Back then I was battle hardened by the ordeals of the six months leading up to my fight with Ragg. Now I was soft. I hadn’t needed to fight since; in fact, I hadn’t even practiced my moves since our first year in the Valley. Life had gotten in the way.
“Thanks for saving my ass back there,” I said to Luke, Paul, and Ben as we picked up our weapons.
They just nodded. Luke look lost, deep in thought.
A concerned Indigo and Brooke were waiting for us when we got back over the barricade. Indigo fell into my arms.
“Are you okay? What did you say to him? Are they going?”
“Not exactly.”
“What then? What made him attack you?”
“I challenged him to a fight to the death. If I win, the rest of them will leave.”
“No! You can’t, Isaac!” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “He’s a psycho.”
“What choice do I have?” I asked, my own voice cracking and not only from the bruising of my throat. I took her hand. “If I don’t try, we’ll all be slaughtered anyway.”
“Let me fight him,” said Luke.
Brooke, leaning against him, looked up sharply.
“No!” said Brooke and I at the same time.
“Why not? I’m as big as him and I’m fit and ready. No offence, dude, but you’re not as fighting fit as you used to be.”
His words stung a little and awakened a little defiance in me. I was well aware of my own shortcomings but didn’t like hearing them from someone else.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I just need you to lead the attack on them if this doesn’t go as planned.”
Brooke’s hand on his lowered arm seemed to decide the matter. He looked down at her and nodded.
“Fine, but don’t take any chances. Kill the fucker as soon as you get the chance.”
“I plan to. I need to go.”
“I’m coming this time,” said Indigo.
Try as I might, I couldn’t dissuade her. In the end, Brooke, Ben, Paul, and Luke followed me over the barricade and out into the middle of the road. When he spotted us, Ash sauntered forward with a smile on his face and similar number of men.
I pulled off my t-shirt as he got close and threw it to Indigo. While I wasn’t fat — no one was fat in the After Days — I wasn’t exactly well muscled. And truth be told, I felt a little inadequate as I faced him. When he stopped, he looked me up and down, then laughed, before looking over at Indigo.
“Really? You’re into him? I think you need some of this,” he said, and grabbed his crotch through his jeans.
“Fuck you, psycho. He’s ten times the man you are.”
Ash made an amused face and nodded.
“We’ll see,” he said, and opened his arms as he looked back at me.
“Ready? I want this over quick. Indigo and I have some business to take care of.”
“In a second. Have you given the order about turning back if I win?”
He rolled his eyes and turned to his men, cupping his hands around his mouth.
“If I happen to trip, bump my head and kill myself when I’m fighting this guy,” he called. “I want you all to turn around and head back home. Do not attack. Is that clear?”
There was a chorus of yes sirs and he turned back to me.
“Satisfied?” he asked, running his eyes over Indigo before settling on Brooke and licking his top lip suggestively. “You don’t need to bother giving your people any orders. I’ll take care of ... things ... myself, after you’re dead on the road.”
I glanced at Luke. Brooke had placed a restraining hand on him, but he wasn’t drawn in by the deliberate goading this time. He just nodded at me once.
“I’m satisfied. Let’s do this.”
Ash clapped his big hands together.
“All right! Some action at last.”
As the people around, us stepped back a few paces, Ash and I limbered up. My stomach was churning now, and I struggled to bring my nerves under control. I remembered the calming exercises of my martial arts training and closed my eyes. I pictured little Maxie’s smiling face as I inhaled and exhaled deeply. It worked to calm me. When I opened my eyes and raised my fists, Ash was standing with his arms crossed and tapping his foot on the road surface.
“Finally!”
His arms were by his side and he didn’t raise them as he clenched his fists and stalked towards me. I capitalized on his mistake. I didn’t retreat; instead I took two quick steps forward and jabbed him in the face twice before swinging a right cross at him. Even though he had lost valuable time having his arms lowered, he was able to raise his left arm in time to block my punch before reaching out to grab me. I was already gone though, retreating a safe distance as he regained his balance and wiped blood from under his nose.
I began to hope. He didn’t appear to have any basic martial arts knowledge. Hopefully it would make up for my lack of fight fitness.
“Not bad,” he said, trying to appear nonchalant and failing. He was a little shaken.
I didn’t say anything. Just circled him warily, a little more confident than I had been before my first flurry of blows. When he approached again, this time more slowly, he had his fists up. I let him come to me as I bounced on the balls of my feet.
It was my turn to be surprised. When he was within a yard of me, Ash suddenly lowered his shoulders and charged. I managed to get one punch in before his heavy tackle carried me backwards into the hard surface of the road. The shoulder he had driven into my chest winded me badly and as we crashed onto the road, his heavy weight on top of me, I fought to get air into my lungs.
I felt him struggling to get his hands free and knew if they found my throat again, I was done for. I clamped his right arm under my left and began raining blows upon his head with my free hand. They were hard blows with two purposes: one, to inflict as much damage as I could and two, to keep his left hand away from my throat by making him use it to defend against my attack.
His superior strength and position won out and after fending off one of my blows, his open hand came down hard upon my face with a heavy slap. The shot stunned me and gave him the opportunity to quickly club me again, this time with his fist.
