“We’ve got to get out,” Cody said. “We’ve got enough fuel left to get as far away from San Antonio as we need to. I mean, look at those gates for God’s sake. What the hell is going to come through there? We don’t know anything about what we’re up against here. What are we thinking? What was I thinking? I’m not putting Rachel in front of that – no way. It was a stupid idea. Rita’s dead for Christ’s sake.”
“No.”
It was Rachel who spoke.
“There’s nowhere else to go Dad,” she said. “They’ll find us no matter how far we run. They’ll find me.”
Cody shook his head. He didn’t want to believe that.
They looked at each other in silence. Before anyone could say anything else on the matter, they heard the sound of a growling engine down on the street.
Marv rushed over to the edge of the rooftop. He looked down and sighed. “Guess who?” he said.
Cody peered down to the street.
The yellow bus was creeping slowly down the road.
“Can we still get a restraining order against this guy?” Lance said.
“It’s that goddamn school bus,” Nick said. He glanced at Cody and there was a flicker of anger his eyes. “I told you man. I told all of you. If we’d taken care of him yesterday then this threat wouldn’t be hanging over us all the time. Listen, I hear what you’re saying about running Cody. But no matter where we go, this asshole’s going to be on our tail, never mind the Exterminators. We’ve got something they want.”
Nick dropped to his knees. The rifle barrel pointed towards the street.
“How good are you with a rifle Marv?” he asked. “You’ve got the most experience out of all us. Think you could shoot out the tires from up here?”
Marv looked at Nick with a puzzled expression.
“You don’t ask much do you Nick?”
“We gotta stop that bus man,” Nick said. “If we can take out the tires then they’re on foot. If they’re on foot, we can go down and finish it.”
Marv leaned over the edge and took a good look at the bus. Cody and Rachel stood further back, but with their eyes glued to the street like everyone else. The bus had rolled to a stop directly outside the Robert E. Lee building. Mackenzie clearly didn’t care that they knew he was there. He had to be sending them a message – letting them know that he was going to keep following them until he got what he wanted.
Without a word, Marv took the AR-15 out of Nick’s hands. He looked down the barrel and shook his head.
“It’s dark as hell,” he said. “But I’ll give it a go.”
“Don’t bother,” Rachel said.
She came over and stood beside Marv, Lance and Nick at the edge. Cody followed and they both had a good look. The school bus was pointing east on West Travis Street. But as Rachel leaned further over, the bus began to crawl forward a few meters. From afar it looked like somebody who was driving around a new neighborhood in slow motion, looking for the right address.
The bus continued forward. Now it picked up a little speed, like it was on its way out of there and in a hurry. Cody could hear the distant crunching noise from below as the wheels rolled over the freshly fallen black snow.
“He’s teasing us,” Cody said.
“He’s getting away,” Nick said. “That’s what he’s doing.”
Rachel reached a hand towards the street. The bright colors of the shield returned, dancing along the edge of her forearms. Her eyes dulled to charcoal black.
She clenched a fist and tugged on something that wasn’t there.
The bus jerked backwards on the road. The engine made a harsh choking noise and the wheels sprayed black snow everywhere.
“Holy shit,” Nick said, jumping up to his feet. He burst out laughing and clapped his hands like he’d just won the lottery jackpot. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Let’s do some asshole fishing. Go on Rachel! You bring him to us girl.”
Rachel continued to pull her arm back into her body. It looked like she was tugging on a piece of heavy rope, reeling it in slowly. Her teeth were clenched. Her black eyes focused. Cody knew that look – he’d seen it on her face many times before. The first time he’d seen it was in Brackenridge Park when she’d called on the crows to annihilate Mackenzie. It was a look of absolute concentration.
The bus’s engine continued to scream in protest. It sounded like a wounded, frightened animal begging for release.
Nick, Marv, Crazy Diamond and Lance had their guns trained on the bus. They were waiting to open fire. Any second now, somebody was going to jump out the door and make a run for it. And when they did, the shooters would be ready.
