by BT Urruela
Twenty-Five
Dimitri let out a heavy breath, his heart in his throat, his finger white against the trigger still, his aim on the woman he never thought he’d see again. He had only seen movement in his peripheral as he spoke with Knuckles and they checked themselves for bullet holes that weren’t there. At first, he thought Jimmy in the stream needed another round, and he was ready to give it to him.
Dimitri lowered his weapon slowly, muttering, “Oh, my God. It’s her.”
Knuckles gazed through the window frame. “Well, I’ll be fuckin’ damned.”
Without another word, Dimitri hurried away.
“Where are you goin’, D?”
“To get her. Come on. We need to keep moving anyway.” Dimitri continued around the wall and toward the stream.
“Do I get a say in any of this?” Knuckles asked the rotting wall and windowless frame in front of him. Then he sighed and followed after his friend cautiously, eyeing the spot where overgrown brush met thick forest, realizing it was fucking everywhere.
“Annalise!” Dimitri called out, an emotional knot in his throat. He holstered his gun, his boots splashing the water as he rushed up beside her sprawled out body. Setting a hand to her shoulder, he asked, “Annalise, are you okay?”
Knuckles kneeled just before the stream and shook his head, his weapon high at the ready. Well, that wasn’t loud or anything, he thought, his eyes focused on the direction of the safe house. The thick forest that concealed it seemed so wide and so dense, he thought they’d never see someone coming, never find their way through. “This is a terrible spot, man,” Knuckles said warily. “We at least need to get in the brush and out of the open. We’re sittin’ ducks here.”
Annalise jumped the moment he touched her skin. Her eyes were wild, dark hair matted with thorns and twigs. “He’s dead,” she whispered, still shaking and pushing herself off of the body that turned the stream crimson. She turned to Dimitri slowly, scrunching her brow as if she wasn’t sure she could trust what she was seeing. “I … I watched him die.” She swallowed hard, unable to finish, unable to process what was right in front of her. “I was trying to reach his gun and I fell,” she blurted out, her mind running as wild as her pulse.
Dimitri helped her to her feet, his eyes flitting from her to Jimmy, lying dead in the water with three fresh holes in him. He found her eyes again. “They were out here looking to kill us, and to no doubt find you. We had no choice. I don’t know what’s going on right now, but I know it’s not good. Robbie is up to something.”
“Dimitri,” Knuckles said impatiently.
Dimitri looked to his friend and then back toward her. His hand still rested on her shoulder, her vulnerability crushing him, turning his insides. “Let’s get out of the water, Annalise. C’mon.”
He wrapped his arm completely around her, huddling with her as he moved them into the brush, and the overgrown grass and weeds, dense enough for concealment.
Knuckles crossed the stream and joined them, kneeling. Noticing the complete lack of awareness his best friend possessed then, he kept closer watch on the tree line as best he could, knowing at any moment more would come after hearing the gunfire.
“How did you get out?” Dimitri asked her, his hand holding hers, though he didn’t even realize it.
“I may owe you a radiator, and perhaps a wall.” She offered a weak smile, her body and mind finally accepting he was actually there.
He grinned wide, almost unaware of where he was and what he should’ve been doing. “Did you get to hit anybody with it?”
Her smile strengthened, and she squeezed the hand that held hers. “Sadly, just me. That cuff was difficult and the wall wasn’t helping things.” She held up her other hand, swollen and blue from the earlier thumb dislocation. Dried blood still caked her arm despite two trips through the wretched creek.
“You poor thing.” He instinctively brushed a thumb against her cheek. Her face was dirty, sweat matting the hair to her forehead and streaks of blood left behind from her hand, and still … still, he found her to be the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on. Felt the need to protect her. To take her far away from that place.
He swallowed thickly, hesitating before he added, “Annalise, I don’t know if your dad made it out. Everything went to hell when he was at the final meet site.”
His words took a moment to sink in, when they finally did, her knees buckled under her. A torrent of emotions flooded her—relief, sadness, sorrow … freedom. She held onto him tighter. The whole world had just changed on its axis. She swallowed, trying to find the words to respond. “What happened out there?”
