Free Radium Halos by W.J. May

shook her
head. “I can’t see though walls.”
    Brent continued
walking and tripped on his untied lace again. His hands flew out to
catch himself. He shot up faster than a jackrabbit. His voice shook
as he spoke, “They’re below us. We’ve got to hurry!”
    Kieran ran in
front of us. He did a three-sixty then pointed the broken pool cue
to a barely-noticeable handle on the wall. “There.”
    “You sure?”
Heidi shuttered to a stop.
    Kieran
shrugged, pressing forward and grabbing the handle. “No. Just a gut
f-fe…a guess.” He pulled the handle, but nothing happened.
    “I don’t know
how I missed seeing it.” Rylee spoke quietly behind me. “Push, not
pull.”
    Kieran pushed.
The door opened a crack and slammed back shut. He nodded at Seth
and together they rammed their shoulders against it.
    “Ow! Hey!” A
guy wedged behind the open door shouted. “What the f--”
    Kieran cut the
guy’s words off with his fist. He slumped behind the door, his legs
sprawled out.
    The temperature
began to drop as I lead the girls behind Kieran, Brent, and Seth
down the dark steps toward the light in the basement. Kegs of beer,
cases of wine, massive bags of potatoes lay stacked against the
walls as we stepped further in.
    Skinny,
Dipstick and Bleach-head’s voices screamed in my head. Soon they
were loud enough the others could also hear them.
    Don’t let go
of her leg, idiot. I plan on having a taste of this sweet
thing.
    Shit! Did you
hear something?
    Runny
scaredy-pants. Try the concrete step over there by the stacked
kegs. Take one of them to the care while you’re at it. I’m going to
show this girl what a real man feels like.
    Brent and Seth
leapt off the rest of the stairs.
    Rounding a
stack of beer kegs, we saw Abigail on the floor, her head away from
us, and her skirt thrown over her back with her pale butt cheeks
smudge with dirty hand prints. She flailed and twisted, kicking one
leg like an enraged donkey. Her other leg was trapped by
Dipstick.
    I couldn’t see
Abigail’s face some spotty ass had his pants around his ankles. The boy who thinks he’s a damn man. Gasps from Heidi and
Rylee whirled like tornadoes in my ears.
    Kieran raised
the pool cue and hammered the half-naked guy across the back of his
head. He fell on the ground, not moving.
    Brent went
after Dipstick, who still held Abi’s leg. Seth knocked out the
skinny guy running for the loading dock door. Brent didn’t have it
so lucky. His opponent grabbed a bottle of wine and slammed it
against a pillar. The red wine dripped onto the concrete like blood
from a severed artery. He slashed the jagged edges in the air close
by Brent’s face. Brent ducked and stepped back. The guy swaggered
towards him, an ugly sneer on his face. He swung again and Brent
bent forward, diving for the guys legs. The bottle went flying and
crashed against a keg. As they tumbled to the ground, Seth grabbed
Dipstick’s arms and pinned them behind his back. He thrashed around
like an upside down bug.
    “You smell like
ass.” Seth pulled the guy’s arm tighter and turned his head away.
He leaned toward the spilled bottle of wine, taking deep
breaths.
    Abigail
scrambled away from the fighting bodies and broken glass. She
pushed her skirt down and hid behind me and Rylee, sobbing with her
head in her hands. “Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you,” she mumbled
repeatedly between sobs and hiccups.
    Heidi had her
phone out, shouting at the police. We’re getting to be regulars
with the emergency departments First the mine, now this. Jeez .
    I turned around
and put my arms around Abi. The tiny waitress stared up with eyes
large and shocked. Her terrified, dirty tear-streaked face burned
an image into my mind. Never again. We can’t let this happen
ever again. She fell against my shoulder, sobbing
uncontrollably.
    Kieran stepped
over the unconscious guy and gave him a kick in the gut. He walked
over to the group struggling on the floor. He jabbed the broken end
of the pole