“You’re happy with your life?” I asked her.
“I’m… Now that I have you and Emily both with me, and my granddaughter… But I’m so worried, so very, very worried that it’s too late for all of us.”
“You ok down there?” Grandma called softly.
“Yes, Mom,” my mom called back, pulling her hand away from me so she could resume rubbing the back of my neck, tousling my hair again, playing with it in a way she hadn’t had done since I was a very little boy.
“Something’s going on upstairs, there’s shooting,” Grandma said. “So wipe your ass and get ready. Something’s going on, we need to be ready to move.”
I stood up, wiping my face, then helped my mom to her feet. She still clutched the small bag tightly.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, darting into the bathroom, locking the door.
“We don’t have time, something’s happening!” Grandma yelled.
I could hear it now myself. There were popping sounds, muffled, but getting louder. I put an arm around my grandma. She stood there, rock solid, while I got my bearings. I hadn’t gotten hit in the head, and I wasn’t feeling faint from the head injury… But instead, it was that my entire world had just been shattered and I felt a bit adrift. That was when I remembered Duke’s goodbye, and how Emily had made sure I knew where Mary was.
“You good now?” Grandma asked me.
“I am. Duke left us a way out, I think. I’m wondering if he knew this was going to happen.”
“Can we trust him and Emily?” Grandma asked.
“I … I think so,” I told her. “Mary isn’t with Marshall, she’s with Rolston at the edge of the camp here.”
“She … why … she knew too, didn’t she?” Grandma’s voice broke and I saw a smile tugging at the edges of her mouth.
“I think so,” I told her, then banged on the door. “Mom, you want to get away from Killion?”
“Give me five minutes,” she called back on the other side of the door, near the sink.
“We don’t have time for this, somebody is attacking us. We have to get out of here,” I called to her.
“Go ahead without me, I’ll be safe,” my mom said, just as an explosion rattled above us, “Get your Grandma someplace safe, I’ll be ok!”
“Mom, come on! You can go with us! We can’t wait much more,” I urged, feeling rising tension, wanting to kick in the door.
“I’m not worried, baby. Just find somewhere safe to hide. I just need five more minutes,” she said, her voice starting to slur.
“Let’s go,” Grandma said, pulling on my arm, “we can’t help her if she won’t let us.”
I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to leave my mom, but I had no idea what was happening exactly, and from personal experience, I knew in the heat of battle, it was easy to get tunnel vision. I fought that now as I walked towards the maintenance room.
“It’s locked, I checked that first thing earlier,” Grandma said from behind me.
“Even salt looks like sugar,” I said to myself, pulling the key out of my pocket and putting it in the lock.
It turned easily, with a slight ‘snick’ sound. I opened the door, letting my grandma go first. She coughed, and a moment later I knew why. The mechanical room stank of chemicals. Chlorine bleach, ammonia and something else. Henry and Spider’s men had cleaned the place up, but there were still places where the stench of what I’d done still clung to the concrete. I pulled the door closed behind me and then locked the closet, leaving us in darkness with the machinery.
“But your mother… I don’t…”
“Grandma,” I told her, “she went in there to get high. Nothing was going to get her out of there, and I don’t know who’s coming. Are Henry’s men attacking Spider’s? Is the guard back? Have Jess, Linda, and the pups come to save us? I don’t know, but I do know a way out of here. If we’re quiet and very lucky, we can—”
Gunfire rattled not far from us. One floor above. There were more screams and a booming sound. Then the world started splintering, or was that the wooden flooring and pieces of the wall, as an insane buzzing/sewing needle poked holes in everything, shooting splinters everywhere. Grandma didn’t argue. She ducked behind machinery and yanked on the grate. The aftermarket tension clips popped easily in her arthritic grip, and she made a ‘come on’ motion. I followed.
We followed the same route to escape as we had last time. When I pushed the grate out slowly in the darkened shed that doubled as the former survivalist group’s armory, I saw the pockmarks of where the claymore had shredded the turncoats so long ago it felt like years had passed. New marks were all over, but the room was almost completely empty. Except for the fangs.
