Modus Operande

MODUS OPERANDE

By Mordecai J Banda


The smooth moonlight smeared across the deserted highway. Apart from the occasional cricket or ominous puff of wind, nothing seemed to be alive on this particular stretch of tarmac. Thick foliage flanked either side of the fair-sized road. They watched over the inactivity as they partook in their own sluggish journey to maturity.

From the shrubs, a young man in a light jacket appeared from within the darkness of the foliage and stepped up a short incline onto the side of the road. Almost immediately after, a car whooshed past with full beams on, bathing the young african-american for a moment before leaving him in the half darkness of the highway. The small car was visible for a while, but then it turned along a curve, leaving an impression of its blood red brake lights, and lighting an indistinguishable polygonal sign for a brief moment.

The man breathed a cloud of mist, and then tucked his hands in the pockets. He looked from right to left, but never moved from the spot.

Another car came by, but the man did not seem to react to it. This one came a bit more slowly, and the fluctuating tone of silly country road music invaded the ominous cloak of the silent road. The man immediately recognized the singer as Goofy. Walt Disney's Goofy. The silver family car rolled up beside him, and its tinted windows rolled down to reveal a cheerful family. The wife was at the driver's seat whilst the father looked on with a cowboy hat across his brow. He was grabbing a piece of paper, which was apparently the lyrics to the song, since, until he had noticed the man, he had been singing along to the music with his two kids seated in the back.

He smiled at the man apologetically and turned down the volume, looking at him with a smile identical to his wife. The boys looked on with interest.

"Need a ride, sir?" The woman asked.

The man smiled back, "No, thanks. My friends are just treating me to a prank, left me here as I relieved myself. I’m sure they’ll come along soon."

The wife shook her head with a shy smile, "Oh gosh you young people love causing each other such trouble."

The husband simply laughed, "Tough luck. Nice meeting you!"

The man nodded with a smile and the car went off. Along the way, the music turned on again, but it was already faint and soon the silver car only had its brake lights to show. The indistinguishable sign flickered again in the full beams of the car, and then it was gone.

The man waited. He occasionally sighed a cloud of mist. The moonlight slid a little across the tarmac. There was more silence.

The man looked up to his left, and yet another vehicle was approaching from that side of the road. It was obviously large; it had a much larger engine and powerful lamps. The man seemed interested this time. A distinct hiss confirmed that the vehicle was a truck. A large six wheeler lugging along a featureless carriage. The man put his thumb out.

The light of the truck caught him, it still approached at quite a speed, and then to the man's relief, it hissed, and slowed down effortlessly. It came to rest with its door directly beside the man. It shook and purred along with its strong engine. The truck was entirely one coat of blue, from what the man could tell. And it did not seem to have any particular affiliation.

From his lower vantage point, the man really couldn't tell how the driver looked, until the door opened.

A shadowy figure beckoned with a strong voice,

"Come on in, stranger, it ain’t good to be out here without a ride."

The man smiled and clambered into the truck. He closed the door and tugged at his coat,

"Thanks a lot."

The trucker looked at him, and from beneath a blue cap and large beard, smiled,

"No problemo."

The truck began moving.

There was silence for the while it took for the truck to accelerate, and when it finally seemed on its way, the driver glanced over at the man and asked,

"So what are you doing all the way out here, Mr...?”

"My name is Lucas. Well… I was lost. I managed to lose myself in a one way shortcut to nowhere.” He vaguely pointed towards the foliage,

“My car is still out there somewhere.”

The trucker chuckled, “Tough luck. You didn’t have anything on you to carry?”

Lucas looked at him, “No money, if that’s what you mean…”

The trucker glanced at him from beneath the cap, then smiled and concentrated on the road again,

“Naw, nothing like that. Just wondering. Where were you headed in a hurry to take such an effective ‘shortcut’?”

Lucas sighed, “Actually, nowhere in particular. Just getting away…”

The trucker nodded, “Well, you’re lucky I was passing by. I’m just about done with my runs for this month. If I was still carrying loads I wouldn’t have been using this way.”

Lucas nodded, “What should I call you?”

The trucker smiled, “Me? Call me Bill.”

