Involuntarily, Steve recoiled from this man. He never really spoke, always growled or shouted his words. He’d not been present for the last few trips, something for which Steve was immensely grateful.

“You still here?” Bear looked him up and down before waiting for Walter to reply to his initial question. “Dunno why you bother, ya stand around like an old broad, couldn’t kill a spider let alone anything else, ya fuckin’ pussy!”

Steve chose to ignore him and made his way to the plane, a Cessna 210 from the 60s, or so he’d been told. He wouldn’t know the make of a plane if it were emblazoned across the side in neon letters.
He took a seat in the small aircraft and looked out the window towards the others. They were a scary bunch of criminals and misfits and if he was honest with himself, he was scared of all of them.

He watched as Walter and Bear greeted each other, he assumed the handshake they engaged in was some sort of ‘street’ greeting and he shuddered against the sight. He was out of his depth, he always had been ever since he had learnt of these trips and yet, he couldn’t stop himself from coming along.

Chip boarded the plane and set about checking the panels and switches. He’d always been the one to fly them to their destination, always in the same plane and always from the private airstrip that was less of an airstrip and more a field in the ass end of nowhere. Steve understood perfectly why this particular location was their chosen leaving point. It was reasonably isolated and with no air traffic control, there was no real proof they’d ever been there.

He wondered idly if they crashed, if anyone would look for them. There was no one left to search for him, his parents long dead, no siblings that he knew of and his fiancée, the most perfect woman who had ever walked the earth, now dead and buried. And so he hunted, he wandered blindly through each day and saved up his money to finance this annual trip. Every year, he spent his money and awaited the right target. For five years, he’d gone through this fear for one shot, the shot that would set the world right and avenge his darling fiancée.

“Oi you fuckin’ scum bastards!” Chip yelled out the plane at the other two men who were lining up their third lines of coke. “You comin’ or what?”

Bear snorted his line and coughed before looking up to the small door of the plane.

“Fuck off Pig, we’ll be there in a minute!”

Steve watched as Chips face turned a fierce shade of beetroot.

“Ya hear that shit?” he asked Steve as he stormed into the cockpit of the plane. “That’s the thanks I get for keeping that mother fucker outta jail!”

He stood back from the open door and watched as Walter and Bear made their way onto the plane. Walt took a seat behind Steve and as Bear manoeuvred his large bulk into the plane, Chip stopped him. Well, not so much Chip as the 9mm handgun he pressed against his forehead.

“Remember this little man!” Chip growled menacingly, “The only reason you’re on this side of the party is coz of me! Ya got that?!”

Bear nodded slowly. He knew full well that Chip was right, he also knew that Chip was unstable and wouldn’t think twice about pulling that trigger there and then.

Almost as if the event hadn’t happened, Chip holstered the gun and grinned at the group.

“Buckle up boys!” He cheered, throwing a bottle of beer to each of the men, “It’s party time!”