With any luck, Mackenzie would be the first to jump ship.
But then the truck staggered forwards a few meters. There was a thudding noise as the chassis bounced on the road and then the engine howled with relief.
The bus raced down the street, picking up speed.
“Damn it!” Nick said, staggering back from the edge.
Rachel spun around to look at Cody. He saw the confusion all over her face and he shrugged as if to tell her it didn’t matter. At the same time, the colors of the shield disappeared while her black eyes cooled to blue.
“Sorry,” Rachel said, looking at Nick. “I thought I had it.”
“Forget it babe,” Crazy Diamond said, throwing the girl a smile. “We’ll see him again soon enough.”
Nick pursed his lips together and gazed at the empty street.
“That lucky son of a bitch,” he said.
Cody walked over to Rachel. He put his arm around her shoulder and looked at the others.
“You see?” he said. “Do you get it now? We’re not ready for this. Rachel’s not ready for this. How’s she supposed to control the Exterminators when she can’t control a bus?”
Rachel wriggled free of Cody’s grip. She looked up at her father and her eyes were ablaze with a barely controlled anger.
“I’m ready,” she said. “What would you know about it? You’re just standing there on the sidelines like a stupid coach telling me what to do all the time.”
Cody was shocked. He looked at Rachel and felt a terrible sensation – almost like he was looking at a total stranger.
“I’m just telling the truth Rachel,” he said. “You’re still my daughter and I’m still your dad. I’m not trying to be an asshole – I’m trying to protect you.”
Rachel shook her head. “I don’t need your protection anymore.”
She walked over to the other side of the building. A moment later, Cody heard the violent rattling of the cars dancing on the street again.
“We need to get back,” Crazy Diamond said, stepping forward. She spoke in a calm and quiet voice, perhaps in an attempt to diffuse the familial tension. “We’re all tired and stressed and let’s face it, a little bit cranky. And besides, it’s damn cold out here.”
But Rachel made them wait a little while longer. She forced the cars to dance and there was nothing anyone could say to make her stop. It was practice after all, even if it wasn’t the most delicate kind. She stood alone for at least another ten minutes. Eventually it was Crazy Diamond who persuaded her to call it a day.
Back at the Rand, the temperature inside the building continued to drop. Nobody on the seventh floor took off their coats, hats and gloves after getting back from the Robert E. Lee apartments.
They ate sparingly. Nobody had much of an appetite but they shoved a little food into their mouths. It was a chore that had to be done.
After dinner, Lance and Nick went downstairs to stand guard.
Cody and Rachel sat next to one another on the floor. But even though they were close, Rachel still hadn’t said a single word to Cody since they’d come back from the Robert E. Lee building. She hadn’t said much to anyone. For his part, Cody regretted voicing his doubts so publicly. He could have waited. He could have been a bit more tactful perhaps. By speaking his mind, he’d instilled his fears in Rachel and she had enough of her own
to deal with.
They sat in silence, like death row prisoners waiting for the call.
6
Cody did fall asleep eventually.
He must have because the sound of gunfire woke him up.
Loud, frantic footsteps pounded on the floor. They might as well have been trampling over his head.
Cody heard Marv’s voice yelling something about being under attack. He sat up and tried to wriggle his way free of the sleeping bag, all the while trying to clear the fog in his mind.
Rachel was sitting up beside him. She unzipped her bag and got to her feet.
Crack-crack-crack!
This second round of gunfire spurred Cody’s freezing cold hands into life. His fingers found the zipper and he pulled so hard that he almost yanked the damn thing off, which would have left him trapped inside the bag.
“What the hell’s going on?” he said, jumping to his feet. He took off his gloves, grabbed the gun belt beside the sleeping bag and wrapped it around his waist as fast as he could.