I groaned and saw stars as he shuffled into a sitting position, pinning me to the roadway with his legs. I still held his right wrist under my arm, but my grip was loosening. He smiled a bloody smile, clearly believing he was close to victory, and clubbed the side of my face with the back of his hand. I barely had time to register the coppery taste of blood in my mouth when his hand found my throat and began to squeeze again.
I tried to fight back, but my weakening blows were awkward and ineffectual. Through the throbbing heartbeat in my ear, I could hear his men roaring in bloodlust and urging him to finish me, while the people on my side screamed in horror. As my strength faded, I was unable to keep his right hand constrained and he finally pulled it free.
I managed to take a truncated breath when he loosened his left hand to allow his right hand to join in the fun, and suddenly both hands were squeezing the life out of me. I stared up into his implacable blue eyes, resigned to my fate.
“ISAAC!”
Indigo’s plaintive shriek that cut through my fading consciousness and imbued me with one final burst of desperate energy. I ceased my weak punches and reached down and gripped his balls through his jeans. His hateful eyes widened and then with all my strength, I twisted viciously. There was a muffled, meaty snap, like a fishing line breaking, and the hands immediately left my throat.
His shriek of agony was impressive, and his hands released me instantly as he fell to his side nursing his crotch. I took deep breaths, sucking the oxygen back into my lungs in big gulps as I rolled away from him and began struggling to my feet. He was trying to stand as well but struggling worse than I was. He barely made it to his knees as I stood. I took two wobbly steps towards him and unleashed a kick which struck him on the side of the head.
He was a tough sonofabitch, I’ll give h
im that. He didn’t fall but reeled backwards before steadying and laboriously finishing his climb to his feet. I began to circle him, my fists raised. Once again, I felt I was in with an even chance.
I didn’t see his surreptitious hand signal. I was told about it later.
Someone bumped into me heavily, pushing me to the side so hard that I barely kept my feet. I turned. It was Brooke.
“Brooke? What are you doing?”
She smiled her beautiful smile at me.
“Someone was going to —”
Her eyes fluttered, and it was then I saw the small arrow protruding from her chest, just above her right breast, a bloom of red spreading like a horrible flower around it. I caught her as she began to fall, a scream of despair stuck in my throat.
“No!” wailed Luke, running over to us and dropping to his knees as I gently lowered his love to the ground.
She was still smiling as Luke put his arms around us.
“No, no, no, Brookey,” he said, crying. “What were you doing?”
“I love you Lu —” her sentence broke off with a wet, bloody cough.
Ben arrived, then Indigo, both crying, all of us trying to hold our broken friend Brooke as she closed her eyes.
Through blurred eyes, I saw Luke’s face change. His grief-stricken features morphed into something more akin to granite and it terrified me. He stood, his chilling gaze seeking out the murderer.
Perhaps not sensing his danger, Ash, his face pale, stood with hands on hips, smiling spitefully at our group. When he saw Luke stand up and seek him out, he addressed him scornfully.
“You can blame your boyfriend for that.”
With a guttural roar, unlike anything I had ever heard come from a human throat before or after, Luke rushed at the leader of the Marauders. Ash barely had time to raise his hands before my enraged friend crashed into him, carrying them both to the ground.
Ben took his sister from my arms and cradled her against his chest and my own arms sought Indigo. I held her tight, watching Luke over her shoulder.
With a strength borne of a grief and rage I couldn’t imagine, Luke wrestled with the powerful leader of the Marauders until he was sitting on the killer’s chest, pinning him to the ground.
Ash, finally realizing the danger he was in, called out desperately to his men.
“Shoot him!”
No one moved. Perhaps they were captivated by the battle, or more likely, hoping to see their bastard leader defeated.
Ash groaned when Luke’s fist landed twice in quick succession, his nose exploding in a gout of blood with the first blow, his mouth and teeth taking the brunt of the second.
The evil sonofabitch screamed another gargled order that none of his men responded to.
The third blow came not from Luke’s fist, but from his hook. Blood flew, and Ash screamed as he swung his head from side to side trying to evade the punishment, the flap of skin hanging from his cheek waving like a bloody flag of surrender
“No, pleathe, I’m thorry,” he gasped through broken teeth.
Fist again. Then hook. Fist. Hook. Luke pummeled the man who had hurt his love. The mother of his unborn child.
He continued even after Ash had stopped screaming. I extracted myself from Indigo’s arms and stood, walking over to him on wobbly legs.
Luke’s chest was heaving. With each blow, the Marauders’ pulped head swung heavily to the opposite side. Ash was dead, or as good as dead. I put my hand on Luke’s shoulder.
“It’s done, Luke. Stop.”
Luke stopped and looked down at the enemy. I reached out and grasped his arm, intending to help him up.
He shrugged off my hand and placed fingers against Ash’s throat. Before I could say anything, he removed them and swung his gory hook. It caught an inch to the right of the prone man’s Adam’s apple and ripped an obscene gash in the soft flesh. An impossibly high jet of arterial blood washed over both of us as Luke climbed to his feet.
