Jack's Fortune

It was dark and rain was pelting the windshield making an entrancing rhythm with the wiper blades, as Jack somberly drove down the highway. She pulled into her usual stop. It was late, but that wasn't why she was tired; some people don't go quietly, it had been a tough job tonight.

It was a gravel road off the highway covered in thick woods. The smell of cedar invaded her nostrils as soon as she got out of the truck. She grabbed a spade out of the back and moved to her reference position. And proceeded to pace out nine sites and started a new one.

This was the better part of her job, she thought. The spade stabbed the ground with a satisfying sound of scraping rocks and the earth breaking. She lifted the divot up and it was just as satisfying. The process repeated for hours, in the rain, but Jack wasn't cold. This also signified the end of her day was near.

A flicker came into the corner of her eye. She turned her head. A light source was bobbing up and down, clearly coming closer. Somebody else was there, they had a flashlight and they weren't alone. She put down the shovel silently with care. She started to be able to hear their voices, not what they were saying, but the volume was growing. They were walking directly towards her. She picked up the shovel and moved behind a shrub. Hopefully these men wouldn't see the hole she dug in the dark and might be able to walk right by it. They came into view and she could see that one of them was much lankier than the other one; and he'd been drinking something stiff, the way he was staggering. The man's faulty walk gave way to a hard jut left and he fell further than he had probably expected, into a pile of mud. The other turned, and as he did the flashlight he was carrying shot a glance off Jack's spade.

She clutched the shovel with an overhand grip and lunged out of the darkness at the man with the light. Hitting him in the and knocking him down, she was about to bring it down on him again but was tripped by the friend.

"Come on let's go!" He yelled as his friend got up. He swiftly kicked Jack in the side of the rib cage, and turned heel with his friend.

Jack saw their tail lights turn on and quickly fade into the night. After recollecting herself she quickly disposed of the contents of her trunk, buried it and went to leave. When she turned the ignition of her vehicle, she saw a sizeable burlap old backpack, dead square in the center of her headlights. She's not used to asking questions, she rarely answers them, too. And when she did, it came with a bag of gasoline; maybe even diesel. She grabbed the backpack and tossed it in the back of her truck.

Hours later, at her run-down apartment (she felt at home in shitholes), Jack tossed the bag on her couch as she grabbed some stale leftovers from her fridge. She choked down the old burger, that had probably been sitting there for days. The dry crusty bread was the best part, she thought, especially after eating cardboard in the military for so many years. She lit a cigarette and started to rummage through the bag. She wasn't surprised by the contents. The whole situation at the site seemed criminal. She pulled out an unsurmisable amount of money; she hadn't seen so much money before. Was this a million? or just a few grand? *count later* she thought. Under all the money, there was a little black book and an old cellphone. She put the cellphone down and it promptly started ringing. Jack rubbed the sweat off her palms, feeling the carpet knife she had in her pocket from doing her job earlier.

As she answered the phone she heard two voices, three, counting the one in her head telling her she needed to be on guard. But one was on the phone, and the other was outside her door, and they both said "You have something of mine."

The doors smashed open and a man fired a shot at her from the door, she dodged around a corner and readied her carpet knife from her pocket. She struck as he rounded the corner, knocking him down and also, the gun out of his hand. She attempted to mount him and finish the job but he tossed her off. He went for the gun, but he was too slow, she pounced on his back and jabbed the knife into the back of his neck, looking for the spinal cord. He went limp. Lucky, she hit the right nerve. She dealt the final blow and went to quickly shut the door but a familiar figure was already in the way.

"Mike?" she said, confused. "What the fuck is going on?"

"I wanna ask you the same question; I see you met Marco. Didn't like him? That's okay, neither did I. What I wanna know is what you're doing with my $50,000 and MORE importantly; you have an altercation at MY site for dumping? and you don't call me?" He said, commandingly.

"Mike, I..." she started.

"-you failed me, is what you did." He said. "Now you come with us."

Two burly men in suits and sunglasses walked in the door. She thought of one of her favourite movies. *But these guys don't need fucking shotguns* she thought, while considering her options. All ended terribly except for one. She tossed the knife on the floor and followed the men out, Mike close behind, with a gun trained on her.

*I wish I hadn't seen that bag* she thought as she realized this last option was looking just as bleak as the others back at the apartment. They turned down a familiar road to a place that she had never been worried to visit before, but this time she was. The dumping site. When it came into view she turned to Mike to say something only to see she was staring down the barrel of his gun. He pulled the trigger.

"I bet you wish you never saw that bag." He joked.