Chapter 17: Safe Space
The last couple of days went by pretty slow. Chelsea's phone vibrated, she looks at the text.
'Got a job for you, you interested?' the text asked, seeing with nothing else to do for the rest of the day Chelsea types back 'Sure, what's the job?' she asked 'Get over here and I'll tell you' 'Fine' she texted back. She grabs Jessie and her Sig Sauer and heads out the door. "Hey, you got any money?" a meth smelling bum asked "Get a job you fucking wanker" she retorted "Please! I'll make it worth your while!", Chelsea pulls out her Sig Sauer and points it at his head. He see's it and gets the message, he runs away to another place. If Chelsea hated one thing that was beggars, specifically junkies asking for some cash so they could get their next score. What was the point of giving them the money if they were just going to get high or overdose?
She gets into her pick up and heads to her destination. The person giving her the job was named Big Gus.
Gus was the first person that Chelsea met when she arrived in Blaine.
If their was any way to describe him it'd be someone who had a grasp of what was going on. Gus looked like something that was from the backwoods area, he wasn't scrawny which you'd think most people get past. He was fat but not that fat. He spoke with a Southern accent. He hair was thinning, which gave him that appearance that he was going bald. He wore this dirty old cowboy hat that looked like it wanted to fall apart. He always wore these faded out brown sunglasses that made it look like he had no eyes. He always gave Chelsea some jobs that were worth their money, which was usually a lot. Her first job for him was taking a score from a guy who had been dodging him for a while. Some meth smoking tweeker who was making the stuff but hoarding his money. All Gus asked for was a small percentage. The guy, simply put, said no. Wrong answer. Not wanting to take a chance with getting his hands dirty, Gus ran into Chelsea after seeing her knock out a couple of drunks who thought that she was easy prey and could be taken for a night out.
The job was pretty simple: take the money and ruin his business. Easy enough.
It was supposed to be easy but the thing about meth heads, they don't make any thing easy. Chelsea stopped by to get the money of course, but then a blast from a sawed off .12 gauge changed everything. Some yelling and some handgun fire soon followed. Chelsea managed to bust through his door and along with Jessie managed to every shoot and smash every chemical bottle that was labeled with some name. The wounded tweeker, along with his now dead junkie crew, was on the floor bleeding and cursing her out. She asked where the money was and she got a paranoid cursing out. She found it in a certain part of the bathroom that she promised herself never to speak of again. She uses Jessie to smash whatever remaining bottle that was left in the place. Every chemical that spilled on the floor, everything was soaked. With a flare that she grabbed Chelsea threw it. The thing about meth it was easy to light on fire.
Chelsea in the end managed to get Gus his money and get rid of the tweeker while literally burning his business down to the ground. He would later give her a couple more jobs but struck out on her own. He would occasionally ask for her if certain things were too sensitive for him to handle.
If there was one person she could trust, it was Big Gus.
Hopefully whatever the job that he was going to give her was worth a lot. And hopefully it'd be better than the last job he gave her. The last job involved another meth lab and a bunch of pissed off Chinese Triads which resulted in a high speed chase, a bag full of one and half million dollars, that very same meth lab being lit on fire and Chelsea having to shoot her way out. A rather crazy car chase which ended up with one hell of a car pile up, a shootout in the mountains that involved hand grenades and bullets, a rather annoying night dodging Chinese hitmen, managing to climb down while gunning down the same people who were chasing her that very same night and finally managing to get that money to Gus. It was bloody to say to get that money. Chelsea once asked Gus if the job was worth it? He smiled and said "Trust me, lots of things are crazy but that's how the world is nowadays! Crazy beyond a god given damn reason!".
She didn't know what that meant but somehow it resonated with her in some way. Chelsea never saw Gus as the philosophical type but he knew some things that others didn't know about. Things that most people wouldn't know about. Hopefully no bullets will be fired. And hopefully everyone will keep their cool about things.
Big Gus's trailer
The trailer park were Gus lived at looked like something from an apocalyptic movie scene. Everything was rusted and looked like it was going to collapse at the snap of any given minute. It honestly looked like a place where a super villain would meet up their entourage. Gus came out of his trailer eager to see his favorite worker.
