Project Cellron - Chapt 2

The events of the past two weeks had left Quinton drained, mentally and physically. With 15 minutes left before he is supposed to check the little black book, he decided to make himself a drink. Quinton sits on his couch with both his drink and the book on the table in front of him. He stares for a moment, downs his drinks, then opens the book.

“Mr. Reece 3 hours from now you must go to 3666 Tiller.”

Quinton recognized the address, it was another bar downtown in the clubbing district, not too far from his encounter with Keith. The bar is called The Brace Bellz and seeing as he was almost out of whiskey Quinton got a bit excited.

“There you will meet a man named David. You and David are required to get very inebriated before 1:15 am.”

Quinton smiled as he read this part, this is turning out to be a task he may enjoy.

“It is important that you are not seen with David 15 minutes before he departs from the venue, it is also important to depart the venue before 1:30 am. Mr. Reece you will convince David to drive home before he leaves”

Upon reading this Quinton could feel his heart drop into his stomach, he stares at the book for a moment longer, then he starts to breathe heavily as his thoughts race.

They want me to convince someone to drive home drunk. What if something happens to him, or worse he hurts someone, then all that blood is on my hands

It was then that he remembers what the book told him two weeks ago “Everything we ask of you is for the betterment of the future”

Despite everything he still could not calm down, he finished the last of his drink and headed out. He arrives out front of the bar and feels tiny drops of water hit him on his face as he stood staring up at the sign hanging about it.

It’s gonna rain he thought.

There is a celebration of some sort happening, a lot of collage kids are around, most of which were from his campus. A few moments later while at the bar a young man walks up to him, and stares for a moment.

“DUUUDE you’re him!”

Quinton is taken aback by the young man who continues,

“You’re the guy who stopped the fucking shooter!”

Upon hearing this Quinton grabs the young man and pulls him closer telling him to be quiet, he then turns around and orders himself and the young man a drink. He then explained that he doesn’t want the world knowing who he is, while also insisting that he is no hero. But the young man seems to ignore this and grins big.

“Name’s Trevor”, he says and sticks out his hand.

Quinton looks down at his hand and shakes it reluctantly, “I’m Quinton.”

Before Trevor could get another word out, a young lady stepped in

“He isn’t bother you, is he?” she says while looking at Quinton, but before he could respond Trevor says “Hey Claire, look who it is, it’s—”

“I know who he is” she interrupted.

Quinton could tell that Claire had been crying, her eyes were all puffy and a bit red, he could relate. She sees him staring and then speaks quickly, “What are you drinking?”

Before Quinton could answer two more men enter the group. Drunkenly, Trevor yells “Hey guys, come meet my NEW friend, Quinton!”

The men glance at Trevor with a sad expression, then look at Claire. “It’s probably time to take him home” says one of them.

She nods, but Trevor protests “No, not yet!”

The other man chuckles and turns to Quinton to introduce himself “Hi I’m James, this is my partner David.”

An hour goes by, as Quinton watches Trevor, Claire, and David down drink after drink. He was having trouble finishing his own, as his favorite drink was far too bitter for him to enjoy, so he gets up and heads to the bathroom to gather his thoughts. Once he was sure he was alone he washed his face in the sink, looked in the mirror and whispered “For the betterment of the future”

Just as he finishes James walks in, “Not feeling it tonight? You know all this was made possible by you, your brave action saved a lot of lives, most of which are out there right now celebrating being alive.”

Quinton shakes his head and says “I’m no hero, trust me”

“Is that why you refused to talk to the press” James asked.

“it didn’t feel right” said Quinton “What about you? why aren’t celebrating with your friends”

James chuckles and says “I’m designated driver!”

They both smile, Quinton thinks for a moment, “Well I don’t have anything to celebrate tonight, but you do, so how about I drive ya’ll home. I’ll sober up starting now, and you start drinking, starting now, deal?”

James takes a moment and replies, “You’d do that”

“Ye you guys look like you’re hurting, and I get it, I’ve lost people too. Sometimes a stiff drink helps when we’re hurting.” says Quinton, trying his best to sympathize.

James smiles and replies “That it does. Okay sure, it’s a deal!”

