“I do, actually. We all thought we were toast when we heard that helicopter outside and the shooting. What the hell happened?” he said.
I gave him and the others a brief version of the short but nasty clash between Huian and the patrol. John whistled, “They took out a whole patrol? No wonder she told us to get the hell out of Dodge.”
While Luke and I had been searching the gas station, Sonny had straightened John’s leg as best he could and duct taped a couple of two by fours to each side of the break, a makeshift splint to keep it straight. It would probably work for now, but the break had looked really bad, and if he didn’t have any other problems, like internal bleeding or infection, I doubted if he would ever walk again without a limp. It had looked to me like the type of break that would require rods and pins to hold the bone together.
I'll give him the choice, I thought. Stay and maybe the Chinese can fix his leg right, or come with us and remain free but at a cost of maybe never walking right again. It was a choice that the unconscious and more gravely injured Mark would not be getting.
John took a couple of the aspirin and washed them down with water. I glanced through the open back door of the truck and saw Indigo and Allie were both curled up in sleeping bags on top of the raised mat we had initially set up for Sonny.
They seemed to be sleeping, so I decided to leave them for the time being and continued around the truck. Near the front of the truck I found Ben and Brooke. Brooke was seated on a small wooden crate, one of the many things lying around the garage. Ben was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to her. Brooke looked up and smiled as I approached.
“How’s the ankle?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s feeling much better since Ben taped it,” she replied. “Not going to be running sprints any time soon, but I can walk on it with no problem. I think I just turned it, not even sprained.”
“Good to hear,” I said, nodding. “How about you, Ben? How are you holding up?”
“What’s that term you American’s say? Keep on trucking ... well, I’m trucking,” Ben said, glancing up at me. He looked exhausted.
“We’re not bugging out of here until nightfall,” I said.
I explained quickly what had happened outside. I was surprised by Ben’s lack of response. He was clearly emotionally and physically exhausted. “Why don’t you both try to get some rest in the meantime? It looks like Allie and Indigo are already asleep in the back of the truck. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you two joined them.”
“What about you?” Brooke asked. “You look like you need to sleep at least as much as we do.”
“I plan on trying to get some sleep when we leave,” I mumbled, trying not to think about Mark. How would I be able to sleep knowing what had to be done? I had a feeling that even when I got to rest, sleep would be a long time coming.
“Something’s wrong,” Ben said. He was looking at me keenly, suddenly more alert now that he sensed a friend’s distress. “There is something that you’re not telling us.”
I felt my shoulders sag as I leaned against the front passenger side fender of the truck; the metal was dented and scraped from the ricochet off the Chinese vehicle back at the bridge. I looked at Ben and Brooke, started to say something and then stopped, unsure really how to start.
“Well, spit it out,” Ben said.
“Mark is hurt too badly for us to properly care for him,” I said, looking at the ground instead of at them. “We are going to leave him behind, and John too if he wants, in hopes that the Chinese will find them and provide any needed medical treatment.”
“That makes sense to me,” replied Ben. “If Brooke or I were too injured to carry on, that is what I’d want you to do with us. As long as there is life, there is hope, even for a prisoner.”
“Just because it makes sense doesn’t make me feel any better about it. I feel like an asshole for even considering it, let alone going through with it. The Chinese aren’t known for their sense of compassion. It could be a death sentence. Plus, I don’t think Luke will like the plan. It’ll grate on his ‘hero’ attitude, always wanting to save everybody.”
“Luke’s the one who convinced everybody to make you the leader,” Brooke said. “He’ll keep following you, even if you make a decision he doesn't agree with. It’s not as though he’s some sort of wanker.”
“I’ve heard that word used before, but I’m not really sure what it means.”
“What word, wanker?” Brooke asked, with a slight laugh.
“Yeah.”
“Well, it literally means, ‘one who wanks’ and wanking is, you know, playing with yourself ... jerking off,” Ben said, trying to hide the smirk starting to form around the corners of his mouth. “We generally don’t use it that way though. We use it to mean something like you Americans mean when you call a person a jerk.”
“Ah, got it,” I said, nodding with understanding. “Wanker, I like that word.”
“Who’s a wanker?” Luke asked, coming around the front of the truck.
“No one. Ben and Brooke were just giving me an English lesson,” I put my hand on his arm. “We should talk about Mark. You’re probably not going to like this, but he won’t be able to come with us.”
I told him my plan. His face darkened while I spoke and the deep frown on his face told me I was right about him not liking it, but so was Brooke when she had said he would accept my decision nonetheless.
In the end, with some dissent, the others in the group also agreed that leaving Mark behind was the best course of action for the good of everybody, although nobody particularly liked the idea.
Samara decided to stay, too. She wanted to remain behind and watch over him, despite the fact we all tried to talk her out of it. Much to my surprise, John also decided to stay and allow the Chinese to capture him in hopes of having his leg fixed up properly.
“Who knows, if they fix me up, maybe I can gather some information that can be used in the future. I know roughly where I will be able to find you guys if everything works out.”
