Chapter 3: Murphy's Law

I waited for what felt like an eternity for Chris to come by and pick me up, I knew mom usually went to sleep around eight since she had to wake up so early for work. I had some reservations about disobeying my mother like this, but I needed this, after what happened at practice I needed to escape, hang out with my friends, be myself again.

Eventually eight o'clock rolled around and I quickly put on a pair of shoes and my blue hoodie. I didn't want to risk going downstairs and getting caught, so I cracked my bedroom window open and climbed right out. You know, maybe I did have a future in that ninja business after all? I landed with a roll onto the lawn, looking back to make sure mom didn't wake up, the lights were all still off so I was in the clear.

I stood on the sidewalk, waiting for Chris' van to arrive and take me away from all this stress and anger. Soon enough the familiar beat up van rolled up, without hesitation I approached the van and got right in, Andy was for some reason in the van as well, meaning we kinda had to squish inside the thing. "Yo Dylan, you ready to party?" Andy said excitedly.

I looked back to my house, it was quiet and still, I felt a little bad about going behind mom's back like this, but I quickly set it aside, "Yeah, I am," I said simply. Chris began to drive, leaving my house behind, no turning back now.

I then felt something moving against my leg, I looked down to see a turtle of all things crawling along the car floor. "Uhh… Chris… why is there a turtle in the van?" I asked.

Andy looked down to see what I was talking about, "Oh him? That's Chris' pet turtle Slash," he explained, I don't know what's more odd, that someone as rough and tough as Chris had a pet turtle, or that he named it Slash of all things.

"Step on Slash and I'll pound you into mush mop head," Chris warned me. I wasn't exactly planning on hurting his pet turtle, but whatever.

Andy picked Slash off the floor, "Hey little dude," he said, the little reptile squirmed a little, but not much as Andy held him. I noticed it's shell had a little slash mark running across it, I guess that must be where it got it's name. Although I do have to wonder how it got that slash mark. But then again, perhaps some things should just remain unknown.

We soon pulled into the junkyard where Scott was waiting for us, we all got out of the van, Andy still holding Slash in his hands. "Chris, why do you always insist on bringing your turtle with you everywhere? He's gonna get loose and get hurt one of these days," Scott pointed out as he stroked Slash's head with his finger.

Chris just sneered, "He's a turtle, they ain't that fast," he dismissed before petting his turtle's head and going to the back to presumably get the soda and pizza he promised earlier in the day.

Scott just rolled his eyes before turning to me, "How are you holding up? Things got kinda wild back there on the football field," he asked me.

I sighed, "I'm doing better, I'm hoping spending the night with you guys will help me get over it better," I admitted.

Andy wrapped his arm around my shoulder, keeping slash in his other, free hand, "Don't sweat it dude, tonight is gonna be awesome!" he said. I hope so, I'm risking the wrath of my mother for this.

Chris returned with the pizza and a twelve pack of Coke, we all gathered around the old oil drum and began to dig in, "Well if you ask me," Chris began, "Those bastards had it comin', you see how that o-line was just letting Dylan get slammed like that? I probably woulda' broke their goddamn noses," he said.

"And it's that kind of compassion and understanding that landed you in juvenile hall for assault last year," Scott pointed out. The revelation that Chris has been to juvi was concerning yet unsurprising. I had learned very early on that Chris had a bit of a temper to put it nicely.

Chris instantly got defensive, "Hey! That son of a bitch was askin' for it!" he said.

However Scott was skeptical, "All he did was scuff your van with his bike dude," he pointed out.

"Yeah, so I scuffed his face, tit for tat," said Chris as he took a bite of his slice of pizza.

Andy then turned to me, "So what was it that set you off Dylan? I mean, we expect Chris to beat dudes up all the time, but you're usually pretty chill," he asked.

I debated whether I wanted to answer Andy's question or not, I didn't like talking about my dad very much. To be honest it was still kind of a sore spot for me. "It was something kinda personal, I'd rather not get into it," I said.

The others looked confused at first, but understood my reasons and decided to drop the subject. "So… yesterday I finally managed to land a laser flip!" Andy said, clearly trying to change the subject.

Andy was a skater, that much I learned pretty early on, he had plans on going pro at some point, Chris told me he and Scott haven't had the heart to tell him how unlikely that was. It kind of struck me how all of us were so different from one another, like I said before, we all came from different walks of life, different social circles, but yet… we got along like brothers almost. I guess it's true what they say, opposites attract.

However, suddenly we heard the sound of someone jumping the gate, we all turned in the direction of the sound. "Probably just a hobo looking to find something to live under or something," Scott tried to dismiss.

If only, but as soon as Scott said that, three figures stepped out from the darkness, Chris and I recognized them instantly as the Purple Dragons we fought the night we met. "What the hell are you clowns doin' here?" Chris asked.

The head of the pack smirked, "You know exactly what we're doin' here punk," he said before smacking his baseball bat against the flat of his hand. "Took us a while to find your little hang out spot, but it was worth it to pay you back for the beating you gave us last Friday," he growled.

Chris quickly stood up, "Oh yeah? You wanna get your asses kicked again? I'm more than happy to rearrange that ugly mug of yours again!" He snarled.

