Captive Sunset
Escape

Crack continued to fondle her breast until her nipples got stiff. Smiling contently he went for her jean snap and undid it and then for the zipper. He pulled it down.

Laura saw movement in the rear view mirror and was elated to see Billy sneaking up from the back. She tried not to stare so this guy wouldn’t know. She just needed to hang on for a few more minutes. He started to undo his pants. She needed to keep him occupied so she helped him with his zipper and he enjoyed that, dropping the knife he had to he floor. Her eyes glanced at it when he was gazing at the ceiling of the car. He pulled his pants down to his thighs. She pulled them further down hoping to immobilize him. He had difficulty pulling his under pants down over his erection. She rubbed is thigh to keep his mind off of her true desire.

Julia saw Billy approaching. She was in an awkward position looking backward and couldn’t change her orientation. She gestured to him with her finger to stay quiet. She was in such pain. Her back was aching but she thought to herself hang on a little longer. Billy showed her the gun and a smile came on her tortured face. She grabbed it from him and whispered in a parched raspy voice, “open the door,” to him and he did just that. He pulled on the handle and the door cracked open relieving Julia’s hair. She stood, pointed and fired three consecutive shots at the driver from behind his seat. Bang, bang, bang. He started screaming and flailing. One shot shattered the windshield. She wasn’t sure how bad she hit him or if she hit him at all.

Laura simultaneously reached for the knife on the floor before Crack new what happened. She plunged it directly into his erect penis as hard as she could. He screamed and pulled on the door handle falling out of the vehicle with his pants down. He tried to get up to escape but had trouble because Laura had pulled his pants all the way down to his ankles. He screamed at her, “What the fuck have you done to me? You bitch!” He was bleeding profusely so he pulled his underpants up. Laura looked at his tighty whities turning red.

Julia opened the driver door and pulled him by his red hair until he fell to the concrete. He was bleeding from his back so she definitely hit him. He rolled around in pain but was not able to stand. Julia said “Watch him,” to Billy and went around to the other side to help Laura who stood above Crack with a bloody knife in her hand. He still had his jeans around his ankles.

Julia said, “Don’t fucking move!” Her hands were shaking so bad that Laura took the gun from her and hugged her. “I shot that guy, whats going to happen to me now?” she went from gun blazing to crying. Her emotions were all over the map so she ended with humor. “I’m glad all those hours of watching crime shows on TV finally paid off or I wouldn’t have known what to do.”

“Don’t worry. Nothing is going to happen to you, there is no law left around here. The question is what do we do with them?” Laura pondered.

“Really? I have an idea. Be right back after I do some shopping.” Julia went inside the store looking for some rope.

Laura had a bad idea of what was going to happen so she requested Billy go and guard the car until they joined him. He happily complied.

Julia returned with some rope and went for Red who was alive but needed medical attention. “Please help me,” he begged.

“I’m sorry, but there is none available right now, but I’m gonna make sure you are comfortable until somebody comes along. That’s the least I can do,” she said in a mocking way as she wrapped the rope around his neck and made a slip knot at his throat toward the van side door. The very same door that he used on her. She pulled hard, he was heavy, until he was lined up just like he did her. She reached in his pocket and got the FOB out. She pressed the close driver side door button and as the door began to close she reached around from the front and pulled the rope snug, When it clamped and sealed shut his face was pulled right up against the paint.

He moaned, “Please don’t do this to me.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have the practice with the Red maneuver that you do but I am getting better don’t you think?” she said still mocking him with a smile. The rope was long so she fed it through the front seats and looked at Laura, “Your turn.”

Laura handed the gun to Julia and went over to Crack. She tied a slip knot around his neck and positioned him just as Julia had. “Hand me the FOB.” Julia handed it to her.

Crack yelled, “You can’t do this to me. Please don’t. It was Red’s maneuver not mine. I need medical attention. You hurt me bad.”