Dimitri shook his head, his jaw tightening. “We don’t know exactly. Sounds like Robbie and his crew were pulling some shit on the side. Took out two of our guys that we know of. One of the guys alerted the rest of us before he was, uh, killed and, well, here we are.” A solemn look crossed his features. “Charlie and Trig, the two who were watching you, are currently hiding out in the attic. That’s where we’re headed. Do you know how many there are? Did you see anything before you ran?”
“Bikes, so many bikes, maybe ten or fifteen, rolled up as I was tearing the boards off the window. I didn’t stick around to find out. When I heard your guys freaking out about the radio, I started breaking loose.”
“You hear that?” Knuckles whispered in an annoyed tone. “Ten to fifteen, D. Ten to fifteen. Which means more are fuckin’ coming. We don’t have fuckin’ time for this shit, man. We need to move.”
Dimitri glared at him. “We need a plan. Now calm your tits.” He looked back toward Annalise. “I don’t know what you should do. I …” His voice cracked, his chest tightening. “I don’t know if you run, try to find your way to the main road, if they’ll find you, but I know what we’re about to walk into and it’s not pretty. I just don’t know what you should do,” he repeated, his skin hot, his voice pained.
“I just ran back a mile to help you. Bonnie and Clyde, right?” she asked, searching his pained face for approval to stay. “I did run, but when I saw you in the woods, I came back … I almost had a gun.” She motioned toward the body in the water. “’Course, that didn’t turn out so hot.”
The tension in his chest vanished, poof, gone. An immediate smile spread wide across his face. He never thought words could sound so good, could feel so good. “Bonnie and Clyde,” he repeated through the smile. He gave his head a quick shake, relief on his features. “I can’t believe you came back for me.”
She flexed a tiny filthy bicep. “Thought you could use some muscle,” then rested her hand on his arm. “And I’m not leaving you again.”
Dimitri hiked up his pant leg and pulled the Beretta from his ankle holster. He cocked it and handed it over, smiling. “This one’s smaller. Think you might be able to handle it?”
Annalise took a deep breath, her hands suddenly sweaty, then forced her brave face. “Yup,” she answered, as much to reassure herself as him. “Umm, just aim and pull the trigger?”
“As many times as you can. Precision doesn’t matter if you’re spraying the bullets.” He patted the combat pack over his shoulders. “I have more ammo in here when you run out.”
“How many are in here?” Her mind envisioned every movie where the guy ran out of bullets and was pinned down.
“There are eight … in a situation like this, think three quick shots and then cover, three quick shots and then cover. Two more and then reload. Don’t make yourself a target, but make sure every time you shoot, you’re giving yourself a chance to hit something.”
“Are we done with the shooting lesson here?” Knuckles huffed, exasperated. “They’re gonna be through here any minute, and you know that.”
Annalise looked at Knuckles, his annoyed gaze running through her as if he had just triple dog dared her. “What are we waiting for, get your big girl panties on. Let’s go.” She steadied her trembling hand and put her game face on.
“They’re probably just gonna think t
heir buddies found us or the other guys, and that’s where the gunfire came from anyway,” Dimitri said, and stood slowly. For a split second, every muscle in his body ceased working. He was frozen, eyes so wide they looked as if they may pop out as he saw the three men a hundred or so feet away, their backs turned to him. Two of them casually smoked cigarettes.
Dimitri forced away the panic, dropping back down to a knee quickly, his hands on their shoulders to bring them down with him. He tried to speak, but his chest was so tight, the fear so visceral, he was shaking.
He took the deepest breath, trying to steady his rapidly beating heart. “Three of them,” he whispered, his voice wavering. “A hundred feet. Maybe a little more.”
“They see you?” Knuckles asked in a whisper.
Dimitri shook his head. “No, man. Thank fuck. But they’re gonna find the other two bodies any second, and then us after that.”
Jesus, God, if you’re out there, this is a good fucking time to notice us. We could use some help. Annalise prayed silently and watched Dimitri for what to do next, the pistol gripped tightly in her hands.
“What direction, D?” Knuckles asked.
