CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - Happy Hunting Ground

So, anyways, we're luggin' some stuff out onto Eddie's pick-up, founf we had room for a couple of other things, then, to tell ya the truth, it's kinda foggy. I mean, I felt someone was holdin' something on my face and I struggled to breathe and just fell asleep, but what I woke up to made me wish I didn't. It was that horrifyin'.

EDDIE - I felt it, too, the thing on my face, then - ZAP - nothin'. Turns out this one pullin' all them sick jokes on people was the one who zapped us out right by the pick-up. It must've been hours between the rag on the face and the time we woke up in some forest preserve or somethin'. On top of that, Mike and I were shackled to each other.

Yeah, that was one of the worst parts of that night. We both came to, got our bearings, wondered where we were, then tried to walk around, but nearly tripped on each other because we were chained at the ankles, my left and Eddie's right. Eddie freaked out when he saw the shackle and I got pretty bunched up, too. "What the hell? What's goin' on? Who's doin' this?" "I'll bet it's that Machine Gun Kelly guy back at the office!" Just then, a voice came outta nowheres. "Yes, gentlemen, that is correct". I furrowed my brow, I dunno, it usually made me think better, I guess. We looked around for speakers or somethin', who the hell was talkin' to us. "Oh, Dashing Detective, I'm running a little late for an appointment. Can you tell me what time you have?" This familiar-soundin' voice was really gettin' at me, and he wanted to know what time it was?!?

"Look at your watch, Detective. Lord knows what I'll do to you if you make me late." So, I look at my watch, but don't see it. What I see is this gizmo with a speaker on it. "What the hell did you do with my watch?" "Ah, I see you found my communication device. Pretty impressive, eh?" "Not in the least, you sick freak." Then a shot rang out! Me and Eddie duck, all shook up. "What the hell", we kept sayin' over and over, different variations, we was pretty shook up. The voice continued.

"You are both stranded in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. Quite romantic, is it not? And I wouldn't want to make any false moves, as you are both chained to each other at the ankle. Oh, yes, I gave you some slack in your bonds, just to make it interesting, but if I were you, I'd be careful when I run because you're going to be doing an awful lot of running this evening." "Running from what?" "This" Then an arrow comes from out of nowhere and slams into this tree we're standing in front of, just inches above Eddie's head. He's not sure he's hit, but ducks, grabs the top of his head and starts panicking. I check him out and assure him he's not been hit. A few bullets hit the bark of the tree just inches away from me, I can see woodchips flyin' off. Eddie and I huddle to duck the ammunition. "Now, see, that's how you play the game. You are my game. Tonight is open season on Dashing Detectives and Boy Fridays. If you manage to elude my arrows, my bullets, and everything else I throw in your direction, you go free and I surrender to you. If not, you surrender to me." Eddie slams his fist into his other hand and shudders, "Holy Dragnet! He's hunting us!" "That is correct."

I was gettin' really ticked off by this whole thing. "What the hell is this about? What are you....just who the hell are you, anyway?" "You'll find out at dawn, the point of surrender, whether it's yours or mine, all depends on you. I will give you a 5-minute head-start, then you're on your own."

The wrist radio I was wearin' went dead, then it was up to me and Eddie to find our way outta here in 5 minutes or else we'd be toast, or hung from the wall in this maniac's den, or somethin'. I grab Eddie by the arms and insist we gotta win this thing, our lives really depend on this. I had no idea what time it was, no idea when the crack of dawn was gonna come up. Lookin' at our shackles, I told him we gotta move in sync, so we don't trip over each other. So we were off.

EDDIE - Oh, man, this was the weirdest thing we ever got into. I was scared to death, but somehow knew we were gonna make it through this. The good guys always win everything and we were the good guys. I kept thinkin' this was just another sick prank. I sure wanted to know what was goin' on between Mike and this guy. I got it that somehow they knew each other. Maybe Mike pissed him off at one point. Maybe this guy was always a nemesis of his. It could be anything, but for now, we just had to think about stayin' alive all night.

We made everything we could outta that head-start, hearin' nothin'. It was nice and quiet. Under better circumstances, it would've been a nice place to go with Eddie. But that's not important right now. There was only one place I wanted to go with Eddie this minute - outta this place, with this freak, whoever he was, behind bars for the rest of his life.

