You never know when a friend turns on you,
Leaving you stranded, all alone,
But when he does, you shall be hurt,
The results will be brutal, although unknown.
Present Day... Everything happens in present day, unless mentioned.
"You motherfucking bitch…..." AJ gasped out. She could hear the faint shuffling of feet, indicative of the 8 other members crowding behind her.
"All of you drop you fucking guns right now!" Eve shouted.
Her voice was seemingly troubled, and the worry could be detected from a mile away even though she did her best to conceal it.
"Or what?" Punk retorted. God knew he wasn't sexist, but come on, Eve simply did not possess the guts to shoot someone.
Hell, he'd saved her from her from a bastard the day they'd met.
And she had a fully loaded KRISS Vector in her hands.
'There was no way in hell she'd shoot' He thought.
He thought so a second too early, as in the very next moment, the ground before him held a small sized hole in it, filled with lead and gunpowder.
"Fuck you." Eve spat out.
Punk had moved back a few feet, nose flaring in anger and though he'd never admit it, defeat. This bitch was serious.
"Why?" AJ spoke, her voice no longer raspy.
"You don't need to know." Eve replied indignantly.
"We don't need to know? Excuse me?" interrupted a suddenly excited Paige. "We don't fucking need to know. Do I need to tell you why we do? 'Cause I will!" she continued, getting closer to Eve, unperturbed by the fact that the barrel of a gun was pointed right between her Chihuahuas.
"You better back the fuck off you two dollar slut, or I might just decide to pull the trigger."
Paige bent down, so she was level to the other woman's ears.
"Guess what darling, if you shoot, the others will be on you in a matter of seconds. What'll you do then?"
"You'd really die for them?" Eve whispered back.
Paige fumbled here. Eve here, was epitomizing lunacy. She, on the other hand, just wanted to distract her enough so one of them would get the hint and get her from behind.
On the other side, that's what was happening.
"Phil, go!" whispered John harshly, well aware that this frame of a few seconds could not be wasted.
Of course meanwhile, Paige was metaphorically hanging by a thread, as she had yet to create some distance between the crazed woman and herself.
"So, I repeat myself. Somebody pull her back or I swear to god I'll kill her."
"Let's see you try, bitch." Paige uttered back, knowing full and well that she was adding fuel to the fire.
"Have it your way then." Was all Eve had to say before she pulled the safety.
"Why should you be so afraid?" interrupted John, the assertion evident in his nonchalant voice. He continued, "There could be two reasons, either, you bumped your head really hard in there, or you've been bit."
The time it took for Eve to change her aim from Paige to John and for the scowl on her face to rise in prominence was but a few milliseconds.
"Stay back. I won't want to kill an injured and helpless man."
A simple reply was given. "Too bad. Also I guess it is the second one, as that's what struck a nerve."
Punk, in the meantime, had all but tip toed behind the group, the action enabling him to slip behind the Hummer. Leave it to John to keep her busy.
He crawled up from behind her, and had it not been for Eve's peripheral vision, the smart-ass nicknamed CM Punk would have snatched the gun quite easily.
Little had they known, Eve was not that dumb-witted after all, as she then did something completely ballistic and incomprehensible.
He shot Paige right on her foot, just above her ankle.
And my, was it painful.
She fell to the ground in a heap while Punk raised the brunette's hands in the air in an effort to prevent further damage.
Another 5 shots were fired in the air, and four others landed on the right side of the SUV, not low enough to reach the fuel tank though.
"You'll all die in hell!" shouted Eve, now powerless, empty gun in hand.
"You deserve it way more, don't you?" commented Punk sharply.
Oh, what he would have given to slap the angrily-sobbing woman silly.
"Phil, retreat." John commanded, knowing Eve would not try to run.
He motioned Dolph to tend to the pale-skinned limping woman before he gestured Punk and AJ to join him, and if Randy had to guess, he would've said the look to Mike and Cody meant 'Take care of Alana.' for Randy himself had taken a seat beside the injured woman.
