Damn you, Dominic.
She pushed herself from the ground with one hand and waved the other back and forth, a broken down, roadside damsel. “Oh, thank the heavens for you, I thought I was lost out here; truly and utterly lost. You’re an answer to prayer, let me tell you.”
One of the men laughed. “Well, we ain’t never been called that before, have we Johnny?”
The man called Johnny was gnawing at his tongue. One side of his face was a thick layer of scar tissue, as if someone had broiled him over a fire. “I ain’t never heard it from something so pretty, that’s for sure.’ ” The way pretty oozed from his decrepit lips made her stomach flip-flop.
“She is choice, ain’t she boys?” said the third man.
She pushed herself up to full height, hands still raised. Their rifles remained leveled at her chest, but their eyes did not. They drifted hungrily across her body, swiveling their heads, stopping more than once to drink her in as they grunted their approval to one another. She tried to ignore their lustful feasting the best she could, to keep the disgust from showing itself on her face. “I’m desperate, you see, desperate. Without your help, I fear that I and my husband will perish.”
“Well, we don’t want that, do we, boys?” Johnny approached her, all hips and groin, prodding her belly with the barrel of his rifle.
“Nah, not till we get ourselves a taste.”
“I like your thinking.”
“Coin!” Lerah blurted. “We were transporting all we had… everything we’d saved. We’re just trying to make it north, away from the Union.”
Johnny’s tongue prodded and poked at his abscess ridden gums, she could smell his breath, a sickening cloud of decay. “How much we talking?”
“I’m thinking she might be pulling our chain, you know, so we don’t make a mess of her.”
“I don’t reckon she’d be coming out here to us if she weren’t in a pinch. Nah, I think there’s probably something to her story,” said the other man.
“Yeah, there’s something to it, ain’t no broad gonna come stumbling up to us unless she’s got cause to. So, how much we talking?” Johnny lifted her chin up with the barrel of his gun.
The fear was quickly being replaced by anger. The rotten toothed bandit was stupidly close. She could disarm him, smash his windpipe, and if fate was smiling, use his weapon to gun down his friends. “Well, I never got around to counting it, sir. My husband, he handled all of that, insisted upon it. I fear that death is not far from him. Please, if you’ll help me, I’ll be more than happy to share some of what we have.”
The crud covered pigs exchanged a snort of laughter.
Johnny ran his sausage like fingers down Lerah’s stomach, pulling lightly at the waistband of her pants. “Share it with us? Oh boy, that is a hoot. Alright then, missy, you go ahead and lead the way.”
Lerah turned and began moving back the way she came. The refuse pile was a blurry outline set back against a rolling landscape, void of shadow or shelter. The men behind her were whispering and snickering. They had her demise all planned out and ready to go. They made no attempt to hide their intentions.
“I’m first between her thighs, I saw her first.”
“She’s got three holes,” one of them announced to a chorus of breathless snorting.
“Where is this man of yours, bitch? We’re losin’ patience back here.”
“Oh, right up here, not much further to go.” There was an anxious anticipation growing inside of her, carrying her words, but they didn’t seem to notice. They were too busy hatching their perverse plots. The wall of rubber and debris was close, a short sprint away. Lerah got the sudden urge to run, screaming, but she leashed her nerves and pushed on, just focusing on the next step. The brutes at her back were still carrying on, trading their blood soaked, pornographic fantasies.
They never saw it coming.
“Down, down, down!”
As Lerah dove forward into the sand, Dominic popped up on the other side of the barrier, a pistol clutched in either hand. She covered the top of her head, face down in the dirt, darkness enveloping her. She felt a hot sting as expended casings bounced against the back of her hands and rolled down her neck. What felt like an eternity was over in seconds; Johnny and his crew didn’t even manage to get a shot off.
“You can get up now.”
Lerah turned her head sideways, peering out from the crook of her arm. She sat up on her knees. The three men were flat on their backs, now shredded hunks of bloody meat. Only Johnny was still semi-conscious. His head lolled and he gurgled something. “I’ll finish him off.” As Lerah reached for one of Dominic’s guns something snapped past her head.
“Shooters!” Dominic pulled her down behind the barrier as a flurry of rounds whistled above them and pounded against their cover.
“There are two more of them.”
“Stay here, don’t come out, I’ve got this.” He dropped both guns into her lap.
“Where are you going unarmed?”
“No need to waste our ammunition. Just stay down.” He rolled across the top of the barrier before she could protest.
Lerah inched her head out, resting her cheek against one of the old tires, watching him go.
Dominic scrambled across the ground towards the three corpses, kicking up one hell of a dust storm with his knees and the toes of his boots. The two shooters were visible, but they were still a long way off, a hundred yards, maybe more. They were walking and shooting, putting on an impressive, but incredibly inaccurate, show of firepower. The bullets kicked up the earth, creating a rolling barrier of dust that worked to provide a marginal level of concealment. Dominic made it to Johnny. He ripped the rifle from his dead fingers and propped it across his bloated, bloody belly. He set one eye down the sights. He took his time, separating himself from the pandemonium; just him, his targets, and a fully loaded drum magazine. The two men were careless in their approach. They were blinded by the dust, shooting and moving without the damndest idea of what they were shooting at. They didn’t see Dominic lying there, hiding amid the particles of debris, waiting for his moment. If they had seen him, Lerah was convinced they’d have slowed their charge. No sane man ran towards death, not with such vim and vigor. They were practically on top of him when they realized their mistake.
