The Crew

Untitled Part 17

Chapter Seventeen

We sprang up instantly and began running. I had begun feeling better, but the drug was certainly still in effect, and the alcohol had taken its toll. I had to focus. The room erupted into pandemonium, girls shrieking as if we were getting raided by the SWAT team, guys grunting and shoving each other out of the way.

We bolted out the door, filing down the green-carpeted stairs and out to the parking lot. The police had only one squad car—"Oxnard Police Department, To Protect and Serve" splashed in white across the black Crown Vic—and it was on the opposite side of the lot from Bear's Jeep.

Bear was behind us and wouldn't make it if we waited. We were going to have to run. And fast.

I ran behind Bone. Johnny and D.D. were up ahead of us with Cannonball in the lead. Bear was slower than us with his heavy, sluggish body jerking to and fro, his weight distributed unevenly as he ran. I heard Cannonball yelling in the front:

"Damn it: COME ON boys!"

As we scrambled the police got wind of what was going on and zeroed in on us. I heard one of the policemen as he radioed in to the dispatcher for two more squad cars. The other one gave chase. I had kept up amazingly with Bone and was still behind him, using him as a sort of shield. I knew Bone was crazy and had experience with the law. As Bone and I ran the sprinting cop moved like a demented police demon.

"Stop! Stop! You hear me, I said STOP! HALT! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST! STOP RIGHT NOW! I AM WARNING YOU!"

Bone glanced back for an instant, saw me and winked. He had a plan, that much was clear. The officer was right there. Without warning, Bone changed course completely; he ducked down low, and with full brunt force hurled himself at the cop's legs. Off kilter in his run, and with the impact of the blow, the officer easily tumbled over Bone and fell to the ground, pummeling onto concrete. I stopped, taking a few cautious steps back to help Bone to his feet. But he motioned me to keep running. He'd sacrificed himself.

"RUN Dog RUN!"

I ran with the fury of Satan, catching a glimpse of D.D. and Johnny and Bear in the corner of my eye. In the commotion Bear had passed me and had jumped into the jeep, starting the ignition; D.D., Johnny and Cannonball were waiting further up the way. Bear hit the gas and reversed the Jeep nearly running into the motel wall, then slammed it into gear, heading toward D.D. and Cannon.

If I was going to make that ride, I was going to have to fly, and now! I heard the sound of running behind me and turned around quickly, hoping against hope it was Bone. But it wasn't. It was the cop. He was limping, almost dragging one leg but still running fast. And gaining. The other officer had taken charge of Bone, cuffing him and throwing him in the back of the squad car. The Jeep waited for me, revving the engine, Cannon in the passenger seat, D. and Johnny in the back, all four of them yelling in unison through the rolled down windows.

"C'mon Dog, what the hell; run you idiot!"

My legs carried me faster than I thought possible given my drugged state, but a surge of adrenaline—my flight vs. fight—fueled me. The cop was still gaining on me, ten feet away. The Jeep began inching, ready to catch me and blast off if I could only make it. I was sweating, sprinting so fast the sound of my pounding heart muffled everything but my own breathing, exaggerating, distorting it.

"C'mon Dog, jump in, we're leavin'—let's go, NOW!" Cannon spat out in desperate fury.

Sensing the physical proximity of the man, and to my immediate horror, his hand brushed my shoulder. The hand remained there for an eighth of a second, feverishly crawling downward toward the bottom of my shirt, grasping. I began unraveling the shirt from my body, swaying back and forth, trying to maintain a full run. At last, free of the shirt, the Jeep was only a few feet from victory.

Still panting and foundering, I touched metal—the Jeep!

I begged my last ounce of fortitude, thrusting myself through the air into the vehicle now moving a few miles an hour, landing safely in the backseat of the Bear-Mobile, right behind Cannonball as usual.

"NOW, BEAR, NOW!" Cannon roared.

Bear slammed the gas like Hunter S. Thompson never could have dreamed, the back door slamming shut on the sheer force of motion as we took a harsh left onto the road, ripping into the night. We sped off faster than I had ever seen Bear drive, intense and terrifying, catapulting us out of destruction. We all turned around and looked back. The cop was still on his feet, yelling into his hand-held walkie-talkie, my limp white shirt in his hand, arrogantly yelling into the growing distance. Safe now, we all began hollering at once, cheering in the cold, dark night from our refuge in the Jeep. We were ecstatic. We were re-born. We were living! Truly living!

"Ok Cannon, where in the hell are we going, quick, we need a plan, the cops know what car we're driving," Bear shrieked.

"We all know where we're going, goddamn it," fired D.D.

And we did. Cannon nodded quickly to Bear and that was that. We were on our way to Lorenzo's of course, our den, our sanctuary, our Church.

"Hey, what about the girls; what about the rest of the guys back at the motel?" I asked.

"Fuck em," Cannon said.

I stuck my arm out the window into the rushing cold air, filled with hope and utter confusion. As if waking from a nightmare back into reality, I thought about Sarah. My mind filled with fear.