He judgmentally eyed the older man, various thoughts scampering about in his head.
'What the hell is this guy's problem?'
'He can't be nice to anyone I guess.'
'Ordering everyone around like he's the boss of them'
He was shamefully startled when Paige shook his body from behind him. Almost yelped, for crying out loud.
"Know what you're thinking, Randy. Don't wrack your brain cells on it. You might trip a fuse." she said, keenly observing what was going on before him. Despite her bleeding foot and the stinging antiseptic, she talked pretty normally for someone who had been shot seconds ago.
He would have been amazed, but his sight had been trained elsewhere.
Although, he was amazed by how Punk retreated.
He was amazed by how quickly albeit reluctantly, Punk retreated.
He never ceased to be amazed whenever John would call him by his real name.
Lastly, he would never cease to be amazed on how Punk would simply listen to what John was saying. There would be inputs, but far less than the amount they were when he was talking to anybody else in the group, especially him.
Coming back to earth, he replied, trying to put his best smug face on, but when that didn't work he just shrugged and spoke, "Hey, I don't care how cute they are. It just puts me off when John thinks he is the almighty emperor and we are his subjects. He just comes out to me as a stand-offish, arrogant control freak. Yes, I'd probably be indebted to him for saving my daughter's life, but I have to say, my opinion of him hasn't changed all that much."
"You're lucky I'm the one who's standing here. Had it been anybody else, you would've been screaming bloody murder." she replied, flicking her hair back.
She cringed when Dolph gripped her foot hard, sending a look her way, telling her it was not her place to tell this.
"You mean AJ or Punk." Randy broke the silence. It was said like a question, sure, but Paige and Dolph knew it wasn't one.
"I mean anybody. Listen, I know how he might seem in the beginning and this is probably contrary to what you think, but I'm not completely sold on him being the supreme commander of our little 'gang,' if you may, either…." She paused when Dolph's stare got harder.
"But…."
"But, things work. This works. And it works well. So just go along with it." Dolph interrupted. He couldn't just throw caution in the air and wait for the results. He felt the newbie had to be eased into all this.
"Yeah, no. Something just doesn't sit well," disagreed Randy.
"Let's agree to disagree." Dolph butted in yet again, rousing the tall man's curiosity even more.
Dolph seemed hell bent on changing the topic.
Randy knew he was getting nearer. Before he could speak out, Paige just continued herself.
"Hell yeah it doesn't. You see, you just entered the group, so not knowing your story is fine. I mean, I myself broke out 3 weeks before. And I joined the group with Dolph, like 2 months, how time flies when you are having fun…."
"Get to the point." Randy seemed quite irritated now, both from the constant accentual muttering and from the fact that Eve had not even been questioned for her actions yet.
"My point is, he mingled sooner than I did, and though me and AJ don't get along, that well, we give each other their space. I know her story, and Eve's and have known Dolph's since the first day. I even know tit-bits from Cody and Mike's background," she paused to point at the duo who were shielding Alana from Eve's sight and vice versa. The kid looked like the gunshots hadn't fazed her at all. Paige then picked up again, "and some from Punk's but I don't know shit about John, and I'm willing to bet my life on the fact that the only one who does, is Punk."
Dolph tried to salvage the situation one last time. "Why don't you let it be…"
"That's why…" Randy trailed off.
"John gets to call Punk 'Phil'" she finished.
"I would never have wondered."
This time the white beauty shrugged. "I might be look young darling, but I've got a good number of miles under my belt."
The tall man grinned, bending down to catch Alana, who'd come running in his arms, "I'm sure about that."
"I better not get involved anywhere in the middle of this…" Dolph muttered, before turning around and walking towards Cody and Mike, deciding to keep quiet about the beans that had been spilled in the conversation.
It was at this moment that AJ, who had been called and had joined in on the little group huddle comprising of John and Punk sometime during their conversation hopped forward and down to Eve's level, with a bottle of water in her hand.
