by Sweet, Dell
The car lifted completely off the ground. The concussion from the explosion took Mike's hearing for the next two or three minutes. The car crashed back down, burying its nose in the dirt at the base of the cliffs. A body flew from the interior and lay burning on the ground. The car jumped back up as something else beneath it exploded, came back down, skittered to the left and landed on the burning body, snuffing the flames out. One of the rear tires blew with a loud wham, then another one went, and the car dropped closer to the ground at the rear.
Tim grabbed his sleeve from behind, startling Mike momentarily.
He and Lilly stood, one holding a deer rifle, the other holding a Forty Five caliber pistol. Candace headed for the wall. Mike glanced over at Ronnie so he would know they were going.
Two minutes of easy climbing, and they were in the scrub brush at the back of the parking lot.
From the square side of the parking lot it probably looked as though there were nothing at all at the back of the parking lot. Fine, Mike thought. He only hoped none of them knew what was below the parking lot, but he didn’t believe it. Anyone who grew up here knew what was at the edge of this parking lot. Anyone here now knew they were in the cave down on the Old River Road. Mike believed it was only a matter of time before they came for them. When they did, he would be here waiting.
Before the thoughts were completely formed in his head, three people came running straight toward them where they stood within the scrub brush. Four heavily armed men were pursuing them. Firing as they ran. The three runners appeared to be unarmed. Mike stepped from the screening scrub. He had given it no thought at all. He stepped nearly into the path of the lead runner. Her mouth flew open in surprise; a small spatter of blood tattooed one of her cheeks. Mike stepped easily around her, took aim at the first of the four chasers and shot him just as he was slowing down to bring his own rifle up. To his side Candace crouched and began popping off at the other three as they continued running, perfectly aimed shots. She took out two. Lilly dropped the last one. The lead man's momentum carried him forward another fifteen feet before he realized he was dead and fell end over end onto the blacktop.
One of the remaining chasers managed to pop off one last shot before he went down. The last runner collapsed in a heap. It was over in less than a second. Five people lay dead. The lead runner looked around in wonder, saw the last runner laying dead and began to cry hard, her chest hitching as she tried to hold the tears back. Candace stepped forward and grabbed her as she stumbled. Lilly helped Mike grab the last woman. They faded back into the brush not knowing if anyone else might be close by or not.
“It’s okay,” Candace said. “It’s really okay.” She pulled the one woman close to her and held her as she shook. Lilly held the other one. They were both breathing heavy, sobbing. The one Candace held struggled to catch her breath. She turned to Mike.
“You,” she managed. “You’re from the cave?” She turned to include Candace in her statement. Turning in her arms. Too beaten to struggle free if the answer should be no, trusting that Candace would not hurt her.
“Yeah,” Candace told her. “Yeah.” She pulled her close, holding her as the woman began to sag towards the ground. The panic and fear left her face.
“Thank God,” she breathed. She turned around, still allowing Candace to hold her, looking back through the trees into the parking lot. “We… We were trying to get here… To here… You…” her voice faded as she saw the other woman’s body crumpled on the ground. “Fuck,” she breathed. “Fuckers,” she screamed.
Candace pulled her closer and held her as she cried, whispering to her, calming her, pulling her further into the scrub brush.
Mike and Tim both scanned the area. There was gunfire, but it was from farther away, the other side of the square, hidden by the toppled and crumbling buildings. Mike looked out at the machine pistols and ammo the four men had been carrying.
“Hey,” Mike said. Tim looked over at him, his eyes round and hard. He's too young for this, Mike thought. Too young. “Cover me? I’m going to get that ammo. Those machine pistols.”
Tim looked out over the parking lot. His eyes trying to take in everything. He looked back at Mike and nodded. The forty five in his hand came back up and he turned back to scan the parking lot as Mike ran out on to the pavement. He was back in just over a minute with all four Machine Pistols. Ammo belts looped over his shoulders, looking like some strange refugee of war, he supposed. The self image made him laugh, but he choked it off before it could become much more than a ghost of a smile on his lips. He tossed two of the guns to Tim and then faded back into the scrub brush where Candace and Lilly waited with the two women.
