by A. R. Shaw
Kent watched the old man nod like a chastised little boy as he walked away back the way he came.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to give candy to strangers?”
“That was take candy from strangers.”
Marvin chuckled. “Same difference. He’s probably going to sell his cans for drugs.”
“I’m afraid we’re beyond the luxury of drug addictions now, sadly. Full-on starvation.”
“Frankly, I’m surprised he’s still here.”
“What do you mean?”
“That old man and his wife have always lived here. We had to run off everyone else. Took everything they had. He just keeps hanging on.”
Kent’s stomach rolled. He shook his head and was about to say something when the gunfire across the bridge began again.
Marvin caught the look before the renewed worry. “Don’t concern yourself with our souls, Doc.” He shook his sweaty, pained face. “We didn’t like the job. We just did what we had to do. We let them go every chance we got. Warned them to leave. Some of them were smart enough. Some stayed out of sight and some wouldn’t listen. They paid with their lives, but you know…so did we.”
Kent cut his eyes at Marvin. He wanted to say, Like that makes a difference? But he remembered Marvin’s family and what he said earlier. How he knew they were likely dead already because of Tale’s rules. And…to top it off, here he was lying in misery, unable to walk. In the end, Kent had no rebuff. This life they now lived wasn’t fair. Instead he turned his attention to the horizon, where the light of the sun would soon come up, casting its rays against the reality of the day as it unfolded with no regard to suffering.
71
Sloane
Sloane found it difficult to keep up with the change in tactics from one second to the next. It was like an emotional roller coaster, only with bullets whizzing past.
Instead of heading back the way they came, they had to run like hell out in the open, down the main street, hopscotching from building to building again.
“What the hell’s going on? Did you hear that?” Chuck yelled.
“My ears are still ringing. What?” Sloane said back. And they were. Everyone was crouched down on the ground by then, huddled in a mass behind a cinder block building.
“That was a grenade. I’m pretty sure,” Sloane said.
Chuck nodded. “We’ve gotta keep moving. Come on.”
Her thoughts were now on Jason and the children he apparently recovered. He would not likely move very fast with them in tow.
The evergreen forest hedge was just beyond the street by then. Behind them came a Humvee, windows open, men with guns hanging out and charging fast in the direction they wanted to be. Sloane put her arm out, nearly clotheslining Boyd as she did, stopping everyone from exposing them.
“That’s Tale’s men,” Boyd said.
“Is he in there?”
Boyd shook his head. “I don’t know. I doubt it. Seems like he has others do his bidding for him. He’s good at that.”
“We have to get out of here,” Wren said.
“We are…without dying in the process. Let’s keep moving,” Sloane said, knowing that dying was a real possibility. Whoever that guy Davis was, he was causing a lot of problems.
Crossing the empty expanse, they continued to hear gunfire in the distance. It came closer at times and then receded.
“There’s got to be more than one person they’re after, or they’re really bad at this,” Chuck said.
“It does sound like there’s more than one battle going on,” Sloane said.
Finally, they edged nearer the evergreen barrier they’d skirted through before. Only this time, they weren’t the only ones taking cover shelter in the trees.
72
Davis
Outside, Davis heard gunfire erupt nearby. It reminded him of another time. He wasn’t sure who the hell they were firing at. Then it came to him. “The kid… Shit!” Davis said and took off at a run in the direction of the firefight.
“Wait! We have to get out of here,” Linda pleaded.
“You guys go without me. I got that kid into this. I owe him that.”
They yelled after him, but Davis paid no attention. He ran on, with his backpack and rifle in his hands, into the mayhem.
When he rounded the final corner, most of the guards had their backs to him. They were focused on an old coffee shop building, not much more than a shed now. There were too many of them. If Jason was in there, he didn’t stand a chance. Davis watched them for a second as he prepared one of the ordinances he had in his pack. He knew this was a risky move because all of their attention would refocus on him after this…that is, if he didn’t get them all in one fell swoop.
He saw one of the nearby soldiers raise his weapon and Davis drew the line of sight and saw movement in the building. Before the guard could fire, Davis lit the fuse and threw the ordinance in the center of the group of guards.
The explosion knocked him down backward. With a piercing ring in his hears, Davis sat up, weapon in hand, and shook his head. He could barely see in the dark smoke. But what he did see was one guard get up and aim at Jason through the haze. He had someone with him, a child perhaps, and he ran on.
Davis shot the guard aiming at Jason and the other two that attempted to move. The rest lay still as stone.
That was when, in the distance, he saw headlights. Davis knew what that meant. The Humvees were coming. Hell, he’d trained these guys and so far, they sucked without their leader. With Jason free and clear of the trap he was in, Davis set up a trap of his own for the Humvee. If he could take the vehicle, he could get to Tale before he fled across the big bridge. More than anything, Davis wanted to kill the man and anyone who stood in his way.
73
Ivan
“What do we do? He’s going to get himself killed.”
