“You and me, here, in five minutes,” I rasped. “If I win, your people turn around and leave and if —”
“If I win, I kill every last one of your people ... starting with him,” he said, pointing at Luke. “And finishing with your wife ... after I kill your son in front of her eyes and then fuck her, that is.”
What he said revolted me ... enraged me ... and even though I knew he meant it, right at that moment, his statement was designed to provoke a reaction and keep me off balance. I forced myself not to react.
“I’ll just have to make sure you don’t win then,” I said calmly.
His mouth straightened into a hard line.
“Five minutes,” he said, menacingly. “I suggest you say your goodbyes.”
He turned on his heel and went back to his men. I felt a little sick. Doubt and apprehension gnawed at my guts. The stakes were high and the chips on the table were my wife and son. It had been over five years since my battle to the death with Ragg and I had been lucky to escape that with the help of my friends. I had become battle hardened by the ordeals of the six months leading up to my battle with Ragg. Now I was soft. I had never needed to fight since; in fact, I hadn’t even practiced my moves since our first year in the Valley. Life had gotten in the way.
“Thanks for saving my ass back there,” I said to Luke, Paul, and Ben as we picked up our weapons.
They just nodded. Luke look lost, deep in thought.
35
A concerned Indigo and Brooke were waiting for us when we got back over the barricade. Indigo fell into my arms.
“Are you okay? What did you say to him? Are they going?”
“Not exactly.”
“What then? What made him attack you?”
“I challenged him to a fight to the death. If I win, the rest of them will leave.”
“No! You can’t, Isaac!” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “He’s a psycho.”
“What choice do I have?” I asked, my own voice cracking and not only from the bruising of my throat. I took her hand. “If I don’t try, we’ll all be slaughtered anyway.”
“Let me fight him,” said Luke.
Brooke, leaning against him, looked up sharply.
“No!” said Brooke and I at the same time.
“Why not? I’m as big as him and I’m fit and ready. No offence, dude, but you’re not as battle ready as you were back then.”
His words stung a little and awakened a little defiance in me. I was well aware of my own shortcomings, but didn’t like hearing them from someone else.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I just need you to lead the attack on them if this doesn’t go as planned.”
Brooke’s hand on his lowered arm seemed to decide the matter. He looked down at her and nodded. “Fine, but don’t take any chances. Kill the fucker as soon as you get the chance.”
“I plan to. I need to go.”
“I’m coming this time,” said Indigo.
Try as I might, I couldn’t dissuade her. In the end, Brooke, Ben, Paul, and Luke followed me over the barricade and out into the middle of the road. When he spotted us, Ash sauntered forward with a smile on his face and similar number of men.
I pulled off my t-shirt as he got close and threw it to Indigo. While I wasn’t fat — no one was fat in the After days — I wasn’t exactly well muscled. And truth be told, I felt a little inadequate as I faced him. When he stopped, he looked me up and down, then laughed, before looking over at Indigo.
“Really? You’re into him? I think you need some of this,” he said, and grabbed his crotch through his jeans.
“Fuck you, psycho. He’s ten times the man you are.”
Ash made an amused face and nodded. “We’ll see,” he said, and opened his arms as he looked back at me. “Ready? I want this over quick. Indigo and I have some business to take care of.”
“In a second. Have you given the order about turning back if I win?”
He rolled his eyes and turned to his men, cupping his hands around his mouth. “If I happen to trip, bump my head and kill myself when I’m fighting this guy,” he called, “I want you all to turn around and head back home. Do not attack. Is that clear?”
There was a chorus of yes sirs and he turned back to me.
“Satisfied?” he asked, running his eyes over Indigo before settling on Brooke and licking his top lip suggestively. “You don’t need to bother giving your people any orders. I’ll take care of ... things ... myself, after you’re bleeding on the road.”
I glanced at Luke. Brooke had placed a restraining hand on him, but he wasn’t drawn in by the deliberate goading this time. He just nodded at me once.
“I’m satisfied. Let’s do this.”
Ash clapped his big hands together. “All right! Some action at last.”
As the people around us stepped back a few paces, Ash and I limbered up. My stomach was churning now and I struggled to bring my nerves under control. I remembered the calming exercises of my martial arts training and closed my eyes. I pictured little Maxie’s smiling face as I inhaled and exhaled deeply. It worked to calm me. When I opened my eyes and raised my fists, Ash was standing with his arms crossed and tapping his foot on the road surface.
“Finally!”
His arms were by his side and he didn’t raise them as he clenched his fists and stalked towards me. I capitalized on his mistake. I didn’t retreat; instead I took two quick steps forward and jabbed him in the face twice before swinging a right cross at him. Even though he had lost valuable time having his arms lowered, he was able to raise his left arm in time to block my punch before reaching out to grab me. I was already gone though, retreating a safe distance as he regained his balance and wiped blood from under his nose.
I began to hope. He didn’t appear to have any basic martial arts knowledge. Hopefully it would make up for my lack of fight fitness.
“Not bad,” he said, trying to appear nonchalant and failing. He was a little shaken.