“Raider?” I said surprised, and was almost knocked off the rusted rungs of the ladder as my dog tried to love on me, lick me, and rub his body against mine, while spinning in a happy circle, using his tail like a semi-fully automatic machine pistol that shot seven thousand rounds a second. Or something.
“Get back,” I said, laughing.
“Let him out,” I heard a feminine voice say. “Raider, heel.”
Raider backed up and sat, his entire backside wiggling. I should have been scared. I never saw the woman, but I recognized the voice.
“It’s good to see you, Linda,” I said, taking her hand and letting her help pull me out of my grandma’s way.
“It’s good to see you too, son-in-law,” she said, grinning.
I turned and helped Grandma to her feet. She looked around the room a moment. “Where’s everybody else?” she asked.
“You wouldn’t even believe it if I told you,” Linda said. “Come on, Jess and the rest of the mutts are outside.”
“What about guns?” Grandma asked suddenly.
Linda smiled and started opening up the lockers we’d pilfered before. She came up with a revolver that she handed to Grandma, then made an aha sound, pulling out an old gun I hadn’t seen in a while.
“My grandpa’s…”
“Yeah, I don’t remember it being here last time,” Linda said, handing it to me, along with a cardboard box with loose rounds rolling around in it.
I guessed there was about thirty rounds all told, almost everything I’d had with the gun when I’d lost it. I opened the bolt and saw it was loaded. I put it on safe and slung it over my shoulder. Raider bumped my hip, and I leaned down to him, almost nose to nose.
“How’d you find me?” I asked him, but it was Linda who answered.
“He brought us right to you. I had a feeling this exit might have been missed since last time, but not a big chance of it. He came straight here and pawed at the door. Took me a minute to make sure nobody mined the door like you did the last time you left here.”
“Thank you,” I told them both.
“I don’t have any 1911s from the pile here, but I do have one of those massive revolvers like Emily carries.”
“I’ll take it,” I said and almost instantly regretted it.
This one, if anything, was a larger bore than Emily’s .30-30. I thumbed back the catch and worked the unloading rod until a nice fat rifle cartridge sat in my palm. .45-70 Gov was stamped into the brass. I shivered and loaded it back up, then checked to make sure every cylinder was loaded. Linda pulled out a leather bandoleer with a holster on it. I looked at the gun and the holster attached to the leather strap and put it in. It had been modified to let the gun be drawn out quicker, but it wasn’t something you wore at the hip.
It was meant to be worn under the arm. I put it over my left shoulder, feeling the weight of the heavy cartridges, the smell of gun oil. This was somebody’s baby. Was it my father’s? With a pang, I suddenly felt horrible for leaving my mom, but I had to squash that down. I didn’t have time. I holstered the hand cannon, then took the box full of the .22-250 hand loads and filled my pockets. Linda snickered as I pulled my pants up and cinched my belt tighter. Damn apocalypse diet made me almost moon the ladies.
“Let’s go,” Grandma said
from my side, an old Smith and Wesson revolver in her hand.
“You sure you can shoot that?” I asked her, noting the size.
“It’s a .357 loaded with .38’s. I’ll be fine. I want to get the hell out of this shit-box.”
Linda snickered and knocked on the outer door. An excited bark that sounded like a bulldozer was trying to imitate a dog called back, and something hit the outside of the door hard enough to make it look like it was going to buckle in. I opened the door and was immediately tackled. Three canines converged on me, licking and pawing, but my attention was on Jessica. She kissed me passionately, her hands rubbing on either side of my face.
“Thank you Lord,” she said softly, then rolled off me.
Diesel and Raider moved in for more direct access to love on me, and I pushed them back, wiping their slobber off my face.
“What’s going on?” I asked everybody as the smell of smoke, gunfire, and explosions peppered the dark shed.
“The Guard is here,” Linda said simply. “Duke and Emily coordinated with them and got all the survivors from our compound into Henry’s cabin when the shooting started. They’re going to make their way to us.”