~ Sudden Quiet ~
The first skirmish lasted the better part of an hour, and then, as quickly as it had started, the gunfire fell off. Cars and trucks both raced by on the Old River Road heading back across the bridge there to the north side of the city, a bridge, Mike thought, that was about to fall into the river, or so it seemed from looking at it. Crumbling supports, buckled decking, but they were running back and forth across it like it was as good as the day it was built.
Other vehicles raced back up State Street. Several burned out vehicles continued to spew dirty, black smoke into the air. There were too many burning wrecks to count scattered around the Public Square and the streets that led away from it.
Patty and Bob scouted down to the still burning car that had turned onto the road, a Nissan it turned out, and picked up the two machine pistols that lay close by it.
Ronnie and Tom moved two of their own trucks back to the bare area in front of the cave as Nell drove the truck they had appropriated the night before down to within a hundred feet of the burning Nissan, turned it sideways blocking the road and left it. Patty and Bob trotted along the side of the road, covering Nell as she parked the truck, and then came back with her until they reached the safety of the cave. The other trucks that had been moved were pulled back into a V that further blocked the road, but mainly provided a barrier to shoot from. It was where they had taken out the Nissan from.
Mike came to the back edge of the scrub brush and called down softly. Annie came from the shadows on the side of the cave and looked up expectantly. “Get Patty or Tom,” Mike told her. Annie nodded and was off before Mike could think to say anything else.
Patty and Tom both appeared a few moments later.
“Everything okay?” Mike asked.
Patty nodded along with Tom. “You?” she asked.
“I got two women up here. I’ll explain it later; in fact I really don’t know all of it except they were headed for us when we stepped into a mess up here… Or they did, or we both did…” He paused and rubbed the bridge of his nose for a second. “I’m going to send them down, okay?”
Patty nodded again. “Send them, Mike,” she said, but it ended up being easier to say than it turned out to do. Neither of the women wanted to attempt climbing down the cliff face. Of all the things they had collected or had in the cave, they had no rope. Tom scouted further down the road, checking the cliff face.
When Tom had been a kid, the Old River Road had been in daily use and was then connected to one of the bridges. He thought that he remembered another old road that came into Old River Road. It was an old blocked off road even then. The road had come down from the back of the parking lot, most probably long before it had been made into a parking lot. The road itself was gone, but the long, gradually sloping area that had once held the road was still there, overgrown yes, but an easily walked path down to the road from the parking lot if you knew where to find it. Tom smiled after finding the place. He followed it nearly to the top to make sure it was still passable, and then he turned around and went back down the road to where Mike was waiting for him.
“There’s a place farther down the lot, the end of the lot. You’ll see where the slope down to the River Road becomes more gradual... There used to be a road. The road itself is gone, but it’s easily walked. You can send them do
wn that way, or I can come up,” Tom said.
Mike followed Candace through the overgrown trees down to the old road bed. “You going to stick up here?” Candace asked.
Mike nodded. “I think we ought to for right now, who knows what’s next. Send Ronnie up if you can spare him.”
Tom came into view down below and Mike raised a hand to him. The two women looked drained, numb, probably still in shock, Mike told himself. Candace leaned into him and kissed him. “I’ll send Ronnie,” she told him. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Be careful, and let me know what those two have to say.”
“You know it,” Candace said. She turned, and with the two women in front of her, she made her way down through the trees to where Tom waited.
Mike stepped closer to the edge of the trees and stared out at the square. There were spaces where the buildings had collapsed, a huge area that had been undeveloped for years. Most of the square was in sight from this end of the parking lot.
