“It’s James,” the guy who spotted me yelled.
I heard bullets fly by and a yell of pain as one of my blindly fired shots found its mark. I was able to make it to a thin line of trees and circle around to the back of the infirmary. I released the catch on the magazine and reloaded my pistol. I checked the back door and when I found it locked, kicked it in just like Luke’s office. Before I could step through the door, someone opened fire on me. “I’m here to help,” I yelled over the gunfire. “Stop fucking shooting.” The gunfire slowly died down.
“James?” I heard a surprised voice. Someone poked their head around the corner, and I saw that it was Adam.
“Holy hell Adam, you almost killed me,” I said closing the door and securing it with one of the chairs sitting alongside the hallway.
“Sorry man thought you were George.”
“Well, I’m not. Who do you have in here with you?”
“Just my dad,” he said as I followed him into the larger room that served as the infirmary. The walls were lined with cots, each covered in tightly stretched white sheets. The room still had the lingering smell of disinfectant.
“Luke?” I called out.
“Dad, it’s James.”
“James my boy. Glad…” I never found out what Luke was glad about because before he could go any further, a bullet tore through the left side of his chest.
“Dad!” yelled Adam as he rushed to his father.
“Luke,” I said following him to his dad’s side.
“I got him. I think I got Luke,” yelled George in victory. I stuck my gun over the edge of the windowsill and emptied the magazine. I heard them scramble for cover.
Luke lay in an ever-growing puddle of his own blood, his head resting on Adams lap. “Oh my God, dad.” I pulled some gauze from my pack and applied as much pressure to the gaping hole as I could. “James you gotta hel…”
“Adam,” Luke said in a weak breathless whisper.
Adam immediately and leaned in close to listen. “Yeah, dad?”
“Adam. I love… I love you. B…be the man I know you can be. Promise me.”
“Dad you’re going to be…”
“Promise me,” he said as a tear carved a path through the dirt on his face.
“I promise dad. I promise,” Luke smiled at his son one last time before he sighed and was silenced forever. “Dad no, please dad hold on,” he muttered as he rocked back and forth, still cradling his father’s head. “James you have to help him.”
“I’m sorry Adam. There’s nothing I can do, he’s gone.” For the second in my life since meeting Adam, I saw him cry, hard. Tears fell from his face and added to the single clean line on Luke’s cheeks, he wept for his dad as any son would and I did my best to give the respect that the situation warranted.
The somber atmosphere was broken by a laugh from outside. “The old man is dead then? Is that why you’re crying, Adam? Because I killed your daddy?” He laughed again “To think I used to follow you. What a joke.”
A primal yell of rage ripped its way from Adam’s throat as he stood. He aimed the pistol in his hands and fired until the gun clicked empty. In his anger, he had been able to hit the man standing next to George but not the bastard himself. George returned fire and I had to pull Adam down to prevent him from getting shot. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I growled.
“I’m going to kill that fucking piece of shit,” he yelled. “Do you hear that? I’m going to kill you,” he called out.
“Adam listen to me. You can’t do this by yourself. I can kill George, but I need your help.”
“Fine, what do you need me to do?” he said taking a glance out the window.
“Stay here,”
“What? Fuck that I’m…” I punched him squarely in the temple as he turned to look back at me.
“You’re staying here,” I said firing out the window and quickly heading to the back exit. As I went, I took account of how much ammo I had. Damn it, I thought. I only had a single full magazine in the gun at my waist. Just gotta make it count, I concluded as I rounded the corner of the building and pulled my second pistol. I slowly made my way to where George had been but only found the bodies of his fallen companions. My senses were on high alert as I strained to catch any hint of danger. My ears pricked as I heard something crunch, a twig maybe and I turned and fired at the noise. Someone had been there, but I hadn’t hit them. “Come out George.”
“Fuck that,” I heard him say. I turned and fired again, and again I hit nothing.
I heard the sound of Thomas’ rifle dotting the night with its resonating cracks, and I must have become distracted because before I knew it someone had snuck up behind me and I had just enough time to duck, turn to raise my gun but was ultimately disarmed by a huge fist colliding with my gun arm. I backed away to take note of my surroundings, and George followed, not even bothering with my gun that sat at his feet. This was good for me, I just had to keep him away from the gun. “It’s just you and me now,” I told him sarcastically. “You’ve got no one to back you up. You think you can do this all by yourself?”
“I killed Luke didn’t I?”
“So what, you killed an old man. What do you want, a fucking medal?”
“Nope, just to see you bleed.”
“Waiting on you,” I said giving him a confident grin.
