The Systemic Series - Box Set

by K. W. Callahan

“Hurry,” he said, his vision finally cleared enough to at least make out his surroundings again.

  He fired a few more rounds as Pam flicked the lighter, got a flame, lit the gas-soaked cloth wick at the top of the bottle, and handed it to Ray.

  More gunfire erupted from the area by the window. Ray rose into a knelt crouch from his position on the floor, waited for a pause in the shooting, and then tossed the glass bottle hard enough that he hoped it would shatter.

  Seconds later, the entire wall around the window was ablaze. It illuminated two men huddled in the corner and who Pam and Ray instantly obliterated in a hail of gunfire.

  As the flames died down, Ray ran to the window and looked out. A ladder leaned against one side of the castle, but he didn’t see anyone else around it. He quickly grabbed the ladder and pulled it up and inside the window.

  Then he shoved the bookshelf they were using as a barricade back up against the window as best he could. As he finished, he heard more gunfire, this time coming from the entrance to the library. He spun to see Pam lying on the floor and counted five figures coming in through the connecting office doorway. Ray figured they must have entered through the office windows. He heard firing outside in the family room and he guessed that Emily and Claire were doing their best to hold the center of the castle.

  Ray fired a short burst from his rifle, hitting one of the men as he entered the library. Then he dove behind a nearby table. The other four men spread out into the room which was remained dimly lit by the dying flames of the Molotov cocktail. Ray crawled over to Pam and dragged her to relative safety inside the expanse of the huge fireplace. Moments later, they were pinned inside the space. Splinters of sharp wood exploded around them as bullets impacted with the fireplace’s mantel. Ray winced as shards hit him in the face. He felt bits of stone stinging his exposed skin and dust getting into his eyes as several bullets impacted with the fireplace’s interior, making it hard for him to see.

  He fired off a few rounds.

  “Pam?” he cried as he shot. “Pam!”

  “Uh,” she moaned.

  Ray ripped open the coat she wore, feeling around inside. The hard shell of the bulletproof vest he once wore as an FBI agent and which he’d given to Pam as the castle fell under siege felt smooth across its front. He felt around in back and touched hot lead, a sign the vest had done its job.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “Did they get you anywhere outside the jacket?”

  “I…I don’t think so,” she said. “I hit my head on the floor when I fell, that’s all.”

  “You’ll be alright,” he said. “Just stay calm.”

  He said the words almost more to convince himself since their situation looked bleak at best. He pushed Pam back behind him, further inside the huge fireplace, sheltering her with his own body.

  He fired two more rounds before his rifle’s magazine was empty. He popped it out and slid another one in – his last.

  He pulled his side piece – a .38 caliber pistol – and fired a few shots off, hoping to keep the attackers at bay while conserving his rifle’s ammo. More shots pinged into the walls of the fireplace inside which they huddled. He knew they’d have to make a break for it, but he wanted to give Pam a few more seconds to recover. He fired off the rest of the rounds in his .38 and handed it to Pam along with the remaining rounds from his pocket.

  “Reload!” he called to her over the din of gunfire and ricocheting bullets.

  She hurriedly complied and then handed it back to him.

  “We’ve got to try to get out of here!” he yelled.

  He saw one of their attackers dart across the room in front of them to the cover of a nearby sofa. Ray took a shot at him but missed. “They’ll have the right angle on us any second now, and then we’re done for! You okay to run?” he yelled to Pam.

  “Yeah!” Pam called back, double-checking her own weapon.

  They both cringed as several bullets rocked into the fireplace just a foot away from where they huddled. The noise of the shooting inside the library echoed with increasing intensity making it almost impossible to hear.

  “Okay…on my mark! Get on your feet and push off the back of the fireplace wall with your back and hands for momentum! Head straight for the library door! Keep your fire left! I’ll be behind you firing right! Got it?”

  “Got it!” Pam yelled back, taking a shot at another attacker as he maneuvered closer to them and dove for cover behind the sofa where they’d been hiding just moments earlier.

