Blood Pours On Unholy Wars

A Blues Brothers Fan Fiction

By Ella Roberta Reamy

© 2003, 2004

Disclaimer: Yes, I own the Blues Brothers and ALL related characters. This is why I'm broke and writing non-profit stories and not expanding my franchise amongst the fan girls and fan boys because I'm SELFISH! Yeah, anyway…just expressing my distaste w/ disclaimers. Don't own. Don't sue.

Elwood floored the accelerator pedal, pushing the car as fast as it would go as he exited onto the freeway overpass.

"Dammit, Elwood!" Jake exclaimed as another car on the freeway swerved to miss them. "Be careful!"

"Damn yourself!" Elwood snapped back. "You just had to go and do it, didn't you?"

Jake turned, glaring at his brother. "It had to be done and you know it."

"It had to be done? Bull-fucking-shit, Jake! We had money already! We didn't need any more money for once, but you had to go and get all trigger-happy and now a man's dead because of you!"

The images of the holdup flashed across Jake's mindscape. The cashier. Jake demanding money. The Bluesmobile idling in the parking lot with Elwood behind the wheel. Much like the holdup that had sent him to prison before, but this time he wasn't holding a toll gun that shot coins, it was real. And then the cashier pulled out his own gun. Jake had panicked. He hadn't meant to pull the trigger. And now they were running again. But this time, there was no mission, and it wasn't just a game of chicken with the cops either. Now they were in real trouble.

Elwood took another exit, this time moving onto the third level of the overpass system. Jake gazed up at the roads, spider-webbing and crisscrossing up and up into the sky for at least five or six levels off the ground. Dark, ominous clouds streaked the sky, threatening to unleash a downpour of rain at any given moment.

"I didn't mean to-" Jake began.

"Oh, FUCK YOU!" Elwood shouted angrily, louder than he had in his entire existence, causing Jake to jump in his seat.

"What?" Jake asked, his tone somewhere between pissed off and near tears at his younger brother's harshness, which had not existed so vehemently (albeit, hardly at all) until just then.

"You heard me, you little fucking coward!" Elwood replied acidic, "This is all your fault! All of it! And now here I am, yet again, endangering myself and all sorts of innocent people on the road just to bail you out and help you run your sorry ass away from the mess that you made!"

"Elwood, I-," Jake began. "I mean, c'mon man, this has happened before…we always-"

"Just shut the fuck up and let me drive!"

Jake looked out the window again, noticing that they were on the topmost level of the overpasses. He looked in the rearview mirror, just now noticing the huge fleet of police cars tailing the Bluesmobile, lights flashing and sirens blaring, each in the same sound pattern but all at different time intervals so that a wall of sound surrounded them on all sides.

Jake then looked over the edge wall of the overpass, which Elwood was swerving dangerously closer to and saw the overpasses beneath them. Not only were there cop cars on all the levels, but the levels had seemed to have miraculously multiplied without warning, and there were now a hundred instead of the five or six he had seen before.

"Holy shit, did you see-" Jake started.

"I thought I told you to shut up," Elwood replied coldly, cutting him off.

"Yeah, but…hey, watch it!" Jake shouted, just as Elwood swerved to avoid sideswiping a station wagon. Jake saw the three children in the back seat give a scream he couldn't hear and cover their eyes.

"Oh, the man who's never had a license is now trying to tell me how to drive?" Elwood barked, an unnatural sneer crossing his face. Jake was suddenly more scared of Elwood than the cops. He wanted out of the car.

"Fine, j-just pull over and let me out. I-I'll take the rap alone," Jake said as calmly as his quivering voice would allow.

"Pull over? Oh, you want me to pull over? Okay," Elwood replied, his voice taking on a sudden artificial sugariness that frightened Jake even more. Elwood gripped the steering wheel and jerked the car hard to the left. Just before the Bluesmobile was about to smack into the concrete wall, Elwood swerved the car hard to the right.

"Okay, don't pull over!" Jake said.

"No, Jake," Elwood replied callously, jerking the car to the left again. "You said to pull over."

Elwood kept swerving the car back and forth, jerking it back a different direction just before hitting the walls on the edges. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left-right-left. Right. Left.

"Look man, I don't give a shit WHAT you do!"

"That's your problem, Jake," Elwood said, "You've never given a shit about anything. Or anybody…but yourself, of course."

"Elwood, this is no time for a moral stand speech!" Jake shouted at his brother.

"You know what? I think I will pull over and let you out," Elwood replied.

Jake suddenly noticed that they were on the ground level again, the hundred or so levels of overpasses looming above them.

Elwood grabbed the wheel and jerked it hard to the right. Jake's eyes widened behind his shades. The Bluesmobile was heading straight for one of the concrete support columns holding up the overpass above them.

