File_Open_Gang Files_‘Wheeler’│
Name: Ryan Edward Walker
Alias(s): Tech
Age: 15
Gang: Wheelers
Occupation: Renegade Thief. Thought to be mechanic for the gang ‘Wheelers.’
Known History: Born in Northern Smaik, paralyzing car crash at 7, orphaned at 14, joined gang at 14.
Current Location: Somewhere in Northern Smaik. Exact location unknown.
Status: Wanted. Less than half a day. That’s all it took. By the next morning, Skater and Biker were back to their normal selves, despite Biker’s bruise.
Rolling into the kitchen, I glanced up at the two. Scooter still wasn’t up, and Blader was hiding behind the paper again, inhaling her coffee like air.
A delicious, savory,
wonderful smell wafted over me. I could recognize it, barely. I remembered really liking it.
I reached the table, and pushed my ‘elevate’ button. When I reached table height, I saw a plate of long, brown, sizzling pieces of bacon.
Immediately, I grabbed them, and started wolfing them down.
“Hungry, Tech?” Skater grinned, even though his plate was already empty.
“I haven’t had bacon in so long, man! Who made it?”
“The only guy here who can actually cook,” Skater nodded to Biker, who was busy reading the morning comics.
“Thanks, man!” I said; my plate empty. “Where’d you get it?”
Biker glanced up at me. He held up a receipt for the supermarket. Ah, that explained it. Obviously he wanted to make amends for his outburst last night.
Scooter came wandering down the stairs, rubbing her eyes. She climbed up onto a chair. “Why do I smell bacon?”
“Because Biker is amazing and likes to cook for people.” I answered, putting a plate in front of her. She stared at the bacon for a minute, and then grinned. She jumped off her chair, suddenly full of energy, and ran over to Biker with a huge hug. He hugged her back, and slipped the comics into her arms.
Once our delicious, savory,
wonderful breakfast was over, we all went our separate ways, doing what we normally do.
Skater and Biker went on their rounds, about the park and through our territory. They normally collected the ‘donations.’ It’s only about Φ5, much less than other gangs have. Blader was upstairs in the loading dock, which had been converted into our living room, attempting to teach Scooter normal school stuff like history and math and whatnot. I was downstairs in my lab, messing with my new invention; the Compuuu5ter.
The Compuuu5ter is an ingenious (if I do say so myself) little two-way radio. There are two pieces, one is an ear bud that attaches to your music player and can switch between music and radio signals easily. The other is a little microphone that can be attached on the very end of a lollipop stick. Pretty cool, huh? Don’t ask me why I call it, of all things, the Compuuu5ter. I don’t even know.
So, I was sitting there, with my optivisor on, making my eyes seem like the bug-eyes of a dragonfly, and a pair of tweezers in my hand. I’d explain to you what exactly I was doing, but a) it would take too long, b) it would interrupt the telling of this story, and c) you wouldn’t understand anyway. Let’s just say I was attaching some wires to some stuff in the earpiece of the Compuuu5ter.
A red light started going off on the wall, and a second later, an insistent beeping was interrupting my train of thought.
Immediately, I carefully set down my stuff and tore off the optivisor. Soon I was in the elevator and then in the kitchen, where Blader and Scooter were staring at a small screen I had installed on the wall.
“Biker’s distress signal.” Blader muttered as I came in. “He’s at the south park.”
On the screen, a layout of the municipality was slowly being zoomed in to a stationary blinking red dot in the southern park. The distress signal had been installed into Biker’s watch, so either he was standing still or he’d dropped it.
“Why would he have a distress in the park?” Scooter asked, a worried expression on her face.
“We share that park with the Riders.” I answered grimly, my heart sinking as I realized it. “If anything, they’ve had a run in.”
“Uh oh.” She reached up on the table and grabbed her little pink helmet. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Scooter turned and ran for the loading dock door where her scooter was.
Blader turned to me. “You all right to go?”
I nodded and tapped my wheels. “Rocket boosters. Tried and true.”
Blader grinned. “Nice.”
As we started down the road, I pressed a small button on each of my wheels, starting up the rocket boosters. Immediately, I shot past the others. “There should be rockets on yours too!” I called, moving my wheels to make a sharp turn down an alley. Pretty soon, both the girls were neck and neck with me.
Blader grabbed her radio from her belt and clipped it onto her ear. “Skater! Come in Skater!” she paused. “Dammit, Skater, answer your damn radio!”
She paused again, as if listening, as we turned another corner. “Biker sent out a distress signal, he’s at the south park. We’re thinking that it’s a Rider attack.”
She nodded, and then pulled off the radio, tucking it back into her medic bag. Having wires hanging off your head was very annoying when you were worried about your friends.
“He’ll meet us there.” I nodded. I only hoped one of us got there in time.
