“Punched one right through his skull,” Charlie crowed.
“I used to shoot this with my dad every weekend,” Ed said, still staring at the bodies in disbelief.
“If I hadn’t stopped to put these gloves on, I would’ve been there to blast his head clearly off his shoulders,” Charlie said.
“I should’ve let you finish him off last night,” Alex whispered weakly.
Ed snapped out of it, kneeling next to Charlie to take a closer look at Alex’s wounds.
“We need to get you some help, buddy. I’m gonna load you up on a sled, and we’ll pull you over to that surgeon staying at the Carters’. You just hang in there. You’ve lost a little blood,” he said and dug his hands under Alex’s back.
Ed propped Alex’s torso up, applying direct pressure to the mangled shoulder. Alex winced and cried out. Charlie walked over to examine Todd’s body.
“Sorry, man. You’re bleeding, but not too badly. Nothing spurting. I just need to slow this down a little.”
“Make sure he’s dead,” Alex whispered again.
“Which one?” Ed asked.
“This guy’s definitely dead, but Todd’s still breathing. Barely. Want me to finish him off?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t care,” Ed said.
“No, leave him alone. We can’t orphan Jordan,” Alex said.
The garage door opened, and Kate spilled out, followed by Ryan. Both were still dressed in their pajamas. Ryan moved forward, pointing the AR-15 at Manson’s body and then shifting it to Todd’s. Kate ran up and grabbed Alex. Ryan followed her closely, standing vigilant guard with an empty rifle. Alex could see that the grisly, blood-splattered mosaic in the snow disturbed Ryan.
“Careful! Careful! Where’s Emmy?” he asked Kate.
“She’s hiding in the closet with Max. She’s fine. We need to get you to a hospital immediately. I’ll start up the car,” Kate said.
“I have a better idea,” Ed said. “Let’s get him over to the Carters’. The young couple there…the guy’s a surgical fellow, or something like that. Grab as much medical stuff as you can, and meet me over there. I’ll drag him over on one of your sleds.”
“I don’t know. I think we need to get him to an ER.”
“The hospitals are slammed with the flu. He needs attention now. This guy can do what needs to be done right now, Kate, he’ll sew Alex up fast, and pump him up with meds. We can take him later if we need to.”
“All right. We have a makeshift surgical kit that might work. I’ll grab everything and meet you there. The sleds are on the wall in the garage.”
“Charlie, get the medical kit from Kate and run it over to the Carters’ house. Let the surgeon know what happened, and that we’ll be there with Alex in ten or twenty minutes,” Ed said, taking charge.
“Got it,” Charlie said.
“You might want to leave that behind,” Ed said, glancing at Charlie’s rifle.
“Not while any of those guys over there are still alive.”
“How are you feeling, hon?” Kate asked, caressing his face.
“Like I’ve been shot. Are you sure Emmy’s okay?”
“She’s scared,” Kate admitted and stood up.
“Kate, have her dress up in her snow gear and head over to our house. Sam and the kids can take care of her while we’re dealing with this,” Ed said.
“All right. I’ll get her over there with Max,” she said and sprinted back to the house.
Charlie and Ed followed her, and Ryan turned toward the house.
“Ryan!” Alex called.
Ryan walked over to kneel next to him, still clutching the rifle. He looked pale and nauseous. He avoided looking at Alex’s shoulder and could barely look at Alex’s blood- spattered face.
“I love you, Dad. You’ll get fixed up quick,” he said.
“Darn right I will. Whose idea was it to use the rifle?” he asked.
“Mom’s, but she didn’t know how to work it. Sorry, I barely hit him. I just kept pulling the trigger. I didn’t want him to kill you, Daddy,” he said and broke down crying, leaning into Alex.
Alex grabbed Ryan with his right arm, grimacing through the pain. “You did great, buddy. Two hits was all it took,” he said and squeezed his son.
“I didn’t know how to reload it, Dad,” he said, sniffling into Alex’s good shoulder.
“You didn’t have to.”
