Fifty Falling Stars

by Wesley Higginbotham

  Vicio stood up and the boy grabbed his ankle. “Please, sir… some water to….”

  “I told you boy. Food and water are only for my troops.”

  “I can be one of your troops!” The young man pleaded.

  There it was! “I can’t just let anyone join my army… What would you do to get in?”

  “Anything! I’ll do anything you ask me to!”

  Vicio leaned down and looked at the young man. He smiled and glanced over to the girl who had spoken earlier. “Kill her.”

  “I can’t! She’s my cousin. I can’t…”

  Vicio cut him off with his calm, firm voice. “Kill her and you can join. Kill her and you get to eat and drink as much as you want.”

  “I can’t…”

  Someone in the back yelled out, “Don’t you dare, Chad. Your mother will…”

  Chad’s primal scream cut off the random person in the back. He lunged for his cousin, grabbed her by the throat, and climbed on top of her. They struggled and flailed at each other, both weak from starvation. Vicio laughed as he enjoyed the show. Chad cried as he slammed her head into the hard tile floor of the gymnasium lobby. Suddenly, the girl reached up and managed to work her thumb, with its brittle but long nail, into Chad’s left eye. The man screamed in pain and let go of the girl. She got out from under him and reversed their roles. She didn’t have the strength to choke him or slam his head down as he had hers, so she clawed at his face and eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shiny blade of the knife Vicio dropped by her side. She grabbed it and slammed the point into Chad’s chest. She drove it into his chest eight times before he stopped struggling. She sat on top of him, tears streaming down her face, blood seeping from the cut on the back of her head where Chad had pounded it against the floor. Tiny sobs racked her small frame.

  Vicio pushed her off of Chad with his boot and retrieved his knife from the man’s chest. “That was the best thing I’ve seen all week!” He said. He heard people in the back crying or swearing or cursing him. He paid them no attention. “Come on, Don. Let’s get out of here. The livestock is making me sick to my stomach.”

  As the two gang leaders turn to go, she cried out, “Wait!”

  Vicio turned. “You owe me food and water.” She said.

  Vicio smiled. “It would seem that I do.”

  Chapter 16

  Will took a sip of his instant coffee while everyone else slept. He watched from the front porch of the cabin as the sun began its journey into the sky, dispersing the morning mist as it rose. He expected another busy day, just as every day had been busy since he got married two weeks ago. They had made good progress on setting everything up. Joey had managed to catch four more rabbits and two opossums. Everything had been going well until three days ago.

  Every day, they had received at least one report over the CB from the Rhea county Sherriff’s Department. Three days ago, the county had stopped its broadcast. Will had discussed the matter with Old Jeff and Jeff Jr. over the CB, but they didn’t have any idea what had happened.

  Will had been working on the ATV and had it running well now. Last night, he and Joey had made plans to take the ATV into town and check that everything was still all right. Maybe they had some news about what was happening and why the county had stopped broadcasting? They hadn’t run the idea by the family yet. Breakfast would be interesting.

  Will heard movement in cabin and turned to look in the window. Aunt Pam was up and making breakfast. Everyone else would be up and about soon. He turned back to the brightening sky and debated whether or not to just stay out here and enjoy the sunrise. He decided to go inside and help with breakfast.

  Will looked down at his watch. It read ten after ten. Joey walked up and climbed on the ATV, his AR-15 slung over his shoulder. Will adjusted the AR-10 hanging from his back and the forty caliber pistol on his hip so that Joey could climb on behind him. Breakfast had been long and tiring. It had taken a little more than an hour to convince the family that a little recon was needed just to make sure everything was ok. After the long debate, everyone had consented. Joey climbed on and Will started the motor. Barry and Chuck lowered the ramp into place as Will pulled up to the ditch.

  “Be careful, boys.” Chuck said as the two men crossed the ditch. “We’ll be here waiting for you when you get back.”

  “Thanks, dad.” Joey said. Will drove over the ramp and sped off down the road.