“I … they what?” I asked as we moved out of the armory.
“And get this, Lance is working with us,” Jessica said, her carbine coming up at the low and ready. She gave the mutts a command, and Diesel and Yaeger fell in on either side of her, slightly ahead.
“He’s … what?” I asked.
“Unless you’re waiting to get your biscuits buttered, looks like it’s time to shuck and jive and go save our family,” Grandma said, smacking me in the back of the head.
I winced and exited the shed, staying behind Jess. Grandma followed behind me, her revolver out, followed by Linda who made a hurry up gesture at me when I looked back at her. We quit talking and moved down the slope, the rock face to our left.
I hated having my grandma in what was soon to be a gunfight, but I didn’t have to worry. Grandpa had taught me what I knew, but Grandma had been with him most of her entire life. I could tell right away she was a match for me, and in her youth, she’d probably have been better than me in the sneaking department.
Jess made a low hissing command, and all three dogs went still. Raider had been going between me and Grandma, but he made sure to be near my left side when he came to a halt. We all crouched down low in the evergreens and browning tall weeds. Gravel crunched from below and Jess made a motion for us to move aside. We went into the brush and with a start, I realized we were in the same spot where Jess and I had ambushed Jimmy’s squad. I gave a low whistle and Raider came to my side. We all went prone, Grandma’s joints popping loudly. Linda rolled her eyes at me then we all ducked as something exploded uphill from us. I turned to look and saw a streamer of smoke and part of the shed that they’d used as an armory start falling down around us.
“RPG,” Jess whispered.
I got my grandpa’s rifle off my back and checked the suppressor. It hadn’t been knocked out of alignment. I got ready, whispering for Raider to hold very still. Gunfire and explosions, the crackle of radios, and the screams of the wounded filled the air below us at the bottom of the holler where the KGR had been. I prayed the women and children Spider’s crew had enslaved at the old encampment weren’t down there as well. They’d just mentioned our group being holed up at Henry’s cabin… Emily had been the one to kill Henry, so was this her way of double crossing Spider all along? Was she triple crossing us? My head tried to make sense of the situation, but I had to just follow my gut instinct and my heart.
My heart was telling me that Emily was on our side, but my head was pointing out how we’d been betrayed. Had that all been Lester? How hadn’t she known I was her brother? Did my mother never show her a picture of me? I assumed Grandma probably had sent her one over the years. Maybe school pictures? My graduation? My mom… she was still in the bunker. I felt horrible for doing that, but she wouldn’t come out and had locked herself in. I didn’t know what she was injecting, but I’d seen her hands shake, and her little brown bag definitely wasn’t a clutch or purse.
“Three men,” Jessica whispered to me. “When I give the word, take out the one in the back. I want them to turn.”
I nodded my response, and I felt my grandma pat my shoulder as I lined the gun up, bringing the scope into focus. At first I couldn’t see anything, but a head bobbed into sight as a figure slowly worked its way up the hill. I started slowing my breathing, so I wouldn’t get tunnel vision as bad, or hyperventilate. I watched and Linda made a noncommittal grunt.
I was the only one with optics, and when I saw the third figure working its way up the hillside, I paused a second in recognition. It was the man who was going to have played the prosecutions attorney at my mock trial. All three were decked out in their KGR vests and black pajamas. All were heavily armed. I started letting my breath out slowly, taking up the slack in the trigger until there was a crack as the round was sent.
I was too good at this, I thought to myself as pink mist erupted where the lawyer’s head had been. The thud and splattering sound was enough for the two men to look over their shoulders. The man in front did a double take, his rifle coming up, when Jess snarled the attack command. The Cerberus crew all took off, the Yaeger and Raider making a beeline for the man in front. Diesel, however, had his own ideas. He covered the ground a little faster than even the shepherds, despite being almost a hundred pounds heavier. The men were turning again, probably catching something out of the corner of their eye, as the dogs leapt.
