Southern Indiana, 2019
I turned the corner to see exactly what I expected. Meela was at the bar, surrounded by three greasy looking brutes. They eyed me with amusement as I walked back towards my seat next to her, sick smiles of pleasure on their faces. A smile I returned and gave a knowing look to Meela.
This whole plan had been hers. These were three bad dudes, guys we had specifically tracked down on our trek across the Midwest. The owner of a bed and breakfast in the center of the state had been beaten and robbed by these men. She had told us one morning over breakfast, unable to stop her tears. Meela and I had made instant eye contact, the same thought having occurred to us both. We assured the kind lady that we would get her money back, and from the information she provided, they weren't difficult to track down.
There were many people on the road who would try to accost a young couple, many of those people carrying cash and drugs like the men we had robbed several months prior. Funding our journey with similar robberies, we had traveled through Ohio and Indiana, sleeping in state parks and campsites. We had invested a good portion of our money wisely in survival supplies, a large tent, and a solar generator.
To keep ourselves sharp, we sparred every night when we stopped for rest. Meela was stronger than she looked and much quicker than I ever could be. Underestimating her could be deadly and had rewarded me with several bruises and black eyes. Lately she had been complaining about soreness through her arms and legs, telling me they were "growing pains". At her insistence, we bought a measuring tape, and it turned out she was right.
When I had first met her, she was 5'6. Four days ago she was 5'10.
I felt like an idiot for not noticing, but attributed it to my seeing her everyday and the distraction of surviving on the open road. I had begun to notice her body changing in other ways though. Even during nights of passion lit only by a single lantern, I could notice the changes. Her torso had lengthened and narrowed, the slight amount of fat she had before had ironed itself out completely, which I assumed was the product of not eating, like I had noticed on myself. The muscles on her arms and legs had toned as well, even displaying a size they had not had before.
When we had to fight together, we were unstoppable. She was now a tall girl, 5'10 with long legs strong enough to break bone when she kicked. I was 6'4 and well trained and practiced, but even compared to me, her skills were exceptional. Meela swore she never fought or trained before the incident and her strange vision. She claimed that all of her ability came from her injury and this supposed "Moment". I still didn't know what to believe, she still didn't wish to talk about it at length, but I certainly enjoyed watching her perform her supposed new talents.
Meela winked in my direction as a man broke off from the three and walked towards me. He had a shaved head and a stringy goatee, with a lip piercing that bobbed up and down as he moved. He was short but moved confidently, planting his hand in my chest as I got in his path.
"Hang on there bud." He smiled and his piercing protruded slightly, "We were talking about things when you went to the bathroom, and your lady friend over there is coming with us. You can say goodbye or somethin', but then you gotta go."
I looked around the room. Outside of a few scattered patrons in the booths beyond, we were entirely alone, just as Meela had planned. On the counter next to me were a set of glasses drying on a towel. To my left was a table and a set of tall chairs.
I smiled. There were so many options.
I gave him a chance to be civil, inclining my head and moving to walk around him "Let's just see what she's got to say about that."
He caught me as I tried to push past him, "She's not gonna get a say in this and neither are you. You should've never come in here, and I don't know what the hell you were thinking bringing a girl like that in here. Now, get out!"
I stepped back and grinned at him, "That rip ling looks infected. Maybe you should take it out and think about a better look."
He shouted and swung at me with his left arm. I didn't expect him to lead with the left and clumsily blocked it with my forearm. His next punch I anticipated, and deflected with my left hand letting the blow carry past me. I caught his still moving hand around the wrist with my right and slammed it onto the bar. He swung at me with his other hand as I pinned his arm down, but I turned and ducked, catching it with my shoulder. With my free hand, I knocked him back with my elbow, forcing him to straighten his pinned arm before I flattened my palm and brought it down hard on the locked joint.
The bone gave a loud crack, and the man sank to the floor howling in pain. Most hand to hand fights I had been in were short, but they were always shorter when your opponent didn't know what they were doing. I turned towards the bar. Meela had slammed a glass in one of the men's face. He stood a few feet away, scratching at his eyes as Meela grappled on the floor with the other.
She had was above him striking wildly, when he brought a bar stool down on top of her, causing her to flinch and give him space to wriggle out. By the time I had made it next to them, he had climbed on top of her, fist back ready to strike. I lunged towards him, bringing my fist in close to my body and keeping my arm bent as the force of my movement forward cracked against the side of his face.
