by Dennis Elder
“Dam right nobody’s gonna get hurt unless it’s you,” said the man as shook the trigger switch while slowly backing up. “Yawl just get back on your bikes and keep moving.”
Most of Mark’s team had slowly gotten off their own bikes and were standing in a half circle around the man, with Mark out front. Jake slowly pulled his Bushmaster around off his shoulder and leveled the gun at the man’s waist. As he did the man panicked.
“Get the hell out of here or I swear to God almighty I’ll blow her up where she stands!” shouted the old man. “Then she won’t be no good for nothing!”
Mark sensed the man’s increased fear and turned his head back toward Jake and the others.
“Lower your weapons everyone. We have no fight with this man,” said Mark. Frank dropped his handgun to his side. Jake took his finger off his rifle’s trigger.
The woman on the end of the leash raised her head slightly and looked into Mark’s eyes. The fear was there. She was terrified and her face begged for help.
“Please,” whispered the woman. “Help me.”
The old man gave the leash a quick jerk. The woman took in a sharp breath.
“Quite woman!” shouted the man. “Nobody said you could talk.”
There was a pause in the air. The man’s eyes darted back and forth among the group. The woman’s head dropped back to the ground. Mark kept his hands up and away from his side arm.
“Seems like the woman might have a say in it,” offered Mark.
“She ain’t got no say in nothin!” barked the old man. “Like I said she’s been bought and paid for proper. She’s all mine.”
“Where you taking her?” asked Silvia.
Doc stood next to Silvia and immediately put his arm on her forearm and whispered, “Quiet, girl. Let Mark handle this.”
The old man’s head darted back and forth looking for the person who asked the last question.
“None of your business,” said the man. “Go on now. Get!”
“Where are you taking her?” asked Mark in his calmest voice.
“None of your business, like I said,” added the old man.
“We were just wondering. We have women of our own,” suggested Mark, as he pointed back over his shoulder at some of the young girls in his group.
The old man had been in a slight crouch ever since Mark first approached him. The suggestion that some of the girls in Mark’s group might be for sale seemed to calm him a little. He stood up slightly, as a huge toothless grin spread across his dirty and unshaven face.
“Well, hell,” began the man. “Why didn’t you just say so.”
The old man eyed the other young girls, as his smile grew just a bit wider.
“You headed up to the pass for the auction?” asked the man.
Mark’s mind shifted and he decided to play along to find out what the old man knew.
“We are,” said Mark.
“Plan on gettin top dollar for this one,” said the man. “She’s prime cut.”
“We just heard about the auction,” said Mark. “What can we expect?”
“Old man Rogers runs the auction. Just bring up the girls is all ya got to do. They hold um safe till auction time and you get half the sell. Simple Simon,” finished the man.
“Must be a lot of girls,” suggested Mark. “Lots of men too.”
“Ole Rogers has himself a good sized army alright. Guess that’s why they need women so bad,” added the old man.
“How they fixed for weapons?” asked Mark.
“Good nuff,” said the man. He was looking over the girls again and the smile was slowly slipping from his face. “Gotta watch out for the big gun he’s got at the top. Any trouble and its boom, boom, you’re done.”
The old man’s speech slowed as he realized something wasn’t just right. He nervously began squeezing the trigger device again.
“Hey, those girls is carryin guns,” questioned the man. “How you plannin on sellin um if theys armed?”
Mark didn’t have a quick answer. The silence was thick.
“You trying to trick me or somethin?” asked the man. “You’re not sellin those girls. Maybe you’re just trying to take mine,” continued the man as he jerked the leash again.
“We’re not trying to take your woman,” offered Mark as he stepped a little closer but keeping his hands open in a non-threatening gesture.
The old man backed up a step as he thrust out the triggering device toward Mark.
“Please,” whispered the woman.
The old man jerked the leash again.
“Shut up bitch! Did I say you could talk? Did I say you could say anything!” screamed the man. Spittle was flying out of his mouth and the veins on his neck were bulging.
“Were not…” Mark tried to say. But the old man cut him short.
“Shut up you!” screamed the man at Mark. “Just one more step and I’ll blow her up. I mean it!”
The silence was back again. Mark had been in this exact situation before. The trigger man or woman usually got to a point where they were beyond reason. Nothing you could say would calm them. You just had to back away.
“OK,” Mark offered, as he slowly motioned to the group to back up. “We’ll just back up and give you your space.
As the group complied one of the bikes crashed to the ground. The sudden sound drew everyone one’s attention and also startled the man so badly he pushed the red plunger on the trigger device. There was a muffled pop that came from the woman, and blood sprayed the group. Several were hit with a few drops to the face. The woman collapsed instantly and fell to the ground.
