by Dave Renol
I landed hard on the front porch, stunned and unable to move. Sid turned to look back and started to guffaw at me lying helpless on the porch. I thought he might come back to finish me off, but he apparently figured that running and living was a higher priority. He spun back to run into the forest and instead, ran straight into the club that Sara was swinging at his head.
Sara raised her club to bring it down on him but paused, dropped it, and slowly pulled out her wicked looking bowie knife. Sid climbed unsteadily back onto his feet and pulled out a hunting knife of his own. I couldn’t think – couldn’t act – all I could do was watch them helplessly.
They began circling each other slowly. Sid’s face was covered in blood from the blow that took him down. Vitriol poured from his mouth as he cursed his wife in between attacks. Sara was the exact opposite; she made not a single sound, not even the grunts that you might expect to accompany the slashes and thrusts they were exchanging.
A sudden charge from Sid forced Sara backward, where she tripped over her abandoned club and fell to the ground. Her knife flew from her hand as she landed. Sid quickly leapt on top of her and brought his knife down in a vicious arc toward her head. She managed to block the attack, but now Sid was pressing downward, forcing the knife closer and closer toward her throat.
It didn’t look good for my friend. She should have just shot him as he was running rather than letting her emotions take over. She wanted her revenge to be up close and personal and now it would cost her. As they continued to struggle, I saw that Sara’s face was covered in blood now too, but I couldn’t tell if she was injured or if it was due to Sid’s wounds dripping down on her.
I thought it was over. One more good push from Sid and the knife would strike home. I imagined that I would be next. With the first sound that she uttered since the fight began, Sara erupted in a shout of rage and flung Sid off of her … about twenty feet off her!
Calmly, she picked up her knife and got to her feet. She walked over to where Sid was lying, either unwilling or unable to get up. Then she bent down and slit his throat with two quick slashes, one on each side. She stared at him for a long moment before standing and giving him a kick to the ribs. “Payback’s a bitch, asshole,” she said, before turning and walking back to the house.
She knelt down by my head and checked me for injuries. “You’re looking a little rough, but we need to get you out of here. In case you didn’t notice, your house is on fire. Can you walk?”
I tried to answer, but all I could do was groan in what I hoped was a negative fashion. Apparently it was good enough as she got to her feet in preparation to dragging me away. She paused for a moment in the act of grabbing my shoulders, stood, and floated me a foot off of the ground.
“I guess I didn’t imagine it. I did use your ability at the end of my fight with Sid. Carl was right back at the cave; I guess I’ll have to give him an apology the next time I see his ugly face.”
She brought me away from the house and set me down in the thick grass near the road. “It’s over now girl, we’re safe. You don’t seem to be bleeding anywhere, so I think you’ll be alright. Sid’s grenade knocked you for a loop just like last time, but it’ll pass.”
As she held my head in her lap comforting me, I noticed that the fire in my house was starting to spread. It was heartbreaking, to see my lovely home about to go up in flames, and I began crying. Suddenly it hit me – there were still the two wounded soldiers in my bedroom. Giving it everything I had left, I managed to get the words out: “people inside.”
She looked quizzically at me for a moment and then her eyes flew wide open with understanding. She gently lowered my head down to the ground and rushed toward the house. Smoke and flames were belching forth from the doorway by this point, but she charged straight through them.
I heard the sound of tires on the gravel road now, but couldn’t raise the strength to turn and see if it was a new danger approaching. I heard a car skidding to a stop, the slam of a door, and then the most beautiful sound that I’ve ever heard.
“Linda, are you ok?” Mark asked.
My tears became tears of joy as he fell to the ground and wrapped his arms around me. I wanted to tell him how much I loved him, but didn’t have the strength.
“Medic, we need help over here! Hurry!” he shouted.
Two medics converged on me and pushed Mark out of the way. One began going over my body checking for injuries, while the second began wrapping a brace around my neck. I saw the sheriff who was bent over Sid suddenly look up at my front door.
