by Roger Hayden
There was an alleyway right before the building she entered with a side door that led to the store that Kalen dragged Freddy inside.
Joey kept the rifle tucked under his arm as he pulled the door open. He stood frozen as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Once he had a better look he could tell he had entered some type of stockroom. There were rows and rows of shelves with boxes on them.
He stepped lightly, rifle up, scanning the room. When he made it to the end of the aisle he could see the outline of another door.
Joey knew that’s where she was. He knew she was just sitting in there, exposed, crying over her brother’s body.
He figured Freddy would be dead by now. The shot was right in the back and the .223 caliber bullet would create a hole too big for that small body to contend with.
Joey’s hand reached for the doorknob. He turned it as quietly as he could. The barrel of the rifle was the first thing that poked through the door. When Joey took another step forward, pushing the rifle farther into the room, he felt a force knock the gun upward.
Kalen yanked the rifle out of Joey’s grip and he fell to the floor. She swung the butt of the rifle and brought it down on his face.
Joey’s cheeks immediately swelled up and his nose was broken and bent. She watched him crawl around on the ground, grasping at anything to help pull him up. She brought another smashing blow into his gut, which stopped him from moving again.
“You little bastard!” Kalen screamed.
She brought the butt of the rifle down on him again, smacking the back of his head. Each time she hit him the force of the blow was harder. Her screams grew louder. Joey’s blood splattered across her shirt and face.
When she was finished she couldn’t recognize the boy’s face anymore. It was nothing more than a bloody stump.
Kalen’s screams of anger were replaced by silent sobs. She looked down at her bloodied hands and they started to tremble.
Kalen crawled back over to Freddy, lifeless on the floor. She picked up his body and cradled him in her arms. She stayed like that for a few more minutes.
Once all of the tears in her were gone, the only thing she could focus on was the gunfire echoing in the distance. She rested Freddy on the ground gently, and then picked up the rifle. She racked the chamber, making sure it was loaded, then walked out the door.
The first place Anne thought to look was the hotel. When they arrived it was empty. Even the guards had left.
“Where else could they have gone?” Sam asked.
Anne could hear the gunshots in the distance. She was afraid she knew the answer to Sam’s question.
“Come on,” Anne said.
Sam pulled her back once he saw she was heading in the direction of the fighting.
“We can’t go there, Anne,” Sam said.
“That’s where they are.”
“Why would they run into a war zone?”
Anne wanted to tell him that it was because her daughter had changed. That it was because of the types of atrocities the world allowed, and that they had scarred her daughter, but she didn’t.
“I just know,” Anne said.
Anne led the two of them up the street and after a few minutes of jogging Anne slowed down.
“What’s wrong?” Sam asked.
Anne’s eyes were focused on a pool of blood staining the sidewalk. She stood there frozen, then sprinted toward it.
A streaked trail of red flowed from the sidewalk into the store.
“Anne?” Sam asked.
When Anne pushed the door open she fell to her knees. Freddy was on the floor, motionless. His skin was white, drained from the blood that no longer pumped through his veins.
“No,” Anne said.
The tears were welling up in her eyes. She crawled on her hands and knees to her little boy. Sam tried to pick her up, but she smacked his hands away from her.
“Anne, he’s gone.”
“My baby.”
Sam went to grab her shoulder and she spun around. She kept hitting him, again and again.
“Leave me alone!” she screamed.
She was sobbing hysterically now, cradling her son in her arms, bathed in red. Everything she and Mike had done to keep their children safe was shattered. There wasn’t anywhere evil couldn’t touch them, no matter how hard they tried.
Mike was the first in the factory. Most of the workers had scattered. Judging by how fast they ran away they weren’t volunteers of Bram’s forces.
“We need to get the charges in place before more of Bram’s men arrive,” the lieutenant yelled.
The other soldiers ran around placing the explosives in various positions around the factory. Mike stayed with the lieutenant guarding the front entrance to ensure the enemy couldn’t enter.
“We should get the rest of the men in here,” Mike said.
“Why?” the lieutenant asked.
“If this factory is as important as Wyatt says it is, then Bram won’t risk putting it in danger by firing at it. It’s the safest place to be right now.”
“Yeah, until we blow it to bits.”
Bram’s men didn’t expect the fight from behind, so the rebels had them on their heels. They had managed to destroy most of the vehicles, and Bram’s men had scattered to the surrounding buildings for cover.
All they needed was a little more time and the factory would be destroyed, Mike could get to his family, and all of this would be behind him.
“How much longer is this going to take?” Mike asked.
The lieutenant pulled up his radio.
“Where are we at with the explosives?” he asked.
“Just six more to place, sir.”
The lieutenant clicked off his radio and cocked his head to the side.
“There you go.”
But Mike wasn’t listening to him. He was squinting down the street, looking at a young girl, working her way down the road, firing her rifle at anything that moved.
Whatever was in her path Kalen shot. She didn’t know who they were, or what they were trying to do, but if they had rifles on them, that was reason enough for her to make sure they couldn’t use them anymore.
