The sky was starting to get dark, they definitely should have been back by now but still there was no sign on them. He got up and walked along the metal railing again and back. He checked again from the standing position, starting all the way from one side and working across and then working back.
On the second pass he saw something. He watched it to try and figure out what it was. Then there was another thing next to the first. He watched them get slowly closer. What were they?
After a minute of studying them he saw it. They were horses, men on horse back. Only two, not enough he thought. Either something had gone wrong or these were not the group returning.
He jumped down onto the upper roadway and then climbed over the rail and clambered down the edge. Dropping to the roof of the car he bounced and did a forward flip finally landing on the lower street. He rummaged through the storage compartments again for what he would need for a trap just in case, then he would head back up to wait.
Greene held onto the man in front of him for dear life, this as the first time he had ever ridden a horse and if he had his way it would be the last too.
They were getting close to the Humvee now, he was sure of it, he thought he could see the bridge up ahead. If they rode in quietly maybe they would catch the little shit Ira napping. That would be nice he thought, I can strange him, wring his little neck like squeezing water out of a towel.
Either that or maybe he’d repay the kid for bouncing that rock off of his head, only his wouldn’t be a little stone it would be a brick.
He tried to ignore the ache in his groin as the horse bounced him up and down with every step of its stupid clumsy hooves.
Maybe he’d run the horse over too when he got in the Hummer. Run them both over, riders too. No, her thought… must play nice, at least for now. One day soon he would make a play for power from these barbaric fools, he was smarter than any five of them put together and he’d already proven his propensity for violence today, he could probably out wit and out kill every single one of them.
“Woah, Hold up here fellas, we don’t want to tip off the kid.”
They stopped the horses some way off from the bridge so that they would walk in quieter on foot. The two guards looked at each other, they still thought that this might be a trap, this would be a perfect place for an ambush.
Wearily they walked towards the shadowy area under the bridge making their way as quietly as they could, watching every shadow, every corner for sign of Valagoth hiding, waiting to spring out and attack. With every step the tension grew more and more and… nothing happened.
They were all but under the bridge now, and still nothing had happened.
“Wait here,” Greene whispered and slipped silently between the cars, looking all around for any signs of a trap, for any signs of the boy.
He thought about it for a minute… what if he had been attacked? What if there were people living in the buildings near here and they had come and taken the boy away? Not likely he thought. Looking at the Hummer nothing looked out of place, if someone had come along they would have ransacked the place. Unless… maybe this was a trap and they left everything all neat to lull him into a false sense of security…
Cautiously he walked up to the Hummer and looked inside. Nothing. He checked underneath. Nothing. He climbed up on top and looked in the roof rack. Nothing.
Climbing down he thought about it one last time, what if… no he wouldn’t be that stupid, would he? Walking around to the rear of the Humvee he slowly reached out for the compartment that Ira had managed to squeeze himself into before, maybe he was hiding in it for some reason. Hiding from the natives he maybe?
Slowly he reached out and put a hand on the handle. Turning it yanked it open. Nothing.
Sighing he closed the hatch and looked around, maybe the kid was off taking a shit? Whatever, he wasn’t here that was all that mattered.
Walking back over to the guards he shrugged.
“I don’t know he must have gone for a walk or something. Come on, I’ll give you a ride back to your horses.”
Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the key for the Hummer and walked towards it again.
Still looking around for the ambush the two guards started to follow him. Sveen made his way through the crushed up cars first, watching the ground for trip wires or some other kind of trigger. Even if Greene hadn’t tripped anything, maybe he was in on it and had deliberately missed the trigger, whatever it may be.
Suddenly, almost noiselessly a thin loop of high tensile rope dropped from the heavens and landed around the second guards throat, there was a yank, it grew tight and suddenly the guard was wrenched up into the air.
On the other end of the rope Ira jumped off of the bridge using his own bodyweight and inertia to hoist the larger man up into the air. He had worked out the length of the rope perfectly and as soon as he touched gently down he tied off the rope to a trucks tow bar before gravity could realize that it had been tricked and the guard came crashing down.
Sveen wheeled around at the faint sounds and drew his hand gun but the boy was gone in a blur.
Suspended up in the air by his throat the other guard twitched violently, clawing at his throat and dripping urine down off his shoes.
“Greene!” called Sveen.
Greene turned and startled at the scene, he hadn’t heard anything.
“What the fuck!? What happened?”
“I dunno, it was that kid I think, one second he was there the next he was gone.”
“Watch out for flying rocks.” Said Greene sourly.
“What?”
“The little shit likes to throw rocks and he’s got great aim.” he explained.
Sveen kept his aimed in front of him now, he worked his way in a semi-circle always keeping the gun aimed straight ahead.
“come on, lets just get in the truck, we’ll haul ass out of here and he’ll be left with no one to play with.”