Ryan hugged him harder.
“All right, all right already. You’re starting to dig into the shoulder,” he grunted.
“Sorry, Dad.” Ryan stood back up and picked up the rifle.
“Let me see that for a second,” Alex said to him. Pain shot through his entire left side as Ryan held the rifle out. Alex slowly moved his right arm and pointed to a button on the right side of the weapon, just forward of the trigger well. “Press this and the magazine slides out. Put another one in, and pull back…”
“On the handle,” Ryan said and placed his right hand on the charging handle.
“Right,” Alex whispered as a wave of nausea passed over him.
“I saw that in Modern Warfare. Just never saw the magazine release button,” Ryan said, managing a smile.
“I don’t think your mom’s gonna complain about that game anymore. Go help her out. I love you, buddy.”
“Love you too, Dad,” Ryan said and disappeared into the garage.
Just as Ryan vanished, Ed emerged from the doorway with a green sled. “This is the biggest one you have in there,” he said as he approached Alex. “Can you fit on this?”
“You calling me fat?”
“Oddly enough, you’re probably the fattest man on the block right now,” Ed said as he carefully lifted Alex and tried to slide him onto the sled.
“Aghhhh. Careful, man,” he said.
“Sorry. This might hurt a little.”
“Thanks for the warning. What about Todd?”
“You’re my only priority right now. He can wait,” Ed said, staring angrily at Todd’s motionless figure.
“He won’t make it if we don’t help him. Jordan’s home by herself. She’s gonna be really freaked out,” he mumbled.
“We’ll take care of her. Just stay with me, buddy.” Ed lifted him again.
A wave of heaviness dropped over Alex, and he tried to lift his head. His vision narrowed, and Alex vaguely remembered being lifted onto the green foam sled. Ed tugged hard on the sled’s towline jarring Alex back into consciousness.
They broke through a deep drift, and Alex lifted his head to see where they were. Ed struggled to pull his dead weight forward through the deep snow. His gaze settled on the back of Ed’s dark green jacket as he faded out again.
Chapter 43
Alex kicked his legs against the weight holding him down. His eyes struggled to focus, but all he could see was a shaky, blinding light above him.
“Hold his legs down,” someone yelled.
Something solid pushed against his legs.
“So much for that plan,” the same voice yelled.
“Alex? Alex? It’s Ed,” he heard.
A vaguely familiar man with a medical mask hovered over him.
“What are you doing?” muttered Alex.
“Alex, I’m Dr. Glassman, and I’m trying to remove the shotgun pellets from your wound.”
“Without anesthesia?” Alex asked lucidly.
“Sounds like he’s back,” said Kate.
Kate held his legs down on the makeshift operating table. Ed loomed above him again, pinning his right arm and chest down on a hard surface. A thin towel or shirt rested under his head. He was in someone’s formal dining room, but not his own, or Ed’s. A young, dark-haired woman stood next to Ed holding a bright flashlight.
“Alex, I can give you some Percocet for the pain, but it won’t kick in for a little while. I need to get you stitched up pretty quickly. You’ve lost a little more blood than I would have hoped.”
“How much would you have hoped for?” he asked.
“Ah…I don’t know what…”
“He’s messing with you, Ben,” Kate said.
“All right. Okay. He’s got a strange sense of humor,” Dr. Glassman whispered. “Okay, so we’ll give him the Percocet, and then I’ll start. Alex, this is going to hurt…I wish I had some anesthetic to give you. I have to dig the pellets out and close you up. Ten to fifteen minutes tops.”
“Sounds great. I’ll manage,” Alex said.
Alex stared straight at the chandelier, his vision fading with the hope of unconsciousness.
Kate appeared next to the doctor’s wife. She smiled and mouthed the words, “I love you.” He managed a smile and did the same, before resting his head on the table and closing his eyes.
“Alex, I’m going to start by digging around. If I can get it all out that way, then I won’t have to cut—”
“You’re not going to announce every move like that, are you?” Alex asked.