  Within minutes, Will pulled the ATV to a stop in front of Old Jeff’s place. The entire family came out to say hello. “Where you boys going?” Old Jeff asked as he approached the men and extended a hand to each in turn.

  “We’re just going to pop down into town and check on everything.” Will said.

  “It looked pretty bad down there last time we went.” Joey said. “Now the radio check-ins have stopped, we just figured it might be a good idea to know what was going on down there. You haven’t heard anything on the CB lately, have you?”

  “Nothin cept for you folks for three days.” Jeff Jr. said. “If you find out anythin, let us know when ya get back.”

  “Will do.” Will said. “Anyway, we just wanted to stop by and check on you guys since we were coming by your place. How is everything with you?”

  “Were doing pretty good.” Old Jeff’s wife, Kelly, said. “Only thing that’s really changed is that Sarah here has developed a fever and pretty bad cough.” As if on cue, the ten-year old girl began hacking away. “Candace, get that girl back inside. She needs to be in bed, not out here yappin with the neighbors.”

  “Yes, mamma.” Candace said as she took the girl back inside.

  “You know, my wife’s a nurse. When we get back from town, we could drive her back down here and get her to take a look at Sarah, if you want.” Will said.

  “That’d be real good of ya.” Old Jeff said.

  “No problem.” Joey said. “We’ll even keep an eye out for some cough medicine while we’re down there.”

  “Well, we need to get goin.” Will said. “We’ll stop by on our way back. You folks take care.”

  “You too.” Jeff Jr. said as they men pulled off toward the town.

  The ride into town had been quiet, peaceful even. The houses that they passed looked to have been abandoned. Grass grew unchecked around the houses and many had windows missing or doors ajar. Will slowed the ATV to a crawl when they came into sight of the barricade into town. They saw three men guarding the gate. Will turned back to Joey. “I’m going to pull us up nice and slow until we get about two hundred yards from them. We’ll stop and wave. If they respond, we’ll head on in. Sound good to you?”

  “Yeah. No problems here.”

  “Did you grab Uncle Barry’s binoculars when we left?” Will asked.

  “Got’em right here. You want them?”

  “Not yet. We’ll check out the guards when we stop.”

  Minutes later, Will stopped the ATV at a forty-five degree angle to the road. He stood up on the ATV and waved at the barricade guards. He saw them talk to each other for a minute before waiving back. “Looks like they’ve had a change of management.” Joey said as he handed the binoculars to Will.

  Will put the binoculars to his eyes and asked over his should, “What do you mean?”

  “Take a look at the dudes on the left side of the barricade. Last time we were here, there were two normal-looking white guys and two uniformed cops guarding the town. One of those guys has a shaved head and is wearing a bandana over his face.”

  “So?” Will asked.

  “The other guy is now a black dude. And check out the guy to the right. How come his pants are sagging down like that?”

  “Really, dude? Don’t you think you’re being a bit paranoid with the stereotypes here?” Will asked. “There were only four guys we met last time. They can’t guard the gate all the time. Maybe these guys were here last time and just weren’t on shift then. Or, maybe, they’re some of the new folks that came into town and wanted to help out.”

&nbs
p; “Ok. Explain Mr. Ass-out there on the right.”

  “Dude, the last time we were here, the cop told us they were out of food. If they haven’t found any more, people would lose a lot of weight in two weeks. Not everyone has been getting regular meals like us.

  “So, if you’re done bitching about details, are you ready to get on with this? We’re probably making them suspicious by hanging out here this far for so long.”

  “Fine.” Joey said. “I just wanna say that I have a bad feeling about this.”

  Will handed the binoculars back to Joey and pulled forward. They had gone about fifty yards when Joey looked through the binoculars over Will’s shoulder. He saw a man’s head sticking up from the passenger side window of one of the barricade cars. The barrel of the gun the man held almost reached to the driver’s side window. “Turn around!” Joey said.

  Will made a sharp left, just coming perpendicular to the road when a tiny section of road a few yards in front of them exploded. Shards of pavement flew up into the air as something struck the front, right rim of the ATV. The sound of the gunshot followed.