I didn’t say anything. Just circled him warily, a little more confident than I had been before my first flurry of blows. When he approached again, this time more slowly, he had his fists up. This time I let him come to me as I bounced on the balls of my feet.
It was my turn to be surprised. When he was within a yard of me, Ash suddenly lowered his shoulders and charged. I managed to get one punch in before his heavy tackle carried me backwards into the hard surface of the road. The shoulder he had driven into my chest winded me badly and as we crashed onto the road, his heavy weight on top of me, I fought to get air into my lungs.
I felt him struggling to get his hands free and knew if they found my throat again, I was done for. I clamped his right arm under my left and began raining blows upon his head with my free hand. They were hard blows with two purposes: one, to inflict as much damage as I could and two, to keep his left hand away from my throat by making him use it to defend against my attack.
His superior strength and position won out and after fending off one of my blows, his open hand came down hard upon my face with a heavy slap. The shot stunned me and gave him the opportunity to quickly club me again, this time with his fist.
I groaned and saw stars as he shuffled into a sitting position, pinning me to the roadway with his legs. I still held his right wrist under my arm, but my grip was loosening. He smiled a bloody smile, clearly believing he was close to victory, and clubbed the side of my face with the back of his hand. I barely had time to register the coppery taste of blood in my mouth when his hand found my throat and began to squeeze again.
I tried to fight back, but my weakening blows were awkward and ineffectual. Through the throbbing heartbeat in my ear, I could hear his men roaring in bloodlust and urging him to finish me, while the people on my side screamed in horror. As my strength faded, I was unable to keep his right hand constrained and he finally pulled it free.
I was able to take a truncated breath when he loosened his left hand to allow his right hand to join in the fun
, and suddenly both hands were squeezing the life out of me. I stared up into his implacable blue eyes, resigned to my fate.
“ISAAC!”
It was Indigo’s plaintive shriek that cut through my fading consciousness and I was imbued with one final burst of desperate energy. I ceased my weak punches and reached down and gripped his balls through his jeans. His hateful eyes widened and then with all of my strength, I twisted viciously. There was a muffled, meaty snap, like a fishing line breaking, and the hands immediately left my throat.
Ash’s shriek of agony was impressive and his hands released me instantly as he fell to his side holding his crotch. I took deep breaths, sucking the oxygen back into my lungs in big gulps. I rolled away from him and began to climb to my feet. He was trying to stand as well, but struggling worse than I was. He barely made it to his knees as I stood. I took two wobbly steps towards him and unleashed a kick which struck him on the side of the head.
He was a tough sonofabitch, I’ll give him that. He didn’t fall, but reeled backwards before steadying and laboriously finishing his climb to his feet. I began to circle him, my fists raised. Once again, I felt I was in with an even chance.
I didn’t see his surreptitious hand signal. I was told about it later.
Someone bumped into me heavily, pushing me to the side so hard that I barely kept my feet. I turned. It was Brooke.
“Brooke? What are you doing?”
She smiled her beautiful smile at me. “Someone was going to —”
Her eyes fluttered and it was then I saw the small arrow protruding from her chest, just above her right breast, a bloom of red spreading like a horrible flower around it. I caught her as she began to fall, a scream of despair stuck in my throat.
“No!” wailed Luke, running over to us and dropping to his knees as I gently lowered his love to the ground.
She was still smiling as Luke put his arms around us.
“No, no, no, Brookey,” he said, crying. “What were you doing?”
“I love you Lu —” her sentence broke off with a wet, bloody cough.
Ben arrived, then Indigo, both crying, all of us trying to hold our broken friend Brooke as she closed her eyes.
Through blurred eyes, I saw Luke’s face change. His grief stricken features morphed into something more akin to granite and it terrified me. He stood, his chilling gaze seeking out the murderer.
Perhaps not sensing his danger, Ash, his face pale, stood with hands on hips, smiling spitefully at our group. When he saw Luke stand up and seek him out, he addressed him scornfully.
“You can blame your boyfriend for that.”
With a guttural roar, unlike anything I had ever heard come from a human throat before or after, Luke rushed at the leader of the Marauders. Ash barely had time to raise his hands before my enraged friend crashed into him, carrying them both to the ground.
Ben took his sister from my arms and cradled her against his chest and my own arms sought Indigo. I held her tight, watching Luke over her shoulder.
With a strength borne of a grief and rage I couldn’t imagine, Luke wrestled with the powerful leader of the Marauders until he was sitting on the killer’s chest, pinning him to the ground. Ash, finally realizing the danger he was in, called out desperately to his men.
“Shoot him!”
No one moved. Perhaps they were captivated by the battle, or more likely, hoping to see their bastard leader defeated.
Ash groaned when Luke’s fist landed twice in quick succession, his nose exploding in a gout of blood with the first blow, his mouth and teeth taking the brunt of the second.
The evil sonofabitch screamed another gargled order that none of his men responded to.
The third blow came not from Luke’s fist, but from his hook. Blood flew and Ash screamed as he swung his head from side to side trying to evade the punishment, the flap of skin hanging from his cheek waving like a bloody flag of surrender
“No, pleathe, I’m thorry,” he gasped through broken teeth.
