There's Someone For Everyone

Chapter Fourteen
One by One

“Not even if it was my parents who used them last.” She gave him a mock pouting
look. “They still have sex, you know.”

Derek looked properly horrified. “Fresh sheets, by all means.” He started out into the hall, headed for the van. He'd almost made it to the spiral staircase when he heard Vera scream down below. He sprinted the rest of the way, starting to skitter down the stairs at a speed that was likely to help him break his neck. Halfway down he could just see Vera cowering against the wall. A figure, axe buried in his head and gore dripping down his shoulders, was staggering toward her, making gutteral noises, hands outstretched. Derek relaxed instantly. "Shelley! Cut the crap or I'll find a REAL axe to use on your sorry butt."

The bloody vision suddenly straightened up, and Shelley turned his head to look up at Derek. The axe bobbled in a way that suggested it probably wasn't really forged steel and hard wood. "Ah, I'm just kidding around."

Vera had been gasping, about to hyperventilate. Now she drew a deep breath--but it did little to calm her. She lunged forward and smacked Shelley right across the face, then let go with a rapid stream of Spanish. Her voice high pitched and strained, she snarled, "Cabron! Por que me tocas los huevos? Que te jodan!"

Shelly stared at her, almost as admiring as he was stunned. "Oo, what you said!"

Vera hesitated, surprised. "You understood?"

"Not every word, but the tone of voice was unmistakable. I can recognize insults in three or four languages."

She seemed the tiniest bit sheepish, and muttered, "Yeah, well... You had it coming."

He shrugged. "Guess so." He gripped the axe handle and pried at it. It bent sharply, showing itself to be foam rubber. "Damn." He gripped the axe head and pulled. The cap-like frame it was attached to, which had been hidden by his hair, tangled a little as it came free. "Ouch! Darn, I don't want to lose any hair now. I can tell by looking at my old man that I'm going to have pattern baldness somewhere down the line, so there's no point in thinning it prematurely.

Vera peered with interest at the prop axe. The blade had a curved section cut out of it where it would fit the form of the skull. "Damn, man. How much money do you spend on these props?"

"Everyone has a hobby."

She snorted. "You need a high maintenance girlfriend so you can put your cash to good use."

Rick had come out into the lower hall. "Speaking of cash, we're going to need more supplies. Chris, either your parents cleaned out the pantry when they left, or your racoons have learned how to operate a can opener. Shelley, make a run to that store we passed." He pulled out his keys and tossed them toward Shelley.

Vera reached out quickly and snatched the keys out of the air even as Shelley was reaching toward them. "I need a last look at civilization. You ride shot gun, Savini."

Shelley started after her, saying, "I'm going to need some money."

"Not besides what you have in your pocket," Chris called down. "You pleaded poverty when we gassed up, so you can buy the groceries." She waved, smiling. "Go on. Impress Vera with your generosity."

After they left Rick said, "I'm just as glad that Vera took charge. Shelley's a nice enough guy, but sometimes I doubt he can find his ass with both hands."

~*~

The store was isolated, but it was well stocked for a place it's size. It was empty save for the skinny, very bored middle aged man behind the counter, so they took their time choosing what they wanted. They ended up with a couple of loaves of bread, packs of lunch meat, peanut butter and jelly, milk, sodas, cans of soup and chili, an assortment of chips, cookies, popcorn, and a few frozen pizzas that they were surprised to find in the back of the freezer. At the counter, Vera hefted the box of groceries. When Shelley started to protest that he should carry it she said, "Don't be more gender ignorant than you have to. I can manage this without straining anything. You just lift your wallet."

She shouldered her way outside and started walking toward the van. She was just approaching it when three motor cycles wheeled in and parked in front of the store. "Oh, shit," Vera muttered. It was the three cyclists they'd passed on the road--the one's Chili had mooned. She opened the door and crawled in quickly, pulling it almost shut, and ducking down so she wouldn't be visible.

The engines had shut off, and she heard one of them (it sounded like a woman) saying, "Hey, isn't that the van that shit on us on the way up here?"

"Sure as hell looks like it." This voice was deep and masculine. He sounded big. Vera tried to remember what the bikers had looked like. If she remembered correctly there'd been the woman and two men--one big, bald, and black, and the other one white, with long dark hair and a scraggly goatee. None of them looked like they belonged to the Peace Corps. "Let's go inside and see if we can make the acquaintance of those sweet people."

