Mayhem in a PillChapter 58 Hiccups are Unexpected
- 3 years ago
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“So, you didn’t see anyone when you got out of the restroom?” Raymond asked his son while the two were in the front yard doing a final rinse of all the paint splashed on the family car.
“No, sir. I opened the door and looked both ways, but no one was there, and a few minutes later, when I left the locker room, I also didn’t see anyone,” Tim answered but paused before continuing. “Now that I think about it, Dad. I didn’t even see the guys leave the restroom. I didn’t hear any rumors about someone getting beat up and going to the office or the hospital, for that matter.”
Raymond nodded his head while continuing to wipe down the car. It was mostly busy work for the Murphy family’s two men since the car wash got the vast majority of the colors off. Once home, the only things they needed to clean were the windshield wipers themselves. “So did you get a look at who was in the car?”
“Not really. I thought I saw a Spurs basketball jersey, which is like these guys’ uniforms, but it was dark in the van, and the door was only open for a second,” Tim answered.
“Do you think it was this gang, or could it possibly have been Valentine from Judson still pissed about you kicking his ass on the field or all his subsequent problems?”
The news of Rodney Valentine’s dismissal from the Judson Rockets football team sent shocks through the local sports media. Rodney Valentine was a highly-sought-after recruit for all the major college football powerhouses across the country. The media’s fascination with what happened soon quelled when neither anyone at Judson nor Roosevelt would talk about what happened to see the football star kicked off his team. A couple of days later, Valentine withdrew from Judson and announced he was transferring to IMG Academy in Florida for the rest of his senior season. That effectively refocused the rumor mill surrounding his dismissal.
“Naw. I don’t think Rodney had anything to do with it, but hey, anything is possible, I guess,” Tim retorted.
“Alright, then. I guess, since no one was hurt, we’ll let it be just a stupid prank, but keep your eyes open while you’re in school, huh?” Raymond decided. Tim nodded his agreement. “Now it’s time we upgraded the security around Casa Murphy, ya think?”
“How?”
“Well, I guess it’s time to get an alarm. I mean, this neighborhood has always been a quiet and safe place, but your mother loves to show me posts from her online friends pointing out the different crimes happening down by the elementary school.”
“That’s like six or seven blocks away! Do you really think we need to get an alarm for that?”
Raymond looked at his son, who initially believed he was joking about the need for an alarm of some kind for the house. He realized that his son, fortunately, had grown up in a very sheltered fashion. He was always a quiet, unassuming boy and had, so far in life, not had to meet many of the harsher realities. No crime. No hunger. No repression. He had lived a blessed life so far.
Both sets of grandparents had passed when he was barely out of diapers. Raymond didn’t have any significant family problems turning the focus on them, and neither did Juanita’s side of the family. However, Juanita’s sister had two kids from two different men, and neither was in the picture. She was always working hard and keeping her family above water. The kids were happy, though, but Raymond knew his wife wished she could help her sister more.
“Well, I figure it’s best to be proactive about it. Best to have a little peace of mind before you really need it, ya think?” Raymond challenged, and Tim answered with that tried-and-true teenage way: an unexcited grunt. Raymond smiled to himself as he dunked a washrag into the bucket of sudsy water. He stood and fired the rag at his son and contacted the back of his son’s head.
“Hey, what the... !” Tim yelled, seeing his dad laughing from the other side of the SUV. Tim smiled and realized his dad must have forgotten what he had for retaliation. Tim tugged on the water hose and, in one motion, raised the nozzle and aimed it at his father, getting him flush with a stream of water before he could duck out of the way.
“Okay! I give! I give!” Raymond yelled and poured the bucket of soapy water out on the driveway. Tim turned the nozzle toward the paint-tinged water to wash it down the driveway. Then he began rolling it up after turning off the water. The two were soaked and in high spirits when they went inside for the night.
After a bit of a scene, the coaches finally got Rodney to understand they were not going to immediately put him in the varsity starting lineup without comparing him against the other players who have already been working in their program.
“Alright, Valentine! Let’s see what you got, big-time Texas football hero! I’m bringing the pain. You best get your ass ready for it!” The IMG Academy middle linebacker yelled from his position behind the line of scrimmage. The two football players were in practice for the IMG junior varsity.
