Footprints on the floor—
She reached the end of the corridor and stared into a large room on the left.
Kitchen diner; sofa, TV, table—
Mercy switched on her torch and stepped into the room.
Empty—
She returned to the corridor and shook her head at Tawny. Her eyes fell on a closed door on the right.
“Cover me Tawny,” Mercy whispered. She placed her hand on the door handle and listened.
One, two, three—
Mercy opened the door and pointed her pistol and torch into a large bedroom. Her light revealed two motionless figures on a king size bed. Her index finger went to the pistol’s trigger.
What the actual fuck—?
Her eyes narrowed as she absorbed the scene inside. A naked man and woman lay in each other’s arms on the bed, barbed wire encircling their bodies. Mercy’s eyes swept across the room, she held her gun at the ready.
OK, clear—
Mercy stepped into the room with Tawny close behind. Her eyes returned to the couple on the bed.
They’ve been dead a long time. They’re husks, the desert climate must’ve preserved them—
“Their skin, they’re like mummies. Like in Egypt, like those skinnies back in New York,” Tawny hissed.
Wait, what’s that?
The wind chimes tinkled outside. Mercy approached the bed.
“They’ve got thorns around their heads,” Mercy blurted out.
Tawny hovered close to Mercy, “Shit, yeah. Like in the Bible. Like crowns. This is some weird fucked up shit.” Tawny brought her hand to her mouth, “Shit, they’ve been cut open.” She turned away.
Mercy shone her torch into the narrow gap between the couple. The abdominal contents of both bodies had been removed. Desert flowers had been placed inside the scooped out cavities.
“Someone’s left fresh flowers,” Mercy said, her lip curling.
Tawny grunted, “Check out the ceiling.”
Mercy brought her torch beam up.
Another inverted pentangle, directly over the bed—
A voice hissed in Mercy’s head.
Get out, get out, get out—
A wave of nausea washed over Mercy, bile rose in her throat. Her head swam and her legs buckled. Tawny grabbed Mercy by the shoulder, preventing her from falling.
“Come on babe. I’ve got you,” Tawny said.
Tawny guided Mercy out of the bedroom and back along the corridor. Mercy’s eyes drifted up to the ceiling. Words scrawled in a spidery hand were revealed in the flitting torchlight: HE… IS—
Mercy frowned. The last word materialised before she reached the front door: UNCHAINED.
He is unchained—?
Mercy stumbled out onto the light-filled porch and dropped to her knees. She vomited onto the sun-baked timber boards.
Flynn bent down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Mercy, are you OK? What happened in there?”
Mercy’s stomach heaved again and she dry retched. She raised a hand and shook her head, “I’m OK, I’m OK. It’s just… there’s some bad shit in there—”
A distant keening sound carried on the wind from somewhere out in the desert.
“What the hell is that?” Flynn said.
“More bad shit… out there,” Tawny answered, her voice low.
“OK, I think it’s time we got out of here. Let’s get back to the visitor centre and fortify the place. I don’t know what the fuck is going on in this town but I don’t like it,” Travis said, beckoning at the others to follow him.
They walked briskly back to the visitor centre, alert for trouble. Relief washed over Mercy as the building came into view.
He is unchained. What does that even mean?
They passed a church on the right. Movement caught Mercy’s eye and she swung around. A frown creased her forehead.
What’s that? Looks like a kid in rags, skin and bone, barefoot—
The ragged boy stopped in the middle of Palm Vista Drive fifty yards away and stared at them.
OK buddy, what are you doing?
“It’s a diversion,” Tawny said. “Look behind us and in front.”
Mercy glanced over her shoulder. Seven horsemen were straddled across the road, advancing slowly.
Where the fuck did they come from? Black horses and the riders are in black… what are they wearing? Robes?
“What are they playing at?” Mercy said.
“There’s seven more of the bastards coming in the other direction,” Travis said, pointing south down Utah Trail.
“They’re trying to cut us off from the others. Run—” Mercy said.
They ran the last hundred yards to the visitor centre as the horsemen charged towards them. Mercy’s eyes widened.
