Moral Degeneration

I left Violet and Audrey in the master bedroom. I was all adrenaline as I ran out the door. Starting up the SUV I squealed the tires as I rushed out of there. I needed to make a stop. It didn’t take long for me to be at Ryleigh’s house. I left the car running as I looked inside. Her moms was home but it was late. I wasn’t about to break into a cop’s house. 

 

Running to the back I knocked on Ryleigh’s window. It was a light tapping, but constant. It took her time, but she eventually opened the drapes. She squeaked in fear as she noticed me. 

 

“I need your help,” I whispered. She bit her lip. “This is important Ry. I need my friends’ help.” 

 

The quiet girl bit her lip, but surprisingly she opened the window. “What?” She whispered. I was pulling myself up into her window instead of answering. 

 

She stepped back. “Get out of here,” she tried to say. 

 

“Can’t. Ava and Luna are in trouble,” I said. I was out of her door and into the hall. The door to the basement was right next to her room. I ran down and pulled out my flashlight as I stopped in front of the gun safe. Punching the numbers I guessed so easily all the weeks ago the safe opened to reveal everything I needed. 

Pulling out a box of 9mm ammo I stuffed them in my pocket. “What are you doing!?” Ryleigh gasped seeing me dig out the AK-47. I grabbed the 7.62x39mm rounds and a spare magazine for the rifle. Shutting the safe I moved past Ryleigh and was back up the stairs. The gun jostled, but I was quiet as I came to the hall. Getting to her room I was out the window before she could stop me. 

 

The AK was familiar on my shoulder as I ran back to the SUV. Throwing the big gun in back I pulled out the magazines and boxes of ammo. Setting them on the center console I was surprised when Ryleigh jumped in. 

 

“Get out of here,” I tried to say. “I don’t have time.” 

 

“What the fuck are you doing?” She asked. I think it was the first time she had cursed. I went through my plan. I would have to dump her later. This was time sensitive. 

 

“Shut the damn door,” I ordered. She did and sat down in the passenger seat. I ignored how cute she was in her flower pajamas. I kicked the SUV in drive and headed out of the neighborhood. 

 

There were 2 roads to the neighborhood I lived in. One on the South side that led to the main part of the city. Another on the North that people never used. The south was a perfect monitoring point. The entrance had lots of houses. Lots of houses you could set up surveillance to watch the comings and goings of the people in and out of the neighborhood. 

 

If my guess was right. Whoever was shipping these items had eyes on Audrey. Where better to set up than on the front door step? They grabbed Luna and Ava out in the city. They didn’t just happen upon us. No matter how good I was. People could still follow you. I must have missed people following us when I was on my date with Luna. 

 

Their shipment was today. They would have only had to put teams on us today to watch our movements and grabbed us if they needed to. If I had thought Luna could be a target I would have let myself be captured. My earlier kidnapping made me blinded by the possibilities of more people wanting us. 

Audrey was in shipping. She worked across the border into Canada. Of course people would try to smuggle stuff in. I tended to think stuff from Mexico was where the bad stuff was. If this client had been working with Audrey for years, who knew what they had been smuggling in. 

 

I grit my teeth as I stopped the SUV at the entrance to the neighborhood. My hands moved to the boxes of ammo and idly began filling the magazines. The AK first. My fingers were weak, but experienced at this sort of thing as I forced the large rounds in. I scanned the houses in front of us. 

 

If they had been monitoring, then it was one of these houses. I ignored the ones further back. Focusing on the ones close enough to monitor this entrance and exit. There were a few family homes. All with immaculate lawns, some fences, lights on, nothing stood out right away. 

 

They had to be there though. This was their base of operations. They wouldn’t risk killing someone inside the city. They had 2 teams. One to grab me and Luna, another for Ava. Then they made the call to the leader. She called Audrey. The 2 teams met up. Then split. One headed to Duluth to intercept the truck. The other stayed in the safe house waiting for the call from Audrey. That’s how I would have done it. It was the easy play for professionals. 

 

I just hoped to God they hadn’t left the safe house yet. I finished loading the magazine and moved to the other. “What are you doing?” Ryleigh asked. 

My brain worked as I scanned the houses. Trying to pinpoint which one had the bad guys. “Ava and Luna were kidnapped. They almost got me too.” 

 

Ryleigh gasped. “Again?”

 

“Different people this time. Either running guns or drugs. Grabbed the girls to make Audrey do what they said.” I finished up with the other magazine. Starting on the 9mm magazine for the Jericho 941 a car honked behind me. I put on my hazards and they went around. 

 

“What are you going to do?” Ry asked. 

 

“Get them back,” I said. I finished with the 9mm magazine and moved to filling the Ruger chambers. It was quick and as I finished I kicked us into drive and parked at the front of the street. I had narrowed it down to 4 houses. 2 on either side of the block. We went to the West one first.