"Howdy Chelsea," he greeted "how's life been treating you?" "Pretty good, what's this job that you got for me?" Chelsea asked, Gus singled her to follow him into his trailer. His trailer was to say a lot more clean and more organized than she was, while her trailer was always somewhat messy. His neatness would impress her parents, they were always into being organized.
"So how are tricks?" he asked as he took a seat "Same old, same old, so what's this job that you got for me?" Chelsea says as she leaned against the wall "You still do safe jobs?".
She looked at him with curious eyes "You mean do I still open safes?", he nods a simple yes. "On a few occasions, here and here; why?". "You see, their's this place that belongs to a guy who has some stuff that certain people that I know are eager to take off his hands" Chelsea looked at him "Go on..." "It's some things like uncut diamonds, jewels and some cash" he finished. "How much exactly...?", he let's out a quick sigh "Combined total, $295,000, easy as pie" he smiled.
Chelsea looked up and started to think $295,000? Sounds easy enough "Alright, I'm in!" she cheerfully said "Good! You still got your tools?" he asked "Yeah" she answered "You're going have to break in, sneak past a few guards" "Guards? Really?" she suddenly questioned "Their's only a few of them, don't worry" Gus assures her with a smile "That doesn't make me feel better" Chelsea frowned "This isn't last time, okay?" "You try telling that to those Chinese wankers after that fire in that lab and that chase on the freeway and that night in those bloody fucking mountains!" she complained "I said I was sorry" he sheepishly responded "That doesn't make up for the fact that you said it would be easy and it wasn't!".
"Come on, you got the money didn't you?", Chelsea scoffed "Whatever, hopefully I won't have to use Jessie on them let alone leave a trail of bodies on the road".
Gus waves her off.
Most people rely on the word of others to assure and reassure them that everything was going to be fine and that person would come through safely through unscathed but after what happened with those Chinese gangsters their wasn't much reassurance after that. Big Gus was someone that Chelsea could trust but after that last job, all she wanted to do was avoid another clusterfuck that wouldn't end with a bullet festival but knowing Chelsea and her skills from her days in the military that more or less couldn't be avoided. On a scale from one to ten, it'll probably end up around a thirty. Maybe a forty five at least. It usually wasn't her fault that things would end that way but then again that's what happens when you corner someone who acts like a crazed animal, you just might get ripped to shreds.
...
Sandy Shores, 10:47 pm
The guards do the usual patrol around the place. Nothing as usual, just another boring night. The moon is out though; it's quite the sight.
Chelsea carefully moves around the shadows and tries to avoid the moonlight, which is something Gus could have mentioned before she left; honestly, she thought he was toying with her. Not in that funny way but in that crazy way. But whatever she thought, a job was a job and she wasn't planning leaving emptied handed.
The place was some run down construction site. It was originally supposed too be a bunch of new and improved condominiums that could have been easy for anyone to afford but somehow the funding partially dried up. Construction briefly stopped and it was assumed that it would start again but it didn't. Instead though, rumors went around that the foreman and the architect were taking money on the side and that the whole thing was just a gigantic money pit, people would invest money in the project and as things would start to develop the project would unexpectedly halt. In order to make things work again, the ones running the thing would say that they need more money to make things work again. And of course those who invested the money would invest more and certain delays would take place. The hardwood floor isn't cutting it, invest; the carpet looks like a bum just slept on it, invest; the tools aren't working good enough, invest; that fancy twenty thousand dollar chandelier needs to be rewired, well excuse me please invest more cash.
The thing about architecture was about how much someone was willing to pay. And since their was mostly certain people who were willing to pay vast sums of money to get the project done they were always the easy target. It's only when people start to question certain things like why the project is taking so long and why they aren't seeing results and why they're investing so much money when the things that are supposed to be done aren't being done, which later transpires into an investigation; with certain individuals who could be possibly implicated, what do you do? You pack up and move away as fast as possible and take all the money that was embezzled.
Chelsea see's the trailer and sneaks towards it. If it wasn't for the moon being full she could have just as easily sneak around a lot better but this wasn't the case. And if wasn't for those guards then she could just be a lot more stealthy.