"Elwood, stop! STOP DAMMIT! NOOOoooOOOOoooo!" Jake screamed as the Bluesmobile slammed into the column. The column fell out from under the roadway it was supporting and fell on top of the Bluesmobile's roof, right between the two brothers.

Jake wasn't sure how he was able to, but he could see everything happening at once. The column crushing the car, the hundreds of roads in the sky creaking and swaying.

My god, we've broken the main column, Jake thought to himself.

Jake could see the overpasses sway back and forth, then buckle, the roads crumbling beneath the cars driving on them. Jake could hear the screams of the people in the cars as the overpasses came crashing to the ground. Jake saw the aluminum car bodies crunch beneath the chunks of concrete and steel supports that came crashing down on top of them. Heard the screams of the innocents as they fell. Heard the crunch of bone and flesh as the people were crushed to death. Heard the crashing of the roads. Heard the destruction. The agony. The death.

As all of the rubble finally stopped (how much later it was, Jake didn't know), Jake realized that only the main column had fallen on the Bluesmobile. On his side at least. He looked over and heard Elwood struggling on his side of the car. Jake grabbed the door handle and pushed on it. The door didn't budge.

"Dammit…" Jake muttered. Finally, after some effort, he managed to open the door and climb out of the car. The minute he stepped out of the car, Jake's ankle began to sting. He nearly fell down, but grabbed the edge of the door to keep himself.

Sprained, he thought. Damn, that's it?

"Jake…" he heard a voice call out weakly.

"Elwood," Jake replied. He limped towards the back of the car, but noticed that there was a large chunk of concrete in the way. Hanging onto the car, he limped towards the front.

"Elwood? Hang on, I'm coming," Jake called out.

Suddenly, Jake felt the air change somehow, and something caused him to look upwards. He saw a small, thick rivulet of blood begin to pour down the rubble, heading straight for Elwood, who had managed to wriggle out of the driver side window halfway.

"You," Elwood said angrily, his voice taking on a deeper cadence as it sometimes did when he was angry. "You. You did this. I hate you."

"Elwood, I-" Jake began, then saw the river of blood thicken just before it poured onto Elwood's hat, staining the black felt an eerie shade of red. Elwood gasped, then slumped forward onto the roof of the car.

Dead.

"Elwood! Elwood! NO!"

Jake awoke with a jerk, bolting upright in bed. Sweat poured down his face and soaked his shirt. He quickly looked around to see just where he was. Now he remembered. They were in the Motel 6 in Moline, Ohio, resting up after their gig at the National Newspaper Columnists' Convention.

Jake suddenly remembered his dream. He jumped out of bed, throwing the covers to the ground and stood over the bed next to him.

Just as he had hoped, Elwood was sound asleep on the far side of the bed, hat off, jacket still on. Jake sighed in relief. He took off his hat, which somehow always managed to stay on his head while he slept, and raked his fingers through his damp, rumpled hair. He started to put his hat back on, but stopped. He turned and threw his hat on his own bed, then pulled back the covers on Elwood's bed and climbed in beside his brother.

Elwood stirred awake as Jake pulled the covers up around him.

"Hmnn?" Elwood uttered. He reached up and rubbed his eyes behind his shades. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Jake replied. "Can't sleep. Freaky dreams."

"Must've been some dream," Elwood replied, punctuating his sentences with a yawn. "You haven't crawled into bed with me since…well, ever."

"Yeah, that was usually your job," Jake replied, smiling.

Elwood turned over halfway, furrowing his brow. "You sure you're feelin' okay?"

"I'm okay. You?"

"Peachy. Tired, though. Why?"

"No reason," Jake answered, settling in, lying on his back.

The two brothers lay in silence for few moments, then Jake spoke up.

"Elwood?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

Elwood turned again. "For what?"

"Being me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know. I guess I mean that, I'm sorry if I piss you off sometimes."

Elwood turned over and faced his brother. "Hey, that's okay man. I mean, you may piss me off sometimes, but I'm sure I piss you off just as much. Besides, we're still, y'know, together and stuff."

"Yeah, I know."

Not long after that, the two brothers drifted back to sleep.

A/N: Yeah, another dark, creepy piece. This is actually based on a dream I had in, I think, 8th grade. It was really creepy and I actually DID wake up in a cold sweat. It just occurred to me, like, a month ago to make a fanfic out of it. I hope y'all enjoyed it, and please R/R! Don't worry, my other BB WIP that's coming out later, "High School Confidential" is a pure comedy piece, for those of you wanting something that's not so heavy.

Also, the newspaper columnists' convention is a location throwback to my Fred Garvin sequelfic (see the very bottom of my fanfic list).

BETA-READ BY JESSICA FAIRBAIRN & REVISED BY THE AUTHOR MAY 2004.