“Rach, you up there?” He asked and started up the stairs. He had only taken three steps when he spotted a figure and thrust his eyes and pistol toward the unknown, instantly seeing Rachel standing there silent. “Dammit, I almost shot your ass,” he said as he continued to climb the stairs. “What the hell are you doing up here?”
She knew better than to tell him the truth, yet where I was crouched I could see her well and began to worry that he might become suspicious of her just standing there and raise an alarm by yelling for backup.
Two more steps and he quickly saw her gun to his left on the floor. He thrust his gun up and focused on Rachel. “Where is he?” He asked quietly.
“Behind you with a gun at your head, so I wouldn’t do anything stupid if I were you,” I told him and watched him freeze in his tracks. The gun was in his left hand up near his head, so if he began to spin in hopes of getting off a shot before I could, I’d prove him dead wrong.
“There are a lot of cop’s out there, buddy. You’d be smart to just give up and come out with your hands up. Make it easy on yourself,” he explained.
“Rent-a-cops, you mean? Because there isn’t one damn law enforcement officer in the whole bunch of you. You’re nothing but a bunch of thugs taking advantage of people, although because of me you aren’t performing acts of murder and calling them experiments anymore,” I said to him in a happy tone that had to make his blood boil. There was a part of me that was doing all I could to enrage him, blind him to the point of violence so I could shoot him with justification in my mind. I wanted to shoot him so bad that I could taste it. He was no better than Morris and deserved exactly what I was ready to give them all.
Yet even amidst all of that, there was still that part of me that would only shoot him if he tried to give my position away, call for backup or anything else that could negatively affect my stay in this house any longer. I’d let him live, but that length of time would depend upon him and his actions in the coming minutes.
“Just give yourself up, buddy. That’s the only way you’re walking out of here alive,” he added, no doubt trying to scare me into giving up. Only problem with that tactic was that I wasn’t scared of him or any of the other Guards outside. Morris was no more frightening to me than a stuffed unicorn. I had already experienced the fear of them and found it to be futile. They were nothing but thugs and there was only one way to deal with a thug.
“You’ve got a lot of confidence for someone that could die at any second,” I told him; apparently the side of me that wanted him dead was the dominant today.
“Rachel, he can’t get both of us,” he told her. “Rush him and get your gun.”
“Go ahead, Rachel. Let’s see how fast and accurate I really am,” I said with a devilish grin on my face. I was more than confident, no, I was positive that when he moved and if she went along with his idea, I could drop both of them before either of them could fire a single shot at me. “Go ahead, maybe you’ll get lucky… then again, maybe you won’t.”
Rachel shook her head to his idea, as well as mine. She wanted no part in dying for nothing and we could both see it on her face.
“Pick up that damn gun and shoot him!” He said in a deeper tone. “You better remember whose side you’re on, because if you aren’t with us, then you’re with him and I’ll shoot you just as easily!”
“Back away, Rachel. Walk backwards until you are in that bedroom at the end of the hallway,” I instructed her.
“Don’t you do it, Rachel!” The Guard demanded of her.
The situation, like many before it, was quickly spiraling out of control and sooner or later the shooting would start and someone was going to die. That outcome depended upon a great many factors, yet only lead in two different directions. Either the Guard died or I died.
“Go, Rachel, now!” I instructed her.
The beautiful blonde was stone faced with terror. Unable to move forward or backward, as either direction could mean her death, yet continuing to stand stationary wouldn’t do much for her in any aspect. She looked from me, studying my face a few brief seconds before throwing her eyes to the Guard on the stairs. She saw something in my eyes apparently that loosened her fear and slowly I watched as she took a step backward, her eyes locked onto mine as if I were her inspiration and protector.
“Leave her alone and put your gun down!” I told the Guard on the stairs.
“It’s not happening, buddy,” he replied in a firm tone.
“I’m not playing with you, asshole! I will shoot you!” I added, hoping that at some point, rather quickly, he would see he had no advantage where he was and do what I told him. If he advanced, I’d cut him down. If he tried to retreat and go for help, I’d still cut him down. I had no idea what was going through his mind, but if he didn’t choose soon, and make the right decision, then I’d make it for him.
“This asshole killed people you knew and grew up with, Rachel. He’ll kill you two the moment he has the opportunity,” the Guard stated.
“You mean those sick twisted fucks like that Smith guy?” I asked. “The very guy that was using his own son to get people back to the school so he could murder them, take all of their shit, and then call it looking for a cure?” I brought my eyes to meet hers and shook my head. “I already had the opportunity to kill you, did I not?”
She nodded her head instantly.
“You go back with him, and you’re a dead woman,” I said to her. “You know that as well as I do, so if you want to live then listen to me and keep backing away.”
The Guard could see the confusion in Rachel’s face begin to melt away and knew that at any moment she would do what the Stranger was asking her to do. And when she did that, there was a good possibility that he would be outnumbered. The time for talking had ended and all that remained was the action.
“You’re gonna die today, buddy!” The Guard told me.
“Not by your hand,” I threw back at him. “And certainly not in your lifetime!”
