by Jeff Beeman
Chapter Sixteen
Conflict
I have known a lot of homes. First there was the home that I lived in with my parents that had the backyard with my backyard fort. Then there was the home Daddy and I lived in that Momma got to spend only a little time with us because she was in the hospital a lot. After The Bad had come to the world, Daddy, Bouncy Bouncy and I lived at two other bases, which aren’t homes but in truth, they are all we have close to it. Finally, Bouncy Bouncy and I with B.B. joining us at our current base, which once again is not a home but...
Now I sit in the bed of a truck looking up at what was in truth my last home while the adults go over what compounding drugs are needed and other equipment from the animal hospital. Whether they complete their mission soon or thirty-five days after one or both men have passed on, they will be going back to the Fortress and we are going with them to live with people. I should feel happy or excited about this but I can’t help looking at my Base and feel a little sad. It is not like the type of sadness that will cause me to slide into the pit or that I want to cry about. It is more like missing something or someone you knew and liked but not loved. I just am not sure why I feel this way or how to really describe it to the others.
Finally having decided exactly what is needed, we begin the next phase of the mission. I can’t take my eyes off the building that my Base is part of as we drive down Central. Mr. Oliver said that we can come back to pick up the stuff I want but somehow that doesn’t feel real. I wish Daddy and Momma was here so I could talk them about how I feel.
We travel down Central till it meets up with Harwood. There we go west. Again I see my least favorite buildings. I just don’t seem to get far enough away from them. From there we make a left onto Brown Trail and follow it until we reach our destination at the corner of Harwood and Springdale. Mr. Anderson seems to want to drive around the shopping center that the pet hospital is part of. Across the street is a multi- level building that is a church, while the rest of the shopping center is made up of a Middle Eastern restaurant and its grocery store. From where I am sitting, I can hear Mr. Anderson make a comment that now we know what happen to the pets no one claimed or had to be put down. Sergeant Kasprzak laughs at it but I don’t think it was funny or nice.
Once we make it around the center, Mr. Anderson pulls up to the front door and except for him, the others all get out of the truck. Everyone has their weapon ready except for me. I, thanks to Mr. Oliver’s help back at the base, have B.B.’s new leash that goes to a new body harness in my hand and he is happy to let me lead him. Mr. Oliver and the Sergeant have what look like the same type of rifle but her stock is different. Officer Salazar has a weird looking shotgun that has no stock and she holds with where you pump the shells and by what looks like a kind of handle similar to a pistol. All three have attached lights to their heads via headbands. I start to go towards the door so I can tap on it and wait for a response but the Sergeant stops me.
“What are you doing?!” She hisses as her slightly red eyes glare strangely at me.
“I am going to see if there are any Moaners in there. I always do that before entering a building “.
“Not today little girl!” She hisses. Then she hisses the order, “Now get your backside behind us, don’t move until we tell you to and don’t say anything!” There is such authority to her voice, I can’t help but hustle behind everyone.
When they all see that I am in my proper position, Officer Salazar takes out of her back pack two things. One looks like a really thin plastic yardstick and the other is a funny device that looked kind of like a small gun but without a barrel. Instead it has a type of metal probe. Sergeant Kasprzak takes up a position to the door, while Mr. Oliver moves me and B.B. back, then takes a shooting position also.
From what I can see, Officer Salazar inserts the probe into the keyhole of the door and there is a metallic sound that follows. Next she seems to barely open the door and moves the thin yardstick so that it is just inside the door. Moving the stick around slowly and really working it a lot near the top, she implies she is happy with the results. The others wait for her to secure the items back into place and for her to have her weird shotgun at the ready. They then let the door open to the shadowy reception/waiting room.
Sergeant Kasprzak and Mr. Oliver enter the building with their rifles pointing down and securely set in their armpit. They slowly enter the room with Sergeant Kasprzak on the right and Mr. Oliver on the left. As they turn their heads to search the room, their rifle barrels swing the same direction but are still aimed down towards the ground. Sergeant Kasprzak makes a hand signal which seems to indicate Officer Salazar should bring me. Since her weapon does not have a stock, she keeps the handle near her hip but like the others, she has the barrel aimed down and it moves where she is looking. Once she is in the room, she signals me to follow without looking back.
