TRIAL: A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Thriller

by Murray Mcdonald

  Gary led the way, meeting up with the rest of the community volunteers that had been roused to deal with the intruders. With three oil lanterns between them, the eleven men walked steadfastly towards the street. Each was armed with whatever weapon they could lay their hands on, whether it was a hunting rifle, a pistol or a shotgun. They knew the militia outgunned them. Their weapons were no match for the militia’s automatic rifles. But what they lacked in firepower, they made up for in numbers and resolve. This was their community, their families. They were defending against a tyrannical force that had no place amongst them.

  There was no doubt in Gary’s mind they had right on their side. Bob and his militia had already committed countless acts of the most heinous atrocities across the city. With each day, their power had grown but at some point, the law-abiding and right-thinking people of Boise had to stand up for themselves and show that the rule of law remained in force. Enough was enough. He marched his men forward with purpose. The shotgun blast in the distance paused them in their tracks, but the two rounds fired in response got them moving again, their speed increasing as the situation was obviously escalating.

  The sight of Harry’s unmoving body in the dimness of the lantern light, with his old, faithful dog whimpering by his side and licking at his face was all he needed. Gary’s resolve was complete.

  “Put your gun down!” he commanded, directing his weapon at the man standing by Kate’s open door. The man lowered his AR-15 as instructed. Before Gary could move, Kate’s door slammed shut behind their prisoner. It seemed whoever he was, he was expendable.

  With their prisoner secured, Gary turned his attention to the house. It remained in complete darkness. He didn’t even want to think of what could be going on in there. Three riders had been spotted entering Warm Springs, which meant at least two were inside with Kate and her family. One thing was for certain, they couldn’t wait it out. They had to act and act quickly to save Kate, Sophie, and god forbid, even Ava from what would be a life-changing situation.

  “Put your guns down and come out!” he commanded with every ounce of authority his anger would allow.

  Chapter 30

  Trey cracked the door open and emptied a full magazine into the street. The cries of pain brought a smile to his face. He closed the door. That would keep them busy long enough for him to enjoy himself. The way he was feeling, how fired up he was, it wasn’t going to take long anyway.

  He checked through the spyhole, one lantern was on the ground and its oil had spilled, creating a trail of light that lit up at least two men on the ground, writhing in pain. Others were running to their aid. Trey knew it would be enough to take the fight out of some. It wouldn’t stop them all, but whatever number had been there initially he felt sure would halve itself. It was easy being the law when things were going your way. When the tide turned, you began to consider your priorities a little more clearly.

  He watched a moment longer as the two other lanterns tracked back towards the injured men. The fight was over.

  He turned as the front door burst open. They had played him with the lanterns, using the light to distract him while they’d snuck up on the house. The door propelled him down the hallway. He turned as he fell and pulled the trigger on his AR-15, and it clicked. He hadn’t reloaded. Two men rushed towards him. He grabbed for his pistol as he, for the second time in as many minutes, hit the carpet. His pistol had almost cleared his holster when the first man landed on him, and a knee caught him in the stomach, expelling almost every cubic inch of air from his system. His hand fell as did his pistol to the floor as he gasped for oxygen. Whoever was on him knew what they were doing, the knee was continuing to push, making it almost impossible to catch his breath.

  Trey bellowed in frustration as he pushed at the man on top of him. His rage gave him the strength to force a breath.

  An ear-piercing scream from the basement caught them all by surprise.

  Unlike the community volunteers, the stomach-churning scream of a young girl didn’t knock Trey off of his stride. He saw his chance and took it, swinging his right fist into the man’s side.

  ***

  “Mom!” Danny’s tears flooded down his face as he pushed and pulled at his mom’s lifeless body.

  A scream in her consciousness brought her around. Her body swaying with Danny’s efforts, a sudden urge to be sick was quelled as another scream assaulted her swimming mind. She looked around wildly. The attacker, Eddie, that was his name, was moving towards Sophie. There was no doubting his intention.

