Summary: How did they survive? Where's the color printer? And what on earth is that smell?
Chapter 8
"So what happened?" Geoff asked as they all sat down at the table, bruised and angry.
"Everything about that went wrong," Gavin repeated.
"We got that," Ryan snapped. "But I think Geoff meant how did we all live?"
"And where the money went," Geoff added hastily. "Let's not forget that."
Michael glared and reached into the pocket of his severely battered jeans. "The money? You want the money?" He tossed several dirty coins, four crumpled ones, and a shredded fistful of unidentifiable bills." "There you go. Four dollars, forty two cents, and some confetti." Reaching for the shreds, he tossed them up in the air where the fluttered down to the ground sadly or came to rest on the Crew's heads. "Hip, hip, hoo-fucking-ray."
"The money exploded from the bag like a fucking piñata when the cops hit us," Jack said. "It was like a parody of the worst birthday ever."
"Jack went flying over the edge of the highway and I fell in the gap between the two sections," Michael added. I am pretty sure I sprained my ankle and wrist in the fall but I fared better than Jack."
Jack made a face. "I fell into an open topped garbage truck," he muttered. "It saved my life but dear god."
"Is that what that smell is?" Geoff said, appraising the smudges all over jack and sniffing delicately. He immediately regretted it. There was a foul stench of rot, dirt, sludge, and what was probably fecal matter about the room combined with the linger smell of gunpowder, gasoline, and smoke. He noticed everyone was breathing through their mouths.
"That's probably a bit of him and a bit of us," Ray said, glaring at Gavin. "When I saw big nose here was about to kill us I grabbed him and dove out of the fire truck. We just managed to tuck and roll under a police car when it exploded. We were launched backward and burned quiet badly," Ray admitted, pointing at several holes in his shirt that were singed. The skin under it was ink and blistered, but he was lucky he wasn't burned alive.
"The cops were everywhere so we took shelter in the closest thing we could find." Gavin said.
"Which was?" Geoff asked, though he suspected he already knew.
"A man hole."
"So while we were fighting for our lives, you were prancing around in the sewer?" Ryan said angrily.
"Yeah like it was a fucking holiday," Gavin snapped.
"We'll never be clean again," Ray moaned covering his dirty face with even dirtier hands.
"So what happened to you then?" Geoff asked Ryan. "One minute you were there and the next was a loud roar followed by radio silence."
Ryan rubbed his forehead tiredly. "A cop pulled a shot gun on me. I had barely enough time to dive to the floor boards before the windows exploded. When I hit the floor, my head smashed into the gas pedal and the ear piece snapped. I also lurched forward out of the gas station. I scrambled back up and had quite the car chase through the streets of Los Santos. Eventually, I lost them and the road blocks peeled off and headed for the highway."
"To run our ass over," Michael finished and Jack nodded in agreement.
"So that was an utter failure," Gavin said.
"And we're still not getting that color printer," Ray said sarcastically.
Geoff slumped into his chair and surveyed his gang. This had been a royal mess. He was just about to mention begging Burnie and Matt for their lives when his cell phone went off. He looked at the text message blinking on his screen and sighed.
"You have disappointed us," Geoff read aloud. "See that your next job one is more fruitful. We recommend letting the Mad King do his work."
Everyone looked up at Ryan, who was suddenly grinning evilly behind his skull mask.