Free Wormwood Dawn (Episode IX) by Edward Crae Page A

like this asshole behind me with the bun.”
    “I don’t drink coffee,” Eric said. “And I don’t like coffee houses.”
    Seth shook his head, moving in front of Drew. “And you,” he began, turning his head to his friends and laughing. “What’s your story? Are you some kind of wannabe biker? Can you see me? I noticed you lost your glasses when I punched you in the face. Are you still bitter about that?”
    Drew snorted, as if preparing a nice chunky loogie to blow into Seth’s face.
    “Alright, alright,” Seth said. “The silent type. I get it. But get this. If I want you to talk, you will talk. Understand? And the first thing you’ll talk about is where your base is located.”
    “If you know exactly where we’re located,” Jake said. “Then that’s kind of redundant, don’t you think?”
    “I wanna hear it from this guy here,” Seth said, still staring at Drew. Jake couldn’t see his face, but he knew Drew was probably gritting his teeth.
    “Do I have to punch you again?” Seth taunted him.
    “If you want.”
    Seth’s face darkened, and he reared his fist back, slamming it into Drew’s face. The impact threw Drew’s head back into the racks, but he spit and chuckled in response.
    “Is that all you got, lady?” he hissed.
    Seth punched him again, knocking him senseless. Drew slumped down, barely able to stand. Seth stepped away, his eyes locked on Jake. Jake’s heart thumped with rage, and he could feel his face tighten. Drew gasped and spit blood, but underneath his pained noises, he began to chuckle. Jake grinned at Seth, who turned back to his cronies as a voice came through his headset.
    “Unlock the worm and chain him the table,” he said, handing one of his cronies the headset. “Keep this on and let me know when he talks.”
    Seth stormed out, taking one of the four men with him. The three others prepared the table, sitting one chair on either side of it, then unlocked Drew. They dragged him to a chair and chained him to it, letting his head slump onto the table. Then, one of them laid a large handgun on the table and sat at the other chair, putting on the headset. The other two stood by, their rifles trained on Jake and Eric.
    “Sorry about that,” manbun said, grinning as he scooted his chair closer to the table. “Seth can be a little… bitchy.”
    “Just like a bitch,” Drew spat.
    Manbun grinned, placing his hand on the gun. “I’d keep my mouth shut if I were you.”
    Jake looked over to Eric, who was breathing heavily with anger, but had his head hung low. He seemed like a volcano building up the pressure to spew lava all over the place. He could almost feel Eric’s rage, and it added to his own. He was about to explode, himself. He pulled on his restraints as hard as he could without alerting any of the three cronies. The racks they were clamped to were solid and sturdy. There was no hope of breaking them.
    Eric’s left arm, however, was shackled to a rack with one loose screw. Jake could see the head of it sticking out at least a quarter of an inch. One good tug from a guy Eric’s size and the rack would come loose. Of course, the whole shelving unit would probably come with it, but it was worth a shot. He only had to get Eric’s attention.
    Or maybe not.
    Eric looked to his left, made a small tugging motion with his left hand, and looked back at Jake. His jaw clenched, and Eric’s brow furrowed. He knew. But if he did it, then what? What good was having one hand free? There were three dipshits with guns, one of them staring at Drew as he recovered from the face bashing he got from Seth.
    They needed a plan.
    “Hey,” Jake said to manbun.
    The jerk looked up, smirking, keeping his hand on the gun that lay on the table in front of him. “What?”
    “I gotta take a piss,” Jake said. “How we gonna work that out?”
    “Piss your fuckin’ pants, asshole,” manbun said. “I don’t give a shit.”
    Jake sighed. Fucker, he thought. Manbun went back to