  Sophie was up against the far wall, the man forcing himself on to her. Ava had picked up a piece of lumber and was swinging it. Eddie had Sophie pinned by the throat and turned as Ava swung. He caught the lumber easily in his hand and pushed it away, and with it, Ava. She crashed into the safe a few feet behind them and slumped to the basement floor.

  Eddie turned his attention back to Sophie, his hand clasped tightly around her neck to ensure she could do little to stop him from running his free hand down her face and arm. She struggled but with each movement almost choked herself.

  Kate tried to get up. Her mind wanted to, but her body failed. She pulled herself across the floor. Ava was just a few yards away and Sophie just a few yards beyond.

  Eddie’s hand was making its way down Sophie’s still dressed torso. Kate wanted to kill him. She pulled herself onwards.

  Eddie heard her and turned. She was less than three feet from Ava.

  He pulled out a knife and placed it on Sophie’s unblemished cheek.

  “Ah, ah, mommy. Your fun’s coming. Don’t go trying to spoil mine! Or your daughter’s beautiful face!”

  Kate pointed to the unmoving Ava.

  Eddie flicked an acceptance, yes, she could see to Ava. He turned his attention back to Sophie as Kate pulled herself to Ava. Kate gasped in horror when she spotted a pool of blood beneath her younger daughter, a large gash on her leg from the corner of the safe. Kate’s mind was coming out of its haze. She looked over at Sophie as she waved for Danny to join her and bring the laundry basket.

  Eddie checked what Kate was doing. He noticed the blood and the wound on Ava’s leg. It would keep her busy. He pulled Sophie towards the far corner of the basement, where the candlelight struggled to reach. A workbench was all the equipment he needed. He lifted the struggling Sophie onto the bench, the knife pressing into her throat, keeping the struggle within his control.

  “Twenty-two, twelve, sixteen,” whispered Kate to Danny. Danny looked at her, confused. She nodded to the safe’s combination panel as she applied pressure to Ava’s wound. It was deep, but not too big, she just needed to stop it bleeding. Kate prayed Tim had kept the mechanism and the door well-oiled, she hoped so and fully expected he had. He’d certainly looked after his guns and could only imagine that extended to where he’d kept them safely locked away. She hated guns and had made him promise their kids would be saved from the same fate as her childhood. Her father had been obsessed with guns, an obsession that ultimately took his life and. she was sure, had led to her mother’s death, long before her time.

  Danny turned the dial and was rewarded with a subtle click before the safe’s door cracked open slightly. Kate signaled for him to hold the cloth she had pressed against Ava’s wound.

  Kate could hear Sophie’s muffled struggling. Each sound drove her on, each sound increasingly clearing her mind. She looked towards the bench. She could barely make out the two figures. She focused. She wasn’t too late and Eddie’s attention was diverted. She pulled open the door, praying for it to swing back quietly. It did. Its hinges were oiled as well as she knew Tim’s guns would be. The candlelight shone against the dull metal of the safe’s contents. Three rifles on a rack and four pistols. A number of full magazines for each lay stacked and ready to load.

  “You hate guns!” whispered Danny as Kate reached into the safe. “I can help, Dad showed me what to do!”

  Kate couldn’t help but throw a disproving look at her youngest, despite his i
nnocence in his fathers’ betrayal of her express wishes. Her kids should never have been anywhere near the guns. Memories of her father flashed through her mind. She had found him. The image had never dulled, even after twenty years. Fragments of skull and brain matter dripped from the garage ceiling where the majority of his head had been relocated. His death had been instantaneous, her mother’s, as a result, was long and drawn out. Ten years of mourning and depression, followed by a slow painful death from a cancer Kate was convinced had been caused as a result.

  “I know what to do!” whispered Kate firmly, selecting Tim’s Walther PPQ and sliding a magazine into place, pulling the slide back, and chambering a round. She stood and picking up the candle, moved towards the back of the basement, throwing Eddie and Sophie into the light. Eddie spun and Kate breathed a sigh of relief. His pants were still on and Sophie was still fully dressed. She hadn’t taken too long.