Back at the table, the rest of the group started a drinking game, just and James and Quinton returned. Trevor offers Quinton several drinks, but he refuses, passing them off to James stating “I’m gonna be your DD so ya’ll can celebrate properly.”

Trevor Tears up a bit hearing the news, he looks excitedly at James, who also picks up a shot. The group takes a moment, then Claire says, “To Mark, a loving boyfriend, the best of friends, and our “All the time” designated driver”. The group cheer and down their shots.

James then turns to Quinton and says “Mark was our friend, he was one of the ones that didn’t make it that day, he saved our lives. He saw the shooter first and told us to get down, he then flipped one of the tables for us to hide behind, but he was hit before he could get behind for cover. We were behind that table for what felt like hours, Mark bled out in Claire’s arms. When everything went silent, all we could hear was ringing. Trevor was the first to peek out, that’s when we saw you standing over the shooter.”

Quinton could feel tears build up and a lump forming in his throat. When he looked around, Trevor, Claire and David were all crying.

“How long have ya’ll known each other?” he asked.

“I met everyone a few months ago when David and I started dating. Claire and David have known him since high school, but—”

He was interrupted by a drunk and now angry Trevor. “Me and Mark go back all the way to diaper days. We went through so much together, then some fucking piece of shit with a gun shoots him for no reason!” he yells, slamming his fist on the tabletop.

Claire puts her hand on his shoulder and it calms him down.

Quinton laughs to himself and says “Mark saved one of my friends too. I was on my way to meet my friends that day, Jaiden and Miles. After the funeral Jaiden told me that Miles saw someone flip their table to use as cover while others ran. He copied that guy, except their table was too small for both so Miles tried to run to another table, but he didn’t make it.”

The group fell silent once again. Trevor quickly picks up another shot off the table, then looks at everyone else who do the same, “To Miles!”

The group continues to drink, talk and laugh with each other for a few more hours, until it was time to go. Claire took Trevor home in an Uber, while Quinton, David and James remained a little longer, at David’s request. When James got up to go to the bathroom, the time is now 12:50AM, and David finally expresses his desire to leave. Quinton had made sure to get them to drink a lot more after Trevor and Claire left, and now James is sick in the bathroom. Quinton and Trevor helped him to the car and put him in the back seat. The ground was wet, and rain was still falling, but only a drizzle.

Quinton instructs David to sit in the front seat and wait for his return because he “forgot” something in the bar. He then checks his surroundings, making sure no one was around. After making sure the coast is clear he leans down and whispers in David’s ear, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were sober.”

David smiles big and goofy, “Oh stop, you know how to make a black man blush.”

They both share a laugh and then notice James’ worsening condition before Quinton takes off.

Quinton spent the next several minutes drinking profusely, as instructed by the little black book. At around 1:15 am he headed out the front door, it was raining a little heavier now. When he looked around, he notices a group of familiar and angry faces on the sidewalk. It was Keith and his friends, who immediately gave chase.

Quinton ran in the opposite direction of the parking lot, leaving a drunken David in the car with his sick boyfriend. Quinton fled down the alley behind the bar with Keith and his friends still in pursuit. He was running out of energy quickly, and being drunk wasn’t helping. As he ran, he could hear the men behind him shouting,

“Wait till we catch you”

“You can’t run forever!”

“You’re dead” boomed Keith angrily.

Quinton’s lungs were burning, and his legs aching as he ran with all his might. He could see the end of the alley

Maybe someone will help, like last time, he thought. I just got to make it to the street.

Quinton made a hard right, flying out the alley way narrowly avoiding someone passing by. He trips over some trash cans sitting at the side of the road, giving Keith and his friends enough time to catch up. They immediately grab him and start to rough him up. He fights back hitting one of the men in the face, loosening the guy’s grip, then takes this opportunity to dart across the road.

A car screeches to a halt with horns blaring. The last thing Quinton hears were muffled voices

“He just jumped into the road, there was no time to stop” says a panicked woman

“Call an ambulance,” yells someone else, “Why the fuck were you guys chasing him?”

“Oh my god is he dead?” whimpers the panicked man.

The last thing Quinton saw was a blurry night sky with a mixture of yellow and red lights with dark figures standing over him as everything faded to black.

---Meanwhile, a brown envelope falls through the mail slot at his apartment containing another twenty thousand for completing the task…