Travis Starnes
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Desperate Rendition - Chapter 6
🕑 Added 2024-08-22 18:36:57 +0000 UTCSomehow, I just realized chapter 6 never posted.
Taylor could hear the gunfire before he rounded the corner, in spite of the midday sounds of the city. The SUV had been driving like a bat out of hell, weaving in and out of traffic, making it hard for Taylor to follow. The only thing that had worked in his favor is people drove like maniacs in Caracas, so his keeping pace far enough back was unlikely to draw suspicion.
That and the mercs were more focused on their task than on losing a tail. Taylor pulled up half on the sidewalk as on the inside of the corner, so he could see the street but wasn’t in the line of wherever the fire was.
Four houses down from the corner, several black SUVs were pulled up in front of a worn-down tenement house, with the SUV Taylor had been following pulling up to join them. There were maybe a dozen mercenaries in the street, peppering the upper floors of the building with bullets while several more were banging away at what appeared to be a barricaded door with a metal entry rammer.
And not making fast progress.
There were also several bodies on the ground next to the SUVs that were already there, which were themselves riddled with bullet holes.
As Taylor watched, muzzle flashes stabbed out of one of the top windows, dropping another merc. The guys Taylor had been following screeched to a halt behind their friends’ cars and piled out, pouring more fire into the building.
The door downstairs started to give, and it was obvious to Taylor that if she couldn’t go out the bottom floor, there was only one other way out. He gunned the engine, swinging the jeep into a narrow alley beside the next building over. Tires screeched as he braked hard, jumping out before the vehicle had fully stopped.
He barely paused as he burst through the rickety door to the building, gun in hand. Even as he went through, he could see the mercs break through next door and pile into Bonnie’s building. It was now a race to the roof.
The startled residents, who’d been huddling on the bottom floor from the gunfire, stared at him open-mouthed as he took the stairs two at a time. One of them, an old man, shouted at him in Spanish, but Taylor ignored him, laser-focused on getting up the stairs.
He burst through the access door and onto the roof, skidding to a halt and pulling up his gun as movement caught his attention, as a thin figure in a black jacket landed on the far edge of the rooftop, rolling to absorb the impact.
She came up, weapon in hand, pointing her gun at him. He did the same.
Neither fired.
“You asked for me,” Taylor said. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be bleeding out in that market. We need to move.”
Bonnie only took a second before she lowered her weapon, and the two took off. The mercs had been hot on her heels and were on the roof before they cleared the access door. Bullets sprayed behind them as they vaulted down the stairs.
Taylor and Bonnie thundered down the stairs, knowing the mercenaries would be right behind them.
“We need to…” Taylor started, but his words were cut short as they rounded a corner and came face-to-face with two mercenaries charging up the stairs.
Time seemed to slow. Taylor’s gun was already up, muscle memory taking over. He squeezed the trigger twice in quick succession. The first merc’s head snapped back, a red mist erupting behind him.
Bonnie was a heartbeat behind him, as the second merc stumbled, clutching his chest before tumbling backward down the stairs.
“Nice shot,” Taylor grunted.
Bonnie didn’t respond, pulling something off her belt and throwing it up the stairs before continuing past the bodies. Taylor wanted to warn her, to tell her people lived here, but it didn’t matter. The grenade went off, and Taylor picked up the distinct smell of white phosphorous. This whole building was going to be on fire shortly.
Not that there was anything he could do about it.
They reached the ground floor, the sound of screaming residents mixing with the shouts of the mercenaries above them as they hit the sudden blaze in their way. If they were stupid, they’d try and jump through the fire, but white phosphorous spit burning chunks for a few minutes after it went off, making it a hazard.
If they were smart, they’d retrace their steps and try to make their way back down. As they got to the door, Taylor could hear shouting in Russian. Not right outside, but close, meaning the guys upstairs were yelling at whoever was still outside.
They were going to have company outside.
“Go,” Bonnie said, seeing him pause. “I’ll lay down cover, then follow.”
Taylor hesitated, “How do I know you won’t just disappear?”
“I called you, remember. Plus, we’re out of time. Now go!”
Taylor gritted his teeth, then nodded. He crouched low and burst out the door, sprinting for the relative safety of the building’s corner. Gunfire erupted behind him as Bonnie opened up on the men still by the far building, who had already started toward them.