Getting out I put the handguns in my pockets and walked down the street. Ryleigh followed. “Go home,” I ordered. We got close to the 2 houses on this side of the street I suspected. The lights were off for both of them. One had a security sticker on the window. I moved to the next. Getting to the front door there was a Christmas tree still up. Cursing I jogged back to the truck. 

Ryleigh followed. I drove us a hundred feet to the East and parked again. I moved to get out. “Russ! Answer me!” Ry yelled. Her hand grabbed my arm.  

 

“What?” I asked. I hadn’t noticed her talking to me. 

 

“You can’t be serious,” she said. “What are you doing?”

 

“When have I ever lied?” I asked angrily. Pulling my arm away I got out of the SUV. Walking to the next house I was stopped as I heard a car screech to a halt. I turned to see a van almost pulling out into the street and hitting someone. 

 

My eyes studied it. The van looked just like the one that had grabbed Luna. It recovered and pulled out into traffic. Heading down the road quickly. I smelled smoke. 

 

“Fuck!” I gasped. I had been wrong. They did have a house in the neighborhood. Either watching Aud’s house, or the road leaving the neighborhood. 

 

Smoke was filling the air. They were running. I banished the images of the girls burning alive in the basement of the house they had been using.

 

I ran back to the car and got in. Ry was still buckled up. I didn’t wait and kicked it into drive. Busting a U-turn I almost hit 2 cars, but they stopped in time. I laid on the horn and was heading after the van. “Grab the AK,” I ordered. 

“What?” Ry asked panicking.

“The gun in the back. Grab it. It’s on safety, but finger away from the trigger. Put it on the center console,” I said. My eyes scanning I had lost the van. I was doing 50 in a 25. I didn’t care. The interstate came up. The one leading to Duluth. I jumped on the on-ramp and kept speeding. The tires squealing it started snowing. 

 

“Fuck,” I said. I kept up my speed. It was time to drive as bad as Audrey. I laid on the horn and switched lanes like a bad bowler. Moving into tiny gaps between cars the Saturday night traffic was bad as I tried to scan for the van. 

 

I breathed in and out heavily. My heart pumping as I watched everything around me. Cars moved slowly as I sped up. Ry was yelling something at me, I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was finding that van. 

 

Then it was there. Right in front of me. I had been too focused. The white van drove the speed limit as if they didn’t have anything to worry about. 

 

I hoped to god the girls were in there. I worried I was wrong, but reading the license plate it matched the one that had chased us earlier. I made my body relax as I slowed down. Allowing some space between me and them the traffic slowed as the snow became thicker. 

 

“What are you doing?” Ryleigh asked. 

 

“That’s them. They took the girls,” I said.

“Are you serious?” Ry asked. 

 

“Again Ry, when have I ever lied?” 

She bit her lip thinking. Then was looking straight ahead. I made a plan. I guessed this van was on it’s way to Duluth as well. If I was them I would stop somewhere when I got the call they had the shipment. Kill the girls. Then meet up with the others. I had to plan. 

 

“Grab the wheel,” I said.

“What?”

“Grab the wheel. It is on cruise. Keep us straight.” 

 

“But it’s snowing.” 

 

“Ry, you have to learn to drive sometime. Grab the wheel,” I said. She reached out and grabbed it. She jerked it to the right. I righted it then let her hold it again. Her hands shook, but she kept us straight. I began messing with the guns. Moving the AK in a position I could grab it easily. The 2 handguns were moved to my belt. I calmed myself watching the traffic. 

“Take it back,” Ry said. 

 

“You need practice,” I said. Leaving the steering wheel in her hands I let myself talk. “No sudden movements. Just keep us between the lines. I have our speed set.” Someone cut us off. I hit the brakes and she tried to pull the wheel. I grabbed it from her and righted us. Pulling back from the van even more I let her relax for a moment. 

 

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Ryleigh said. 

“Same,” I said. “I’m sorry to need your help. Thank you for letting me in.” 

 

“My moms are going to kill me,” she said. 

 

“Lives are at stake, Ryleigh. Thank you,” I said. I grabbed her hand to try to help convey the sincerity of my voice. She didn’t pull away. “Okay. Grab the wheel again.” 

 

“What? Why?” She asked. 

 

“I will need you to have practice. Just trust me,” I said. She bit her lip but leaned over and grabbed it. The snow became thicker still. Traffic slowed more. There was a sea of red brake lights in front of us as I kept my eye on the van. 

 

“I am sorry for how I acted the other day,” Ryleigh said. 

 

I laughed. “What? I need to apologize to you.” 

 

“No, I talked to my moms. I am sorry,” she said. I could hear the hurt in her voice. “I let movies paint this false image of the world.”