Kalen had never felt so focused before in her life. Her movements were so precise and fluid. There wasn’t a separation between her and the rifle. The weapon was just an extension of her body.
One of the military vehicles was still operational and it started heading in her direction. She ducked inside one of the storefronts for cover.
The fifty-caliber on the roof of the armored truck shattered the windows and tore through the concrete of the building. Shards from the glass landed on her head and sliced her hands and face.
Kalen moved to the far side of the store, but stayed close to the front to see where the truck was heading. She saw it circling around and aimed for the tires.
The tires exploded from her gunshots and the truck careened out of control, smashing into one of the buildings along the street.
Then, crouched behind one of the disabled military trucks, Kalen saw her. Beth was barking orders and building up her own body count.
The moment Kalen saw her she sprinted in her direction. It didn’t matter how barricaded Beth was, Kalen was going to take her down.
One of the soldiers around Beth finally noticed Kalen running at them, but it was too late. Kalen sent a bullet flying into his temple.
Before Beth could do anything, Kalen barreled into her and slammed her to the ground. The soldiers around the two of them tried to help, but Beth ordered them to stop.
Kalen got Beth in a chokehold. She was squeezing the life out of her. Beth grasped at her arm, trying to free herself from Kalen’s grip, but she couldn’t.
Beth’s fingers crawled along her leg, trying to reach for her knife. Kalen didn’t see Beth reaching for the blade. Beth grabbed it and jammed the five inches of steel into Kalen’s leg.
The blade went in deep. Kalen could feel it scraping against her bone. She gripped her fingers around t
he blade’s handle and slowly pulled it out. Every inch the blade came out sent screams into the air.
When the blade was finally removed she stuffed her hands over the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but something was wrong. No matter how much pressure she applied the blood just kept coming.
She could feel herself getting light-headed. Then, as Beth pulled a pistol from one of the soldier’s belts around her, Kalen watched a barrage of bullets fly into Beth and the soldiers next to her.
Mike picked up his daughter and ran as fast as he could in the other direction to the factory. He could see the blood pouring out of her leg and her eyes drifting in and out of consciousness.
He burst through the door and set her on the ground.
“I need a first aid kit, now!” Mike yelled.
The lieutenant called over one of his men and they started working on her right away.
“Kalen, stay with me, baby. Stay with me.”
“Dad.”
“Shh, it’s going to be okay, sweetheart.”
Her voice was so soft. Mike could see the life draining from her face.
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to be sorry for anything.”
“She’s lost too much blood,” the medic said. “I think she hit an artery.”
“I tried, Dad. I tried…”
“Kalen,” Mike said.
Her head went limp and her eyes closed. The medic grabbed Kalen’s wrist, then looked over to the lieutenant and shook his head.
“Kalen?” Mike asked.
Mike pulled his daughter close. Whatever pain he endured, whatever loss was suffered, didn’t matter because Mike knew that it was to make sure his children survived. Now, a piece of that was dead, and with it… him.
Cain was on the second floor of the factory. He watched everything from the large window in the office upstairs.
He was disappointed. He thought Beth would have survived longer than she did.
“What a waste,” he said to himself.
He could see Bram down with the rest of his soldiers, scrambling to keep the factory, but it was a losing battle. Once the rebels had the explosives in place it wouldn’t matter.
Cain slammed a magazine into his pistol and racked one into the chamber. He picked up a file on the desk.
When he opened it there was a picture of Anne. Cain smiled and tucked it into his pocket. He picked up a rifle from the desk as well. He peered through the scope and looked down the street.
He saw a large man, dressed in civilian clothes, holding a rifle. He wasn’t shooting anyone, but Cain thought he recognized the face.
He grabbed another folder from the stack of files he found and flipped through the pages. He looked through the scope again and watched Sam turn around and head back to where he came from.
“Now, where are you heading off to in such a hurry?”
Sam watched Mike carry Kalen to the factory, and the fighters from across the river seemed to have Bram’s soldiers pinned down. Sam knew that the objective was to get rid of the factory, so he figured it would just be a matter of time.
So much loss. So much death for one family. He wasn’t sure how much more Mike and Anne could take. Everything around them was falling apart.
Right now though, the best thing he could do was to get back to Anne. If he could keep her safe, then maybe there would be some chance of normalcy for her and Mike.
He knew what happened to a person who lost the things they held so close to their heart. A part of them died. It got lost forever in a sea of despair, the waves constantly tossing and turning the small raft that was barely keeping them alive.
Sam knew Mike and Anne’s raft was barely strung together. And there were more waves coming their way.
Anne still hadn’t moved. She just sat there on the floor, in the middle of the pile of blood, holding her son.
“My baby,” she whispered.
There was a documentary on television she had watched earlier that year. It was about mothers from different countries who had lost their children at a young age.
All of them were crying hysterically, clutching their dead children in their arms, not wanting to let them go.