They’ve got spears… I don’t see any guns—
Mercy reached the visitor centre first. Annalise held the glass door open. Mercy barrelled through, followed by the others. A loud thump came from the doorframe. Something slammed into the wooden table beside Mercy. Annalise swung the door shut and engaged the upper and lower locks. A series of shots rang out from the roof.
Rose—
Three horsemen charged towards the door, their hooded robes billowing around them. The lead rider rushed at the entrance and raised his spear. His hood fell away from his face, revealing a crude mask. The horse reared in front of the door, its hooves struck the toughened glass sending a spider web of cracks through the surface layer. The rider threw his spear into the ground outside the building and glared in at them. More shots rang out from above, the spell was broken and the rider pulled on his reins, wheeling the horse around.
“They’re at the back, they’re trying to take our horses,” Jade yelled from the rear of the building.
The horses, of course—
A burst of automatic rifle fire echoed from the rear of the building. Mercy picked herself up and ran to the back with the others. Jade was face downwards on the ground, her rifle beside her. Two robed riders lay unmoving in the dirt off to one side. A horse was limping away from the building, blood oozing from its neck. Travis shoved Mercy aside, his face contorted with rage.
Mercy staggered back, reaching for her pistol. Travis let out a roar and charged at a masked man who was attempting to cut the horses free. Mercy aimed her pistol and shouted a warning. Travis knocked the thief sideways just as his knife sliced through the rope. The seven horses broke free and pulled away from the wall, their eyes bulging and nostrils flaring.
“Grab the horses,” Mercy yelled. She advanced on Travis and the horse thief.
Travis pulled out his trail knife and crawled towards the winded man. Mercy hesitated.
Angle’s wrong. I don’t want to hit Travis—
More rifle shots came from the roof. Without warning the thief rolled over and sprang up. Travis lunged at him with his knife. The thief dodged the attack and struck Travis a glancing blow to the head. Travis collapsed to the ground.
Shit—
The thief threw himself into the low bushes. Mercy fired twice, missing the retreating figure. She rushed over to Travis and was relieved to see him breathing. Tawny appeared at her side. Mercy looked back. Annalise, Flynn, and Barnes had managed to take control of the horses. Jade was rising to her feet, the colour returning to her face.
“How is he? Is he hit?” Tawny shouted, her hands searched Travis’s body for injuries.
Mercy blinked, “No, I don’t think so. Here, help me lift him inside.” She glanced around. Jade and Annalise were leading the horses into the building.
OK, I guess that makes sense—
Tawny and Mercy carried Travis into the building and laid him on the floor in a side room. Tawny cradled is head and spoke softly to him.
“I’m going to check on the others Tawny. I’ll get some water, hold tight,” Mercy said.
Three more shots rang out from the roof, then there was silence.
Nice one Rose—
Mercy staggere
d out of the side room and took in the chaos of the open area. She counted the horses and blinked.
Seven? We lost one of our horses? Goddammit—
Jade spotted Mercy, “Are you OK? How’s Travis?”
“He’s out cold. Took a knock to the head. Tawny’s with him,” Mercy replied. She pointed at the horses, “We lost one?”
Jade shook her head, “We lost two but we got one of theirs. Two of ours are still out there.”
“Shit, we need every horse,” Mercy headed for the door.
“Wait,” Jade said, alarm in her eyes. “You’re not going back out, are you?”
“Damn right I am,” Mercy said, anger rising up through her bones.
“Hold on, I’m coming with you,” Jade replied, she grabbed her rifle.
Chapter 28
Watchers
“I don’t think they have guns,” Mercy whispered to Jade. Mercy looked back at the visitor centre roof, “Rose’s got our back up there.”
Mercy crouched low and ran to the desert scrub surrounding the oasis. She ducked down behind a large California fan palm and listened. A horse whinnied behind the tree.
A boy’s voice carried on the wind. “They got Toaster. Mike and Sonny got hit too, we lost a horse but we got these two, so we’re OK. You reckon Tin Man will back off?”
