What, though? And more importantly, where?
✽✽✽
Nick pounded down the lane between tents towards his people's camping area, Tallie in his arms and Larry, Liza, Val, and Charlie close behind him.
His daughter's face was buried in his shoulder with her arms clutching him tight around his neck, and he rubbed her back soothingly as she whimpered in fright. He wanted to murmur comfortingly as well, but he didn't have time.
“What's going on here?” he shouted back at the prisoners. “I thought you said Jay wouldn't hit the quarantine camp.”
Larry caught up to run beside him, expression angry and ashamed. “I don't know! In all our plans we were pretty clear about leaving you alone, in case we could sway you onto our side. Jay never even mentioned anything like this.” He paused, then continued bitterly. “Then again, he never mentioned sniping your Mayor, either.”
“Maybe it's desperation,” Liza suggested, looking grimly towards the continuing sounds of gunfire. “He's mostly just got the people he recruited from the camp and the surrounding area. Thirty-five people at most. And a lot of them were probably thinking of deserting themselves after we left, since we were his closest supporters.”
“Yeah, he could be trying to score a big win to solidify his leadership,” Larry said, looking even more unhappy about that idea. “Especially since we were the main voice of reason keeping him from more extreme measures before we left.”
“So with you out of the picture he's gone full murderer mode and decided to attack a bunch of refugees?” Charlie demanded, warily eyeing the earth berm up ahead, as if he expected Jay's thugs to swarm over it at any moment. “You guys really know how to pick your leaders.”
The big man flushed. “He wasn't like this at the beginning. It was only when he saw what you did to our . . .” He trailed off, as if realizing that rehashing the topic right now was counterproductive.
Nick had to agree. “It doesn't matter why he's attacking, just that he is,” he snapped. “Let's gather everyone we can and find good positions where we can defend-”
Larry stumbled and gave an odd, strangled sort of grunt, staring down at his chest in bafflement. Nick skidded to a halt and joined everyone else staring at the man, realizing with a surreal sort of horror that there was a large hole in Larry's side just below the rib cage, blood pouring out to soak his shirt.
The crack of a rifle coming from somewhere east of him jolted him out of his shock, even as the big man slumped to the ground with a strangled cry.
“Get behind cover!” Nick yelled at the shocked people around him, shoving Tallie into Val's arms and pushing them both towards a pile of felled logs waiting to be cut into firewood.
This was obviously Jay. Nick could understand the man going after Larry after he and Liza deserted, but Nick also knew he was almost as high up on the bald psycho's list of targets, and he didn't want his daughter anywhere near him when the bullets were flying.
Besides, there was another consideration.
As Val joined the others bolting to safety, clutching a screaming Tallie protectively to her chest, Nick dropped to grab Larry under one arm, helping Liza drag the big man towards safety behind a stack of bins full of grains and beans.
He expected a second shot to hit him any second, was braced for it, but he couldn't leave the wounded man to bleed out or take another bullet.
“The shots are coming from the trees east of here!” a panicked voice shouted over his radio. “He must be up in a tree so he can shoot over the berm!”
A familiar voice responded. “Me and Ben are going out to chase him down,” Chet said, voice harsh. “Anyone who's got a gun, back us up.”
More distant shots rang out, kicking up dirt between Nick's feet, and he fell over backwards as he yanked Larry's massive bulk the last of the way behind the bins. Scrambling back to his knees, he turned the man onto his uninjured side to check the wound as Liza hovered over his shoulder, the poor woman sucking in sobbing breaths of grief and panic.
It looked bad, with a big entry wound and an even bigger exit wound, both bleeding heavily and caked with dirt. He yanked off his light jacket and wadded it up with the inner lining facing outward, then pressed it against the wound as best he could.
With his other hand he lifted his radio. “Ms. Griegs, we need you about twenty yards west of the scavengers' area. We've got a man with a bullet wound in his side.”
