The goons were running toward her, shooting to kill.
“I guess you two are too stupid to know what ‘apprehend’ means?” she shouted at them. The bridge goons stopped for a moment and looked at each other. They both shrugged and continued to shoot to kill.
Skyler managed to stay clear of the sun’s rays while weaving and dodging in between the crumpled cars and SUVs in the roadway. She made her way back to the northern most edge of the bridge avoiding gun fire along the way. Taking cover in the shadow of a twisted 18 wheeler, she looked around for her escape route.
She had a clear shot off the bridge. She had managed to avoid them in such a way that the goons were now farther from the entrance than she was. This is going to be too easy, she thought to herself. And maybe it would have been had she not spotted a pick up truck with back up goons approaching the bridge.
Terrific. Ok I need a Plan B. Skyler shifted her gaze to the bridge’s trusses. About twenty feet off the north side was the steel cable the Roosevelt Island tram traveled along while it shuttled people back and forth from Roosevelt Island.
Plan B was going to be painful. For everyone.
She unholstered her Ruger and switched off the safety. She then stood up and revealed her location once again to the goons.
Goon #1 spotted her first. “There she is, Brett!”
They both ran toward her, firing their pistols. She steadied herself, aimed and took her shot.
The bullet found its intended target. Skyler watched on as Goon #1’s arm dropped from his shoulder. The force of the shot knocked him off his feet. Blood spurted from his wound as he screamed in agony. It’s a gusher!
Goon #2 hesitated for a split second assessing his partner’s situation. Skyler took the opportunity to incapacitate him with a bullet to the thigh.
The pick up truck with its bed filled with a half a dozen additional armed goons came to a screeching stop at the entrance to the bridge. At least a half a dozen men jumped out of it and rushed toward Skyler’s location, guns-a-blazin’.
She ducked behind a vehicle for cover. In quick succession she covered her face with her bandanna, lowered her sunglasses over her eyes and pulled her hoodie up and over her head. She fished her gloves out of her sweatshirt’s pockets and pulled them on.
Ready. She inhaled deeply and launched herself out from her cover. She was spotted instantly and a hail of bullets welcomed her. Did nobody understand what the word ‘apprehend’ meant? She expertly avoided the bullets, much easier now that she was covered head to toe. Goon #1 and Goon #2 saw her running toward them. Both were in shock, and neither were sure what she was about to do.
She closed in on their location and sprinted for Goon #1. He put his good arm up, trying to ward her off. She ignored him and without slowing down she picked up the detached arm lying next to him. Arm in hand she scrambled up the trusses of the northern side of the bridge and then to the shock of everyone else on the bridge, she took a flying leap and aimed for one of the tram cables that ran parallel to the bridge.
With no room to spare, Skyler just made the leap successfully. In the process she hooked Goon #1’s arm around the cable and used it like a zip line pulley.
She traveled quickly down the cable’s incline, away from her pursuers and toward New York City. The back up goons stopped firing and looked on incredulously.
The arm deteriorated quickly from the friction of the cable, and when Skyler looked up to check on its condition she could see most of the skin and muscle was gone, only the bone remained.
Looming ahead of her and coming fast was one of the tall steel structures that supported the cable lines. Her zip line pulley was not going to make it that far. The arm bone snapped in two, she dropped each piece as she continued forward toward the structure propelled by her momentum.
Skyler stretched her arms in front of her, bracing for the upcoming impact.
SLAM! She hit the structure hard and grabbed onto a girder to steady herself. She took a second to exhale the breath she took before she headed off the edge of the bridge. She didn’t dare take more than a second though. Immediately she began to scramble down the side of the structure.
The radio affixed to her waist started to crackle.
The group of back-up goons stood with their mouths agape, looking toward the direction Skyler had gone.
Their radios crackled. “Queensboro, come in. What is your status?”
Still stunned, one of the back-up goons reached for his radio.
“Base Command, it’s Bobby. Brett and Al are down. Brett is missing an arm, he’s bleeding out. Looks like Al was hit in his femoral. I don’t think they’re going to make it.”
A beat of silence from Base Command and then, “And the girl?”
Bobby didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news. “I — she —,” he stammered.
“Spit it out, son. What happened to the girl?”
“She jumped off the bridge with Brett’s arm. She ... she used it as a ... zip line pulley.”
A few miles away, in a spacious industrial loft located somewhere in Tribeca, John Kelly was sitting behind a large desk. The base station radio sat off on a corner of the desk, a large map of Manhattan was spread out in front of him. John took a deep breath before he continued his conversation with Bobby.
“Can you see where she’s headed?”
“No sir. She’s just gone.”
John slammed down the mic with a loud “God damn it!” and swiveled around in his chair.
“Scotty! You think that’s her?”
Not far from the desk, Gregger was laying on a home-care hospital bed. He was sweating and delirious. The bandage around his knee was seeping blood. Scotty was sitting nearby, keeping watch over his friend.
“Yes, sir. That’s her, one hundred percent.”
John nodded. “She will pay for what she’s done to my boy.”
John swiveled back toward the desk in his chair and picked up the microphone.
“Dom. Come in Dom.”
