"We're screwed, aren't we?" Charlie asked.
"It appears so," said Joey. She looked to Charlie with a sad smile. "I'm sorry."
Charlie shook her head. "This isn't your fault," she told her, then smiled wryly at Joey's arched brow. "Well, not entirely."
"It should never have come to this," she murmured. As much as she'd tried to get away from this life, every path she'd taken since, had led to this, and she'd dragged poor Charlie along for the ride.
"What's done is done," said Charlie.
"We're not completely done," Joey said. "We still have another option."
"Shoot our way out," Charlie said without any enthusiasm for what was pretty much a last resort.
"I know the odds are worse off now that the bad guys outnumber us, but the alternative is to just sit and wait for them to come in here after us," Joey pointed out.
Charlie shivered, hating that alternative even more, because she knew that with those particular people out there, death wouldn't be quick or merciful. They'd inflict as much pain on them as possible before finishing the job, in spite of the time constraints. Perhaps trying to shoot their way out and dying in a hail of bullets wouldn't be so bad after all.
Tegan caressed the weapon her girlfriend had just retrieved from the boot of the car. It was a highly illegal rifle with a specially made silencer and bullets that wouldn't be stopped by pesky walls. She loved her knives, but she kept this handy as a special treat for those who chose to make life hard for her, and those bitches were certainly doing that.
"I'm jealous at the way you're fondling that," Hayley joked.
"Don't worry baby, once we're done with those bitches and out of this dump, I promise to give you the best fucking you've ever had."
"That's a pretty big promise."
"And have I ever failed to deliver?"
"Never," grinned Hayley. "Now let's get this done."
"As you wish," said Tegan. She checked the weapon over, then raised it toward the open window. She lowered the weapon until the scope was just under the sill and fired.
"Fuck me!" Charlie blurted out as a bullet went whizzing by her ear, barely missing as it struck a cabinet at the far side of the room.
"She's just playing games with us," Joey told her in as calming a voice as she could muster. "Tegan prefers to see the faces of her victims as she kills, it's why a knife is her weapon of choice."
"That wasn't a fucking knife that just put a hole in the wall right between us."
"It's just a tactic to try to get us to break cover or surrender."
"What if she actually hits us?"
"Then at least it'll be quick," said Joey with absolutely seriousness. "Unlike how it will be if she gets her hands on us."
"Oh god," muttered Charlie.
"Shoot again, shoot again," Hayley sang as she jumped up and down with the excitement of a small child.
"Not just yet," said Tegan. "I want to play with them first."
Hayley stilled and looked at her girlfriend. "Is that a good idea," she asked. "We're out here in the open with a fucking big gun," she said. "What if someone notices?"
"Then they'll wish they hadn't," Tegan stated in a way that made Hayley shiver, but in a good way. She loved it when her girlfriend talked tough.
"The scales have just tipped even more in their favour," Charlie said. "I honestly can't see how we can shoot our way to freedom when they can shoot at us right through the wall."
Joey looked momentarily pensive, then she smiled.
"We need a distraction of some sort," Joey declared. "There has to be something in here we can use against them and to our advantage," she said.
"Such as?"
"It's a surgery, if we can find the right chemicals, I can probably make some Molotov's or a smoke screen of some sort."
"Are you kidding me?" said Charlie.
"What other choice do we have?" replied Joey. "We have to try something, and if we can get them looking the wrong way, while we make our escape, then it may give us a chance at least," she said. "Do you have a better idea?"
Charlie sighed and shook her head.
"Then look for stuff we can use," said Joey. "Cleaning chemicals will be the best, and anything else you think will come in handy."
"Ok," Charlie said.
"You take one room, I'll take another and we'll meet in the surgery," Joey said. "Just try to keep low in case Tegan gets trigger happy again."
"Tegan looks like she has the right idea," Brodie mentioned as his attention was split between what their colleagues were up to and the vet's place.
"Tegan can get fucked," muttered Pee Wee. There was no way in hell he was going to let Tegan end up with bragging rights. "We need to get inside there, instead of standing here twirling our dicks," he said. "And before that silly bitch kills them."