I felt better about leaving Mark now that John had elected to stay, although I didn’t hold out much hope that I would ever see any of them ever again. We tried to talk Samara into coming but she was adamant, and I could tell that it wasn’t only for selfless reasons. It was clear she was tired of running.
We unpacked some food and water to leave with them while they waited for the Chinese Army to find them and I left the other small bottle of aspirin with John, as well. I offered to leave them a weapon too, but it was declined. John and Samara felt their chances were better if they were found unarmed.
Sonny had come back into the garage about 25 minutes after I left him in the station with Huian. I heard her go, the high powered motorcycle was loud, and she was clearly in a hurry. He told us that she’d try to delay the discovery of the missing patrol until the next morning, hopefully giving us plenty of time to get away if we left at nightfall, as we planned.
He looked unhappy and I guessed his feelings for her still ran deep. He said he was feeling up to driving for a while, but it was decided that I’d ride up front with him to spell him if he needed it. Knowing that I had a long night ahead, and that my decision about leaving the wounded was made for good or bad, I finally managed to lie down and fall asleep for a few hours.
20
Luke woke me at sunset. I rose slowly, stretching my sore muscles. The sleep had done me good, but I was still groggy, and I was sure it had not been as much sleep as I needed. The stress of the day was wearing on me in ways I had never imagined it could. I don’t like stress, but I knew I was in for a lot more of it, at least until we arrived at the safe haven.
“Here, you look like you need this more than I do,” Luke said, handing me an energy drink from his stash. I don’t know where he kept them, I never saw him pack or unpack them, but he always magically seemed to be able to produce energy drinks as needed. “You still going to ride shotgun tonight?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan,” I re
plied, taking the can from him and cracking it open. “Unless somebody else really wants the spot.”
“Not me,” he said. “I’m going to sleep from here until whenever we stop again. I am bushed; I don’t even think another round with the Chinese would wake my ass up once I go down for the count.” He looked at me for a moment in silence while I slammed down half the energy drink. He suddenly looked all serious.
“This thing with Mark and John ... and Samara, it sucks, man,” he said. “I want to try to talk you and them out of it. I wish we could try and find a way to bring everybody, but I know it would be a long shot. Anyway, we made you the leader, and it’s your call to make, so I have to respect that.”
“I know,” I said. “It does suck and if I could think of another way, I would grab onto it in a second. But Mark and John need real medical care, way beyond what we can give, and Samara? Well, you could see it too, she is just tired of running ... besides, we can’t force her to come. It’s her decision to make.”
“What about the safe haven we’re headed to?” Luke asked with a hint of hope in his voice. I found it infectious and almost gave into it myself, despite my cynicism about hope in general, but cold, harsh reality won out in my mind.
“Even if we get there and find that the safe haven is real, there is no guarantee that they’ll be able to provide the medical help to save Mark, or John for that matter.” I shook my head. “In this case, I think we just have to accept the possibility of medical care from the Chinese is better than the possibility there may or may not be a safe haven. Besides, at some point in the next couple of days, we are going to be walking again.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Luke said.
“If ... when the Chinese find the truck, we don’t want it to be too close to the safe haven,” I said. “No reason to help them find it.”
He nodded his head in response. I didn’t know if he was quite convinced, but he seemed to accept my reasoning. I finished the rest of the energy drink and walked to rear of the truck. Everybody was just about ready to go. I went around to the passenger side of the cab and found Indigo already seated in the middle.
“Riding up front again?” I asked her.
“Of course, this is where the action is,” she responded with a playful smile. Her rest seemed to have done her a world of good, but then I thought she looked good even when she was about to collapse from fatigue.
“Can you shoot?” I asked her.
“Yeah, a bit,” she replied. I took out the revolver I had found in the gas station and handed it to her, along with a handful of extra rounds for it.
“I already have one,” I said. “Two of them take up too much space in my pockets.”
“Thanks,” she looked it over and then held it out and lined up the sights. “Where’d you get this one?”
“In the station, when Luke and I went and checked it out.”
“Cool, I’ll keep it handy,” she said, sliding it into her coat pocket. “Is everybody else all ready to head out?”
“Pretty much, it looks like,” I replied.
I turned to look toward the back of the truck and saw Sonny rolling the big garage doors open a little. It was dusk and light was fading, but full darkness wouldn’t hit for another half-hour or so.
Samara was sitting with Mark and John on the mat we left for them, the food and water piled nearby. The injured boys were covered with some of the extra blankets we had brought. The other passengers were standing around talking quietly, waiting for the word to climb back into the truck. I went around to Luke who was standing near the passenger door.
“I think we’re ready to go.”
He nodded and Sonny joined us. “Twenty more minutes should give us full dark. We’ll go then.”
Something was nagging at me and I decided I would talk to Samara one more time before giving up on her. “Excuse me for a sec.”
I walked over to the corner of the garage. Mark was still out of it, laying on his back, dark circles under his eyes, and John was lying with his head on Samara’s lap. He wasn’t asleep, but looked pretty exhausted.
“You won’t talk me out of staying, Isaac,” she said as if reading my thoughts. I opened my mouth but didn’t know what to say.
“I’ve tried Isaac. She won’t listen to reason,” John said in a resigned tone.
