Eagless 104

Vigilante? Or Villain?

That’s the question following last night’s attack by the campus’s newest wannabe hero. Derek Brooks and Jacob Findlay were walking their friend home last night after she drank too much at their favorite bar. But before they could get her safely home, they were attacked by the vigilante.

“They waited until we had turned the corner and were no longer visible from the main road before they ambushed us,” Derek told the Daily. Jacob added, “I tried to buy Derek some more time to get our friend home before they could do anything to her, but I got blindsided and wasn’t able to get back to Derek in time.” The Daily was not able to make contact with the friend they were walking home.

Both Derek and Jacob sustained injuries during the attack, with Jacob suffering sprains to both his MCL and ACL, and Derek receiving a concussion in addition to bodily contusions. There is no place for this kind of brutality on our campus. The Daily is calling on the school administration to condemn this activity and pledge to make it a priority to eradicate these vigilantes from our campus before more students are hurt, or worse. If the administration would stop limiting the campus police, these attacks would cease immediately. “If anyone has information on who this vigilante is, that needs to be reported to campus police immediately. This vigilante is public enemy number one on our campus,” Campus Chief of Police Doug Handler told the Daily. Until the time that our school’s officials do something about this issue, keep an eye out for yourself and other students. You could be next.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Ashley dropped the paper onto the counter, interlocking her fingers behind her head, her eyes losing focus as she stared straight ahead.

“What happened?” Nicole asked, exiting her room with a hamper of dirty clothes.

Ashley pushed the paper to her and waited.

“Oh my—” Nicole gasped. “Ashley!”

“I know.”

“This is not good.”

“I know.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I . . . I don’t know.” Ashley leaned against the bar and rubbed at her temples.

“What actually happened last night?”

“Two guys were taking a drunk girl back to their place, and I stopped them and carried the girl back to the union.”

“Okay, well, then if we find the girl, she can set the story straight and you’ll be in the clear.”

“Won’t work.” Ashley shook her head. “She won’t remember anything. She couldn’t even speak last night. I don’t know if she was drunk or drugged or what, but she won’t have any memory of what happened.”

“Crap. Then I guess that’s it for your hero run. What a sucky way to go out.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Ashley, it has to be.”

“No.”

“At least for the time being. Everyone is going to be looking for you! And not in a good way! They’ll send you to jail!”

“I’m not going to be intimidated out of helping people. I know what I saw, Nicole. You don’t carry a drunk friend like a sack of potatoes. They were going to hurt her if I hadn’t been there. The White Knight could have been sent to jail, too, but he was out there to protect us when we needed it. I’m going to be there when people need me, too.”

“If they catch you, you won’t be able to help anyone for a long time.”

“I get it if this isn’t what you signed up for and you want out. That’s completely fair. But I knew what the risks were. Nothing has changed for me. I need to go for a run. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Ashley!” Nicole pleaded as she watched her leave. “Please be reasonable.” But Ashley’s headphones were already in, and with that, she was gone.

Later that night, Ashley left her room and glanced to the right before turning left down the hallway to use the restroom.

“You’re using the bathroom an awful lot tonight,” Nicole called out from the living room where she had been sitting on her laptop all evening in front of the door. “We’re going to have to work out a new split on the water bill at this pace.”

Ashley shook her head and went back into her room. I’m not a child! She fumed, lying down across her bed on her back. Who does Nicole think she is? She has no right to tell me what I can or can’t do. Ashley sat up and rubbed her temples. She lifted her head, and her eyes rested on the window above her desk. Not very dignified but given the circumstances.

Ashley got dressed as quickly as she could without making a sound. Grabbing her mask, she quietly cracked the window. She inched it up until it was fully open and then gently poked the screen out and lowered it to the ground outside her window. Crawling on her desk, she managed to get her feet on the ground without alerting Nicole. She took a detour to cross the backyard without passing by the living room. The slight delay to go up their block and over before heading to campus easily outweighed the chance of Nicole seeing her leave.

Making her way to the library, Ashley had jumped into an alley between campus buildings when she heard a scream. Securing her mask in place, she sprinted back onto the sidewalk to find a girl being held by the waist and dragged by a large man. “Let me go!” the girl screamed, hitting the man on the arm, but to no avail.

“You heard what she said,” Ashley growled. She didn’t really know why she growled, but it was happening. “Let her go.”

“My pleasure,” the man answered with a smirk. As he let go of the girl, she stood up but didn’t run away. His smirk turned into a snarl as two more men came out of the alley to the far side of them. Footsteps pounded behind her. Three more men came out of an alley she had passed in her sprint. They were circling her.

It was a trap.

Ashley’s heart dropped. She tried to cross the street but toppled as she was hit with something in the leg. Scrambling to her feet, she watched as two of the men blocked off the road as the others crept closer, shrinking the circle.

Ashley backtracked and slipped over whatever had hit her in the back of the legs. A baseball bat? She looked up in horror to see each man carrying some kind of weapon. A bat or club or pipe. One of them was empty-handed—the one who threw the bat—but the rest were armed. She bent low to grab the bat, head swiveling, trying to watch all her attackers.

Bat in hand and holding her ground, everything stood still. The circle had closed to the point where each man was only between five and ten feet away.

She took a breath.

With a yell from their leader, the men rushed in, weapons raised. Covering her head with one arm, she swung indiscriminately with the bat as they swarmed. After a few connections, the bat was flung from her hands as she fell to her knees, both arms raised above her head as they beat her.

The blows came to a sudden stop, but Ashley could barely tell through the pain. A scream that pierced through the night was quickly followed by tires screeching and the sound of a body being hit by a car. Ashley looked up to see a car on the curb with its door open, revealing someone in a ski mask driving. Ashley heard a muffled noise from the car as her attackers had momentarily scattered, and she took advantage by crawling in. The car took off, the momentum closing the door that Ashley hadn’t closed before she passed out.

Eagless continue with episode 105.

For more stories set in this world, buy my books, The White Knight and SAMSON – OUT NOW! Or read my short story series The Street Rat for free like Eagless!

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