Gone Girl
Chapter 66 Bachelor Party Part 2A/N I'm soooo sorry! I have family visiting from North Carolina and we got up and ran out to do things before I remembered to post. So here it is late. Sorry again!
Their crazy day starts now, and you have to know I was originally planning one chapter for the bachelor party and one chapter for the bachelorette party. But it got to be 40 pages long and once I started splitting the chapters up into more reasonable sized chapters it was over four chapters long.
Keep sending me happy writing thoughts. Next week I will really be taking time to write again. As happens with me I wrote a 10,000-word chapter and didn't make it to the reception yet. Well it's just more chapters for you to enjoy later!
Chapter Sixty-six
Friday April 25, 2014 - Day 164 11:30 am
Ranger POV
Twenty-five minutes later he saw the sign. Speed Vegas and from the picture of the race car on the sign he realized they were going racing. Okay this was not so bad and an appropriate thing to do at, he looked at his watch, eleven-twenty in the morning. There just could not be any drinking if his men were going to be racing cars over 100 mph.
He smiled as they pulled up, he would see how many of his men he could beat. He had the most experience in going over 100 mph and he knew how to handle a Porsche and now a Lamborghini. He was going to kick their butts. The thing was he was the best in the company. He was the best on the mats, or in the ring, he had the best rankings on the firing range, he ran the fastest and lifted the most weight – except for Tank but Tank was huge so it was expected that he could lift more. The point is that he is the best in the company and here too he had to prove to his men that he was the best driver in the company.
Krystal stood up and told his men that they needed to eat lunch while they were here and before they left at one-thirty. She told them to line up and follow her. Then she put her hand on his arm and said he was to walk by her side since he was the groom. He didn't know why but her hand on his arm made the hair on it stand up in alarm. He actually got up and led the way off the bus. He'd be damned if he followed her around like some pussy whipped boy. He was the leader and he led the way.
As they got inside Krystal broke it down for him. "The inside racetrack can race three cars at a time and your men have paid for you to race as many times as you want. All you need to do is pick out your car. I think you should drive the Porsche. You would look good in a Porsche." She purred at him.
"I drive a Porsche every day. I own three of them." He scoffed at her. "I want to drive something more exotic."
Chuck the current track manager met them and shook Ranger's hand.
"What do you want to drive?" He asked Ranger.
"The fastest most expensive car you have out there." He nodded towards the track.
"Well you've never gone as fast as you can go in our Ferrari or Lamborghini. They are our most expensive cars."
"I'll take a turn around with both of them and let you know which one is the best." Ranger offered.
"I've been told that what you want – you get; so, we will get you set up. What are your men going to race? There can be three cars racing out there at a time." Chuck said.
Ranger turned around but he didn't want to let everyone know how excited he was over this. So, with a straight face that brooked no decent he loudly said. "Who wants a chance to beat me? You know you can't, but you can race for who will take second place."
Lester stepped up and said, "Primo you know I am racing first, and I will take which ever car you don't, Ferrari or Lamborghini." (Cousin)
"Doesn't matter which car I drive I'll still beat you so you can pick first," Ranger said confidently.
Raptor stepped up and said, "Ranger you have to go fill out your paperwork. Everyone here has already done it. Then I will race both of you and beat your asses."
Chuck was standing there with some paperwork and to his great pleasure it seems someone – probably Tank – had already filled it out for him with his driver's license and all his information. But it states to race you have to have their insurance and that was all filled out for him too. Chuck took his driver's license stating he needed a copy for his file. Ranger read over the agreement and signed it. Once they were done, he found that there were three cars lined up on the racetrack ready to go. A Lamborghini, A Porsche, and A Ferrari.
"I want the Lamborghini." Ranger said and headed towards it. There next to the car was an assistant with a helmet and instructions. All the cars had five-point racing harnesses in them and had other safety modifications as well. He spent a minute familiarizing himself with the car. This was like a two hundred thousand-dollar Lamborghini and he wanted to see how it compared to the six-hundred-thousand-dollar Lamborghini.
They could have one person riding with them, so Tank climbed in next to him with a helmet on and got strapped in. He didn't pay attention to who got into the other cars but if six of them could go around the track at a time more of the guys could experience it. The camera guy was right there taking pictures of them suiting up and getting in.
Per Ocalli's request he had not gone over 140 mph when he had driven the car and basically as soon as they got out to where the car could be opened up like that and he hit 140 he had pulled over and let Ocalli drive. So, this was going to be fun. Okay he had to give it to his cousin and Tank this was fun. Much better than strippers in his book.
He took off like a shot and quickly got in front of the other two. This track was a mile and a half long with quite a few turns and straightaways to pass on. But the Lamborghini was just as responsive as Ocalli's had been. The steering wasn't quite as tight, and it didn't speed up as fast, but we were talking fractions of a second here. Maybe he would consider a Lamborghini as his next car. They were only racing one time around the track and with the jump start he got on them at the beginning and as fast as it would accelerate in the straightaways he easily (by several seconds) beat the other two.
Tank announced that the losers had to give up their cars and a few minutes later he was racing Tank and Ram. He beat them too and so it went for thirty minutes with him racing everyone and beating them. Okay he had to admit it this was fun. He even found himself smiling as he raced time and again around the track.