In the confusion he had to shout it again before he got an answer from the nurse. “We've also got a nutcase shooting into our camp,” she snapped. “I'm not going anywhere until you deal with him.”
Nick exchanged a frustrated look with Liza. “Go!” she snapped, grabbing his jacket from him and doing her best to staunch Larry's wounds. “I'll take care of him, you go stop Jay!”
Nick nodded and handed her his radio so she could keep in touch with Griegs, then bolted out from behind the bins in the opposite direction from the one he'd come, darting between tents towards his own tent.
Charlie caught up to him quickly, radio in hand and expression grim. “Tallie?” Nick demanded.
“Val's still hiding with her behind the logs,” his friend assured him. “They'll stay put until things settle down.”
That was probably the best he could hope for, although part of him felt awful about running the other way, even though he knew that was irrational since as a target he'd just be putting her in danger. Besides, the best way to keep his daughter safe was to stop Jay; he'd just have to trust that Val would protect her.
Speaking of the bald maniac, in Charlie's hand the radio abruptly crackled with Jay's long-absent voice, briefly interrupting the hubbub on the airwaves. “You brought this on yourself, Larry!” the man screamed, sounding even more unhinged than usual; he almost sounded like he was crying as he continued. “You chose to side with the people who smashed your family photo, and left the broken shards all over the carpet our children played together on!”
“And that's worth shooting your best friend over?” Liza's furious voice shouted back in a screech of feedback.
“Shut your whore mouth, Coates!” Jay snarled. “His wife is barely weeks in her grave, and you're already shacking up with him?”
There was a brief pause, and when Liza answered guilt had joined grief and fury in her tone. “That's not what's happening! He's my just friend, and the only other person with the stones to stand up to your insanity!”
Nick was about to snatch the radio from Charlie's hands and tell Liza to stop wasting her time, but then he realized that she was doing them all a favor by distracting Jay; the regular crack of the high caliber rifle in the east had become far more sporadic as the bald murderer focused on ranting at her.
That was an opportunity they should take advantage of. Motioning to Charlie, he sped up and began taking more risks darting from cover to cover. In less than a minute, without ever feeling like a bullet had come anywhere close to him, he reached his group's area.
Half a dozen of Denny's fighters were gathered there, even though he'd told them to go to the sentry post. Nick couldn't complain as he rushed to belt his pistol around his waist and sling his rifle over his shoulder.
Then he turned to the others. “Chet and Ben are already out there looking for Jay, and Liza's keeping him occupied arguing with her,” he said. “We'll take the eastern opening in the berm and rush straight for the trees, then spread out and join the search.”
The other fighters nodded, pale and grim. None of them were trained soldiers, and most of them had probably never been shot at before, let alone fired a gun at someone else. But they were here, ready to risk their lives to protect their loved ones. The sight of them bolstered Nick's own resolve.
Turning, he sprinted for the eastern opening with the others close on his heels.
✽✽✽
Ellie flinched, flesh crawling in horror, as an agonized scream from the direction of their attackers reached her ears over the sound of gunfire. It went on for a few seconds
before cutting off.
This was a nightmare. She wished she wasn't here, wasn't doing this; how could the people with Jay want to pursue this fight, to face this sort of danger and harm other people? Why couldn't they just leave and not come back, get on with their lives and stop this madness?
At her side Hal had also stopped his methodical firing, looking a bit sick. But the sound of gunfire from the attackers hadn't stopped even after one of their own was injured, so he clenched his jaw and sighted through the scope again, squeezing off another shot.
Ellie grit her teeth and lowered her head to focus back down her rifle's shaking sights, trying to find a target. She was so focused that she almost missed a flash of motion out of the corner of her eye, not far from the barricade. She probably wouldn't have seen it at all if not for the flicker of fire that accompanied it.
Jerking her head in that direction almost hard enough to get whiplash, she spotted a couple of men popping out of hiding to her right, within a stone's throw of the barricade.
