Dry - 14
The first person took a boot to the back of the head and crumpled to the ground. They all raised their hands as the fire started in the pit. Uncle Bill seemed to stir. Monster blasted a chubby body in the chest with a left hook and he or she flew into the person next to him. Monster didn't care if it was man or woman, all of them had tried to kill him and were trying to kill his uncle now. Monster had never hurt anyone in his life before and if anything he did now didn't really count there was absolutely no reason to hold back.
Not that anyone resisted. The person in front of him went down from a knee to the gut and he choke-slammed the next one. He reached the fire pit and it was hot to the touch. They had Uncle Bill tied to a basketball pole in the middle of the pit. There was no way he could get in there.
"You have to get him," Monster said to Cazir. The middle-eastern man's eyes went wide.
"But my friend, I cannot." He held up his hands.
"Look! This is all your fault as far as I'm concerned. If he dies then it's on you." Monster jabbed him in the chest. It felt weird, like he could have poked a hole in him.
"Yes-yes, you are right." Cazir said something unintelligible and Monster realized he'd spoken in his native language. "I will get. I will get," the man said, switching back to his poor English.
Cazir floated over the pit and over to Uncle Bill. By now the man was awake and aware, struggling against his bonds. Cazir put a hand to his chest to try to calm him, but Uncle Bill wouldn't keep still.
"My feet!" Uncle Bill shouted. "My feet are burnin'!"
That wouldn't be all that was burning if Cazir didn't hurry. Monster shifted from foot to foot in the slim space between the pit and the crowd. He was sweating freely, but it wasn't all due to the heat.
He really, really needed a drink.
There was a truck full waiting for him to get as sloshed as he wanted, so long as he and Uncle Bill could get out of here in one piece. Or would that be two pieces?
Monster didn't bother the crowd now that he'd made it up front. He could stand a live and let live policy, but he wondered if this armistice would continue if Cazir got Uncle Bill out. Monster looked out at them and realized there were a whole lot more of them than the ones who'd been chasing him all night.
It might have been the whole town.
Monster tried to step back to peak over the top of the fire pit again, but it was too high, the crowd too close. They surged against him just then and for a moment of panic, Monster thought he was about to be crushed. He was able to slip between two of them, but he had a tad of claustrophia as there wasn't really anywhere for him to move.
Until they began to rock the fire pit.