The best part is that he had gone around the track enough times to get to know it and anticipate where he could speed up, so he was becoming much faster than the competition. Plus, none of his men knew it, but his pit guy reviewed his performance with him and gave him tips on how he could do better and go faster.
Raptor showed back up. He wanted a rematch and to switch cars – that obviously Ranger had the fastest car. Well he couldn't let him get away with that and as well as Ranger knew the track now, he knew none of his men – no matter what the car – could beat him. Once again, the camera guy was there taking pictures. He hoped the guy was getting pictures of all his men. He didn't want just a thousand pictures of himself.
Well he had never driven a Ferrari so that is what he chose to race next and for Tank they had brought out a Lamborghini Huracan. The guys in the pit said it was the fastest and he had to wonder why it hadn't been out there from the beginning. So, it was a Ferrari against two Lamborghinis, and they took off in a fit of speed, but Ranger wasn't concerned because he knew the track better than either one of them did.
He was shocked though as they entered the first straightaway and Raptor started pulling up like he knew the track too. This was the hardest race he had run, flooring it more than a few times, and hitting a top speed of 172 mph. Which was the fastest he had ever gone in his life and it was exhilarating. Even with that, Raptor was right on his ass and even tried to pass him going around a turn.
After this one he was going to take a break and let his men have some of the fun. He did end up winning, just barely and he couldn't figure out how Raptor knew the track so well. He must have really been watching the racing and keeping track of the turns and straightaways.
Tank and Raptor got out of their cars and begrudgingly congratulated him. He announced that he was going to take a break and let all the men race for a while. He had to say that the Lamborghini did handle better than the Ferrari but both of them were a little bit better than his Porsche at home.
He followed them back inside to find that there were several cheering guys around a 3-D racing mock-up of the track, and they let it be known that Raptor had raced it five times before taking Ranger back on. So that was how he knew the track so well.
He looked around and noticed that half his men were not there on the track racing or doing the 3-D thing. When he investigated, he followed some of them outside to the off-road dirt track that the men were driving. This was only a single car track. You couldn't race other cars around it. But you could go as fast as you dared on the track but that wasn't the big attraction. These were off road cars made to go fast and jump off the ramps and it had eight jumps – one was 40 feet high and shot you 20 feet into the air. He got in line to check it out.
His phone binged with a text and caught him off guard. Since he was going to be away from Stephanie today, he had told Hal and Cal to text him and keep him up to date on where the women were and what they were doing. So, he had turned the sound on his phone on and every time it went off, it surprised him a little bit because he was used to it only being on vibrate.
This text was from Stephanie. Things were going great. The women all had dresses and now needed shoes, nails, and undies. He texted back to have fun and leave him out of the undie's discussion. Right then a second text came in from Hal letting him know they were leaving Viva Las Vegas, the name of the restaurant they were going to eat lunch at and the salon they were going to have their nails done. He thanked him and asked him to keep him up to date as the women moved from activity to activity.
He wasn't going to cut to the front of the line but as soon as his men realized that he wanted a turn they got out of his way. Except for Hector, who he patiently waited behind. Once he drove it, he was fricking amazed! OMG this was even more fun and something he had never done! He could get up to 100 mph on the straightaways, but this was a curvier track and the jumps were fucking awesome!
Now that he had proven he was king of the race track he could just have fun out here racing and jumping these cars. He drove it around and around three times in a row before he finally gave some of the other guys a turn. He went back inside to find Krystal. Now that he'd had his turns, he wanted to be fair and make sure all his guys got a chance. And secretly he was thinking that if everyone got a chance he was going to go again on the outside track because that was just fucking fun.
He found Krystal and she told him they had both tracks for two hours. She had reserved the whole place for a private corporate party. He looked at his watch and realized they had about an hour left. She also let him know that lunch was being provided here. So, he should eat before they left, and she would go with him to pay for the meal. He went outside to find that Raptor had taken his place as king of the track and everyone was trying to beat him.
He announced that if they hadn't tried it, they had to try the off-road track and got some of the guys to head out there. Raptor taunted him saying he was faster, and Ranger said to let other's race and come inside and see. They had a guy in a booth keeping track of every car and every race and Raptor had come with-in two tenths of a second of his best time, but Ranger was still fastest.
"I'll race you again if I get to drive the Huracan. I haven't had a chance to drive it yet." Ranger offered.
Raptor disagreed. "That's not fair because it is definitely the fastest car on the track. I know, I've driven all of them."
"I'll tell you what I'm driving in the next race and I'm driving the Huracan. If you want to race me – meet me on the track." And with that Ranger walked back out to the racetrack.
As he suspected Raptor was there driving the other Lamborghini and this was a real race like none he'd driven before. They took off together and Ranger knew that with the number of times Raptor had driven the 3-D racetrack combined with the number of times he had driven the real race track he was going to be a formidable opponent. Regardless Ranger was the best and he drove his ass off, flooring it every chance he got till he had pulled just a little bit ahead of Raptor and then not giving him a chance to make it up. He hit 193 mph – the fastest he had ever gone in his life!