  “On three,” said Ray, sliding over slightly so Pam could get a good start. “One…two…”

  The room suddenly erupted with even more gunfire. The man behind the sofa stood, whirling around toward the office entry door through which they’d entered and then dropped, screaming. The room was ablaze with gunfire as another of the men jumped up, running toward the window. Ray stopped counting rounds and fired until the man dropped to the floor.

  In the darkness, it was hard to tell what was happening, but Ray could see two more figures appear in the doorway connecting to the office. He swiveled his rifle to take aim, then hesitated. The figures were not firing at him and Pam, they were firing at the two remaining attackers.

  He grabbed Pam by the arm just as she pushed off the wall to exit the fireplace, pulling her back down beside him.

  “It’s John and Will!” he yelled. Then he saw Joanna next to them. “Stay here!” he called, pushing Pam back against the inside wall of the fireplace.

  He noticed that the curtains next to where his Molotov cocktail had landed earlier had caught fire, helping to illuminate the room. It was just enough light to make out an attacker who had repositioned himself behind a table off to their right

  Ray sprung from the fireplace, using the surprise of his friends’ arrival to his advantage. He sprayed the position surrounding the table with hot lead, taking out the sheltering attacker. Meanwhile Joanna moved to crouch behind a nearby sofa chair where she could fire from its protective cover. This forced the last remaining intruder out into the open where John and Will riddled him with bullets from their position just inside the connecting office doorway.

  John and Will moved into the center of the library toward where Ray and Pam were, but as they approached, more gunfire started from beside them near the doors leading into the family room. Ray saw Will, framed in the doorway, shove John aside. Will then turned to fire behind them but staggered and fell as a hail of bullets ripped into the door frame around him. Ray ran forward, grabbing the two massive oak doors that led out into the family room, and slammed them shut. Then he pushed a heavy sofa up against the doors to help hold them closed as bullets thudded into them, sending splinters of sharp wood into the air around him.

  They could hear continued gunfire outside the library, but they were cut off from the rest of their family…and worse yet, the kids. Only Claire, Sharron, and Emily now stood between the attackers outside and their precious children hiding in the basement.

  CHAPTER 5

  I couldn’t believe it. Will had taken it right in the ass…literally. The bullet had angled its way through his left butt cheek. All things considered, it was probably the best possible place to be hit, but Will said it certainly didn’t feel that way.

  “Argh,” he cringed, gritting his teeth. “This hurts like hell!”

  As we pulled him away from where he’d fallen near the library doors and worked to get the bleeding stopped, the gunfire outside noticeably diminished and then stopped altogether. We could hear shouting outside the library, but we couldn’t tell what was being said. One thing we did know though was that the voices weren’t female, which didn’t bode well for our other family members trying to hold out in the rest of the castle.

  I hoped they’d been able to make it down to the basement with the kids and were holding out, awaiting rescue down there, but I had no idea. And not knowing was killing me inside. The thoughts raced. Was Claire okay? What about Jason? What about Emily, and Sharron, and Paul, and Sarah, an
d Shane, and Dad?”

  We had to get to them, and fast. We could have the rest of the hoard of Tiptonites from outside pouring in any second. And as soon as they had their numbers inside the castle, we were done for; there was absolutely no hope, which meant we had to act now. I was glad Joanna was with us. I guessed that she must have come to help out downstairs when she heard gunfire inside the castle.

  “You know where Sharron and Emily are?” I asked her.

  “No,” she said. “It was hard as shit to see. I couldn’t tell what the hell was going on down here. I saw people in the family room but I didn’t want to shoot at them in case they were our people.”

  We patched up Will as best we could in the darkness. “You gonna be alright, bro?” I asked him.

  “Ssss,” he sucked through his teeth in pain as I pressed a swath of fabric we’d ripped from a nearby sofa cushion over his bare ass. “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Ray, Pam, how you guys on ammo?” I asked.

