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The Ithsmus of Endlessness
Chapter 21: The Shithouse Rat

Chapter 21: The Shithouse Rat

ET doesn’t know if life is worth living. Every thing he based his life around collecting is gone. All his achievements for nothing. Every mural he ever painted is defaced. These out of towners showed up and started crossing him out. Turned his friends against him and now he doesn’t have a place to live because his dad thinks he helped them clean out his house. He decides to break into the Chiefs house which is now vacant due to Chief being out of town, healing up at a girl friends. Knowing the Chief has a couple old revolvers he won’t miss hidden in a shoe box. Getting into the house is easy. Chief doesn’t worry about burglars and leaves all his windows open. He even showed ET how to break in if he gets locked out. Using a drywall chisel or flathead screw driver he simply clicks the screen out and pops the lock on the window. Within seconds he is inside.

Chiefs place is pretty strange. For such a tough guy he sure likes a lot of 100 year old french figural lamps, neoclassical bronze statues and chandeliers. Every thing here is likely salvaged from a sunken ship. The term Rococo comes to mind. What does the Chief think, he is Louie the 14th? ET finds the shoebox but the guns are gone. Only things inside are some diamond rings, gold chains, playing cards displayed with dead bodies and pictures of his unit in Vietnam. ET takes the rings since they are too small for Chiefs fingers and too big for any of his girlfriends. Probably won them in a card game or planned to trade them for motorcycle parts. ET sets out on his mission to buy a gun. He knows Monkey and Lucinda tend to trade in those kind of wares.

Walking around the amusement park, under the pier and the abandoned aquariums. The winos are gone but there are some skate boarders down there filming a skate video. ET exchanges info with them, but when asking if they would sell him a gun the skates exchange furtive looks like ET is some kind of narc. He excuses him self to go to the place he knows will sell him a gun. The Drunken Werewolves Motorcycle Club. He always heard this club was started by his father before he was a cop. He wasn’t sure enough about how true that is to bring it up to the members. They have a clubhouse in a shack on the outskirts of the amusement parks grounds. Around here its the only place with any signs of life. Barbed wire fences, a sturdy rolling gate and neon signs for defunct strip clubs dot the windows.

The dogs are no problem, Lucifer and Barbarella. Two Rottweilers who are vicious as hell but always happy to get a piece of salami or a dead fish from him. ET has been here plenty of times when Mad-god was a member. Mad-god got tired of paying dues, fines for missing meetings and having somebody monitoring his wheeling and dealing expecting a piece of his action. There is no bad blood but he doesn’t come around any more. The main two ET talks to in town are Joker and Smokey. They aren’t around but the mechanic Wizard is grinding out a bad weld on a gas tank. He has crazy Soviet high altitude goggles and a face that looks like he grew up knife fighting. He has one eye that is glass and a dark sense of humor.

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Wizard isn’t sure if he can trade any guns to ET. He tells ET to go find Butcher Jerry, the President. He is taking care of some yard work for a blind old lady who is the mother of a dead member. Its too far to walk, so he decides to give ET a ride in his VB bug dune buggy. Its like something from mad-max with purple ghost flames, doors removed, has tires that look they were stolen off a lunar lander and a monstrous engine sticking out the back with a muffler that sounds like a jet taking off. Arriving at the blind ladies pad, they see Butcher Jerry yelling down into a well. Walking up unannounced ET hears whats going on. Down in the hole is a guy named Chuy, like “Chewie.” He is being interrogated for stealing from the club. Butcher Jerry annoyed. This clown isn’t giving up the goods, still joking around, trying to buy time. Butcher Jerry has a portable cement mixer parked beside the well, almost full.

A couple guys standing there loading in bags of cement powder, shovelfuls of rocks and continuous water. Butcher Jerry can’t hear the guy in the well over the cement mixer. Smiling and nodding while he peals an apple with a knife. He tosses Chuy the apple, a pack of smokes and one last beer. Giving him a few minutes to finish while the guys loading the cement mixer defecate into the well. Chuy covered in shit, is screaming and laughing at the same time. Chuy can’t get the cigarette pack back over the lip of the well and Jerry decides to entomb them with him. With out ceremony Butcher Jerry drops a lit stick of dynamite, a couple heavy shopping carts down on top of Chuy. The blast sends a shock wave of rock and black water up out of the well. Turning and smiling when ET picks up a smaller shopping cart and tosses it in too. Then in a group effort they all turn the heavy wheel that turns the cement mixer in to fill in the well. Pouring up the bottom third of the well. I guess Chuy will never give up the goods he stole now.

Butcher Jerry is pissed. His eyes darting from Wizard of to ET. He is gritting his teeth. Thinking about what his next move should be. Butcher Jerry is a red head with a white beard. He is covered in prison ink and has a Jane’s Addiction t-shirt on. Shoving ET to the ground with a serious look, Butcher Jerry says. “You fucked up big time kid, you weren’t supposed to see that!” ET is too shocked to speak, he imagines what it would be like, entombed in a well drowning in cement. Behind him he is startled to see Chuy climbing out of a second well behind the house with a ladder and heavy metal latch. Butcher Jerry smiles, offering ET a hand and says. “You don’t think i would let you witness a murder with your dad being a pig would ya?” ET is relieved he really thought they were going to kill him. Jerry asks, “So how can i help you?” ET explains the problem he has been having and shows the scars where they cared their tagging crew on his stomach. Why he needs a gun. Jerry says, “I don’t blame you kid. I will loan you a gun but make sure you take that costume jewelry back where you found it.”

Taking ET into a workshop they have behind the blind ladies house, Jerry rifles through a green pirates chest full of clothes, loose pieces of paper and finally a little metal box. Inside is a couple silver .38 special snub nose revolvers, a black beretta 9mm and a scratched up ww2 45. ET wants the 45 but Jerry thinks its too big for him. The beretta is cool, has a open barrel on the top and looks like something a spy would have. Behind him Wizard says, “How about this?” Holding a big beltfed M60 tripod machine gun… like the ones from Rambo movies. On the wall behind him are some surplus AK47s and M-16s from Vietnam. ET wants to check out every thing but in the end ends up with the Beretta that Jerry is not sure will fire and besides has no bullets for. ET wants to know for sure and will have to find 9mm rounds somewhere.