“Just don’t go crying to your mama when I run right over your ass!” Rodney responded. The other players chuckled at his response. On the whistle, the quarterback handed off the ball cleanly to the new running back. Rather than sidestepping to the opening hole, Valentine bore down, and the linebacker closed the slight opening, and the two slammed into each other. Valentine did win the initial hit, but the linebacker was also one of the country’s top-rated younger linebackers.
After the initial impact, Valentine bounced off the blow and continued churning his knees. Still, the linebacker held onto the tackle and, after a few more steps, both players hit the ground. The other players all congratulated them on the impressive play. Rodney put on a healthy smile and bumped fists with the linebacker when offered.
Rodney moved off to the side and grabbed a water bottle, taking a quick swig. He worried to himself. Rodney had just hit the linebacker with his strongest move. Back at Judson, he would have been comfortably running for a touchdown. He was now thinking to himself that maybe the coaches at Judson could have been correct the whole time they told him that, while he was a good player, he was far from a great player.
Tim spent Monday with the drive-by painting in the back of his mind. As the day dragged on, he was slowly coming to grips with the idea that maybe it was just a stupid prank by someone who didn’t know who was in the victimized car. Tim was still incensed over it since it happened to his family. However, he slowly let his anger fade away ... until a car honking in traffic on Walzem seized Tim’s attention as he walked to his final class of the day at the portable building.
The honking had nothing to do with him, but the battleship-gray van merging into the intensifying traffic snapped into Tim’s full awareness. Instead of taking the ramp to the classroom, Tim quickly jumped into one of his teammates’ truck bed and did not take his eyes off the van as it pulled away from the school.
A few of his classmates saw Tim dart out for the school parking lot rather than enter the class. “Where you goin’, Mayhem?” Hamburger Gomez, the starting left tackle for the freshman football team, asked as he caught up to his friend.
“Did you hear about what happened to my family after the game Friday night?” Mayhem asked while keeping his eyes glued to the van while it turned off Walzem Rd.
“Yeah, the thing with the paint, right?”
“Right.”
“So. What’s that gotta do with what you doing right now?” Hamburger inquired as the one-minute-until-tardy warning bell for the beginning class rang out.
“I think I’m looking at the van right now.”
Hamburger climbed as quickly as he could into the pickup truck’s bed and stood next to Tim. “Are you sure it’s the same van?”
“Not a hundred percent, but I’m just waiting for it to make that turn, and I can maybe get a look at the license. I think I saw some of it Friday night, but it was fast, and well,” he said, pausing for a moment, “maybe.”
“Fucking aye dude, I can see it’s a gray van, sure, but you must have super eyesight to see the license.”
Tim realized he might have made a mistake and needed to cover it up. “Well yeah, better than average. I can see it, but it ain’t crystal clear.”
Hamburger grunted a statement of understanding, and both continued watching as the light changed, and the van turned, making its plate visible from their vantage point. Tim nearly jumped with excitement while he continued watching the van. “But will you look at who is in the passenger seat?”
“Who?”
The van had turned into a gas station and parked at one of the pumps. The passenger door opened, and Tommy, decked out in his black Spurs jersey, baggy black jeans, and bright white basketball shoes, headed into the store. He was still talking to the van’s driver, who had gotten out and was getting ready to pump some gas.
“Is that who I think it is?” Tim pumped his friend for a second opinion.
“Yep. Even I can tell from here who it is. Can’t really miss that dude. Even from way over here,” Hamburger answered and, after a few moments, he asked another question. “What are you going to do? You can’t exactly go right at him; he’s high up in the Darq Squad. They take shit seriously, Tim.”
The bell rang, and that got both teens’ attention. They looked at each other, and both mumbled, “Shit.” They jumped out of the truck bed and ran to the portable classroom while simultaneously readjusting their backpacks.
A couple of other teens entering the classroom were tardy, too, so the short pause at the door gave Hamburger another chance for a quick question. “What are you going to do? If it was Tommy and the Darq Squad who poured paint on your family’s car Friday, you can’t just walk up to him and hit him or something.”
“I dunno. I’ll have to think of something.” The two separated, the conversation ended, and the class began.
After Health class, in the locker room getting ready for practice, Tim was sitting quietly and not paying any attention to the day’s gossip and stories reported by the various varsity football team members. Tim wasn’t usually involved in that activity, but he did try to pay attention, so he wasn’t clueless, normally. Jeff Smith, who’s locker was right next to Tim’s, noticed Tim was not listening to the everyday toils and foibles of the Roosevelt student body. “You okay, Tim?”
