The Three Dollar Phoenix by Walt Sautter (rooftoppers .txt) 📖

light issuing from a small slit off to the right. He laid perfectly still and struggled to open them fully. It was like trying to push back the doors of a bank fault and his lids moved ever so slowly.
Then he began to recall, through a haze memory, the events just past. He remembered the accident and being forced into the trunk of the black car by its driver. He reached for his watch and pressed the back light button. It was nearly eight o’clock. He’d been in here for almost eight hours now.
The car wasn’t moving. He couldn’t be sure how long it had been parked. He remembered riding for at least an hour after he was first pushed into the trunk. He had heard the muted conversation of the driver and his companion through the rear seat as they drove and he recalled most of it.
“This guy supposed to do some high divin’” the driver said.
“We can’t very well pull off that kinda stunt in broad daylight” replied the companion.
“Of course not, you schmuck. He’ll keep tonight. He aint goin’ nowhere unless he’s got a can opener in his pocket” snapped the driver.
“Kind of a shame. A smart guy like that and he’s so friggin’ dumb to get his ass into this.”
“Well, maybe he aint so god damn smart then after all.”
For a minute Ed lost sight of the situation and he listened objectively to the conversation. Maybe he was stupid. He should have known Angie’s house would be watched. He had taken every precaution and then, suddenly, in his eagerness, he had thrown all caution to the wind His talk with Answorth had propelled him blindly, headlong and without fore thought. He severely chastised himself now for his foolishness but it was too late. From what he was hearing, it was all too obvious that this blunder would probably cost him his life.
He felt the car begin to slow down and the sound of adjacent motors vibrated the sides of his sheet metal tomb as it came to a stop. In several moments, the engines roared and the car started forward. They must have stopped for a light and judging from the sounds around him it must a busy highway that they were on, he reasoned.
“This traffic shit gotta go. I want to get this thing parked and get me a beer. At this rate I’m gonna die of thirst first, man.”
Now, he was sure they were on a busy street at least. He estimated their speed to be about thirty or forty. It was probably a city street.
As the vehicle again coasted towards a stop, Ed maneuvered his feet into the position he could and began to kick at the quarter panel of the car. The noise resounded throughout the trunk and he poked his fingers into his ears as he struck at the inner wall as violently as he could. Maybe someone would hear it. It was his only chance.
Suddenly, he felt the car jump forward and turn sharply right. The force of the turn jammed his head hard against the wall of the compartment but he continued to kick as best he could.
“This fuckin’ bum is full of tricks. I’ll fix his ass when we get down this road.”
“Don’t kill us before we get there. Slow down” the passenger yelled.
Soon, he found himself bouncing violently.
“Slow it down. This road aint worth a shit” the passenger screamed.
It began to slow but the bumping, gyrating motion continued for several hundred feet until it came to a stop.
He didn’t hear any traffic noise now. Then the two doors slammed. A few seconds later the trunk lid opened. Ed looked blindly into the bright sunlight and attempted to sit up only to be thrown back to the floor of the compartment.
“I shoulda done this in the first place. Here hold this sucker down for a minute. He’s a little too lively to suit me.”
“This’ll fix that” replied the other man.
Ed had begun to regain his vision, just in time to see the glint of a hypodermic needle as it was thrust into his shoulder. He felt its sting and the driver spoke.
“There, that’ll take care of him till tonight anyway” and with that the lid sealed in the darkness once more, as it was pounded shut.
“If I had my way, I’d finish all this right now, but orders are orders” he heard the driver say as the car door shut.
Within seconds his head started to reel. He could vaguely recall the engine restarting and then oblivion.
Now, eight hours later, he laid silent, awaiting the unknown. Escape was impossible and there was little else he could co.
His waiting was short lived. He heard voices and then the sound of a garage door opening. The voices were familiar.
“You take his car and follow me.”
“They must have gone back and picked up my car” Ed thought.
“You got the four bucks change for the bridge? I don’t want you fallin’ behind me. We gotta do this quick and we can’t be stopped but a second, so stay right on my ass. As soon I stop you jump out, open the trunk and over he goes. Then you jump in with me and off we go. Leave his car runnin’. It looks better that way.
Here take the key to my trunk, or even better, I’ll just leave it in the lock. That way you can open it in a second.” There was a silence for a moment.
“God damn thing doesn’t want to come off the ring. There, OK.”
“Before we take off let’s give the good doctor his last dose of medicine. I don’t think he’s gonna be a problem after that last shot but get ready when I open it up.”