  Eddie pulled Sophie from the bench and thrust her in front of himself. His rifle was out of reach, but his knife was more than adequate as he pressed it against Sophie’s neck.

  Kate raised the PPQ and leveled it at Eddie.

  “Whoa! Be careful there! Wouldn’t want your daughter’s neck to open up,” smiled Eddie.

  “I’ll be careful!” promised Kate evenly.

  “Mom, what the hell are you doing?” panicked Sophie. Her mom pointing a gun in her direction was not something she ever wanted to experience. “You hate guns! Please don’t point that over here!”

  “Listen to your daughter. You don’t want to shoot your daughter by accident, do you? Guns are dangerous things and should only be used by folks that know what they’re doing,” smiled Eddie, his teeth shining confidently in the candlelight.

  “Sophie’s right. I do hate guns,” confirmed Kate. Eddie’s grip on the knife at Sophie’s neck relaxed on Kate’s confession. She wouldn’t dare take the shot.

  Kate fired. The bullet struck Eddie perfectly in the center of his forehead. “Just because I hate them, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use them!” she said to his corpse.

  “You okay?” she asked of Sophie who was standing perfectly still, not daring to move. Eddie’s body lay motionless at her feet.

  Sophie nodded. Kate turned back to Ava and the open-mouthed Danny.

  Ava was coming around. “You two okay?”

  Danny nodded firmly, the not-so-with-it Ava nodded half-heartedly, wincing in pain.

  Kate raced up the stairs. Their home was under attack and she was damned if she was going to cower and hide. It was her job to protect her family and whoever put them in danger, was going to feel the full force of her duty as a mother to protect her family.

  Chapter 31

  Trey traded punches with the mass on top of him. He couldn’t see much, but he felt the weight and threw every ounce of strength he had into hitting whoever was on top of him. The screams had continued below until a shot ended them. Trey threw an enraged punch as the thought of Eddie shooting Kate filled his mind. It caught the man cleanly on the side of the head. The weight buckled and fell. Trey pushed at the remaining weight and without restraint, it slid to the floor by his side, unconscious. It had been a perfect punch, complete luck as the darkness did not allow for even the slightest inkling of targets.

  “Gary? You okay, Gary?” The voice came from further down the hallway. The second man was hanging back. Trey knew his weapon would be trained towards him, but there was no way the man would shoot whilst Gary could be in the firing line. Trey felt around wildly for a weapon, anything to shoot into the voice.

  “Gary?” the voice was becoming increasingly concerned.

  His hand hit the grip of a pistol. He unconsciously looked to where he knew his hand to be, in a vain attempt to assist in finding the gun. As if by magic, light erupted beneath his hand, faint but eating through the darkness, spreading its weak presence across the floor. Of course, his mind realized that whatever he could see would aid the volunteer at the end of the hallway. He grabbed for what he could identify as a Glock and aimed towards where the voice had emanated. The light was not his friend anymore. The darkness shrouded the volunteer while the light creeping towards him from the basement below was casting an ever-greater arc through the doorway and across the hallway where he remained.

  “Gary, is that you?” the volunteer hesitated. The candlelight was weak and the darkness all encompassing. Its power enough to show a man, but hide his features.

  It was all the hesitation Trey needed, he pulled the trigger and sent a bullet hurtling towards where he had heard the latest question.

  His hand snapped back in pain. The gun had misfired. He’d heard two shots at once. The pistol lay on the floor once again. The pain in his hand was increasing exponentially with every passing microsecond.

  “Don’t move!” a voice from his right, a female voice, threatened. He ignored her and turned his head. The candle in her left hand lit up all of her most striking features perfectly. She really was a true beauty.

  “Kate,” he smiled, ignoring the pain.

  “I’m coming out!” shouted Kate. “Is everything okay?”

  “Kate, is that you?”

  “Yes, can I come out?”

