by E. E. Borton
I kept rubbing my eyes trying to clear them so I could figure out what was happening in front of me. The shooting had stopped, but a large blob was still engaged with two smaller ones. A few seconds later, my right eye started to recover.
Crazy had one man by the throat and was pounding his purple head into the wall. The ragdoll’s hands were swatting at Crazy’s massive arms, but were powerless to stop him. He had another ragdoll flailing at his side while his other massive arm was wrapped around his neck.
My ears were ringing from the shotgun blast, but I still heard the bones snap. The flailing stopped and Crazy released his grip. A series of heavy punches from his free arm followed. The blood created a trail as the ragdoll slid down the wall. Crazy kept punching him on his way down to the floor. It was a sight to behold.
All of Castle’s men were on the ground, but so was Chris. There was nothing but air between him and the second blast from the double-barreled shotgun still smoking on the desk. His down coat was shredded over his chest, and tiny feathers swirled in the air around him. He was dead before his body hit the floor.
Palmer was kneeling in the doorway with his rifle raised. He was waiting for Crazy to finish his work before moving out into the hallway. With his chest heaving, Crazy looked over at me.
“You okay, Henry?” asked Crazy. “I thought he killed you, man.”
“No, I’m good,” I said, clutching my left arm. “He just winged me.”
“You don’t look so good,” said Crazy. “Your face is all fucked up.”
“So is yours,” I said, getting to my feet. “Where in the hell did he go?”
“Out that door,” said Crazy, pointing behind the desk as he picked up his rifle.
I turned and saw the half-opened door that was built to look like part of the bookshelf. All I could do was shake my head. I should have known he would have another way out.
“That’s some real Scooby-Doo shit,” said Crazy. “You got him?”
“Yeah,” I said, reloading.
“Okay, we got the rest of the house,” said Crazy, tapping Palmer on the shoulder. “Time to clean it.”
As they went into their hallway, I went into mine. I could see another door at the end of it that led outside. I could hear more gunshots as JD, Tucker, Doug, and Tom engaged what was left of Castle’s men. I raised my weapon and stepped outside. I fell back into the doorway as a horse flew by me. Not only did he have a Scooby-Doo door, he had a fucking getaway horse.
I jumped to my feet, took a few steps outside, and then dropped to a knee. I tried again to raise my left arm to steady my aim, but it wasn’t responding. I let it go limp and took a deep breath.
The snow was slowing the horse, but not by much. By the time I squeezed off the first round, he was forty yards away and moving farther with each gallop. Trying to knock Castle off the horse was no longer an option as he leaned over to make himself a smaller target.
When I made the decision, it was the first time I had ever hesitated to pull the trigger. I didn’t hesitate long. I had no other choice.
My first seven shots were my best chance at hitting the horse. The other seven were sent across the clearing in rapid fire. My left arm was useless in a fight, but I could still use it to reload. I sent fourteen more rapid-fire bullets toward my target before it disappeared behind the trees.
I slid the last magazine I had into the handle and started walking.
Chapter 52
The Four Horsemen
After taking a few steps, gunfire erupted from the second floor of the farmhouse. I was confident Castle’s remaining men were taking a beating from mine. It allowed me to walk out into the open with little fear that someone would take a shot at me. At least that’s how I justified it in my mind.
Most of the other gunfire was coming from the area around the barn and stables on the other side of the property. I turned around to make sure I kept the house between me and the shooting. As I approached the tree line where Castle disappeared, the shooting had stopped. Phase four had come to an end, but our prize was nowhere to be seen.
I didn’t know how many times I hit my target, but at least one bullet had found its mark. Clearing the group of trees, the dark spots between the horse tracks had turned into crimson streaks. Either the horse or its rider was bleeding out. So was I.
As the adrenaline dissipated in my system, it was replaced by pain and the sudden onset of fatigue. I had to stop walking to catch my breath. Without the crunching of the snow underneath my feet, I could hear the wheezing from my lungs.
When I turned around, there was another trail of blood following me. It was dripping from the glove on my left hand. It had pooled in the fingers and soaked the material inside. My arm started to throb with every heartbeat, and my lung burned with each breath. In spite of the fact I was in trouble, first aid would have to wait.
Stopping to catch my breath wasn’t working. I figured I might as well walk while I was bleeding. When my guys finished their jobs, I’d be easy enough to find.
I saw movement coming from a second-story window of a house I was passing. Other than that, there wasn’t another soul to be seen as I stepped onto the snow-covered road. The tracks and streaks continued for a hundred yards to an intersection. It was the main road running through the state park. It was the road home for Castle.
I stopped in the middle of the intersection. I knew the direction he was heading, but my legs were begging me to end my pursuit. After three labored breaths, I ignored them.
Speeding up my pace wasn’t an option, but neither was slowing it down. I was becoming discouraged and angry as the tracks continued beyond my sight. I had a feeling it was the horse that was injured and not Castle.
He already had enough distance between us to make the rest of his ten-mile journey home on foot before I caught up with him – if I caught up with him. He may not have been injured, but I certainly was. I had no idea how far I could go before I collapsed on the road. Even with that knowledge, I couldn’t make myself turn around.