Tim reacted to his name. “Huh? Oh, um, yeah. I’m good. Got a minor bit of trouble that I have to figure out how to fix.” The guys seated near Tim heard their star player had a problem. All the other nearby conversations stopped, and everyone leaned in to pay attention.
“Lay it on us, Mayhem,” Frank Robinson’s deep voice commanded from his perch in the corner of the locker area, about five lockers down from Tim and Jeff Smith.
Tim looked around at his friends and realized they would not let it go until he told them all what was going on. He let out a breath and bared his conundrum. “You guys heard about what happened to me and my folks after the Lee game on Friday, right?”
Several players gave grunts and affirmative answers. One said no, and someone quickly relayed the story and gave a grunt to signal Tim to continue.
“Well, I was walking to Health class out in the portables, and I heard a car horn from out on Walzem. Not too big a thing, but I noticed out on the street was what looked like the same battleship-gray van that threw the paint on my dad’s car with me and my family in it.” Several players grumbled their annoyance and quickly surmised what Tim’s problem was.
“So what? Not like you could tell anything else about the van, right?” Jeff asked.
“No, not really, but I did get a quick look at the license when it happened but not really enough to remember it vividly, so I jumped up on a truck out in the parking lot and watched the van go down the street and stop at a light to make a turn into the gas station. It turned in and parked to get some gas. That’s when the passenger got out and made his way into the store like he was gonna pay for the gas.”
The players in the locker room were gripped in attention and hanging on Tim’s every word. He explained it was Tommy, in his Darq Squad black Spurs uniform, and the driver, another guy in a black Spurs jersey waiting to pump the gas itself. You could tell the players who had dealings with the Darq Squad before, and they instantly understood Tim’s problem.
Jeff looked to Frank, who took his shoulder pads off and got back into the shirt he wore to classes. Jeff quickly began to do the same. Frank addressed Tim, “Look, Mayhem, it’s a delicate situation but, luckily, it is something that can be dealt with and pretty simply. You, me, and Jeff are gonna go right now, before practice starts, and talk to A-Train.”
There were a few involuntary shocked reactions from some of the players. People generally went out of their way to avoid A-Train and his gang. No one in their right minds would want to get on that guy’s radar. It was best to avoid all contact with those guys, and if you did come into contact with them, pray that it ended quickly and amicably on A-Train’s behalf.
“Yeah, man. You heard how A-Train called you an important person in the school. He doesn’t want to harm you or to get into any business predicament with you. You go and explain what happened, and hopefully, if he’s in a good mood, he nips any potential problem between you two in the bud,” Jeff explained.
Tim, Jeff, and Frank replaced their cleats with their regular shoes but left on their uniform pants with hip, thigh, and knee pads. They stopped at the coaches’ bench. “Coach O’Shaughnessy, we need to take care of some business right quick. We will only be a couple of minutes. It’s for class,” Frank said to the coach.
“Well, don’t dick around. Hurry up and don’t be too late,” Coach answered.
“Yes, sir, won’t be more than a few minutes max,” Jeff added, and the three defensive stars for the Roosevelt football team jogged out of the locker room and into the school hallway.
Tim was following the other two since he didn’t know where they were going. The three made their way past the cafeteria and out onto the covered patio that featured regular picnic tables built over the years as class projects by Woodshop students.
They jogged through the patio and out the back exit, toward the wood and metal shop buildings. A-Train and his entourage would spend after-school hours in the car shop making repairs and generally fooling around until it was time for their everyday work to begin. The three football players slowed down, and their approach activated several members of the Darq Squad into defensive mode, surprised by their entrance. Frank, Jeff, and Tim all stopped before entering the actual building.
A-Train was apparently in a good mood as he and another member were laughing at a joke no one else had heard. A-Train saw the three players, and a look of confusion flashed across his face. He looked at his watch and started the impromptu meeting. “Say, Frank, ain’t you fellas supposed to be going to practice right about now?”
Frank and the others stepped into the building when A-Train waved them to enter. The alert level visibly dropped as the three made their way between the wrecked cars and car parts strewn across tables everywhere. A-Train and his boys were sitting on some sofas and recliners in a circle to talk with each other. “What’s up, A-Train? You good?” Frank asked.