"But we want them dead," Brodie said.
"Yeah, but what do you reckon Brax will do to us if we let them beat us to it?" he said. "We've fucked up one too many times already, so unless you want to stay on his permanent shit list, then we have to be the ones to wring the necks of that traitorous bitch and her cop buddy."
"I found this," Charlie said when she and Joey met up after their gathering mission.
"A tranquiliser gun?"
"Just in case we need to silently immobilise one of them without drawing attention to us."
"Good idea," said Joey. "Double the dose so they will go down quicker," she advised as she started to fill the containers she'd found with the collected chemicals.
"Can you really do something with this lot?"
"I have some ideas that will have them thinking twice," said Joey with a grin. "One or two could be rather loud though."
"Well, if it alerts the cops, then that would be a good thing, right?"
"It's not quite the same as making a phone call," said Joey. "If we start calling too much attention to this place, those bastards out there will just come charging straight in to finish us off before the cops can even get here," she pointed out.
"I guess so," muttered Charlie.
"It doesn't mean we can't make a noise," said Joey. "It just means if we do, we'll need to make a run for it."
"And with any luck, we'll run into the cops on their way here," said Charlie, liking the plan a little more now.
"Lucky for some perhaps," Joey mumbled under her breath. Just because she was willing to call the cops for Charlie's safety, it didn't mean she had to look forward to giving up her freedom.
"Is there anything you can't do?" Charlie asked as she watched Joey measure and mix the chemicals.
"Do things that are legal," she quipped, then Joey shrugged. "I guess when you're around the people I've been around, you pick up a few things over the years and they're not always the right things."
"You need better friends," Charlie couldn't help saying.
"I never said they were friends," Joey said. "But you do have a point, which was one of the reasons why I wanted to get away from the life," she said. "That doesn't look like happening now though," Joey murmured too low for Charlie to hear.
"Is there something I can do to help?" asked Charlie.
"Can you make up some Molotov's while I do this lot?" Joey said to her.
"No Molotov's," Charlie said.
"You didn't object before when I mentioned it."
"I've had time to think," said Charlie. "And I don't want to start a fire that would place the animals here at risk, or the neighbouring houses," she said. "It's too dangerous."
"What if it was more for show and would burn out in seconds with little to no damage?" Joey said. "Come on Charlie, I get where you're coming from, but this could be the difference between life and death."
"I'm still a cop," she said. "But if you've got a recipe that will spook them without causing too much damage, then I'll make it up."
"Fair enough," Joey said and relayed the ingredients to her.
"I think I can pick this lock," Brodie said as he examined the door.
"Do it," ordered Pee Wee.
"I think that's the best bang for our buck we're going to get," Joey joked as she and Charlie looked at the bottles lined up before them.
"Have our chances improved?" Charlie asked doubtfully.
"They're probably better than they were, but not by much," said Joey. "This is going to be as dangerous as hell and it could all still blow up in our faces."
"I always did want to go out with a bang," Charlie said.
"We can do this Charlie," she said with much more confidence.
"You're right, we can," said Charlie. "We just need a shit load of luck on our side," she added with a wry grin.
"Anything is possible," said Joey. "Ok, we've got the plan in place, now all we need to do is to execute it."
Charlie cocked her head. "What the fuck is that god awful noise?" she said. "It sounds like someone strangling a cat."
"What the fuck are you dumb bitches doing?" Pee Wee hissed as he raced toward them, having left Brodie working on the door. "You'll bring every fucking cop here."
Tegan just sang more loudly.
Joey grimaced at the out of tune voice singing Concrete Blonde's, Joey. Tegan really did have a voice like fingernails down a blackboard, even though she thought she was the next Vanessa Amorossi.
"Oh Joey, I'm not angry anymore," Tegan sang.
"Bullshit she isn't," muttered Joey, and she found Charlie staring at her.
"I'm guessing there was a little more than just friendship between you and Tegan Callahan after all," Charlie said with some derision and a tinge of jealousy she couldn't keep back.