Everyone held their breath as they watched a pool of dark purple blood spread out from under her lifeless head. The next few seconds seemed like an eternity. The kids were all shocked at what happened.
The then old man threw down the trigger switch.
“Dam it!,” screamed the old man in frustration. “Now look at what you made me do. She was prime cut. It’s your fault she’d dead now. Your fault!”
Suddenly Gracie stepped forward and pointed her AR at the man’s head. “No,” began Gracie with cool delivery. “It was your fault.”
Gracie pulled the trigger and the hollow point 22 caliber hollow point bullet tore through the center of the man’s forehead and blew out a hole the size of small orange in the back of his head.
The man’s legs locked for a second, and he slowly began to fall backwards. But Gracie wasn’t done. She stepped forward again and shot three more bullets into the man’s head before he hit the ground.
Gracie stepped forward one more time and stood over the old man’s body with her gun still pointing at him.
“Your fault!” shouted Gracie. “You killed her!”
The group wasn’t sure what to do. There stood little Gracie holding her gun over the man as she defiantly shouted at his dead body. Gracie was the last one anyone expected to do that.
Slowly Gracie flipped her gun’s safety switch back on, shouldered her rifle and calmly turned back to the Mark and the group. There was a brief pause and then Gracie turned to Mark.
“Would be all right if we buried the woman,” suggested Gracie. “Seems like she deserved at least that.”
Mark had seen a lot of things in his military career. He’d seen young men freeze under fire. Some had gone AWOL. Other’s just snapped in combat and never really recovered. But he’d never seen anything like what shy little Gracie had just done, who just two days before swore she’d never be able to fire a gun, let alone kill somebody. He was speechless.
Doc sensed Mark’s hesitation.
“Maybe we should bury her, Mark,” suggested Doc. “Like Gracie said, it’s the least we could do.”
Mark took a breath and looked deep into Gracie’s eyes. The little girl had changed.
“Almost scary how cool under fire she appeared,” he thought to himself.
Mark quickly calculated the time of day against hoped for distance. They could do it.
�
�Of course,” said Mark. “Sam, grab the latrine shovel. Let’s take a break and make a grave for the woman.”
Sam turned to Mark.
“You wanna bury the guy too?” asked Sam. But Gracie never gave Mark a chance to reply.
“He stays where he lies,” said Gracie in a firm and even tone. “The HB’s can have him.”
Mark didn’t argue and waved off Sam’s question about the man.
It took about 30 minutes to dig the grave. Gracie fashioned a crude cross from a couple of broken pieces of wood. Boon was kind enough to say something nice about the woman.
Before they left the grave, Mark, Boon and Frank studied the map. They decided they’d ride until they got to the Kenwood Avenue off ramp. This appeared to be their last chance for good shelter before the steepest part of the Cajon pass climb began.
Five minutes later the group got back on their bikes in silence. They peddled for two more hours. After they found the exit they located two homes and spread out for the night.
Mark took Frank, Junior, Jake and Tyrone into a separate room where they talked privately for an hour. Guards were posted and everybody hit the sack. It had been a long hard day on the bike, and everyone needed some rest.
Gracie was the first one to fall asleep.
Chapter 55: Fat boy
Mary Smith, Pam LaValley and Leny Ralphs had just put the two remaining kids to bed. Over the last two days the other two children had died. They were scheduled for their life saving surgeries the day before the Gamma Burst hit. Because they never got those surgeries and since none of the life preserving hospital machines were working anymore, it was just a matter of time before the weaker of the four died.
The two surviving children were Cedric and Sally. Cedric was a ten year old boy who was recovering from vocal cord surgery. He was in pretty good shape after a week. Didn’t talk much yet, but man could that kid run. Little Sally was only six years old. Her surgery was more complicated. She’s had a deformed hip replacement and still required care. They buried the other two children out behind the Hospital’s utility shack at the very east end of the parking lot. They would rather have buried the children in the school playground next to Mary’s and Pam’s kids. But recent run ins with the walking people and the maniac, Chuck, had taught them all it was better to keep a low profile and stay out of sight. Chuck was the creep they’d run into in the Mr. Wiggly market seven days earlier.
Unfortunately, just the day before, Chuck and one of his buddies discovered the nurses’ hiding place in the hospital, while they were out scavenging.
The women had talked about leaving a few times but felt little Sally had a better chance of full recovery if they could keep her in the hospital for at least another week. After that, they would look for a different place to live.
Over the last three days the women and the kids started a daily ritual where they took in an hour of sun just outside the emergency entrance doors. They created a little space where the kids could play and the women could sit and talk. Staying the basement all day and night could make anyone a little stir crazy.