The front door isn't an option, if there was a back door but that'd be way too easy and way too predictable. Through the window was also out of the question, definitely out of the question. The part underneath was soft, pretty easy to sneak in. Chelsea goes to the bottom section, she carefully removes the cover. She sneaks in and covers up the way in. She put on her mini flashlight around her forehead, this thing didn't let out much light so no one could see let alone detect anyone if there was an intruder nearby. In case things did go sour Chelsea attached a silencer to her Sig Sauer, just she had to muzzle a nosy guard in case he came too close to her position. She carefully examines the bottom of the floor to see if there was a way in. It takes about two minutes or so to find the hatch. Chelsea pulls out a drill from her bag.
It doesn't make that whirring noise like most drills do, it was meant not to make any type of sound; it was perfect for this type of job.
Carefully she opens the hatch. Chelsea got a good look at were the hatch opened up to. It was under some desk, which looked like an assistants desk. She lifts the hatch with steady ease and like a snake slithers on in. Her eyes look around for a moment. The coast was clear, good. She see's the safe. It was quite big and she takes a quick look at it, the dial was still in place which meant it could be unlocked. Chelsea pulls a stethoscope and carefully listens. Three locks, all of which seemed too still be intact which meant this should be a piece of cake; she carefully turns the dial. The thing about a dial is that they had a few different combinations, which meant she had two different options: use the stethoscope and take her time bypassing the locks or use a hand held crank drill to go through all the locks and open the safe.
Today is a good day, the drill it is. She puts the drill in place and slowly begins to drill through the first lock. The drill does it's thing. The second lock is next, their's no whirring so it makes it easy to keep going. The third and final comes at last Come on you can do it then the sound of something turning. Chelsea slowly took out the drill and turns the handle. There were all the contents. Jewels, diamonds and money. Quickly Chelsea stuffs everything into a sack. She closes the safe and silently exits through the hatch.
After sneaking out through the under part, it should have been easy "Hey! Who the hell are you?" but like everything else it never was.
Chelsea fired a round from the silenced Sig Sauer into the rent a cop and he goes down "What the hell was that?" someone in the distanced questioned as more voices became louder "Ah, fuck" she cursed under her breath. So much for this being an easy job. She pulls out Jessie. Time to get to work.
"It came from over here" a guard says in the distance as more voices start to come in the distance.
A guard spots Chelsea, that's going to be the last thing that he's going to see. She squeezes the trigger as the bullets tear through the rent a cop's body. Chelsea bolts like a rabbit on steroids, more voices are heard as the gunshots are sure to attract more of them. "There she is!" one guard shouted "Shit, shit, shit!" she cursed more openly now. She runs faster now. "I see her!" "Ah fuck! How many of these fuckers are there?". Her pick up is nearby, just a few more paces. Suddenly a couple of guards are in front of her "Stop right there!" one ordered "Damn it!". Chelsea stops in her tracks "Put you hands up!" he demanded "Look mate, you may want to rethink this right now!" she smiled "Shut up!" the guard hissed "I got her!" he called over through the radio "See, this is the part were something unexpected happens" she quipped, the other guard looked at her with confusion.
Booom! A loud explosion tears the trailer too pieces "What the fuck was that?!". Right before she left with the goods Chelsea left a small bomb behind in the trailer as a sort of distraction, the timer was supposed to have gone off sooner than expected. That's the last time that she had someone make her a bomb. "Sorry about this but I got a ride to catch!", with a quick draw of her Sig Sauer Chelsea puts down both guards "See you chaps around!" she smiled as she finally reached her pick up. She starts the engine and takes off as fast as possible. "Well that was easy" Chelsea smiled as she sped down the road. Just then that successful feeling from before faded again. She looks into her rear view mirror and see's four trucks with armed men wielding assault rifles in their hands speeding up towards her pick up. "Oh for fuck sakes!" she annoyingly cursed "Can't you poofters take a hint and fuck off!?".
Chelsea hits the accelerator and speeds up to try and lose them. She's already on the freeway, dodging cars and trucks on the way. They fire at the back of her pick up "Oh damn it! I just patched that part up!" she complained as she dodges everything left and right. One truck picks up speed and drives right in front of her. It slows down. Some thug jumps onto the front of her hood of her pick up "Hey! Get the hell off my car!". The thug starts to punch the windshield with his fist. Chelsea pulls out Jessie and fires through the glass, the thug falls off and goes under the pick up which makes a disgusting crunching sound "God damn it! I just cleaned the windshield!". More bullets start flying at the pick up nearly striking at her head "Oh you motherfuckers!".