*Shitshitshit,* thought Vera. She briefly considered just driving back to the cabin, telling herself that she'd be doing it to get reinforcements. Then she got disgusted with her flash of cowardice and got out of the van to go inside and help Shelley. She hadn't backed down from anything for a long time, and she didn't want to start now.

~*~

Shelley was trying to talk the clerk into letting him write a check. He wasn't having much luck. He sighed, taking another sip from his Super Size lemon-lime Slushie, and set it back on the counter. ("Place doesn't have an ATM or a magazine rack, but it has a Slushie machine. Go figure") The man had just silently pointed to a grubby, home made sign on the register--NO OUT OF TOWN CHECKS. "Which means," the man said, grinning, "No checks, cause we don't have no bank in town."

"Great. I have Visa or Diner's Club."

"Them's credit cards, right? Don't take credit cards."

"You have to! If I present proper ID and don't come up as delinquent when you check, you have to..."

"Don't have to if we don't got the equipment," the man said blandly, "You see any of that electronic hoo-hah back here?" Shelley leaned over, and realized with a sinking sensation that there was no credit card machine in evidence. "Cash on the barrel head."

"As I said, great. Good thing I hit the ATM before we came up here." Shelley reached into his back pocket, then froze, only his hand moving as he groped. The clerk raised an eyebrow. "Just a second." He tried first his right front pocket, then the left. Nothing. "Ooooh, crap."

"You ain't going to try to tell me you don't have your wallet?" The man's voice was flat.

"I must've dropped it in the van. I'll just..."

"And I KNOW you don't think you're going out to your van for money when your girl is already out there with the groceries."

"But how can I get it if...?"

"She'll come back in if you don't show up in a little while."

Shelley sighed heavily. "Maybe I dropped it in one of the aisle."

"You sure did, sugar." Surprised, Shelley turned around to find a young black woman grinning at him. She was dressed in tight jeans and a skimpy denim vest--and that looked like it was about all. He didn't see any hint of a shirt or bra under that vest. Normally that would have been quite distracting, but there was something else about her that caught Shelley's attention. She was holding his wallet. She wiggled it enticingly. "This look familiar?"

Feeling grateful, Shelley started to reach for it. "Yeah, thank you for..."

She pulled it back out of his reach. "I'll tell you what looks familiar to me--that van outside. It looks JUST like one I saw earlier." Her smile turned mean. "But that one was filled with rude, mean people. YOU couldn't have been in it, could you?"

*Uh-oh.* "Why, no. I don't have a car. I walked over."

"For true?" She sidled a little closer and said confidingly, "You wouldn't be lyin' to Fox, now would you? Fox don't like that." The woman was beautiful, but she looked hard, and she was making Shelley even more nervous than most pretty women. He backed up, but his butt quickly hit the counter.

"Look, lady, I'm sorry if you've had a bad day, but that IS my wallet, and I DO need it back."

"Why dontcha come and get it, then?" Now her smile was sharp. She made crooking gestures at him with her free hand, and Shelley noticed how long and sharp her nails were.

Vera came into the store and went right to them. Her voice hard, she said, "Hand it over."

Fox eyed the new arrival narrowly. "What business is this of yours? Was you ridin' in that tin can, too?"

"My business with it is that's HIS wallet. Give it to him."

Fox put her free hand on her hip, wiggling the wallet enticingly. "You know, those cops laid some tickets on us. That means if we don't want warrents out on us, we gotta hang around this shit hole till we can pay 'em off, and fines just don't fit into our budget. You owe us."

"We didn't sic the police on you," Shelley protested. "That's not fair."

Fox sneered. In a snotty, little girl voice she said, "Oooh, it's not faaair." Her voice was again hard. "You gonna tell the playground supervisor, Whitebread?"

"This is bullshit," said Vera. "I guess I have to act like the man." She reached over and snatched at the wallet.

Fox jerked it out of her reach. "You gotta do better than that, Chita."

A dull red flush stained Vera's cheeks. That was the second bigotted term Fox had used. She was angry, but she wasn't going to descend to the biker chick's level. "Gimme the wallet, Biker Betty." She lunged and grabbed the wallet. Fox wasn't going to let go easily. They tugged at it, then Fox lashed out. Vera jerked back with a gasp, touching her cheek. There were two pink scratches--not deep enough to bleed, but definitly stinging. Fox was watching her smugly. Vera doubled up her fist and popped the other woman square in the face.

