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At least I’ll die not being angry with my friends.
That was poor consolation. I knew it would be poor consolation to them, as well.
The sky was a pale gray, and my cheeks began to itch. I had maybe twenty minutes left.
I shut my eyes and dreamed I was being embraced by my lovers.
18
Noah
With Trevor in the lead, we ran through the forest in a single-file line. We didn’t exchange a word, not a hand signal or any form of communication. We simply ran in a line toward our common goal.
We came to a stop with the enemy house still about a hundred yards away.
Trevor gathered us in a huddle. “We need a plan,” he said.
“We need to storm the place and kick some ass,” said Will.
“That sounds like a good enough plan for me,” said Christian.
Trevor stuck up his hand. “We’re going to be smart about this.” He looked at Will. “And we’re going to kick some ass.”
He pointed at me. “Noah, is it true what I’ve heard? Can you really hotwire a car?”
“Depends on the model. Anything before twenty o four I can hotwire.”
“So, then, no,” said Trevor, discouraged.
“The first time we were there,” said Ken. “They had an old pickup in the driveway. I don’t know what year, but definitely last century.”
“I can hotwire a pickup,” I said with conviction. “If I can get it. But I don’t know how to pick a lock.”
“You take a rock,” said Landon, “and you smash the window. Then you reach in and pop, you open the door.”
“I’d probably need a screwdriver to remove the access panel,” I said.
Trevor reached into his pocket, pulled out a Swiss Army knife and handed it to me. “How fast can you do it?”.
“Two minutes,” I said. “Maybe less.”
Trevor bit down on the inside of his cheek. He cocked his head to the side and said, “It’s got to be less.”
“I can do it in one minute,” I said.
“Okay,” said Trevor, “here’s what we do.” He pointed to Landon and Christian. “You guys go to the front with Noah. Noah breaks in and hotwires the pickup. You two make sure no one comes out of the house and stops him.”
He pointed to Will and Ken. “You two are going to approach from the side door.” He pointed to Ben. “You and I will go in through the back.”
He pointed to me. “Noah, you’re going to hotwire the pickup, and you’re going to drive that fucker full speed into the front door.”
“Fuck yeah, I am,” I said. I gritted my teeth and balled my hands into fists. Let’s do this. Enough with the talking, already.
“That’s what we call a diversion,” said Trevor. “When the pickup hits, we’ll all hear it. Then we tear in. No prisoners. No mercy.”
We repeated in unison. “No prisoners. No mercy.”
I found a good-sized rock I’d use to smash the window. But as luck would have, I didn’t need it. The driver-side door was unlocked.
It had been three years since I last hotwired a car. I wasn’t a criminal—except for the breaking and entering and the property damage I was about to commit. I legitimately had a problem with the ignition contact of my car. Instead of spending money I didn’t have in order to get it fixed, I simply learned how to hotwire it. The skill ended up coming in handy on a camping trip when my friend, Seb, had lost the keys to, coincidentally, his pickup.
Landon and Christian took their places on guard by the front door. I slipped into the truck, removed the plastic cover of the steering column, found the wiring harness connectors, removed the plastic caps, and touched the two wires together—all in thirty seconds, tops.
The rev of the engine was booming in the otherwise still night. I knew I had to act fast if surprise was going to be on our side.
I put the sucker in drive, aimed for the front door, and put the pedal to the floor.
As Christian was getting out of the way, he said, “Seatbelt.”
Shit!
I slipped on the seatbelt a split second before the truck hit the door.
That was easily the loudest sound I’d ever made in my life.
The blow had busted the door, but the door frame still held—barely.
I backed up and drove at the door a second time. I heard voices coming from inside the house and saw two men running toward the door. Bad idea.
I rammed the pickup into the door a second time. The door frame snapped and, with it, a part of the wall. The door itself shot through the entryway and skidded to the far wall.
The men jumped out of the way of the pickup, but not out of the way of Christian and Landon.
By the time I got out of the pickup, Christian and Landon already had them in a choke hold.