Fist again. Then hook. Fist. Hook. Luke pummeled the man who had hurt his love. The mother of his unborn child.
He continued even after Ash had stopped screaming. I extracted myself from Indigo’s arms and stood, walking over to him on wobbly legs.
Luke’s chest was heaving. With each blow, the Marauders’ head swung heavily to the opposite side. Ash was dead, or as good as. I put my hand on Luke’s shoulder.
“It’s done, Luke. Stop.”
Luke stopped and looked down at the enemy. I reached out and grasped his arm, intending to help him up.
He shrugged off my hand and placed fingers against Ash’s throat. Before I could say anything, he removed them and swung his gory hook. It caught an inch to the right of the prone man’s Adam’s apple and ripped an obscene gash in the soft flesh. An impossibly high jet of arterial blood washed over both of us as Luke climbed to his feet.
He was a fearsome sight coated in the blood of our common enemy and I felt a flash of uncertainty as he stepped over the body and looked down at me.
“Now it’s done...”
He pushed past me and went to Brooke. Ben and Indigo were still cradling her and they helped as he bent down and scooped her into his arms. Indigo looked at me as I walked over to her. She took my hand.
“Is she —?” I couldn’t finish the question.
“She’s still breathing. I have to go ... the baby ... there’s still a chance.”
“Yes. Go.”
I couldn’t watch her go. One of the Marauders was approaching; I tensed. When he was closer, he looked down at his dead leader, his face expressionless and then looked at me.
“He told us to kill you all on the off chance you beat him. I already talked to the other generals. Of the four, only one wanted to carry out that order. That’s him on the ground back there.”
I followed the direction of his gesture and saw the body of a big guy on his back with a knife in his chest.
I nodded and turned, suddenly bone weary.
“Wait!” called the Marauders’ erstwhile general, and ran around to face me. “Some of us are interested in joining forces. That is, if you’ll have us. The others will go back.”
“No,” I said, and walked past him.
The Marauders had been conditioned to kill. I didn’t see how they could be assimilated with us without endangering our own people.
“Please!”
I stopped and sized him up. He was a fresh faced boy of about eighteen. I thought I could see the kid he had perhaps once been still in him.
“What’s your name?”
“Jarrod.”
“You know what? I believe in second chances. But there has been a lot of damage done here today. Go home. Take all of your army with you. If you still feel the same way in three months, just before it begins to get really cold, come back and see me. Just you. Bring a list of names and I will talk to you about every person on that list. Be careful about who you put on it. If we let them in and they don’t assimilate, I will hold you personally responsible.”
“Yes, sir! Three months. Thank you.”
I didn’t wait to watch them go. I went after my people.
36
The next few hours were harrowing. Luke was a mess. Raging one minute, kicking walls and breaking furniture, the next minute going back to the room where she lay and holding Brooke’s hand as he sobbed uncontrollably.
Jamal was our resident medico, but he had only had first aid training as a kid in high school. Brooke’s wound was far beyond his capabilities and even when Indigo asked, he refused to try and remove the arrow in case it killed her. The best he could do was monitor her and the baby’s heartbeat, which was very fast.
Brooke never regained consciousness and died three hours after we took her into the hotel. Luke, Ben, and Indigo were with her when she passed. Later, Indigo told me her breathing had become very ragged towards the end and finally just stopped. A pale but calmer seeming Luke was holding her hand and seemed not t
o notice. When Indigo broke the news to him, he simply nodded and kissed Brooke’s forehead, before getting up and leaving.
Jamal and I and the others were quietly talking and waiting outside the door when it opened. Jamal had come out for a break and to give us an update. When Luke came through, his face said it all. He didn’t look at us or back at Indigo when she called after him.
“Luke, we need to try and save —”
She looked after him helplessly and then became all business. “Jamal, quick, we have to try and do a caesarean. Allie, you come help too.”
The door closed and I considered following Luke. I decided not to. He needed this time alone and nothing I could say would make it better. As it turned out, he walked out of the room, out of the hotel, and out of our lives. We wouldn’t see him again for six months.
I held my head in my hands as I waited, trying to rationalize how things could have gone so badly. We lost one of our family for nothing and another before he or she was even born. I held no hope. I knew the baby would die; we didn’t have the equipment or the knowledge to save it.
The minutes ticked by and I prepared to console Indigo and the others, going over what I would say to try and persuade them it wasn’t their fault the baby had died. Finally, the door opened and a pale, blood streaked Indigo stepped through. Tears ran down her face and I stood up to comfort her.
That was when I registered a baby crying behind her and I realized her tears were not solely ones of sadness, but also joy. She smiled and stepped aside so I could see into the room as I walked up to her.
“It’s a girl,” Indigo whispered as she fell into my arms, crying in earnest now. I held her, and looked on in wonder, and began to cry myself. In the room, Ben was holding his squirming baby niece in a towel, cooing to her softly as he rocked her back and forth.
Epilogue
That bittersweet day marked the end of one journey for us and the beginning of another. It was fifteen years ago, but is as fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday. The loss of Brooke was a terrible blow, but the loss of a loved one always is and life goes on.
The After Days Trilogy Page 65