Cold episode 12

Cold episode 12
Lugo drove casually through the road that led into St Mathews from Georgian. Everywhere was quiet apart from the soft music that played on the cars stereo system. Joseph’s leg had bled to its limit and his soaked trouser was getting caked with blood. He had lost enough blood and was feeling feeble. He took a glance at Lugo who was driving and fell back into his seat.
“Hey, that thing he said about William, did you believe him?” he asked looking at Lugo who shook his head.
“I don’t know for sure, maybe we should have forced it out of him you know”
“Well, Bleep it, William is dead, he too is dead, so Bleep it all” he said and went mute again. A little close to St Mathews, the police siren came up again. They all turned back to take a look, a little far from them, a police car was advancing towards their car.
“Shit, this is not good” Joseph said grabbing his AK47.
“Do you think its wise engaging them” Lugo asked casting him a worried glance. The others at the back just readied their guns for action.
“Do you have any other idea?”
“None for now”
“Do you suppose we should walk up to them with a smile on our faces and explain we are just coming back from Fredrick’s place where we went to settle our scores?”. He asked and Lugo nodded with a smile on his face.
“You my friend, are a mad man”
“Hello, this is the police, I need you to clear your car by the road side for inspection” the loudspeaker from the police vehicle blared.
“Do you plan on stopping? ” Joseph asked and Lugo shook his head.
” Good, now i suppose this car has a sunroof” he said looking up at the roof of the car and tugging at the sunroof.
“Maybe you should let me do it, you are wounded” Spencer said.
“No no, do not worry about me, worry about the families that are going to lose a cop father or husband or whatever”.
He dragged the sunroof open, threw his gun out of it and climbed out after it, his trunk out on the roof and his feet in,side the car, he smiled and waved at the police vehicle, they watched him pick up his gun, released the safety catch and balanced it on his hands.
“Roy, the bastard’s trying to fire at us” the driver shouted to his partner.
“I can see that” Roy said pulling his gun from its strap. He aimed at the tire of the car from his window and took a shot before Joseph was ready. The tyre made a loud busting sound and the car swerved clear from the road and the gun fell off Joseph’s hand, Roy took another shot and the second tyre got peeled off the wheel, Lugo lost control of the car and it ran straight into the bush, Joseph fell off the roof and hit the ground with a thud and slowly, he blacked out. Climbing mounds and huge stones, the car tilted to its side and dragged along the rough ground before coming to a stop against a tree. Everywhere became quiet. The police vehicle parked at the side of the road, the two cops called for backup over their two way radio and then preceded slowly into the bush to the point of the clash.
The car lay on its side, totally wrecked. Lugo lay half way out of the drivers door, his gun by his side, the rest still in,side the car were dead, their heads shattered beyond recognition.
“Check if this one’s still alive” Roy said to his partner, nodding towards Lugo. He moved closer to the car, Lugo coughed and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, he turned his burning head to the left, his blurred vision only showed him a little detail of his surrounding. He turned right and observed a figure coming close to him, his hand felt too heavy for him, he lifted it uneasily and it found its way to the gun at his side, before he could get a firm grip, he was shot, three times on his stomach, he stretched out and his head fell to the side while his eyes shut slowly.
“Let’s wait for backup” Roy said, strapping back his gun. His partner walked to him and they watched the car from where they stood like it was some mystery object.
“Hey”. Someone called from their back and they turned immediately to face Joseph, the left side of his face soaked with blood and through the blood, the rage in his eyes could not be unnoticed. In his hands was his infamous Ak47, pointed in the direction of the two policemen.
“Now, drop that gun and we can settle this here, right now” Roy said and Joseph smiled at him.
“Yea right, we shall settle it here” he said and gave out a dry laughter before grabbing the trigger, he sprayed the bullets at the police men and never stopped even after they have fallen. He reduced them to a piece of tattered flesh and dropped his empty gun beside their body. He walked past their mutilated body and the car wreckage and staggered deep into the bush.
The time was 6pm and the darkness was creeping in, people still moved about the neighborhood as night could hærdly be differentiated from day in Fifth Avenue save for the entry and exit of the sun. The smell of weed, burning meat and cooking supper filled the air. Once in a while, the sound of gunshots would be heard from a distance, nobody bordered since it was a normal occurrence.
“Why is Joseph not yet back?” Maria asked looking down at Jaycee who was on a game of cards with Nancy. On the couch lay August, sleeping peacefully.
“I don’t know, he said he will be back soon”
“And where did he go?”
