by H. D. Gordon
He thought about his dream while he was in the shower, but amazingly, the only thing he could recall about it was the raven. The raven had chased him from dream to dream, and he could still see its grinning face when he closed his eyes. It gave him a sense of foreboding that he was only able to vanquish in the warm light of day.
At ten-thirty a.m. he was dressed and heading to the deli around the corner to pick up some fresh meat and bread. By eleven-thirty he had his picnic basket from the day before filled with new sandwiches and chips and sodas, and was in his car heading down Highway 71 toward UMMS.
No classes, she had said. She hadn’t said anything about staying away from the school. Perhaps she should have been more specific, because Michael had about a million questions he wanted her to answer, and maybe she wouldn’t object to a nice lunch in the Quad again. Maybe she wouldn’t object to some subtle questions, either. Michael would back off if he felt like he was scaring her away, but he had to at least try. Most students spent the lunch hour out in the Quad on a nice day like this, and he just bet he would find her there.
He couldn’t wait.
***
Wyatt Earp: What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?”
Doc Holliday: A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.
Wyatt Earp: What does he need?
Doc Holliday: Revenge.
Wyatt Earp: For what?
Doc Holliday: Bein’ born.
Excerpt from Tombstone, 1993
Chapter Fifty-Two
The Decider
He’d been unable to help himself from walking by the locations where he had placed his bombs. The walkie-talkie, which would hopefully detonate them when he pushed down the “talk” button, was in the right side pocket of his black cargo pants. He would wait until the very last moment, just when the pigs were bearing down on him, to press it, and he would watch with his last breaths as the four buildings surrounding the Quad gave him a standing ovation in smoke and fire and booms and screams. He checked the watch on his wrist. The time read eleven fifty-two.
He entered the Quad from the same place where he had entered yesterday, underneath the stone archway next to Blue, his stride confident and his hands stuffed in the pockets of the black jacket he wore, gripped around the handles of the .45 and the 9mm. A few people were already filing out of the four buildings around him, and he got the almost undeniable urge to remove his pistols from his pockets and start the fun early. But he was nothing if not patient. He had waited this long, and he could wait eight more minutes so the Quad could fill up completely. The sheep, beginning to multiply in front of him, made his chest grow light with excitement and anticipation. It was a great feeling, a feeling that gave him the sensation of walking on air, a feeling that…
Chapter Fifty-Three
Joe
…was unmistakable and familiar and horrible, a feeling that I associated with fires and screams and little Emily being led out by the Stranger at the daycare so long ago. It was coming. The Shadowman was coming. I could feel it in my gut and my bones. In my head, my better judgment was screaming at me to Run! Run! Run! There’s a train coming, you fool, and you’re standing right in the middle of the tracks! Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here NOW!
And save myself, but I could not. I could not run away and leave the wolf to devour all the sheep.
I stood from where I was seated underneath the old oak tree on its little hill, my eyes darting all around me, my legs surprisingly steady beneath me. As I did this, my right hand went to my green jacket pocket, and my fingers found the cold steel that waited there. My pointer finger flicked off the safety on the gun. I gripped it in my sweaty hand.
Now move, soldier! That’s an order!
As I made my way over to the jaguar statue that sat on its tall concrete platform, I looked over toward Blue, toward the stone archway through which my suspected Shadowman had eluded me the day before, but I could spot no one who looked suspicious. I reached the jaguar and hunkered down on my haunches. It was hard to breathe. My heart was galloping wildly and the heat of the sun seemed to be baking me from above. That feeling in my gut grew stronger and stronger…
Chapter Fifty-Four
The Decider
…and stronger, until he was just about shaking with need. Around him, students were spilling out of the buildings in clumps and clusters, taking up spots on benches and smoking cigarettes and pulling out lunches and chatting pleasantly away with one another. Oh, how he hated all of them. Ahead he could see the statue of that stupid fucking jaguar, and no raven perched on its head. Ha! That fucking bird had grinned and acted mighty big in his dream, and now the yellow-belly sonofabitch hadn’t even bothered to show up.
Meet me at high noon, or get the fuck outta town, the Decider thought, and this made a grin stretch across his own face. I guess that bird flew the fuck outta town! Ha! I guess it knew what was good for it.
And that was just dandy, because by the looks of it, everyone else had shown up, just as he had known they would. The noise in the Quad was growing louder and louder as more and more people piled into the box created by the stone buildings. All of them, with their fucking routine and boring and worthless lives, had decided to…
Chapter Fifty-Five
Merion
…take her lunch outside this afternoon. It was such a lovely day, and she took every chance she could get to escape the stone walls of the school buildings. She decided to sit on a bench that stood under the shade of a large maple tree, and removed a tuna sandwich from her lunch bag. The Quad was filling up with students who had time in between classes to come out and enjoy the day as well. Merion watched them all for moment, thinking about how she had been so young once, so full of hopes and dreams. She envied their ignorance, and their belief that youth would last forever. So much time, they had. They had no idea how quickly that time would go by. They had no idea how quickly they would find themselves stuck in some boring job they hated, with beer-bellies and bald spots and wrinkles adorning their faces. They had no idea how…
Chapter Fifty-Six
Joe
…fast everything was about to happen. Later, I would realize that the whole thing had only lasted about thirty seconds, and I would come to learn that time is truly just a relative thing. So much happened in that thirty seconds it may as well have been an entire lifetime. I suppose that in those rare moments where you can remember every single agonizing detail, time feels no need to follow rules.
