Day 3: Raven 4

All episodes can now be found on their own Flickr page located here: www.flickr.com/photos/200688024@N05/

 

(Picture and story credit to @Jim Ayashi)

 

Part 4

 

It feels weird having to leave this place behind, never thought I would have to after all I've gone through here, but I guess one thing is for sure, the only thing that was going to make me leave this place was a disaster wrapped in a catastrophe with a viral outbreak bow tying it all together. Shittiest leaving present ever if you ask me. Taking a look at the good Dr. Glorybeard he is concentrating hard on the road ahead, can't say I blame the guy, this car looks like it cost a small fortune to afford and maintain, guess thats what happens when you buy a classic like this. It's a fine car, not like some of the hunk of junk beaters I've had in the past, but then again I never really cared as long as it got me from A to B.

 

He's pushing the car hard, weaving through traffic like butter, looks like something has him pissed off, then again if my wife was missing during all of this I would be pretty pissed too. Having that thought I look down to my left hand at the fading ring scar on my finger, I do miss her, it's been a few years now and still got no idea where she went, I just woke up one day with a folded note and her rings on a side table.

 

'Sorry, I can't do this anymore, I gotta go, Always, Abigail' with a red lipstick print and a little scent of her perfume to remember her by and she was gone. "They still here?" I hear Finn ask faintly over the wind rushing past my ears, I turn to look at him "Sorry, what you say?", He leaned to the side a little and rose his voice "They still here? Your partner" he give a quick nod to my hand, I ball my fist up and sigh a little and reply loud enough "Only in my head", I sit back in the passenger seat and recount a few memories of her.

 

It was a whirlwind romance, we were married for about a year or so, partners in crime and love, it was a time I won't forget anytime soon, before I could continue my thoughts the car came to a screeching halt jolting my body forward unexpectedly, the pain in my ribs reminding me of the handiwork of the rookie cop and is jumpy trigger finger. I turn to Finn and I'm about to say something to him, when in the background I see TV's in a pawn shop window, all of them displaying the local news, there's a chopper flying over the bridge out of the city, it's fender to fender cars, trucks and anything with wheels you could think of covering the damn thing.

 

"Looks like we got a problem" Finn says looking straight ahead, I turn to look to see there's been an incident up ahead, several cars are piled up on top of each other and those things are attacking anything that moves, "That's not our only problem, our main way out of the city is a no go" and point over to the TV's in the pawn shop window, he looks over and sees for himself, He slams the steering wheel a few times "FUCK".

 

It's not the news he wanted to hear and I can see the cogs in his brain turning to try and figure out what to do, This isn't great, someone took a big steaming shit on our plans of escape and locked the door behind them. I think back to some of the jobs I've pulled with the old crew, rattling my brain trying to think, if we needed to get out of town, how did we do it without taking the bridge? I gather my barrings and take a look around,

 

I look behind us and try to remember what routes are back that way, The Esper Bypass is a no go, way too far to go and that's headed back into the city, what about the Red Light District? Ugh probably not, there was diseases floating around that place that would make you itch just walking a few blocks from there......Hang on.....What about Arklay Pass? I turn back around in my seat and think how far away it would be. It's not that far but the road looks like it went 12 rounds with mother nature and got its ass handed to it, but with no other options that I can think of, I turn to Finn who has his head down running his hands through his hair and I let him know "I think I can get us out of here".

 

His head snaps up and looks me dead in the eye, theres a little glimmer of hope there for Glorybeard, "Where? What street? Tell me!" This is the first time I've seen him lose his cool, again, can't blame the guy but I give him a grin and tell him "Arklay Pass, It's not far, road is beat to shit but that's the best I got" he turns and looks out ahead of him and nods a little, he puts the car into gear and starts to drive "Take this left coming up" without a word he turns the wheel and heads down the street.

 

"We're going to have to take a few back streets and alleys but as long as we can make it to Arlington Road we should be alright" I can see him shake his head a little, I know he doesn't want to get his car banged up but we don't have many options, "How do you know of Arklay Pass?" well this is fuckin' awkward, what am I going to say to him 'Yeah I robbed a bank once and escaped the cops using Arklay Pass and we had a picnic in the forest?' pretty sure he'd shove me out the car there and then, "Been up there a few times hiking and camping" Camping? Fucking camping Raven? What the hell am I thinking. "It's a good spot for a hike and get a clear head" Finn replied. Well Fuck, that worked, didn't expect that.