No one had noticed, but Chuck the creepo had nearly walked all the way up on them before Mary suddenly spotted him about 40 yards out. She jumped up, grabbed her AR-15, cocked it and leveled it at the head of Chuck.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, pretty lady,” said Chuck, as he raised his hands in mock surrender. “Stay cool.”
“Back away asshole,” said Mary. Pam and Leny were up now too and they had their own guns pointed at three other men who were standing about 15 yards behind Chuck. Cedric instinctively ran to Mary and stood behind her leg. He sensed something was wrong. Little Sally was lying in a lounge chair with her leg elevated. All she could do was turn toward the sound of Chuck’s voice.
“No need for violence,” said Chuck using his best peacemaking voice. “We just wanted to introduce ourselves.”
“I said back away or I’ll fire,” said Mary as she took two steps forward and leaned into the butt of her AR-15 in anticipation of the recoil.
But Chuck didn’t move back. Instead, he casually leaned against the nearby side fender of a parked Mercedes and smiled that same smile Mary saw when Chuck groped her in the market.
“Again, we’re just being neighborly,” said Chuck with his hands still raised in the air. “This here’s Matt, Luke and his brother Andrew.”
The women noticed the other men. They all carried a hand gun.
The three men raised their hands in halfhearted waves and attempted weak smiles. But Mary and the others saw these three for what they were.
Mary suddenly moved her rifle and sighted it on the front headlight of the Mercedes next to Chuck and pulled the trigger. The headlight exploded and Chuck jumped back a step.
“Ok, Ok,” said Chuck. “We’re not looking for any trouble here ladies. Just trying to be friendly.”
“Friendly like that day in the market?” accused Mary.
“That was a misunderstanding,” offered Chuck.
“Listen up fat boy and listen good,” said Mary, her gun now centered on Chuck’s chest.” You and your dick head friends are going hit the road, and I mean right now. And if I ever seen anyone of you guys again I’ll shoot first and laugh later. You got that?”
“Fat boy?” questioned Chuck. “There’s no need to be rude.”
That was it. Mary wasn’t getting through to this idiot so she lowered her weapon a bit and aimed at Chuck’s right foot. The round went a little low but the ricochet tore through Chuck’s tennis shoe and ripped up his big toe.
Chuck screamed out and went down like a sack of potatoes. Mary then waved Pam, Leny and the kids back toward the hospital. Leny slung her rifle and picked up Sally and sprinted for the open emergency door. Mary and Pam kept their rifles pointed at the men as they back up toward the door.
Chuck tried desperately to grab his bleeding foot. But he had difficulty reaching it with both hands because he was indeed a very fat boy.
“Help me you morons!” shouted Chuck through clenched teeth.
His associates came forward tentatively to pull him away. As they dragged Chuck backward, Chuck reached out a bloody hand and pointed it at Mary, who was still standing just inside the Emergency doors.
“I know where you live now bitch!” screamed Chuck, his true intentions now evident.
“It’s only a matter of time before you try to come out,” Chuck continued. “And when you do, we’ll be waiting and ready. And then you’ll get yours for sure.”
Two of the men continued to struggle to pick up and pull Chuck around the corner of the building and out of sight.
“You’ll be getting yours for sure!” screamed Chuck again.
Once the men finally disappeared, Mary pulled her rifle back inside the building. The women and kids were in the waiting area when Mary caught up to them.
“I’m going to an upstairs window to make sure they’ve left the area,” started Mary. “Take the kids downstairs to the safe place.”
Pam and Leny headed for the basement staircase. Mary ran up the other stairs for the next floor and quickly found herself up against the building’s east windows. She scanned the streets below for Chuck and his gang of thugs.
After a few seconds she spotted them a few blocks away. The men were trying to carry Chuck as best they could. After a minute she giggled when they dropped him on the pavement.
“Keystone cops,” whispered Mary with a smile on her face.
She kept an eye on the men until the disappeared into the distant streets. She waited another 30 minutes to make sure they didn’t come back. It was growing dark anyway. Five minutes later she was back downstairs in the sub-basement.
A couple hours later the kids were finally asleep, and the three women sat down in their regular chairs surrounding the battery powered lantern they picked up at the sporting goods store.
“What are we gonna do?” asked Leny.
Each woman had their AR-15s in their arms. They carried them everywhere t
hey went now.
“Those guys looked pretty scary to me,” suggested Pam.
“The guy I shot was the same one Leny knocked out with a can of Pork and beans when we visited the Mr. Wiggly market a week ago,” said Mary.
“No way,” said Leny. “Was that him? I could have sworn he was dead.”
“Yea I thought he was done too,” replied Mary. “But I bet at least he had a nasty headache when he woke up.”
“So, you knew that guy you shot?” asked Pam.