Nightriders The Kidnappings Part 10

     Axl awakened to the morning sunlight shining in his eyes. He grabbed the phone he had set on his dresser to find that it was already nearly noon. He quickly sat up in bed and began testing his foot. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the pain had dissipated greatly from the night before. Still, to be cautious, he grabbed his crutch and began making his way through the hallway toward Rolf’s room. “You awake, guys?” Axl called out while knocking on the door.
            “They’re not here, Axl,” said Marilyn from the other end of the hallway.

    “Oh?” answered Axl, curiously. “Well, where did they go?”

    Marilyn sighed. “Rolf received a call this morning from someone at the music academy. Apparently, one of Rolf’s friends who worked there was kidnapped during the pirate attack.”

    “Mac?” answered Axl, curiously.

    Marilyn nodded. “Yes, I believe that was his name.”

    “I’ve gotta get down there!” answered Axl.

    “Rolf told me to make sure you stayed here to rest your foot,” said Marilyn.
            “I don’t care what Rolf said, I’ve gotta go! Someone I deeply care about is missing and I can’t just stay here doing nothing!”

    “They’ve already left with the van,” said Marilyn.

     Axl shook his head in frustration. “Darn it!”

    Marilyn appeared to be deep in thought a moment before responding. “Come with me. I think I can help you with that.”

    Axl’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

    Marilyn chuckled. “Yes, ‘really.’ I never was one to listen to Rolf. Meet me in the garage. I believe we just may have the perfect vehicle for you.”

    “You’re a lifesaver!” exclaimed Axl, grinning. “I’ll be right down.”

     Once he returned to his room, he threw open his suitcase, and began digging through his clothes until he found his small black metallic pistol. As he flicked his lizard tongue on the end of the nozzle, he ejected the magazine and began loading it with bullets. Axl sighed as he viewed the weapon of destruction in his hands. Pirates, Warlocks, Falsettos. I never would have guessed the day would come I’d need to carry this. After loading the weapon, Axl wedged it between his shorts on his back.

    After Marilyn opened one of the many garage doors, Axl’s jaw dropped open at the beautiful work of mechanical marvel parked before him. A shiny, black Harold Jackson glistened in the sun from the garage window. It’s exhaust stretched far beyond the wheels and possessed long duel shocks in the front. Over the black paint were flames with a skull that amazingly resembled the Nightriders logo.

    “Who does this belong to?” asked Axl, wide eyed with wonder.

    “Oh, Rolf purchased this machine a few years before leaving for college,” explained Marilyn releasing a sigh. “To be honest, I never could understand why he had that dreadful skull painted on the side. It’s just so barbaric looking.”

    “Uh, yeah!” stuttered Axl trying to hide his enthusiasm. “It’s dreadfully ‘barbaric!’” Axl immediately mounted himself on the sleek leather seat and started the ignition with a key given by Marilyn. It quickly roared to life spitting smoke out of the exhaust.

    “Now you be careful and don’t forget to wear….” Before she could finish her sentence, Axl zoomed away. “A helmet…”

    Axl wore a smile of ecstasy as he zoomed down the narrow winding road through the woods. He found himself driving for miles without seeing a vehicle coming from either direction. It’s no wonder Rolf owned a motorcycle out here, Axl thought to himself. As he neared the main roads to the city, signs of civilization gradually began to appear beginning with the occasional rusty pickup truck to the eventual semi. As he approached the Silver Gate Bridge, he could not help but take notice of a black, window tinted car, which had been tailing him since turning onto the interstate. You’re just being paranoid, Axl tried to tell himself. Nevertheless, every attempt he made to lose the car by increasing his speed and changing lanes, only served to further his suspicions that he was indeed being followed. At one point, the car barely managed to squeeze between a van and a semi causing them to angrily honk their horns. Axl could hear the car pulling to the side of him as he put his right hand on his back against his gun’s handle. The dark tinted window rolled down revealing two young teenage otter boys wearing Nightriders t-shirts. The one in the passenger’s seat appeared to be recording him with his phone.

    “Hey Axl!” shouted the boys. “Rock on!” Axl released a sigh of relief, smiling bashfully at them. He gave the metal horns with his right hand while posing for a picture. Once having become satisfied with a few snapshots, the otters waved and sped away.

