by C. J.
“Put your weapon down, Suzanne,” said a voice very close to her ear, followed shortly by the unmistakable sound of a shotgun shell round being chambered. This noise would make anyone extremely nervous; however, Suzanne was not normal, and she knew that she had a split-second to make her move. Suzanne whirled around and grabbed Maggie’s shotgun, which threw Maggie off balance and caused her to fall to the ground minus the shotgun but not before firing it into the garage door opener mechanism suspended from the ceiling. After hitting the ground, Maggie heard Cathy screaming. A few seconds, later all eyes turned away from Maggie and swiveled to the overhead doors as they made several loud clanking noises, followed by the garage door closing along with a second much heavier looking door coming down as well.
Regarding that second door, Suzanne asked, “What the hell is that?” and then looked at Maggie. “Well looks like I don’t have to worry about you for very long. But seriously, what’s with the heavy-duty door?”
A faint “Fuck you, Suzanne,” came in reply.
Suzanne pressed the garage door button several times, but nothing happened. She then pulled the cord to manually open the door, but it wouldn’t move. Suzanne looked at Maggie, smiled an evil little smile, which was probably the only smile Suzanne was capable of, and said, “Well I guess I don’t have to worry about you going anywhere.” She then entered the laundry room through the garage door exit, where Humberto and Cathy were in front of her.
Maggie thought to herself, Usually when I act immediately and without planning, things turn out well. It’s when I over think something it all goes into the crapper. What the hell had just happened? Maggie had seen Suzanne walk into the laundry room toward Humberto and Cathy and acted without thinking per usual. After she chambered a round, she heard a very loud and close gunshot and realized that she was on the ground of the garage amongst a cluster of garden tools, and felt something wet and sticky on her thigh. Her shotgun had fallen to the ground, and Cathy had screamed and pointed at her leg.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
BACK WITH OUR HEROES in the tunnels...
Kevin stopped suddenly causing Danny to run into him and say “What are you doing? This isn’t the time to play freeze tag.”
“We aren’t anywhere near the garage entrance. We are back at the family room pit again. How did we get back here? Shit, shit, shit. I’m sorry, Danny. I'm all turned around down here. I am so sorry. In times of stress, it’s common to get tunnel vision. Oh God, I am so sorry, that just slipped out.”
Danny looked at him and snarled, “I will get you for that. How can we get lost down here? We’ve played laser tag for hours down here. Not to mention we were just down here. I was following you.”
“Yes, but I was following Melissa.”
“Something is different,” said Kevin moving his flashlight/phone around. “It seems smaller like a portion of the area is missing. I see now. When the number crunchers left, they must have slid the doors closed behind them.”
“There are doors down here?”
“Yes, to confuse and trap people if necessary. You really weren’t paying attention when I designed this area, were you, or when I was explaining it to everyone earlier?”
“My mind wanders sometimes. Well, at least the confusion part of it worked.”
“Okay, to save time maybe we should take the master bedroom exit and then get to Maggie rather than wander around through the tunnels. What do you say?”
“How much faster will that be?”
“The stairs should be on the other side of this door. That’s what confused me; the closed door threw me off.”
“Okay, let’s go through the master bedroom. Anything to get to Maggie faster.”
Danny heard heavy breathing behind him, and as he was slowly turning around, felt a hand on his shoulder. After letting out an ear piercing scream directly into Kevin’s ear, he whirled around in time to see a surprised Melissa who was leaning back and had her fist in an upraised position. She and Danny let out sights of relief and then said in unison, “Maggie’s hurt. We have to get to the garage.”
“I heard them talking about Maggie outside of the laundry room, about her being injured. I couldn’t find you guys so I thought I would check the tunnels,” Melissa said.
“We were forced into the pit by a couple of those goons and are going to come up through the bedroom to get to Maggie from there. Kevin found the entrance here,” Danny informed.
“Alright, the door should be right outside of the pit here. Look for a slot, doorknob height, in that alcove.”
“Found it.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
MAGGIE WAS LOOKING down at her leg and thinking this does not look good. She didn’t have time to dwell on it as Suzanne had scooped up her shotgun and was herding Humberto and Cathy into the laundry room. Suzanne apparently met someone in there as Maggie heard another voice. The laundry room was not that spacious, and she could overhear people jostling around and what sounded like a door or cabinet bang open and shut. There was some excited chatter and then whispered conversation.
Suzanne exited the laundry room and approached Maggie. She was holding a binder and a test tube. She kicked Maggie in the injured thigh and spoke very evenly and softly, which coming from Suzanne was terrifying. “So you’ve been sitting on the best formula, hiding it from the world, keeping it all to yourself, for what purpose I wonder?” Suzanne paced back and forth in front of Maggie a few times. “Of course you are going to sell it to only the very rich at astronomical prices? That makes sense. That’s what I would do. Sell to only the select few, the ones that can pay through the nose for it. I’ve got to hand it to you, it’s fucking brilliant.”
“No, that’s not it. Those formulas haven’t been tested fully. They have a lot of side effects. Some have horrible side effects.”