“I don’t know too, he wouldn’t say”.
None of them wanted her to know that Joseph had gone to pay Frederick a visit, they were concerned it would just freak her out the more.
“How could he leave without telling anyone, now I’m really worried”
“Chill Sis, Joseph can always take care of himself… And check up” he said and smiled at Nancy who was receiving her 5th trashing in the game.
“I’m done, you are cheating ” Nancy grumbled and got up From where she sat.
” Jeez, I wasn’t cheating, just admit I’m better” Jaycee said packing up the cards. “Hmmm, I smell Joseph” he said and sniffed. Nancy and Maria smiled.
“How can you smell someone?” Nancy asked
“Because I use his perfume and I’m serious, I can smell him”. He said and almost immediately, Joseph came into the house and dropped on the single settee in the sitting room.
“Joseph!” Maria scre-med and ran to him, her apprehension increased when she saw the blood on his face.
“Sup bro, what happened? Where’s Lugo and Spencer and others?”Jaycee asked looking him all over.
“Dead, all of them, Just get your things ready, we are leaving here now” he said and dragged himself up from the chair.
“What happened Joseph? Where the hell are you coming from?” Maria asked.
“Hell, not now sis, I will explain later, Just get baby ready and lets ball out of here, Nancy grab me the first aid kit” he said and pulled off his shirt. In 20 minutes, everyone was set, Joseph had managed to treat himself to an extent and had gotten rid of the blood that painted him red, only scratches and patches were left but he still limped.
“So where are we going?” Maria asked Joseph as they got into the low rider.
“We will drive through out the night, I don’t know anywhere yet”
“So why are we leaving and what happened to you?”
“An accident, the police shot us up in our car and we had an accident, Lugo’s dead”
“Why would the police want to shoot you guys?”
“Because we killed the murderers of our parents, that’s why”.
Maria went mute and they all got into the car, Joseph took over the wheels. His phone rang as he was trying to start the car, he took a look at the screen and it displayed Stanley.
“Sup Stan?”
“Cool, heard about everything that happened today, from Frederick down to Lugo, hope you are doing fine?”
“Sure, I’ll live”
“So where are you now?”
“I’m bailing out of town, Leaving St Mathews”
“Where would you be going?”
“Dunno for now, somewhere new maybe”
“How’s Maria holding up? Can I talk to her?”
“Sure”.
He handed the phone over to Maria, they conversed in low tones for about 2 minutes before she dropped the call. Joseph ignited the car and with Jaycee seated besides him, Maria and Nancy at the back, holding onto August who was nodding from sleep. He pulled the car out into the road with a reverse and soon they were on their way out of Fifth Avenue. The clock on the car’s dashboard ticked 7:30 pm. Everywhere had gone dark and car traffic reduced considerably. They drove in silence for a while, the passengers at the back were already fast asleep, only Joseph and Jaycee were wide awake.
“So what do we do now?, how do we start over?” Jaycee asked staring at the empty space ahead of him.
“I don’t know, I guess we would just have to survive, we always do, don’t we?”.
Jaycee nodded and bent his head.
“This is all crazy, everything happening to us, things have never been this bad, Moms and Dad gone, Williams pulling off that crazy stunt and Lugo too, this is real crazy”
“Yea, but then, we have to move on, that’s what makes us who we are, moving on through all them crazy shits”.
“Yea” Jaycee said and nodded. Another minutes of silence followed and from behind, through the mist of darkness, two white streams of headlights shot out and was closing up on them at great speed.
“That’s some crazy driver” Joseph said observing the oncoming car from his side mirror. He moved a little out of the way for the car to pass. The car, a black Mercedes Benz pulled up to their side maintaining the same speed with them. Joseph and Jaycee took a look at the car, the driver’s side glass rolled down slowly.
“Mercedes Benz ” Jaycee whispered.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Joseph asked grabbing his gun from his foot mat. Jaycee shook his head and pulled his own gun from his wa-ist.
“Put your head down!!” Joseph yelled and marched on the brake. Jaycee squeezed his head under the dashboard, the cackling sound of an UZI hit the car followed by crashing of glasses and scre-ms from Nancy and Maria. Joseph slowed down and swerved the car to the left, the other car slowed down too. Jaycee fired at the car through his window and was replied by superior gunfire that brought down the windshield of the low rider, missing its occup-nts by an inch, Joseph lost control and the car skidded off the road.
“Brace yourselves” he yelled as the car ran a few meters on dirt track and tumbled into a ditch, crashing to a stop after 5 somersaults.