Ivan looked at her and shook his head. “Nothing we can do. He’s made up his mind. Come on, we have to get back to my place and get the kids.”
As soon as he saw the front door of his house, he knew something was wrong. “I told them to stay inside,” Ivan growled as he ran across the front lawn. Inside, the place was dark and dreary, not unlike Davis’s place. He ran through the house and searched each room. Nothing.
“Girl…where are you?” he shouted.
“Where could they have gone? Do they leave the house often?” Linda asked.
“No, never.”
“Oh no. Maybe it was the gunfire. They’re probably scared to death. Think, where would they go?”
He threw his hands up in the air. “Hell if I know, Linda. I’m not their parents. They were supposed to stay here. Damn kids.”
“It’s not their fault. Christ, it sounds like a war zone out here. You can’t blame them for being scared.”
“Now what?” Ivan yelled. “We can’t leave without them. The girl…”
“Elsa, you mean.”
“Yeah, she’d only go to you or me. That’s it.”
“Maybe she went back the infirmary. Damn…that’s where we hear most of the shooting now. Oh, Ivan.”
“Stay here…I’ll go look for them.”
“No. I’m coming with you.”
He stopped in his tracks. “I’ll come back for you. I can’t let you get hurt. Listen, just get out of here. Go across the bridge and wait for me. I’ll grab the kids and be there as soon as possible.”
She shook her head. The tight curls threatened to spring out from underneath her hat.
“I know you heard me the first time. No arguments. Go, Linda.”
She didn’t move at first.
“If something happens to me, I’ll tell them where to find you. Someone’s got to take care of them. It sure as hell won’t help them if you’re dead too. Wait for us there.”
“You sure know how to convince a girl.” She turned toward the bridge and began walking. Then she turned back and said as a warning, “Don’t take long.”
74
&nbs
p; Jason
They didn’t get very far before the guards spotted them. At first, Jason hoped they wouldn’t fire on him as he held the two children down. There was no music to turn to now. Though he couldn’t yell, in his chest he maintained a low, repetitive growl for all he was worth, as if that was going to help anything.
Apparently, firing on children wasn’t a problem for these guys. They didn’t seem to care. Jason and the girls made it clear to a little coffee shop stand that had seen better days.
Jason saw the evergreens ahead that Kent told him about. He said to keep heading southeast through a neighborhood. Follow the evergreen belt. It was right there, just a few streets away, but he was stuck in a shack of a building, crouched down with two scared little girls clinging to him as men shot at them, debris flinging from the blown-out glass and chunks of splintered wood showering down upon them.
We’re going to die. I’m going to die here finally, but these little girls, they don’t deserve this.
That’s what prompted Jason to partially stand. He waved his hand through the window and searched for a place to run. If he left the girls where they were, he could draw the gunfire away from them. That was the only way to save them. He settled them low in the corner behind the concrete foundation. It wasn’t much cover but that was all there was. He would have run away then, but the girls clung to him. Their little hands wrapped tightly around his arms. He couldn’t tell them, “Let go, stay where you are;” they wouldn’t understand. He had to break free and make a run for it, far enough to keep them out of the line of fire.
Just as he broke Elsa’s grip from his own and was about to do the same with the younger girl, suddenly the ground shook beneath his feet with an explosion, sending him toppling over the girls instead.
Two things happened very quickly then. Jason got to his feet after he realized all the soldiers were down. He had a fleeting chance at saving the children and he had to take it now. There was no time to think. He pulled the younger one into his arms and grabbed Elsa’s hand, and through the cover of smoke he ran for the tree line in hopes none of the soldiers survived long enough to shoot at them again, as the tune I Just Wanna Run by The Downtown Fiction played in his mind.
75
Sloane
What is it about a forest, even a small one, that draws humans into them in a time of crisis? Sloane wondered. After the death of her first husband, she often sought sanctuary there, hiking with her daughters then. It was where people hid things like fears, remorse, and the occasional body. The ones left out in the open were found too easily.
Here too, even with sporadic gunfire now, she saw faces of those who attempted to stay out of the line of fire. A woman and her young daughter, leaning into her lap, huddled behind a large pine. Sloane pointed her gun at the woman, warning her to stay back. The woman only stared, singing some unknown melodic tune while braiding her daughter’s dark brown hair down the center of her back. The pale glimmer of the child’s neck reminded her of Mae’s…back home. Safe.
Sloane waited for the rest of her crew to pass her while she held her aim at the mother. Then when they were safely beyond her, Sloane tilted her head in their direction. “Come with us.”
The mother never stopped singing. She shook her head and then turned her eyes back down to her daughter’s braid.
Sloane couldn’t understand the mother’s reasoning but realized they’d all learned to cope in different ways through the madness. She couldn’t save those not willing to be saved. In fact, she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to fit everyone in the boats as it was, with three more additions.
When she caught up to them, they were holed up, watching something ahead. “What? What do you see?” Sloane asked.