The comment enraged him and I could see the fight coming, although he had to as well, but understood better than me that he didn’t stand a chance and would be killed if he even flinched the wrong way. The only logical option he had was to put the gun down, however, this was not that logical world and I’m pretty sure he thought I would torture him if he complied.
The unrelenting imagination had gotten the better of him and he was willing to resort to violence in order to bring his point home since his aggressive attempt at forcing his ideology on me hadn’t worked.
There was a loud popping noise, nothing like that of an average gunshot, but something much quieter. He felt a sudden sharp pain crash through his right shoulder and the Glock fell from his grasp. He watched it hit the step in front of him, bounce and head toward the first floor. That’s when he saw the parade of blood flow down his right arm to his hand and felt the sharp pain shift to a burning sensation that could not be put out. He looked up at me, pushing the pain away as best he could and threw a glare of pure hatred at me. I almost felt the need to duck, as if he could really move objects with his mind and he was about to crush me like a pesky insect.
“Morris is going to make you feel levels of pain you never knew existed, asshole!” He stated, although there was too much pain brewing within him to form a smile on his unquenched lips.
There was a second loud pop and the Guard fell back against the wall in a spray of blood and brain matter, which colored the white walls red, and then tumbled down the stairs like a rag doll.
I wasn’t sure if anyone had been close enough to the house to hear the terrible fall, and out of fear for my personal safety and getting shot in the back, I couldn’t move to the window and gaze out to see if anyone was coming. Rachel was still in the hallway and so was her Glock, which put us both in a rather precarious, and extremely awkward, position. I wasn’t positive she wouldn’t pick up her gun and shoot me in the back, while I’m certain her thoughts were pretty similar to mine.
She watche
d me with terror filled eyes, probably wondering when I would shoot her, or if I’d keep her and perform sinister things on her once they were all alone. I even caught a hint of her looking towards her pistol… this wasn’t starting off as a good day.
“They’re going to eventually find him. They won’t leave without us, and when they do…” I cut her off.
“Yeah, I know already. They’re going to kill me like they did back at the school,” I said to her almost annoyed at hearing that.
“Look, lady. I’m just trying to get out of this town and be left alone, but if your friends want a war, then I’ll give them one.” My thoughts after speaking quickly turned to my son. The obvious was staring me in the face, had been for some time, yet I refused to believe it. I wanted to think it was a fifty-fifty shot, although knowing what had gone on at the school and my lack of knowledge of the supposed military group that had taken people away, the odds of that diminished quickly. I began to think that Smith had simply told me that to reinforce a small amount of hope into my system, so that I wouldn’t kill him. Well that plan had backfired on him.
“There are more than enough vehicles around here to make an escape, but you’re still here. So I highly doubt you want to leave,” she said in a shaky voice.
Maybe she was right? Maybe I was planning something different and just didn’t know it yet. Just because you kill the main person in charge doesn’t mean the whole group will collapse, as I had expected. No, what I had done was put Morris in charge and he was becoming a force to be reckoned with. He didn’t scare me, even if he did I would never admit it, he had more of this mystery to him and intrigue than anything else. He was almost the kind of guy I would have followed, if given the opportunity and the lack of knowing what was really going on within those school walls. That’s what I hated most… that’s why I hated him so badly, I guess.
“Leave, right now. Just sneak out the back and go while you still can,” Rachel added.
“So you can shoot me in the back?” I asked her.
This distorted look of offense rocked her face and she walked quickly forward, bent and retrieved the gun, and then moved toward me until the barrel of my short rifle touched her chest. She handed me the gun in a non-threatening manner, glaring at me through unblinking eyes. “Take the damn thing and go!”
I felt that awkward state come to life as I stood there looking at the woman trying to give me her pistol. She might not have had the ability to shoot me after picking it up, but she had showed me courage in the face of unsurmountable danger and was now even fuming over my thoughtless words. “I didn’t mean anything by it,” I said to her.
“Well, I’m one of them, so why should I care what you think, remember?”
I hadn’t done anything wrong, yet I still felt as though I had hurt her feelings and it bothered me that I had been so cavalier with my words. Jesus Christ, what the hell is wrong with me? I didn’t do anything wrong!
“Stop it!” I told her swiftly. “I don’t know you from Adam, and I’m sure things might have been a lot different had I not got the drop on you first, or just missed you entirely. So please spare me the dramatics. I remember you from the hallway – Morris sent you to look for my son, stalling no doubt as he put a plan together. So tell me where you went when he sent you away?” I didn’t notice the anger rushing across my face, nor did I realize that I was setting further into the weapon, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. I was becoming my emotions, flammable thoughts which could easily ignite at the sound of the wrong words.
“I was sent to come around behind you, so when they tried to overrun you, I could give them cover fire and pin you down,” she stated honestly.
All that raw combustible emotion just faded away. I was expecting some far-fetched story about her going for my son only to remember that the military had taken him or something else to that degree. Something that she knew would make me unstable and allow her the chance to get away or cry for help. She did none of the above. She told me the truth.