Reaching the edge of the building, Taylor spun and brought his weapon up.
“Come on!” he shouted, firing past her.
Bonnie turned and ran, staying low. Taylor continued firing until the chamber clicked empty, forcing the mercenaries to hold their cover.
As she reached him, Taylor grabbed her arm. “Jeep. Now.”
They sprinted to where he’d left the vehicle. Taylor jumped behind the wheel while Bonnie vaulted into the passenger seat. The engine roared to life and Taylor stomped on the gas, tires squealing as they tore down the alley. He yanked the wheel hard, skidding onto a parallel street as the mercenaries finally came around the corner, sending a wild spray of bullets after them.
Taylor had just started to slow down and was about to make a turn onto another street to ensure he lost them when he saw one of the black SUVs come tearing out of the alley behind them, swerving wildly onto the street. Chaos erupted as civilian cars smashed into each other in an effort to avoid the SUVs and ran up on sidewalks causing pedestrians to panic and run in all directions.
“Hold on,” Taylor said, as he smashed the accelerator of the old jeep down and began weaving through traffic.
Even as he caused civilians to lay on their horns and swerve to avoid him, it became immediately obvious this jeep was not a good escape vehicle, struggling to maintain high speeds even as the SUV, now joined by two others a little further back, began to close on him.
Bonnie leaned out the side of the jeep and fired a few times. Considering both the vehicle she was in and the one pursuing them were swerving through traffic, she made incredible shots, as bullets cracked the windshield of the pursuing SUV.
Unfortunately, that was all it seemed to do, missing the driver, which had been her real target. Taylor jinked left and right, trying to find an option to lose them, since just swerving onto a side street would slow him down more than it would them.
They were persistent and decent drivers, managing to miss the mangle of traffic he was leaving in his wake. The SUV continued gaining on him, finally catching up. Taylor was clocked in by a large box truck and, for a moment, couldn’t swerve aside, letting the SUV smash into the rear of the jeep, jolting him and forcing him to grip the wheel hard to keep from losing control.
“Hold on,” he warned, spotting a narrow alley up ahead.
He wrenched the wheel, smashing through two trash cans and sending them careening down the tight passage. Behind them, one of the SUVs attempted the same turn but took it too wide and smashed into a street vendor’s cart, scattering some kind of cooked food and metal debris.
The other SUVs had caught up by this point and passed their impaired friend, continuing the chase. Across from the alley, Taylor saw a construction site and decided it was worth a chance. The jeep shot out of the alley and through traffic, barely missing a car of young women who looked wide-eyed as Taylor passed within millimeters of their car.
He had hoped that one of the SUVs would be less lucky and get t-boned as they tried to follow him, but both made it through, as did the now very dented SUV that had pulled away from the remains of the vendor’s cart and rejoined the pursuit, albeit further back.
Workers scrambled to get out of the way as he blew through the chain-link fence that was blocking it from the street. Taylor dodged workers and stacks of construction supplies, looking for something he could use to divert them. The jeep skidded at a sharp angle, sending a shower of gravel, as he turned hard to go between two half-built buildings.
Bullets shot past them as guys leaned out the windows, firing wildly. Both Taylor and Bonnie were ducking low in the seats.
One of the SUVs missed the turn, putting it further behind, but the other was hot on his tail and closing. Taylor saw a load of bricks being pulled up to one of the buildings with a long rope tied off, he swerved, taking out the post holding the rope, and floored the accelerator.
Bonnie looked straight up, her mouth agape as a shower of bricks came down. Taylor managed to just get past it as the bricks crashed down, smashing into the SUV following in, shattering the front window and causing it to slow down while they kicked the broken windshield out, allowing Taylor to build up a lead as the third, and only undamaged SUV, tried to get around it and continue the pursuit.
Taylor swerved hard, avoiding a parked bulldozer, and crashing through another gate, screeching the tires as he swerved hard to join traffic. The three SUVs were behind him, fairly spread out with the farthest almost out of sight, but still back there.
Taylor could see a freeway ahead and gunned it, taking three lanes at once and drifting slightly as he took the sharp right before gunning it, hitting the onramp and getting onto the less hectic freeway.
The SUVs stayed with him.
“Shit,” he muttered. “This was a mistake.”
