Chapter 6: End of the Mob

Before the Godpigeon came back, all the pigeons searched Burbank and Los Angeles to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately, they were very unsuccessful. Brock and Rocky had seemingly disappeared. Not a pigeon could think of where they could have gone. It's not like the two told where they were going anyway, they just up and left without telling anyone.

The Godpigeon would arrive later in the evening, after some important meetings he had to attend. When he got word of what had happened, he didn't take it well, far from well, actually. He would sadly have a heart attack again and be rushed to the hospital. This time though, Godpigeon would be in a wheelchair. The worst part of it all was he'd be in one for the remainder of his life, which didn't look very long at this point. He may have been an old pigeon, but before things went as bad as they are, he was pretty healthy. Between the time things started to go awall in the 1990s in New York to them now being in California, his health took a drastic nosedive.

Marty promised to take care of him, as he didn't think it was safe for him to stay around in the open with the other pigeons. Givin everything that had happened up to now. When someone needed to take his place, Bobby was chosen to be the new Godpigeon by the Godpigeon himself. Bobby himself didn't think he could, but he knew he didn't have much of a choice, if he wanted to keep the mob in one piece. Sadly though, this came too little, too late.

The numbers of pigeons started to disappear within a matter of days. At first the numbers were 20, but then became 18 after two of them disappeared unexpectedly. The next day, the numbers became 15 after 3 pigeons also disappeared unexpectedly. The third day, it became 11 after the 4 died during a deal that went wrong with the Vultures. The fourth day, the numbers went down to as low as 5, after 2 of the pigeons lured 4 of their own crew into a junkyard where they were murdered and stole what they could off of them, before disappearing entirely.

Now it was the fifth day and Bobby could only look on in devastation as the only ones left were Pesto, Squit, and 2 other pigeons. The mob was essentially dead, and Bobby knew it too. The pigeon mob was practically non-existent now and the Goodfeathers are now officially a thing of the past. The other pigeons knew it too, as there was no way they could recover from this.

Pesto could see the devastation on Bobby, Squit, and the other 2 pigeons faces. Feeling his stomach churning like mad, he wasn't sure if he should tell the truth or not. He just felt too guilty to keep it a secret, now that things were worse than ever.

"I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE!!!" Pesto blurted out, with everyone else looking at him in confusion, "I can't keep it a secret anymore! Me, Rocky, and Brock were involved in something we shouldn't have done! The truth is, me and them robbed Don when we shouldn't have! I don't know what happened with them and Don and their little deal, that is a whole other story that I wish I knew! But I can't keep it a secret now, and I am SO sorry for what I lead the mob into!"

There was an extremely long and extremely uncomfortable silence. Squit and the other two pigeons looked at Pesto with disbelief. Bobby looked at Pesto with a cold stare. "I knew something was off!" he growled, "So just to be clear, the reason everything is happening worse than before is because of those bad choices you made with your former new friends? Like after you and them brought Don's stuff here?" "Exactly!" replied Pesto. More silence happened, before Bobby screamed, "THAT'S IT!!!"

He began beating up Pesto, in an oddly ironic switching roles type way. As funny as many would have found it to be, considering all the times Pesto beat up Squit, only to be eventually beat up by Bobby, nobody laughed. It was just plain sad to see. Everyone just watched with pain and emptiness.

Suddenly, a gunshot was heard and one of the two random pigeons were shot dead. "DANNY!" screamed the second random pigeon. Bobby stopped fighting and looked to see Danny shot dead, then he and the others looked to where the roof door was and it was the landlord with a shotgun. "No pigeons on my damn property!" he yelled. "Oh, now he discovers us here!" said Bobby. "Took him a while to figure that one out!" added Squit.