I looked at her and studied the look on her face, the movement of her eyes, any slight amounts of body language that told me differently, but I found nothing that I could doubt and carry any further. That whole idea of fifty-fifty vanished from my head.
“So, Smith really did…” I stumbled upon my words, cleared my throat and went back to business. “So my son is…” It happened again, only this time I could feel the loss rip through me, tearing out my heart. That flammable vapor returned and I wanted it to explode with the effects of a nuclear weapon. Every person wearing a guard uniform was now a target that I would go after, as if God himself had sent me to cleanse the world of all the remaining evil.
“I don’t know what happened to your son,” she said softly. “The military did show up and took quite a few people from us, although it wasn’t as pleasant as Smith and Morris put it, but it did happen. I don’t want to get your hopes up…” Her words were cut off by my own.
I shoved the pistol back at her and pointed toward the window in the far bedroom at the back of the house. “Take this and go out the back. Climb down to the ground and get the hell out of here.”
Standing there with the Glock in her hand, her look turned to concern. “You’re not going to fight them… I mean, you can’t! They’ll kill you! They have you outnumbered and you cannot hold them off by yourself.” Her words came quickly and I could feel the emotion spewing from her mouth like it was a warm breeze through an open window.
I basked in it for a single moment, and then pointed toward the window once more. “Go!”
I turned and headed toward the window as she watched me from the hallway. I knelt by the window and began placing all of my mags near my feet, that way I could get to them quicker when I was ducking from their return fire. She hadn’t moved a muscle, so I pointed toward the window for the last time, to which she nodded and ran.
“You want a fight you son of a bitch? Then I’ll give you a fight you’ll never forget, all the way up to your last breath… which hopefully won’t be any longer than a few minutes from now,” I said aloud. I tried not to envelope my confidence into a cocky attitude. I need to be focused and sure with each squeeze of the trigger, not hate filled and arrogant to the point of knowing I had already won, as the roles could abruptly slid in Morris’ favor with the slightest of mistakes.
The street was empty of anyone but Morris. He leaned against the door of his cruiser smoking a cigarette, watching the clouds above move slowly past. He was in the perfect position to do nothing when the bullets started flying other than falter to the ground. He scratched the back of his neck and was about to pull the smoke from between his lips when a random gunshot broke the silence and he spun viciously the opposite direction. A few moments passed by, and then a sharp scream echoed and was swiftly cut off by another gunshot. Morris grabbed the radio on his left shoulder. “What’s going on? Who’s shooting?”
A barely audible voice spilled from the radio. “McNeal was shooting, sir. We ran into a small group of those things, we were all so busy we didn’t see the last one and he had to shoot or it would have gotten him.”
“Who was screaming?” Morris asked.
“I was just about to get to that, sir. Apparently McNeal didn’t see one – I have no idea how he didn’t, but it jumped him! Oh, God these things can move when they need to,” the voice informed Morris. “He’s bleeding pretty badly, sir. We need some medical staff here quickly.”
“Finish them off and keep everyone quiet,” Morris spat into the radio. “And make sure you idiot’s walk with your eyes open! We don’t need the whole neighborhood of those things descending upon us, understand?”
“But, sir. What about McNeal?” the voice added.
“There’s nothing we can do for him,” Morris stated without any linger of care in his voice. “Just leave him there and continue with clearing those houses. That little bastard is around here somewhere, I can feel it.”
“But McNeal is one of us,” the man added fur
ther.
Anger crept from Morris. “Then put a fucking bullet in his head if that’ll make you feel any better, but keep your asses moving! I want this guy found, now!”
The radio returned nothing but silence. Everyone had heard the communication and was either stunned by the lack of empathy for one of their own or they were so accustomed to it that it wasn’t worth arguing over.
Morris took a drag of his cigarette and turned around, resting against the cruiser once more, his eyes dancing from house to house still looking for anything out of the ordinary. “I swear these dumbasses are going to get me killed one of these days,” he mumbled.
The rain had stopped falling several hours ago, yet the darkened clouds still hung overhead. A cool breeze blew down from the north, whipping through his hair, across the street and blowing debris from one yard into the next. It was quiet, ominously quiet, and he still hadn’t gotten used to the lack of noise. It was like being in an airliner with the engines roaring one minute, pushing you up to your cruising altitude, only to suddenly hear absolutely nothing but the passing wind. A shiver ran down his spine and he tried his best to shake it off.
Peering through the small red dot sight, I replayed what the Young Woman had taught me about shooting at distance without a magnified optic. She had told me that even the greatest of snipers never went for a headshot, as there was too much that could go wrong either before or after the trigger had been pulled. She had instructed me to shoot for center mass – the area between the neck and waist – which was a larger target and increased the likelihood of scoring a direct hit and bringing whatever you were shooting at down. In this case, that target of opportunity was Morris and I had to get it right the first time. There wasn’t enough distance between the two of us that in the unlikely chance I missed, I’d be able to get off another shot before he was alerted to the fact that someone was shooting at him. Although there would not be much he could do if I did miss, I still didn’t want to risk him calling for backup, as the Guards were already worked up and would work together without any confusion.
Day One (Book 3): Alone Page 11