“They’re persistent bastards,” Bonnie said, looking over her shoulder at them.
He had hoped he would have lost them on that turn, and not losing them made getting on the freeway a mistake. The SUVs were closing the range between them quickly, and there weren’t enough obstacles to divert them. Taylor started looking for a way off the freeway, but they’d hit a bridge, and the only way down was a straight drop to the street below.
Taylor whipped around a large truck, trying to put it between him and the SUVs. He lost sight of one, but the other two pulled in tight behind him. They tried ramming him from behind, but at the first tap the SUV almost lost control and went over the side of the bridge.
The truck had started to slow down and Taylor was planning on steering hard to get on the far lane of traffic, where a small bunch of cars would make good obstacles. That plan was ditched, however, when he cleared the truck only to find the third SUV, the one with the huge dent in the front from the food cart it had hit earlier.
Taylor and Bonnie both braced as it swerved across the path of the truck and slapped into the side of the jeep. Clearly, they hoped to put Taylor over the side of the bridge, but just as it hit the bridge ended and was replaced by a tall concrete barrier. Sparks flew as the jeep skidded along the side.
The merc in the passenger seat lifted his gun, clearly happy to have a clean shot at both Taylor and Bonnie.
Taylor slammed the brakes and the SUV almost slammed into the wall itself before overcorrecting, fishtailing the other way, and narrowly missing the truck which was desperately trying to get out of this pack of insane cars.
As soon as the SUV was clear, Taylor hit the gas again.
“Hang on,” he shouted as he wrenched the wheel hard, cutting across all lanes of traffic, down a ditch medium and up into oncoming traffic. Cars blared horns and swerved wildly to avoid him. The three SUVs stayed with him, however.
Taylor didn’t leave it at that, and continued across the busy lanes of oncoming traffic and off the roadway entirely, down a steep embankment toward a sparse treeline.
“Where the hell are you going?” Bonnie said.
“I have no idea,” Taylor said, braking and holding onto the steering wheel for dear life.
Bonnie turned back and started firing at the SUVs as they came over the hill. This time she must have hit something because the front SUV veered wildly and started to roll, crashing downhill, flipping wildly in a tight roll, occasionally smashing into the ground and catching air again.
Taylor turned hard, just keeping their own jeep from rolling as the SUV flew over them, missing them by a hair, before smashing into several trees. The other two, who’d been a little further behind, stayed with him though. Bonnie continued to shoot at them, but didn’t have luck with another shot like the first one.
Taylor saw what he was looking for, a thin paved road that had been running parallel to the freeway. He’d seen it when he’d crossed over into oncoming traffic briefly, and hoped it would take him back into the city. He needed traffic to lose these guys.
Taylor hit the paved road and turned hard, the tires finally getting a firm hold as the rough gravel and dirt gave way to asphalt. Taylor gunned it as soon as he had control and took off back toward town. The SUVs had a harder time coming to a stop. They both managed to keep from flying off the roadway and emulating their friend, which had been Taylor’s hope. It did slow them down and they’d barely managed to avoid slamming into one another.
Taylor made it back into the outskirts of the city and began turning from alley to street and back. The SUVs were behind him and closing, and were managing to make the turns with him. The alleys and streets were just far enough apart that they could either see him or work out where he’d gone each time.
They were both closing in again, to the point where they’d be able to start trying to run him off the road or shoot at him some more. Then he saw what he needed. A large truck was starting to back up, and had already cleared half the alley.
Taylor gunned it.
“What the hell are you doing!” Bonnie shouted. “You’re never going to…”
Before she finished, the jeep skidded through the quickly shrinking open space and shot out the other side. There were angry horns and beeps, and the truck skidded to a halt, but no crash, which Taylor had been hoping for.
Still, they were clear. In the time it took them to backtrack or for the truck to move, he’d be gone. Taylor began taking rapid, counterintuitive turns to remove any chance that they might follow, sticking to the outskirts, but heading south. For ten minutes they rode in silence as Taylor kept swinging almost out of town entirely and then doubling back.
There was no sign of them.
“That was fun,” Bonnie said, smiling at him.
Taylor just shook his head at her. “That’s one way to call it. We need to head to the airport. The sooner I can get you out of here and into federal protection, the better.”
“Agreed,” Bonnie said.