Crazy Diamond hurried over to his side. Cody’s first thought was that she looked fresh – her long jet-black hair was combed to perfection and it poked out both sides of her hood. There was a sharp look in her eyes. Unlike Cody, she was ready for this. Whatever this was.
Her gloved fingers gripped the handle of her pistol.
“Give you one guess,” Crazy Diamond said.
“Mackenzie?” Cody said. “He’s here?”
She nodded. “He’s paying us a midnight visit.”
Cody groaned. “I hate that guy so much.”
“Well let’s go and tell him,” Crazy Diamond said with a wink. “Sounds like Nick and Lance could use the help.”
Cody had almost forgotten that Nick and Lance were downstairs on watch duty. He looked over his shoulder at Rachel who was standing a few feet behind the adults. She was looking at Cody but she hadn’t ventured over to his side.
“What about Rachel?” he said.
“She stays here,” Crazy Diamond said. She turned to the girl. “You hear that Rachel? You stay in this room and don’t do anything or go anywhere until we get rid of these guys. No magic tricks. You keep out of sight.”
Rachel nodded. She looked at Cody, then went back to her sleeping bag and sat down cross-legged on top of it.
“It’ll be okay,” Cody said to her.
She nodded but didn’t look at him.
“Let’s go,” Marv said, checking the magazine on his Glock 17.
Cody and Crazy Diamond followed Marv out of the room and shut the door behind them. They hurried towards the stairs while listening to a burst of rapid gunfire coming from further down the narrow stairwell.
They rushed down a couple of flights towards the fighting. Cody’s heart was racing, his finger glued to the pistol trigger.
It wasn’t long before they ran into Nick who was retreating backwards up the staircase. They met somewhere around the third floor. Nick had his back to the others – he was facing downstairs, his AR-15 pointing towards the lower floors.
Marv bolted downstairs when he saw that Nick was alone.
“Nick!” he said. “Where’s Lance?”
Nick’s body jerked backwards at the sound of Marv rushing towards him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the others standing at the top of the stairs. Then he looked at Marv and shook his head. “Sorry Marv,” he said. “He took one in the chest when they stormed the building. The bastards jumped us out there – they threw some sort of smoke bomb at us in the street. Forced us back inside the building. It was chaos man. They got in and threw another bomb on the first floor, pushing us back further to the stairs. That’s when they started shooting.”
“Oh Jesus Christ!” Marv said, doubling over. He looked like he was about to be sick on the landing but almost immediately he straightened back up again. Cody saw the old war veteran trying to put his game face back on. As far as Cody could tell, it was getting harder for Marv to do that.
“How many?” Crazy Diamond said.
Nick shook his head. “Hard to tell,” he said. “Gotta be at least fifteen to twenty ragtags down there. Mackenzie too. I saw that bastard walk through the smoke like he was Darth Vader. I don’t even know if I hit any of them. I’ve just been shooting at smoke all this time.”
“Oh shit,” Cody said. “We’re all that’s left between Mackenzie and Rachel – just the four of us.”
“Lance,” Marv said, running a hand through his hair. “Rita, Laney, Johnny Boy, Harry – all of them, they’re gone. Those bastards have killed them all.”
“It’s not over yet Marv,” Crazy Diamond said. “We’re still here. Right? It ain’t much but it’s gotta count for something.”
Marv looked at Crazy Diamond and nodded. But Cody could see in Marv’s dazed expression that the old soldier was struggling to process these latest deaths. It wasn’t surprising – Lance and Rita might as well have been his own kids, such was the close bond they shared.
They heard a rattling noise further down the stairs.
Nick leaped down a couple of steps and fired a volley of angry shots down the staircase. Cody did likewise. They had to at least let Mackenzie know that they were still there and with any luck, drop a few of the ragtags too. If nothing else, it would buy Cody and the others time to think.
The ragtags weren’t slow in returning fire. A barrage of bullets came back upstairs. At the same time, a faint cloud of smoke drifted slowly upwards, as if it was making its way towards the roof.