She pushes the gas and drives to the side. Chelsea swerves the truck to the side, it collides into a rig carrying timber. The timber falls all over the highway and that manages to put a halt too her pursuers. The back of her pick up has several bullet holes, the back windshield has been shattered, combine that with the minor fender damage too the front plus the multiple bullet holes to the front windshield and blood splattered all over the glass she managed not to cause another pile up. Lucky her. Something appears in the rear view mirror "Oh for the love of all bollocks!". One pick up managed too avoid the timber, just her luck.
It manages get to the side of her. Some of them managed to open fire at the side with their rifles. She ducks down to avoid being hit "For the love of fuck!". The whirring of sirens soon follow "Oh come on!". The squad car comes up from behind them. Chelsea accelarates more to get away "God damn it Gus! You said this would be easy!".
The cop orders them to pull over. The truck carrying thugs started firing at the squad car, bullets tear the car apart; that eliminates one problem.
The truck speeds up right back next to her. "Oh, you wanna play it like that?". Chelsea rams the truck, it in returns rams her back; they open fire. Both Chelsea and the pick up's driver see a gas tanker right in front of them, time to play some chicken. She shifts it into neutrual and accelerates, her pursuer does the same. They both speed towards the tanker like two monsters bent on each others destruction, the driver glimpses at Chelsea then back at the road "Come on...come on" she says as she clenches her teeth. They keep speeding. The driver starts to shake as they both crazily speed towards the tanker. Chelsea suddenly swerves away from the truck, the driver looks on as Chelsea speeds away; he looks at where he is about to collide. His screams are muffled as he collides with the back of the tanker. Their's a loud explosion as what's left of the thugs, truck and tanker are blown to pieces.
Chelsea looks back, no one's following; good. While she breathes a sigh of relief, the damage to her pick up is quite bad "Damn it, it gonna take me forever to fix this" she complained. The good thing is that she's gotten the goods, the bad thing though her pick up looks like it went through a demolition derby. Hopefully Gus will be able to chip and help her pay for the damage. After all, he did say that was going to be easy.
Big Gus's trailer 11:58 pm
Gus hears the sound of Chelsea's pick up. As she pulls up, he notices the damage to her truck; must have been quite the loot.
Chelsea get's out of her damaged pick up, she's both annoyed and really pissed because of that chase. "So, I see you came back" "Ah shut up" she says as she tossed the bag at him "You said there were only going to be a few guards and nothing serious!" she scolded him "I did" he reiterated "You didn't say anything about those chaps that came after me with rifles and trucks!", Gus rolls his eyes.
"Okay I may have left out a couple things out; didn't think those sons of bitches would chase you", she sighs with annoyance "Look at my truck! Took me a long time to fix it up! Christ, it's going to take me a while to fix it up again!" "Okay! Okay! I get it!" Gus pulls out a roll of bills and hands it over to Chelsea "Do you have the rest of my money?" she asked "Yeah, yeah". They go inside and Gus counts the loot. Everything is in place and is in one piece "Alright, here's your two fifty" he hands her a bag full of cash.
"Hope this shit was worth it" she snarked "Oh come on, are you really going to be pissed at me for the whole thing?" he asked "Uh, yeah! Look at my fucking truck you fucking twit!" "I said I was sorry!" he complained "Sorry is not good enough for all that damage to my truck!" "Okay, okay! Maybe I should have mentioned those things to you but where's the fun in that?" he questioned with a small smile. She shakes and heads for the door "Listen, I'm really sorry, okay? But their's nothing wrong with doing something a bit crazy" he stated, Chelsea looked "Yeah but I don't have nine bloody lives like some fucking cat".
"Okay, look, how next time I'll find something that doesn't have anytype of dangerous shit; okay?" he retorts "Whatever, see you around" she says as she exits.