Hannah Glassman started to laugh.
“Thanks, honey,” Dr. Glassman said.
“You do like to talk everything through,” she said, laughing louder now.
“You don’t want me to tell you what’s coming?” he asked impatiently.
“Not really,” Alex said.
“Okay,” said the doctor.
Several seconds later, a focused, burning pain erupted in his upper chest, followed by darkness.
Chapter 44
Alex lounged on the leather, sectional couch in the great room, inhaling the warm, slightly aromatic spring breeze flowing through the open windows. The damp air carried a sound he hadn’t heard since last November: children playing. He wondered how long it would take for Ryan and Emily to hear it.
Moments later, feet pounded the stairs, followed by the sharp sound of Max’s claws on the hardwood. Both kids hit the foyer landing and rounded the corner, running into the room with Max.
“Mom, Dad, can we ride our bikes? All the Walker kids are out, a bunch of other kids too. Everyone’s out playing,” said Ryan excitedly.
Kate startled from a shallow sleep, sitting up on the other side of the couch. He still marveled at her recently discovered ability to function within seconds of waking. She had taken on the role of chief security officer at the Fletcher household, meeting the challenge well. Fortunately for everyone, Durham Road fell deathly quiet after the shootings. The remaining Mansons vanished, leaving deep tire tracks in the snow as the only evidence of their hasty nighttime departure.
“What’s going on out there?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.
“Everyone’s outside playing, even Chloe and Abigail,” Emily said.
“Daniel’s out, too, Dad. They’re riding bikes. Can you get the bikes out of the basement?” Ryan added.
“Hold on a minute.”
Alex winced as he pulled himself off the couch. His shoulder radiated a dull, painful ache, eliciting a muffled grunt. Even daily stretching did not improve the limited range of motion and constant pain in his shoulder.
Ben Glassman had done the best job he could with the limited resources on hand. The surgery wasn’t pretty, and Alex had three nasty scars to prove it, but thanks to Dr. Glassman, there had never been any doubt that Alex would survive the damage done by the shotgun blast.
“Can we go outside right now, Daddy? Please! Please!” Emily begged.
Kate answered without hesitation, “The CDC says it takes two weeks to build up a full immunity to the flu. For children it may be longer. We only have five more days…”
“I think they’ll be all right,” said Alex, purposely ignoring her glare.
“I don’t know. We’ve gone this far, this long. Another couple of days won’t kill them,” she said authoritatively.
“Aw, come on, Mom! Dad says it’s fine,” Ryan said.
“Take it easy, Ryan. Your mom’s right, plus a lot more than just the flu happened on this block. Things won’t be the same. We need to be cautious.”
“Everything’s pretty much back to normal. The stores are open, cable works, the flu is pretty much gone…”
“Everything is far from normal. The electricity fails daily, and they’re still rationing food at local distribution centers. We’re burning candles at night to conserve the generator’s power, if you haven’t noticed. Why don’t you guys head back upstairs and let your mother and I discuss it.”
“What is there to discuss?” Ryan countered angrily.
“There won’t be anything to discuss if you keep up your tone. Get upstairs. We’ll call you down when we’re done,” Alex said, on the verge of yelling.
“Can we play in the backyard with the Walkers while you guys talk?” Ryan asked, insistent.
“How is that going to work if everyone else is out playing? They can walk right into the yard?” Alex asked.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever going to just walk right into our yard, Dad,” Ryan said solemnly.
“Give us a couple minutes.”
“We promise we won’t go out front.”
“Just give your mom and me a few minutes to talk about it. All right?” he said again and glared at his son.
“Let’s go,” Emily said, tugging at Ryan’s arm.
“Five minutes and we’re coming back down,” Ryan said and started to walk away.
“You’ll come down when summoned,” Alex said in an outrageous Monty Python-like British accent, hoping to cut some of the tension.
“All right, all right. No more. We’ll go,” said Ryan.
Both kids stomped up the stairs. He waited until their footsteps hit the soft carpet upstairs.