  “Fuck!” Will yelled as he gunned the ATV and spun it around in the road, heading away from the barricade.

  Joey looked back to the sound of more gunshots erupted from the barricade. Two men on an ATV came around the corner of the building just behind and to the left of the barricade. The man in back was firing a gun at them. “Gun it, bro! We got someone on our six!”

  “What are you talking about?” Will yelled back to Joey.

  “Two dudes on an ATV are chasing us and shooting at us!”

  “Christ!” Will said as he floored the ATV away from the barricade in a random zig-zag pattern.

  “Quit this zig-zag shit, man! They’re gaining on us!”

  Will glanced back. They were now about three hundred yards away from the barricade. The zig-zag wouldn’t help much. It would be a hard shot for a still target, much less one speeding away. He straightened out the ATV and sped away from the pursuers. “You got any ideas?” He asked Joey.

  “I don’t think we can outrun them!” Joey responded. The other ATV raced after them, about two hundred yards behind and gaining. The road took a turn to the south, leading along the valley floor before turning again to head up into the high hills to the west, toward the cabin. “Hey! When you see a spot on the ditch with tall grass, slow down and I’m gonna roll off! Drive on for a hundred yards or so and draw their fire!”

  “Are you fucking stupid?” Will yelled back.

  “Just do it!” Joey yelled as more shots rang out from behind them.

  “There!” Will said. He swerved to the right and slammed on the brakes. Joey let the momentum of the swerve carry him. He rolled four times before he came to a stop in the three-foot tall grass. Joey burrowed into the grass as much as possible as Will accelerated down the road. He readied his AR-15 and waited. He didn’t have long before the other ATV would be on him. With any luck, the assholes chasing them would think that they had hit him and would keep on after Will.

  Joey lay in the ditch until he heard the other ATV getting close. He rose out of the ditch on his knees and raised his rifle. The driver never saw him, but Joey saw the look of surprise in the passenger’s eyes as he pulled the trigger as fast as he could. He got off six shots before the ATV passed.

  He didn’t know if he had hit them. The ATV swerved to the left and rolled over, throwing the two men. They struck the pavement and rolled. The passenger had managed to hang on to his weapon and struggled to get to his feet. The other man laid shaking and twitching in the middle of the road, a pool of blood expanding around him. Joey guessed he had hit at least one of them. Only seconds had passed since the men had fallen onto the road, but the passenger had stood facing towards WIll. Joey ran toward him with his rifle trained at the man. A gaping hole bloomed from under the man’s right shoulder blade, followed by the thunder of Will’s shot. Joey looked up the road to see Will bracing his rifle on the seat of their ATV which sat perpendicular to the road. The passenger collapsed face down in the road.

  Will got back on the ATV and sped back to where Joey stood over the dead men. “You ok?” Will asked.

  “Yeah. Why?” Joey asked.

  “Your elbow, bro.”

  Joey looked down to see his right elbow bleeding out of a four-inch gash. “I’ll be ok. I think I know a good nurse who’ll stitch this up for me.”

  “Yeah. You’re a crazy bastard. You know that?”

  Joey chuckled and agreed. “But at least I got a good shot off.” He said gesturing to the ruin of bone and brain matter coming out the back of the driver’s skull. He reached down and rolled the guy over. One of his shots had hit the man just below his right eye.

  “Yeah. You can brag about it later.” Will said. “Can you help me turn over this ATV? We need to grab the guns, any ammo these guys had, and get the fuck outta here. I didn’t see if there were any more of them coming, but they saw which way we went.”

  “Good thinking.” Joey said, as he helped turn over the ATV. They grabbed the men’s weapons and started their new ATV.

  Will looked over to Joey. “You drive on to the cabin. I’m gonna stop off at Old Jeff’s and let them know what happened. I’ll be ten or fifteen minutes behind you.”