She gave her a snide, condescending smile, almost mocking the state of the other woman, who did not dare to budge, not because she was afraid of her, no, God knew how she wanted to rip the petite woman's face off, no, most definitely not afraid of her, but of the 5 men standing behind her, two of them with handguns in their hands.
Damn. For a girl her height, she looked quite intimidating. The group only enhanced it.
"So, Eve, want to tell me something." She asked with a toothy grin.
"I don't know what you talking about." was all that came in reply.
Splosh. A dollop of water hit Eve's face.
"Tell me, or I do it again."
"Who do you think I am, the Wicked witch of the west? Think I'll melt?"
"No, my little crumpet, this is just the first bottle of a 24 pack of water bottles that I have, and I don't mind sitting here all night washing your face and hair, if it makes you talk. Oh and….."
Splosh.
"Shitty plan." Eve breathed out. They were crazy if they thought this would work.
"I was hoping you'd say that." AJ turned to look at John before mouthing 'You promised.'
John just nodded.
AJ just looked back at Eve, as bright as a daisy, "You saw that nod, Eve? That gave me the green light for doing something I would not have been allowed to, had you cooperated."
And then AJ dragged the woman by her hair to the pickle water drum, full of a rancid, foul smelling substance that could be used as a method of torture.
Randy just raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know she had it in her."
"Yeah," replied his partner, still keeping an eye out for Alana, "She can sometimes act, out of line."
Eve, meanwhile was caught in a world of pain. Her lungs, specifically.
God knows how many gallons of water she had inhaled and how many more had she drunk.
"Tell me or your head goes back!" AJ shouted. And just as she was about to slam dunk her head back into the drum, she was stopped by a wailing Eve.
"Stop, my back, my back! It's my back!" she cried out.
AJ looked back, quietly awaiting instructions.
"What? Your back giving out on you, is it?" Punk interpreted.
"No! No, please, they're on my back, the marks. All of them!" Eve wailed.
John waited a second before speaking in a demanding tone once again, "AJ take Eve inside. Take Paige with you. Check if she'd telling the truth. Go."
Paige silently groaned at her seat, stretching out, before settling her jeans. "Duty calls," was all she said before limping inside the building gingerly.
Once inside, Paige and AJ cornered Eve before turning her around and nearly ripping the cloth of her, exposing her naked back, both of them left jaw hanging at the sight.
Apart from numerous scratches, there were no less than 4 bite marks across her skin, three of which had drawn blood and one that had gone black.
This was worse that they had expected.
"Bastards." Said the two in unison before they heard gunshots ringing outside once again.
They had company.
So, that's why John calls Punk- Phil.
Kinda anticlimactic, but there is a lot of back story left.
So, I'm sorry if this was confusing, but it'll all be cleared in the next chapter, promise.
This was supposed to be a 6000 word chapter, but I split it into two as I still have to write the other half and it has been ages since I updated.
I was proof-reading States and Ladders! And my computer crashed. Can you believe it, my first sex scene and my computer crashed!
Anyways, now that it's gone for repairs, I'll only be able to post that story once it's back. Sorry, but it shouldn't take long.
Oh, Thanks a ton to Yoomin16 and BrightasNight for granting me rights to work on their story! I asked they agreed! I couldn't be more grateful.
And to those who said Paige, when I asked them which character they would like to see some limelight upon, yes, I had planned he/she would act like a REBEL and get shot in the foot.
LOL.
Anyways, read and review this chapter, I got a 100 reviews coming up, and one of these days I am going to give a shoutout to all you guys, but not today. :)
Oh! To read the story I got rights to, It's XII different moments- John/Dolph (Brothel or Marine only) and When John is away, Hunter will play- John/Randy. Tell me a story you want me to elaborate or in the second case, do a sequel to, cause I need a story to right side by side EDF, till S & L is back on track.
Lastly, thank you to all who are reading, reviewed, and will review this chapter. :P
-O