I was already scrambling to my feet and working the bolt of my grandpa’s gun and stood up so I could get a better view through the scope. The dogs had knocked both men off their feet. A red mist and gurgling sounds came from Diesel’s direction. The man Yaeger and Raider were attacking was making grunting sounds as he tried to roll away and scream for help.
“Nein,” Jess said loudly, making both shepherds break off the attack and back up long enough for me to get a sight picture.
The rifle clacked again as the suppressed .22-250 went off, catching the Kegger just under the chin. Jessica’s rifle spat a three round burst into what looked like a corpse that Diesel had knocked over and mauled. I turned to look for more and saw Linda covering our rear and moved to my grandma when I didn’t see anything else.
“Reload your gun, you idiot,” she said, giving the air a playful slap.
“Yes, ma’am,” I told her, already doing just that. “Raider, here,” I called, low.
He came bounding over, blood speckling the fur. Diesel must have gotten jealous, because he came lumbering over too, and rubbed his big head against my upper leg. Dark read smears almost looked black on my blue jeans from the blood.
“Not now,” I told him, pushing him back. “We have to go get our kids. We have to go get Mary.”
Both Shepherds ears shot to attention at hearing her name, and Raider tilted his head to the side. He let out an excited bark, then spun in a circle to emphasize how happy that made him.
“Let’s go,” I said starting to move, my gun now reloaded.
“We got lucky,” Jess said.
Somebody must have seen us standing there, because the ground erupted as shots were sent our way. We ducked, and Grandma cried out when something hit the rock behind her. I crawled to her and saw she had a piece of stone sticking out of arm. It wasn’t large, more like a sharpened flake, so I pulled it out, checking her for more damage.
“Wes, Hun,” she said, wincing, “you are not the TSA. You don’t get to feel me up like that!”
Linda let out a surprised laugh and I grinned. “As long as you’re ok, Grandma, I’m ok.”
“Let’s go get your niece and my granddaughter,” she said.
“And when it’s all done, maybe we can talk mom into coming out of the bathroom,” I said.
“We’ll go back,” Linda said. “We were made aware of her… condition. It’s been a busy two days.”
20
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We ended up crawling the rest of the way to the spot where we could watch the cabin. It’d been the same overlook we’d used before, Jess and I. Linda said she was going to head down the hill and find a good spot with a clearer field of fire, but Jess and I both asked her to stay. She wasn’t having any of it when Grandma told her, “Kids are right sometimes. Just go with it.”
She had and those of us with long guns looked out on the valley below while Grandma was being a grump. The Guard had swept in from both sides and were holed up below where the fighting was going on. It was easy to pick out who was who at first. The KGR were mostly in uniform, which really made them stand out. The guard were shooting at anybody wearing all black. I peeled my shirt off and tossed it to the side, making Grandma and Jess hiss.
“You look like the wrong end of a bout with Mike Tyson,” Linda said aloud.
With all the aches and pains, I hadn’t paid attention to the bruising that was starting to show from my earlier beating. My broken nose was one indication, but I could tell my back was probably mostly black and blue from being slammed into the wall, and the sides of my head, neck and chest probably had more, but I didn’t look, I was laying down.
“Spider’s men wanted a little payback for me gassing their loved ones,” I explained.
“Hold on,” Linda said putting a hand to her ear.
I realized she was listening in on something in her earwig. She nodded then pressed the PTT button on her own vest. “Yes, they’re in the log cabin. No, do not lob anything near that. No, you can’t… Give me twenty minutes. Yes, then rain hellfire on their asses, send in warthogs or anything else you can think of, but give me time to get our families out of there. You’re damned right I’m pulling rank, you cockless wonder. Really? Your daddy was a no load, pencil dicked donkey fucker. The best part of you rolled down your momma’s leg. Yes, I’m talking to yo—”
I started smirking, then laughing softly. Grandma was shaking and I heard soft giggles coming from her as the one-way conversation turned evidentially into a swearing match and I saw Jess’ face turn beet red in embarrassment. Then I remembered the time frame.
Still Surviving (Book 5): Dark Secrets: Page 14