Skater got there at about the same time as us. He lay at the top of a hill, peeking over the edge. We joined him. It was a large green park, with a big, curving hill, and the river running along from the top of one and down. Wide sidewalks crisscrossed the park, between scenic trees and lampposts.
Below us was a large, ugly gang of Riders. They were all on their ME bikes, their leather jackets making them look like a pack of glittering beetles. They were all arranged in a semi-circle, some boss-looking guy at the very front. And, trapped against the river, was Biker.
He looked all right, not beat up or anything, but was standing with his meager little man-powered bicycle. As the only one facing us, we could see the expression on his face. Well, the lack of expression on his face. His eyes were flicking around the Riders, but he didn’t look very worried. His eyes flicked up to us, where our heads were sticking over the crest of the hill. He made no movement to give us away, but I knew that he knew we were there.
I could hear the boss-looking guy from where we were. “Hey, there, Mute! Not so tough now, huh? You and your stupid little bike.”
Biker remained silent, glaring at the guy. The back of his leather jacket, I knew, had their names. This guy’s name was Queer-eyes. I wondered why.
At Biker’s silence, Queer-eyes grabbed his handlebars threateningly. Even from where we were, we could see Biker tense up, like strings wound tight. No one touches his bike. It has to be in absolute terrible shape for him to let even me work on it.
“Still got that shiner I gave ya, huh? Pretty stupid tryin’ to protect this ole piece a shit.” Queer-eyes started jerking the handlebars back and forth. Biker roughly pulled his bike away from the guy, backing to the river’s very edge.
Queer-eyes laughed and slowly advanced on him. Next to me, Skater stood up. Just one glance at his face told me that he was pissed. He moved to the top of the hill, on the sidewalk. He carefully set his board down and turned back to us.
“Blader, with me. Take the left. Scooter, stay with Tech. You guys are back-up.”
I reached in one of my cargo-pockets and pulled out a remote. “ME disrupter. You gonna need it?”
Skater nodded. “Yeah. Use it.”
Skater and Blader both took off down the hill. Scooter turned to me. “Why can’t I go too?”
“’Cause it’s dangerous. And the two of them are the fastest anyway.” I answered, concentrating on keeping my trigger finger under control and not pressing the disruption button too early.
I peeked back over the hill to watch Skater and Blader in action. Before I was able to see anything, a large hand was pressed over my mouth and my vision went black. Naturally, I started resisting. I threw a punch that I could feel connect with something, causing the hand over my eyes to falter, but my arms were almost immediately held down by another pair of hands before getting tightly strapped to my sides with rope. The ME disrupter fell out of my hand and I heard it hit the sidewalk and get crunched by a heavy boot. My wheelchair was being moved, and I could hear a small tussle to my left as Scooter was taken too. Adrenaline started shooting through my system, but I couldn’t move. I started shivering from all the unused energy, as the hand covering my eyes was replaced by a black bandana, and a sweaty-tasting gag was shoved roughly in my mouth.
I decided, by no choice of mine, to come quietly. I was rolled back down the hill, and then around generally level land. I was entered into a gentle curve, but my right wheel was slightly higher than my left. So… I figured I was being taken around the bottom of the hill. The ground was too bumpy to be a sidewalk.
Up a steep incline, and then to a stop. Behind me, I could hear the labored wheezing of my captor. Somewhere nearby, I could hear the quiet sounds of the river, so I knew we had been taken to the top of the hill where the river cut through it. On one side of the river, it was Rider territory. The other was ours. I had no way of knowing which side I was on. Below me, I could hear the shouts of the Riders as they were attacked by Blader and Skater. It sounded as if the Riders were losing. The rank tastes of sweat and some other disgusting thing were spreading in my mouth from my gag. It almost tasted as if he’d shoved his sock in. A Rider’s sock. Ew.
After what seemed like forever, a voice boomed from down in the fight area. “I’d stop fighting if I were you, Wheelers. We have three of your teammate’s captive.”
I was roughly lifted from my wheelchair, my legs dangling uselessly below me. I tried to move my arms, but the rope bit into my skin painfully. That was going to hurt later. I had the sickening feeling of being dangled over a large expanse, even though I couldn’t see anything. Something cold and round was pressed to my neck and my blood was suddenly frozen like ice. I was being held at gunpoint. There was a still silence from below us.
“Set them free!” Skater shouted. There was a loud click from the other side of the gun as it was cocked, ready to fire. It was loaded. Oh, God, it was loaded! There was a similar click off somewhere to my left as the gun threatening Scooter was cocked as well. I heard a whimper. It could’ve been Scooter. Then again, it could’ve been me. I was close enough to wetting myself anyway.
I heard Skater start talking again. “Queer-eyes! Are we just thugs? Can’t we talk this out like men of business?” Heh, rich coming from the guy who fought over a pillow not two weeks ago.
