All In A Days Work ~ Flash Fiction Friday

Twenty…forty…sixty…eighty ---a loud bang interrupted my counting. I looked up from the stack of bills in my hands in time to see three large men walk through the front door to the shop.

I can’t tell you why they had caught my attention more than any other customer would. I work in a motorcycle shop so I get to see my fair share of oddities. I see everything from the old men who want to relive their glory days to the young jocks with biceps so huge they are never able to find a jacket that will fit them. Even though we deal mostly in racing bikes we get the occasional biker walk in that looks like the poster child for the Hells Angels.

It was probably a good thing that my sixth sense tingled because it more than likely saved my life and that of the guys I work with.

I heard the door to the garage in the back of our shop bang and then loud voices yelling. Was it just an irate customer? The loud crash that came from the back lead me to think that there was more to this than just an irate customer.

I had seen my fair share of them as well. My boss isn’t the customer service guru he pretends to be.

The whole situation seemed so surreal to me. I slowly inched my chair away from my desk, watching the guy by the front door. I slid under my desk trying not to make a sound as I went.

Another crash came from the back and the door to the garage banged open again. I could hear my boss and the two mechanics that were in the garage at the time all trying to talk at once.

“Shut up. I’m the one who is in charge here now and you all are going to do exactly what I say. You do what I say and no one needs to get hurt. Understand?” A gruff voice commanded.

I took a deep breath and tried to slow the rapid beating of my heart. It was something like out of a movie.

My mind raced trying to sort out what would be the next logical step for me to take. As obviously the guys were not going to be of any help in the matter.

There was phone on my desk. I had to call someone and get the word out that things were going horribly wrong at the shop.

I reached up, felt around until I found the edge of the phone and pulled it slowly forward towards the edge of the desk, silently cursing at the sound the rubber feet were making.

“Well now what do we have here?” I had been concentrating so hard on moving the phone that I didn’t hear the approach of one of them men.

The next thing I knew I was being forcefully dragged out from under my desk and violently shoved out into the middle of the showroom floor.

“Look who we found hiding under a desk in one of the back offices.”

“Looks like we might have a little more fun than we bargained for eh boys?” the man with the gruff voice said as he sneered at me.

The guys I work with were sitting on the floor, hands bound, with their backs against the front counter. My boss looked up at me and I could see just by the look on his face that he knew he was helpless to stop anything that they were going to do.

I would have to find my own way out of the situation.

My mind set on what I had to do I don’t think I stopped to think about what I was doing.

I dropped to the ground and kicked out catching one of the men in the side of the knee. I rolled quickly behind a rack of leather jackets and pushed myself to my feet charging into the garage. I could hear the men cursing over the bang of the door. I grabbed one of the wrenches as I ducked behind a work bench. It wasn’t much but it was certainly better than nothing at all.

I heard the door to the garage open up and then swing shut again.

I sat there holding my breath listening for any sound that might tell me what might be on the other side of the work bench.

I heard a sound that I recognized, the sound of a gun being cocked.

I took a deep breath, turned and tried to peer through the workbench to see if I could see anything. He was there maybe six feet away from where I was crouched. His back was to me. Gripping the wrench firmly I quickly rose to my feet prepared to throw it.

I wish I had of seen the guy walking in my direction, but given the circumstances I still managed to pull my arm back and clobber him over the head with my wrench before throwing it at the other guy, catching him hard he turned around to see what had happened to his friend.

My heart raced I bent to pick up the gun that had clattered to the ground when I hit them with the wrench.

I slid up to the door to the showroom listening for any sign of life from the other side.

I heard nothing.

What happened next was nothing short of a miracle. I rushed out of the garage gun pointed out straight ahead of me.

The guy was standing there unarmed. He obviously was waiting on the two others to come back with me in tow.

I calmly walked up to him and smacked him across the face with the butt of the gun and he went down in a heap.

The guys looked up at me in shock.

“What? Its just all in a days work.” I said as I started cutting them loose.