Suddenly we hear this motor, look at each other, look around a bit, then Eddie sees something and points up. "Oh, it's just a plane." I look even harder at it. It seems to be comin' in our direction. It was a motorized model plane. With a doll pilot in it. One of them remote control jobs. It was flyin' around us like a bee or somethin', aimin' to sting somethin'. I see somethin' protrudin' from the nose. Then a light flashin' from it. My God, it was firin' at us. "Holy Red Baron, it's shootin' at us!", Eddie exclaims. We make a break for it. The 5 minutes was up, we were fair game. The problem was, we couldn't duck anywhere, this thing could follow us whereever we went. Then Eddie had a thought, "with a gun that little, how harmful could them bullets be if we got hit?" "If we got hit? Didn't you hear him? If one of us is hit, we give in to this maniac. I don't know about you, but I'm gettin' outta here scot free." "You're right, what was I thinkin'?" We ran a few feet, a rock was lyin' around nearby. I pick it up and fling it at the plane, and it crashed into it, smashin' that thing to smithereens. "Wow, nice aim, Boss-man." Game 1, hunter 0. We had the lead. Me and Eddie stood next to each other lookin' at the wreckage for a minute. I had one hand on his shoulder, the other one on his arm, slidin' my fingers up his tee-shirt sleeve and lightly glidin' over his bi-ceps. He reached over with his other arm and held the hand I had on his shoulder. We got by this time. We could do this thing. I knew we could. Our eyes met, we turn around to face each other, and got into some real holy liplock. Eddie reached down and pinched my nipples, I moaned and Eddie cracked that there was only one guy on this planet I was gonna surrender to, and it was him, which made me laugh. We needed this. We needed love and laughter right now. Who knew, maybe this would be the last night the both of us are in these bodies. If we died together, then we'd stay together in the next life, but there was only one problem with that. Eddie would lose this fantastic body. I'd love his heart, his soul, his mind, but I wouldn't be able to touch him. So I was enjoyin' this for now.

We lower ourselves onto the ground, bein' careful of the shackles and careful to not break our bond of holy liplock. Eddie's shorts hiked up again, I reached and grabbed his leg, runnin' my fingers up inside his pants. He did the same with me, pullin' down my zipper, caressin' my cock as I was his. Never knowin' what could happen next, we gave each other hand jobs

EDDIE - Ah, rubbin' his balls, goin' back and forth on his cock, him doin' that to me, too. "I love you, Mike, you're everything to me. You are the most exciting man I've ever known, the sexiest, the sweetest. I've gotta have you." "You got me Eddie. You'll always have me. You're the hottest guy I ever met, the most loyal, the most trustworthy, better than anyone I've known before...." and then he just breaks off. "What, did you cum already?" "No, but somethin' did. I think I know who this sicko is." He grabs and hugs me. "I didn't tell ya this before 'cuz I'm all about livin' for now, but I did have another boy friday at one point." "Oh, that's no big deal, you had to have a life before me, that's normal, I did, too, I mean, I settled on...." "That's what I did. I had this other guy before, but I had to get rid of 'im. He was always jumpin' the gun and all that. I couldn't keep up with 'im. He was a real wretched rogue, this one was. Always wantin' more." "Holy Darth Vader" "Yeah, somethin' like that. There's nothin' worse than a good boy gone bad." Then his face turned sad, he was lookin' back and forth at me, and I was lookin' at him all quizzical-like. "Eddie, I want you to tell me. How are ya?" "Huh?" "Are ya good with this? Am I doin' right by ya? I mean, look at ya. You're young, fun-lovin', beautiful...." He stiffened his face and bit his lip, but it was quiverin'. I kinda knew what was comin'. He started bawlin' and put his head down, I touched his face and brought it back up, "Mike, what's wrong? What's come over ya, huh, sweetie?" "Oh, Eddie, I love you, I don't know what I'd ever do without you. I need you. You saved my life when you came into it, you're the best thing that ever happened to me. You gave me my heart back, I didn't think I could love again until I saw your beautiful face." I wrapped my arms around him, movin' as close to him as I could be, lookin' him in the eye, "I'm the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. You've been my whole life. You're my hero and I'll never turn my back on you." That made him cry out loud and he grabs me, not just puttin' his hands on my body, but puttin' my body in his hands. He was kissin' the back of my neck, and sayin', "good boy....good boy....good boy". Bein' a detective myself, I had to find out what was goin' on, what's makin' Mike so vulnerable, so sad, so scared. Maybe it was somethin' really bad. He'll tell me when he's ready.