His eyes moved across the jumbled and leaning buildings, the vehicles that burned where they had crashed. The square looked like a battleground. Greasy, billowing smoke hung in the air like a black cloud descending on the downtown area. He heard Ronnie coming up through the trees. He turned away from the square and waited for him to top the rise, and then the two of them walked back towards the opposite end of the parking lot where they could watch the entrance to State Street, most of that end of the square and both the edge of Factory Street and Mill Street as it began its run across the damaged bridge to the north side of the river.
“What’s going on? Can you see anything?” Ronnie asked.
“Some. You’ll see in a few minutes. What happened with the car?”
“Dead. Got three more clip rifles though.”
“So they were down with Sin and Death?”
“Looks like it to me. Same rifles, anyway.”
Mike was nodding. “I guess I knew it.”
Tim and Lilly stepped out of the shadows and nodded as Mike and Ronnie walked up.
“Quiet,” Lilly said. Tim nodded.
Mike handed one of the Machine pistols to Ronnie.
“Nice… Illegal, but nice,” he said.
“Takes standard Nine Millimeter ammo.” Ronnie started to hand it back. Mike shook his head. “Hang on to it,” he looked around at the parking lot. “I’m convinced they’ll be back.”
Ronnie nodded. “Four up here?” he asked.
“Five. They killed one of the women trying to escape.” Tim and Lilly had dragged her back into the woods while he’d been gone. He had seen the vague shape off in the thicker woods as he and Ronnie had walked up. “How many in the car?”
“At least five,” Ronnie said.
“Jesus… This is so stupid.” Mike said. Ronnie nodded and then went back to watching the greasy smoke rise up into the air.
Mike walked over to the edge of the tree cover and looked down over the cliff. The road looked deserted. He knew it wasn’t, but it looked that way. The four of them all had the machine pistols now, he, Ronnie, Lilly and Tim. They were better than the weapons they’d had. He wished they had found some of their own. He whistled long and low, waited a few seconds and then whistled once more. Bob stepped out of the shadows behind one of the trucks and looked up. Mike motioned him over and one by one he passed down the weapons they had brought up with them.
“Whoever needs them, Bob.” Bob nodded, and a second later he was gone. Mike walked back through the stunted trees towards the rear of the parking lot and began to wait for whatever might come next.
~
Candace had Tom run up two of the radios an hour later. Mike berated himself; he had never even thought of it. A short time after that Janet Dove sent up food in the form of energy bars and cold, tinned beef. A package of stale cookies made a meal for the four of them, along with some bottled water. It was quiet, so Tom stayed to talk for a few minutes before he headed back down.
“Those two women are okay,” he said. “The one has a scratched up face, but Sandy says they’re okay. They talked to Candace and Patty... Sandy… Janet as well,” he added. “Those guys were trying to recapture them. Kidnap them.”
Mike nodded. “That much I guessed.”
“They didn’t say anything else?” Ronnie asked.
“Yeah, they did. They asked me to leave though. I guess it was really bad,” he surmised.
Ronnie and Mike both nodded. “I imagine it was,” Ronnie said quietly.
“Guess I better go back,” Tom said. He started to turn. “Oh,” he remembered, “Here,” He reached into his pants pockets and pulled out two boxes of Nine Millimeter shells. “I almost forgot. Candace would be mad.”
“Thank you, Tom,” Mike said.
“Alright,” Ronnie told him as he turned to walk away. An hour later the second gunfight began.
~ On Again ~
The first noise came from the north side.
“Trucks coming,” the radio squawked. It sounded like Bob.
“From the north?” Ronnie asked.
“Yeah,” Patty's voice answered. “Sounds like at least three, coming from deep over on the north side, like somewhere past the bridge, but coming fast,” she finished. The radio spat choppy static.
Mike moved back through the trees to see if he would be able to get much of a view towards the North side, but the river cliffs and the trees and brush that lined both sides of the Old River Road blocked his view.
He walked back to where Ronnie stood waiting just inside the trees watching the parking lot quietly.
Ronnie looked up as Mike made his way to the edge of the trees and the view of the parking lot.