When he got out, Raptor gave him shit but he didn't care – he won, and he wouldn't race again. He was king of the track and no one could take the title away from him. He wandered back outside and found Tank in line to drive one of the off-road cars. He stood next to him and when Tank looked at him, he smiled.
"This is much better than strippers." Was all he had to say. Tank knew him better than anyone and he knew what a high complement that was.
"Oh, it will get better Ranger. We booked every thrill-seeking thing they had and packed it all into one day. So, it is only going to get better." And Tank smiled back at him.
Okay so now he knew they had booked Bachelors Vegas and they booked all the thrill-seeking activities. He stepped behind Tank and pulled out his phone. It only took a minute to find the Bachelors Vegas website, but it took several more minutes to find what he was looking for. He kept reading through all the different bachelor packages but most of them were all the same: dinner, drinks, strip club, dance clubbing and there was nothing thrilling in his mind about that.
Then he found the options page and found what he was looking for. There was sky diving, machine gun shooting, BATTLEFIELD Vegas where you can crush a car with a tank amongst a bunch of other things. Top shot where you shoot at each other with real guns that have been modified to shoot blanks. Like the most advanced laser tag ever. That sounded like fun. He was getting excited. His best friend/friends had truly taken into consideration things he would like to do and booked them for him.
With the web page open on his phone he stood next to Tank and said. "Well this has been fun. Much better than anything I had imagined you'd have scheduled for today. What is next?"
Tank turned to him saying it's a surprise when he saw the webpage open on the phone and laughed.
"You are the hardest person in the world to surprise because you have to know everything that is going to happen before it does. I would say you have to wait to find out but then I know you'll go ambush Lester or Raptor. I have to be honest with you. We gave all the guys the whole schedule on the plane, so they knew what to expect. It seems only fair since it is your party for you to get to see what's happening." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to him.
Ranger had to tell him, he had to be honest and let him off the hook. "I know what happened now. Word got around the building all the activities you were planning for my bachelors party and everyone wanted to come." He said smugly. Actually, happier now that he knew his men came out for more than just drinking and strippers.
"I made the mistake of starting a kitty to collect funds for your bachelor party and you nailed it: when men found out what was going to happen, I had an uprising on my hands. Everyone said they should be allowed to come even if they weren't going on the honeymoon to Mexico. I couldn't take money from them and then tell them they couldn't come. Once I agreed that whoever wanted could come the money poured in. I want you to know that I already gave that woman $50,000 for this party today with the strict instructions that you were not to pay for anything – all day. So, you better keep your wallet in your pocket boss man. All the guys pitched in because they wanted to give you a day you would actually enjoy. For once you could let them see you smile, and you can thank them later tonight for doing this for you."
"Hal and Cal knew what was happening today and still came to go dress shopping with Stephanie and my mother?" He couldn't believe that they hadn't thrown a fit when he basically ordered them to fly in last night so they could do so.
"I promised them the same thing you offered the guys – one-week paid vacation out here and a thousand bucks and I promised I would buy each of them a lap dance tonight. I guess I'm going to have to up my offer to match yours." He smiled at me. "Maybe the six guys we are leaving here next week can get together and do some of this same stuff."
"I'll pay for Hal and Cal." He offered and found that he wanted to do something special for them. "They've had a hell of a day. They started out this morning having to go dress shopping for nine women. This afternoon they have to sit in a salon while all the women get pedicures and manicures." He confessed and had to tell the worst of it. "After that they have to go shoe shopping and shopping for intimate apparel. With Steph, all the bride's maids and the mothers and grandmothers of all people. I know Stephanie can be fun and treats the guys well but all the other women like her mom stare at them like they are freaks and don't talk to them. On top of that is her granny that constantly tries to grab their asses and if they get too close their packages. The guys going tonight will have a lot more fun. None of the mothers or grandmothers are going tonight. Well at least Hector will have fun. He will appreciate the show they are going to see."
I opened the page and saw that this was going on till one-thirty. Then we were going to skydive for an hour going multiple rounds. Eighteen or so men a round. They had paid for forty-eight jumps. That was supposed to take an hour then at three we were going to Top Shot to do the blank gun laser tag. At five o'clock there was a secret surprise for an hour. Then at six o'clock there was dinner – an all you can eat and drink hour long party at Pampas Brazilian Steakhouse.
After that, no time was listed because it was when everyone was to check into their hotel rooms and get dressed up for the evening. It stated there was a strict dress code because we were going to the Sapphire Gentlemen's club for two hours and then their choice of dancing at several different clubs. According to this the party was going to get over about two am so they weren't planning on staying up all night partying like he knew some of his men had done in the past.
That was actually a relief because he wanted to be rested for his wedding tomorrow and most importantly his honeymoon. He didn't want to get with Stephanie and fall asleep after the first round because he had been up all night babysitting his men. He wanted to make his honeymoon the most memorable sex they had ever had. He wasn't sure how exactly because he kept trying to outdo himself and had already shown her all his tricks, but he was certain he would think of something.
Basically, at this point, he was going to drive her crazy begging for release while he teased her endlessly. That sounded like a good way to start the week. Tank interrupted his thoughts offering to let him go first.