Castle would make good on his promise to return to Bridgeport and Stevenson. There was no doubt in my mind he would get his revenge on me by finding Kelly and my family. I put images in the front of my mind of what he would do to them as I walked. They weren’t conjured from my imagination. They were summoned from my memory. It made the pain bearable. It was becoming harder to breathe, but I knew my body would give me everything it had left.
Focusing on the blood trail in front of me, I came to a bend in the road. As I came around it, I stopped again. I had to clear my vision before my brain could confirm what I was seeing down the road.
A large dark mass was lying in the middle of it. The horse had given its rider everything its body had left. The mass was two hundred yards away, but it seemed like two hundred miles. My brain had to confirm that the rider was pinned underneath it. As I walked closer, my brain was satisfied, and I raised my gun. Christmas had come early.
Not knowing if he was dead or alive, I moved into the trees flanking the road. From the moment I saw him until I was close enough to hit him with a rock, he didn’t move. When a branch snapped under my foot in the snow, he did.
With an ivory-handled revolver in his hand, General Patton tried in vain to push the horse off of him. He kicked at it with his free leg, but the other had the full weight of the dead animal on top of it. He wasn’t going anywhere. I couldn’t help but smile at the cockroach flailing on his back.
“Must be my lucky day!” I said, kneeling behind a large tree.
Two shots rang out. Neither one was close. He couldn’t turn over and had to fire from his back. From the safety of my tree, I squeezed off a round to fuel his panic. After four more shots, the hammer of his revolver fell on an empty chamber.
I stepped from behind the tree and had an unobstructed view of the roach. I took my time aiming while he pulled a Speedloader from his jacket pocket. It would give him six more chances to kill me. As he fumbled to load the pistol, I fired a single
shot.
Blood, bullets, the revolver, and pieces of his hand flew in every direction. While he screamed in agony, I held my aim and moved in closer to him. When I was satisfied there were no other weapons, I sat with my back against the horse. I was just out of his reach.
“What a day, huh?” I said.
“Go to hell,” said Castle, grimacing and clutching his bleeding hand to his chest.
“More than likely,” I said, laying my weapon beside me. “I feel bad for having to shoot this horse. The good news is that it’ll be the last living thing that dies because of you.
“You know, for a minute there, I didn’t think that was going to happen. I thought you might have gotten away. I can’t describe the feeling when I came around that bend and saw you lying in the middle of the road. Man, all that was missing was a big, red bow and some champagne. The world’s about to be a better place. You know that, right?”
“I have a family,” said Castle, looking up at the sky. “Two sons, a daughter, and three grandkids. My wife died six years ago of cancer. I’m all they have left.”
“Come on, General,” I said, pulling my knife. “You can beg for your life better than that.”
“I am begging you,” said Castle, turning his head to look at me through tears. “You beat me. I’m done. I swear to God, I’m done with all of this crap. I just want to go home now. I want to see my kids, that’s all. I made mistakes, and God knows that I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done.”
“You mean, now you’re sorry,” I said, holding the blade in my lap. “You didn’t seem too sorry at the farmhouse. I believed you when you said you were going back to hurt my family. What I don’t believe is that God knows how sorry you are, or that you’re done. Men like you are never done.”
“I am,” said Castle, pleading. “This is a lesson I promise you that I’ve learned. Please, don’t do this. Please. I just want to go home to my family. You can’t do this. They need me.”
“Donna needed her husband,” I said, propping up on my knees beside him. “River and Joey needed their father. You took him from us, and you’ll keep taking until there’s nothing left or somebody stops you.
“I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask you to murder my uncle. I didn’t ask you to come down to kill our families and steal our train. I didn’t ask you to threaten the people I love. I didn’t even ask to be the one to stop you, but yet here I am.”
“I won’t come back,” said Castle. “I swear on my children’s lives that I won’t come back. You’ll never see or hear about me again. It all stops right now. I give you my word this is over.”
“Me and my guys are nightmares for men like you. We keep it simple, General. We believe most people still choose to walk in the light, like my uncle. But then there are people who choose to walk in the darkness, like you. What you didn’t plan on was us. We walk through both.
“It’s why we can do the things others can’t. It’s why I can do what others won’t.”
When I come out of the light and walk into the dark places where men like Castle think that they’re protected, something inside of me shuts down. It’s as if I turn my own head away from what has to be done. When it’s over, not all of me comes back.
He grabbed at my arm as I pushed his chin up with the palm of my hand. All it took was a flick of my wrist to open up the side of his neck. He clutched at his wound for a few moments before his arms fell to his side.
I didn’t show him mercy. I couldn’t. It’s just the way things are now.
I leaned back against the horse. Castle’s blood was mixing with mine as it flowed away from us. What little adrenaline I had left was gone, and the pain returned. I was growing weaker, and it was time to make a decision. Finish bleeding out with Castle, or get on my feet. It would have been easier to stay down.
After walking twenty yards, my wheezing turned into a bloody cough. Fire ran up and down my spine every time my lungs heaved. My breathing was shallow, and I couldn’t get enough air. It felt like something had sucked all the oxygen off of the planet. Along with drowning in my own blood, muscle spasms in my arm added to the kaleidoscope of agony each step brought. I knew I didn’t have enough left to get me back to the farmhouse.