Lucas nodded, and dug his hand in his pocket. He withdrew a knife, and just then, cold air hit him from a vent in front of him. It smelt fragrant, and he looked at the vent with confusion as his senses dimmed and he thumped to the carpeted floor beside the trucker’s foot.

**

When he came to, he found himself hanging with his feet off the ground by his jacket. He groggily looked around the lighted, frosty room and saw a series of hooks propped by rings that rang the length of a pulley that allowed rolling them along.

His hands were raised to either side of his body, much like a man on a cross. He looked to his left and right to discover that two hooks had been stabbed through the top of his jacket sleeves. Judging by an uncomfortable tug directly behind his own jacket he could tell that one had been stabbed through his collar as well. In any case, he didn’t seem to be injured in anyway.

He was obviously in the carriage of the truck, as he could hear the engine and feel the slights bumping of the vehicle as it travelled along the road.

Lucas blinked in the fluorescent light and tried as best as he could to look downwards. There were bales of packing peanuts placed in a thick transparent plastic. In the light they glimmered innocently, but Lucas’s eyes opened wide in surprise,

“No ways…”

“What was that?” The trucker’s - Bill – voice came through a slot to the right of Lucas.

Lucas smiled in disbelief and craned his neck to the side. He looked through the slot that the driver had opened, and spoke to the silhouetted form of the man’s head.

“You’re… him?”

Bill’s shadowy form shrugged, “Who him? They’re many.”

Lucas smiled and shook his head, looking down at the bales of packing peanuts.

“Packing peanuts. Featureless truck travelling late at night by a man who calls himself Bill. That was the testimony of one of the people who escaped…”

Lucas looked through the slot and smiled, “I bet you let him loose.”

Bill’s form shrugged, “Maybe I did, and maybe I didn’t.”

The truck bumped as it swayed on a short curve, and then continued on its way.

“What are the odds?” Lucas began, “That two serial killers meet one night on a deserted stretch of highway trying to pick out a victim?”

Bill glanced back at him, “Oh... So you’re The Hitcher. I thought you were just an unfortunate mugger.”

Lucas the Hitcher snorted, “Fat chance.”

He looked up through the slot, “So what happens here?”

Bill shrugged, “I gut you, I guess. You’re just another victim as far as I’m concerned.”

“Not interested in a man of a similar profession as yours?”

Bill chuckled, “You’re barely a man. You’re just some misguided teen with a sick fetish for blood.”

“Interesting thing to say. Since you torture your victims in horrific ways.” Lucas looked up through the slot,

“I overheard once that you used a potato shaver, once?”

Bill remained silent for a while, and then he spoke with disgust in his voice, “You’re a fucking lunatic. You even kill kids, for Christ’s sake…”

Lucas smiled, “Why don’t you just let me go and we can have a nice chat on our various methods?”

Bill chuckled, “Fat chance. The moment you went up there on my rack was the moment you died. Its gonna be a long night for you, my friend.” He laughed, “And to think that for once I’ll actually enjoy doing what I do best.”

Lucas managed to pull his right hand through the hole of his jacket without tearing the sleeve. He snaked his hand back and out of the sleeve, then proceeded to free his left. He spoke in calm, measured tones,

“Why do you do what you do anyway? Bad childhood?”

Bill glanced back at Lucas. Lucas’s heart stopped for a second, but it was only a glance, as Bill concentrated on the road without much of a reaction.

“’coz I’m told.” Bill answered softly. Lucas raised an eyebrow as he slowly freed his left arm without disturbing the hook. The hooks still kept him relatively suspended in the air, but he was otherwise steadily and noticeably sagging. Any moment Bill would look back or even the jacket would tear… Any moment from then…

“Because you’re told?” Lucas laughed, “Don’t tell me you’re with the mafia or something?”

Bill shook his head, “The Alien Lights tell me.”

Lucas was free to jump down now, but he stopped at Bill the Trucker’s preposterous claim. He laughed,

“You’re kidding me, man. You call me a lunatic?”

Bill looked back through the slot with an angry face, “Hey-” He noticed Lucas was escaping,

Lucas let go, and the truck suddenly braked. He was flung against the closest wall and pinned there for the duration of the skid, finally crashing into a carton of packing peanuts, breathing heavily. There was a burning sensation on his scalp, and Lucas tentatively touched it and brought his hand away flecked in ruby red blood. Soon small rivulets trickled down his face. Lucas grunted and thrashed, freeing himself of the mashed carton and packing peanuts.

