To the Death

Greg Andrews tightens the straps of his combat armor, slipping on the heavy gauntlets to protect his hands. A thirty-six inch McCullough chainsaw sputters at his feet. He had challenged and this was his opponents weapon of choice, chainsaws.

When the Old World of courts and lawsuits went away, Greg had established a new government. He never thought that he himself would be taking advantage of one of the people's newly granted freedoms, the freedom to redress personal grievances on the field of honor.

Greg knew when he legalized dueling that big men would have a natural advantage. To give the little guy an edge, he instituted a rule where the challenged had the choice of weapons, and within reason, anything goes!

LeBlanc and his thugs want to go back to the old way of doing things, with him as the new leader of course. LeBlanc has bucked Greg every step of the way. Food had been stolen; the power plant had been shutdown twice, one time for a week due to sabotage. The team that LeBlanc works for has been plagued with morale and production problems…none of which could be laid directly at LeBlanc's feet, He'd been very careful about that.

Then one of his flunkies' raped Kelly and that was the final straw…she is six months pregnant with Greg's child. Greg caught the perpetrator in the act and the imbecile died on the spot, just one more corpse added to the pile of bodies made up of the people who had pissed Greg Andrews off.

Greg didn't need a roadmap to know who was behind the vicious attack and he had challenged LeBlanc to a duel within the hour. No one was more surprised than Greg when the coward actually accepted.

Duels are supposed to be private events, fought inside specially constructed facilities. They aren't intended to be public spectacles and no one but the two combatants and a small security team is allowed inside. LeBlanc had insisted that they duel outside making privacy a relative matter. Greg really didn't care, if that's what it took to be rid of this scumbag then outside was just fine with him.

They settled on Bentley Warren's quarry as their battleground. At noon of the following day Bucky and his scouts took positions high on top of the mounds of washed sand and gravel that surround the access road, forming a natural arena.

Rene LeBlanc watches as that 'goody two shoes' Andrews bends to pick up his weapon. The prick doesn't know that it's going to stall about two minutes into the battle, one of his boys had slipped sugar into it's fuel tank last night. I'm going to carve that pussy like a Thanksgiving turkey! He thinks to himself grimly. Rene revs the engine on his heavy-duty four horsepower Homelite as swaggers forward to meet his foe.

Greg's eyes scan the perimeter as his slowly paces off the distance towards his prey. LeBlanc probably has an ambush set up somewhere around here but the joke's on him, Bucky has orders to blow LeBlanc away at the first sign of foul play.

LeBlanc is revving the motor of his chainsaw menacingly as the two men circle each other, looking for an opening. Every time Greg thrusts, LeBlanc dances away, giggling like a fool. Something's up all right but Greg is at a loss to figure it out.

All I have to do is keep dancing for about another minute! LeBlanc thinks to himself, he can hear Andrews's saw starting to sputter…it won't be long now. Suddenly, he detects movement out of the corner of his eye and turns his head, just for a split second, it’s a bird…and pain sears through his left calf, what's left of it. He slashes back hard in retaliation and his saw grabs for a moment…taking off a chunk of Andrews's armor but his foe is not hurt.

Greg's eyes dart to the spot where he scored a hit on LeBlanc, it looks like the blade bit halfway through his calf. He's finished now! I hope he's happy because chainsaws are the last weapon that I'd have picked. He smiles to himself as he begins to circle his opponent at a faster pace.

Blood is gushing into his boot, making it slippery inside. The prick is circling faster and the pain in his leg is making it harder to keep up. Stall! Stall you mother! LeBlanc thinks to himself furiously as he struggles to keep the pace.

LeBlanc stumbles and falls on his own saw. Greg has no mercy and he leaps in to cut LeBlanc's head off, just as his sabotaged saw craps out! The wounded man lays sobbing at Greg's feet, barely keeping his body suspended over his still running saw. Greg bends and his hand finds the throttle of LeBlanc's saw, gripping it, he guns the engine and pulls up hard, cutting the prone man in half. The revolving chain throws hot blood and gore in every direction…LeBlanc screams in agony, his hands shooting reflexively to his severed torso, he shudders once and dies.

Bucky and his boys run down from the hills, cheering their leader's victory. They pick Greg up on their shoulders and march him around the vacant gravel pit hollering and cheering, their spirits high.

They can not see the face of their hero through his mirrored visor that is covered with the gore of his fallen enemy. Greg knows that he has slain one snake but there are other's and this is just one of many battles to come.

 

By George C. Anderson Jr

Copyright Nov 2001