I remained in my crouched position, but I peeked over the stone platform on which the jaguar stood. My right hand was shoved deep in my pocket, wrapped around the iron concealed there. I scanned the walkway that led up to Blue, and my heart stopped as I saw a man in all black heading my way. There was nothing special about him, and even though there were now plenty of students lining the walkway and impairing my vision, I knew in my gut this was him. The Shadowman…
Chapter Fifty-Seven
The Decider
…was almost there. Just a few more…
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Claire
…hours until all of this was over. All of her pain and her heartache would finally be put to rest. Even the sun, shining warmly and pleasantly on her skin could not offer any light into her mind. Claire fished the bottle of pills from her backpack and stared down at them, thinking this would be an okay place to do the deed. All of these people around her, and no one would pay any attention if she were to just start popping the pills one by one right now.
Claire passed the jaguar statue in the center of the Quad and spotted an open bench that sat underneath a large oak tree. It was far enough back from the walkway that she would go unnoticed by everyone who passed. The tree provided an inviting shade that would keep the sun from glaring into her face as it was doing now. It was kind of perfect, actually.
There she sat,
staring down at the pill bottle in her hand, thinking about…
Chapter Fifty-Nine
John
…Jodie, of course, when he spotted the raven-haired girl crouched beside the statue of the jaguar in the Quad. Man, he’d thought he was strange, but this girl may just have him beat. He decided he had to find out what she was doing there, and changed directions, heading toward where Joe was crouched. A few jokes popped into his head and he thought about which one would be the most clever. Joe was good at taking jokes. It was part of the reason he liked her. She could laugh at herself. John admired that in a girl.
But as he grew closer, he saw that no joke would be appropriate. There was a look on Joe’s face that was so serious and concentrated he almost stopped in his tracks. Behind him, something slammed into the backs of his knees…
Chapter Sixty
Mina
…knocking the poor guy to the ground. “Davis,” Mina said. “Watch where you’re going!” She came over and helped John to his feet. “I’m sorry about that,” she told him. “He never watches where he’s going.”
John waved a hand at the woman—she was much too pretty to get mad at—and smiled down at the boy who had bumped into him. “That’s okay. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have just stopped in the middle like that,” he said.
Mina smiled at him gratefully, and he headed on his way. She grabbed Davis by the shoulders and pulled him close to her. “I hope you don’t mind having lunch out here,” she said. “Russell said he would meet us here, but I don’t see him yet. Come on, let’s wait…
Chapter Sixty-One
The Decider
…any longer. He removed the .45 and the 9mm from his pockets, stole one last look at the head of the jaguar, and fired off his first few rounds. The first shot…
Chapter Sixty-Two
Eric
…struck Eric right in the center of the forehead, and he fell to the sidewalk with a thud. Instantly dead. His dying thought had been: It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t know I’m her father. I’ll build a relationship—
For a moment, everything was as silent as Eric himself, and the only sound was the echo of…
Chapter Sixty-Three
Joe
…BANG! BANG! BANG!
For a moment, I could not move. I was as stuck in my crouched position as the rest of the people in the Quad seemed to be suspended in theirs. All was silent, except for my heart which was booming louder than the gunshots in my ears. Then, someone screamed. Several someone’s screamed. And I watched as the world around me erupted in chaos and panic, and it seemed to bloom from inside my chest, because I felt it, too. Oh, how I felt it, too. I am not ashamed to admit that I wanted to…
Chapter Sixty-Four
The Decider
…Run! That’s right, run, you fucking cowards! Run from me and bow to me and bleed for me and—
Two down already, man, he was good. Man, how this felt good. His first shot had taken down a black guy on the pavement, his second had not found a target, but his third…
Chapter Sixty-Five
Merion
…had struck Merion in the gut where she sat on the bench under the maple tree. The sounds of the shots seemed to reach her ears only seconds before the pain exploded in her stomach. At first all she felt was something hit her, like a Mike Tyson to her midsection. The world had gone black for a moment, almost pulling her into that blackness and keeping her there where nothing could hurt her. But she had swam up from that hole, and now the only thing her mind could process was a garbled whathafuck…
Chapter Sixty-Six
Michael
…was that? The sound, so close to him, and yet seeming to originate from nowhere in particular, but instead bouncing off the stone buildings surrounding the Quad, had seemed to blow out his eardrums. Like everyone else, he stood frozen for those long moments that take place just after the shit has hit the fan, those moments where all you can think is what happened?