Ed wasn’t sure what to do. Fighting off the two of them, while lying on his back, was impossible but not doing anything was tacitly signing his own death warrant.
Then he felt what seemed to be the car’s lug wrench over near the fender well. It was. He readied himself as best he could.
The lid swung open. He laid perfectly still, feigning unconsciousness. His heart pounded so hard, he feared it might give him away.
“This guy’s still out cold” he heard the driver say.
“The boy’s not use to good quality smack, I guess” replied the other sarcastically.
“Well, we better pump him up again anyway. We want it look good. Gimme the stuff, Bull.”
Ed separated his tightly closed eyelids a hair’s breath. It was almost night and he could just make out the shadowy silhouettes of the men standing over him, in the dim twilight..
“I can’t see what the hell I’m doing here. Get me the flashlight outta the glove compartment” commanded Bull. With that the one turned and walked towards the front of the vehicle. Ed heard the sound of the door being opened and upon hearing it, he sprang from the trunk like a mad man swinging his weapon indiscriminately at the form in front of him.
“Louie!” the man yelled at the top of his lungs, as the wrench’s impact struck him squarely in the rib cage. He stumbled backwards, clutching his chest. Ed leaped towards the door, swinging wildly as Bull slumped to all fours.
Then a sudden blow from behind, sent Ed face first into the gravel just outside the entrance of the garage. He felt a burly arm tighten around his throat as he attempted to get back to his feet. The next instant, another arm struck him solidly between his legs from behind and he was airborne. He saw the ceiling of the garage spin by and he landed with a thud back in the trunk of the car. Louie’s foot finished the job, driving him tightly against the spare tire and the lid again slammed closed.
“The son of a bitch almost killed me. I think he broke my fuckin’ ribs” groaned the man Ed had attacked with the wrench.
“I’d do the bastard in right now, if I had my way.”
“That was pretty stupid. We should have been a little smarter. At least he didn’t get away.”
“Are you OK to finish this shit off?”
“Yeah, I’m alright. All I gotta do is drive and I can handle that.”
“0K, let’s do it right this time. Get the light and help me find the works.”
The car door opened and closed again.
“Shine it over there where I went down.”
A silence followed.
“There it is. Looks like most of the juice is gone.”
“That’s all we need.”
“Let’s see.”
“It’ll be enough to calm him down so you can handle him. That’s all we need. Open it up.”
Then one of them yelled through the deck lid.
“Listen Doc, we’re gonna open up again. I got a gun pointed right at your head this time. If you blink your eyes, I’ll blow your friggin’ head right off, I swear to Christ, I will.”
The lid opened slowly. Ed remained motionless and he felt the bite of the hypodermic pierce his upper arm.
Within seconds, he began to feel drowsy, as the drug took affect. The man got into the car and started the engine. He heard another car start. He could tell it was his from the low rumble of the motor.
He remained almost conscious, suspended between sleep and wakefulness. The car backed out of the garage and started forward. He lay calmly in a trance-like stupor as the car sped towards his appointment with death.
He could hear the thumps in the concrete roadway tick by, like the seconds of a clock counting time. For some reason he found the sound strangely soothing, with its regular, beating monotony, like the cadence of an executioner’s drum. Deep within, panic gripped him tightly but the drug made it impossible for him to be alarmed. He had a feeling of surreal detachment.
It was hard to tell how long they had been riding before the car stopped. Then, he heard the ring of a toll collection bell and the car moved. They were arriving at their destination.
Now the terror began to fight its way through the drug induced veil of tranquility as the reality of what was to happen pierced his intoxication.
He tired desperately to shake free from its incapacitating hold but it was impossible. Lifting his head from the floor seemed to require superhuman strength. He knew that when the lid opened, he would be powerless to resist.
All of the cynicism about religion that he had harbored for most of his thirty three years now evaporated in these last few seconds and he began to recite the several simple prayers he remembered from childhood.
The car slowed to a stop. He heard the other car stop behind him, the door slam, the sound of running feet and then the deck lid flew open. He was confronted by a large, burly man whose face was obscured by the shadows cast from the blue, greenish bridge lights. The man reached in, grabbed Ed’s upper arm and snapped him from the trunk in one rapid motion. The next thing he knew, he was riding high atop the man’s shoulder and moving towards the black void at the bridge’s edge.
Then, he heard a loud explosion of crunching metal and shattering glass. Suddenly, he was in