  “Almost out,” they replied in unison.

  “Joanna, you’ve still got plenty in your .22, right?”

  “Yes,” she nodded in the darkness. “I’ve got a full 30 round clip in now, and a 10-round backup in my pocket along with a box with 20 rounds.

  “Okay, then you guys cover me and Joanna. We’ll make a break for the basement stairs. Will, give Ray the extra ammo for your assault rifle since you’re out of action.”

  I waited as they made the exchange, then we carried Will over to the fireplace and laid him inside it’s protective cover, sliding a sofa around in front of it. We left him with a handgun for self defense.

  “Okay, here’s the plan,” I said. “We’ll move the couch out from in front of the library doors. I’ll open them. Ray, you and Pam lay down suppressing fire and Joanna and I will break out toward the basement stairs. Then you close the doors behind us and hold out in here until we get back.”

  I had to admit, it wasn’t much of a plan, but we didn’t have much to work with, nor did we have the time to come up with anything better. I knew our chances were slim, and we’d probably just be gunned down as soon as we opened the doors, but I couldn’t leave our wives and kids down there alone. We had to do something.

  We took up positions on either side of the library doors, Pam and Joanna on one side, Ray and me on the other.

  “Alright,” I whispered. “On my mark.”

  As soon as I finished the words, gunfire erupted again outside in the family room. At first, I thought the invaders must have heard me, but there was no way. I had been whispering and the library doors were several inches thick. Plus, the gunfire wasn’t being directed at us…it sounded closer to the basement. It urged me onward in my mission.

  “Go!” I shouted, yanking open the library doors.

  We didn’t make it a foot outside the library before we were met with a hail of gunfire. Joanna and I were instantly forced back inside the library, and I managed to shove one door shut behind us while Ray closed the other.

  We were trapped inside. The only way out was through the windows, but then we’d be even farther from where we needed to be to help our loved ones.

  * * *

  Claire sat rocking Jason, trying to comfort him on the cold floor of the tiny wine cellar. All the gunfire inside the castle had woken him from a peaceful sleep with a start and he’d been crying ever since, which didn’t help them keep their hiding position in the basement hidden for long. The other kids were huddled around her, blankets draped around them for warmth and to help provide some added sense of security. Cashmere was backed into a far corner of the small room where she would yowl, growl or hiss occasionally. Dad sat, leaning upright in the doorway, his injury keeping him from participating in the main fight going on upstairs but not from at least guarding the kids. A handgun lay in his lap, gripped in his one useable hand. Sharron and Emily were further up in the basement, closer to the stairs where they were acting as the area’s main defenders.

  “It’s okay,” Claire soothed, stroking Jason’s head. Sadly, he was getting used to the sounds of gunfire. He’d been taken to many of the firearm training sessions to get him acclimated to the noise; however, what he wasn’t used to was being woken up at four in the morning by the sounds of explosions, gunfire, and the screams of wounded and dying people.

  Claire used a lone flashlight to light the small room in which they sheltered. They had moved the tiny restaurant-style tables that had been in the wine room outside to enable them to get everyone comfortably inside the space. A flashback of her and John sitting in the cellar enjoying a peaceful, private, and romantic candlelit dinner not long ago flitted quickly through her mind. She wondered if they’d ever dine together again, and then she forced the thought aside.

  There wasn’t time for lingering upon such things now. She had to help defend their castle to have any hopes of enjoying such comforts again. She kissed Jason, handing him – still crying – over to Sarah who maturely took over the mothering duties.

  Claire was frightened, being trapped down here like rats, but the instincts to defend her home, and especially her child, urged her forward. It made her angry that these people couldn’t just leave them alone, especially with children here. The thought of them endangering her child filled her with ferocity unlike any she’d ever known, and she almost wanted to run upstairs, guns blazing, and start shooting everyone in sight. But she knew that wasn’t the wise thing to do. Nor would John wish that of her. He’d want her to stay put with the kids and protect them at all costs, not run out into the open, endangering herself and potentially risking the plan of defense they’d created for just this sort of situation.

