Walking on the Tracks Chapter 15
Chris sprang to his feet as we saw Ace and Eyeball standing at the top of the ditch.
My blood ran cold. What the fuck were they doing here?
"Shit, my little brother" Eyeball sneered looking down at Chris in disbelief.
"You weren't planning on taking the body from us was ya boys?" Ace asked in a low voice as they approached us. Teddy, Chris, Gordie and Vern stood close together as Chris bravely said "get away man...we found him and we got dibs!". Eyeball and Ace smirked at us, "we better start runnin' Eyeball" Ace mocked chucking "they got dibs". "We earned him man!" Chris spoke up "you guys came in a car that's not fair so he's OURS!".
"That's not fair he's ours!" Eyeball mimicked his brother taking a puff of his cigarette "well not anymore". "There's five of us Eyeball" Teddy said "you just make your move", "oh we will don't worry" Ace replied with a sly grin on his scruffy face.
We looked up and saw the rest of Ace's gang appear, they were all at least 6ft and clearly dominated us in muscle. We all shit ourselves suddenly releasing that this wasn't gonna be as easy as we wanted it to be. "Vern you little son of a whore!" a thin and pale Charlie Hogan spat rushing down to us "you was under the porch you little cock sucker!". "No...no I swear it wasn't me" Vern squeaked trembling as his older brother Billy whipped out his leather belt snarling"you peephole shit rat why I outta beat the shit out of you!" Vern suddenly ran away tripping over his own feet to hide.
Ace kept control of his tangle of thugs. "Now you guys got two choices here" he told us, his voice slow yet rough "you either leave now quietly and we take the body...or you assholes stay and we beat the living shit out your pussy asses then we take the body". I could see Chris clench his fist and jaw clearly not willing to compromise with The Cobras (that was their shitty gang name). "Besides Billy and I found him first!" Hogan said firmly.
"Oh yeah Vern told how you dicks found him" Teddy scoffed and raised his voice in a higher squeaky pitch as he said "oh Billy I wished we never boosted that car, oh Billy I think I just turned my fruit looms into a fudge factory!". This angered Hogan who raised his fist at Teddy, "that's it! Your ass is grass!". He began to step forward but Ace held his bulging arm out to stop him, he then turned to our leader with a warning look in his dark cold eyes. "Okay Chambers you little faggot...this is your last chance to get out of the biggest ass whooping of your life so what do you say kid?".
There were a few moments of intense silence then Chris said the one thing that made him have all my respect for the rest of our lives.
"Why don't you go home and fuck your mother some more".
Ace clenched his jaw and let our a long sigh, he whipped out his pocket knife which glistened in the sun. "You're dead" he whispered with venom dripping from his gruff voice. He then began stepping closer to Chris still holding the knife close. "Come on Chris" Teddy tried to pull him away but Chris was standing firmly refusing to give in. "They're not taking him" he said in a steady voice, "Chambers this is crazy man!" Gordie pleaded clearly terrified himself but it was no use.
" They are not taking him!" Chris said louder in a firm voice, "he's got a knife man!" Teddy said one last time before running away. Ace was now in front of Chris with a deadly look in his eyes. "You're gonna have to kill me Ace" he said staring at him with a slimmer of fear on his face. "No problem" Ace replied and grabbed Chris's neck and held the knife to his throat.
Suddenly there was a high screeching bang.
Silence.
I pulled the gun down and pointed it in Ace's direction.
"You're not taking him Merril" I told them.
"Dan what the hell..." Gordie gasped shocked.
"Nobody's taking him" I stepped forward by Chris's side, the gun still in my hands. I honestly do not know what came over me or caused me to take the gun and fire it but I'm glad I did. I knew it was the only way to overthrow these guys.
"Come on Taylor give me the gun" Ace said backing off slightly at the sight of me. I extended my arms as he tried to get closer, "don't you move Ace" I warned him finally having the upper hand in the situation. "Just give me the gun before you take your foot off" Ace told me and stepped closer "what would your sister think if she saw you right now huh?".
I took a sharp breath before replying with "suck my fat one you cheap dime store hood".
Ace froze and his nostrils flared, "you ain't gonna kill me Taylor".
"Wanna find out?" I asked him raising an eyebrow, my finger wrapping tighter around the cold trigger. Ace bit his lip and looked around before saying "what are you gonna do, shoot us all?". "No Ace" I told him "just you". Ace hesitated for a moment before shaking his head, "we'll get you for this" he snarled holding the knife up. "Maybe you will and maybe you won't" Chris told him. "Oh we will don't you worry" Ace said and nodded to his gang signalling them to leave, he turned to us one last time and said "we ain't gonna forget this if that's what you're thinking...this is big time baby". With that he turned and walked away, leaving us with the still body of Ray Brower which in a way we had won.
I sighed and slowly lowered my shaking arms. My heart was pounding out hard in my chest and sweat was running down my back as I took in what I just did.
"Suck my fat one?" Chris said "whoever told you you had a fat one Taylor?".
"Your mum" I then turned to him grinning and he laughed and patted my shoulder.
"Damn that sure was something Daniel" Gordie sighed smiling at me "didn't know you had it in ya man".
I gotta say I was damn well proud of myself. What I was feeling after that was sure as hell worth the broken arm and bruised face I got from Ace Merrill later on.