“You wanna talk? ‘Aight. Let’s talk. Right here, right now. Start yappin’.” He sounded pretty sure of himself. I didn’t blame him. I had no idea how good Skater’s negotiation skills were. God, I hoped they were good. Or at least that Queer-eyes was too stupid to know the difference, which seemed more likely.
“Don’t shoot them. Let them go. You can have the entire park. And up to… Kilbert Street.” That was a lot of ground he was letting go. Almost a fourth of our entire territory.
Queer-eyes knew that too. “Ya sure ya wanna give up that much? A cripple and a little girl are that important, huh? If that’s it, then give us up to Leron Street.” That was almost half of our territory! No way Skater would-
“Okay, fine. Take it. Just let them go!” I stand corrected. Once again, Skater wasn’t thinking before he made a choice. He’d worked so hard to build up that empire, how could he just give it up?
“All right boys. Let ‘em go!” Queer-eyes shouted. The gun was removed from my neck, the gag came off, and I gave a sigh of relief. However, the arm holding me swung back, and then swung forward again. The hand released me, and I flew. A surge of fear shot through me, and I cried out. I heard Scooter scream, but everything went silent as I was encased in cold water. They’d thrown me in the river!
I was pulled along by the currant. My legs were useless, my eyes were still blindfolded, and my arms were still bound. As soon as I realized that, I started to panic. I tried to thrash around, even though the ropes were cutting into my skin. I was going swiftly downhill, rocks and things crashing into me, spinning me, pulling me down. I couldn’t breathe! My lungs were yearning for air, but my head was still below water.
I had no clue which way was up. I tried to push my way upwards, but my head hit something very solid. Okay, other direction. I was starting to level out, so I moved the opposite way. My lungs were burning now, I had to get air! My mouth opened, but the only thing that entered was water, freezing cold and numbing my throat. My mind was going fuzzy, the cold of the water was seeping through my bones, and I made one last jerking movement to attempt to get to the surface. A flash of pain registered in my mind, and I lost consciousness.
~`,~`,~`,~`,~
The first thing I was aware of was air. It was warm, tasted funny, and was being forced down my throat, but it was air! I gasped, and something was removed from my mouth. My eyes flew open, but nothing registered but air. Sweet, sweet air! And then I started coughing. I was turned over and my back was smacked a couple times. I did something akin to vomiting, and water came gushing out of my mouth I coughed a couple more times, until I was sure most of the water was gone. I looked up.
All around me was the gang. Everybody was wet. Scooter looked no worse for the wear, except that she was wrapped in at least two coats and as soaked as a fish.
I tried to sit back on my butt but my legs wouldn’t cooperate and move in front of me. I frowned and tried to move them twice, before I remembered. They’re paralyzed. Duh. How pathetic. Skater reached over and helped me.
A trickle of water from my hair started running down my shoulders, leaving me shivering. And the shivering wouldn’t go away. Quickly, I grabbed my hands, but could barely feel it. They were numb. Damn it. Hello first stages of hypothermia.
Blader quickly caught on to what was happening. She pulled off her jacket and wrapped it around me. Forcefully tugging Skater’s hoodie off him, she started swearing as she pulled it over my head, helping my arms through the armholes.
“Are you ok, Tech?” Scooter asked, sitting on Biker’s lap and hugging him closely. She looked so scared and small.
“Y-yeah.” I said, my shivering making me stutter. Blader started rubbing my arms to warm me up. “Th-thanks, B-B-Blader.”
It was then that I realized all the Riders were gone. “W-what h-h-happened to th-the R-Riders?”
“Land-for-life transaction was complete.” Skater sighed, standing up. “They all drove off the minute you two landed in the water. I gotta tell all the rest of the gang what’s happened. But that can wait until we get home. C’mon.”
Blader started muttering darkly as she helped me up. “Bastards aren’t worth the shit they stepped in. They trashed your wheelchair too dammit.”
On the way home, I sat behind Biker holding onto him. As Scooter’s scooter had been trashed as well, she went piggy-back with Blader.
Biker was pretty warm, like he had some fire burning inside him. If I clung to him tight enough; that warmth seemed to seep through to my bones, just like the cold of the water had done earlier. By the time we got back to the warehouse, I could feel my hands again and my shivering had subsided quite a bit. Blader still insisted on feeding me cup after cup of steaming tea and wrapping me in fifty million blankets, though.
It was strange. Skater seemed pretty cheerful. Sure, Scooter and I had just escaped the hands of death, but we’d lost almost half of our territory. Surely that’d be enough to make him a little sad?
When I asked him about it, all he’d said was, “Yeah, but my family’s alive, right? We can win it back sooner or later.” That left me confused. None of us were related. Maybe we were a family, but we weren’t a family, you know?
I hadn’t really understood then. But I do now. We’d been a family since the very start. None of us had actually known it. They say that blood is thicker than water. That’s true. But the grease we use to keep our wheels turning is even thicker than blood. We really were a family. And we always would be.