“People at the house, help them quick!” I heard someone shout. Focusing on the doorway, I saw Sara on the porch with the two soldiers from inside. The medic who had just installed the brace on my neck got up and ran to assist, as well as the person who had shouted. It was one of the policemen from town. They shouldered Sara off to the side and pulled the two men away from the fire.
Mark returned to me with a blanket and slid it gently under my head. “Rest easy, dear, it’s all going to be ok. I’m here with the sheriff, a deputy, and an ambulance. The fire department is on the way, along with every police officer and state trooper within a hundred miles, if I heard the sheriff right.”
“We need some help over here, these men have been shot.” The officer called out from where they were tending the two men.
“Watch her closely and yell out instantly if you think anything is wrong,” my doctor said brusquely to Mark before rushing off to help.
Sara made her way over to us and dropped down beside me. “What a mess,” she said in a disgusted tone of voice. “Glad you could finally join us,” she added to Mark.
“Sorry, we got arrested in town. It’s a long story and not important at the moment.” Glancing around quickly he continued in a whisper, “What happened while I was gone? Why didn’t you wait in the cave?”
Sara gave him the abbreviated version of our adventure while Mark just kept shaking his head at the stupidity of our assault.
When she finished her story, Mark commented “All I can say is that you two have more luck than brains. You’re both lucky to be alive right now. Don’t even think of pulling such a stupid stunt ever again!”
“No worries on that count, I’m fresh out of asshole husbands now.”
Sirens blaring, the road and lawn in front of my house started filling up with emergency vehicles. More medical staff rushed out to assist with the wounded men and also with me. Two fire trucks disgorged their operators and began pumping water on the blaze that was once my lovely home. Sara went over to where the police were gathering and began telling them about the guards in the area that needed to be picked up.
Now it’s over, I thought to myself as they placed me on a gurney and hauled me off to a waiting ambulance. For the first time in days I felt safe. The cost had been great, but we had won. More importantly, we were all still alive to enjoy it.
Epilogue
Linda:
“Welcome home!” they all shouted at me as I stepped through the door of Mark’s house. Technically, my home was a pile of burnt cinders, but the warm welcome here from my friends made it a non-issue. Home is where the heart is, and my heart belonged here now.
I had just spent the last week in the hospital due to my injuries, and a welcome home party with Mark, Sara, and Carl was the perfect thing to cheer me up. They had all come to visit me in the hospital of course, but this was the first time that we had all gotten together at once.
By unspoken agreement, we had held off in relating our various parts of the story until we could all gather together. As we got caught up with details from everyone to make a whole, the experience started shifting away from nightmare and toward a unique bond between us. What happened out there was a tale that nobody who didn’t live through it would believe.
I laughed at Carl’s description of what happened to get them arrested, and how it took them all day to convince the cops that they weren’t lunatic armed thugs. Sara continued to make digs at him, b
ut in a warmer manner than I’ve seen her exhibit before. If I didn’t know better, I would swear that they might become a couple soon.
I felt completely fine and to be honest, didn’t think that I needed to stay in the hospital for even a single day. Now that I was home with Mark and my friends, I was more than happy to let them pamper me. The state of shock they found me in on the day of the fire was due to the strain placed on me from the overuse and abuse of my new abilities.
At least that was all over and done with now; any future experimentation could be done in a safe and controlled manner. For a while, at least, we could turn to more mundane matters like designing my new house. The media had raised quite the buzz over how a military unit on a training exercise could have made such an egregious error in shooting up a civilian residence. The lawsuits would be legendary, they predicted.
I wasn’t sure how much attention we wanted though. It might be for the best to try and let it quietly fade away. Either way, we could relax for a while.
Mark:
It was good having Linda home with me. The last week with the media piranhas descending on me every time I stepped outside was almost as bad as the previous week and our fight for survival. A story like this comes along once in a lifetime, they claimed, and it had drawn the press from all across the country.