Turning back toward the truck Greene didn’t hear the whirling sound until it was too late, the ‘x’ shaped tire iron that Ira had found in one of the cars came flying out of nowhere and struck him right across the face, catching the bridge of his nose it sent instant pain through his sinus and filled his eyes with tears, temporarily blinding him.
“You God dammed little cock-sucker! When I get my hands on you I’m gonna beat you to death! I’m gonna break every fucking bone in your God dammed body and then I’m gonna light you on fire!”
Sveen ran over to his side. “Are you alright?”
“No I’m not fucking alright you fucking retard, I just got hit in the fucking face!”
Wiping the tears from his eyes he looked around and tried to ignore the throbbing in his nose.
Blood started to leak down his face and he wiped at it with his hand. “Get in the god damned car, NOW!”
He strode over to the driver’s side of the Hummer and jerked open the door. Sitting on the driver’s seat the rattlesnake that Ira had found on one of his walks began to rattle.
Well out of striking distance he wasn’t as afraid of it as he was just pushed beyond frustration. Maybe he could try to make it strike and it would fall out and he could just crush its damned head under his boot heel.
He threw his head back and laughed, staggering away from the truck, dizzy with pain and frustration and the blood rushing through his veins. Stopping suddenly he spat blood that had dripped into his mouth.
“Okay Boy, I’ll make you a deal.” He yelled aloud enough for Ira to hear while he searched around for something to get the snake out of the stuck.
Sveen just stood looking through the passenger side window at the snake in disbelief – Who was the damned kid?
While he stared at the snakes rapidly vibrating tail he caught another movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned to look at it but it was too late – Ira dashed out of the shadows and using a specially placed rock he leaped up into the air spinning like a top and gracefully landed a devastating kick into Sveen’s
face.
The blow knocked his head back into the Hummer hard enough to rock the five ton armored truck, and in a blur Ira vanished.
At the sudden thud Greene whirled around and managed only the see the slightly rocking Hummer and the unconscious Sveen’s body under it.
That’s it, no more time wasting, he thought. He reached down and grabbed a chunk of twisted metal with a crook at one end. Stalking back over to the Humvee he quickly reached in and yanked the snake out with the metal and threw them both as far away as possible in single violent action.
Wasting no time he climbed into the driver’s seat, slammed the door shut and reached forward to ram the key into the ignition.
Before he could a loop of thick string slipped around his neck and jerked him back in the seat.
Forcing himself back in the seat a little took some of the pressure off so that the string wasn’t choking him but he had to concentrate to hold the position.
Ira slipped from the back and sat in the passenger seat.
That was it, Greene raged in his mind, he didn’t care if he choked himself out he was going to grab the scrawny kid by the neck and squeeze and he wasn’t going to stop until he heard something pop.
As he reached for him Ira slipped a little noose around Greene’s wrist and opening the door let himself tumble out.
He quickly slammed the door shut pulling the string taught and tied the end of it to the outside handle. Taking his time then he walked slowly around the front of the car like a cat taunting a dog through a window.
Greene followed the boy with eyes trying not to move his head and find the position where the edges of his vision didn’t start to blur and go dark.
Ira opened the driver’s side door and stood just out of reach. Taking a breath and trying to loosen the string around his neck with his one free hand Greene glared at the boy so hard his blood shot eyes were bulging from his head.
Giving it one last try Greene grabbed for the boy with everything he had, he tried to stretch his fingers, his wrist, his elbow, his shoulder. He strained against the ropes at his neck and wrist with blood and spit frothing at his mouth until he slowly finally passed out.
Ira watched shaking his head and when the show was over he reached in, grabbed the key quickly from the passenger seat where it had fallen, watching Greene the whole time in case it was a trick and went back up to the top of the bridge to wait and keep watch for the others.
XXIII
Approaching the gate at a slow canter Lucas took the lead with Baudoin next and Fallon last trying to put as much distance between Jackson and the guards as possible. They may not know every face or name but someone as big as him tends to stand out in the memory.
“Open the gate!” Lucas commanded roughly.
“On who’s order?” the guard replied, eying them over suspiciously.
“On the order of Skell! He wants the Freak’s temple of Erebos burned to the ground.”
The guard laughed and signaled one of the others to start walking the team of donkeys to pull open the gate. He turned back to them still smiling, but as he looked from one to the other of them the smiles slipped a little.
“There’s a lot of you ain’t there to burn down one buildin’?” He studied them a little harder. “Where’s you’re flash? You gotta have flash if you’re gonna burn down a building.”
His hand had started to tense on his weapon, but before he could raise it Baudoin drew a pistol and shot him in the chest. That set off a small chain reaction of gunfire and they quickly took out the five other guards.
Voices started to rise back over at the main camp.
“Damn, let’s go, quickly!”
Gunfire was common in Helheim even inside the camp, but around the gate that much gunfire usually meant trouble and it drew attention.
The gate had stopped moving but there was just enough room to ride through on their horses. Taking a moment to hopefully slow down any pursuit Lucas rode over and cut the ropes tied to the donkey teams, any pursuit now should be limited to foot soldiers and horses while they found a way to get it open further.
