The Bad Country

by Hervey Copeland

  The hooded man came charging at David from behind a toolshed, and only luck and a quick sideways step prevented the sharp tip of the scythe from impacting on David’s skull. Realising that he had failed to take his victim down with his weapon, the attacker tossed the scythe aside and jumped David instead. Mary looked on in horror as the two of them wrestled around on the ground.

  The attack had been so sudden that David hadn’t had the time to raise his gun, and the weapon had been flung out of his hand and was currently lying a few yards away from where the two of them were rolling around on the ground.

  Mary felt the adrenaline course through her blood. She alternated her gaze between the gun and the two of them. David had ended up on the bottom, on his back with his attacker on top of him. The hooded man had his big hands wrapped around David’s neck, and David was trying desperately to push them away, but without much luck. There was a considerable difference in size between the two. The hooded man was at least half a foot taller and fifty pounds heavier, and Mary realised that the guy would have no difficulties strangling David to death. She saw the desperate expression on David’s face, and knew she had to act fast if he was going to have any chance of surviving.

  Her eyes fell on the large kitchen knife she was holding in her hand, and an uneasy feeling swept over her. No, not again, she thought. She had already ended one life with that knife, and she didn’t want to add another one to that list. But there was no other way. The gun was too far away for her to get to in time, and the sound of the shot would alert everyone in town and give away their position. The knife however was silent and could cause just as much damage, and it was right there in her hand.

  She looked over at David again and noticed that his face had started to turn bright red. His eyes were huge and they looked like they were ready to jump out of his skull. There was no way around it, she had to act, and she had to act now.

  The attacker had his back turned toward her, and he was saying something to David in a low, aggressive tone. Mary couldn’t make out what it was, as her ears were filled with the sound of her own heart hammering away.

  She took a step forward and saw David’s terrified eyes looking up at her. She recognised the approval in that look. Those eyes were begging her to get on with the job. She took two more steps forward, and now she was standing directly behind the attacker, less than a foot away. She took one last look at the kitchen knife, pulled her elbow back and then thrust it forward with all the force she could muster.

  She felt it slide in effortlessly all the way to the shaft, and saw the hooded person throw his head backwards at the same time that he shot his lower back forward. It was as if he was under the impression that this movement would somehow cause the knife to be pushed back out again.

  Mary let out a little cry and quickly let go of the knife. Then she took a few steps backwards and covered her face with her hands.

  The situation was surreal. Thirty seconds ago she had been jogging across the backyard, oblivious to the dangerous situation they were running into. And now, half a minute later, she was looking down at the person who had tried to kill her husband and whom she had stabbed in the back. And judging by the amount of blood that was seeping through the robe, she was fairly confident that this person would share the same fate as the knife’s first victim. Would she have to hurt any more people before this day came to an end? She didn’t know, but she desperately hoped that wasn’t the case. She hoped they could get out of this town without any more people getting injured.

  The attacker fell off David and collapsed on the grass. David wasted no time, and quickly pulled his feet toward him, got up and scurried for the gun. Then when it was back in his hand, he quickly scanned the area before rushing over to Mary.

  “I killed him,” she whispered, her eyes glued to the lifeless body of the attacker.

  “You had no choice, Mary. You did the right thing. Now let’s go,” he said. His voice was low and urgent, and he started pulling her along.

  “Do you think the others heard?” she asked as they turned the corner of the back wall of the house and began making their way toward the front.

  “I don’t know, but if they did, we’ll drive them away with the gun.”

  They stopped behind a tree and gazed out into the street, and there it was on the opposite side, less than twenty yards away.

  “This is the best possible spot for us,” David whispered as he raised the gun and held it close to his chest. “We’re in the driver’s blind spot. He won’t be able to see us in his rear view mirror, nor in his side view mirror. All we have to do is walk up there, stick the gun in his face and get him out of the car.”

  He gave her a careful look.

  “We need to do this right away. Do you think you can handle it?”

  She nodded her head and tried to exude some confidence, although she felt the exact opposite. She would never in a million years be able to mentally prepare herself for what they were about to do.

  “Ok, let’s go,” David said.

  He took a deep breath and started jogging across the street, gun stretched out before him, aimed at the vehicle. He made it over there without getting spotted, and tore open the door. Mary was a few yards behind him and thus unable to see the face of the driver - who wasn’t wearing a hood - but she could hear David’s voice.

  “You have exactly three seconds to get out, or I’ll put a bullet right between your eyes.”

  Mary came to a stop next to David, and could see the shock on the driver’s face. He appeared to be in his mid fifties. He had short grey hair that had started to recede, and big brown fish eyes that were looking at the two of them with both disbelief and pure hatred. And looking into those eyes, Mary realised immediately that he wasn’t going to exit the car voluntarily.