A crackle and then the sound of Dom’s voice came through the radio’s speaker.
“I’m here Mr. Kelly.”
“Did you hear all that?”
Dom was sitting in a pickup truck and watching Skyler finish her climb down the steel support structure a half a block away. He watched her as she unhooked a walkie talkie from her waist band and held it up to her ear.
He held down the transmit button on his radio. “Yes sir, I heard it all.”
“Good. Now swing by base and pick up Scotty. I want you two to find this bitch and bring her back here to me.”
“Got it,” Dom answered, never taking his eyes off of Skyler.
He started up the truck, the roar of the engine got her attention.
She looked toward the truck and was surprised to see him in the driver’s seat. Their eyes locked for a second and then after a nearly imperceptible nod in her direction Dom pulled away from the curb. She watched as he made a right on Second Avenue and headed downtown.
The radio in her hand crackled, Dom’s voice followed.
“On my way back to base.”
Skyler whispered to herself, “I owe you one, Dom.” She then turned and headed up town. Running in the shadows of the buildings and debris on the eastern side of the street. When she reached the next block she paused to change the channel on her radio.
“Jack, I’m heading up town now. Where are you?”
Jack heard Skyler’s voice on the radio he had placed back in one of the rucksacks but was unable to answer quite yet. He was doing his best to get Alissa uptown safely while sticking to the shadows and without making her “condition” obvious to anyone who may be watching.
He ducked into a shaded vestibule. He wrinkled his nose at the smell of it. The garbage piles in the back corner of the entryway were ripe. He had no choice, he had to answer Skyler. He placed the girl and the rucksacks down on the one semi-clean spot he could find on the grimy tiled entrance way.
“Don’t move, ok
‘Lissa?” The little girl nodded solemnly.
Jack knelt down and began rummaging through the rucksack for the radio. In his search he removed boxes of ammo, a flashlight, batteries, and some granola bars and placed them on the ground next to him.
Skyler’s voice came through again.
“Jack?”
The screen on the radio lit up when she spoke to him, making the radio much easier to find in the massive bag.
He pressed the transmit button. “I’m here Skyler. Um,” he paused and looked around for something resembling a street sign. “We’re at 64th and 2nd.”
“Ok,” she answered. “I’m on my way.”
Jack began putting items back into the rucksack when one of the piles of trash behind him started to move, catching his attention.
A large man, holding a wine bottle, stood up out of the pile. Dressed in rags and garbage bags, it was easy to see why Jack hadn’t noticed that one of the piles was an actual person before now. Garbage Pile Man eyed Jack, Alissa, the open rucksack and its scattered contents on the ground.
Jack grabbed Alissa and shoved her behind him. Buddy stepped forward and bared his teeth at the new threat. Still holding the radio, Jack depressed the transmission button, hoping Skyler would be able to hear what was about to unfold, whatever that was.
The Garbage Pile Man took a menacing step towards them. “Hand over the bags and all them goodies and no one gets hurt.”
Jack hooked his foot through the shoulder straps of the open rucksack and drew it in closer to him. “Look man, this is my stuff. I’m not going to let you just take it.”
“No?” The Garbage Pile Man smiled and smashed his wine bottle against the wall of the vestibule. The broken half of the wine bottle still in his hand had now become a deadly weapon.
Alissa shrieked.
With his eyes glued on Jack’s face the Garbage Pile Man took another menacing step, halving the space between them. “Not so brave now motherfucker, are you?”
He waved his arm, the wine bottle’s jagged edge coming dangerously close to Jack and Alissa.
Buddy stepped up and growled, grabbing his attention.
“Shit, you think I’m afraid of a dog? I’ll slit your throat too, Fido. I’ll slit all you motherfuckers’ throats. Now give me those fucking bags.”
The Garbage Pile Man grinned and began to take his final step towards Jack and Alissa, waving his broken wine bottle at Jack’s throat. Before he could finish that step, however, Skyler’s combat knife whizzed by Jack and Alissa and lodged itself with both a dull thud and deadly precision right between his eyes. The Garbage Pile Man’s grin faded from his face as the momentum behind the throw forced him to stumble backwards into the vestibule. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Jack and Alissa spun around to see Skyler standing behind them.
Jack let out a sigh of relief. “You really do have great aim.”
“I really do.” Skyler walked over to the Garbage Pile Man and unceremoniously yanked her knife from his head. She picked up a nearby sheet of newspaper and wiped the blood and brain matter from the blade.
She looked over toward Alissa. “Hungry?”
Alissa nodded and walked toward the body. Skyler began to hack The Garbage Pile Man’s arm off with her combat knife.
Jack was mortified. “Wait, no, he’s so disgusting — ”
Skyler and Alissa answered him in unison. “Don’t care!”
The sound of shuffling feet behind Jack caught all of their attention. Skyler looked up to see a half a dozen people, covered from head to toe, slowly converging on the group in the vestibule.
She stood up, putting herself between them and Alissa. Buddy made no move to confront them.
The group stopped a few feet away from the trio. One person made their way to the front. After a moment a female voice said weakly, “Please, we are so hungry.”
