3.
Main Street was buzzing with activity with it being a Saturday afternoon, and as she parked her car outside the grocery store and made her way along the sidewalk to pay the meter, she got a strange sense that something exciting was happening.
She turned and watched groups of old women gossiping on the street corners and some of the shop keepers out on the sides of the road looking up and down and chatting with people as they passed.
It was as if they were waiting for someone…or something. They were all looking worried and concerned.
“Is something wrong?” Holly asked a teenage boy on a skateboard as he rolled by.
He shrugged his shoulders and didn’t answer.
Holly shook it off. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Being unoccupied really didn’t agree with her. She needed to keep herself busy and clearly needed a hobby. She looked down the street and saw the hanging gym sign swaying back and forth in the light breeze.
Maybe I should get involved with some classes, she thought. Yoga or Pilates… Or I could get a personal trainer…
She laughed at herself before she had even really finished thinking about it. Holly knew the last thing she would be doing was bending into all sorts of random positions in a room full of old ladies. She would rather just run with her loneliness and be done with it.
She went into the grocery store and picked up a basket. She hadn’t made a list or really thought about what she needed, but as she started browsing, she decided that it was the perfect day to make herself a big fruit salad and lie outside in her garden on her sun chair while eating it and listening to music.
She picked up strawberries, mangoes, apples, oranges, blueberries and grapes. Her mouth was watering as she thought about chilling them all and mixing them up in a big bowl. As she approached the register to pay, she could hear the hushed whispers of different huddles of people all around her. They were all discussing something frantically and shaking their heads. Some of the older ladies had drawn faces and looked pale. One woman said how she thought it would best to leave town right then and there before the inevitable happened.
“Excuse me,” Holly said as she leaned over and tried to get involved in their conversation, “but is something going on?”
They turned and looked at her blankly before looking again at each other.
“Well, if you haven’t heard, dear, it won’t be long until you find out,” one of the little old ladies said as she picked up her groceries and made for the exit. “This town is doomed,” she added before she turned and disappeared onto the street.
“I… what?” Holly looked at the other women.
None of them seemed to want to have the conversation, and all dropped their heads before they continued on with their own business.
Holly was completely in the dark and had no idea what was happening around her. The town was far too hyped up and alert for it to be nothing, and the old lady in the store saying “This town is doomed” made her skin crawl…
What on earth could be happening?
After she bagged up the fruit and wandered back out onto the sidewalk, she stood for a moment and looked around. The same buzz was still alive, and she was determined that she wasn’t leaving until she found out what the hell was going on.
She threw the bag of fruit into her car via the open window and crossed the street to the other side. The usual collection of men sat outside the barber shop, and as she approached them, some of the older guys got to their feet to greet her.
“Holly, how are you doing?” a man named Mitch asked her. He had been one of her father’s closest friends.
“I’m good, thank you,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him for a reassuring hug. “But what is going on down here today?”
“What, you mean you haven’t heard?” Mitch asked with raised eyebrows. “I thought you gals in the diner would be the first to hear, what with all the people you got passing through…”
“I haven’t been in this morning,” she said. “I woke up late and came straight down here… I don’t even know where my cell phone is, so God knows if Elle has tried to get me… What’s happening?” She looked up at Mitch with wide eyes as her heart began to race. She could tell from his expression that it was something bad.
“Looks like the old ways are coming back,” he said finally. “You were only young when they were driven out of Red Creek, but folks always thought they’d come back…”
Holly shook her head with bewilderment and looked around at the serious faces all around her. They were all in various states of fear, disappointment and sadness. The old men of Red Creek, whose families had been there for generations and been some of the founding members were all in front of her now and looked as if they were on the verge of a breakdown.
“The outlaws…” Mitch said ominously. “They’re back.”
As Holly looked up into his eyes, she heard the thunder of wild engines in the distance. They were loud, heavy and growled through the peaceful streets like a hot knife cutting through butter. Her skin prickled as she turned and watched the scene in front of her unfolding… Under the light of the sun, the glint of silver shone so brightly she had to lift her hand to cover her eyes.
There could have been hundreds of them. She never would have been able to count… But right there in front of her, wild men, with long hair, stubbly faces and long beards, covered in leather and tattoos, came roaring into the streets on the backs of some of the loudest and most powerful motorcycles she had ever seen.
Her mouth gaped open as she watched them circling around the streets and revving their engines. These men were dangerous, and they meant business. And by the looks of things, they had just claimed her town.