He rode through last and they galloped away back the way they had come.
They came to a junction where another major road crossed and they stopped for a moment to get their bearings. They could see the hillside where Griffith park was and knew the way would be tough and winding, maybe if they went around instead of through it might actually be quicker.
They rode east out of the sun hoping that they remembered the map correctly, there should be a major freeway in that direction and hopefully there were no major settlements between here it.
As they got further down the road it curved to the right and Robert started to worry if he hadn’t misremembered the details. They rode a little further and he breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted one of the blue and red shields that marked the interstate freeways. It was faded and rusted, but it looked like it said 5 in the center in white paint.
Riding faster now, with more certainty, they knew that when they got to it all they had to do was follow the five north and it would take them all the way back to the Humvee.
They rode around a curve and under a bridge, the road stared to slope upwards under them. After a few more seconds they started to ride over the five. Either they had missed a turn or someone at some point had moved the sign. They ended up having to ride over the five and then back onto it on the other side.
There were a few snarled points where during the great plague terrified motorists had smashed into each other in frustration all trying to escape but for the most part they were able to ride freely between the cars or along the side rail.
Robert glanced around trying to see if they were being followed and caught a final glimpse of the flame topped tower of the Valagoth, it seemed to burn brighter now with the falling of dusk and while he hoped he never laid eyes on it again he knew that it would haunt his dreams.
They rode for another four or five miles as fast as they could but the horses started to slow under the weight of two riders and when they saw the first large green sign hanging over the freeway, despite severe weathering and layers of graffiti they could still make out the words Burbank and an arrow, they exited and tried to get their bearings.
They stopped and turned the horses around, the animals weren’t the only ones who needed to catch their breaths, the adrenaline was wearing off now and pain was setting in.
Robert took shallow breaths, on his one side his arm and side ached and itched from the buckshot and on the other he thought that he had a broken rib, every time he tried to breathe any deeper it felt like he was being hit again.
“Which way… do you… think?” he managed between breaths.
Lucas turned his horse again and looked both directions.
“This way.” he said finally indicating left.
Robert looked at Tommy, his face was badly swollen and was coated in blood, one eye was almost completely closed. “How are you doing Tommy?”
He moaned and managed to give a shaky thumbs-up.
“Just hang on a little while longer, we’re almost there and when we find Greene we’ll see how he likes a taste of his own medicine.”
“Definitely.” Jackson rumbled, his eyes drooping in sadness at the sight of his friend in so much pain.
“Okay let’s go, if we hurry we might still head them off.” Lucas said and dug his heels into his horse’s sides.
They rode around in circles for just a few minutes until they found familiar territory and they followed the road back towards the bridge and the Humvee.
As they got close they slowed down a little when they saw the two Greutungi guards’ horses, approaching a little slower they surveyed the area. They couldn’t make out detail but they saw something hanging from the bridge, there was a moment of fear and panic when they thought it might be Ira, but after a second of scrutiny they knew that it was too big and didn’t look like him. It looked like one of the guards.
Then I
ra stood up on top of the railing and waved a hand high overhead in a wide excited arc.
They all breathed a sigh of relief and started to laugh.
On the bridge Ira stopped waving and brought the binoculars up to his face again.
Pointing, the boy screamed. “LOOK OUT!”
The scream was high pitched and desperate, they turned quickly to see what had caused the boy to break his vow but not quick enough.
There was a sharp whoosh sound as an arrow cut through the air, Jackson exclaimed in pain as it hit him in the shoulder. At the back on the slowest most burdened horse and presenting the easiest target the lone bowman had singled him out first.
Fallon, Baudoin and Lucas all turned the horses quickly, the bowman already had another arrow knocked and ready to fire but was cut down from multiple bullets before he could aim properly. The arrow hit Fallon and Jackson’s horse in the side and it reared up screaming in pain and then stumbled and fell on its side.
The others quickly dismounted, Lucas and Baudoin went to check the bowman, make sure he was indeed alone and in fact dead.
Robert went to check on the others, he helped Fallon to her feet and they both helped get Jackson’s leg out from under the panicked horse.
“Jackson, are you okay? Can you move your arm?”
Propped up on his left arm his right cradled to his chest and gasping in pain Jackson managed to grunt an affirmative and nodded his head slowly.
Fallon pushed at the flank of the horse and it tensed trying to get to it’s feet, but only ended up trashing back in pain and screaming in pain.
They tried to time the horses undulations and slipped Jacksons legs free.
Lucas came over and whispered to the horse, gently petting its neck. After just a few seconds the animal calmed and lay still, breathing heavily.
He placed the barrel of his gun at its temple and pulled the trigger spraying equine brains across the faded blacktop. The other horses well-used to gunfire spooked at the sudden sound or perhaps it was the dead silence that followed.
Long Live The Dead Page 13