She heads to her battered pick up. The engine manages to start, she's surprised that the engine didn't blow out from all the damage that had accured from the firefight on the freeway. All Chelsea wanted to do go back to her trailer and at least try to get some rest. Between getting nearly killed and having her truck torn nearly to hell, all she wanted to do was relax. To her it was just another insane day that went even more insane. She was still waiting to hear from her guy with the information that she asked for, hopefully he'll have something for her. With some luck maybe she'll be able to track down her future business partners, when she does she'll make them an offer that hopefully they won't be able to refuse.
...
"Here comes Mitchell! She got off to a slow start but now she's coming back with a vengenace!" the announcer roars through the mike "Come on Chelsea! You can do it!" one of her teammates cheered on "You can do it Chelsea! Woo hoo!" another cheered. The crowd starts to cheer her name "Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea!". She keeps going, the crowd gets louder.
One swimmer manages to catch up to her. It's neck and neck as the two start speeding to the finish, they're strength is nearly to the limit; their muscles wanted to explode on contact. Her heart wants to give and quit but she's not going down that easiy. The crowds going crazy, they're on the edge of their seats. Her mother has her eyes covered fearing for her daughters safety, while her father looks on with amazement as his daughter speeds like a bullet fired from a gun. The finishline is in sight. Like two wolves fighting to see who are the strongest of the whole pack they don't stop, they just keep going. With the last ounce of strength that she has left in her body, she pushes her body to the maximum limit; just a couple more feat.
"She's almost there! Can she make it?". With that last push she manages to touchdown on the finishline. The Crowd goes wild.
She manages to crawl out of the pool; she's tired and battered from everything. Her teammates run to her, they hug and a couple of them kiss her. Because she's too exhausted to stand and walk her teammates lift her up onto their shoulders. She smiles as everyone cheers for her, her mother has tears in her eyes as she made it through in one piece and her father has a big smile on his face rather than tears. "Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea!" everyone chants and cheers her name. She laughs and laughs, for the first time in her life she actually accomplished something good. Despite everything that she went through in her life, she actually won the big one and managed to crush those who thought she wasn't too be taken seriously and was just someone from the rubbish heap. Piss on them! she thought Look at me! They all love me!
It felt great, it was like being on top of the world. It all felt right. She takes off her swimcap, her hair wet from all the amount of swimming that she did.
It was supposed to be her everything. It was her victory for herself and for everything that she went through in her life. But not on the end of that day, like something out of some cheap soap opera it all came crashing down. It was all destroyed on that one peculiar day.
Chelsea finishes her lap. She wades to the shore of the lake, she went out swimming today to clear her head. She wears an orange bikini with a with a white palm tree design on the right side of her top. She borrowered a car from someone to get to the lake, it's not like the guy would argue with her, he was too drunk to do anything about it. That car of his was too rusty though, it looked like it wanted to fall apart.
As she finally makes it to shore, Chelsea wonders why she was thinking about that day. It was on that day where everything went to hell for her. She frowned upon remembering everything, it put a small smile on her face. Everyone chanting her name, her mother and father hugging her, the many medals that she recieved, her teammates getting a huge trophy and everyone of them praising her. But then came that little incident that ruined her and everything that she worked for, then their was that one little word that drove her to the edge. She sighed and quickly shakes her head trying to forget everything that happened, the past was the past and their's nothing that she could do to fix it.
Chelsea grabs her towel and dries herself off, it was a couple weeks after her firefight on the freeway and she's been waiting for her contact to get back in touch with her. So far nothing, she thought that she may have been had. He said that it was only going to be a few days but he called her or anything. If she has to pay more than expected then she may as well get her money back.
She doesn't do quite a good job of drying herself off but she doesn't care. She grabs her dufflebag and heads back to that rust bucket of a car. Chelsea puts on a pair of jean shorts and a plain white tank top, she still had her dogtags on; she wouldn't be anything without them. She starts the rust bucket, it sputters, she let's out a sigh and tries again. It still sputters, she let's out an annoyed grunt. It finally starts "God, I really miss my truck" she complained. Her hand reaches for one of the dials on the radio. While searching for something to listen to Chelsea comes across a news report; apparently they found someone in the desert. It described Joe in every way. He was found when two hikers stumbled upon the body, it was quite a sight and not a very good one too be exact. The body was covered in flies, he stank like a piece of rotting meat left in the open. The one thing they said they noticed were the vultures who pecked and tore bits of his body off, one thing was was said that both of his eyes had been gouged out, most likely those vultures may have done that. The news said it may been a gang related shooting. It was the first that she heard that she was considered gang related. Lucky her.