“Did I just hear a machine gun down there?” Cody said, when the shooting had stopped. “Where the hell did they find a machine gun?”
Nick shrugged. “Looks like they’ve let off another smoke bomb too,” he said. “They’re trying to work their way upstairs. They know she’s up here.”
“How the hell are we getting out?” Cody said.
“What about the back door?” Crazy Diamond asked.
“Mackenzie might be ugly but he’s not stupid,” Nick said. “He’s bound to have covered the back.”
“Yeah I know that smart ass,” Crazy Diamond said. “But if he’s put anyone out back on guard it’ll be the bare minimum. Two or three ragtags at most. You said maybe about twenty followers down front? Mackenzie can’t have many more soldiers than that. That’s about the same number we saw with him yesterday. And besides, you know what that cocky bastard’s like – he doesn’t think we’ve got a chance of getting to the back door. That’s gotta be our best chance.”
There was a stamping noise from below. Loud footsteps came charging up the stairs and it sounded like a SWAT team had stormed the building.
“Here they come again,” Nick called out.
Marv leaped down a few steps, pushing his way past Nick and Cody. Then he opened fire and started shooting down the staircase.
“C’mon!” Marv yelled. “Come and get us.”
This challenge was met by a vicious onslaught of return fire. Cody could see the ragtags leaning over the handrail a couple of flights down and shooting up at random. They weren’t aiming at much in particular, but Mackenzie’s troops were getting closer. And they were still on the move.
The shooting stopped. The stairwell echoed with the sound of feet pounding off the hard floor.
Cody, Nick and Marv were forced back upstairs to where Crazy Diamond was waiting.
The ragtags halted their approach.
A sudden silence swept over the staircase.
“There’s no way we can push them back,” Crazy Diamond said, whispering to the others. “They’re going to keep coming at us until we’ve got no room left to run.”
“We have to push them back,” Cody said.
“It has to be the back door,” Nick said. “We’ve got to get Rachel out of here.”
A single pair of footsteps marched towards them.
“You’re brave soldiers,” Mackenzie called up the stairs. “No one can say otherwise. But I’ve got news for you my friends – the Exterminators are up
on us. I’m here for Cody and the girl – nobody else has to die today at my hand. What do you say Cody? What would the hero do in one of those movies of yours?”
“Go fuck yourself!” Nick yelled. “You want them, come and get them.”
“I will Nick,” Mackenzie said. “You’re outnumbered. I can kill you at anytime I want.”
Nick looked at Cody and grinned like a crazy man. Cody glanced back up the staircase towards the seventh floor where Rachel was alone.
They could at least give her a fighting chance.
“We push them back,” Cody said in a hushed voice to the others. “No matter what. As long as Rachel has a clear path to the roof of the Robert E. Lee apartments, that’s all we can hope for. Right? It doesn’t matter what happens to us – there are bigger things at stake. We haven’t been working our asses off these past few months for nothing. Neither has Rachel.”
Marv nodded. “Right,” he said. “We make a path. One full of dead ragtags.”
“Ready?” Cody said.
“Ready,” Crazy Diamond said.
“3-2-1…” Marv said.
Cody took a deep breath.
“Go!” Nick said.
They charged downstairs, dropping down to the next floor in a matter of seconds. There was no subtlety in their attack – it was all or nothing now. They reached the landing and turned to the right. The ragtag soldiers were standing at the foot of the stairs.
Both groups looked at one another. No more barriers in between them.
There was a split second of silence that seemed to last forever.
The ragtags aimed their weapons upstairs.
Cody’s finger squeezed the Glock’s trigger and then…
An explosion.
It was a noise so loud that Cody didn’t hear it so much as he felt it rattling his bones. For a second he thought he was dead – that the ragtags had shot him and this violent jarring sensation was the experience of his soul falling into the abyss.
Mega Post-Apocalyptic Double Bill Page 79