Perhaps sensing my sadness, Samara put her hand on my knee. “Please don’t take it personally. It’s got nothing to do with you. I’m glad they made you leader while Sonny was down. You’ve been great and did well to get us this far. I’m just sick of hiding and running. And I don’t like the idea of leaving two injured friends behind to fend for themselves. If I’m here, at least they’ll have someone to tend to them.”
Samara paused, hesitating. “Besides...maybe it won’t be so bad with them in charge, you know?”
I could see that John was right; she had persuaded herself it was the best thing to do. I gave her hand a squeeze. “Okay, I hope it works out for you – for all of you. Is there anything else I can do before we go?”
“Well, you could watch Mark while I duck out to the little girl’s room.”
“Sure, don’t go too far though.”
Samara pulled herself from under John’s head and went out. I put my hand on Mark’s forehead. He was burning up ... badly. I had a terrible feeling he wouldn’t last the night. A girl’s scream made me snatch my hand away and shoot to my feet. It was Allie. She was behind the truck facing the garage door. Sonny and Luke rushed around from the other side of the truck and pulled up quickly.
There were three figures, backlit by the last light of dusk. Their faces were in shadow. I didn’t need to see them though. One was the unmistakable figure of the leader of the Tigers, Chen. Next to him stood another of his gang, and held tightly under that thug’s arm with a short blade to her throat, was Samara. Sonny and I took a step forward.
“Stand still, all of you, or the girl gets it in the neck,” snapped Chen. I saw a pistol in his hand.
There was not a doubt in my mind he was desperate and just psycho enough to carry out his threat.
“What do you want, Chen?” Sonny asked over the top of Allie’s screaming.
“Oh, we’ll talk asshole. You!” he roared at Allie. “Shut up!”
Chen indicated with his head that his sidekick should close the garage doors. Samara gasped as the man dragged her to the doors and pulled them closed. I took another step forward until Chen’s eyes locked on me. “That’s right ... soon enough, laowai. Somebody put a light on,” he said, keeping his eyes fixed on me.
I heard movement in the back of the truck and, somehow still working, the light in the cargo bay came on. Chen turned back to Sonny.
“Well, here we are again, Sonny. I’m not particularly upset you didn’t hook up with us when this invasion shit went down. I probably would have had to kill you anyway. No good having two alphas in the pack, if you know what I mean. Anyway, all that is water under the bridge. I’m even willing to forget that you and your baby Kung Fu gang led us into a trap that got all my men killed. I even figure you might have done me a favor, a big group like that is bound to get noticed by the Chinese.
“What I’m not willing to forget, or forgive, is the filthy laowai who killed Jack. Just hand him over and the rest of you can go wherever you were headed. Based on what I saw that helicopter do, you have friends in high places.”
“No, not negotiable,” Sonny said simply.
“Your brother got what he deserved!” Indigo yelled as she jumped fearlessly out of the truck and came around to face Chen. “He was going to rape me!”
“Well, well, well. Jack always did have good taste in bitches.” He licked his lips and I took two steps forward.
“Come on!” Chen screamed and stepped forward, quickly placing the muzzle of his gun against Indigo’s forehead. I froze. “Another move like that and I’ll do her, and then I’ll do you.”
I stood there with adrenalin coursing through my body, frustrated
and helpless to protect the people I had been charged with caring for. Then it came to me, the only option I had to get us all out of this situation.
“Please, Chen,” said Sonny in a calm voice. “We’re screwed enough as it is without helping the Chinese by killing ourselves. Please, lower the gun.”
I was shocked when the leader of the Tigers did just that. He lowered the gun and took a step away from Indigo. I saw her shoulders relax and she leaned back against the truck.
“You know what, Sonny? You’re right, and in honor of the fact we were once Tigers together, I will let all of you go. All except him.” He pointed his finger at me like it was a loaded weapon.
“No, I already told you, it’s non-nego-”
“Sonny,” I said loudly, interrupting him. “It’s alright. It’s the only way to appease him. He’s not going to stop until I’m dead ... or he is. The only thing we need to work out is if he’s going to shoot me like a coward or fight me like a man.”
I saw my words have the desired effect. Chen raised his chin defiantly. “You want to fight me, laowai?” he asked incredulously.
“My name is Isaac,” I said, as I walked forward holding his cocky gaze with my own defiant stare. “And yes, I do. I want to fight you. Hand to hand, no weapons.”
Chen laughed hard. My gaze didn’t waver. Finally, he stopped laughing and looked at me unsmiling as he used the muzzle of the gun to scratch his chin. “Geez. I don’t know, I-Zack, you speak of cowards, but I seem to remember you shot my brother with a machine gun.”
“He was armed and in the middle of raping a girl ... like a coward, and would have shot me too, if he’d had the chance.”
Chen’s eyes flashed angrily. “Alright, I-Zack, just the satisfaction I get beating you to a bloody pulp before I kill you should make it worthwhile.” He looked at his heavyset partner. “Zhou, if anyone makes a move while this is on, cut the girl’s throat and take out as many of them as you can.”
The After Days Trilogy [Books 1-3] Page 21