"No man I've been on this track three times. You go first and do the track twice. It is awesome and as soon as you get done you want to do it again so go ahead and do it twice." Ranger encouraged him.
After he'd raced around the track three more times. Tank and he went to get something to eat. He didn't seek out Krystal because honestly the woman gave him the creeps. She made his skin crawl. So far, she had been nothing but professional and she seemed to be on top of things, but he had a feeling her thoughts towards him were less than pure and she was planning on something tonight that was not going to happen. Never in a million years was he going to sleep with a strange woman when he had Stephanie to look forward to. There were too many of his men who would be more than willing to accommodate her, but he wasn't going to be one of them.
His men did talk him into racing some of them around the track again and once again he came out the winner. The truth was that even though his men were thrill seekers, they didn't have as much experience with going that fast as he did. It was something you kinda had to get used to, going over 150 mph.
He hadn't realized it, but his men were taking pictures of themselves with the cars they were racing, and they wanted to get a picture of him in front of all three cars. He let them take his picture and then had them take one with his phone. Then he went back outside. Once he was sure everyone had a turn, he took the track around two more times and got Mark to take his picture in front of the car he had been racing.
He wasn't the sentimental sort, but he knew he was going to have to tell other people about his party and it would be easier with some personal pictures to show. Funny thing is that in the picture Mark took he was grinning like the devil in disguise about to pray on some unsuspecting woman. He looked at the picture of him in front of the race cars and there too he was grinning like an idiot. He had to admit it. This was going to be the best bachelor party ever.
He went into the office and bought a gift certificate to race the three top cars around the track ten times plus run the outside track ten times. It wasn't a regular deal that they did but for him and since he had spent all this money here for this party the manager approved it.
At one-twenty Krystal called last laps and at one-twenty-five was ushering everyone back into the bus. Once we got loaded up, she took rollcall and had us quickly on our way. Tank had sat next to me and he was in a great debate. Ranger knew that skydiving was fun. He had done it enough times, but he was more interested in driving a tank because that was something, he had never done; so he started asking Tank questions.
"How in concrete are our plans for today?" He wondered.
"I don't know I booked them days ago and paid for it all, so it is mostly a done deal." He started. "But talk to Krystal, why what don't you want to do?"
"Well I have jumped out of planes a bunch of times. But there is something I have never done that I would really like to do." He hedged.
"Which one?" Tank wondered.
"Battlefield Vegas. I want to drive a tank and crush a car!" He couldn't help the excitement that came through in his voice.
He reached out and Ranger handed him his phone.
"I saw the shooting on their site. You can shoot just about any gun made there. They have everything you can shoot there. We have a 50-caliber gun and so many different automatics so I didn't think you would be that interested in going there."
"Your right I wouldn't care about shooting guns, I'm on the range every week and we have plenty of semiautomatics to play with. I wouldn't mind shooting a fifty cal again if they have different ammo. But I've never driven a tank. I want to drive a tank and crush a car." His voice was filled with eagerness. He really wanted to do this.
"I think you need to jump out of a plane. There is no bigger rush than jumping out of a plane and you love doing it."
"You're right I do love jumping out of a plane, but I've done it a bunch. It wouldn't be something new." He explained.
"You haven't ever jumped out of a plane for fun. You've always been strapped to the gills, jumping in the dead of night, hoping you aren't spotted and shot at. It will be a nice change for you to jump out of a plane and not be going on a mission that is risking your life. I think you should do it at least once." Tank assured him.
Ranger sighed, he had a point but that was half of the adrenaline rush knowing from the moment you stepped out of that plane that your life was in danger and you were taking your life into your own hands. But to drive a tank would make this day awesome.
Krystal was sitting there across from them paying attention to their conversation.
"Krystal, I would really like to go to Battlefield Las Vegas and drive a tank. Is that something that we could squeeze in?" He hoped.
"We are going to be here for an hour. You have already paid for forty-eight jumps and at this point it is non-refundable."
He didn't care about the money. He wanted to do stuff he had never done before; stuff that he could carry the memory of. Like driving the cars and beating all his men. Or driving the off-road cars and jumping them in the sky. Dios that was fun.
"The money is not important. I want to know how we can work this in." He held up his phone to her and showed her a picture of a car being run over by the tank. "For the ultimate bachelor party, I want to drive a tank over a car. My men want to see me drive a tank over a car." He insisted determinedly.
"Let me make some calls and see if I can arrange things." Krystal said acceptingly. He knew if it meant more money for her, she would make it happen for him. He saw her at the race track paying for the deal for the most cars for the most men and that she got a deal to run both race tracks for two hours, unlimited number of runs in the cars of their choosing for $23,500.
Considering just five laps with those Lambo's was $600 that was a steal. He had to congratulate her it was fine negotiating. But he figured it had been mostly worked out in advance by the higher up muckety mucks and she just had to fine-tune the details.
He was watching her as he read on his phone. It would be better for his men to go do the Top Shot shooting games. Truly a bonding experience and they had to know he was the best shot. Everyone knew he was because they kept those records too.