Although they weren't holding stones; to her horror she saw that they were carrying lit Molotov cocktails, preparing to hurl them towards the makeshift wall of mostly flammable materials.
They were going to burn down the barricade, leaving the town vulnerable to attack. Even worse, since in many places the barricades incorporated the backs or sides of houses the fires would burn those down too. And the flames could potentially threaten half the town if they spread, like what had happened in Wensbrook.
“Hal!” she screamed, pointing.
Her husband had already noticed it and pivoted, stepping up to her side so he could snap off a shot past her. Ellie would've thought it was impossible for him to hit anything with such hasty shooting, but one of the arsonists cried out and staggered, the firebomb dropping from his hand to fall at his feet.
At which point things got very bad for him and his buddy.
The Molotov shattered in a spray of burning liquid, splashing over the legs of the two would-be arsonists. They both screamed horribly and his buddy dropped his own firebomb, further engulfing them in flames as they leapt desperately out of the growing fireball.
Ellie watched the scene with a sort of sick horror as one rolled on the ground and batted at the flames, his screams enough to fuel a lifetime of nightmares. The other seemed to be in a full panic, making no attempt to put out the flames covering half his body as he staggered away in a random direction.
Perhaps it was justice that those people were meeting the fate they would've happily condemned so many innocent people to, but she wouldn't have wished that on anyone.
At her side Hal had snatched up his radio and jammed it to his mouth. “Jay's people are along the barricades with Molotovs!” he screamed into it, drowning out what sounded like a shouting match between Jay and a furious woman; Liza, maybe?
Hal was about to say more, then he abruptly cursed and dropped the radio to free his hand so he could lift his hunting rifle again, fumbling to pull the trigger. He cursed again when he realized the chamber was empty, and as he frantically worked the bolt Ellie followed his gaze to see another pair with Molotovs popping up farther west, closer to the southwest corner of the barricade.
“Here!” she snapped, yanking his rifle out of his hands and shoving her AR-15 at him.
He gratefully snatched it up and turned, lifting it and popping off half a dozen shots at the arsonists in less than two seconds. He barely seemed to be aiming, and it took her a second to realize he was just trying to spook them and make them duck for cover before they could throw their deadly projectiles.
He failed: both men had already raised their firebombs, and even as she watched in horror they flung them, one towards the southwest corner and the other towards a spot on the barricades twenty feet closer to her and Hal.
Both hit with a roar of explosion and licking flames, tearing cries of alarm from the throats of a dozen people along the south and east barricades. Along with screams from a woman who'd been in the southwest sentry post. She leapt from the barricade onto the ground below, rolling and frantically slapping at her burning arm and leg.
Ellie crouched for the radio so she could call for firefighters to put out the flames like they'd drilled for, as well as a doctor to help that poor woman. But someone else beat her to the punch, yelling into the radio so loudly that every other word came in a burst of feedback. It took her a second to realize he wasn't talking about their fires at all, but flames along the northern barricade.
She raised the radio and added her own voice to the confusion. “We also need firefighters at the southwest corner!” she yelled, trying to get a word in edgewise. “And a doctor! And would somebody please shoot the maniacs throwing firebombs at our walls?”
✽✽✽
Nick was halfway between the berm and the forest ahead, bolting for safety among the trees, when nearby Charlie's exploded with shouted warnings, then screams and cries for help in at least two places.
Those screams were loud enough he heard them in the distance as well, the loudest coming from the barricade a few hundred yards to his left. He also caught a lurid orange glow out of the corner of his eye, visible even in daylight, and stumbled as he looked that way and saw the barricade on fire in at least three different places along the east and southeast barricades.
He cursed, starting to turn that way, but the sharp crack of gunfire from the trees ahead reminded him that he was being an idiot, and he weaved desperately as he scrambled the final twenty or so yards to safety.