And so this is how it generally went. If we came across a hallway that ran right and left, in unison Sergeant Kasprzak would go slowly go left and Mr. Oliver would mirror her movements to the right. Neither ever letting their weapon get ahead of them until they actually entered the room or hallway. I watched with fascination how well all three moved and worked together. Never once did B.B. make a sound.
Finally, we swept, I think that is what they had said they were going to do during the earlier mission overview, the building. The last action in the sweep was unlocking and opening the back door. The only bodies we found was where they kept the animals for overnight stays. Five pets were never claimed. Three were just bones with a little left to identify what they were. Two though looked like dried fruit with most of their fur still intact. B.B. didn’t want to go near them. Guess he could tell they were once dogs and didn’t want to disturb their final resting place. I feel sorry that they had died caged and away from their loved one but it was sort of a distant feeling. Officer Salazar next takes me to the reception office near the entrance while the others began gathering what is needed. She also gives Mr. Anderson a hand signal which I take means everything was good.
Now I am getting bored. Unlike B.B. who has gone to sleep on the floor, I start looking around the area. There are photos of people with their pets. There are also various stuffed or plastic squeaky toys in bags for sale. That starts me to thinking.
“Is it okay to talk?” I whispered.
Officer Salazar looks away from the entrance with a smile on her face and says it is.
“Does Baby Michael have a toy?”
“Normally yes but Amanda was so rushed to make sure she had everything else, she forgot his stuffed toy, Mr. Wiggles. I feel bad for forgetting to mention it. We were all so rushed when the word was given the mission was a go.”
“What type of stuffed toy is Mr. Wiggles?”
“A foot long worm with really chubby cheeks”
I nod as I look over the various toys and tried to imagine what I would want if I was a baby boy who liked worms with fat cheeks.
Coming up with two possibilities, one being a stuffed toy the size of Bouncy Bouncy and the other being a squeaky plastic toy the same size, I hold them up and ask, “Do think he would be happy with one of these?”
Looking back at me, Office Salazar’s face takes on a sweet smile as she replies, “That is so sweet of you to think about him. How about you give him both to see which he wants.”
I am about to respond when B.B.’s head jerks up and then tilts to listen to something. I also hear it but it had been so long since I had heard that sound, I can’t name it immediately. Mr. Anderson yells, “We just went HOT!”
Instantly Office Salazar goes into action. Yelling to everyone, “Going HOT! Exit south!” while she back jumps over the receptionist counter, scoops me off my feet while avoiding B.B. who is slipping on the floor as he tries to scramble up. I can hear the truck wheels peal out. Meanwhile without asking questions, Mr. Oliver and Sergeant Kasprzak come out of the drug room and high tail it to the back door. They never relocked it and luckily it swin
gs out into the Middle Eastern restaurant parking lot, so we won’t lose any speed going through it. We arrive as Mr. Anderson fish-tails the truck bed in front of us. All of us get in just as Mr. Anderson guns it again. I am afraid we are going to fall back from the force. Mr. Oliver grabs B.B. to help secure him which earns him a big kiss from a grateful B.B.
Once the force to fall backwards has eased, Sergeant Kasprzak and Officer Salazar raise the truck gate just as seven motorcycles come screeching around from Springdale onto Brown Trail. Mr. Oliver slides me up against the truck cab, moves all of our backpacks against me then places B.B. and himself against them. I call B.B. over to me and make him lie next to me so he won’t get in the way. He is really agreeable to this.
Without warning we whip to the right so hard, I, B.B. and the backpacks slide up against the left bed wall. I bump my head because I have my left arm wrapped around B.B.’s neck. Once the sliding is done, Mr. Oliver and Officer Salazar quickly change positions. She hooks her left arm on the outside the left bed wall and lays partially on the wheel hump. This blocks my view but at the moment I am okay with that.