“Eleven o’clock. There’s a grouping of trees just to our left, about ten o’clock. They’re twenty feet or so to the right of those.”
“What do we do? Low crawl out of here to a better position and hope they don’t see us? Or go guns blazin’ and hope our shots ring true?” Knuckles whispered.
Dimitri thought on it, and almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the two options presented. He looked at Annalise, a worried scrunch in his brow, and he asked, “If I need you to shoot, Annalise, can I trust that you will?”
She swallowed hard, the image of the dead man in the creek fresh in her mind, then nodded. “Yes.” Eight rounds. I have eight rounds. Be ready, don’t shoot too soon. Aim, squeeze. I can do this.
“Okay,” Dimitri said, his voice unsteady. “We’ll need to put some distance between us. Not a lot, and not out of sight of each other, but enough to not make ourselves one big target like they’re doing. On the count of three, we’ll pop up, and we’ll unleash hell. Sound like a plan?” He wondered if the trepidation was as evident in his voice to them as it sounded in his own head.
Knuckles nodded, dropping to his elbows and knees and moving along the ground where the vegetation was less dense, and eventually settled a dozen feet away behind the high common reed, parallel to Dimitri. He faced him, kneeling, and readied his pistol.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Dimitri said to Annalise, reading the hesitation in her features. “I promise. Just remember … three shots and down, three shots and down.” He took the bag off his back and opened it. Pulling out two clips for his Beretta, he handed them over. “Here. When you need more, press the little button just above the trigger on the right side of the gun, the only one on there, and the old clip’ll come out. Just put another one of those in, and cock it just like I did right before I gave it to you, okay?”
Annalise nodded, turning the gun and identifying the button, then shoved the clips in either side of the waistband on her tattered joggers. “Got it.” She barely got the words past the bile that sat in the back of her throat.
Dimitri pulled a small flip knife from his pocket and handed it to her. “Here, take this too ... Just in case.” He smiled weakly as she eyed it, her eyes like saucers, her mouth agape. “Just press the button on the side to bring the blade out. Make your way to that tree over there.” He pointed to their right where a small sugar maple stood alone among the overgrowth two yards away from them. “It’s better cover than the brush.” He cupped her cheek as she slipped the knife in her waistband alongside the clips, and he gazed into her eyes for a moment. Then he kissed her, needing to one last time, just in case. “Everything’s gonna be all right,” he repeated in a soft whisper when their lips parted.
The tenderness of his lips stilled her. In that brief moment, the hell around them faded into the distance. Like a violin solo centerstage with a fucking atomic bomb going off in the background. She smiled back. “You’re full of shit, but I love it.” She kissed him again and then turned away.
Dropping low, she gritted her teeth and forced her body not to shake as she moved to the tree Dimitri pointed at. Ten feet. I just have ten feet and I will be at the tree. He will count then three shots and down, three shots. Breathe, Annalise, four feet to go. She crawled the final distance and scrambled behind the tree, hoping to sweet baby Jesus they didn’t see her. Annalise took a breath of relief and then turned to Dimitri to await his signal.
“Holy fuck!” A panicked voice carried out through the clearing. “Hey, we got Motor down over here! Fuck.”
Dimitri looked toward Knuckles, and then toward Annalise. He put one finger up with his left hand, his right holding the Glock tightly. Two fingers. His pointer flirted with the trigger, steady. The rest of his body shook. Three fingers. He stood, the gun level, the shots immediate, indiscriminate.
On his mark, Annalise sucked in a deep breath and stood, arms out in front of her, channeling her best Farrah Fawcett, pistol in both hands. She took a second to locate the bewildered group of men. Dimitri’s shots had already rung out as she squeezed the trigger. One. Her heart pounded in her chest and she squeezed again. Two. Three. She dropped back into the brush, behind the cover of the tree. I’m alive … I did it. Charlie’s fucking Angels, I did it.
Aghhhh!
The cry was inhuman, bloodcurdling.
Dimitri hit the last man, though Annalise managed to catch him with a good shot already, sending him to the ground in a crumpled pile of flesh and bone. He looked worriedly toward Knuckles, who was sprawled out on the ground, his gun tumbling to a stop a few feet away.