The truck was idling, and everything else was quiet. Just as Lucas glanced around at the slot, the truck turned off completely, and with it, the lights. Lucas was left there listening to his heartbeat. He heard no other sound, not even the opening of a door. It could be that Bill had opened it, though. Lucas crept to the end of the truck, and then taking a deep breath, he proceeded to unlatch the heavy doors as best as he could remember. He fumbled in the darkness for a while, and finally he found the bolt. He slid it open, and gently pushed open the truck, keeping loose and staying away in case of any sudden attack. Nothing ha-

A hairy hand punched Lucas in the stomach, and then he was being carried over and shoulder, and tossed to the hard ground. Lucas completed the roll, landing on the side of his shoulder. He met the road with a dull crack and in his excruciating pain, he felt himself float away from his body for a while, but he was aware of the boot next to his head, as Bill leaned over. Lucas slashed with his knife, and Bill raised his leg. The knife slit tough rubber, and the boot came down on Lucas's hand. Bill proceeded to Kick Lucas repeatedly in his wounded shoulder, and then he grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. Lucas moaned in pain, but then the collar tore, having also been pierced when he was strung up in the truck. Lucas landed on his knees and stabbed at Bill's legs. The knife entered the jean between the leg and his crotch, and stayed there.

"Orgh!" Bill yelled. "You bastard!" He brought back his leg to kick Lucas, and Lucas rolled away.

"Argh!" He screamed as his dislocated shoulder rattled against him. He was on his haunches, groaning in pain as Bill approached him. He had tossed away Lucas's knife, and now withdrew a huge military knife that exited his jean pocket with an audible whisper. He raised the blade over the helpless Lucas, and then a scream pierced the air.

Bill and Lucas looked in the direction of the scream. The place they had stopped had relatively little foliage, and now a woman burst from the bushes. She had what used to be a posh black dress, but it was now torn and dirty. She had a single glossy shoe on her feet, the other one was bloody. Her breasts were exposed, as her dress had been torn halfway. She noticed the two serial killers and ran over to them, whimpering thankfully, "Oh please help me. Please!"

She did not seem to have noticed their appearance.

A man burst from the foliage then, a tall, handsome youth. He had a switchblade in his knife, and searched and saw his target: the woman.

Lucas and Bill exchanged glances, this was getting too ridiculous. What were the odds? However, they had the same sort of mindset.

The rapist walked over to the girl, then spotted the men and assessed the situation. He seemed nervous. Newbie.

Lucas and Bill had their knives in their hands. They approached the rapist with obvious intent. The rapist looked between the two, wiping the slightly bloody switchblade against his trousers nervously,

"Uh... Guys. No need to be hasty, you know?"

Lucas stabbed him in his crotch. The woman shrieked. The scream pierced the air,

"No, no don't kill him! George! George!" She wailed mournfully as Billy pushed the boy over and began attending to him violently. Lucas sat it out; clutching his shoulder and watching the boy - George - scream and beg for mercy.

Then it was over.

The two men looked over at the girl, who was edging away, her mouth shut, her face almost as pale as the moonlight.

"This is. Madness. This." She shook her head and stumbled, and then she ran off into the forest.

Lucas and Bill rose from their kill, they looked at George, then at each other.

"Brother," Bill said, "- in arms." He laughed. Lucas chuckled. Then they sighed. Bill held out a hand.

"Truce?"

"Freaking yeah, just as soon as you drop me off somewhere I can get this fixed."

Lucas made motions to dispose of the corpse, but Bill wanted it, to give to the aliens. First, they attended to Lucas's shoulder, wrenching it in place [Lucas just barely screamed] and then they hauled the body into the back of the truck. Bill and Lucas clambered into it, and continued driving along the oily highway.

About two minutes into the ride, Lucas turned and slashed Bill's throat with his knife. As Bill gurgled and choked on his blood, Lucas hoarsely vomited it, since Bill had chosen the exact same moment to plunge the knife in Lucas's heart.

The truck veered off the highway shoulder, and left the mountain at 65 mph. It flew off the whole cliff face and crashed into the waters of a nearby city, where it sank languidly.