“As well as can be expected. What brings you around to my neck of the world?”
Frank turned and tilted his head toward Tim, “Go ahead. Tell him what’s up.”
Tim stepped forward and began explaining his problem to A-Train. “Friday night after the game, my parents picked me up, and we rode home all together.” A-Train nodded. “While we turned onto Walzem to turn around out toward our house, someone pulled up alongside of us and poured paint all over my dad’s car and then sped off.”
Several of the seated members sat up straight, and a couple more who were standing in the back physically reacted.
“We didn’t get a great look, but I did happen to see a battleship-gray van and about four or maybe five people inside the van. They were all wearing Spurs jerseys. Finally, I did get a quick view of the license as it sped away, and I just saw that van again right before my seventh-period Health class out in the portable building outside the locker room exit.”
A-Train had not moved during Tim’s story, but he was sitting up straight, and he did look at a couple of his guys when they reacted.
“I heard a car horn honk like it was trying to avoid someone not paying attention to the road. So, while walking to class, I saw a battleship-gray van going down Walzem. I stood up in a pickup parked near the portable building and waited while the van was stopped at the light but getting ready to turn into that Chevron station on the corner. When it did turn, it pulled up to get some gas, and I saw Tommy get out of the passenger side to go inside the store. I also saw another person in a Spurs jersey get out of the driver’s side and get ready to pump gas. It was easy to tell it was Tommy. He’s kinda easy to spot even in a crowd.”
“Okay, so what do you want me to do?”
“Can you ask him whenever you see him if he poured the paint on my parents on purpose because of me for the little fight at lunch, or was he just having some fun, and it just turned out to be the car I was in?”
A-Train sat still for a few moments and did not say or do anything. He was just staring at Tim like he was trying to figure out what to do. Tim was a little nervous standing in front of these guys who were hardcore gangsters and criminals.
“Tim ... may I call you Tim?” Tim nodded. “Tim, I’ll tell you something I don’t normally tell people about the goings-on in my business. Whenever we have some new recruits joining, they generally have to perform a crime of some kind to begin the initiation into my little family.” Tim again nodded.
A-Train got up from his seat and walked across the circle to Tim and the other football players. “I can also tell you that indeed Friday night there was an initiation like that and, unfortunately, you were caught in the middle again. Now, for that, I do apologize. I don’t think Tommy targeted you and your parents for that particular event.” A-Train paused, looked around to a couple of snickering gang members, and shot them a look to settle down.
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Leonard Huffnagle was having a lot of trouble looking for dirt on Tim Murphy from San Antonio Roosevelt High School. The only tangible thing he was able to confirm was that Tim had gifted the Trojan iPad, given by Coach Andrew Thomas of IMG Academy, to his little sister, Carmen. IMG was known for recruiting the best high school football players from across the country and giving them highly specialized coaching to better prepare them for college football. Kids graduating from IMG often...
Rodney Valentine’s throat was sore from his screaming. His knuckles were scratched and bruised from pounding on that poor, unsuspecting asshole who didn’t know any better. Rodney was especially pissed because no one could figure out why he was so pissed off in the first place. Valentine and his posse of teammates arrived at the house party a little bit later than everyone else, as usual. It was an unwritten rule that the host of the party would have the game highlights from that weekend’s...
Tim, Troy, Rob, Frank, and Jeff were quiet most of the way on the drive to the address included with their multi-colored cards found in their lockers after the beating the Rough Riders had given to the Johnson Jaguars. The five young men crammed into Jeff’s GTO were mostly quiet, daydreaming about the story Troy had told them. “I think I know what this is. You guys feel like having an experience?” Troy asked with a strange, tilted smile. “My dad told me a story that he said I could never...
A Messy Situation Once Tim Murphy closed his bedroom door and turned on the bedroom lamp, he blew a quick kiss to his one-and-only Cindy, taped up on the wall, and collapsed on the bed with the biggest smile of his life. Tim was quietly reliving what had happened to him after the game. When he laughed to himself, he realized he didn’t even think about the game when the great time he had that night ran through his mind. The quiet knock on the bedroom door alerted him to the here and now. The...
Tim Murphy and the nanites in his body had already written the two reports – one for his English class and the other for his US History class. It was just a matter of typing and formatting the report in the proper sets. All in all, the two assignments only took a few minutes to type, save, and email to their respective teachers. When he sent his English paper, he had a flash of remembrance of his short relationship with his English teacher, Julianne Holmes, considered one of the hot teachers...