He fell limp, and I grabbed him by the shirt collar, lifting him off of Meela. He was light, and I threw him like a ragdoll against the corner of the bar. He leaned against the edge of the counter, trying to get up. I cocked my hand back and swung at the side of his head. He slipped against the bar limp, but I didn't stop punching him.
It was only when I felt a tap on my shoulder did I look over to see Meela smiling and urging me to follow her. I looked back at the man I had been punching, blood was running across the countertops in small little streams. His purple and red face was hardly recognizable, causing my stomach to turn in shock. How many times had I hit him? Meela didn't seemed bothered by it, and instead stood eyeing the thing we had come in for. In her hands she had two small wads of cash, a pair of wallets, and a small bag of white powder.
I reached into the jacket of the man slumped against the bar and found another wad of money, as well as a wallet in his back pocket. I slipped them into my pocket and looked up to see Meela peel a pair of hundreds from the money she had found and hand them to a wide eyed bartender.
"For your troubles," she said cheerily, waving it at him when he didn't take it.
"T-thank you," he stammered hands shaking as he took the money.
Meela turned towards me and pecked me on the cheek, "Are you ready love?"
"Yeah, Let's go."
She nodded and bounced her way in front of me, leading us up a pair of stairs towards the entrance of the building. I looked over my shoulder to see the three men we had just robbed licking their wounds and trying to pull themselves up and regain their composure. It would be several months before they would be able to move past their injuries and work as a crew again.
"Pssst," a voice came from our right.
I looked over at a booth along the wall, just past a bright neon purple jukebox pumping Crash by the Dave Matthews band in through the speakers in the corners of the bar. The man wore warm work clothes, an off white Henley under forest green zip up coveralls. He had the shifty smile of a salesman beneath a coarse auburn colored beard. He met my gaze and nodded.
I stopped in place and felt Meela's hand tug at mine.
"Come on baby," she tried to tug me along.
I held up a finger, motioned with my head at the man sitting down in the booth and she looked over at him with me. Now having both of our attention, he gestured at the men we had left behind at the bar.
"There's got to be a better way to get money than mugging a lowlife crew like that. Bright young couple like yourselves? How much did you make from that anyway?"
I didn't feel like answering and was about to turn to leave when Meela answered in my stead.
"About 2200, what's it to you?" Her stare was intense. "We gonna need to add another guy to that group we just robbed?"
He laughed and held his hands up defenselessly, "Whoa whoa, easy there Lady Rambo. I was just asking a question. 2200 though, seems like a poor payout for a pair with your.... talents."
"Cut to the chase." I said brusquely.
There had been many a smooth talker on our journey and never once did their words prove to be anything but harmful. My cynical nature countered Meela's optimism nicely, and both had gotten us out of bad situations It seemed likely that this guy wanted to rob us or worse, but after showing him what we were capable of just moments ago, and feeling the weight of my loaded pistol resting comfortably in my front jacket pocket, I determined that we were safe for now.
"Why don't you and your dangerous beauty take a seat, I promise I won't keep you long."
"Why should we?" Meela eyed him suspiciously. She was becoming hardened through our countless interactions with shady characters.
"If I were to try and hurt you I would've done it by now," the man grinned, trying to sound disarming.
Reluctantly we sat down, Meela on the outside as I slid my way inside the booth. The man leaned over, looking at both of us in turn.
"$2200 is nothing, especially if you're risking your lives. It's been a long while since I've seen a pair like you come through these doors. What are you ex-marine?"
"Something like that." I said shortly.
He laughed, "Hey, that's fine. You can keep it as vague as you want to. I'm not interested in your past, I'm interested in your talents. The group I work for... let's call them, unlicensed pharmaceutical distributors. They're always looking for outsiders to help them with... problems so to speak."
"What kind of problems?" Meela chimed in.
"Well there are always problems. Problems you can't deal with like the law and the product, and problems you can deal with like the competition."
"Look," I said eyeing the exit, "We're a busy couple, go ahead and tell us what you need or we're out of here."
"A man of business, I like that." He smiled. "Well I'll just get right down to it. You two can make a future in this line of work. A future with real money. We need a rival eliminated. I don't know if either of you have killed before, but you have the look of those who have."
Meela and I exchanged knowing glances. Though we had been supporting ourselves through acts of violence, a job like this was something we could never return from.
Suddenly, Meela's hand slipped into mine underneath the table. She gave me a slight nod and a smile and turned back to the man across from us.
"Alright..." I said skeptically. "What do you want us to do and for how much?"
The man grinned and tilted his head back to take a deep swig of his drink before slamming the glass back on the table noisily. "Okay! Well-"