  “There were three guys as far as we know. We have one outside. One, you’ve got in front of you. I don’t know about the third.”

  “The third’s no longer a concern,” she replied evenly, as much for Trey as anyone. The message was clear. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.

  With Trey tied up and safely secured, attention turned to Gary, following his blind struggle with Trey. He came around quickly and other than a headache and an unnecessary hit to his pride, he appeared to be none the worse for the situation.

  “Is Harry okay?”

  The silence that followed her question sent tears running down her cheek. Poor, sweet Harry. She wished she had the shot to make again with Trey. She would have aimed for his head and not his hand. But she knew she had done the right thing. The only way to save the man Trey was aiming at was to hit the gun. It’d been a calculated shot and one she had her father to thank for. As a young girl, he’d not only wanted her to operate a gun safely, but he’d wanted her to be proficient. Her competitive nature ensured that was not a concern. Her proficiency was exceptional. Handguns, rifles, whatever you gave her, she’d mastered. She was, as many who’d seen her in action as a teenager claimed, a natural. Where she aimed, she hit. She had saved an innocent life by not taking Trey’s.

  Kate borrowed a lantern and walked out to Harry’s side. Two bullets, center mass, his suffering would have been minimal, if at all. Hank lay by his side, his head resting on his master’s chest, looking expectantly for Harry to come to life. Kate’s heart broke for Harry and for Hank. He had lost his companion, a man who had loved and cared for him since he was born. An old dog with no memories of a life other than with Harry. Her thoughts went to the terribly sad story of the dog, she couldn’t remember his name, that they had heard of on a vacation in Edinburgh, Scotland. When his master had died, he had spent the rest of his life sitting on his grave, mourning his loss.

  Kate looked down at Hank, his old eyes sagging pitifully.

  “Come on,” she said as she grabbed him by the collar. “Say goodbye to Harry. You’re staying with us now.”

  “What are you doing?” asked Gary as she pulled a reluctant Hank by her side, back towards her house.

  “Taking Hank home,” she said.

  “He’s another mouth to feed.”

  “And?”

  “Well, things are going to be tough enough –”

  “We’ll manage,” she replied irritably at Gary’s less than subtle suggestion that Hank should be euthanized.

  “Can you please bury poor Harry and get that piece of shit out of my basement? I’m going to see to my family.”

  Gary, with two prisoners and two wounded men requiring assistance, had more than enough to keep him busy, but he simply nodded, adding two burials to his ‘to do list’. Kate
was clearly not a woman you wanted to get on the wrong side of.

  Chapter 32

  With the first wisps of sunlight breaking over the horizon, Nick was training his binoculars on the housing estate below. The nighttime gunshots and activity from the otherwise safe estate below had not gone unnoticed by he and Alex. Nick had struggled to sleep in any event, the deaths of the teenagers wearing on him, although he knew he’d had no choice. Even the slightest hint that their mission even existed could be catastrophic and endanger everything they had been working for. Every life that had been lost up until that point would have been in vain. Alex had been awakened by the disturbance and both had watched the lanterns moving for a number of hours before finally, a few hours later, darkness once again reigned.

  “Well?” Alex yawned as he queried his colleague’s findings.

  “Nothing obvious yet, all seems calm, Although, there are three horses tied up that weren’t there before.”

  “There’s only one place we’ve seen horses–”

  “So, I suppose it’s no surprise there was a disturbance last night.”

  “Oh well. Looks like your little nirvana is about to come crashing to an end,” said Alex, turning his attention to his breakfast.

  “What the hell…”

  Nick’s binoculars had caught movement. A number of men had appeared in one of the streets below, two clearly restrained with their hands tied behind their backs. They walked the two men towards the horses. Three men mounted the horses while others helped secure the restrained men behind two of the riders.

  “Oh, dear God,” sighed Alex, joining Nick, and watching the scene unfold. “They think they can work with the militia?”

  “Perhaps they are doing the smart thing?” questioned Nick half-heartedly.