He let out an animalistic yell and charged me, taking a huge swipe with his massive fists. I blocked the best I could, but I soon found that he was much, much stronger than me. My blocks were getting weaker as he battered away at my defenses and my arms soon felt like they were made of wet cotton rather than flesh and bone. I couldn’t take much more and decided that I would have to go on the offensive. He took a swipe at me, and as I ducked underneath it, I brought up my knee and nailed him in the gut. It didn’t hurt him too much, just knocked the wind out of him, but it was enough for me to back away and catch my breath. This is what it must be like to fight a bear, I thought as I pulled my Bowie and prepared to shove it up to the hilt in his chest. I held it in a fighting stance and said “Remember this? I never asked you, how’s the arm?” His only answer was to pull his own knife from his belt and advance towards me. Fuck, I thought as I jumped back to avoid his opening blow. He took large swipes at me but was still able to keep me outside his guard. I couldn’t get close enough to strike so I took a gamble and, flipping the knife to hold it by the blade tip, flung the perfectly balanced weapon directly at his chest. He literally fell onto his back to avoid the spinning knife, it wasn’t graceful in any way, but it worked. I was now without a weapon.
“Fool me once,” he said grinning wickedly.
He advanced on me, no longer having to worry about being stabbed in return. After dodging a stab to the stomach I aimed a kick to his kneecap, trying to break it. He caught my leg in his big hand and stabbed me in the calf, smiling. I let out a yell of pain as he let go of my bleeding leg and let me fall to the ground. “Doesn’t feel too good does it?” He smiled at me “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt for long.” He walked towards me as I crawled backward to try and put some distance between me and the blade that was now coated with my blood. George was so intent on finishing me off he didn’t notice the silent form of Adam running full charge at him. I closed my eyes just before impact, but it sounded just like you would imagine, like two bodies colliding violently together. I took the opportunity to search for my gun, but I’m sure that if I had watched the fight, I would have seen Adam wrestle the knife from Georges shocked grip. I’m sure I would have seen Adam land several impressive blows to Georges' face. And I’m sure I would have seen how George grasped blindly for his lost knife, find it and slide it into Adams' chest. But like I said, I didn’t see that. What I did see as I snatched up my pistol was George shoving the still form of Adam off of him and get to his feet. I walked towards me as I struggled to get to my own feet. “Scrappy little fucker,” he said wiping his mouth, “Too bad I ha…” I fired, putting two in his chest. He dro
pped like a sack of rocks. Fight over I took a moment to steady myself, blood running freely from the wound on my leg.
I walked unsteadily to where Adam lay, unmoving. I knelt down and out my finger in his neck. To my shock, he still had a pulse. As I was examining the wound, he woke from unconsciousness. “Did we get him?”
“Yeah, he’s gone.”
“Good,” he smiled.
“I thought I told you to stay put.”
“You hit like a girl.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“I…I kept, kept the promise,” he said choking on his own blood.
“Yeah, you kept your promise.”
“Goodbye, James.”
“Goodbye, Adam,” I said and placed the reclaimed gun to his head and put one through his skull. I was already dead and letting him drown in his own blood as his lungs collapsed was a much worse fate than a bullet to the brain.
I walked back slowly to the barracks, dozens of bodies littered the ground, most of them with white gauze on their arms, but there was one body that almost brought me to my knees. It was Will. He was still clutching the Buck knife, now streaked with blood, and the diminished roll of gauze lay next to him. There was a neat cut made across his small throat, blood still gushing out. A short distance away lay a man with a stab wound on his back and under him lay Annie, beaten, bloody and unmoving. Another red line crossed her pale neck as well. I rolled the guy off of her and saw a small hole in his forehead. Glancing down at Annie’s hand I saw a small single shot .22 caliber pistol. Way to go, Annie, I thought and continued my way back to the barracks. I reached the barracks and was quickly ushered inside by Sarah and Liz. The room was lit by a small battery powered lantern
“My God James, your arm.”
“It’s fine,” I said softly.
“No, it’s not. Hold still,” she said as she began pulling things from her pack.
“Are the others ok?”
“Yes,” said Liz. “We met up with the others and, while we’re still unsure if any of the rogue group is left, the fighting is pretty much over.”
“Good. Is anyone hurt?”
“Thomas broke his leg.”
“What? How?”
“He jumped from the tower when someone got through our defenses and lobbed a Molotov at him. That’s what he said anyway.”
“Where is he?”
“Sleeping in the truck. I dosed him,” said Sarah as she finished wrapping my arm.
“With what?”
“Just some Vicodin.”
“Good. Have we found any survivors?”
They looked at each other hesitantly before answering me, “Just one for now. He was one of the gunmen on the roof.”
“Where is he?”
He must have heard his cue because the masked gunman walked through the door “Area’s secure,” he said in that all too familiar voice.
“James, this is…”
“Michael,” I choked out, shock evident on my face as he removed his ski mask.
“Hello big brother,” said the grinning teenager.
Chapter 8
“M…Michael?”
“Yeah?”
“How… Where… You’re alive,” I said walking slowly up to him.
He looked at himself, arms spread, grinning, “Yeah I guess…” I grabbed him and hugged him, squeezing hard enough to crack his back. “Dude, I can’t breathe,” he said still grinning.
I held him at arm’s length, “How are you so fucking calm?”
“I heard Luke mention someone named James, made him sound like a badass. I figured it must be you, the whole badass thing almost threw me off, though.”
“Fuck you. How did you end up here?”
“That’s a long story.”
“Dad?” I asked seriously.
His grin disappeared, “Never made it out of Bend. It was hell getting here.”