“As long as they’ve got ammo he’ll keep his distance. He’ll try and get them to use it up though. Once they’re out of ammo, we’re in,” an older voice answered.
“They took our water and went poking around the shrine. What were they thinking?” the boy asked.
“Yeah, well, Tin Man’s folks are preserved in there, so I bet he’s pissed. I’ve been with Tin Man from the start and I ain’t never been in that house. If he gets these people I’m sure he’ll blood eagle them, just like the last crew that blew through here.”
“Yeah, them folks sure tasted good,” the boy replied.
Cannibals. Enough of this shit—
Mercy turned to Jade. “On three,” she whispered.
They readied their weapons.
One, two, three— Mercy mouthed.
They rounded the tree and found a boy and a youth guarding two horses. The horse thieves looked up, startled.
Mercy trained her pistol on them, “Hands up where I can see them.”
The boy obeyed. The older youth smiled a broken toothed smile, “This is my chance Beau. You remember I told you about suicide-by-cop? Well this is just the same. Ain’t nothing sweeter than a bullet’s kiss. I’ll see you on the other side buddy.”
The youth stood up and walked towards Mercy loosening an axe at his belt, “Do it bitch. Do me. I’ve had enough of all this shit—” He pulled the axe from his belt and rushed at Mercy.
Mercy squeezed her trigger. The 9mm parabellum round punched a neat hole in the youth’s forehead, dropping him to the ground.
“Happy to oblige, asshole,” Mercy answered. She looked at the boy and waved her pistol at him, “Look Beau, or whatever the hell your name is. You go and tell Tin Man to shove it up his ass. We’ve got enough ammo to blow you shitheads to kingdom come ten times over. So you fuckers are gonna leave us alone. We’re gonna be out of this dump tomorrow and you can get back to your weird little lives. OK? You got that?”
Beau nodded, wide eyed. He looked down at his fallen companion then back at Mercy.
“Go on kid, get the fuck out of here,” Jade said, from behind Mercy’s shoulder.
They watched as the boy ran off through the low scrub to the north.
“Kind of an overstatement on the ammo front,” Jade said, “but I think you got your message across.”
“Let’s hope,” Mercy replied. “Come on, let’s get these two beauties back into the fold.”
They untied the two mares and walked them to the visitor centre. Mercy’s eyes drifted to the building’s roof.
Good, Barnes is up there now, we’ll have 360 degree coverage… until nightfall. That’s when it might get interesting—
They brought the two mares back to the visitor centre. Annalise and Flynn had settled the other horses in and secured the building.
“Barnes and Rose are up top. They’ve done a good job keeping those bastards at bay,” Flynn said. “You did well. I would’ve come with you… if I’d known you were going out, but you just took off.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve got our horses back plus we’ve got one of theirs. I’ve a feeling that we’re better armed than their usual victims. Their leader’s called Tin Man. That house me and Tawny went into is some kind of shrine to his parents. That was some twisted shit, they were dead and wrapped up in barbed wire. Anyhow, it looks like they target people who pass through the city looking for water, seems most don’t fight back. We’ve given them a bloody nose today, so maybe they’ll leave us alone,” Mercy said, she stretched and sighed.
“Or maybe they’ll do the usual Neanderthal shit and try and pull a stunt at night,” Flynn said.
“We’ll be ready for them if they do,” Mercy said. She looked around the large open plan room, “You’ve done well here. It smells like a stable but I guess that’s what it is now. We’ve got enough feed for the horses tonight, and there’s that rain barrel outside for water. You and Annalise could bring some water in before dark. I’m going up to see Rose and Barnes, you OK with that?” Mercy stood up.
Flynn pulled Mercy close and kissed her. “Of course I’m OK with that.”
Mercy went to see Tawny and Travis on her way to the roof access stairs. Travis was sitting up, watching Tawny brew coffee with the propane stove.
“How you doing there Travis? You took a hard knock,” Mercy said.
“Yeah, I saw stars. Think I blacked out for a while, but I’m back now. Vision’s a bit blurry but Tawny’s looking after me. I’ll be fine. We beat them bastards back didn’t we?” Travis said, his tone uncertain.