  Will pulled into Old Jeff’s driveway a little after noon and parked close to the house. Old Jeff, Jeff Jr., and Bill sat on the front porch swing. They all came down to greet Will. “Damn, son. You look like you done seen a ghost.” Jeff Jr. said as he shook hands with Will.

  “Saw Joey speed by like he was on fire.” Bill said. “Looks like you boys traded for another four-wheeler.”

  “You might say that.” Will said. Exhaustion set in as the adrenaline began to wear off.

  “What happened, son?” Old Jeff asked.

  Will recounted the tale of getting shot at and the ATV chase.

  “Why would they just attack you?” Bill asked when Will had finished his tale.

  “I don’t know. Maybe the town got taken over by the bandits the cop told us about last time we went down there. Maybe things got so bad that they decided to keep everyone out of the town. Maybe they’ve become the bandits now. Maybe…. I just don’t know.” Will finished.

  “In any case,” Od Jeff started, “It ain’t a place none of us needs to be goin’ anytime soon.”

  “I definitely won’t be going back down there.” Will said. He looked into Bill’s eyes. “I’m sorry we weren’t able to get any medicine for you little girl. I know Jenny is going to be pretty busy with Joey for a while. If you want, I can drive Sarah up to the cabin, have Jenny look at her and bring her back.”

  “That sounds ok to me.” Bill said. “I’ll run in and get her.”

  Bill returned a few minutes later with the girl and her mother. “This is Mr. Baker. You remember him don’t you?” Candace said to Sarah. Sarah nodded. “His wife is a nurse. You’re going to ride with him up to their cabin and she’s going to make you all better. That ok?” Sarah nodded.

  Will could tell the child didn’t feel well when she climbed onto the ATV. He looked at Bill and Candace and said, “I’ll have her back as soon as I can. Jenny took some medical stuff with us when we came out here. Hopefully, she’ll have something for Sarah.” Candace, Bill, and Old Jeff thanked him. He drove off toward the cabin.

  Jenny had cleaned Joey’s wound and was beginning the stitches when Will brought Sarah into the cabin. The rest of the family sat around the living room asking Joey questions and discussing the attack. They had come to the same conclusion that Will and Old Jeff had. “Hey, everyone, this is Jeff’s granddaughter, Sarah. She hasn’t been feeling well and I promised Jeff and his folks that Jenny would have a look at her.” Will introduced everyone to Sarah. Kerry went into the kitchen to get the girl something to drink.

  Jenny paused her stitching and greeted Sarah. “Can you sit right here until I finish with Mr. Joey?” Sarah nodded and took a seat on the couch in the living room. Wil
l had left the door open and Bear had followed them into the house. Pam was about to shoo him away when the dog went over to Sarah and started licking her hand. It seemed to make the little girl feel better, so Pam let him stay.

  The family talked to Sarah and tried to make her feel at home until Jenny and Joey came into the room. Joey wore a makeshift bandage to cover his elbow. “Sis, say’s I’ll be fine. You fellas want to get some fresh air with me?” Joey asked. The men stood and headed out to the front porch.

  “Ok.” Jenny said walking over to Sarah. “Where does it hurt?”

  Will noticed that Joey’s hand shook as the men sat around talking about the incident. “You ok there, bro?”

  Everyone quieted. Joey looked up with a nervous smile. “I’m fine. I’m still just a little jumpy after all of that.”

  “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, buddy.” Will said.

  “What’s that?” Joey asked.

  “Killing someone.” Will said.

  “I know. We had to do it. It was either them or us. They attacked us. I know it all makes sense and it was the right thing to do. But… But why does it feel so bad?”

  “It’s just not something we’re used to. We’re raised that it’s not natural or right to kill people. Sometimes, that is a lie. Sometimes, it’s the way things have to be.” Will said. The other men pretended not to listen in.

  “But you killed someone today too. How come you’re all fine and fucking dandy?”

  Will sighed and leaned back against the porch railing. “It wasn’t my first time. The first one is always the hardest. People had told me that before. I always thought it was cliché, but it’s the God’s honest truth.” Will took another breath and smiled at Joey. “But you’ll be ok.”