 

"Oh take this right here, it's going to get a little tight but we'll make it" The first of some of the tight roads was coming up, I knew he wasn't going to like it but what other way can we go? The roads are filling fast but they will lead us to Arlington and out to freedom, Well it should. "OK, Hold on tight" Finn says narrowing his eyebrows, I think he knows what coming and he's determined to get us there one way or another. He slows the car to take the corner, he pulls into the tight street, we hit some luck for once, it's pretty clear other than a few trash cans and empty boxes, he's making sure not to hit anything he doesn't need too, and I'm still in no real condition to get out the car and move all this crap out the way.

 

I hear noises above us, there are some people running down fire escapes, some of them holding bags and others just running for their lives, "Take the left here, there should be enough room for you to turn" I tell Finn, he looks at me "Right, got it" he says, "No, Left" I joke with him, he cracks a little smile and points further up "Hey look, I can see your house from here" I turn to see where he's pointing too, A dumpster with the top open......Well played Finn, well played.

 

I chuckle and shove his shoulder playfully "Fuck you dude" he laughs and makes the turn, into the ally, it's the last stretch but we have another problem, another large dumpster, left across the ally, it's not far away from us, Finn tilts his head a little in hopes he might have room to get through the gap, but even I can tell there's no chance he's making it. "Think you can handle that Raven?" he asks, I pout my lips a little and judge the pain I'm in compared to the manual labor I'm going to have to endure, Christ I hope that thing ain't got much in it. "Yeah, I think I got this, been looking for a new place to live" I say stepping out of the slow moving car, I hear Finn chuckling "Make sure they have an En suite, you'll need it in your condition" what use am I going to have for a French Raccoon?

 

I make my way to the dumpster crossing our path, I take a look around it to make sure there's nothing on the ground that will bring it to a sudden stop "Sweet, clear path" grabbing hold of the handles I tug and move the dumpster, Well this is heavier than I thought it would be, collection day must be coming up. Having moved the dumpster out of the way as it thuds against the wall, I call it job done and should be just enough room to make it. I wave Finn forward checking the side of his car against the dumpster as he has his head looking over his door to check the clearance between the car and the wall. I hear a loud snarling and growling, sounds real close, I tap on the hood of the car.

 

"C'mon Finn, I hear one of those things close by and it sounds hungry" Finn looks up to me "Ok, Ok, almost got it" he replies as he starts turning the wheel towards me and pulling away from the wall, I hop over the door and land in the seat and landing with a thud......that was louder than I thought it would be, Have I put on a few pounds?. Finn brings the car to a stop and looks over his shoulder towards the back of the car making sure that he didn't scuff the back fender, I check down the other side of the car to make sure he didn't hit the dumpster, "Nothing my side" I say to Finn over my shoulder "Nothing here either" Finn says bringing his focus back to the front of the car. "So what was it?" He says to me, we hear the snarling again, right, behind us, our eyes widen a little as we both slowly turn to see one of the creatures crawling up the back of the car towards us.

 

We both let out a shout and a scream, Finn put the car in gear and hits the gas, jolting us both in our seats, the creature however has different ideas and grips onto the body of the car, how I got no idea. Finn tries to shake it loose, kicking out the back left and right, but the creature is gaining more hold on the body of the car and getting closer "GET THAT FUCKING THING OFF THE CAR!!" Finn shouts in a panic "GOT IT JUST GET US TO ARLINGTON" I turn around and climb in the seat trying to keep my balance as the car starts picking up speed.

 

The creature is reaching out to me and I'm trying not to topple on top of Finn while he's driving, I manage to find my footing and grab hold of the head rest of the passenger seat, I ball up my fist and punch it in the face repeatedly "Off....Off....Off...Off...Off....Off" with each punch to it's face it barely seems fazed and reaches for me again, Finn hits a bump in the ally which drops me down a little, The creature grabs hold of my shirt, gripping onto me like a vice "OH FUCK NONONONONO" Finn hears this and looks up at me briefly "HURRY, WE'RE COMING UP TO ARLINGTON" he yells in a panic.

