Posted by Moore on May 04, 2003 at 11:03:44:
Suzy was a blonde with her hair done up in a ponytail. She had on matching pink sweat pants and a pink sweatshirt. You could tell she was a cheerleader just by looking at her. Suzy was walking alone in a state park in the early spring. Squirrels were shaking off the winter. There was the budding green of new growth as far as the eye could see. Suzy breathed in the rich, fresh earth smell. Sunlight filtered down in wide beams toward her through the trees. Suzy's mom had told her it was angels accending to Heaven. She continued blissfully down the path.
CJ and Brad sucked on their cigarettes and finished their beers. When CJ saw Suzy go past, he nodded to Brad. "How 'bout we get a piece of that." The drug deal had gone well, and he was feeling frisky.
"She won't put out for you" Brad said. He crushed his beer can and threw it into the woods.
"Then we'll kill her, and have her when she's dying" CJ growled. He crushed out his cigarette.
They started following behind her. Suzy smelled an acrid smell. She turned and saw two dirty guys in leather jackets gaining on her. They smelled of cigarettes and body odor. She sped up. Gravel crunched under their feet as they got closer. Suzy ran. Her ponytail bobbing only sharpened their desire. CJ ran into her, knocking both of them down.
Brad pulled some pieces of rope out of his jacket pocket. CJ dragged Suzy over to a large tree. Brad tied her hands behind her back. "String her up" CJ said, panting. Brad threw the other end of the rope over a branch, wrapped part of it around her long, pale neck and made a noose.
"That's why 13 is unlucky" Brad said. "13 loops in a hangman's noose."
"What do you want? I am just trying to take a walk in the state park. Let me go back on the trail and I won't tell" Suzy begged.
Brad pulled the rope until Suzy was forced on her tippy toes by the rope digging into her neck, then he leaned against the tree, winded from the chase.
CJ got in Suzy's face. "Stupid bitch. Your gonna die now. Your momma's gonna see your dead, naked body. Let's strip her and rape her while she hangs" he cackled to Brad.
John Doe, the man who would later become the Phoenix, tackled Brad. Springing with both legs, weighing 88 kgs, John slammed Brad into the tree. Brad's head hit the tree and stopped. Brad's brain continued until it smacked into his skull. The result: painful unconsciousness for Brad.
CJ opened a bright switchblade with a click, and sneered at the would-be hero. "Get the fuck outta here" he hissed.
There is a difference between someone who trains and someone who does not. John didn't have military training at this time in his life, but he had weight lifted for two years in high school. When he made the varsity track and field team in collage, his shot put coach introduced him to power lifting. John had worked on his explosive strength
John had also taken three years of Tae Kwon Do - the martial art of smashing with the hand and foot - to improve his balance and flexibility. CJ liked to smoke, watch TV, and talk tough.
John didn't bother to talk, he feinted toward the girl. CJ sliced at him. Tae Kwon Do teaches "Block the hand, not the weapon." John used a left outer block to push CJ's attack harmlessly away. The block also left CJ's torso wide open for a counter attack. John executed a front snap kick into CJ's solar plexus, stunning CJ's diaphragm. CJ felt like he couldn't get a good breath. He gasped like a fish.
As John kicked CJ with a right axe kick that broke CJ's collarbone, Suzy got in her own blow for her life and freedom. She kicked CJ from behind, in the side of his leg, shattering his knee. She had gotten her cell phone out from her back sweat pant's pocket as Brad and CJ made the noose around her neck. She hadn't been relying on someone to save her. She had called the police with her phone behind her back, unnoticed by the two thugs before John had flattened Brad. The police dispatcher heard the taunts, and was tracing her call.
CJ fell whimpering to the dirt. They used the thug's own rope to tie them up. Suzy bravely testified against them at the trial. It was the would be killers' third felony, they ended up dying in prison.
Suzy moved back to Ohio and married her high school sweetheart. They have four kids now, and still kiss passionately before he leaves for work.
John's collage girlfriend got him a plaque with one of John's favorite quotes on it.
"We sleep safely in our beds, only because rough men stand guard in the night, ready to visit violence upon those who would do us harm." H.G. Wells.
Words to live by.