were persistent. I was down to my last clip and I was pretty sure I only had three, maybe four bullets left. I looked into the back of Drake's truck to see if there was any more ammo.
I stumbled back into the truck when Drake made another sharp turn on the road and I could see the bullets shooting through the roof. These guys were getting close to finishing us off. I tried to get up from the floor of the trunk when I felt something digging into my back. I reached out underneath my back and grip the neck of a whiskey bottle.
This gave me a nasty idea.
I grabbed a nearby bandana and unscrew the cap of the bottle before shoving the cloth into the hole. I pull out my favorite zippo and light the cloth on fire and slowly make my way to the back of the truck. Bullet's continued to bounce off of the car as I peeked over the back window. The car was right on our ass and the passenger was busy reloading his assault rifle.
I took my chance to lift myself up from the floor and threw the Molotov out of the window and watched it shatter against the hood of the opposite car.
The passenger Balla freaked out and dropped his rifle out of the window and he soon fell out after it. I cringed when I saw the way his head had hit the dirt. I am no expert, but I am sure his neck is broken and his skull is cracked.
The car was steering out of control before driving over the cliff. I heard everyone cheer before screaming as the truck started to spin out of control. One of those lucky Balla bastards managed to hit one of our tires and caused us to go off the road.
We went off the road and landed hard on a nearby cliff. After bouncing between the roof and floor of the car like a ping pong ball I was in no state to run away.
I slowly rolled out of the broken door of the trunk and landed hard on the dirt. I let out a painful groan into the dirt when my ribs hit the ground, but I was soon dragged to my feet by someone. It wasn't the Ballas, otherwise we would already be dead.
I looked up at my captor and could make out the faint image of a skinny white man with long shaggy grey hair. I slowly looked over at the truck and spotted the rest of the gang being dragged out by more of these wacked out yokels.
I tried to break free, but I was too sore from the crash. I was brought before another yokel with an assault rifle and clad in overalls. He looked down at me with his tweaker eyes. He raised his gun up and slammed the butt of the rifle on the side of my head and I was out like a light.
(!)
I woke up in a dark and shitty room for what I could assume was a few hours later, judging from how dark the sky was through the little window in the room. I looked over to see Blake huddled in a corner and Drake and Nathan sitting by a cell door.
Where we in prison?
"Where the hell are we?" I groaned, my sides were still killing me from that crash. Everyone turned to me, but said nothing. It was a few minutes before Drake walked over to me and helped me up off the floor.
"They aren't saying anything because they are pissed off at me." Drake sighed. I leaned into him as he carried me over to the cell door. I could barely see anything through the bars and the angles of the windows, but I could make out some old structures and shacks. It was all abandoned by the looks of it.
"This place is a cult that allures drifters of all kinds up into these hills," Drake explained with a grim expression. "They are lost to the modern times and choose to hide up here. I couldn't even begin to tell you how fucked up these people are."
I looked around and saw that it was just us and two strangers in the cells, but there were no others. I turned back to Drake.
"Where are the Ballas?" I asked.
"Right now they are probably being served up on a platter." Drake said in a deep grim tone.
"Okay, it is time to get the fuck out of here." A new voice said.
We all looked over to see this all American man standing in a cell next to ours. He was dressed in a simple outfit consisting of a black sleeveless Impotent Rage, blue jeans that were kept up with a black leather belt with a gold skull belt buckle, but his most noticeable features was his matching black cowboy hat and boots.
"Howdy, names Aaron Stone, and this is my partner in crime, April Juarez." He said as he introduced the girl sitting in the corner of their cell.
She was a young Latino woman with long black hair that went down to her mid back. She just wore a simple purple T-shirt and jeans with white sneakers, giving her a pretty average look. It made me wonder what a girl like her was doing up here in the mountains in the first place.
My thoughts were broken when Nathan spoke out to our new cellmates.
"Well friend, if you have any idea on how we do that, then I suggest we do that now!" He emphasized.
"Just wait." He said with a smug grin. "In the meantime, let's talk."
"About what?" I asked.
"Well…what brought you all the way up here?" He asked before leaning against the bars.
With nothing left to do, we told him all about my potential partnership with Blake, Nathan and Drake's shit deal with the Ballas and the shootout the led us up here. Aaron was extremely impressed.
"Damn that makes my story look like a kid fairy tale compared to yours." He chuckled. "You see I heard about this place for a while now from the grapevine all around Blain County. Usually it came from rumors in the bars or on blogs from survivors. One of those blogs had a map, warning people to stay away, but from what she said she had lost her diamond ring and golden earrings ranking up to almost one hundred thousand dollars."
"Holy shit!" We all exclaimed.
"That's what I said, so I couldn't help but wonder what other goodies they had up here, but I didn't know how I was going to be able to grab it. I didn't have the manpower to fight them and I didn't have the money to hire a crew and the risk was too high for anyone to just take my word for, so I was on my own."
"You tried to sneak in, didn't you?" I asked.
"April and I worked on a bank job before. She was able to map out the blueprints and everything. We were in and out before the cops could even catch us, so I give her a call last week to see if she could help."
"And I did," She said from her corner, finally making some sort of noise. "I had a bought a drone thanks to the funds from my last job, but the piece of shit was used. It ended up short circuiting and crashed right into their hideout."
"They were on us like blood hounds and they would have eaten us alive, if your Balla friends hadn't started shouting racial slurs." Aaron said as he rubbed the back of his head.
Just before we could continue talking, the door had burst open and one of those tweakers from before came in, assault rifle in hand. He smacked the bars of our cell doors with the butt of his gun causing making some of us jump.