 

This thing is gnashing it's teeth at me, and reaching up with it's other hand, I'm scared, panicking and trying to figure out how to get this overgrown trash panda from making me it's next meal. I suddenly realize, the gun down the back of my pants, While trying to hold off the putrid smelling asshat from taking bites out of me, I reach into the back of my pants and grab onto the grip of the gun, taking it out, I see Finn look at the gun then back to the road, I don't know if he said something as this thing is inching closer to my face, I grip onto the remnants of it's shirt and stick the barrel of the gun in its mouth "Eat this Motherfucker" and pull the trigger, sending the back of its skull and brain matter into the wind and ally behind it.

 

One round unloaded into its head and it falls limp onto the back of the car, I drop the gun onto the seat as the limp corpse falls into me a little "HOLD ON TIGHT" Finn yells, I know what's coming, A sharp right hand turn onto Arlington Road, I push the corpse onto the back of the car and dip down to hold onto the headrest again and brace myself for the turn. Finn slams on the brakes and turns the wheel, I hold on for dear life as the force of the turn batters my body.

 

The corpse flies off the back of the car across a few lanes of traffic and gets plowed by a gas tanker, which makes it swerve at the impact and start to lose control, I follow the tanker with my eyes as further down another car comes out of nowhere and smashes into gas tankers driving cab sending it out of control. The back side of the tanker kicks out into oncoming traffic and swipes some cars off the road then topples over, the cars following the tanker on the same side hit it and the whole thing explodes in a massive fireball. My eyes widen at the sight of what could have been mistaken for a bomb going off, I sit myself back into the passenger seat moving the gun onto my lap and putting my seatbelt back on. I see Finn looking in the rear view mirror then turning his head to me, I look back to him trying to look as innocent as possible. "Little excessive, don't you think?" he says to me in a deadpan manner. I shrug and reply "Well.....he won't be bothering us again......Oh hey our turn is going to be coming up".

 

"So where did the gun come from?" Finn asks me, I had to replace the one I got from the police station and if it's my own piece, there's no harm in that "Got it from my place, got some other stuff too" I tell him hoping that'll end the line of questions I know he's going to ask me "Other stuff?" he replies, well got that one wrong, didn't I? "Yeah, should help us along the way, just in case" this is so damn awkward "In case of what?" Finn asks inquiring on how far I'm stretching the bullshit excuses "Errmm...bears?" Bears? Seriously? I can feel Finn's raised eyebrow from here despite the fact I'm not looking at him, I can tell he's smart enough that he's putting two and two together and he's getting four, while I'm giving him twelve as an answer.

 

"Well, I'm not going to ask, but just know if you try to mess with me, I will break every bone in your body, AND name them off as I do it", Holy shitballs doc hadn't even crossed my mind. "Education via pain, got it" I joked and looked toward Finn, he wasn't joking. Well fuck. "Finn, look, I know that I'm not the ideal person to have along side you, but I promise you, I'm not looking at screwing you over. You've saved my life and I owe you that much in return" he listened and nodded. I looked towards the road and the turning was coming up so I let Finn know we had to hang a right. "Got it, hang tight" Finn sternly said as he whipped the car to the right sending us around the corner and headed where we need to go, Arklay Pass here we come.

 

It didn't take long for the road to start showing us how fucked it was, the car was dipping in some of the pot holes, we heard the under side of the car scrape across the tarmac. As Finn concentrates on avoiding the potholes, the roar of an engine behind us gets louder and passes us, two women on a nice looking bike, got a nice view from back here, I ain't going to complain at the occasional booty on a bike. Following the engine we heard the sound of a loud cracking and a small rumble, Finn already started slowing the car down, another crack and rumble this time louder, as a cloud of dust kicks up from the middle of the road, all the traffic ahead of us comes to a grinding halt. Finn brings the car to a solid stop and immediately gets out of the car and reaches for his baseball bat, I start to get out of the car to see what the fuck just happened, I get to my feet standing at the door and between the lanes of traffic I can see a big part of the road has collapsed in on itself, And I don't know if it was the painkillers making me see things but I'm sure I just saw a suitcase flying into the hole.

Done