He crept away from the voices and headed around the back of the building. If his plan was going to work then he needed to put some distance between him and Shawcross before things played out.
Coming up on his left was the park’s rollercoaster, the Hood. Its walled-off surroundings would provide good cover for what he was about to do. There was a heavy bin nearby and Nick ran towards it. He hefted his foot in the air and knocked it clean over. The lid came loose and spun across the pavement. It made an almighty clatter.
“Shit!” Nick shouted. “Come on, they’ll hear us. Run!”
He quickly hopped over the waist high fence that surrounded the queuing area for the Hood and then crouched down beneath the elevated steel tracks.
“They’ve escaped,” Shawcross shouted in the distance. “Come on, I hear them over there.”
Nick hid behind a support pillar and listened to the footfalls of his pursuers get nearer.
“You’re a dead man,” Dash shouted. It really was him. Somehow he had survived being pushed out of a cable car hundreds of feet above the ground.
“You’re supposed to be the dead man,” Nick shouted back. “I watched you die, blud.”
“Can’t kill me, gangster. I took that fall like it was nothing. Hit a dozen branches on the way down, but I walked that shit off. I lost my eye, though, and somebody needs to pay for that. You tell Jan he’s got it coming, too.”
Jan isn’t with them? Then where the hell is he?
“He’s inside the rollercoaster enclosure,” Shawcross said. “The others must be with him somewhere.”
Nick grinned. That’s right, you arrogant fool. That’s what I want you to think. Keep looking forward while a speeding truck comes up behind you.
He had to keep them distracted.
“Hey, Dash. When I’m through with you this time, you’ll stay dead.”
Dash sucked his teeth, the sound cutting through the air. “Come on down, then, hard man. Let’s see what you got?”
Nick laughed. “While I’m outnumbered? Don’t think so. When I take you down, it’s going to be just you and me.”
“What do you mean…outnumbered?” Shawcross asked.
Nick bit on his fist. Shit! I think I just blew it.
There was a moment of silence and then Shawcross started shouting. “He’s not with the others. He’s just distracting us. Come on, back to the restaurant.”
Nick had to do something; had to make up for his mistake. He shot out from behind the support pillar and scrambled back towards the queue barricade. He hopped over it mid-run and made a beeline for Shawcross. Dash was standing right beside him and so was Alan. The mystery of whether or not Michelle was with them was also solved. She most certainly was.
Stupid cow.
Michelle saw Nick running at them and shouted out a warning to her cohorts. Alan leapt out to block him, but Nick was having none of it. He swung his rifle like a bat and clubbed Alan around the top of his head. The older man staggered backwards and hit the ground in a daze.
One down!
Before Nick had time to prepare his next swing, Dash smacked him around the head with a shovel. Everything went black for a moment and then he found himself on the floor, staring up at the stars.
Dash loomed into view, looking down on him. “I’m not impressed, blud. I thought you was gonna take me out?”
Nick turned his head to the side and spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground. He felt a tooth come loose. “If not in this life then the next, I promise you that, blud”
Dash laughed and raised the shovel up above Nick’s neck, ready to take his head off. Nick closed his eyes and waited.
“Get it over with,” Shawcross said. “Kill him.”
Dash nodded and then looked down at Nick with a smirk on his face. “Say night, night, Honky.”
Thump!
Dash staggered sideways and tripped over Nick’s prone body. Just when he had expected to feel the bite of the sharp edge of the shovel, something had happened. Something had stopped Dash from delivering his killing blow.
Somebody saved me?