Chuck answered, “There a group around the old man’s body up ahead. The one we killed this morning…last night, I mean. Hell, whatever. I don’t even know what time it is.”
The light between the trees told Sloane it was early morning. And if the soldiers were on the bridge, they were going to be sitting ducks. They needed to move fast, if they wanted to get across without detection in the bright light of day.
“What are they doing? Have they discovered the boats?”
“No, the boats are still there. They’re carrying the body away. We suck. We murdered that guy.”
Wren looked back at them then, her eyes large pools. “I murdered that guy. And for what? We haven’t even found Jason.”
Just then Boyd put his hand up, shushing their conversation.
Sloane could not get forward to see what was happening. It was driving her crazy. As it was, she was stuck behind all of the others, even Chuck.
“What’s…” she began to say but then something touched her in the small of her back, where no one should have been.
She turned abruptly with a swing of her rifle, thinking the mother had changed her mind. But there stood Jason, staring at her with a smile as he held onto two little girls.
Sloane lowered her rifle immediately and stifled a cry, which caused Chuck to turn around.
“Well, I’ll be dammed,” Chuck whispered.
Then, as Sloane watched, Jason fixed his eyes on the back of Wren’s head. Her daughter was still watching the removal of the murdered man.
Jason handed off the smaller girl to Sloane and she watched him as the rest of the group parted for Jason to reach Wren.
He put his hand on the back of her shoulder. She turned around abruptly and burst into tears. Jason held Wren in his arms, comforting her.
Sloane watched this young man kiss her daughter on the top of her head.
“The coast is clear,” Boyd whispered back without knowing what was going on behind him.
Sloane held Elsa’s arm up as if to say, ‘Look what I found.’ The small crowd parted as Elsa recognized her brother, Boyd, and ran to him.
Boyd caught Elsa in his arms, nearly dropping his weapons, his eyes swimming in tears.
Chuck cleared his throat and then said, “All right, all right. Knock it off. We’re not out of here yet. Everyone grim up. We’ve still got a long way to go.”
Sloane still held the other little girl in her arms. There didn’t seem to be anyone for this lost child. It wouldn’t be the first time Sloane took in an orphan. She certainly wasn’t going to leave the child on her own. Though they’d achieved what they were after, there was still a part of the plan unsatisfied. She looked at this group, unbelievably happy, and yet the work was still unfinished. She had to get them safely back home.
“Is it clear?” she asked Chuck as she kept looking behind them.
“Yeah, let’s go,” he said.
The little girl in her arms reached out for a familiar person…she reached for Jason. He broke away from Wren for a second and held the girl. Then they made their way to the hidden boats.
“We’re still stopping at the bridge?” Chuck asked.
She nodded. “You are.”
The waves were choppy.
“We’re still not done,” Chuck said.
“I know. I’ll finish the job,” Sloane said.
Chuck began to protest.
She shook her head. “Not leaving this undone. Not a chance.”
She looked beyond Chuck as Jason handed the little girl to Wren, already sitting in the boat. Jason looked at Sloane then.
He nodded. He understood. He pushed the boat into the water as Boyd rowed them away. Wren’s face was horrified as she stared back at them, but she didn’t dare call out. Not now. She knew the risks.
Chuck left with the last boat. He still had work to do as well.
Sloane and Jason watched them sail out across the water.
“Kent,” Sloane said on the radio. “The boats are coming your way. They should be there soon.”
She heard the radio click then. She knew the pause meant he was processing her words.
“They?” he finally said.
Though they never really bothered with regular radio lingo, Sloane said, “Yes. I still have a
few things to do. I have Jason with me. Leave, get the rest out of here. Go home. We’ll catch up. Out.”
76
Davis
Twice, he dropped his gun. Either he’d lost too much blood or the adrenaline pumping through the highway of his veins was too much too soon. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten. It was no wonder, but those thoughts were nothing more than fleeting concerns at the present moment. He had to get the Humvee away from those idiots and to do that, he had to think ahead.
The headlights were coming fast. He knew where they were going. The bridge south. They knew he and the others would likely flee that way. That’s where Jason likely went, back the way they’d come. He had to stop the guards from making that impossible for anyone trying to flee from certain death.
He knelt, aimed and fired. It was a long shot. Those Humvees were built like tanks. He knew this but tried anyway. They’d spotted him and were now headed right for him.
That was when a blue pickup truck swerved in from the side.
“Get in,” Ivan yelled.
Davis jumped into the back of the bed and fired on the Humvee as it chased them to the bridge.
Just in front of the entrance, Ivan spun to the side, blocking the Humvee’s path.
Somewhere in his mind, he knew something wasn’t right. Davis and Ivan continuously fired at the vehicle barreling toward them, shooting out tires, breaking glass, mirrors…anything, but the damn thing kept coming. Then it suddenly stopped. And then it hit him.
They weren’t blocking the guards from the bridge.
The guards were trapping him and Ivan in.
“Ivan, get out. Run!”