At one point he could've sworn a bullet passed close enough he could feel the wind of its passage, but somehow in spite of his moment of hesitation he wasn't hit.
Trust Jay to plan a three-pronged attack that completely hid his real objective. First he'd drawn all eyes to the main camp by having his Zolos-immune dupes attack there. Then he'd pinned down Denny's Zolos survivors who hadn't gone to help with that attack by sniping at the survivors' camp, also drawing more of Denny's patrols away from Stanberry to deal with him.
All so his people could try to burn down the barricade, and possibly the rest of Stanberry as well.
Charlie had reached the trees by now, but Nick still heard Ben's voice back to him over his friend's radio, the young man struggling to be heard amidst the screams and cries for help. “Jay's running! He's down from his sniper's perch in the tree and making his getaway.” Between Ben's shouts Nick heard a succession of crashing sounds as the young man rushed in pursuit.
“Go!” Nick yelled, waving his people on as he ran the last few feet to the nearest tree. “Fan out! Don't let him get away this time!”
He caught up to and passed Charlie as they crashed through the underbrush, clutching his rifle ready. Jay running meant Jay not shooting at them, and he wanted to keep it that way by pursuing him hard.
Maybe it was careless, but he was seeing things through a red haze at the moment.
Jay had shot a man not three feet from Tallie. He could've hit her. Everything the man had done, all the suffering he'd caused, and now this . . .
He wasn't getting away this time.
From the cracking of branches and pounding of footfalls around Nick, he had a feeling his scavengers felt the same. They raced through the trees, eyes darting through the branches searching for any sign of movement.
He could still hear crashes from up ahead, along with Chet's and Ben's voices directing them in which way Jay was going, now close enough to be audible without a radio. That stopped abruptly when more gunshots rang out from up ahead, joined by cries from Ben. Alarmed cries, although thankfully with no hint of pain.
Then there was just the crashing sounds.
Nick regained his senses and began darting from cover to cover, although he didn't let himself slow down. If Jay was shooting at his friends they needed help, and the best help was surrounding the bald maniac so he had nowhere to hide to take potshots at them.
Things were a bit quieter after that. Nick heard rustles and the snap of branches
and sticks behind him, although he was steadily increasing his lead on the rest of his group, and the crashing sounds from up ahead were getting closer and closer as he closed the gap.
Nick could've sworn Jay and the brothers were only twenty or so feet ahead when there was abruptly a sharp cry of surprise and pain. Then silence.
He slowed even more, raising his rifle and thumbing off the safety. He darted from cover towards two closely growing trees up ahead, waited a moment while he searched for a new source of cover farther on, then bolted towards a fallen log.
He nearly jumped out of his skin at a sharp “hsst” from up ahead, dropping flat on his belly in a panic. Then he spotted Chet waving at him frantically from behind a tree about ten feet ahead and to the right. The young man mouthed “he's here” and pointed further along, the nervous eagerness in his expression offset by what almost looked like confusion.
Nick rose to a crouch and cautiously moved forward to join Chet behind the tree, holding his rifle tensely, ready to take aim. Then he paused, frowning in his own confusion as he realized what had thrown his friend for a loop.
Jay was on his hands and knees in the middle of a clearing up ahead, head hanging in what looked like defeat. His rifle, a sleek black behemoth with a high end scope, was sitting on the ground several feet away.
Almost as if he'd tripped and lost the weapon as he fell headlong, then hadn't had the strength or willpower to get back up.
Nick motioned for Chet to keep his weapon on the man, at least he hoped that's the message he was getting across, then slung his own rifle and drew his pistol to point between Jay's shoulder blades. He cautiously stepped out from behind the tree, moving forward at an angle to give his friend a clear shot.
“We've got you surrounded, Jay!” he called sharply. “Just stay where you are until I come slap handcuffs on you.” Actually they were zip ties, since Denny had given all his fighters a few to use for just this purpose, but those were basically the same.
Isolation | Book 4 | Holding On Page 18