It’s over. We’ve survived a danger-filled 15 weeks with Bobby Grim, Kat LeRouge, DJ Ponchatoula, and Congressman Rube Rarick. Of course, the same can’t be said for all of the characters, but it was a great thrill ride.
Again, I want to thank everyone following on Twitter and Facebook, especially those messaging hints. Your directions steered the story down different trails than I originally expected, but ultimately your ideas made the adventure more exhilarating as we braced ourselves at each corner, expecting the unexpected. Thanks again!
The following is a recap from the final week of Pay Dirt…
"That perverted politician son-of-a-bitch."
"Can't you just kick the door down or something?"
"There's thirty people getting drunk on that porch, one's a cop and just a radio call away from finding warrants for both of us."
"Okay, Muscles, then tell me your..." Kat stopped, mesmerized by the yellow eyes inches above the hole in the floor.
Grim dove, his chest hitting the trap door hard, forcing the gator down. "Feel around for a lock, or something I can stick in the latch."
Kat crawled in the dark, in circles, chains pulling at her ankles. "Here." She picked up a metal U, part of a broken padlock.
Grim road the bucking door like a bull, while Kat crawled over him to slide the metal into the lock, then both fought the door till the noise subsided, leaving only darkness, heavy breathing, Irma Thomas singing in the distance with Kat and Bobby’s faces inches apart.
"Maybe we should focus on getting your chains off?" Grim said.
"Too rusty to pick." She touched his nose with hers. "I say we wait for the party to end and get the key from psycho."
"And till then?"
She looked down at the floor, then up again. "Rip some of those clothes off the walls. I'm not laying on this cold floor."
Hours later, Kat woke to a cold, somehow brighter room. The music gone, the camp quiet. Cricket and frog songs outside. "Welcome back," Grim said.
"Has everyone gone?"
"Rarick's still here. I heard the spring in the recliner about an hour ago."
"Now, do we knock the door down?"
"I think I've got a better idea.” He looked down at the trap floor and shook his head. “But you’re not gonna like it."
Rarick downed the last of his peach brandy and climbed from the recliner, where he'd sat sharpening his skinning knife since the TV crew left. He was anxious to get at the girl, but afraid of the stranger. Who was that asshole? Some friend of the girl's, some lone-nut political assassin? Maybe a cop, maybe one he couldn't buy.
Shaky, Rarick walked to the door, his keys jingling in one hand, the skinning knife gleaming in the other.
On the other side of the door, a creak, like steel pulled from wood, then Kat's voice, screaming, loud. Rarick covered his ears and fumbled with the keys, hands shaking, his glasses too fogged to find the keyhole. Finally, the lock clicked, then a loud thud shook the camp, knocking picture frames from the walls.
Rarick dropped his keys and clutched his chest. He opened the door, his heart pumping hard. He felt for the switch. No good. However, the hall light had pierced the darkness in the room, illuminating the floor in the center, spotlighting the closed wooden door.
Everything else in the room, black, quiet.
Raising his knife, he stepped from the hall carpet onto the room's cold wood floor. Then, he heard breathing.
In a corner, at first, he saw nothing, then near the floor, yellow eyes, just seconds before someone slammed the door closed behind him.
In the hallway, Kat clicked the padlock closed, just as Rarick started pounding the door. "I say we dry off and find some clothes, my buns are ice."
"Yea, tomorrow’s Thursday," Grim said as Rarick started screaming. "I promised Leta I'd have the boat back before sunrise."
"We can take the bike, but you know, I can't go back to the city now," Kat said over a sound like large branches snapping. "Ow, wow, no more screaming."
"You can come with me." Grim put a hand on each of her hips. "But I got one condition."
"Oh, yea." Kat traced his right nipple with her forefinger and grinned up at him. "What is it?"
"We’re taking a Northern to Cali. You gotta promise not to hijack the train."
THE END
What did you guys think of the experience? Should we try and write another story together? If so, who should the characters be? Where should they go? What should they do? I can’t wait to hear your ideas.
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