“Ha, I doubt that,” laughed Suzanne as she banged the binder above the wall Maggie was leaning against. “You all are living in a huge house on what nowadays is a premium piece of property,” she said and gave Maggie another kick in the thigh. “The rest of us have been living in tiny little cells. Me, literally. Your jackasses of a boyfriend and his equally intelligent friend have been taken care of, and you haven’t got long to go by the looks of that wound. This has been a bonus. Get rid of the idiots and pick up a billion dollars all in one day. Now to get rid of the last two problems in this house, maybe four. I’ll see how it goes. Tah tah,” Suzanne whispered conspiratorially.
“Danny, what did you do to Danny and Kevin?” cried Maggie as she tried to regain her feet and nearly passed out when she moved.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
MIMS AND ALLRED SCATTERED with the rest of them when the rocket blew past. Since they were closest to the second master bedroom, they headed toward that room. When they heard a ruckus coming from the garage area, they cautiously made their way back toward the laundry area. As they neared the kitchen, they overheard Joe and that nerdy chemist guy talking about other formulas. Mims and Allred exchanged looks of astonishment and elbowed each other in the ribs several times before they backtracked into the bedroom. Unlike Rucker and Ridgeway, Mims and Allred had known each for years and on occasion had worked jobs together. They both were known as stone-cold killers. They had similar resumes that very few other mercenaries could claim and were highly admired in the business. In addition to weapons and explosive experience, Mims and Allred had spent ten years each as middle schoolteachers in a neighborhood where even specialized security agents such as Joe would feel uncomfortable. In addition to the ten years of middle-school teaching, Mims had also driven a school bus as a substitute driver for three of those years. He was a legend at that school, and more than capable of handling any type of mercenary type work. After ten years in that environment, both Mims and Allred had lost their souls as well as their moral code and had decided that the real money lay in the private sector, specifically individual contracts.
Now back in the bedroom, they look at each other and grinned.
Allred had been an algebra teacher but looked more like your stereotypical movie assassin. He had cold dark eyes and long black hair he wore in a ponytail. His face was all angles: sharp cheekbones and a square jaw. His thin lips always seemed to be sneering. He and Tranwrach were similarly built, but, where Tranwrach was ungainly and clumsy, Allred was lithe and athletic.
Allred looked sideways at Mims and said casually, “Two checks are better than six, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, of course, splitting this gold mine two ways would be better than splitting it between that crazy bitch and those other three. Ohh, I see what you mean. Yes.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“Why would I have a problem with it? We came to do a wet job anyway. What difference does it make if our side has some casualties along the way?”
“Good, just making sure we are on the same page.”
“What are you thinking? Shall we smoke them as they come out?”
“It’s like you read my mind. First I’ll create a diversion, and then you get them while they are distracted.”
They cautiously crept out of the bedroom and down the hallway. Joe and the nerdy chemist were gone. They got into position. Mims had aimed his weapon at the door to the laundry room. Allred pointed his Steyr TMP machine at the east end of the house when he saw something beautiful poking out at him from the kitchen rubble. “Hello, beautiful. Fuck it, I might as well go big in the diversion department.” Allred raised an M203 grenade launcher he had just pulled out from under the rubble. He checked it for damage, aimed it toward the east side of the house, and nodded at Mims. Mims saw what Allred had found, and with a giant grin on his face, pointed his Mac 10 sub-machine gun toward the entrance to the laundry room.
Allred was just about to fire when he saw something move out of the corner of his eyes to the right of him. He turned slightly and screamed, “Oh, my God, what the fuck, what the fuck? What in the hell is that?” He whirled toward the monstrosity and fired the grenade launcher at the beast. The grenade appeared to go right through the horror and struck the ceiling above the laundry door. Mims saw the creature as well and sprayed and prayed with his Mac 10 putting lead into the beast as well as...oops, Allred, who in blind panic had run straight into Mim’s line of fire. Allred went down, as the ceiling just above the door of the laundry room collapsed along with the walls on either side sealing the entrance shut.
“The thing, oh my God, the thing is still there without a scratch on it. I’ve only pissed it off!” Mims heard gunfire coming from the area of the laundry room and was not sure if the shooting was coming from the beast or the people inside the laundry room. His mind shut down momentarily, and his body turned into full flight mode. He spun around, fell to the ground, and scurried doglike for a few feet toward the gaping hole in the kitchen wall. He scrambled over the rubble and finally regained his feet outside on the patio. He was still is in full flight mode while his brain decided it did not want to process what it saw and failed to suggest, Why not head back to the SUVs or at least use that golf cart on the patio you just sprinted past. Mims, operating on pure adrenaline, just continued running through the desert at top speed.
Shortly before the ceiling next to the laundry room collapsed, Suzanne decided to do some weeding out of personnel as well. She paced in the confined space of the laundry room. “Hey, Ridgeway, what happened to those other two hired guns? Where did they go?”
“I haven’t seen them since that rocket nearly took my fucking head off.”
Suzanne stopped pacing and looked hard at Ridgeway. “Well, they aren’t your best friends or family or anything, are they? Right now if they are still around, they are about as valuable as the two morons in the pit. You get my drift?”