Some of the women had gone mad, completely losing their minds and the will to live. The burden of losing a child had ended marriages and ripped families apart. It was a void that could never be filled, no matter what someone tried stuffing inside it.
She remembered wondering how she would react if that ever happened to her. Would she lose her mind? Would it end her marriage?
Anne couldn’t fathom what losing one of her children would do to her. Now, what every parent fears more than anything had happened to her.
All she felt was empty. Everything about her son that she loved looped constantly in her mind. But the images of him laughing, playing, sleeping, only added to her pain. It hurt because she knew there would never be any new memories to draw from. There was no more hope, no more chance of what could be.
When Sam came back she just stared at him. She watched his lips move, but couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Anne remained speechless when she watched a man with cold blue eyes walk up behind Sam and knock him out.
Cain dragged Sam out of the doorway entrance and looked down at Anne, who was still rocking her dead son in her arms.
“Hello, Mrs. Grant,” Cain said.
Bram was on his heels. The soldiers around him were starting to shrink. Everything was closing in on him and there wasn’t a way out.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. He was going to rewrite the country’s future. He was going to bring people into a new era of ideals. Now, with every bullet that flew into one of his soldiers that hit the ground, so did those aspirations.
With the fight going the way it was, he was shocked when Cain turned up with a woman covered in blood.
“Where the hell have you been?” Bram demanded.
“Finding you a bargaining chip. Say hello to Anne Grant. Wife of Mike Grant, who is in your warehouse right now getting ready to blow it up,” Cain said.
“What?”
Bram looked the woman over. She looked nothing like the photo he saw earlier that day. Her eyes were empty. Her face was grave. She looked as if she was already dead.
It was Bram’s last play. If this didn’t work he knew it was over.
“Cease fire!” Bram yelled.
The men around him echoed his orders. A few moments later the firing stopped and Bram could hear similar shouts from the rebels.
“Get me a bullhorn,” Bram said.
“The explosives are set, sir.”
“All right. We’re all set here. Let’s get the hell out of Dodge,” the lieutenant said.
Mike stared at Kalen’s face on the stretcher they set her on. At that moment he wasn’t in Cincinnati, in the middle of a war, standing in a factory with soldiers and missiles.
Right now he was back in Pittsburgh. He was just getting ready for work, making his rounds to everyone’s room. He was opening Kalen’s door to give her a kiss on the forehead before he left for the day, taking a moment to watch her sleep. She always looked like her mom when she slept. It was so peaceful.
But when the lieutenant grabbed his shoulder and spun him around that moment was gone. He wasn’t in Pittsburgh. He wasn’t watching his daughter sleep. He was in the middle of a war.
“Mike Grant.”
Mike recognized Bram’s voice, and when he looked outside through the scope of his gun he could see his wife standing right next to him.
The lieutenant gave Mike a rundown of the situation. Bram would trade her life for his factory.
“Take the goddamn chargers down,” Mike said.
“Mike, it’s not that simple.”
“Take them down!”
“If you talk to him and buy us some time, then I can position some of my snipers to take him out.”
“They better have good aim.”
Bram
had himself surrounded by his men. When Mike got close Bram told his men to make a small opening so Mike could see him.
Anne was stained with blood, and Mike had no idea whether or not the blood was hers.
“Anne, honey, are you okay?” Mike asked.
“She’ll be fine when my men finish a clean sweep of the factory and the rest of the rebel bastards that are here have gone back over the river,” Bram said.
“Let her go, Bram,” Mike said. “If you want a bargaining chip, then use me. I’m the one who led them here. I know where you can find Wyatt.”
“And where is our mutual friend?” Bram asked. “Still having others do his dirty work for him? Wyatt always had a problem with the execution.”
Mike didn’t know how much time the lieutenant’s men needed.
“I’m going to give you till the count of ten, Mike. If my factory isn’t cleared out and the rest of the rebels aren’t hightailing it out of here, then your wife dies.”
Cain handed Bram his knife and he put it to Anne’s throat. She didn’t move. She didn’t scream. The only noticeable change was the tears streaming down her face.
“One,” Bram said.
“Bram, look around. It’s over,” Mike said.
“Two.”
There had been plenty of time to take the shot by now. Mike didn’t know what the lieutenant was waiting for.
“Three.”
“Let her go, Bram.”
Mike’s hand reached for his gun, but he didn’t grab it. He was afraid if he tried to make a move then Bram would too. The knife was too close to Anne’s throat.
“Four.”
What is he waiting for?
“Five.”
Mike looked over to the lieutenant’s men, still aiming their guns at Bram’s soldiers. Nobody was moving.
“Six.”
“Lieutenant, tell your men to back down. Tell them to do it now!” Mike said.
“Seven.”
Mike rushed up to one of the lieutenant’s soldiers. Mike pulled out his own gun and put it to the soldier’s head.
“Clear the factory now!” Mike screamed.
“Eight.”
Mike looked back to Anne. His body was churning with grief and rage. He couldn’t watch another one of his girls die.