"Shut the hell up!" He shouted.
Aaron walked up to the cell door and slipped his arms through the bars.
"Buddy, I don't care who you are or what you are doing up here, but you have two options." He said calmly, but pissed off tone. "You can let us go and give us our shit, or I'll murder every last one of you freaks and burn this place to the ground, your choice."
"Why you little…" He grunted but Nathan cut him off.
"Screw that, I say we just kill them all right now!" Nathan shouted out. Drake grabbed his hot headed friend by his shoulders, trying to calm him down, but the damage had already been done.
The yokel started to aim his gun towards our cell, but Aaron grabbed the gun from his hands in a flash and stabbed a shiv, make out of a broken floor board, into his neck. The man choked and gargled on his own blood before falling to the ground dead.
Everyone said nothing as Aaron started rummaging through the man's pockets. He let out a small cheer as he pulled out the cell door keys and started to unlock the door. April quickly hopped up to her feet and followed him out.
Aaron gave her the keys to the cell while he continued to go through his pockets. April unlocked our doors and Nathan and Drake stepped out while Blake helped me to my feet. I cringed when he helped me up and I spent most of my time leaning on his shoulder.
Aaron grabbed his assault rifle and handed April the pistol while Drake took back his tomahawk. Nathan looked displeased at our small findings.
"Dammit, there isn't anything else?" He hissed through his teeth. Aaron shook his head, but he still had an optimistic look on his face.
"There is a shed nearby where they keep all of their stolen shit. If I were a betting man, which I am I have a terrible gambling problem, I bet all of our shit is in there."
"We can't all sneak over there." Blake whispered, I could see his head nodding over to me. "Especially with his ass one foot in the grave."
"Okay, so maybe just a few of us sneak over and grab our shit." Aaron said.
"I'll go." Drake said with a twirl of his tomahawk.
"Me too." Nathan said.
"Okay, but we need to be quick and quiet." Aaron said before making his way over to the door. He slowly opened it and peeked out before waving at Drake and Nathan. I quickly grab Nathan's arm and his meet mine.
"Don't forget our bags," I reminded him. "It has both our money our weed."
"Don't worry I got it!" He said before following the two out the door.
I watched the three of them leave and all we could do was wait until they got back. I leaned up against Blake while April fumbled with her new gun.
"Do you know how to use that?" I asked, trying to break the uneasy tension in the air. She pulled back the slide and aimed the barrel at the door.
"Oh yeah, this isn't my first rodeo, as you cowboys would say it." She smiled.
"I'm no cowboy I'm a city slicker like you." I said back.
"Then what are you doing out here in the sticks?" She asked.
"I'm just trying to start up something big at least that's what I keep telling people." I shrugged.
"What do you tell yourself?"
"I'm still trying to figure that out." I sighed. "I'm down on my freaking luck, I got no friends and I got fired from my shitty job recently, so maybe I am just looking for a way out."
"Sounds sad." She said sympathetically.
"I am." I mumbled. I looked down at the floor not wanting to face anyone right now. Every time I keep trying to stand up on my own two feet I keep getting knocked down. There is only so many times I can keep getting back up before I am knocked back down permanently.
"Hey, don't worry," April said. "You will feel better when we are back in civilization."
"Sounds good to me."
We all jumped when Drake walks in with a few bags on his shoulder and a bloody tomahawk in his right hand. April walks over to help him as he hands her the bag. She unzipped it and handed me my combat pistol and knife back. Drake gives Blake his weed back and he hands me my money bag. I take it and nod at him.
"Thank you." I looked behind him to see that we were down two members. "Where is Nathan and Aaron?"
"Just wait a second, we have a ride coming we just have to-" He was cut off by a loud explosion that shook the whole mountain side. "Wait for the signal, let's go!"
Blake hands me over to April and grabs the shotgun I was using earlier as Drake readies his scorpion. Drake stepped out first spraying bullets all over the place while Blake blasted back at the hillbillies.
April and I both rushed out as fast as we could and started popping off rounds from our handguns, killing as many of these whack jobs that came at us. We saw a few of the shacks on fire and a few of these men with huge gashes in the center of their heads, courtesy of Drake's tomahawk.
"Get to the motorhome!" Drake shouted before pulling out his eagle and firing a round through one guy's head and into another man's chest. That was a hell of a cannon.
I looked over to see a large rusted motor home sitting on the side with Nathan on the roof, keeping cover with his carbine rifle while Aaron took cover from the door with his own rifle.
April and I rushed down the dirt road and through the door of the motor home. April quickly set me down on the bed in the back as Blake, Drake and Aaron climbed in from behind. Nathan leaped down from the compartment on the roof and tossed his rifle on the counter before hopping into the driver seat.
He revved the shit out of the engine before hauling ass down the dirt road and through the wooden gates. Bullets continued to bounce off of our ride while our ride rode down the bumpy road.
"Won't they just follow us?" April asked in a worried tone of voice. Aaron started laughing before pulling out a small detonator.
"Not a chance in hell." He smiled before pushing the button. Another explosion lit up on the mountain top and fire engulfed the entire camp.
"Damn, where the hell did you find that stuff?" April asked.
"I found them in the shack with our shit, so I rigged the place up while Nathan got us this ride." He said as he threw his detonator out of the window. "We needed to teach those fuckers not to put up a fight against me."
I made a mental note not to screw with this guy.
"Just relax guys," Nathan said from the driver's seat. "I'll have us back at the bar in no time."
"Great, a perfect end to our shitty day." I grumbled out before passing out on the bed.