“You’re right. I know it all cost a fortune, but the more cricket practices I take and the more matches I play, the less time I spend at home. There’s method to the madness. Ka ching.”
Bucky turned to his troubled teammate. “Are you okay?”
Aaron smiled. “Yes, peachy. I just thought I’d come up to see how you were doing, but now I’m gonna go back down and see if I can catch a bit of sleep. See ya.”
Aaron descended the ladder. Bucky watched as he walked across the floor and sat on an old chair. There was trouble in him for sure, but not as much as in Lawro. That guy was a time bomb waiting to explode. Bucky turned back to the window and recalled the incident with the clown. Lawro had brutalised him, hacking him it seemed in a psychotic rage. Lawro made him uneasy. Miss Greene could only keep him tethered for so long.
Lightning flickered across the darkened sky. Bucky leant closer to the window.
“Guys,” he said, speaking across his shoulder.
“What?” Lawro replied.
“I just saw three crazies in the field out there.”
“Where?” Lawro asked, ascending the ladder.
“Just there,” Bucky pointed, waiting a moment until Lawro could see.
“Shit. Alright. Keep a low profile.” Lawro descended to the barn floor and rushed across to the lamp that illuminated part of the darkness. “Need to turn this off,” he said, pressing a button on its base and killing the batteries. The rest of their group had been sat huddled within its glow.
“Is it just three?” Miss Greene asked.
“I don’t know, I didn’t see them, but it’s best to play it safe. Don’t raise your voices,” he whispered.
Thunder rattled across the distant sky, closing in as it rumbled and quaked the wooden slats beneath Bucky’s feet.
Bucky watched as Lawro engaged in a conversation with Miss Greene. Being so far away he had no idea what they were saying, only that Lawro clasped a hammer in his hand. After a moment, they both peered up to him with Lawro gesturing she should go first. Miss Greene ascended the ladder as another flash of light flickered through the clouds. A few more crazies appeared in the field, but no more than a handful.
“We got a few more out there,” Bucky informed them both as they joined him on the upper floor.
“Just keep an eye out,” Lawro began, turning to the storage room door across the way. “We’re going to see if there’s anything in here we can use to barricade the entrance.”
Bucky’s last conscious thought was of the darkness outside.
* * *
“…hear me? Bucky?”
Bucky roused to a thunderous pain across the side of his head and temple.
“Jesus, man! What the hell? What happened?”
“Keep it down,” Aaron whispered from somewhere close beside him.
Bucky regained his senses. The awareness of his surroundings emerged. He sat against a tyre of the redundant tractor’s wheel. Both hands had been pulled behind his back. The burning sensation around his wrists indicated they had been bound.
“What’s going on?” Bucky asked again, shifting his gaze to the right where Aaron sat, also bound to a tyre. They had both been tied with rope that ran between gaps in the tractor’s wheel.
“That bastard Lawro. He’s got Miss Greene up there in that storage room now,” Aaron replied, flicking his eyebrows towards the upper level.
“What!”
“Keep it down!” Aaron snapped once more, before gesturing toward the barn door behind them. “That ain’t the worst of it, either.”
“The door ain’t gonna hold much longer,” Johnny’s disembodied voice came from the shadows.
“Where are you?” Bucky asked.
“Same place as you, only on the front wheels.”
“Lacey too?”
“Yes, Lacey too. The gang’s all here.”
“Great. This is just bloody great. What in God’s name are we going to do now that we’re tied up to a tractor? How did you three manage to get overpowered by one person?”
“He took your sword, idiot,” Lacey replied. “You think any of us are going to argue with a psychopath holding a sword?”
“Hold on a minute,” Aaron replied, grimacing with effort. “He may be a psychopath, but he’s been a bit lax with tying my hands. I’m almost through this rope, and when I am, I’m gonna go up there and give that asshole the beating of his miserable life.”
“And just how do you plan on doing that?” Johnny asked. “He’s twice the size of you and has Bucky’s sword with him.”
Bucky noted the absence of his holster.
“First, I’m going to untie all of you, then I’m gonna go to that workshop over there, grab a hammer or something, run up that ladder and smash his head in. That’s how I’m going to do it.”
“Not if we get killed first,” Lacey replied. Bucky listened as the barn doors heaved and creaked against the bike chain. Snarling sailed through the air from the other side. “The gap in the doors is wide enough for them to put their fingers through.”
Aaron popped his hands from behind his back. “See, stage one complete,” he said, waggling his fingers in Bucky’s direction.
“Hurry up and get the rest of us,” Bucky snapped. Aaron rushed over to the workshop. “Aaron! What the hell are you doing now?”
Aaron stopped a moment, peering upwards before grabbing a junior hacksaw from its place on the wall. He ran back across the barn to Bucky and began slicing through the rope.
“Sounds like he’s screwing her.”
Bucky shook his head. “Asshole. I knew he was no good.”
“Yeah. We have to stop him and be quick about it.” Bucky pulled the rope and snapped its threads. Aaron ran around the tractor to the others while Bucky untangled the knots around his wrist. He ran across to the workshop and grabbed a screwdriver. Aaron was right. Miss Greene was sobbing from the room above. He heard her flesh pound as Lawro struck her to an even beat. The others soon joined him, freed from their restraints by Aaron and his hacksaw. They each chose a tool to use as