    “Kids,” Axl muttered to himself, chuckling. As soon as he said this, a rainbow colored minivan pulled to the side of him with a large painted “Binky’s Birthday Parties” logo. Axl looked over to see two wild eyed hyenas dressed as clowns waving at him through an open window. The one on the passenger side honked a clown horn mounted on the rear view mirror causing large spikes to eject from the tires and every side of the van. The clown, now grinning mischievously, was aiming a rifle directly at him.

    “He, Hu, he hu, happy birthday!” stuttered the hyena, laughing hysterically. Axl gasped in fear as he slammed on his breaks, noticing several bullets nick the side of the bridge railing just in front of him. The van veered to the right attempting to impale Axl with the spikes missing him only by inches. Sparks began to flame from the bridge as they scrapped against the railing. As the van slowed down from hitting the side of the bridge, Axl steered to the left of the van struggling to increase his distance from the hyena clowns. Now holding his pistol in plain sight, he fired several shots at the windshield driving the hyenas to duck in their seats. While weaving between the two vehicles in front of him, Axl then ducked as he felt two bullets barely miss his bare back. Several of the cars honked at him as he continued cutting between the traffic. No longer hearing gunfire, Axl turned around grinning with relief from seemingly having lost the van. Unfortunately, his celebration was cut short at the sight of two vehicles being flung in the air, causing him to nearly jump out of his scales. Axl became slack-jawed as the rainbow colored minivan now possessing two sharp propeller blades spinning violently in the front, again came into view. Axl watched in horror as the van began smashing threw vehicles one by one throwing them to the side of the road. Making the situation all the more bizarre, Axl began to hear what sounded like circus music playing from a large speaker mounted on top of the vehicle. Despite having completely floored the accelerator, he once again found himself only a couple of yards ahead of the van. How the heck can a minivan have so much power? Axl cried to himself. Now having finally cleared the bridge, Axl quickly swerved left narrowly avoiding becoming squashed by an incoming honking semi. Axl heard the sound of vehicles swerving and colliding from behind while the semi’s trailer wrecked into a position which completely blocked the intersection. “Take that you dumb clowns!” Axl shouted while laughing aloud. To his dismay, the sound of a police siren wailed behind him. Axl turned around to see a uniformed white rabbit wearing dark shades glaring at him through the windshield of his patrol car. “Oh c’mon, really?” Axl cried to himself.

    “Pull over lizard! You are breaking the law!” echoed the voice of the officer through the intercom. “Repeat, pull over or I will be forced to open fire!”

    “Oh, sure! Go after the lizard who’s obviously the bad guy!” Axl shouted back at the rabbit officer. From out of nowhere, the rainbow minivan from hell sped out of an intersection from the right forcing the police car to crash into bay. Axl heard the morbid circus music beginning to play once again from the now smoking and dented minivan. “Not again!” Axl cried. He zoomed down to Archway Park now cutting through the grass in a small wooded area. Axl glanced behind to see the minivan still trailing him now slicing through the trees. In his next attempt at losing the van, Axl steered the motorcycle down into a narrow drainage ditch only for the clown hyenas to continue trailing him. It was then Axl took notice of a large drainage hole with just enough space for him to squeeze through. It must finish here! Axl thought to himself as he began aiming for the hole. Axl could hear the deafening circus music coming from right behind him accompanied by the evil hysterical laughter of the clown hyenas. Axl braced himself for the tunnel curling his tail around himself as the whooshing of the minivan propeller blades were now only inches away. As soon as Axl entered the tunnel, he heard the sound of the vehicle smashing into the concrete tunnel followed by an explosion. Smoke and debris engulfed the tunnel causing Axl to cough. As soon as he exited from the other side, Axl had to stop for a moment to catch his breath. He was joined by a crowd of park goers now staring into the smoke-filled hole as a couple of ash covered clown hyenas crawled from the rubble.

    “You’re no fun!” cried one of the hyenas shaking his fist. “No fun at all!” At the sound of more police sirens, Axl quickly sped away leaving the hyenas for the authorities.

     

Illustrations by Bluepisces97

Thanks for reading!


Nightriders: The Kidnappings Part 11

 

Nightriders: The Kidnappings Part 1