  She could hear people walking upstairs and talking, but they didn’t sound like familiar voices. That meant that the castle had been taken and could very well mean that her husband was dead.

  She took her gun and made her way up from the wine cellar to where Sharron and Emily sheltered at the base of the stairs.

  Suddenly someone ripped the door at the top of the stairway open and began firing down the staircase. Bullets pounded and pinged into the wall at its base, the space reverberating loudly with the sounds of gunfire.

  Sharron and Emily cringed, backing away from the intense barrage.

  Claire stood her ground, waiting, crouched nearby. According to their plan, she and John’s injured father Frank were the last line of defense between their attackers and the kids. She would fall back from this position to the half flight of stairs down to the wine cellar and make their last stand if Sharron and Emily were overrun.

  A small mirror they’d placed near the base of the stairs angled a reflected view of what was happening at the top of the staircase, although it was so dark now, it didn’t illuminate much.

  The women waited patiently, biding their time until the barrage of bullets coming down the stairs stopped. They watched the mirror silently as the reflected shadow of an attacker crept its way downstairs. Claire thought the man must have been terrified coming down into the blackness below not knowing what awaited him. She was glad. She hoped they were all terrified.

  Halfway down the stairs, the man’s leg snagged a trip-wire they’d rigged across a step. It pulled the trigger of a shotgun positioned at the base of the stairs that angled upward. The blast tore into the man, and he fell, half tumbling and half sliding down the rest of the steps, his body landing motionless in a heap at the base of the steps. But another person replaced him atop the stairs almost before his dead cohort’s body came to rest. The man did an underhand throw on his way down, a flaming bottle whizzing past where Emily and Sharron crouched at the base of the stairs and smashing against the concrete basement wall. Emily felt herself splashed with liquid and then stood frozen in horror as it washed over her shoes and pant legs and the stink of gasoline from the smashed Molotov cocktail wafted up around her. She waited, breathless. Nothing happened for a second and she thought that maybe the fuel wouldn’t ignite. Then there was a ripple of blue across the floor and a who
oshing sound as flames shot up around her.

  Sharron screamed, jumping back up and into the stairway to avoid the flames and right into the arms of the attacker who stumbled backwards in surprise at the woman he now found himself holding in his arms. Hot flames shot up around them, blocking their path further down into the basement and forcing them both scrambling back up to the top of the stairs.

  At first, Emily didn’t feel the flames, only seeing them around her while absorbing the pungent smell of gasoline. She initially felt the heat on her hands, and then smelled the sickening, almost burnt popcorn smell of burning hair. She tried to scream but she couldn’t breath. The flames were quickly up around her face and she realized her hair was on fire. She looked down and saw that her pant legs and shirt were burning too.

  She stumbled backwards, tearing at her hair and hearing the words over and over in her mind: “Stop! Drop! Roll!”

  But her brain was telling her no. It was telling her to run, to rip at her hair, to extinguish those flames first. Suddenly she felt hands pulling her away from the flames and down to the floor. A young voice was shouting, “Grandma, get down! Grandma! Get down!”

  Suddenly something was thrown over her. She felt arms wrapping a cloth around her and she no longer saw flames. Then she stumbled, fell, her head struck something hard – and then there was nothing.

  * * *

  The gunfire stopped abruptly. I was expecting the attackers to make a push to take the library at any moment, but they didn’t. Instead, I heard a man’s lone voice.

  “We need to talk!” the voice called from outside the library’s closed oak doors. “We have one of your people.”

  I looked around at Ray, Pam and Joanna, wondering who had been taken. But it didn’t matter. “Think it’s a trap?” I asked them quietly.

  No one said a word. Finally Ray said, “I’m not sure.”

  I shouldered my rifle and walked to the doors. “Don’t shoot,” I called. “I’m coming out.”