The remaining pigeons took off away from the landlord. They dodged the landlords shots as he continued to try shooting at them, until they were out of his range. "Where do we go now Bobby?" asked Squit. "We'll go to Marty," Bobby replied, "I'm sure he'll know what to do." Pesto didn't say a word on the matter, he was hurting after the beating he got. "I got the phone with me," said the last random pigeon, carrying it with his claws, "We can give him a call before going there if you guys want-"

Just then, a laugh could be heard. "Who was that?" asked Squit. "They found us," said the random pigeon, "I don't know how they did, but they found us!" "Who found us?" asked Pesto. Before the pigeon could answer, he was attacked by a Vulture. He also dropped the phone. "THE PHONE!" Bobby bellowed as he swooped down to get it. He was able to get it but about 5 more Vultures showed up. Pesto and Squit tried to avoid them with every move they could. They were successful and were able to get away from them. The random pigeon however was not lucky. One of the Vultures hit into him so hard his wing broke, and he fell almost 100 feet to his death.

Bobby, Pesto, and Squit were the only ones left. They hid in a pipe, where Bobby called Marty. "Hello?" said Marty on the line. Bobby explained the entire situation to him. The mob falling apart since the Godpigeon left, the situation they were now in because of Pesto, and now it just being the three of them. "Goddammit!" Marty yelled, pretending to not know anything about what Pesto did, "I don't know what to tell you birds. I knew things would go bad, but I think this is the worst direction it could have possibly taken. I'm sorry, but I think it's officially over for you guys as a mob. I really can't help you guys anymore, not with this situation. And it's worse then you guys think."

There was a moment of silence. "What do you means it's worse?" asked Bobby. "Godpigeon, might be deceased by tomorrow," Marty said with sadness, which hit the pigeons like a ton of bricks, "He had to go back to the hospital due to severe pain he was experiencing. I don't think he's gonna be around by tomorrow, and I don't think I will be either." "You don't think you will be around tomorrow?" Bobby asked, confused by that. "Deep in my heart, I don't think so," Marty explained, starting to sound a bit panicked, "I found out some things Don did today, some things I wish I had never found out. Since then, I feel like I have been being watched." Knocks could be heard in the background, and now Marty's breathing became heavier. "Look Bobby, you need to listen to me closely. You and whoever is left need to get out of the city now! Go as far away as you possibly can! AND IF YOU SEE ANY FAMILIAR FACES, DO NOT-"

The line then disconnected. "We're sorry," the message played, "This number you have called is no longer in service." Bobby hung up the phone. He sighed, "Squit, you and I need to get out of here." "That call was chilling to listen to," replied Squit, "And I agree, we need to go before things get too bad." "What are we waitin for? All 3 of us need to fly away or ride some transportation out of this place!" said Pesto.

"NOT YOU!" Bobby boomed, "YOU STAY AWAY FROM US FOREVER! FIND YOUR OWN WAY OUT, WITHOUT FOLLOWING US!" Pesto almost fell over when Bobby reacted this way, "What?!" "Pesto," said Squit, "I'm sorry, but you can't leave with us. Your actions hurt a lot of good pigeons, in more ways than one." "I can't leave on my own!" Pesto said, "I'll be tracked down and killed by anyone!" "Maybe it's for the best!" Bobby bellowed, "I don't think you realize the situation you put us in! We might have been destined to fall apart, but you, Brock, and Rocky made this SO much worse than it should have been! Even if you were just thinking in the moment, no matter how right you thought it was at the time, you don't know the long term consequences! You didn't think about what it would lead to after! You knew the two pigeons had a troubling history, but because you were mad at us, you had the audacity to put the whole mob in complete danger! I hope you're happy with these decisions Pesto, because you have to live with them!"

Pesto looked like he was about to tear up. "So do us favor Pesto," said Squit with a sad expression, "Please don't follow us." He and Bobby then flew out of the pipe and away. Pesto could feel tears running down his face and beak. Bobby was right and Pesto knew damn well he was too. Even if the mob was doomed, if he had just stayed out of Brock and Rocky's plan, he wouldn't be at all held responsible for anything that happened. Pesto then burst into tears.

"What have I done?!" he cried, as he went out of the pipe, "WHAT HAVE I DONE???!!!" Pesto then went on his knees as he hung his head and continued to cry.

To be continued in the next chapter...

(Chapter 6 published 1/17/24)