They got to Skydive Las Vegas and twelve men there quickly got them suited up. Tank had done a lot of planning for this day he mused, because every man had already filled out the necessary paperwork and Tank had faxed over everyone's skydiving certifications so that everyone who could – would be able to jump alone. He filled out his paperwork and got suited up and in less than ten minutes he was in the air.
Skydive Las Vegas had three planes and the first one had left while he was doing the paperwork. He was on the second plane and he was staying stoic. His men had seen him smiling enough at the racetrack. It was a different feeling – thinking that he was going to jump just for the fun of it. It felt freeing and he was relaxed.
They had strapped a video camera to his arm so he would have video of him jumping plus his men had paid for him to have pictures. Then it was time and he easily stepped up to the door of the plane and jumped. He had to admit the view was stunning. Las Vegas that seemed so big from the ground looked small and condensed from this far up. He could see the mountains and even the Grand Canyon from here and even though it was the desert it was beautiful.
He pulled his chute and started the five to seven minute decent and looked around at all his men that were falling all around him. Each plane could take up three tandem jumps or six single jumpers but as nervous as the men were that ran the show, he could tell that they didn't do a lot of single jumpers. Once on the ground he was quickly outfitted with a new parachute and sent right back up.
Okay Tank had a point, this was fun and got his adrenaline pumping even if this wasn't deadly, it was fun, and he would have to share the video with Stephanie. This time he turned the video camera around so it caught the ground and Stephanie could see what he was seeing. He had gotten on the plane first, so he was last getting out and he just stepped up to the door and jumped out again.
Once he was out on the ground, he became aware that there was a big discussion. Hector was one of a few men that didn't have skydiving credentials and needed to jump tandem but didn't want to go with the guy they were trying to pair him with. Without any hesitation he told Hector he would jump tandem with him. In minutes, his harness had been changed out and he got loaded up with Ryan and Mario that were jumping tandem.
Once they got up high enough Ranger let the other two men go first. Then they stepped up to the door and he let Hector get a good look around. Then he counted in his ear.
"One, Two, Three." And then he jumped. He had been instructed to hold the video camera out straight so he could get Hector's face on the video and he heard Hector yell, "Whooo hooo". He was watching his altimeter and within seconds it was time to pull his chute. With two people you had to pull the chute sooner so the parachute could fully extend and have more time to slow the rate of decent. Slowly they floated to the ground and once they landed and disconnected Hector had a huge smile on his face and thanked him.
What the hell, they paid for him to go four times, so he suited up one more time and caught the last plane that was going up. This time he thought he would have to bring Stephanie Skydiving. If she thought driving a car off a bridge was fun; she would love this. He pulled the chute right after jumping and let it slowly carry him down.
Once they got on the ground, they were shucking all of their equipment and thanking the men who had been outfitting them and flying them up. Ranger wanted to leave them a big tip, but Tank told him it was all taken care of. Krystal was right there getting them all loaded up in the bus, counting heads and made the announcement he was hoping for.
"There is going to be a slight detour; we are going to take two hours and go explore the destination called BATTLEFIELD Vegas. Your boss is aching to drive a tank and that is what we are going there to do."
There was a cheer around the bus and the men started excitedly talking. Many of them looking up BATTLEFIELD Vegas on their smart phones and seeing what there was to do there. We arrived at BATTLEFIELD in short order to find that she had already paid for one car to be driven over by a tank.
Ranger had other ideas. He wanted a real challenge; well a car verses a tank is hardly a challenge, but he wanted to drive over multiple cars at the same time. Ranger went inside and got what he wanted set up and got them to agree to a deal where they would set up six cars for $15,000 plus $3,000 more for them to do it in the next hour. Jason the manager and part owner told him if he paid the rush towing fee's they would do it today because they didn't have six cars on site and had to call the local junkyard and pay extra to have the cars delivered on a rush order. That's what the extra three grand was for.
He had to smile that was almost as much as they spent for two hours at the track. It was ridiculous because it was so expensive. Heck it was two-thirds as what he was paying for the whole wedding and reception. But when was he going to get a chance to do this again? He thought and gladly paid the woman.
Krystal was right there; her eyes bugging out of her head at his reckless spending. She offered to pay for it, but he said it would blow their budget and since this was something, he wanted; he would pay for it. They gave him a black cell phone like thing that would alert him when they were ready but, in the meantime, they already had one car set up.
Tank said he would do it and got in the tank and with a few instructions from some tall guy, who was helping them, he was ready to go. Two people could ride in the tank with him out the top hatch and side hatch and Woody and Chet happily climbed on board. All the extra men, that were outside, gathered around and got their cameras out to take pictures and video.
There was just a little four door Toyota sitting there with four flat tires when Tank stepped on the gas pedal and the tank started moving forward. He steered with the two levers and lined the tank tracks up with the car so he would be driving over the middle of it.
The tank rolled up to the back of the car and then just climbed up the middle of its trunk. The tank didn't have any trouble and it just rolled right over the car with a crashing and smashing of metal and glass as all the windows got blown out and the metal just smushed under the weight of the tank. He rolled right over the top of the car and the half of the car that the tank rolled over was less than two feet tall. Totally smashed in.