It felt like I had been walking for hours. I was finding it harder to concentrate and maintain my balance. The world was starting to close in around me. As if I needed reinforcement that I was in serious trouble, I turned around to see how much blood I was leaving behind me. I could still see that damned horse. I took another step, but it was my last.
Dropping to my knees didn’t help. Even in soft snow, the impact took what was left of my breath away. I tried not to panic, but I had been here before. I was dying.
I was dying, but I wasn’t dead. I couldn’t blame death for the reason I was watching a pale horse galloping toward me. The other horsemen of the apocalypse were following. Even as it came closer, I couldn’t figure out which was bigger, the horse or the rider.
“You look like hell,” said Crazy, jumping to the ground.
“What took you so long?” I asked, using what little energy I had left.
“We stopped for lunch,” said JD, coming up behind Crazy. “Can you ride?”
All I could do was look up at him and shake my head. I could see it in his face. He was scared for me.
“Okay, brother,” said JD, kneeling beside me and easing me down into the snow. “Doug is right behind us. He went to the house to get the med packs. Stay with me, okay?”
I nodded. Tucker and Tom rode past us. They were returning with the news everyone wanted to hear. Castle was dead. Mission accomplished.
“You’re a tough motherfucker,” said Crazy, leaning over me. “Hang on, man. You’re not going out like this.”
I was going out like that. Putting me on my back wasn’t helping me breathe. It was making it harder. Their words of encouragement were fading as if they were walking away from me. I was staring up at JD, but he was leaving as well. If I passed out, I knew I’d never wake up.
JD moved over as Doug dropped down beside me. Without hesitation, he started cutting off my coat and every layer down to my skin. Doug had advanced medical training while he was in the military. Out of all of us, he was my best shot at surviving.
“You have a big splinter of something sticking out of your side, Henry,” said Doug. “I need to get it out, and it’s going to hurt.”
“He’s already lost a lot of blood,” said JD, holding my head out of the snow. “Shouldn’t we leave it in and let Doc get it out?”
“I hear you, JD,” said Doug, “but we don’t have that kind of time. I think this is why he can’t breathe.”
I watched as Doug took off his gloves. I’m guessing he needed a better grip on whatever was sticking out of me. When he yanked on it, everything changed in an instant. Including the expression on JD’s face.
“Oh, shit!” said JD, widening his eyes.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a pink, frothy geyser shooting out of me. I swear, that thing sprayed out ten feet. The pain of Doug yanking the shrapnel out didn’t matter. I could breathe again. It was glorious.
“No, no, JD,” said Doug, smiling. “That’s a good thing, buddy.”
“Yes, it is,” I said, exhaling. “Thank you.”
“Anytime,” said Doug. “I had a feeling that was the problem.”
“Is everybody okay?” I asked. “The kids and Angie?”
“Everybody is fine,” said Doug.
He left the wound open and did his best to remove the remaining layers of clothing off of my left arm without jerking it around. When he uncovered the wounds, his smile disappeared. So did everyone else’s.
“Jesus Christ,” said JD.
Chapter 53
Valhalla
When I realized Castle was reaching under the desk to squeeze a trigger, I dove out of my chair as the front of it exploded. Most of the pellets from the buckshot flew by me, but some of them ripped through the
back of my left arm. One of the pellets nicked an artery somewhere in the mess.
With each heartbeat, blood oozed out of the shredded muscle and skin. I knew direct pressure wasn’t going to stop the bleeding. It would stop when there wasn’t enough left in me.
I stared at the wound for a moment before turning my gaze toward the sky. Nobody said a word as Doug rifled through the med packs. His face blocked my view when he found what he was looking for.
“We have to stop that bleeding, Henry,” said Doug, putting his hand on my forehead. “It’s arterial, but I can’t see where it’s coming from. It’s too high up on your arm for a tourniquet. I need to find it and clamp it shut.”
“This is where you tell me it’s going to hurt again, right?”
“A lot,” said Doug. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
He motioned for the others to come closer. Tucker and Tom were at my legs. Crazy knelt beside me and put one of his giant mitts on my chest and the other on my right arm. JD repositioned himself and held me down by my shoulders. All I could do was close my eyes and try to go somewhere else. I wasn’t there long before he dug into my arm. I now had a new pain to call the worst I’d ever experienced in my life.
I begged him to stop. He didn’t. Everything went dark.
When I came back, I opened my eyes to see panic in Doug’s. Streaks of my blood painted his face and the front of his coat. His arms were red up to his elbows. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t feel. I fell back into the darkness.
When I came back the second time, I was ready to die to make it stop. I could speak, hear, and feel again.
“We gotta take it,” said JD, unaware I was back. “He’s white as a ghost. He’s gonna die right here. We gotta take his arm now!”
“W-What?”
“Henry,” said Doug, leaning over me. “I can’t get ahold of it. It keeps slipping out of my fingers and going back up into your shoulder. Your arm is in the way, Henry. I can’t get to it.”