She pressed the close passenger side door, reached around inside from the front and pulled the rope tight so when the door sealed he was identical to Red, facing the door, nose on the paint with no room to move. “What did you say to me holding a knife in your hand earlier? Let’s see, survival of the fittest I think, wasn’t it? I want this to be a lesson to you boys. We could have taken you both for a ride around the parking lot for what you put us through but we are feeling generous today,” she smiled. “Lets go Julia.”

Red yelled, “Wait, please don’t leave. How are we supposed to get loose?”

“Don’t worry, this is a busy place. I’m sure someone will happen along in a while. They like us so much, they don’t want us to leave,”chuckled Laura as she locked the doors with a push on the FOB. Beep beep the car sounded.

“Bye,” said Julia with a smile on her face as they went back inside.

They went to the counter. Laura dropped the FOB into a trash can where it disappeared under some papers. Julia knew how to work the pumps from inside. She rung up $45.00 cash purchase on number three where their car sat. Then she went for cool drinks again while Laura filled up the tank and off they went. Billy never asked what happened to those mean men and Laura didn’t tell him.

John and GAIL were conferencing with two other scientist who were rightfully skeptical about launching a warhead toward the center of the Dark Matter.

Dr. Smith said, “It would be too dangerous to launch a nuclear warhead into space. Particularly now with so much of our network down.”

Dr. Glenolden added, “An atomic explosion in space would probably not have any effect on the Dark Matter in the vacuum of space. Not worth the risk.”

GAIL jumped in, “We don’t know enough about Dark Matter to know how it would be affected by an explosion at this point.”

“I agree with everything that has been said. Knowing that under the best conditions it would take time to put something like this together we opted to start it immediately. Changes can be made as new information becomes available. Placing some other kind of device on it or sending it to a different location other than the center of it’s mass. Keep working everyone. We need to succeed for humanity’s sake. John ended the conference.

GAIL said, “I do have new information. The center of Dark Matter appears to be moving faster than we originally calculated.”

“Really, let me look at the data for a moment. By the way, can you cll me on a land line if we get disconnected? It's bound to happen.”

"Yes, wht number?" He gave her Laura's number.

GAIL started humming a song unfamiliar to him. She loved music. Her parallel processors had no trouble keeping calculations running in her background as she waited patiently for John to say something.

Laura tried phoning John’s cellphone. It was offline. She remembered he was going to wire her phone to his back porch so she tried it and it rang and rang but he did not pick up. “I hope he is OK,” she said to Julia whose character went from a super hero to child wanting to know if they were home yet. Laura was steady through out the whole episode and still in command.

“It seems from this data that the Dark Matter may tangentially skirt Earth from its current distance and the full impact may have already been felt. I think it may continue by moving away now. This is amazing!” John was astounded by the good possibilities that might come from this.

“That could be one possibility,” halting her humming entertainment.

“What are other possibilities?” asked John.

“It is moving in a steady direction currently since we began monitoring it but it could change direction as it feels the gravitational effects of the solar system. It depends on the density and area of the matter. If it is densely packed it will more than like continue on its path. If it is a lower density and spread out as a larger field, it may feel the pull more from the Sun and other planets.”

“So we are not out of the woods yet. Another theoretical question that looms now is, will Earth begin spinning again at it’s normal 24 hour rotation again as the matter moves away?”

“No data to support this question.” GAIL said without emotion.

“What do you mean by that?” John queried.

“I mean we will have to wait and see. I am hopeful that it will occur as your question poses. I don’t think we can count on a new Earth rotation being exactly the same as before but I would guess it will be close.”

“Like 24 hrs and 20 seconds?” he said as an example.

“Precisely.”

At that moment John’s internet connection went off. With the satellite not working now, no cable or cellphone internet, he was dead in the water and could no longer work on the crisis. He walked back to his home where he had spent almost no time since he arrived. It was hard to feel the changing time of day. The Sun sat in the same place. It was as if time was standing still.

He thought GAIL would keep an eye on the Dark Matter and hopefully internet would come back on soon. Thoughts of what must be going on all over the world crept from the back of his thoughts to the front. He knew people were suffering everywhere. Except to a much lesser degree in the Goldilocks Zones. He rested on the couch before his head fell to his chest and he was sound asleep.