Tank raised his arms in victory and all the men cheered. When they were done the men dispersed to go around looking at their whole lot that was covered in different military trucks, Humvees, jeeps, helicopters some that you can climb inside and pretend to fly, and a whole line of tanks that were all different sizes. Tank, Ranger and Raptor walked around the lot and decided to go in and see what there was to shoot.
Ranger found that his men were touring the room deciding what they wanted to shoot, and he wandered around looking at all the guns that were available to shoot. OMG, he could shoot an RPG with a dummy round. He wanted to do that it was one thing he had never shot.
He got up to the counter to find that they didn't do RPG firing they were only for display. So, he doubled the packages he signed up for because they didn't have many rounds. He signed up for the Heavy Strike Package, plus two grenade launchers. He didn't know for sure, but he felt like they needed to have some in their inventory. Three hundred rounds with a mini (Gatlin) gun and the Four-Star Generals package. He had shot all the machine guns before or guns like them, but he wanted to see how these models compared to what was available now.
Tank and Raptor stepped up and put in their orders and they received a little black box that would page them when their guns were ready. They went back out to tour all the trucks, machines, and equipment out on the lot. He took pictures of them sitting in the helicopter and they flashed him some hand signs.
Lester came up behind him and put his arm around him and Ranger knocked it off. Lester had a big smile on his face. Zip and Ram were right with him and Ranger knew the three playboys were thick as thieves when they were out partying and picking up women.
"Having fun primo?" (cousin) Lester asked.
"I wanted to beat you into a pulp for bringing all these men out here," he said with a straight face.
"Aw come on, they just wanted to come out here and party with you and this is the kind of party you can really sink your teeth into. What are you shooting?"
"The two biggest handguns in the world and a few machine guns. Then a couple of grenade launchers. You know we don't have any and I've been thinking we should get some." He said honestly.
"Good for you." Lester slapped him on the back. Lester's black box beeped, and he said. "Got to go. I've got some shooting to do."
That was fine with him. At family parties Lester was always a safe person to talk to but he knew that tonight, Lester's party boy ways were going to get him into trouble.
Hal texted that the women were splitting up. Stephanie had more treatments at the beauty parlor, so the women were going shoe shopping. He was going to stay there guarding Steph and Cal was going to go with the women. Poor Cal he reasoned. He was definitely getting the short end of the stick.
His black box beeped, and he went inside followed by Tank and Raptor to find a guy Ralph had every gun he had ordered on a push cart and with ear and eye protection in place they went in to the gun range. Ralph started Ranger off with the two grenade launchers. He tried the M79 first, shooting all four grenades. It went far enough he thought to suit the company's needs if they just wanted plain grenade launchers.
Actually, he was thinking that what he really wanted was to be able to launch smoke grenades more than live grenades. So, he shot the M203 grenade launcher and those grenades went further. The M203 was actually a machine gun with the grenade launcher built in and he shot it. It was a two for one and his men could carry a gun and launch grenades all at the same time.
That was definitely what he wanted. Ralph confirmed it saying that this was the one that some police, and SWAT used. He decided he would order some when he got back home. He wished he had some to take on his honeymoon to Mexico. He would rather his men have some non-lethal options for the locals who wandered too close.
Next Ralph handed him the Mark XIX Desert Eagle. This was one of the world's largest handguns. It was a magnum .44 and he shot it twenty times. It was much louder than his Glock and the recoil on it was impressive. This was something for Tank to use. But he had read up on them when they came out and even though it was big it was not the best gun to stop someone as it wasn't the most accurate.
Then he shot the Smith and Wesson 500 magnum. This was an impressive sized gun as the barrel was almost as long as his forearm. It only held five rounds and as he shot the first one, he felt a hand holding him at the back of his shoulder. He looked back and Ralph was steading his shoulder and he gave him a glare. Did he look like a puny girl who couldn't handle a big gun?
"Hand! Off!" was all he said, and Ralph yanked his arm back looking like he had been burned. He shot it four more times and let Ralph reload it. After he shot it again; he invited Tank to shoot it the next five rounds. It looked even more impressive in Tank's massive hands and he thought maybe that was what he would get Tank for his birthday this year. It looked good sticking out from Tank's massive arms and natural. Like you would expect such a large man to have such a large gun. Finally, he let Raptor shoot the last five rounds.
Now Tank's and Raptor's beepers went off and they went out of the shooting range to meet up with the guys that had their guns. Problem was that almost all the slots in the shooting range were full. Tank ended up two slots down from him and Raptor was all the way down on the end. He felt bad because he hadn't even paid attention to what they were shooting.
He looked up and down the shooting gallery and all his men were here with guns looking like Christmas had come early and like little boys getting to play with their favorite toys.
Ralph pulled in his target and he could see that he was a good shot even with these larger caliber guns and the holes the bullets made were impressive. Getting drilled with one round of these big guns would put a serious hurting on someone even in a non-lethal location. Next Ralph mounted the M-240 on the front of the booth and he shot all eight rounds in short bursts. When he was done Ralph reloaded it with eighty more rounds saying it was in both package's he bought so he gets to shoot it twice.
