The Great Escape

She gazed at the lights from the homes across the water. After his blowup with Temple, she wouldn’t be surprised if Panda was gone by this time tomorrow. But what about Lucy herself? How long was she going to stay? She envisioned herself standing on the bluff behind the house, autumn leaves falling around her, then snowflakes. She saw spring arriving; another summer. Years passing. Her hair turning gray, face wrinkling, the strange old lady who’d arrived one summer and never left. Eventually they’d find her mummified body buried under a mountain of petrified homemade bread.

She shivered. A loud voice intruded. “Hold on. I gotta take a piss.”

“You always gotta take a piss.”

“Fuck you.”

Footsteps crunched in the gravel. A man with an unkempt beard and a bandanna wrapped around his head appeared behind the building. As his companion stopped by the Dumpster, the bearded one spotted her. “Hey.”

They both wore boots, scruffy jeans, and scruffier hair. These guys weren’t the lawyers and high school guidance counselors who turned biker on weekends. They were the real thing, and from their unsteady walks, they were both drunk.

Lucy Jorik would have been frightened, but Viper knew how to handle situations like this. “Hey, yourself.”

“You care if I take a piss?” the bearded biker said in a voice louder than necessary. “You can watch if you want.”

The man by the Dumpster snickered. “Trust you, man, to find a chick back here.”

Viper wasn’t easily cowed, but she wasn’t stupid either. The bar was too noisy for anyone to hear her, and she was keeping this conversation short. “I’ve got better things to do.” She rose from the bench.

Dumpster man swaggered toward her. “He’ll let you hold it for him.”

As she smelled the liquor on them, her uneasiness grew, but Viper didn’t believe in showing fear. “I couldn’t find anything that little.”

They hooted with laughter. Even though her knees had started to shake, she loved how tough she was. This summer hadn’t been a waste after all.

Except her wisecrack had opened the door to a camaraderie she didn’t want, and they were both closing in on her. “I like you,” the bearded one said.

Dumpster man had a narrow, sloping forehead and a unibrow. “Come on inside and have a drink with us.”

She swallowed. “Sure. Let’s go.”

But they didn’t move, and the smell of liquor and body odor was making her queasy.

“You got an old man?” The one with the beard scratched his stomach like Panda used to, except this was the real thing.

“An old lady,” she retorted. “I don’t go for guys.”

She thought she was being smart, but the look they exchanged wasn’t encouraging, and Beard Man’s eyes were creeping all over her. “You just haven’t found the right one. Isn’t that right, Wade?”

“Yeah, like I haven’t heard that before.” She managed a sneer.

A fence blocked the far side of the bar, so she’d have to slip past both of them before she could get to the parking lot. She’d always felt safe on the island, but she didn’t feel safe now, and her Viper face was slipping. “Let’s get that drink.”

“No hurry.” Wade, the Dumpster man, rubbed his crotch. “Scottie, go pee.”

“Can’t. I got a boner.”

Their stench made her want to retch. Her heart had started to race. “I need a drink,” she said quickly. “You can come with me or stay out here.”

But as she tried to slip past them, the one named Wade grabbed her arm. “I like it out here.” He squeezed until it hurt. “You really a dyke?”

“Leave me alone.” Her voice was suddenly high-pitched, all the toughness gone.

A man interrupted. A knight in shining armor calling out from the corner of the building. “Everything okay back here?”

“No!” she exclaimed.

“Girlfriend’s drunk,” Wade shouted back. “Don’t pay her no attention.” He palmed the back of her head and smashed her face into the reek of his T-shirt so she couldn’t cry out.

Her knight in shining armor turned out not to be a knight at all, but one more person who didn’t want to get involved. “Okay, then.” She heard his steps fade away.

She had no Panda to protect her, no Secret Service. Be careful what you wish for. The pressure on the back of her head against his chest didn’t ease. She couldn’t scream. Could barely breathe. She was on her own.

She started to struggle. Pushed hard against him, twisted, got nowhere. She tried to gasp for air but came up short. The more she struggled, the tighter he held her. She fought harder. Lashed out with her shoe. The hard toe connected.

“Bitch! Grab her legs.”

Her head was suddenly free, but as she started to scream, a hand clamped over her mouth from behind, wrenching her neck. One of them caught her legs. Her shoes dropped off as her feet left the ground. She was screaming in her head, a silent scream that did her no good at all.

“Where do you want to take her?”

“Behind those trees.”

“I go first.”

“Bullshit. I saw her first.”