“Loud and clear, ma’am. Loud and clear.” With that statement, Ridgeway put a fresh clip into his .45 and nodded to Rucker. Rucker paused and waited for his brain to comprehend what was loud and clear to Ridgeway. He saw that it involved his .45. He thought some more and then remembered Crazy Bitch had mentioned hired guns. Oh, Mims and Allred, right, kill them, got it.
Rucker and Ridgeway made it all of two steps toward the door. When Rucker put hand to doorknob all hell broke loose. Screams could be heard from outside the door, followed by an explosion. Rucker leapt backward, drawing his weapon, and aimed it at the door. Ridgeway who was standing behind Rucker, jumped back onto the washing machine and pointed his gun over Rucker’s shoulder. They both heard the sound of an automatic weapon being fired just outside the door. Rucker and Ridgeway simultaneously opened fire, with, Rucker hitting the floor and yelling at Ridgeway to watch where the hell he was shooting. During the chaos, Cathy nudged Humberto, who was crouched in the far corner of the laundry room, and pulled him into the garage.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
“PERFECT, NOW SLIDE it, and hopefully this will open into the walk-in closet.
“The way this day is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if we came up through the Little Alien Café.” Danny saw Kevin’s expression and quickly said, “Sorry my bad.”
“Two assholes dead ahead,” advised Kevin. He cautiously approached the hallway and saw Mims and Allred huddled together in conference.
Danny started to move past Kevin. “We’ve wasted so much time. I need to get to Maggie even if it means plowing through these hired guns.”
“Whoa, cowboy, we don’t have any weapons. Hey, Melissa, do you have any weapons?”
In reply she, handed each man a .45.
“To be on the safe side, maybe we can fire up our watchdog, bring him inside, and disperse these goons. I hate to have you do all the dirty work, babe. I’ve seen both Danny and I shoot under stress and let’s just say it’s better if we have the advantage.” Kevin took out his phone and hit an app with a pulsating egg. “Now, to relocate our sweetie to about here, and ta-dah, let the fun begin.” Kevin walked to the bedroom as Danny had already exited out the master bedroom window and was heading toward the garage. Melissa was outside the bedroom window, waiting for Kevin with an impatient look on her face.
As Kevin tried to climb out of the master bedroom window without tearing or messing up his clothing, pandemonium broke out in the central part of the house. Screams, explosions, and gunfire erupted simultaneously, which caused Kevin to bang his head on the window and fall into the flowerbed. Needless to say, he tore and dirtied his clothing in the process. Melissa helped him up, and they ran to catch up with Danny who had frozen rabbit like at the commotion. He wasn’t sure whether to charge ahead to the garage or go back and help Kevin and Melissa. When he saw them running toward him, Danny exhaled and continued toward the garage.
They all failed to notice a quivering lump of a chemist underneath the bed in the master bedroom, clutching a bottle of Grey Goose.
CHAPTER SEVENTY
MAGGIE LOOKED AT HER leg and made a pact with herself. If I survive this, Danny will not. I’ve told him at least a hundred times to organize this mess in the garage. I even put up pegs on a board for him to put away all the tools. Apparently, it was much easier to throw them on the garage floor for anyone to get impaled on. When Maggie had fallen backward, she had fallen onto a pile of lawn maintenance tools, one being a pickax, the nasty end of which now protruded from her thigh. What in the hell did we need a pickax for anyway? So we had a few large rocks in the yard that Mr. Lazy got tired of detouring around in our golf carts. Geez, he even named the golf carts. Ha, haha. Wait a minute. Stop thinking fondly of him, Maggie girl. First think of a way to remove, ugg, the pickax from your thigh without your femoral artery-spurting everywhere. Stop looking at it. Ever
y time you look at it, you want to barf.
Danny and Kevin reached the garage at the same time panting and sweating. “Oh, shit, the security doors are down. What caused them to close?” gasped Kevin.
“With all the explosions and shooting, the house may have gone into security mode or partial security mode. Damn it. Damn it. We will have to get inside and go to the control panel. Where the hell are Humberto and Cathy?” Danny said.
“I’m checking. Cathy just texted back that she and Humberto are with Maggie in the garage. Suzanne and the other hired guns are in the laundry room. The entry from the laundry room to the house is sealed off from an explosion. They are trying to hold them back from entering the garage. Oh God, they found the other formulas. Shit, shit, shit.”
At “they are trying to hold them back,” Danny grabbed Kevin by his collar and started dragging him around the house to the second master bedroom. Melissa was the first to enter it and told the boys that she would take the tunnel and head for garage entrance and help out at that end.
Peering out of the second master bedroom, Danny and Kevin began to slowly exit it. When they saw the carnage the grenade launcher and submachine gun had wrought, they froze in mid-stride, looked at each other, then at the mess at the laundry room entrance and the new skylight in the laundry room, and back at each other. They saw their distraction still standing in the entryway to the laundry room. It would go through several movements. Right now it lunged forward into the kitchen area, almost reaching the kitchen island, which was now on its side.