I really didn't feel like getting into another fight today, "Look man, it's four on three, so why don't you guys just crawl back under your rock okay?" I said, hoping the threat of the numbers game would get them to rethink their plan.

However, "You sure about that pretty boy?" one of the Dragons said before several other Purple Dragons stepped out from the darkness. "Cause I think we're the ones with the numbers here football boy," he said with a sinister smirk.

There had to be at least twenty guys here, no way we could take them in a straight fight! "BAIL!" Andy shouted before we all scattered. I should have known the Purple Dragons wouldn't let that beating go… as if today hadn't been horrible enough right?

A group of five dragons chased after me, all brandishing weapons, none of which were a gun, thank god. But I bet they'd still hurt like hell if they collided with my face. I just kept on running, hoping I'd eventually lose them.

However, one of them managed to nail me with what I think was a beer bottle, the impact caused me to lose my footing and I fell to the dirt. "Look at that boys, I sacked the quarterback!" one of the dragons joked.

The thugs began to surround me, cackling like hyenas ready to tear into their latest kill. I looked around for anything I could use to fight them off, but found nothing within reach. One of the thugs stood over me, baseball bat held high, ready to cave my skull in.

Without even thinking, I lifted my left leg, nailing the bastard right in the family jewels. The thug collapsed to his knees, coughing and wheezing as he finally fell over. I quickly scurried back, hoping to get away before the other four Dragons realized what was happening.

But that plan died the second I saw an insurmountable pile of junk immediately in my path. I was cornered, and these gang bangers were out for blood. "No where to run QB," one of the Dragons said.

However before I could even begin to debate if I should have just obeyed my mother and stayed home, Chris' van came careening towards us, the Dragons quickly jumped out of the way of the speeding van as it screeched to a stop. The door swung open, "Get in!" called Chris.

I did so without hesitation, climbing into the front seat with Chris. Andy and Scott were both in the back of the van, clearly quite freaked out, I didn't blame them, I was sorta freaked out myself actually.

Chris quickly drove right through the fence of the junkyard, I'm sure Scott's uncle will have a few words for us about that, but considering we had Purple Dragons on us, I think he'd be willing to look past it.

"You think we're safe?" I asked Chris, Chris looked into one of his side mirrors, but his eyes suddenly widened, "Not quite," he said. Before I could even ask what he meant I heard a gun shot go off.

I looked into the side mirror on my side of the van to see a purple car driving after us, with one of the Purple Dragons pointing a gun at the van. Oh god, they're trying to kill us! I tried not to panic, hoping to god they couldn't aim for crap.

No such luck as another gunshot went off, and I heard a rather alarming pop noise followed by the sounds of the van's tires screeching. "Dammit! He shot out my tire!" Chris cursed.

The van began to sway, I tried my best to hold on for dear life as the van constantly threatened to send us right into the side of a building or worse, oncoming traffic.

Chris managed to steer the van around the corner. "Please tell me you can keep this thing steady enough to get us away from those thugs!" I said to Chris, I was losing it right now, I didn't want to die, not like this.

"Dude! I'm freaking out man!" Andy whined from the back.

"Go to your happy place Scott, your happy place!" Scott repeated to himself.

Chris turned to the back, "Will you two knock it off! I'm trying to focus here!" He scolded them, taking his eyes off the road which I quickly noticed was about to become a fatal mistake.

I quickly grabbing Chris' shoulder to get his attention. "CHRIS WATCH THE ROAD!" I yelled as I saw what looked to be the back of an armored transport car rushing to make our acquaintance, Chris tried to swerve out of the way but wasn't fast enough as the side of the van drilled into the transport truck.

The impact completely shattered the windshield and truck's contents flew right though, I got smacked right in the face by one, the glass shattering against my face, spewing shards of glass and it's contents all over me.

I could hear everyone in the van begin to scream as I felt an excruciating burning sensation erupt through every pore of my flesh. The pain was downright unbearable, I couldn't even see with all the ooze in my face, but I knew enough to know it was burning me.

My bones began to ache like mad, and almost felt like they were warping and twisting into different shapes. I managed to will my hand to wipe some of the ooze from my eyes.

I could see that Chris, Scott, and Andy were all covered in the stuff too, several canisters of the horrible ooze were all over the front seats, some shattered, others still intact, poor Scott and Andy must have got hit with some back splash from whatever hit Chris and I.

The pain was downright unbearable, it felt like some asshole was running me through a taffy puller. What was this stuff? Oh my god… I just realized… I might be dying! The very idea the last interaction I had with mom could have been my very last didn't sit well with me at all.

The pain was worse than anything I'd ever experienced before, just this constant, horrible, screaming agony, I doubted I could take much more of it for long, I could already feel myself slipping into unconsciousness… or death… whichever came first I almost welcomed it, anything had to be better than this right?

Eventually my body began to give out, but not before I saw two guys in uniforms step out of the doughnut shop they had parked their truck in front of to see what was no doubt a horrible accident. The blackness began to overtake me as one of them took his radio out, "Hello? Base… we've got a problem," I heard him say before the darkness finally overtook me.

A/N: You see kids, that is why you should never drive distracted, you never know when you're gonna ram into a truck full of horrible gene altering chemicals… it's a common hazard.

Thus the real fun begins, I didn't want to drag the human stuff out too much, just enough to establish some character and their relationships to one another.