  Fortunately he was nowhere as big as the individual she had sent to the next world a few minutes earlier, and she suspected that David would be able to pull him out quite effortlessly and knock him out if he decided to put up a fight. Not that it seemed very likely at the present time, because the guy wasn’t moving at all. He was just sitting there, looking at the two of them.

  David leaned a little closer and placed the gun right up against the guy’s forehead.

  “Get the hell out of the car, or I’ll pull the trigger.”

  Mary could see the guy swallow hard and wetting his lips, his eyes never leaving David’s. Then after a few seconds of deafening silence he started to talk.

  “I don’t think you have the guts to pull that trigger faggot boy, so I think I’m just going to stay right where I am.”

  The initial shock of having been ambushed seemed to have worn off, and a grin started to form on his face. A grin that said ‘I’m a whole lot tougher than you, so fuck you dickhead’.

  David pressed the gun harder against the man’s head.

  “You have two seconds to get out, or I’ll shoot.” David’s voice was shaking and Mary could tell that this wasn’t going to end well.

  But the man just kept staring at David, and the grin widened. And then he did the unthinkable. He lifted his right hand from his lap in one quick motion and pressed it against the horn located at the centre of the steering wheel. A loud blaring noise filled the quiet street, and a group of birds took off from a tree in the garden behind them.

  Mary jumped and wheeled around, convinced that the others would come rushing out from all directions to aid the driver and apprehend the two of them. But no one appeared, and the street seemed just as deserted as before.

  How long would it take the remaining men to reach the car? Ten, fifteen seconds tops if they were inside the houses, and no more than ten seconds if they were outside.

  She turned around again to tell David that they had to hurry, and saw the muzzle flash erupt from the barrel of the gun at the same time as the thunderous roar hit her eardrums. She automatically cupped her hands over her ears and closed her eyes. Then when she opened them a few moments later, she saw the driver slumped back
in the seat. She removed her hands from her ears and the blaring sound of the horn was replaced by a loud, high pitched ringing sound coming from somewhere deep inside her head.

  She looked at David and saw he was staring helplessly at the person he had just killed. He had an almost apathetic expression on his face.

  “David, we need to pull him out of the car!”

  Mary turned around again and scanned the area for a second time. But still there was no sign of the others, but she knew that would change soon. That shot could be heard from all over town, and it wouldn’t take the crowd long to figure out which direction it came from. And when they did figure it out, they would come for them.

  She turned to David again and saw him standing in the exact same position, eyes fixed on the lifeless body in the driver seat.

  “David! David!” Mary grabbed him by the lapel of his jacket and started shaking him, which seemed to snap him out of his daze.

  “Huh?” he said.

  “The driver, we need to get him out quick, before the others get here.”

  David cast a quick glance around and finally began to move.

  “Give me your gun,” Mary said and put her hand on his lower arm.

  David looked down at it, and then back up at her again. Then he handed her the weapon without saying anything, and began pulling the dead man out.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, you evil bitch?” The words came from the other side of the street, and when she turned her head, she saw one of the hooded men come jogging toward her, his scythe held out in front of him like a spear.

  He was no more than fifteen yards away and approaching fast, and Mary acted instinctively. She raised the hand holding the gun, aimed it and squeezed the trigger. Another loud bang rang out in the empty street, and the fierce recoil threw Mary’s hand upwards.

  At first she wasn’t sure whether she had hit him or not, but when she saw the scythe drop to the ground and the man slow down, she knew her aim had been spot on. Then a few seconds later, the man collapsed on the blacktop.

  She felt no need to inspect the damage she had inflicted, nor did she feel any immediate guilt over what she had done. The events of the last few hours had hardened her, at least temporarily, and the only thing on her mind at that moment was getting inside that pickup truck and get as far away as possible.

  She turned around, quickly made her way over to the other side and slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut.

  “Let’s go!” she said, looking uneasily out the window for the remaining men.

  David leaned forward, found the ignition key and twisted it and the engine roared to life. Then he quickly pulled the shifter into drive and the pickup truck started moving forward. Mary felt a massive load come off her shoulders. They had made it this far, which was more than she had dared to hope for, although she knew this was far from over. They had overcome a tremendous hurdle when they had managed to commandeer the vehicle, but they were not in the clear yet. The next few minutes would determine whether it was enough, or whether their efforts had all been for nothing.

  She looked down at the weapon resting in her lap, knowing she would use it again if the situation called for it. And a few seconds later it did.

  “Fuck, there’s another one,” David screamed and pointed with his hand.

  Mary jerked her head up and saw another hooded individual running down a driveway fifty yards ahead, scythe raised above his head.

  “Gun it!” Mary shouted back at him. “He won’t be able to stop us with that thing.”

  But even so she raised her gun with both hands.

  David pushed down the gas pedal and the pickup truck accelerated. By now they were doing over thirty miles an hour.

  “Fuck! He’s going to swing that scythe at us,” David shouted and sank down in his seat, bracing himself for the impact.