Then someone screamed, and the sound of it made his stomach drop and realization crashed through his stupor. He glanced all around him. Just up ahead, he saw the man with the guns. And then the only thought he could process was…
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Merion
…Oh, God. I’m dying. I’m dying. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I’m dying. Oh, God
(takes care of drunks and fools, and you ain’t no drunk, Merion, and you ain’t no fool.)
Then the blackness found her. And this time she could not escape…
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Joe
…BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Four more shots, and I just stood there, breaking Mr. Landry’s Rule Number Two, staring at John, the boy who had befriended me in class this semester, the boy who was quick to joke about my stutter and comfortable with my otherness, because he was strange himself.
Was, he was strange.
He was dead. I had been peering over the concrete platform, frozen with terror, and my inactiveness had cost John his life.
“Rule Number Two, soldier, don’t waste your time staring at the wounded or dying or dead. Every minute you waste staring at one of them, someone who still has a chance is being put at risk. MOVE, soldier, that’s an order!”
I pulled the gun from my pocket and slunk along the side of the concrete platform, with the jaguar watching me. I spared no looks for the people around me, who were, as Mr. Landry had predicted, in a tremendous state of panic.
“You got to be the one who keeps your cool, soldier, because everyone else around you will have lost theirs.”
I had already broken rule Number Two, and it had cost John his life. I had no intention of breaking Rule Number One and Rule Number Three. I repeated them over and over as I moved.
Don’t hesitate. Shoot to kill. Don’t hesitate. Shoot to kill.
I managed to block out everything else around me. I had never experienced tunnel-vision in my life, but looking back I was pretty sure this was it. I reached the edge of the concrete platform, where the Shadowman was waiting…
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Claire
…for someone to help her. The pain in her shoulder and leg was so immense that she could not even find the strength to scream, but instead she sat there, hearing only the sound of her breathing as it grew slower and more labored, listening only to her panicked thoughts.
I’ve been shot. My Lord, I’ve been shot! It hurts so fucking bad. I can’t breathe. It hurts so fucking bad. And I don’t, oh Lord, I don’t I don’t I don’t want to die! I’m not ready! I don’t want to die!
If it didn’t hurt so bad, if she weren’t so utterly terrified, the irony may have been a little bit funny. But this was not funny. Nothing about this was funny. Claire may have planned to take her life with the pills she still held clutched in her hand, which curiously, were splattered with red dots she subconsciously realized must have been her own blood, but this had not been part of the plan. This was wrong. This was…
Chapter Seventy
The Decider
…the most glorious, wonderful moment of all his life. The sheep were scattered and screaming and running all around him, looks of shock and horror stuck on all their faces. He could see everything as if time were moving in slow motion. He was taking his pick and making all the Decisions. He saw his next target straight ahead on the walkway. A young mother was clutching her son and…
Chapter Seventy-One
Mina
…dragging him in the opposite direction. Davis seemed to be frozen in shock, too scared to move. She pulled him along frantically, a thousand terrible thoughts flying through her head. She knew only that she had to get him away. Had to, had to, had to get him away. Her heart beat fast and furious. She had never been so afraid in all her life. She was not afraid of getting shot herself. She was afraid for Davis, only Davis. And that was much, much worse.
All thoughts of Russell were nowhere to be found, of no concern and worth
no contemplation. In that moment, for all she cared Russell could go to hell in a hand-basket. Just not her boy, not her boy, not her boy.
She could handle anything, anything, but not that. Just please, please, pleeease, don’t take…
Chapter Seventy-Two
The Decider
…the boy. He wanted the boy. The boy would be a real prize, a fine notch on his belt, a wonderful sacrifice. He raised the pistols and sighted the little shit, but just before he pulled the trigger…
Chapter Seventy-Three
Russell
…he saw the man in black aiming at Davis, at Mina’s little boy, and with no hesitation, no second thought or indecision, he ran as fast as his strong legs could carry him and tackled the boy to the ground at the same time as he heard…
Chapter Seventy-Four
Joe
…BANG! BANG!
I moved out into the open. The Shadowman had…
Chapter Seventy-Five
The Decider
…turned the other way, giving up on the boy for a closer target, and he saw it, oh boy, did he see it. That shithead jock-looking sonofawhore who had bumped into him the other day was standing in the middle of the walkway. Just standing there, as if he wanted to be pumped full of lead. As the Decider looked at him, the grin on his face become so large and wide and ugly that the corners of his mouth were hugging the tips of his earlobes, and he was sure now that this motherfucker was the same one who had been under his tree yesterday. Too bad his little black-haired bitch wasn’t with him. Too bad. He raised the guns toward the fool, who seemed to be…