The week of practice started with a few announcements from Big John on Monday morning. Big John had canceled morning practice with a sign written on the giant dry erase board along the long wall in the locker room. He didn’t cancel all practice, but it would be just no helmets or pads. That meant a full hour of lifting weights rather than working out on the practice fields in full pads – a day off for sure. Before practice would have typically begun, the Roosevelt football teams met in the...
Going into downtown San Antonio for evening dinner was rare for the Murphy family. Of course, they went out to dinner occasionally but not very far from their neighborhood. Raymond had ordered the women in his life to a day of indulgence at their favorite beauty spa to get pampered and eventually have their makeup done. While the womenfolk were enjoying their day of pampering, the men folk went to fill a glaring hole in the younger Murphy man’s life: the lack of a nice suit. Tim had never...
As they did so often, the Murphy family sang along with the music on the radio. The Murphy parents both enjoyed all genres and encouraged their children to listen to all types of music. Juanita had her favorites and listened to them with the specialized music channels through the cable provider. She preferred the popular hits from the 1980s and 1990s, while Raymond also preferred that and rock music from the 1970s. The patriarch of the family steered into a parking lot nearby the...
The next day was moving day. I've heard how being out on tour with an entertainer can seem a little like riding a tornado without a safety belt but you couldn't tell that by me. I've heard how some tours play twenty cities in twenty days but that isn't how things are done in Ireland. Time seems less important and venues aren't always open when you want them to be. We were doing 25 shows in three months and that included a two-week break in the middle to "relax." Not exactly an arduous...
The next few weeks were just plain work. It probably seems like touring with a popular band would be great fun and endless adventure but mostly it was a lot like combat: endless hours of boredom interrupted by moments of shear terror. Well, terror is probably a bit of an overstatement, maybe agitation and concern would be more appropriate. Anytime the girls were heading into a large crowd there was a concern; happily we hadn't had anything like the clusterfuck we'd seen in Clonakilty but...
Feb 12, 2011 10:24 Am You were supposed to have checked out of the hotel by 11 am. The bags were packed but you had needs that must be tended to before leaving. A long flight awaited you at the airport and knowing you couldn't stand to be this horny all the way home you decided to take matters into your own hands one more time before leaving. I had been given the key to your room from the hotel manger. This was a room that was scheduled for remodeling and my contracting firm was putting in a...
A by product of time travel that no one knew about was the momentary blindness and nausea brought on from the rapid assault to your senses immediately after travel. But for some reason only on your return. When he re-materialized in the time travel chamber, Tim Murphy needed to shield his eyes from the suddenly ultra bright lights. He also needed to make a concerted effort to control his nausea. Nausea controlled and his sensitivity to light diminishing, Tim decided it was time to see how...
The drive to the hospital was uneventful and easy enough. Tim’s mother, Juanita, parked the family SUV in a General’s parking spot, right outside the front entrance to the emergency room. Tim’s father, Raymond, who was standing just inside the ER doors, knew from the frantic sound of his wife’s voice on the phone that she would not obey the parking rules and would take the first available space she found. Raymond quickly reached the SUV before Juanita could turn off the engine. He stuck his...
Summer two-a-day practices are a rite of passage for the Texas high school football player. The players arrived at their new high school, two weeks before the start of the new school year. Sure, they were only going to the football locker room, the football practice fields and also the weight room; but the psychological advantage of being able to GO to high school, earlier, was a definite positive feeling for the young soon to be high schooler. Freshmen did not have their own cars ... yet....
To say Tim was excited, would be a major understatement. “It was sooo cool, Mom,” Tim was almost jumping up and down in the front seat of the SUV while his mother was driving them home. “I was sitting there reading, and the librarian came up to me. I didn’t even hear her, as I was paying attention to what I was reading. She actually scared me when she touched my shoulder to get my attention. Standing with her was Coach Barrett, her husband. He’d come all the way to the library to just meet...
The lights turned on in the cell at half past six, every morning since Tim got back from his trip to the past. About a week after returning from the past, his nanites confirmed his hypothesis that no one he had met, yet, had any nanites of their own. Tim theorized to himself the interrogators did not have any nanite improvements since they constantly made mistakes in their questioning and also in their answers to his questions. Oh, they answered the questions as he believed they would but...