Unexpectedly Sergeant Kasprzak and Mr. Oliver fire their rifles which hurts my ears and makes B.B. yowl out. Like she is on a carnival ride, Office Salazar raises up so she is only on part of her behind, swings so she rotates to the other side of the truck bed while still facing behind us. She fires her shotgun at the same time Mr. Anderson makes the truck swerve. This seems to make her shot go bad but I can’t hear except for the ringing. I do feel B.B. yelping through the arm that is holding on to him.
Abruptly we hook it to the left, sending me, B.B. and the backpacks sliding to the right this time. My feet hit the right truck bed wall which is good since I have my arm around B.B. still, so I can stop him from sliding too far. Just as the ringing in my ears is less painful, Mr. Oliver shifts his rifle to the right and he fires a short burst at something. I can’t tell if he hit or not because that is about as much as B.B. is going to take. He tries to get up and jump out of the truck bed. I put all my weight on his back and get my feet braced on the truck bed wall inner lip. It is just enough to keep him down though my shoulder starts screaming at me. I blink back tears and can only barely hear Officers Salazar’s shotgun go off again. Next I feel a rumbling through my feet. I know it is one of the motorcycles getting close even though Mr. Anderson is still swerving left and right.
Quickly we slide back to the left and this time both B.B. and I hit our heads to the left wall. B.B. almost gets up but depending on how you look at it, when he raises his upper body, my head hits the inner lip of the truck’s bed wall hard enough to make me see stars but it does stop him. As reality slowly comes back into focus, I find that we are on our left side thanks to the accidental choke hold I have on B.B. I think Sergeant Kasprzak is laughing. I learned afterward that one of the motorcyclist lost control on the turn, hit a curb which sent the rider and motorcycle flipping backward into a tree. Once I realize that I have the choke hold on B.B., I shift my arm from around his neck and on to more of his chest. The hold seems to have taken the panic out of him as he lies there with me trying to get his breath back. Again the rifles and shotgun go off but this time I hear something hitting the truck.
I more feel the truck go faster but also the motorcycle rumbling seems to get louder. I see the Sergeant and Mr. Oliver duck behind the tailgate as Officer Salazar tries to swing her shotgun towards the back. All of a sudden glass pieces fall all over me. I have no time to panic because the side of the truck hits something hard. From what I later learn, one of the motorcyclist had made it right up to the truck as two other riders shot at us. Mr. Anderson was able to hit the closest motorcycle but its rider had jumped of the bike before the hit. Using the momentum, he jumps/swings into the truck’s bed kicking Officer Salazar in the head and shoulder. This in turn knocks her into Sergeant Kasprzak and Mr. Oliver, who loses his rifle over the side of the truck. The rider lands on his side near my feet, so since my back is against the cab of the truck I pull them up so my knees touch my chest then I plant both of them in his nose. This causes me to black out as the pain from my arm and shoulder tries to knock my head off, at the same time, I break his nose.
Just as I swim up from the darkness, my eyes focus on the sight of B.B. on top of the man as he bites into the rider’s shoulder. The man is screaming loud enough so I can hear him over the ringing in my ears and the motorcycles. It is sort of a high pitch coming from a grown man. Sergeant Kasprzak has taken back her place at the tailgate and set her rifle to fire a burst. I am not sure exactly what happened, but I do know that before the burst was done, the rider of one of the motorcycles was sent flying into the path of the last bullet, which shattered the rider’s faceplate and well that is all I want to say about that.
Mr. Oliver is working on getting the shotgun before the screaming man can have a chance of grabbing it. Office Salazar’s left side of her face has already started turning colors as she is coming back around to this side of reality.
Mr. Anderson turns so hard and fast, we fish-tail sending everyone crashing to the left Again I lose my grip on reality. I am brought back by B.B. licking my face and his putting his wet nose in my ear. This time Officer Salazar is on top of the man as she sits on his chest, holds his shirt with her left hand and slugs him with her right. She is saying things to him in Spanish and boy am I glad I can’t understand exactly she is saying but I feel confident it is not at all nice and even farther from pretty.