“I was hoping for a better view, but it’s no good,” Mike explained.
Ronnie nodded. He pressed the radio’s send button. “Let us know,” He said.
“Coming now,” Patty said, “Coming fast.”
The sounds of the vehicles came clearly to Mike and Ronnie on top of the cliffs.
“Four,” Patty said, “Just blew by us heading for the square… They’re all small cars,” She finished.
“Got you,” Ronnie told her.
A split second later they heard the cars gearing down to slow as they entered the square. But instead of entering the square, they braked hard, drifted right, tires screaming, and blew into the parking lot.
“Fuck,” Ronnie muttered.
“Fuck is right,” Mike agreed under his breath.
“They’re up here,” Mike said into the radio. “We’ll get back to you.”
All four cars sped into the parking lot and spread out; taking up what looked to be predetermined positions. It was obvious that none of the four realized that the four of them were inside the tree line watching them. One small, black Toyota screeched to a halt no more than thirty feet away from where Lilly and Tim were. Mike and Ronnie were just beyond that. Lilly and Tim both raised their machine pistols and trained them on the car.
The car was a four door model, four men inside of it, one driving, the other three hanging partway out of the windows, machine pistols in their hands, looking hard at the parking lot.
“Let’s move into the tree line a little deeper,” Mike mouthed as Lilly looked over at him. He motioned with his hands to make his point. Lilly nodded and Mike saw her bend and whisper into Tim’s ear. A moment later they both began to fade back into the tree line. Mike and Ronnie faded back about ten feet themselves, hoping to disappear into the tree line.
A radio crackled inside the car and a voice spoke. The driver reached down, came back with a hand held radio unit and began to speak.
Mike thumbed a small switch on his own radio, switching between the two channels his radio received and transmitted on. No voices came through on either channel. Almost too late Mike remembered to cut the volume on his own radio. Ronnie followed suit. A bare second after that Bob’s voice came through the speaker. Ronnie pressed his radio tightly to his ear and listened carefully, nodding as he did.
He turned to Mike. “They’re picking them up on a C.B. in one of the trucks. They were talking as they were on their way over, still are,” Ronnie said in a whisper. He spoke softly into his radio as Mike finally remembered to put his own radio to his ear.
“No. Don’t send Tom. They’re here, right here in the parking lot.” He turned to Mike. “They were going to send Tom with a hand held C.B.” he whispered.
Mike heard the acknowledgment on his own radio.
“Seems like a bad idea with them so close,” Ronnie whispered. Mike nodded in agreement.
“I wonder why the other side isn’t using radios,” Mike whispered.
“Maybe they are,” Ronnie said. He left the balance unsaid. The pair Mike and Ronnie were using were F.M. This group was using C.B. What else was there, Mike wondered? If they were listening, they could be picking up on one or both of the radio systems. Mike watched the same thoughts go through Ronnie’s mind. They both shrugged and focused their attention back on the parking lot and the cars that sat idling.
The sun was close to sinking in the North East, behind them as they faced the parking lot, putting any visual advantage in their favor. No bright sunlight in their eyes.
At the edge of the square through a gap in the buildings, Mike thought he saw a shadow move. He pointed, directing Ronnie’s attention to it. He turned to alert Tim, but his eyes were already locked on the same place. Mike turned his eyes back to where he had seen the movement. A second or so later, a man slipped slowly around the edge of the building and looked sidelong into the parking lot. He was still deep in shadow, probably hard for the men in the cars at ground level to see, but easy for Mike and the others to see. The car closest to them would have their view blocked by the buildings. The man moved quickly from his shadowy hiding place, surveyed the parking lot in its entirety once more and then faded back into the shadows again.
In the dark area of shadow, it was nearly impossible to see the man. The sun glinted off something in his hand. One of the men in the black car caught the glint of sunlight nearly at the same time that Mike and Ronnie did and opened up. The second gunfight began, and the man in the darkened alleyway who had hidden himself so well, became the first casualty.