The M-240 was still currently being used by American forces in Afghanistan today and is considered to be the most reliable and most accurate belt-fed machine gun ever developed by America. He couldn't think of any use for this gun at Rangeman, but it was fun to shoot. Maybe they should expand their gun inventory and have some guns that were just fun to shoot.
The eye hand coordination you get from shooting is better when learning to shoot different types of guns. Plus, his men would appreciate the variety that would be added having different types of guns to shoot. They would have to be willing to pay for the cost of the bullets. Because bullets for these guns were expensive, even at the discounted price he could get them for. He knew his men and felt like they would be willing just so they could shoot these more exotic guns sometimes. He would still require a certain amount of range time with their own weapons. The muscle memory you develop shooting your own gun can't be replaced by shooting a bunch of different guns.
But he could allow them to learn how to use and have fun shooting some other kinds of weapons. He would even ask them to see what kinds of weapons they would like to shoot. Next Ralph mounted the MG-42 to the front of the booth. Also known as Hitler's Hacksaw the MG-42 was first developed in WWII. This gun shook with the vibration of every shot.
He could see why they were always mounted on a front bipod. You couldn't hold it and shoot it with any accuracy. Not that any of these big machine guns could be held and shot from the shoulder. He shot the last of these rounds and was ready to move on. That was the last of the guns in the first package – the Heavy Strike package he'd bought.
Ralph brought in the paper target he had been shooting at and it was decimated. There was no center left over the guys heart. It was nice to know that he was a good shot even with these big machine guns.
Next was the Four-Star Generals package. These were America's best belt-fed machine guns. He started off with the 1919A4. This was an older model that has been used since WWII all the way up to the Korean War. It worked but it was rough compared to the two guns he just shot. He knew the Germans had good guns and the MG-42 proved it. It was much smoother than this, the American version from the same time period.
Ralph took the gun down and mounted the M-60 to the front of the booth. He knew he had 80 rounds with each gun but with automatic rifles 80 rounds was seconds. He shot the M-60 in short burst to see what shooting it was like. It wasn't as smooth as the M-240 but it wasn't a bad gun. It would definitely do the job.
His last gun in that package was the M-249 SAW. Once it was mounted, he shot off the 80 rounds in several short bursts like it was nothing. It was built to be faster and lighter than the M-60 and it seemed to be. He didn't think the M-249 was better than the M-240 but he knew American forces were still using in the middle east.
This was fun. He had to give it to himself. As he looked around, he could see his men were having fun shooting guns. This was definitely a good activity and he reminded himself that this is not why they had come. He still had the tank to drive. Ralph took down the M-249 and then with a heave ho lifted the M134 mini-gun and mounted it in place.
Ranger smiled to himself. They had 300 rounds with this gun, but it shoots 40 bullets per second so 300 rounds would last less than 7 seconds. He looked the gun over. It had 5 barrels that rotated, and it was designed like the old Gatlin style guns that shot hundreds of rounds per minute where this little baby could shoot 2400 rounds per minute.
He got down on eye level with it but thought with a gun like this you didn't have to be too accurate this was definitely a point and shoot. He knew that someone had made a handheld minigun and he'd seen one, but they were heavy and bulky, and he didn't know how accurate you could be if they weren't rigidly mounted.
Well just get it over with. He thought and pulled the trigger in three short bursts. It ratcheted out bullets faster than anything he had ever shot before and thought that this was a fun gun to shoot. Not practical in any way but definitely fun.
He thanked Ralph for all his help and walked over to Tank. Tank had gotten the Time Soldiers package. It was guns that had been used in war over the past 100 years. He was halfway through the pile on his cart and Ranger recognized some of them. Some of them were more recent.
The Glock 17 was like what he had on his hip right now. He also had the M203 Grenade launcher/machine gun. He had an Uzi that he hadn't shot yet. He was currently shooting a Dragunov SVD and looking like he was enjoying himself. There was a Beretta M9 and a MP-40 but he didn't recognize a couple of the other guns.
He stood quietly behind him till he got to the M203. Then he touched Tank on the shoulder and said. "When you shoot this think about buying some for RangeMan. I think it would be good to have a few of these."
Tank just nodded back at him and went about firing the gun and the one grenade he got to shoot. Ranger stood behind him while he finished the rest of the guns on his cart. It didn't take him as long as he didn't have any that had to be mounted. It was just pick up and shoot one gun after the other.
Fifteen minutes later they were back outside and watching a parade of tow trucks bring in ten cars. It seems that some of the other guys had ordered cars as well. They watched as men who worked here directed the tow trucks where to drop the cars. They were obviously setting him up first as they dropped car after car one on the left then ten feet up one on the right then ten feet up one on the left, but this wasn't what he wanted. He wanted three cars on each side lined up back to back. He was going to crush all six at once.
This tall guy came over to him and Ranger recognized him as the guy that instructed Tank on how to drive the tank. He introduced himself as Tobias and began to lead Ranger over to the Tank.
"This is a replica of a M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank you'll be driving. It is really easy to drive if you climb up into the seat, I'll instruct you."
"Tobias if it is okay with you, I want these cars rearranged. I want three cars on each side, back to back so the tank has to climb over them." He explained.
"Well actually Ranger – that's your real name? Ranger?" Tobias looked at him skeptically.
