Gone (Gone 1)

“Keep going or pull off?” Edilio asked. His hands were white-knuckled on the wheel.

“They’re going to kick our butts now,” Quinn yelled. “We should have just stopped. I told you we should have just stopped, but no.”

The Hummer closed the distance with shocking speed.

“They’re going to hit us,” Astrid yelled.

Quinn jumped off the cart and ran. The Hummer shuddered to a stop. Cookie and the Mallet Kid piled out and went after Quinn.

“Pull over,” Sam said. He jumped off and ran to Quinn’s aid.

Quinn tried to leap the ditch beside the road, but landed badly. The two thugs were on him before he could recover. Cookie pounded him in the back with his fist.

Sam made a flying leap at Cookie. He grabbed Cookie in the crook of one arm and yanked him forward with his momentum.

Cookie landed hard on his belly, and Sam rolled free. Cookie had dropped his bat to pound Quinn with his fists, and Sam dived for it. Mallet, Edilio, and Quinn had a brief but violent tussle that left Edilio and Quinn standing and the other kid down. But it had given Orc and Howard time to climb down from the truck.

Orc swung his bat and caught Edilio behind the knees. Edilio dropped like a sack of cement.

Gripping Cookie’s bat, Sam raced to get between Orc and Edilio.

“I don’t want to fight you,” Sam shouted.

“I know you don’t want to fight me,” Orc said confidently. “Nobody wants to be fighting me.”

Astrid came striding up. “All of you stop it,” she yelled. Her fists were balled up. There were tears in her eyes. But she was angry, not sad. “We don’t need this crap.”

Howard slid between Orc and Astrid. “Step off, Astrid, my man Orc has to teach this punk a lesson.”

“Step off?” Astrid shot back. “You don’t tell me to step off you…you invertebrate.”

“Astrid, stay out of this, I got this,” Sam said. Edilio tried to stand firm, but he could barely stand at all.

Surprisingly, Orc said, “Hey. Let Astrid talk.”

Pumped on adrenaline, Sam almost didn’t hear him. But then he processed what Orc had said and kept his mouth shut.

Astrid took a deep breath. Her hair was flying wild. Her face was red. Finally, struggling for calm, she said, “We’re not looking for a fight.”

“Speak for yourself,” Cookie muttered.

“This is crazy,” Astrid said. “We’re just looking for my brother.”

Orc’s slit eyes narrowed further. “The retard?”

“He’s autistic,” Astrid snapped.

“Yeah. Little Pe-tard,” Orc sneered, but he didn’t push it.

“You should have stopped, Sammy.” Howard made a tsktsk sound, shaking his head regretfully.

“That’s what I said, and I’m the one who ends up getting pounded?” Quinn gestured wildly, angry at Sam.

Howard nodded toward Quinn, amused. “You should have listened to your bro there, Sam. I told you last night, you need to take care of my man Orc.”

“Take care of him? What does that mean?” Astrid demanded.

Howard turned cold eyes on her. “You have to show Captain Orc some respect, that’s what I mean.”