 

“Don’t we all?” I asked. “I am sorry, Ry. You have nothing to be ashamed of. I-I am sorry that I played into it.” I studied the van, but let myself talk. “I grew up thinking I would meet a girl like you someday. Some girl next door. Someone that would be all my firsts. We would kiss. Have fun. Do everything together. Then we would get married and have kids.” I grabbed the wheel to move lanes. 

“That didn’t happen,” I said. It was how I had pictured it in my old life. I gave up that dream a long time ago. “I wanted that with you. But at the same time knew it couldn’t be. I didn’t want to hurt you Ryleigh. Never that. I just wanted to forget everyone else when I was with you.” 

I risked a glance. Ryleigh had some tears in her eyes. She wiped them as I looked. “I don’t know what the future holds, but can we at least be friends?” I asked.

 

I looked again. She bit her lip locking eyes with me and nodded. “Friends that kiss?” I asked, hopeful. She slapped my arm hard as I laughed. I caught her laughing too. “Good, no take backs,” I said.

“I didn’t agree,” she whispered. I reached over and grabbed her hand. She hesitated, but let me. We were soon holding hands as we watched ahead of us. The van slowly moved toward the Duluth exit. I followed. 

 

“Where’d you learn to drive?” Ryleigh asked. She sounded better already. 

 

“TV. Want me to teach you?” I asked. She shook her head. “Oh come on.” I walked her through it. Talking about the pedals, turn signals, mirrors, blind spots. I made her grab the wheel again. The snow was still thick but there were less people. I got close to the van. 

 

It took time but suddenly they exited the main road. “Here we go,” I said. The road was dead, and I guessed they would dump the girls up ahead. I wasn’t about to wait. We drove onto a 2 lane highway. I pulled the AK-47 out. “Grab the wheel.” I ordered again. She did much better this time. 

 

I opened the window. Speeding up I got right up on their ass and put it on cruise. Leaning out the window I aimed the AK. “A little to the right,” I yelled. Ryleigh slowly moved us to the right. I lined the shot and did a quick burst. The van’s tire blew. I slowed us down as it veered. I hoped they didn’t see the muzzle flash from the gun. I assumed the tire popping would have masked the gun shot. 

 

We slowed down as the van corrected. Ryleigh breathed in and out heavily. Going into shock as I stopped the SUV. 

 

“Get on the floor,” I ordered. She didn’t react. I pulled her arm until she was sitting on the floor mats. 

 

The van was a little ways ahead. I ignored Ryleigh as I grew serious. Putting the AK in the back I got out. Walking up to the van it was on the side of the road. 

 

Someone got out of the passenger seat. They were one of the women that had chased me. I was all bundled up now. “You alright?” I asked. She nodded. “I have a jack.”

 

“We are good,” the driver said, getting out. I was only a few paces away. Pulling out the revolver I sprayed all 5 shots. 2 in the passenger. 3 in the driver. They hit center mass. The girls dropped. Reaching behind them for weapons they were dead, but didn’t know it. I pulled out my Jericho 941. Ignoring the dying women I moved to the side of the van. 

 

I was sure someone was in back. They heard the shots. I breathed in and out trying to think what to do. Bullets started shooting out the back of the van. Right at the SUV. I acted on instinct. The bullets were high. I shot along the top of the van. One after another. It took 5 shots until the enemy fire stopped. I heard a gurgling noise. Running to the van I pulled the door open. A woman held her throat as her life blood left her. I looked and saw what I needed. 

Pulling the trigger I ended her life as well. The girls cried. Their eyes closed, mouths covered and hands tied. 

 

Getting into the van I whispered, “It’s ok. It’s me, Russ.” I ripped off the tape on Luna’s mouth first. She gasped as I did the same to Ava and Willow. I hadn’t expected them to have Willow, but I guessed it made sense. They were probably together. 

 

I soon had my knife digging at their bindings. They gasped finally opening their eyes. “Russ?!” Luna screamed grabbing me. 

 

“Later babe. Need to move.” I released their leg bindings and was walking them out the van. They saw the SUV and we ran to it. I found Ryleigh cowering on the floor. The bullets had hit the windshield and engine. She was safe. The girls were in back. Crying happy tears as I kicked us in reverse and did a U-turn. 

 

“What the fuck!” Ava finally said between her crying. I ignored her as I called Audrey. 

 

“Russ!” She yelled frantic. 

 

“I have the girls. They’re all safe. Call the FBI. Have them get the trailer.”

 

“Thank god,” she gasped. “Are you sure we should?”

 

“Yeah. Everything will be fine. We are on our way to you. Stay home. We will be there in less than an hour. Don’t mention the kidnapping yet. I will tell you the whole story when we are home.”

 

“Thank you,” she gasped crying. I let her but eventually hung up to listen to the other girls crying.