"I'm an Army Ranger and it's the nickname that stuck. It's what all my men call me." Tobias still looked skeptically at him but he wasn't going to tell him that when he was in the service his men called him Ranger most of the time when out on a mission, to cover up the fact that his real code name was Scalpel. Because he was so precise with his gun; he could cut down a target in the midst of a group of people with one shot and only kill his target.
But out in the real world and at RangeMan he could hardly go by Scalpel it would give people the wrong idea and it wouldn't set the right tone for what the company did – protect people. Ranger fit much better and his men didn't seem to have any problem calling him that.
"Tobias I'm going to tell you what I want and you're going to help me do that. That's what I paid eighteen grand for." He was insistent.
"Fine." Tobias seemed put out. "What do you want?"
"I want all six cars lined up, three on each side back to back. So once the tank hits them; it climbs over all six of them at once."
"Oh, we can't do that, we can't move the cars once the tow trucks have dropped them." Tobias insisted. "I'm not calling the trucks back to move these cars around. You'll have to drive over them where they lay."
Now quite a few of his men had followed him out and Tank was standing right behind him. He knew with just a few men they could move these cars exactly where he wanted them.
"Just a minute." He told Tobias and stepped out into the middle between the cars.
"Who wants to see me crush these cars with that tank?" He yelled so that all his men could hear him. His men all started yelling back at him.
"Whoot whoot."
"Yes."
"Do it."
"Show us Ranger."
"We have to move all these cars, so they are lined up. Three on each side, back to back." That was all he had to say, and he got in the car and removed the emergency brake. Then he got in front of it and three men joined him and they pushed it back, so it was right in front of the next car. It wouldn't have taken so many men, but the tires had been flattened so they didn't roll very easily. Still with four muscled men it didn't take them long to move it. He looked over and his men were pushing the cars on the other side to match up with the first one.
In minutes all the cars were moved, and Tobias was looking unhappy.
"What's wrong?" He had to ask because this was the guy that would be giving him the green light.
"We've never driven it over two cars at the same time. I mean one car for each track. I don't know if it can do it." Tobias worried.
"It's a damn tank!" He offered. "Of course, it can do it." And with that he headed towards the tank. "Who wants to ride with me?" He asked and Lester was immediately getting into the turret. Raptor got in the side seat and he climbed into the driver's seat.
Tobias was following him like he needed to give him some directions, but Ranger knew how to drive a tank he just had never done it before. Besides, he'd heard all the directions Tobias had given Tank. All he had to do was start it up and press on the gas pedal.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Tobias asked from behind him.
"I know how to drive a tank and you can hardly call this driving; I'm just going straight forward." Ranger explained and Tobias backed off. He got settled in the driver's seat and started the tank up. He wanted his men all riled up, so he yelled. "What do you want me to do?"
"Crush the cars." Came the reply. He put both his arms straight out, palms up and folded his fingers up in a come-on motion and his men started chanting. "Crush the cars! Crush the cars!"
He put his hand to his ear like he couldn't hear them, and they got even louder.
"Crush the cars! Crush the cars!"
"Crush the cars! Crush the cars!"
Several more of his men came out from inside and he thought about all the men that were inside in the shooting range and thought well they are having their fun. All his men had their phones out taking pictures and video of this and the little camera guy that was with us on the trip was right there, video camera in hand.
"Crush the cars! Crush the cars!"
"Crush the cars! Crush the cars!" They kept chanting and he got ready to go. Finally, he tapped the gas pedal and the tank began to inch forward. He pushed it down further and the tank lumbered along towards the cars. It was only seconds and it hit the back of the cars and as if there was nothing in its way it just climbed onto the back of them and the cars just crushed under the weight of the tank. Glass getting blown out and metal crunching down to become flat.
Without any hesitation the tank climbed over all six cars. Tipping down as it went down the hoods of the first two cars then raising up as it came and climbed up over the third and fourth cars. Then coming down on the hoods of the second set of cars and turning up as it climbed up the last two cars. Like a compactor that smashed cars to eighteen inches thick the tank smashed them to smithereens.
Minutes later the tank was climbing down on the other side and all his men cheered. He did like Tank had done and raised his arms in triumph like he was the winner and his men cheered louder. He climbed down off the tank and looked at the smashed cars and thought well that is what eighteen grand looks like. In comparison his wedding and reception was cheap.
Four more guys had paid to crush cars with the tank and three of the tow trucks from the junkyard brought in more cars and dropped them over to the side and picked up two crushed cars each and hauled them away. Over the next half hour man after man crushed cars and he had to say this was a once in a lifetime experience and everyone was enjoying his bachelor party.
He saw that he had a text from Hal that Stephanie was finally done at the beauty salon and they were headed to find shoes for her. He went back inside and bought two gift certificates for Hal and Cal in the amounts of $3000 each. He figured the least these men deserved was to shoot some guns and drive a tank to crush cars while they were out here next week.
To be continued…
A/N As always thank you for reading, enjoying and if you don't mind reviewing. I love everyone and eat them up like my weekly treat.
Big Thank You! To my wonderful Beta Susan who has stuck with me through out this story! Thank you so much – you catch all my mistakes. 😊