“Yeah, we did. We got our horses back plus we got one of theirs. The horses are indoors now, so they’ll be fine. I don’t think these guys have guns, which is good for us. I’ll leave you to it,” Mercy said, smiling. She left the room and headed down the corridor.
Mercy walked out onto the roof and went over to Rose. “What’s up Rose?”
Rose was on a camp chair, a pair of binoculars in her hand. She shielded her eyes and looked up at Mercy. “Grab a seat. Barnes is watching our six back there,” she gestured at the other side of the roof.
Mercy pulled up a second chair from the stack in the corner. A rusty barbeque and folded camp table completed the roof furniture. She sat down and sighed.
“OK, spill it,” Mercy said.
Rose lifted the binoculars to her eyes, “I’ve counted about thirty of them. They’ve got about twenty horses and no guns that I can see. They’ve got spears, some of them have bows, so they have range. I got two of them for sure and winged three others. Barnes nailed another two, so they’ve been keeping a low profile. Licking their wounds I guess.”
Mercy looked out over the sun blasted ground between the visitor centre and the shrine-house she had been in earlier that day. She brought Rose up to speed on events at the house and the oasis.
“You saved the day Rose, you know that? With your sharpshooting up here. Reckon you turned the tide. We had our hands pretty full down there,” Mercy said.
“All in a day’s work,” Rose answered. “So what are we gonna do? Pull out before dark, or wait until tomorrow?”
“They’ll try and make us waste ammo. Reckon we should stay here tonight and bail first thing tomorrow morning. Maybe they’ll leave us alone if we vacate their oasis,” Mercy said, her voice low.
“Maybe,” Rose answered. “Or maybe they need more pain to understand we should be left alone.”
“Yeah, the human race only ever seems to learn from pain,” Mercy replied.
Mercy took out her own binoculars and looked north, “They’ll expect us to leave town by Route 62. They’re probably working on an ambush as we speak. So, yes, I think we should
quit town tomorrow… but by the north.”
Rose glanced at Mercy, “I knew you’d say that. You want to check out the Marine Corps base don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Mercy said.
“What do you expect to find? There’s obviously no guns there cos these guys ain’t got none,” Rose fired back.
Mercy shrugged. “It’s a Marine Corps base. How often do we get a chance to check out a Marine Corps base? It’s too good an opportunity to pass up, plus it’ll put these guys on the back foot if they’re planning on ambushing us on Route 62.”
Rose nodded, “Yeah, do the opposite of what they expect. That old chestnut. I’ll go along with that. You’ll need to run it by Barnes, although I can’t see him turning down a trip to a military base.”
Mercy smiled, “Funny, neither can I.”
The following morning dawned bright and clear. The night had passed without incident. Mercy looked out of the visitor centre window, a frown on her face.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Jade said, handing Mercy a coffee.
“If I was them I would’ve probed our defences last night. They did nothing, just kept us on edge,” Mercy answered.
Jade pulled a face, “Well, like you said yesterday evening, maybe they’re gonna put all their effort into ambushing us on the road out of here. Maybe they’re just watching us, lulling us into a false sense of security.”
Mercy nodded, “Yeah, they’re watching us all right. Watching and biding their time. The way those two were talking at the oasis yesterday, this Tin Man whoever he is, isn’t likely to back down. I reckon he’s got one more hand to play.”
Jade grunted, “Barnes thought it was a good idea to go to the Marine Corps base, avoid the road… throw them off guard. Maybe they’ll lose interest, we’ll be giving them back their oasis after all.”
Mercy sipped her coffee, “Maybe, maybe not. I reckon this guy is in it for the whole nine yards.”
“Well then, we’ll just have to make it too costly for him so he’ll have to back down,” Jade replied.
“Yeah, we have quite a bit of ammo but the bullets always run out. That’s when the reckoning happens,” Mercy said.
Jade shrugged, “We’ll just have to let it play out. We can’t stay here another night, we’ve no more feed for the horses, and we’ll be running out of food too.”
The Survival Chronicles | Book 8 | Final Mercy Page 18