"What the fuck?" one of them said.

When Stony heard Chubby yell in the hallway, he unlocked the door and came out swinging, his first blow hitting Mott squarely between the shoulder blades with the applicator. Mott fell on his face in the dimly lit sea green corridor. Twenty feet away Chubby dueled with the two other guys. Mott jumped up, bulled Stony backward and ran like hell down the stairs. Stony smacked his head on the wall, sank dazed to a sitting position on the red cement floor and through blurry eyes watched Chubby hold the other two at bay like Little John versus the varlets. Cheri opened the front door and peeked into the hallway. Chubby tightened his grip on the stick, eyes wide open. Suddenly he moved forward a step, stomping his foot with an echoing slap. The two guys jumped back, their bats protruding from under their arms like jousting lances. Chubby laughed.

"C'mon, yah fucking creeps, ya know how to use those things?" Chubby licked his lips, inching forward, raising the stick to his shoulder. He blocked one of the two exits. Stony sat three feet from the other exit, trying to clear his head, still feeling too dopey to stand up. "I'm gonna bash ya faces in ... you know what that feels like?...hah?...you know what that feels like?" Chubby taunted.

Unblinking, Chubby inched forward. They inched back toward Stony and Cheri. "I once killed a guy in the service. It felt good ... you know that?...hah?...it felt real good." Chubby made a weird whining noise in the back of his throat. Stony got frightened by it—a one-note high-pitched whine—because it seemed that Chubby didn't realize that he was making it. Chubby took a vicious cut, lunging at one guy's face with all his beef. The stick made a ringing slap against the wall. The guy dropped his bat, quickly stooping to pick it up. "Hey, shithead, how'd the Yankees do today?" Chubby took another swing, a murderous arc missing chins by inches. One guy screamed, the other retreated within five feet of Stony. Stony cautiously lifted the wax applicator between the guy's legs and gave him a stiff goose. He squawked, dropped his bat, turned around, leaped over Stony and ran down the stairs.

"Jus' me an' you." Chubby grinned wolfishly at the remaining flunky. "What's yah name? Hah? What's yah name?" Chubby stomped his foot again.

The flunky whirled around, running toward Stony and the unblocked exit. Stony ducked and at the same time thrust his stick between the retreating legs. The stick spun out of his hands, as the guy fell headfirst into the door, belly-crawled/scrambled to the stairs and was gone. Chubby stood triumphant, panting in the corridor, his stick hanging loosely from a relaxed fist. He exhaled noisily. Stony struggled to his feet, using the wax applicator as a support.

Chubby laughed. "Yah lazy fuck. I hope yah dug the show."

Cheri stood gawking in the doorway, staring at Chubby. Chubby wiped the side of his face with the sleeve of his T-shirt, smiled at her.