“I bet. Holy fuck man, I thought you were dead. I’ve got a lot to fill you in on. Why the hell didn’t you come back to the house?”
“Same goes for me. I uh… wanted to surprise you. And they needed me here, you weren’t going anywhere,” he said sheepishly.
“You’re a fucking idiot.”
“So you’ve told me. What happened to your arm?”
“Yeah, I’d like to know that too,” said Sarah, a fire in her eyes.
“It’s a uh… a paper cut,” She raised an eyebrow, “From a really big piece of paper,” I said trying to dampen her anger.
“James…” she said.
“It’s a scratch from when I fought George. I’m ok,” I said deciding to not to tell her about my leg just yet.
“Did you take care of George?” asked my brother.
“Two in the chest.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah except Adam and Luke are dead. So are Will and Annie and a bunch of others I didn’t recognize.”
“Bastards,” he shook his head, “I showed up halfway through the fighting. My team and I were out on a scavenger mission. I would have liked to be here when it started.”
“I’m just glad you’re alive.”
“Glad you didn’t get your ass beat too bad.”
“Listen…”
“Excuse me,” Sarah interrupted, “I hate to interrupt, but I think we have more important things to take care of.”
“Of course, but first, do you think you could snag me a bottle of water? I lost mine.” I asked her.
“Sure,” she said frowning.
“There’s some in my pack inside,” said Liz.
“Ok, I’ll be right back.”
As she headed inside, I quickly reached into my pack and pulled out some gauze. I pulled up my pants leg and hurriedly wrapped my bleeding calf.
“James what…” began Liz.
“It’s nothing. Not a word to Sarah,” I said glaring as I stood, “from either of you,” I pointed between my brother and Liz.
“No problem,” said Michael defensively raising his hands.
Liz looked like she wanted to argue but nodded and kept her mouth shut when Sarah got back. She tossed me the bottle of water “Thanks.” I drained half the bottle for show, capped it and put it away. “Let’s go. You going help us out?” I said turning to my brother.
“Lead the way.”
The four of us moved in a loose formation and headed towards the bonfire where I had sent Jason's group. I wanted to make sure that they had cleared the area of all threats and checked for wounded. I did my best to not limp while we searched, but the pain was starting to get to me, and my vision had started to darken. There’s no way I lost that much blood, I thought and I gritted my teeth and kept going. We found several bodies, dozens, but none were breathing. “Ok guys,” I said when we reached the tree line, “Let’s regroup and figure out what we’re going to do.”
“Shouldn’t we check the tree line?” asked Michael.
“We will, but I don’t want to do it in the dark. Now that the immediate threat of dying is taken care of we can search in the morning.” We walked, I limped, back to where we parked the trucks. The others were waiting for us, and they were a little jumpy. They all raised their guns and pointed them at us. “Don’t shoot, just us.”
“Sorry,” said Justin as he lowered his Carbine.
“Everyone besides Thomas ok?”
“Couple scratches from the woods, I think Hannah might have shrapnel in her cheek.”
“What?” I said walking quickly over to Hannah, ignoring the pain searing through my leg. “How’d this happen?” I asked as I inspected the left side of her face. There were several small, bleeding cuts and some of the skin looked singed.
“Someone was shooting at us. We dropped to the ground, and I felt something hot hit my face. I kind of ignored it at the time.”
“Think you can patch this up, Sarah?”
“Sure,” she said taking Hannah’s hand and leader her to one of the trucks where she would have more light.
“Just patch her up, we�
�ll take care of it when we get home.”
“Got it,” she said over her shoulder.
“Everyone else ok?” I asked again.
“Yeah we’re fine,” said Matt pointing at my leg, “but you don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re looking pretty pale, why don’t you just have Sarah…” he started.
“I’m fine,” I repeated, “And don’t you say anything about this to her,” I said gesturing with my head.
“Yeah, ok,” said Matt.
“Good. We’ll continue the search tomorrow. Let’s get back to the house, grab a few hours of sleep and let our wounded rest.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Justin.
We got back into our trucks, careful not to wake Thomas, and drove home. I looked at my watch and saw that it was nearly two-thirty in the morning. I yawned, which caused everyone else in my truck to do the same. Michael was in the front seat filling me in on everything that happened to him. It was, to say the least, an interesting story. I had a feeling that he was leaving something out but I decided not to press him, at least until later. No one had asked where Michael had come from and no one but Sarah and Liz knew who he was. I decided that I would tell them who he was as soon as we got home. Other than Michael telling his story the ride was made in near silence. There wasn’t a lot to talk about since I didn’t feel like talking about Luke and Adam’s death or the fight I had with George. I wasn’t looking forward to the blowout with Sarah when I did finally tell her. We turned into the driveway, and I turned to Michael, “Welcome home.”
“Good to be back,” he said squinting into the darkness. We parked, and he noticed the fence that surrounded the property. “Made some improvements did you?”
“Just a couple of things. Added a fence, created an armory, stockpiled food. Oh man, you should see your room,” I said grinning as I got out.
“What did you do to my room?”
“We kind of made it the guy’s dorm.”
“Oh come on. Wait, what did you do with my drums?”
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 9