Sergeant Kasprzak hands her rifle to Mr. Oliver as she takes the shotgun and then works her way over to the cab. She take a moment to look my direction and asks, “Are you hit?!” real loud. I weakly give her the “thumbs up” sign, to which she nods and then says to Mr. Anderson, “Three of them took another street. The last one following us is falling back. Let’s lose him and get back to the others.”
I finally raise up to see what is going on. The other rider is way back there as the street we are on gently curves to the west. Seeing that the road we are on will go into an area with no through traffic, Mr. Anderson takes a left onto East Ridge. I can see the baseball field of the Bedford high school is now just up ahead.
As we start to get on the road that runs beside the field, screaming death flies into the truck. I can see beyond the Sergeant, the three motorcyclist that we had thought we drove off had merely taken another route to try to cut us off. Mr. Anderson again guns it as Sergeant Kasprzak fires her rifle so that she hits one of the riders straight in the chest as the next set of death takes a piece of her ear tip. Meanwhile I slide back down, as Officer Salazar drops onto the guy’s chest and Mr. Oliver drops on her to protect her and knocking the air out of the rider.
Mr. Anderson sets the truck to flying when the next set of bullets shriek home, one in the driver’s side mirror and another causes something make a mechanical sounding item explode near the back wheels. Something is definitely wrong with the truck as my teeth are now clashing against each other. Sergeant Kasprzak kneels down and yells at Mr. Anderson what is wrong. “Feels like the rear suspension is going out!” he yells back over his shoulder. “Get ready, this is going to get rough and painful for you in the back” he warns. “Jiminy Cricket, this already sucks like boiled cabbage with meatballs!” I yell out loud as I roll onto B.B. and hope we survive this. Sergeant Kasprzak braces herself as she replies, “You said it, little sister”.
The two motorcycles rocket at us but Mr. Anderson is not going to be the fox to their hounds. He jumps the curb, which sends us flying up like never before and painfully crashing back down. What a difference having a working rear suspension versus not having one, I quickly learn to appreciate a working one. We are now on the school’s soccer field as we try to use the truck’s ability to handle rough terrain to our advantage or so I was told. All I know is we bounce and feel every uneven part of that field. It was so bad that I hurt too much to black out, B.B. is so carsick, he throw up and the Sergeant introduces me to new combinations of dirty words betw
een bone wracking jolts.
Mercifully we make it between the baseball field wall and the chain link fence around the track area then between a large building that I don’t know what it was for and the track bleachers to land back on to the pavement of the sports area’s parking lot. As we hit payment I hear a thud and see flying high and away from us a black irregular object. Now there is an uneven feel to the right back wheel. I hear Mr. Anders swear and yell back to the Sergeant, “I think something grazed our back tire and now it is losing tread. Not long before we lose it.”
“Keep going as long as you can, I’d rather lose them then get back into a gun fight!” yells back Sergeant Kasprzak as blood still oozed down her ear.
So we rocket down the parking lot and onto the service road next to the freeway that runs by the Base, the thumping and jumping only gets horribly worse. And now for the next negative, since we are on the pavement again, the motorcycles close in for the kill. Sergeant Kasprzak take a shooting position as she sit on one leg and tries to use her other as a brace. For a moment she takes her eyes off her upcoming targets and looks directly at me as she says, ”Buckie, when I say jump, you jump and roll, then run! Don’t you even think about anything else because B.B. will be right behind you like he always is. We will swing back to pick you up at your place.” Then her gaze goes back to the motorcyclist as she yells out, “Stay down, going hot!”
Even with the back right side trying to hop and skip, I think her shot would have hit but it didn’t work out that way. That is because as Mr. Anderson is making a turn to go under the overpass on to Norwood, he screams out the mother of all swear words, slams hard on the brakes, which forces Sergeant Kasprzak’s burst of bullets to go up into the air and almost flip the truck as we went wildly swing to the left in a massive fish tail.
We are all battered silly but come back around fast when the moaning starts. I turn to look at the direction we had been heading to see a large hunting pack that has taken up shelter under the bridge to stay out of the light. B.B. is so mad, frightened, or both that he starts drooling. Sergeant Kasprzak has gone white and isn’t moving. Mr. Oliver is trying to get the shotgun into position. Officer Salazar starts praying.