He was a fearsome sight coated in the blood of our common enemy and I felt a flash of uncertainty as he stepped over the body and looked down at me.
“Now it’s done...”
He pushed past me and went to Brooke. Ben and Indigo were still cradling her and helped as he bent down and scooped her into his arms. Indigo looked at me as I walked over to her. She took my hand.
“Is she —?” I couldn’t finish the question.
“She’s still breathing. I have to go ... the baby ... there’s still a chance.”
“Yes. Go.”
I couldn’t watch her leave. One of the Marauders was approaching; I tensed. When he was closer, he looked down at his dead leader, his face expressionless and then looked at me.
“He told us to kill you all on the off chance you beat him. I already talked to the other generals. Of the four, only one wanted to carry out that order. That’s him on the ground back there.”
I followed the direction of his gesture and saw the body of a big guy on his back with a knife in his chest.
I nodded and turned, suddenly bone weary.
“Wait!” called the Marauders’ erstwhile general and ran around to face me. “Some of us are interested in joining forces. That is, if you’ll have us. The others will go back.”
“No,” I said, and walked past him.
The Marauders had been conditioned to kill. I didn’t see how they could be assimilated with us without endangering our own people.
“Please!”
I stopped and sized him up. He was a fresh-faced boy of about eighteen. I thought I could see the kid he had perhaps been, still in him.
“What’s your name?”
“Jarrod.”
“You know what? I believe in second chances. But there’s been a lot of damage done here today. Go home. Take all of your army with you. If you still feel the same way in three months, just before it begins to get really cold, come back and see me. Just you. Bring a list of names and I will talk to you about every person on that list. Be careful about who you put on it. If we let them in and they don’t assimilate, I will hold you personally responsible.”
“Yes, sir! Three months. Thank you.”
I didn’t wait to watch them go. I went after my people.
36
The next few hours were harrowing. Luke was a mess. Raging, kicking walls and breaking furniture one minute, then going back to the room and holding Brooke’s hand as he sobbed uncontrollably the next.
Jamal was our resident medico, but he’d only had first aid training as a kid in high school. Brooke’s wound was far beyond his capabilities and even when Indigo asked, he refused to try and remove the arrow in case it killed her.
The best he could do was monitor her. We had some rudimentary medical instruments and a few books, so he was at least able to monitor the baby’s heartbeat, and know it was fast, much faster than it should be. As the minutes and then hours ticked by, the sense of hopelessness became greater.
Luke never demanded they do more, on one level he was encouraging and comforting Brooke, whispering that he loved her and that she would be okay, but on another level his lack of interaction with Indigo and Jamal, seemed to indicate that he perhaps knew that the situation was hopeless.
Brooke died three hours after we took her into the hotel, having never regained consciousness.
Luke, Ben, and Indigo were with her when she passed and later, Indigo told me her breathing had become very ragged and finally just stopped. Pale but calm, Luke was holding her hand and seemed not to notice.
When Indigo broke the news to him, he simply nodded and kissed Brooke’s forehead, before getting up and heading to the door.
Jamal, I and the others were quietly talking and waiting outside when it opened. Jamal had come out for a break and to give us an update.
Luke’s face was like stone. He didn’t look at us or even back at Indigo when she called after him.
“Luke, we need to try and save —”
He was through the door at the end of
the hall before she could finish her sentence.
She looked at me helplessly and then became all business.
“Jamal, quick, we have to do a caesarean. Allie, you come help too.”
Jamal and Allie bustled through and I was about to follow Luke when a drawn looking Ben emerged, pulling the door closed. Tears were running down his cheeks and I felt myself choke up. I embraced him and felt his chest heaving against mind as he sobbed in mourning at the loss of his sister.
After a minute long embrace I led him to a chair and sent somebody for water.
“Where’s Luke?” he asked, after a while.
“I don’t know, he left when… you know.”
Ben nodded.
“Maybe I should go talk to him?” I suggested.
“I wouldn’t. Let him have time to process it..”
Ben was right. Luke needed this time alone and nothing I could say would make it better.
We sat down and, at least for my part, waited for the bad news. I held my head in my hands, trying to rationalize how things could have gone so badly. We had lost one of our family. One of our own, for nothing and now we were about to lose another before he or she was even born.
I knew the baby would die; we didn’t have the equipment or the expertise to save it.
The minutes ticked by and I prepared to console Indigo when she came out crying. In my mind I went over what I would say to try and persuade her it wasn’t their fault that the baby had died.
Finally, the door opened and a pale, blood streaked Indigo stepped through. Tears ran down her face and I stood up to comfort her.
That was when I registered a baby crying behind her and I realized her tears were not solely ones of sadness, but also joy. She smiled and stepped aside so I could see into the room as I walked up to her.
“It’s a girl,” Indigo whispered as she fell into my arms, crying in earnest now.
I held her, and looked on in wonder, as I too began to cry. Ben walked into the room, like a man in a dream and took his squirming, towel wrapped baby niece from Allie and began cooing softly to her as he rocked her back and forth.
Fight Like Hell [America Falls Series | Books 1-6] Page 67