My Life Underground ~ 10 ~ The Sounds of Silence and Squealing Tires

PART TEN:

Keenan grabs my arm and pulls me down into a crouch behind a parked car. He puts a finger over my lips to hush me. His face is tense. He peers around the car at Teagan's apartment. He frowns.

"Follow me." he whispers, pulling a gun from the waist of his pants.

We make our way down the street, quietly, crouching behind vehicles. We are way down from her apartment. We are again crouched silently behind a car. It is raining gently now and the wind has picked up quite a bit. I try not to shiver as I wait for Keenan's instruction.

"We're going to come around behind them. Startle them. Maybe we can have some sort of advantage. I dunno, it's all I got."

"Better than anything I could think of."

I follow him silently across the street, my car keys in one hand. Keenan has his gun in his hand. We approach them from behind. Keenan nods at me. He puts his gun up to the back of one of the guys head.

"Don't turn around." he whispers.

The other two guys spin around. Guns drawn and pointing at us.

"Keenan?" asks the guy, his voice sounds shaky, scared. But I would be too.

"Drop your guns or I will blow his fuckin head off." Keenan yells at the other two men.

They oblige and lay their guns down on the ground.

"Ainslee, go and grab those guns."

I hesitate.

"Now!"

I walk forward. Slowly. Half expecting for one of them to dash forward, grab their gun and shoot me in the face. I reach them finally and pick them up off the ground. I hold them up, one in each hand as I back up toward the car.

"I want you to listen, I don't want to shoot you but if I have to I won't hesitate. Ainslee and I are taking our car. And we're leaving. I promise if any of you follow me I will kill you. Got it?"

The guys nod. Keenan backs up slowly and motions me to get into the car. I unlock the door and climb into the drivers seat, I keep one of the guns on my lap and lay the other one on the passenger seat. I don't know what to think about what Keenan just did. I am half impressed and half afraid of him. He backs up to the car and opens the door with a small creak. He picks up the gun and sits down.

"Go."

I throw the car into gear and step on the gas. We go. I light a smoke and crack the window. I drive us back out onto the freeway. Keenan keeps checking over his shoulder. He looks nervous/excited. I don't even want to talk to him because I'm afraid of what he might say. He is so intense right now.

"Lets go see that buddy of mine. You need to know about him though. He is an informant for the cops."

"You think that's a good idea Keenan? Is he going to be able to help us?"

"Yah I have a plan. I don't want to get your hopes up though, just in case. Let's just wait until we talk to him and see if it's possible."

"Where am I going?"

"Hope."

I light another smoke and drive.
*****
I pull the car up in front of a moderately sized home in a decent part of town. According to Keenan's directions. Most of our drive was spent in silence. It's like we ran out of things to talk about. I sigh in relief as we get out of the car and walk up to the front door of the house. I shove the gun into the waist of my jeans and pull my shirt down over it. I guess considering who we're dealing with you can never be too careful. Suddenl,y my need for the truth from Keenan overwhelms me.

"How did you meet a police informant?" I ask Keenan. I have to kill my curiosity before it kills me.

He doesn't reply. He walks up to the door and knocks. Silence. It swings open to reveal a tall guy, skinny with blond hair and blue eyes. He doesn't look to me like a police informant, but then again, what do I really know on the subject?

"Come in Keenan. Who's this?"

"This is Ainslee."

"Oh this is- wait a sec, what's goin on? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Ya, something like that."

He opens the door wider to let us in. The inside of the house is fairly nice and kind of makes me wonder what he does for a living. He doesn't look like a junkie or a drug dealer. Or not like any I've ever met before.

"Tell me what's up. Maybe I can help."

He gestures for us to sit and we do.

For a second we are all silent and the sound of tires squealing to a stop cuts through the quiet like a fuckin knife. Fear stabs at me. No one moves.

"Looks like I don't have to explain at all, Andy. Here comes my trouble now."

Andy gets up and peeks out his blinds.

"Luther and Greg, Jesus Christ Keenan, what have you done?"