  The hooded man had stopped in the middle of the road. He had swung the scythe sideways and was ready to smash it into the windshield of the vehicle when it pulled alongside him.

  “Hit him, hit him!” Mary shouted.

  There wasn’t enough time for her to get in a shot. Not that it mattered, because she didn’t think she would have been able to hit him at this speed anyway. But David didn’t listen. He had closed his eyes and turned his head sideways so he was facing the driver side window.

  They were only ten yards away now and Mary looked on in horror as the man started swinging the scythe towards the windshield where it would impact in less than a second. And the only thing she could think of before she too closed her eyes and pressed her head even tighter up against the window of the passenger door, was that the scythe had the potential to go right through her skull.

  Then there was a loud clang as the tip struck the glass, and she could feel the air pressure of the implement as it crashed through it. Mary’s body winced, and then she waited for the pain to set in. But the pain never came, so she opened up her eyes and saw the tip of the scythe protruding through the middle of the windshield less than half a foot away from her face. The shaft was lying across the hood of the vehicle and overhanging it by five or six feet.

  She quickly turned to David.

  “Are you Ok?”

  He nodded.

  “Yes, I’m good. But that asshole totally destroyed the windshield. I can hardly see where I’m going.”

  He began rolling down the window on the driver side door, and stuck his head out.

  “We’ll have to pull over and get rid of it,” he said. “I can’t drive around like this. I’ll crash into something if I do.”

  They continued to the end of the street and turned left, where David pulled over to the kerb. There he quickly jumped out and removed the scythe, which he threw in among the trees. After that was taken care of, he climbed back inside the car, leaned back into the driver side seat and began kicking the windshield with his feet. After the sixth attempt the adhesive holding it in place gave up its grip and the spider webbed remains of it landed on the hood. David jumped back out again and threw it on the ground.

  Five seconds after that they were moving again, the cold wind rushing in through the opening where the windshield had been, pushing their hair back as if they were sitting inside a wind tunnel.

  David was looking straight ahead, the shock of having killed another person was clearly written on his face. Mary knew she had to bring his attention back to the problems they were facing if they were going to have any chance of getting out of there in one piece.

  She shot a quick glance at the houses on her side of the street, saw that no one was there and then looked back at David again.

  “I think our best option is to head over to the street that borders the park and follow it as far south as we can, before heading back to Main Street and out of town. If the crowd are descending on the area where the shots were fired, which we can safely assume they are, we’ll be able to bypass them. And if we’re really lucky, we won’t run into anyone.”

  David nodded solemnly, looking straight ahead.

  Mary gave him a few seconds to respond, but when no reply came, she pressed on.

  “Listen David, I know that what occurred back there is difficult to take in, and that it will take a long time to come to terms with, but right now it’s important that we focus on what we have to do next. If we don’t we’re as good as dead.”

  She put her hand on his arm and squeezed it, and saw tears start to roll down his cheek. He quickly wiped them away before clearing his throat and shifting his position in the seat.

  “I know,” he said after a few seconds, his voice low and monotonous. “And yes, I do agree with your assessment of our situation. It is our best opportunity to get away.”

  He increased the speed of the pickup truck and turned left at the next block and continued until they arrived at the park. There he turned south and gunned the engine. They were now running parallel with Main Street, and in less than half a minute they would be turning towards it.

>   The cold air was whipping at their faces, but Mary ignored it. She was leaning slightly forward, her forearms propped up on the dashboard, both hands clutching the gun. She was focused on what was ahead of them, and this time she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot if she saw someone come running toward them. It didn’t matter whether she hit them or not, it was about getting them off the road, and not giving them the opportunity to swing any weapons at them.

  In a way she was prepared for whatever was going to happen next. In the span of a few hours, she had gone from feeling uncomfortable about people giving her sour looks, to accepting that she had to take responsibility for her own and David’s wellbeing and fight for their lives. And in some perverse way it seemed as if she had become accustomed to it. It was like all the things she had gone through so far had blunted her emotions and made her more cynical.

  She was no longer the meek one. Now it was her who was the confident one, the one coming up with the best ideas and strategies. Ready to point them in the right direction and make sure that they came out safely at the other end.

  With David it was the exact opposite. Initially it had been him who was in charge when they first started running into difficulties. It had been him who had guided her along. But now the roles had been reversed, and she really did feel that they would get through this nightmare. She was confident that they would be able to deal with everything that was coming their way. That they would be able to crash through any barriers and roadblocks the townfolks had managed to erect, and get back on that highway and the safety beyond.

  A tiny smile appeared on her lips, and she felt a powerful force fill her body. She would get to experience what it was like to be a mom and start on the amazing journey that raising a family was all about. And David would be there, right by her side, sharing every moment of it with her. Everything would be ok. It was all part of the plan that god had set in motion. She didn’t know why he had done so, why he had decided to test her in such a horrible manner, but who was she to question his motives? He was after all her god and saviour, and he knew what was best.