“Knuckles!” he yelled, running to his side and kneeling. He scanned his body for the hit. “You okay?”
Knuckles sat up and groaned. His right hand met the air, and Dimitri saw a canal of bloody flesh and shattered bone running through the top of his hand. Two fingers looked to be barely hanging on. “Yeah,” he groaned again. “Motherfucker got me in the damn hand though, stings like shit, man.” He grunted. “Goddammit.”
Dimitri chuckled and Knuckles shot him a pointed look.
Annalise scrambled over, a little bewildered, and then scared as hell when she saw Knuckles on the ground. She dropped to her knees beside him and shot a look at Dimitri, who was laughing.
“What the hell you laughing at?” Knuckles asked with a snarl on his face.
“I’m just saying … you’re alive, man,” Dimitri responded. “Hand shot is better than a head shot.” He looked toward Annalise. “You say you’ve never shot before, huh?” An eyebrow arched, and he passed her a sly smile.
“I got one?” she asked, eyes wide, trying to gauge whether he was kidding.
He laughed. “Fuck yeah, you did. Your last shot hit him square in the chest.” The smile faded, and he asked, “Do you feel any different?”
She turned sharply toward the bodies on the ground and stared for a moment, the reality creeping in. It was no Xbox game, no fucking Charlie’s Angels. Her chest burned and she fell forward both hands on the ground as bile hit the dirt. She was dead silent for a moment, then wiped her mouth and nose with the back of her hand. “I guess we’re alive right now. That’s what matters, right?”
He rested a hand against her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I threw up my first time too. It took a while to accept that feeling, to accept what it makes you, to kill. Of course, then it took a while to accept that maybe I started to like it a little.” He sighed, trying to remember his first time but he came up short. He just remembered the feeling … the vomit and the remorse. “I’m sorry you had to do that, Annalise, but I hope you know, we couldn’t have done this without you. Survived without you.” He motioned to Knuckles. “I mean, look, Knuckles got himself shot, even with you here. Just think if it were only the two of us.” A broad smile touched his lips.
Knuckles tutted. “Oh, fuck off!” He s
lowly rose to his feet, his right hand held steady. Dimitri tried to help but Knuckles brushed him off.
“Oh, Knuckles!” Annalise cringed, looking at the blood dripping from his hand to the dirt. “Can I help you?”
He shook his head, a hint of an appreciative smile on his face as he grabbed his pistol from the ground with his good hand, and replied, “Nah, you’re all right, ma’am. Ain’t my first rodeo. Sorry, about gettin’ pissy earlier. I was just … scared,” Knuckles said guiltily.
“Yeah, definitely not his first rodeo.” Dimitri chuckled. “He got shot breaking and entering once. Right in his ass when the old man caught him running.”
“Do we really gotta go there?” Knuckles rolled his eyes. “I don’t need to remind you she said ten to fifteen bikes. We’ve taken out six. And there were four on our ass earlier. Do you wanna do the math, dick?”
“We’ve got Charlie and Trig in the house still. I assume they’ve got their weapons with them,” Dimitri reasoned with a shrug. “Text them, tell them we’re coming. That when they hear gunfire right outside the fucking house, they oughta join the fight.”
“And if they don’t?” Knuckles holstered his weapon and dug for his phone.
“Well …” Dimitri motioned toward Annalise. “We’ve got Dirty Harry with us now.”
“I prefer Annie Oakley,” she added with a wink. “Pretty sure Dirty Harry had a bigger gun.”
“Duly noted.” Dimitri tipped his imaginary cap and winked. He patted the Glock on his right hip and smiled. “We can trade if you’re wanting an upgrade.”
She choked back a giggle. “No, I’m good, thanks. We’ve bonded.” She nodded her head toward the Beretta still in her hand.
He motioned to Knuckles’ bloodied hand. “Bro, you gonna be all right shooting with your left hand?”
Knuckles finished the text, pocketed his phone, and stared at Dimitri blankly. He winced as he pulled the Desert Eagle from his right hip holster awkwardly with his left hand and tilted it. “Well, I guess we’re gonna find out, aren’t we?”