The Job

The Thunder Machine finally ran out of ammunition and everyone looked up to see if the coast was clear. Zartan emerged from what was left of the hut with his pistol drawn. His chest plate burned a bright white. Monkeywrench and Thrasher were looking inside the Thunder Machine. Zartan took aim with his pistol and shot Thrasher in the leg. Thrasher collapsed to the ground holding his leg and screaming bloody murder.

"OW!" Thrasher yelled. "Son of a bitch! You fucking shot me! You fucking shot me!"

"I told you the next time I wouldn't miss," hissed Zartan. Monkeywrench quietly made himself inconspicuous and moved away.

Gnawgahyde walked into camp with a dead alligator across his shoulders. "I miss something?" he asked.

Elsewhere, Zanya and Road Pig were in a diner eating when Zanya's beeper went off. She looked at who had paged her and saw the 911 message. "Father is summoning us," she said to the large Dreadnok. Road Pig looked at her and grunted his acknowledgement. Without further word, the two of them got up from their seats and walked out the door without paying their tab. The waitress noticed them leaving and ran outside to stop them. "Hey, you forgot to pay!" she said.

"No we didn't," said Zanya. "We just decided not to."

The waitress moved over to confront them. "You two have to pay your check," she said to the two of them. "Otherwise, I'm going to call the cops!" Zanya gave Road Pig a sideways glance of boredom and Road Pig nodded his head silently. Without any thought, he grabbed the unsuspecting woman by the face and lifted her off the ground. Then he snapped her neck and dropped her to the ground without changing the expression on his face. Zanya still looked bored.

"Next time, don't piss me off," she said to the waitress's corpse. Zanya then snapped her fingers and she and Road Pig went over to their motorcycles, climbed aboard, and rode off. That was fun, Zanya thought to herself.

"And that's the plan?" asked Buzzer.

"Yes, that's the plan, you idiot!" said Zartan. "If you don't like it, then you don't have to go, and I won't have to give you a cut of the money."

"No, I like the plan," said Buzzer. "Really, I do."

"What about the rest of you?" asked Zartan. "Zandar?"

"It really looks complicated, brother," Zandar replied. "It will require cunning and intellect."

"Yeah," said Ripper. "What he said."

Torch, Monkeywrench, and Thrasher were talking amongst themselves. "Doable," said Torch. "But it'll require a lot of time."

"Oy," said Thrasher. "How much time?"

"A day to prep, a day to test," said Torch. "Minimum."

"Too long," said Monkeywrench. "One day. That's all we've got."

"Then we best get to work," said Torch.

"What are you all up to?" asked Zartan.

"We're thinking of playing with fire," Torch said with a smile.

To be continued…