4.g.
Donkey charged
forward and punched Demand in the back of the neck. The man in the dark purple suit and mauve
necktie crumpled and released his grip on the bossman’s wrist. Supply tightened her hold on the bossman’s
other arm, jerked him in front of her, and used him as a shield against
Donkey’s attack. Donkey used the bossman
as a punching bag. He wondered vaguely who
it was that he was hitting and why a member of the Union
would stoop to using a human shield.
Mostly, he was reveling in the tortured sounds the man made when he
worked the body instead of the face.
Senior
Executive reached into the inner pockets of his grey suit and rapidly flung a
series of business cards at Donkey. They
flew like ninja stars and stung with all the power of a well designed business
tool. The aim was precise, connecting
with pressure points and nerve clusters.
Donkey jerked and spasmed. Supply
whipped the bossman around, leveling Donkey with her improvised administrative
bludgeon. The bossman’s howls turned to
gasping seal barks. Supply dropped him
and he rolled away, unsure of which injury to grope at first. Supply then brought a hammering fist down on
Donkey, dropping him like a freight container of weighty overstock.
The sound that
popped from Donkey’s throat was indeed something that real braying jackasses
have made before, though only in severe circumstances.
“Now that’s
was a real ass sounds–” The Elephant grunted and clutched his balls. When he tried to push himself up but Business
Woman landed a knee in the small of his back.
She struggled to pin him, twisting his arm until his wrist touched his
shoulder blades.
“You two
better explain,” Corporate Man started, but the report of a large caliber
handgun exploded through the lobby.
The woman with
more teeth than the average person advanced on Corporate Man, firing shot after
shot from her gleaming, silver revolvers.
The bullets made strange, high-pitched, zipping sounds as the screamed
from the barrels.
A vase behind
Corporate Man shattered. A tile on the
floor beside him blew apart. Another
bullet ripped through The Elephant’s shoulder and another took out his
knee. The bossman caught a round in his
chest, then his inner thigh, then his cheek.
A lamp exploded near Franklin Buck and Donkey grunted as a slug pierced
his gut.
The woman with
more teeth than the average person stopped, fifteen feet from Corporate Man,
and said, “I know what you’re thinking.
Did she fire six shots or only five?
In all the excitement I–”
“Nine,”
Corporate Man said. “You have two guns.”
The woman with
more teeth than the average person looked at her guns, puzzled.
“And you’re misquoting,” said Business Woman. “It goes–”
“Who cares how
it goes! Somebody take her out!”
Franklin Buck screamed from behind the heavy lobby furniture thirty yards away.
Senior
Executive stepped forward, chopped her wrists, and knocked the guns to the
floor. He narrowed his eyes and said, “I
remember you. I never forget a cattle
prod.”
The woman with
more teeth than the average person howled with rage and kicked at him. Senior Executive dodged the kick, elbowed her
in the stomach. As she doubled over,
Business Woman brought a knee up into her toothsome face. A tinkling sound danced across the glossy
tiles as the woman with more teeth than the average person fell back and found
herself in a familiar, unconscious state.