“They’re going crazy,” he said, walking over to the front windows.
“I know. Do you really think it’s all right for them to be out in the neighborhood?”
“Damn, the Walker kids are out in front. Getting ready for a bike ride, too. Are you still worried about the flu?” he said.
He didn’t see Ed or Sam.
“Not really. Not at this point. I’m way more nervous about the neighborhood. I don’t think a few months are long enough to recover,” she said and got up to join him at the window.
“I don’t think it’ll ever be the same, or anywhere even close to the way it was before. We all turned on each other in some way,” he said.
“Don’t start the guilt trip again, honey. It doesn’t do us any good. We did what we did, and kept our family safe—helped plenty of others along the way. We just couldn’t help them all.”
“I know,” he whispered.
He looked across the street and saw Derek and Ellen Sheppard playing in their backyard with their three boys. They passed a soccer ball back and forth. Derek lightly kicked the ball to their five-year-old son, Gavin, who reached his foot out to tap the ball, but missed. Instead of chasing the ball, he stood slightly slumped, feet fixed to the ground.
From this distance Alex couldn’t see the portable oxygen tank and nose tube that Gavin would be forced to wear for the rest of his shortened lifespan. The flu had devastated his pulmonary alveoli, reducing his lungs’ capacity to transfer oxygen efficiently to his bloodstream. Derek mentioned that Gavin couldn’t live with the tank forever, and Alex hadn’t asked any more questions.
“Is that Gavin out with them?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Alex said.
She put her hand on his shoulder. “They’re lucky they get to spend this extra time with him. That’s how they look at it, and I think they’re right.”
“I know. It still makes me feel bad. I don’t know what to say when I see them,” he said.
“You don’t have to say anything. They don’t expect it,” she said, turning her attention down the street. “Jamie’s girls are heading across to the Walkers. I guess I feel all right about sending them out—as long as they stay on our side of the loop. I don’t want them riding out of sight. Maybe the bikes can wait,” she said.
“Sounds like a reasonable compromise. Want to call down the troops?” he asked.
The kid
s suddenly descended the stairs.
“Wait up, Ryan!” Emily squeaked.
Ryan hit the landing and raced toward the front door.
“Hold on!” Alex said. “You understand the restrictions, right?”
“No bike riding. No going on the other side of the block,” Ryan said.
Emily eagerly joined Ryan on the landing, nodding her head in agreement.
“No going out of our sight,” Kate added.
“All right. No going out of sight of the house,” Ryan confirmed.
“Negative! You stay in our sight at all times. That’s where we start. Got it?” Alex asked.
“Got it. We promise. Let’s go,” Ryan said impatiently, flying out the storm door onto the front granite stoop.
The door flew back and almost knocked over Emily, who chased after him yelling.
“Beer?” Alex offered.
“Sure.”
He headed to the refrigerator and retrieved two pale ales, twisted open the caps, and walked to the front door.
“I’m gonna relax on the front stoop.”
“And spy on the kids?” she asked, taking one of the beers.
“Of course,” he replied.
Alex and Kate sat down on the cool granite, of their front porch, seeing signs of life everywhere. He looked up at the clear sky and saw one contrail heading south. One month ago, the skies were empty. Kate caught his eye.
“It’d be a lot easier on your parents if they would just fly over with your brother’s kids,” she said.
“My dad hates flying. He only flies to warmer weather, plus, the seats were like three grand a pop. They need the SUV to fit all of the kids’ stuff anyway,” he said.
“We could’ve sent them the money and shipped all their stuff. It’s a long drive out.”
“I offered. They’ll be fine. They’re leaving tomorrow. Probably take them five or six days, tops. It’s perfectly safe,” he said.
“I know. It’s just a long trip for the kids. It’ll be nice having them here.”
“It’s going to be a major adjustment,” he said.
“It won’t be that bad. The kids really get along.”
“They did as cousins, but as brothers and sisters, all bets are off,” he said.
THE ALEX FLETCHER BOXSET: Books 1-5 Page 36