Ten Minutes - Oxidized: Part 1

[Quarks 2,255]

Authors Note: This series is a sequel to the older corrosion series, which I recommend you read, at least the last part, to understand what is going on. Parts 1-3, 4, and 5

 

Ten Minutes

 

Tick… Tick… Tick… Tucker checked his watch, he showed a rare sign of emotion as he looked around quickly, seeing that people where not in their designated place.

 

Tick… Tick… Tick… Tucker looked to where Price should be: the decoy fooled him for about 5 seconds before he moved to position beta: a location only he knew of. Tucker had survived this long by trusting no one, especially those who failed him.

 

Tick… Tick… Tick… Tucker rubbed his hands against the detonator that John had given him, just in case something happened to him while he was setting up the bombs, and didn’t have time to set the timer. He said to detonate it at 7:15. Tucker was going to detonate it at 7:07.

 

Tick… Tick… Tick… Tucker opened up the lid of the detonator, 1 minute to go.

 

Ten. Nine. The seconds felt like minutes, Tucker opened up his detonator. Eight. Seven. Six. One thumb on the detonator, two eyes looking at the watch. Five. Four. Three.

 

“...one good thing about the cavalry, though,” John continued, “Is that they always run away from personal danger. Horses can’t help it. Especially things like…” John paused for dramatic effect... "things that go boom.” He let off a thin smile, bowed, flipped the cover off, and then Tucker pressed his detonator.

 

The top erupted into a massive fireball while the rest of the building crumpled down and to the side, almost as if someone had smashed its theoretical kneecaps with a sledgehammer. The fireball died away quickly, it was only meant for show, the main damage came from the shaped charges placed by the expert.

 

John wasn’t an *****. He knew Tucker should’ve killed him after the “failure” at the Dam, even though it required more time than Tucker was willing to give it to succeed.

 

John didn’t trust Tucker, so he changed his part of plan, forcing the building to crumble away from him instead of straight down, just in case.

 

 

John felt the thumb detonator lock up just before he pressed it. Tucker, he thought. John was not surprised, this was the reason he adjusted the charges, but no matter what, he knew that the next minute would have a very low success rate for him. He steeled himself and braced for the coming hell.

 

A loud boom of the detonation made its way even through his earplugs and the force of the explosion threw him to the ground, he felt one of his ribs give and as he looked around, everything danced in and out of focus, he felt numb. Am I paralyzed? A moment later, he got a resounding NO! from his body as he felt the pain of the smoldering shirt on his back. He could already feel the blisters bubbling up as the searing heat from the fireball flew into the sky. Then he realized what was actually happening. He screamed out in pain, only for it to be choked off as the dust from the failing monument lodged itself in his throat. He crouched and covered his head as the remaining debris rained from above, turning his arms into a lattice of blood as it ran red down his body.

 

He looked around quickly and saw a large piece of cement leaning precariously in his general direction, and with all the strength he could muster, he threw himself out of the way of the now falling cement and used the subsequent smoke from the second explosion of dust to start his slow exit. It didn’t matter though, he was not the focus of attention right now. Everyone was staring at the place where a clock once was.

 

John vaguely registered the muted sound of two shots, which only served to increase the bells ringing in his head to a near deafening roar. He ripped out his ear plugs, the pressure in his head was too much to bear, anything would help. He was wrong.

 

The muted sound of pain transformed into the roar of the cacophony of screams of pain, shock, and the tritone of more police coming on the scene, and the sirens of the ambulance dared to deafen his already fragile ears. He fumbled around to find the plugs again, desperately wanting to return to the muted world he threw away, he wanted to make the pain bearable again.

 

 

Tucker didn’t even watch what was happening, he didn’t need to. He already received the fifty percent down payment, and while that needed to be split and pay for costs, he was the sole proprietor of the remaining money, the sum of seventy-five million was no small number. It would be more than enough to live the rest of his life comfortably.

 

He opened the door of the safe house, ignoring the man in the burnt shirt walking towards the house, after all, he was a ways away, and Tucker didn’t care anymore, he was done with this type of life. The stress of making world headlines for the chaos you caused does not rest easy on most people, and despite his facade, Tucker was disturbed by what he had done the past thirty-five years, but the guilt had always outweighed by the money.

 

He closed his eyes and breathed slowly through his nose. It was time for the self-proclaimed recent lottery winner to go home and finally live the life he had always wanted: in the middle of nowhere with his wife, enjoying life for the first time in thirty years.

 

Tucker climbed into the car, threw his fake license outside the car, and Anthony drove away.

 

 

John barely made it to the safe house before blacking out. It didn’t register in his mind that the lights were still on, he just stumbled over to the couch, and collapsed onto it. The pain didn’t matter right now, all that mattered was the twenty million in his bank account and the need for sleep.

 

Sleep came quickly, and John let himself be enveloped in the darkness as he drifted away. This would be the last time in many months that John would sleep well.

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by Quarks

[kaisdf 3,320]

Article Approved.

 

Lovely piece, a good continuation of the story, and it leaves enough loose ends for it to be easily continued. Great job overall!

 

Very accurate too, just a few tiny corrections.

 

Edits:

• "staring to where a clock once was" -> "staring at the place where..."
  
• "a sum of seventy-five million" -> "the sum..."
  
• "the money had always been outweighed by the money" -> "the guilt had..."
  
• "into the car and through his fake license outside the car" -> "into the car, threw his fake license outside the car,"
  

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

but the guilt had always outweighed by the money.

You forgot the 'been'.

 

Nice read.

[thethiefofvictory 339]

If Corrosion didn't prove Bry's storywriting prowess, this does. 

[Quarks 2,255]

If Corrosion didn't prove Bry's storywriting prowess, this does. 

I'm not a good story writer though... 

[Person_Random 4,991]

I'm not a good story writer though... 

Who says?

 

 

besides you