I was still upset that Linda and Sara were forced to take on Sid and his troops without me. It felt like I had failed, and all due to a stupid misunderstanding in that donut shop. If I hadn’t been recognized by that one clerk who was a fan of my books, we might still be rotting in jail.
If Linda had gotten herself killed in that insane attack, I’m not sure if I could have ever forgiven myself. I still felt a little bad that Sid was killed, and more so for Sara who had to do the deed. She may have been a battle hardened veteran, but it couldn’t have been easy. She seemed to be taking it well though.
Carl seemed especially subdued ever since he got out of jail. He blamed himself and his stupidity for getting caught with a gun and ruining our chance to bring help in a timely fashion. At least he had all the charges against him dropped after the sheriff had seen for himself that we were telling the truth. The sheriff might have been a small town redneck, but he was far from stupid.
Glancing around the room, I was glad that Linda seemed to be enjoying herself immensely with our little surprise party. She had looked to be in really bad shape as they took her away in the ambulance, but thank God that her injuries were superficial. I was worried that she might want to avoid using our unique new abilities, but she quickly dispelled that notion in the hospital with a telepathic greeting of love.
Not wanting to be overheard talking about what really happened out there, we engaged in several long silent conversations during her recovery. The media bulldogs hanging around the hospital mistook our silent conversations as simply being content to be with each other. They ran it as a lovey-dovey piece for days after I proposed to her.
I was still eager to examine our psionics in detail, but was determined that it would be in a safe and controlled environment from now on. Carl and Sara had both expressed a desire to continue on the course we started, but had no objections to taking things slower and safer. It was good to have friends that you could count on.
Major Matt Hatter:
I escaped the Colonel’s office with relief. Even though I wasn’t directly involved in the ‘training exercise’ shit storm, I was the one who had signed off on the orders allowing it and so was held responsible.
What a mess! Sid and another soldier killed, two more injured, along with civilian injuries to boot. If Sid hadn’t been killed there, I would probably shoot him myself. To make matters worse, I now had orders to go down there and take control of the situation.
I was to investigate the chain of events that led a training unit to attack a civilian residence and find out who would be assigned the blame during the formal inquiry. Reparations alone would be astronomical.
Reaching my own office, I flopped down into my chair and pulled out the bottle of scotch that I kept in my desk drawer for emergencies. I poured two fingers’ worth into my glass, shot it back quickly, and refilled it to sip normally as I pulled out Sid’s final letter to me. I had to read it three times to make sure I understood the implications of what he had written down.
It sounded insane, yet had the ring of truth behind it. I must have sat there for over an hour, deep in thought, my drink forgotten. If Sid was right, then the meaning was frightening; it would have to be investigated very carefully. With the eye of the media on us, extreme caution would have to be exercised if I was to find out the truth.
Perhaps Sid didn’t die in vain … perhaps his death could be avenged.
Continued In:
Book 2: Blood Magic
Mark, the psionic scientist, continues his investigation into the abilities that he acquired along with his fiancée Linda during the strange lightning storm. Along with their friends Carl and Sara, who helped them along the path to discovery, they delve deeper into the root causes behind it.
However, a series of brutal murders in their small town, that rarely sees any crime, has put them into the spotlight again. The investigating sheriff noticed a similarity between the new murders and the corpse of Sid Jensen, who was found at what is now known as the ‘Valley Battle Site’.
To make matters worse, Major Matt Hatter from Fort Bragg is in town to investigate the incident, but seems more interested in watching Mark and Linda. Shadowed by both police and military observers, they will have to be extra careful if they are to avoid having their secrets revealed.
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Afterword
I would like to thank you for reading this book. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review where you purchased it. It would be greatly appreciated. You can also contact me: [email protected] with any comments, feedback, or suggestions.
David J. Renol, Feb. 2012