Jim started the motorcycle and came forward.
I then took the lead.
Honestly, I was shocked he actually got on the motorcycle and was following me. I figured we’d end up in a fist fight before he would listen to me.
I took the road and thirty minutes later the first flicker of sunlight started to shine from the horizon. It was like light coming through bottom of a door. We still had a little ways to go. When I pulled up to the cemetery there was enough light to see, even if the objects were faint. Riding along the bumpy dirt path of the cemetery that early was a little strange. The headstones stuck out of the ground, each one a reminder of the fate that someone had with the reaper.
There was only one reason to be in the cemetery and that was to pay a visit to someone who met the reaper.
I stopped my ride and Jim pulled up next to me.
I climbed off and stood there listening to the morning birds chirping like crazy.
“What is this?” Jim asked. “This some kind of metaphor for me? I know I’m going to fucking die. I faced…”
“Shut up,” I said.
I motioned for Jim to follow me. We walked down one of the rows as I tried to figure out where the hell I was actually going. There was a tree that gave me a little indication. Luckily it was finally light enough to find that tree and go back another two rows. Jim was with me the entire time. Both of us didn’t speak a word.
Then we got to the spot.
There wasn’t a headstone but a metal plate in the ground. An American flag on each side. A set of flowers in the corner of the plate. The second Jim saw the name he turned and tried to leave.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him right back. “Fuck no, brother. You’re not bailing on me now. You’re facing this. You need to.”
Jim looked at me. His eyes were super wide. I saw the anger and hurt in his face.
I nodded. I was definitely egging him on. Trying to break open all that pent up emotion. I needed him to channel that shit for this fight. If he got into a ring with a bunch of people laughing at him and doubting him and he channeled at that anger, he was going to destroy whoever he fought.
Before that, he needed to see this. To face the grave of the man we lost over there. The man Jim couldn’t get out of the convoy. I knew the story and that Bill had lost his life the second the IED went off. There was no pulling him out of there. I know Jim was pissed that he wasn’t the one driving and he wasn’t able to get Bill out like he had the other guys he’d been riding with.
“You didn’t end up here,” I said. “Bill did. We can be sorry. We can feel pain. But we can’t change what happened.”
“My instincts were shit,” Jim said. “Bill should have been first. He was the one with a wife and kids. The other two didn’t have that. Neither did I. I could have pushed him out and grabbed the wheel…”
“Jim, listen to yourself. You don’t know what Bill’s state was when the first one went off. You scrambled and did what you felt you had to do. You saved two lives. Bill lost his. That wasn’t your fault. None of this is your fucking fault. But it’s your fate. So fucking own it, brother. Own your fucking fate and do something.”
Jim stepped back until he hit a headstone behind him. He leaned against it and folded his arms. He stared down at the plate in the ground. All that was left of one of the brothers that went to war with us. We came back, he didn’t. It was a damn cruel fate, but so was life.
“Sometimes I go back in my mind,” Jim said. “I change things around. I piece it all together differently.”
“Everyone does that. The guy that’s an addict wishes he could go back and never take that first hit. The woman in a shelter wishing she never went back to the guy that kept beating her. Everyone does it, Jim. We’re not built to be perfect. You lost your goddamn leg over there, brother. I’m sorry for that. But you’re walking. You’re riding. And now I need you to fight. For me. For your sister. For Maggie. For the MC. Most of all, Jim, fight for yourself.”
Jim stared at me and then his eyes moved to the right. “Ah, shit…”
“What now?” I asked.
“That whole fighting thing. Might be sooner than you think.”
I looked back and felt a fire shoot through my body.
Jim and me weren’t the only two living people in the cemetery right then.
The Hell Five had followed us…
**
It was Dice and Jop, two of the big guys that made up the Hell Five. I knew that they didn’t travel with just two guys either. Sooner than later we’d be swarmed by them. And what better spot to get us than in a cemetery? They could dig up any fresh grave they wanted, drop our bodies, dump our motorcycles, and we’d never be found again.
“Fuck,” I said.
“What’s the plan?” Jim asked.
“Stay here and let me handle this.”
“Fuck that,” Jim said. “We fight, right?”
Dice and Jop approached, guns in their hands.