Chelsea's trailer
The rust of a car managed not to get her back in one piece, their were times that Chelsea thought the thing would crap out on her but it didn't. The whole time she was bored driving back to her trailed. She waited and waited and still nothing with that information that she asked for. She wasn't known to be patient. Next time she needs someone to track down, she'll do it herself. As she approaches her front door, she notices a envelope taped to the screen.
Chelsea quickly grabs it and heads inside. She hurridily opens it, eager to see what the results are. She looked at everything, it was quite detailed done to the last letter of it's wording.
A huge smile appears on her face "Well...looks like I get to go on a small vacation" she says with that smile still on her face as looks at the pictures of the women who pulled off that heists. A dark red head girl with large hoop earrings. According to the file her name is Geraldine Winslow, 22 years old, a foster child at birth and a former bounty hunter who had a little accident while getting a stripper who had a small debt to pay off. She's pretty good at doing her job and she looks like the eager type to prove her worth. The next one was the one she took the most interest in. Sun Hi Rhee or Sunny as she'd like too be called, 24 years old, born and raised in Los Santos too a single mother. Joined a street gang at the tender age of 8, she had her fair share run ins with the police, she's also done her time in detention ranging from everything possesion of marijuana to resisting arrest to battery and some joyriding charges. At 13 she went to juvenial hall for an assault charge, tragically at the end of her first month her mother passed away; it really hit her hard.
Something catches Chelsea's eye. Before her mother died, three girls assaulted her badly. After she passed away, the ringleader of the group always harassed her; she should have been left alone. While in the mess hall, that very same girl started harassing her and she ended up saying a bunch of obscenities about her mother. Sunny snapped and pummeled her with an inch of her life, in the end that girl was beaten, had her jaw broken, both of her arms were dislocated and her face was bloodied up. About a week later, that very same girl, was found dead while recuperating in the hospital wing. Someone snuck into her room, shoved a shank a couple times into her chest before it was sunk through the girls forehead. Later on they found her cohorts, both of them, with their throats slit in their sleep. For the people who found them it was quite a grusome sight. While she was a suspect in the whole thing Sunny was never convicted of the crime. Than again this is prison, no one is going to say anything; lest you want to be on someone's list. This goes for someone if they had ties too certain people who wouldn't hesitate to make people disappear.
According to the report their's quite a thing here, her big sister of all people is a police officer. Chelsea scoffed at that "Well, she's just full of surprises". Sometime after the whole heist, Sunny manages to purchase a luxerious house in Vinewood and later both and her girlfriend moved in together. Chelsea study's the photos of the two women. They both look like eager, something that most people lacked today. Chelsea starts to think.
Looking at everything, she wonders if she should approach them. Should she introduce herself with a friendly greeting? Invite them to drink tea or coffee or whatever they drink? Would they accept her without question? Or would they think that she's some crazy person who looks like she crawled out of dumpster? Would they think she would spill any secret that they have to someone and endanger them? Would they even consider trusting her? A bunch of questions that she was quite to answer. One of the first things that go goes through her head is pick up truck. Chelsea managed to patch up the holes in the back, replace both the front and back windshields. The damage wasn't that bad but still, she didn't risk getting it damaged again; the rust bucket it is then. Hopefully it doesn't crap out on her.
Chelsea goes to her room and starts to pack some clothes. Some bathing suits, shirts, clean underwear, socks and a toothbrush. She grabs Jessie and her Sig Sauer and heads to the rust bucket. She stuffs her belongings in the back seat and enters herself. She starts the engine, it sputters and she knows if this craps out on her she may as well take her truck. The engine finally starts. When she touches down in Los Santos, first thing she's doing is getting rid of this thing. The owner is not going to complain, he probably though will be asking 'why the hell was that thing in some impound lot?'.
As Chelsea starts to roll out into the road, that very same smile that she had from before appeared. Knowing that might make more money Chelsea looks on ahead as she goes to her new destination and hopefully new partners who could she could spend and have a fun time with.
Look out Los Santos, here I come.
Chapter 18 is coming soon. Rate and Review