Skyler nodded. She picked up Alissa and stepped aside, inviting the group into the vestibule with a sweeping arm motion. “Help yourself.”
The group swarmed the body.
Skyler, Jack and Alissa could hear them tearing off the remaining limbs as they continued their journey uptown.
SIXTEEN
The group found shelter in a partially destroyed luxury apartment building on 72nd Street. They were able to slowly climb their way up over the rubble and debris in the stairwell to the tenth floor. They found a place to set up camp in an apartment that had fared pretty well. Of course the windows had been blown out and the furniture had been tossed around courtesy of the many earthquakes following 'XF11’s arrival, but the flood waters had not reached this high up and the apartment was dry. It offered them a feeling of safety they hadn’t experienced in a while. After being on the move for well over twenty-four hours they were all exhausted.
Jack set up a makeshift bed for Buddy and Alissa to share. As soon as they laid down the little girl and her dog cuddled together and fell fast asleep.
He joined Skyler in the kitchen area. She was raiding drawers and cabinets, looking for anything that may be helpful to them.
“They’re asleep already,” he reported.
Skyler looked up from the drawer she was hunting through. “Good. I’m about to pass out myself.”
“Did you find anything useful here?”
“A couple of cans of soup and Spaghettios. You interested?”
“I’m incredibly interested.” Jack made a beeline for the canned goods on the counter. “Hey do you have a —”
Skyler held up a can opener and a plastic fork.
Jack laughed and grabbed both. “Thanks.” He opened the Spaghettios and handed the can opener back to Skyler. “Are you sure it was the same guy? The one from the CVS?”
“One hundred percent. He looked directly at me and then just made a right and drove down Second Avenue.”
With a mouthful of Spaghettios, Jack waved the fork at Skyler for emphasis. “Looks like you made a friend.”
“Sure does.”
Jack finished the rest of the can and was about to wipe his mouth on his sleeve when Skyler tossed a wet nap packet at him.
“Perfect,” he said opening up the packet. He unfolded the wet nap and cleaned his face with it. “Much better.” Jack rolled the nap into a ball and set it onto the counter. “So, have you given any thought to what comes next?”
Skyler thought for a moment. “Where were you all headed before you ran into us?”
“Karen — ‘Lissa’s mom — said her folks left her a place in the mountains upstate. She seemed to think that was a good safe place to start over. Even if the house didn’t survive she said there was lots of land for a garden and a lake with plenty of fish. She also mentioned deer, though I’ve never hunted in my life. Anyway, I’m guessing no guys in black pickup trucks patrolling up there, ‘Lissa should be safe.”
Skyler gave a slight smile. “That sounds like a good plan.”
“What about you? Where are you heading?” he asked.
“Austin.”
“That’s a long way from here, Sky.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “It is, but I promised my grandfather before,” she paused and took a breath. “Before —”
Jack finished the sentence for her. “Before he died?”
She shook her head no. “Before he was murdered.”
“WHAT?” He shouted the question and then immediately lowered his voice down to a whisper. “What happened?”
Skyler turned her head toward the sleeping Alissa. “Her father.” She closed her eyes briefly at the memory of that horrific night. “He tried to kill me with a flying razor blade, but my grandfather, he jumped in between me and the blade. It was terrible.”
Jack was stunned by the revelation. “Oh man. Jesus. I — I don’t know what to say.”
She let out a long breath and turned back toward him. “Not much to say. I took him down and Buddy over there ripped his throat out... And then —” she paused.
“And then?” Jack asked, lea
ning over the counter so as not to miss a word.
“And then I ate him.” She looked up at Jack and smirked. “Well, parts of him.”
“Wow.” He studied his newest friend for a moment. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Have you always been the bad-ass-super-hero type?”
Skyler laughed.
The Great Neck North Blazers football team had just won the big Homecoming game. The crowd was filled with friends and family congratulating the players, the coaches. The band was playing a somewhat loose version of “Sir Duke” while marching amongst the celebratory crowd.
Near a bench midfield the cheer leading squad was pulling sweat pants and jeans up over cold bare legs and making plans for a post-game food run.
Janey was packing up her pompons and saddle shoes as she chatted with Skyler. “So where to tonight? Bob’s Big Boy or Denny’s?”
Skyler was applying lip gloss while looking into a compact mirror. “Hmm, barbecue pork or a banana split. I’m having a Sophie’s Choice moment.”
Molly sat next to Skyler and joined the conversation. “You know, we did just win the Homecoming game. We could go to Bob’s for the barbecue and then bounce on over to Denny’s for dessert. We deserve it.”
Skyler laughed. “That sounds amazing. Let’s do this!” As they started to head noisily toward the parking lot Everett Campbell made his way to the group.
Skyler smiled up at her grandfather.
“Grampa, did I forget to tell you? We’re going to head out and get something to eat tonight. I should be home around 11.”
Janey piped up. “I’ve got my parents car, Mr. Campbell. I’’ll get her home safe.”
Everett nodded. “I appreciate that Janey, but angel, I really need you to come home with me now. It’s important.”
Skyler was never the whiny type and knew if her grandfather thought something was important, it was.
Plagued (Book 1): The Girl Who Chased The Shadows Page 13