Chapter 8
The Pit Stop was the roughest place the two mice had ever been in. It looked like your typical biker bar. There were ugly, tattooed, guys with yellow teeth and wild hair who were armwrestling at a worn out table. Some others sat at tables drinking beer. A bartender with spiky hair was wiping out a beer glass. Throttle and Vinnie sat on bar stools.
"Howdy, boys. What can I bring ya?" The girl behind the counter asked them.
She wore heavy eye makeup and her hair was a mixture of hot pink and purple especially the ends while the rest of it was black and done up in a ponytail on the side of her head. She looked to be in her late twenties. She was pretty but she still had a roughness about her.
"Well, you could-" Throttle began.
"Uh, let me handle this, bro." Vinnie said, interrupting him.
He flashed her his famous trademark smile. The one he used when flirting with women. It worked, of course. The girl smiled back.
"Two root beers, sweetheart." He purred.
"Coming right up." She replied, checking him out before going off to get their drinks.
"Have I got it or what?" Vinnie bragged.
A rough looking biker who noticed Throttle and Vinnie and had never seen them before decided to hassle them.
The waitress had just put their root beers in front of them.
"Root beer? Why don't cha just get a pink lemonade?" He jeered. breathing heavily behind Vinnie.
"You talking to me?" Vinnie asked, turning around.
"I don't see anybody else. So yeah, I am, squirt."
"Why don't you get some Listerine? Your breath stinks to high heaven!" Vinnie chuckled, as he took a sip of his root beer.
"Oh, a wise guy, huh?" The guy said, angrily.
"Listen, junior. Why don't you crawl back under the rock you just came under? And maybe we'll forget this little incident ever happened." Throttle told the guy jabbing his finger in his chest.
"Yeah? How about I just kick both your a-?" He screamed.
He grabbed the helmet on Throttle's head removing it. The guy drew back at seeing a giant, beige mouse with red antennas staring back at him.
"Hey, you're one of them mice!"
"So you have seen our bro. Where is he?" Throttle asked.
"I ain't telling you nothing!"
"Really? Looks like a little persuasion is in order." Throttle said, activating his Nuke Knuckles.
He punched a hole in the wall in front of the guy. The whole wall crumbled down. The guy's resistance was slowly diminishing. But he wasn't ready to back down.
Throttle picked him by his shirt collar.
"I'm gonna ask again. What happened to our bro?"
"I ain't talking. Boys?"
Within minutes, Throttle and Vinnie were surrounded by a group of bikers. Some of them carried knives. They were a rough looking bunch.
"Awooooo! A brawl! Just when I was getting bored." Vinnie said, getting up and cracking his knuckles.
"Why do they always want to do it the hard way?" Throttle sighed, as he socked two bikers in the face with both fists.
"Look at it this way, bro. The easy way wouldn't be as fun." Vinnie reasoned, throwing lit flares at several bikers blasting them into the air.
Within seconds, they had beaten up the entire biker gang. The biker who tried to bully them tried to run and was stopped by Vinnie.
"Not so fast. You didn't answer our question." Vinnie said, holding him up in the air by his shirt.
"I'm gonna ask again nicely. What happened to our bro?" Throttle said.
"Th-The Pit Boss had him."
"Is he okay?"Throttle asked.
"Yeah, but he's been giving him trouble. A guy in a Monster Truck helped the gray mouse escape."
"Aw, man. Why do I always miss the fun?" Vinnie groaned, like a kid who dropped his ice cream in a mud puddle.
"Stow it, Vinnie. The only person we know with a monster truck is our old friend, Four-By."
"Yeah, he moved into the Pits after we helped clear his name." Vinnie was saying, "Let's meet up with Modo. But first."
"Here, Sweetheart." Vinnie said, flinging a coin onto the bar to pay for their root beers.
He and Throttle went outside and got on their bikes.
"Let's Rock and Regroup!" Throttle cried out.
The bikers rode off.
...
"How is he, Georgia?" Modo asked.
The older woman Modo referred to was working at a hospital when she was kidnapped by the Pit Crew. Four-By rescued her along with the other people with him.
"The child suffered a bout of heatstroke working under those hot conditions in the Pits. With plenty of care and cool fluids, he should be fine." She replied.
Mariah sat by her brother's bedside holding his hand. The child slept on a mat covered by a blanket and his head rested on a pillow.
"What a relief." Four-By said.
"But it's not over. The Pit Boss has to be punished for what he did to my brother."Mariah was saying.
"That isn't justice you're thinking about. It's revenge."Four-By told her.
"And why not? The Pit Boss has enslaved our people long enough. It's time we rose up and took sweet black revenge against that tyrant!" She cried out, fist clenched and upraised.
"Revenge never solves anything. We can't let bitterness rule our hearts. I was mad at Limburger for framing me. But I learned to turn that experience into something positive." Four-By said.
"He's right. Revenge doesn't fix anything. You'd be just like the person doing the wrong thing." Modo told her.
"Maybe you're right." Mariah said, looking down then up at Modo, "I'm sorry. I forgot to thank you for saving my brother's life. If not for you, he'd be dead."
"No problem. I'd do it again in a heartbeat." He replied.
...
"Where are they? Why haven't they come back?!"
"Relax, Zoe. Throttle and Vinnie have never let each other or me down. They'll come through."
Charley and Zoe continued to wait at the crater where Throttle and Vinnie went down into to save Modo.
"But it's been three hours. Could they have found Modo alive?" She asked.
"I'm sure they're all okay." Charley told her.
Zoe stared into the crater. The more she thought about Modo in the hands of enemies, the worse she felt. She felt it had been her fault he had gotten into this mess in the first place. She had to find him herself and apologize for what she had done. But she didn't dare let Charley know what she had planned. Otherwise, she'd never let her go.
"You know in all the excitement I skipped lunch." Zoe said, brightening up.
The auburn mechanic felt her own stomach rumbling.
"I'm kinda famished myself." She said.
"Hey, there's hot dog stand not far from her." Zoe told her, "Maybe you could get us some hot dogs.'
"I wanted to wait till the guys got back." Charley replied.
"I'll be here. I'll radio you the minute they come back." Zoe said.
"Okay. I'll be right back. " Charley said, running off towards the hot dog stand.
"Mustard and green relish on mine." Zoe called back.
Zoe watched carefully to make sure she was gone. Then she walked over to the front of the trunk.
"How did Charley lower the guys into that crater?" She thought, then she remembered.
She pulled on the lever in front of the truck. A rope went down into the crater. Zoe climbed up onto the rope and lowered herself down into the crater. She jumped off the rope and
looked. Everywhere she looked was darkness.
"I can't see my hand in front of my face. Where am I?" She thought.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a mini flashlight. She flashed it in front of her till she saw a huge crowd of bikers on dune buggies. She was about to run when they suddenly
grabbed her.
"Well, what do you know, boys. We're getting some better looking trash in The Pits."
Zoe looked to see a large man with a dirty, grubby complexion and wild hair coming toward her. Her face went white on seeing Paco and the guy with the ugly yellow teeth with him.
"Hey, I know her. She's the one that I saw with that big gray mouse." The guy with the yellow teeth said.
"Couldn't get enough of Paco, eh, linda?" Paco grinned.
He went to cup her face, when the large man struck his hand with his whip. Paco stopped grinning and drew his hand back in pain.
"Know your place, Paco." The man growled.
"Si, Pit Boss."
"The Pit Boss!" Zoe exclaimed.
"So, you've heard of me. Well, now, I got me the perfect bait to lure that big rodent in with!" He howled.
Zoe cringed. This day just went from bad to worse.