Shocked, Fox fell, landing flat on her ass. When she did, she dropped the wallet, and Shelley swooped on it, picking it up. At that moment he heard Vera squawk and start to swear in Spanish again. He looked over and felt his guts clench. There was another biker, but this one was a big, shaven-headed black dude, and he had his fist wrapped in Vera's hair. His voice deep and cold, the man said, "Fox, this bitch hurt you, baby?"

Fox rubbed her ass. "Just my pride, Ali, baby, but that's hurt BAD. Why don't you scalp that wench?"

"Let her go," said Shelley. He was a little surprised that his voice didn't waver. Everyone--Ali, Fox, Vera, the long haired biker standing by the cooler, and the clerk--all looked at him in disbelief.

Ali was giving him the sort of look a Rottweiler might give a snarling Chihuahua. "You don't like it?" He smirked. "Well, what you gonna do about it, squirt?"

Shelley didn't try to plot out strategy--he just acted. He grabbed the first thing he could reach and threw it at the guy. If it had been anything lighter than a tin can it probably wouldn't have had any effect but to piss him off. However Shelley just happened to grab the perfect weapon--his Slushy. He pitched it with admirable aim. The icy, lurid green liquid splashed him square in the face, the then empty Styrofoam cup bouncing him between the eyes.

It was the shock of the cold more than anything else, and maybe the carbonation in the semi-frozen soda stung his eyes. In any case he drew his breath in sharply and let go of Vera to wipe his eyes. "You little fucker! I'm gonna..." He started to move toward Shelley, and whatever he was going to do was lost as his heel skidded in the Slushy and he landed on his butt next to his girlfriend.

Shelley knew an opportunity when he saw it. He grabbed Vera's hand, yelled, "Run!" and took off for the door, dragging her.

"Hey, wait a minute!" The long haired biker stepped in front of them, arms stretched out like a basketball player guarding a goal. "You can't just..."

Shelley tucked his head and barreled on. He wasn't muscular, but he had a fair body mass, he was moving fast, and he was MOTIVATED. He slammed past the guy, knocking him into a flimsy rack of single-serving bag chips. The man ended up sprawled in a pile of potato chips, Fritos, and Doritos as his prey pounded across the unpaved parking lot to their van. He looked over at Fox and Ali and said, "What the fuck just happened?"

On the way out, Vera paused long enough to give the closest motorcycle a vicious kick, knocking it over. Shelley was moving toward the van at full speed. "Come ON! Revenge is over rated." He climbed in.

Vera was following. "Hey, get in the passenger seat. I'm..."

"WE DON'T HAVE TIME!" Through the glass door Shelley could see the big biker guy standing up. "Get in or get left." Vera had left the keys in the ignition, and Shelley fired up the engine. It's roar was pretty impressive for a not-new van. Too bad Shelley's driving skill weren't up to the surprising power. He was so intent on achieving speed that he wasn't paying all that much attention to direction. Consequently he ran right into one of the motorcycles. The van jolted, popping both the riders up off their seats as it bumped over the cycle, and Shelley thought vaguely that the suspension was never going to be the same again. Then he thought, *I just destroyed a bike belonging to a gang that I also just humiliated.* He jammed the petal to the floorboard and they fishtailed out of the lot, spraying gravel, just as the store door was slammed open behind them. He heard a deep throated roar of rage and winced. "Oh, mother! I have to go and run over the biggest one's bike!"

He was shocked when Vera leaned over, grabbed his hair, and planted a hard kiss on his cheek, down near his mouth. She gave him a fierce grin and said, "I'm gonna have to rethink my first impression of you, Shel. That was pretty fucking cool."

"It was? I mean... Yeah." *Quick! What would a cool guy do?* He eased up on the speed a little. "If he didn't have back-up, I'd have kicked his ass." He puffed out his chest. "No one messes with a lady while I'm around."

Vera sat back, hoping he didn't see her roll her eyes. What corny macho chauvinist bull. *Still, he means well, and it WAS pretty brave,* she thought. She snuck a glance at him. *And he's actually kind of cute. Who knows? Maybe he'll get lucky before we go home.* She smirked. *Maybe we both will. Hell, maybe all of us will...*