A good hundred or so young men full of testosterone and desperate to show they were not afraid, were indeed afraid. Afraid of not fitting in. Afraid of being shown they were not good enough to make it on the freshman football team. Afraid they were good enough to make it on the freshman football team. Afraid of the high school girls. Afraid of the high school guys. Afraid of the work their new teachers were preparing to pile on them. Afraid they would not be able to finish the work their new...
With the day’s drama complete after finishing with their equipment, they began leaving the locker area to try and enjoy their final day of relaxation before the two-a-days started. Tim and his friends crossed a very busy Walzem Road, right in front of the high school. Walzem Road’s three lanes headed northeast and three lanes going southwest were divided by a median island running the length of the high school. Once beyond the high school, the divider island changed into a turning lane....
The tacos were just great. Tim was still not doing anything to jeopardize the loss of the twice-a-week breakfast tacos treats. George was still bringing in the savory, artery-clogging breakfast tacos from everyone's favorite family restaurant. In fact, George was now adding an extra taco, since he understood the body's instant response once it smelled one of Yolanda's tacos. Whether breakfast tacos dripping in the grease of the Mexican sausage and fluffy egg combination, or the...
First day of school for both Murphy kids saw a return of a family tradition: Mom fixed a full breakfast for everyone. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, fruits and all kinds of baked goods. She generally cooks for the family, then the mothers from the neighborhood carpool come and enjoy a wonderful meal at their own pace. There were usually a few empty bottles of wine in the trash when the kids returned home from the first day of school. Rumor has it the same carpoolers also got together toward...
“Hey, Joe, what do you mean the freshmen offense knows fourteen plays already? I thought Big John only wanted the freshmen to concentrate on getting in shape, until at least the first scrimmage,” Kevin Krebsback, the JV and Varsity defensive backs coach asked, once the freshmen left the coaches office for second period. “It’s exactly what I said it was, Kevin,” Coach Alvarez said. As he sat back down at his desk, he saw he had everyone’s attention, including Coach Barrett. The freshman...
"I know you guys are keeping the pain receptors turned off during my questioning, but are there any problems with maintaining the status quo? I ask because I am starting to feel some of the pain," Tim whispered to himself while he held a pillow over his own face in a mock effort to fall asleep. "All efforts to minimize, and even counteract, the effects of the enhanced interrogation techniques are within their limits, and all nanites are performing at optimum levels. If you are, in fact,...
"So, how was the first day for you?" Tim's father, Raymond, was sitting on the desk chair while his son was finishing his first journal entry for his honors U.S. History class. "It was pretty good, Dad. You were right about the girls. Everywhere I went, I started seeing more and more girls looking at me and then looking away if I made eye contact with them. I'm not used to the attention, but so far it isn't bad." Raymond was practically bursting with pride. His son who, just a...
The newly-instituted procedure of sleep deprivation was annoying at worst because the nanites in his system could effectively turn off the pupils of Tim Murphy’s eyes and keep the lights from waking him. The same could be done for his hearing. The nanites would disable his hearing so any loud or annoying auditory stimuli would eventually be deemed ineffective. At the moment, Tim was quietly reveling in this private joke. The guards were pumping loud and annoying sounds, usually called music,...
Losing their first game of the season was bad. But when Head Varsity Coach John Fontana pulled his truck into his driveway, his wife was waiting outside for him. She had received several calls from various school officials, wanting to know what was Big John going to do about the brewing controversy. She told everyone her husband was not yet home, as he usually went to dinner with the other coaches after a big loss. When the teams won, he would tell his coaches to go home and be with their...
After informing the freshman football coaches of their opportunity to make changes to the football program, Roosevelt Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Big John Fontana decided to go watch the second half of the freshman football game. The freshmen were finishing the series against the Warren Warriors. The junior varsity started the losing streak 21-0 on Thursday evening. The varsity team followed up, getting soundly defeated, losing their game 48-0. In the coach’s eyes, though, the...
The interrogations were getting steadily worse. The large prisoner still refused to talk, and Colonel Kevin Price was losing patience quickly. Not only because he had never met a man who could withstand so much pain, but also because they could not understand how he could heal so quickly from the numerous rounds of interrogation. “Yes, sir, I still have no timetable for information from our guest,” Col. Price said to one of his many higher ups wishing bi-weekly progress reports. These men...