Driver

Driver - Chapter 7

It was one of those places that people would only consider when they ran out of options. Motel 6 just south of the interstate to Phoenix was a nondescript place that lacked any interesting feature. There were two floors with apartments available for customers on both floors. Danny asked for a room on the north-west corner of the motel facing the interstate highway. The motel itself had three separate exits.  One exit ramp led right on to the interstate while the other fed to the High bury Street towards the city. The last exit was blocked by cargo trucks that had seen better days.

First thing Danny did at the motel was memorize the ways out. He thought the high bury street would be safe bet and allow them to lose any chasers in the maze of the city. After settling in the room, Danny thought it was time to have a little chat with Sherry and get a clear picture of what happened back at the store. It's not every day that he ends up with only half a crew by the end of a job and more money than he had ever helped steal.

"You wanna tell me what happened back there?" demanded Danny.

"Look I already told you everything that I saw", explained Sherry. "It seems Logan turned on us and set up another crew to grab us once we had the money so he could keep it all to himself."

"I thought you guys worked previously and went back a long time?" he asked again.

"Me and Ed sure did work on a couple of holdups, not very big but they paid enough. Never worked with Logan before. I asked Ed whether we should trust a new guy", she continued "He said that Logan and he did some time together in Fox River State Penitentiary and that this was a four man job including a driver."

"And you took his word for it?" said Danny in disbelief as he remembered the amateur crew from his second job. It seemed to him this crew was not very different—unprepared and unaware of the other's true intentions.

"Well yea, between the two of us Ed always had the better sense of judging a guy" said Sherry.

"Seems he got it wrong this time and paid a heavy price with his life."

How easy it would be to just drive out of this city and never come back, thought Danny as he looked at the long road visible from the their room's window. But first he had to find out who was chasing them and why they got away with more money than they were supposed to.

"How much were we supposed to find in that store?" Danny asked again.

"Two maybe three hundred grand tops", replied Sherry, as she took some money from the bag and started counting it.

"Then how come we have nearly four times that amount?"

"Who cares? Isn't it great we got more than we should have?" said Sherry excitedly seeming oblivious to the fact that their actions may have pissed off some dangerous people.

For a moment Danny couldn't help but agree with her. But according to him something just didn't add up. Why would anyone hide how much money they were expecting from a score?

"How did Ed know about the store Sherry?"

"Wasn't Ed who found out about the store and the easy money in it", she replied.

"Then who did?" asked Danny.

"Logan learned about it from a guy named Immanuel, people usually call him Nino" said Sherry. "He's the guy you met at the bar."

"If Nino really didn't know about how much money there was in the store then why would he keep two shares for himself?" wondered Danny.

"Cause he's the one setting up the job. That's how it works."

"Guy not only sits out the job but demands two shares of the score instead of one" Danny paused before adding, "He's got some nerve."

"Logan once told me Nino worked for the mobsters in the east coast before he shifted out here with one of his friends", Sherry said as she headed towards the door. "We'll talk about this later. I'll bring us something to eat first. I am hungry; I saw a pizza hut just across the motel. Sausage and extra cheese okay for you?"

"Sure", he said as he stood by one of the loose windows that all cheap motels tend to have. The lower left corner had sprung out of the frame and he could feel warm air from outside pouring in. The balcony outside their room, the stairway, and twenty or so yards of parking lot stood between them and the interstate. 

***

As they finished their meal, Sherry picked up a brush and headed towards the bathroom. Little did she know that a man was pointing a double-barrel shotgun towards her waiting to pull the trigger on the first person who entered the bathroom. Another man was waiting for his signal to break the door and enter the room armed with his own gun. Seeing a shadow enter the bathroom the man outside pulled the trigger.

What followed was a dull boom of a shotgun. And then a mass of flesh from Sherry's skull was sprayed over the bathroom mirror. Cops would later find there was no face left to identify this woman's body.

Danny quickly threw himself inside the bathroom to stop the man from entering. Just as he broke another window frame Danny grabbed a piece of glass and jammed it at the man's hand as hard as he could. The blood on the bathroom floor caused him to slip and slam into the shower stall shattering the shower door and ripping his arm open. The man still struggled to free his hand from the piece of glass Danny had stuck in his arm. But now he was lifting the gun and swinging it towards Danny who without thinking stuck another piece of glass right in the man's forehead. It created a wound that exposed his brain and caused blood to flow into the man's eyes. He dropped the gun, Danny saw a razor near the sink and used it slice the man's neck killing him instantly.

The other man waiting outside tried his best to kick the door in. That's what Danny had been hearing all along while fighting in the bathroom without realizing what it actually was. The door held on for as long as you could expect a cheap motel door to. He broke into the room just as Danny emerged from the bathroom his shirt soaked in blood. Danny had just enough time to load the second round into the shotgun and point the long barrel in the other man's direction. Thing kicked like a horse and did more damage to Danny's arm, but also ripped apart a considerable amount of flesh and bones out of the other guy's body. Both men fell at the same time but only one of them would survive this fight.

Danny sat up with his back against the wall and watched as blood streamed towards him from all sides. He could hear the traffic on the interstate, everything else had gone quiet. Someone started weeping in the next room. He realized that he didn't know how many people were sent after Sherry and him. With the shotgun still in his hand he waited as he looked towards the door. He counted the seconds till he completed a minute. He looked back at the door and thought maybe that's it, maybe no one else is coming, maybe it's over. Maybe, for now three bodies are enough.