It was in their faces, their expressions.
That moment.
That stutter stop.
That feeble attempt to adjust their aim.
Too little too late.
He made short work of them. He held the trigger and let the rifle belt out its bass drum composition. He cut one of them right in half, sent his legs spinning one way and his torso spinning the other, leaving all that pink shit in between to splash down in a smelly mess.
Lerah suppressed the bile rising in the back of her throat as she came to her feet. “That was something.”
“They weren’t packing this kind of artillery the last time I came through here. It’s gotta be left over from the war.” Dominic stood, examining the smoking gun in his hands with obvious reverence.
“So, you’ve shot it out with them before?”
He shook his head. “Nah, I’ve never come through here on my own. Last time was during the war. There were more of us than them, we had more guns, they stood aside.”
“Are you okay?”
He checked himself for any obvious damage. “Yeah, I think so.”
“What about your wound? Did it open up?”
“Lerah—”
“Let me just have a look, you stubborn bastard.”
He held his arms above his head. She rolled up his shirt and ducked in. “It looks like everything is still in place.”
“I told you, I’m fine. What about you?”
“I’m fine.”
“You sure? I know that had to shake you up a bit.”
“I can handle it.” She grabbed her gear and stepped across the bodies. “We should start moving before more of them show. I imagine they heard th
e gunshots.”
Dominic dropped the empty rifle on to Johnny’s chest. “Their settlement is a long way off. They probably won’t be switching shifts till after nightfall. We’ll be fine.”
“Either way, I don’t really want to hang around a bunch of corpses.”
“Fair enough.”
Lerah scanned the landscape as they approached the bridge. All of Dominic’s assurances proved fruitless in soothing the unease she felt. “You know, next time, you’re the one that’s gonna be out there shaking your ass.”
Dominic laughed, “I don’t think it’d have quite the same effect.”
“You never know, your ass isn’t half bad.”
“Oh yeah?”
“It’s slightly above average, at best.”
He clutched his chest. “Oh, you devil, you prop me up and burn me down!”
She tried tucking away the grin on her face. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“I do, but at least now you’re smiling, your chin was practically trembling before.”
“Oh, bullshit, it was not.”
“We’re fine, Lerah, I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“That sounds nice and all—”
“If I’m anything, I’m a man of my word.”
The ground opened up in front of them. Lerah paused a few feet away from the edge, stunned by the enormity of the abyss; it was an emergent nightmare, a ribbon tied around Satan’s enormous ass. “You said bombs did this? How big was the bomb?”
Dominic strolled past her, leaning against one of the bridge posts, greeting the void like an old friend. “Not a bomb specifically, at least not according to the stories that were passed down to me. Granted, I wasn’t there. But from what I heard, this thing just opened up one day, a couple decades after everything got wiped out. I guess, after all the abuse, earth was bound to say something.”
Lerah scooted a little closer to the edge. She had a sudden urge to drop down to her hands and knees, to anchor her body to something. Her palms were a sweaty mess.
“Scared of heights?”
“No, I’m not scared of heights. I’m just being careful. What if this thing decides to expand with us standing here? You ever thought about that?”
“It’s held steady for longer than I’ve been alive. That bridge is at least a century old. Our luck is bad, but I doubt it’s that bad.”
“Yeah, well, don’t jinx it.”
The abyss possessed no bottom, just an endless drop that gave way to fog and darkness. The haunting melody of a howling wind, and the distant sound of running water, rose up out of the nothingness.
“A river,” Dominic said, reading her thoughts, “folks believe it draws itself off the ocean.”
“Have you seen the ocean? The edge of our world?”
“I’ve traveled many places, but no, I haven’t been there. No interest in trying to traverse the Glass Mountains.”
“Surprised you haven’t felt the need to visit your old friends. Don’t Rebels rule the eastern shores?”
“That’s the rumor.”
“They say the sun never rises and the moon never sets.”
“I suspect much of that is folks just talking.”
“Perhaps,” Lerah said with a shrug, “so are you gonna lead the way?”
“I thought ladies went first.”
“I think this is one of those times where we can set formalities aside.”
“Alright.” Dominic stepped carelessly onto the bridge.
Lerah wanted to pull the lumbering dolt back. She stood there, wound up tighter than a bow string, waiting for him to drop through the cracks and vanish into the black fog.
“Come on, what are you waiting for?” He bounced up and down, rocking the bridge, laughing as Lerah’s expression changed from concern to horror.
“Stop it! What is wrong with you? Do you want to die?”
“Come on in, the water is fine… and deep, very deep.”
“Asshole!” She set a foot against the first plank, gripping the two support poles suspending the south side of the bridge. She planted herself, little by little, transferring her weight in microcosmic increments.
“Come on Lerah, if it can hold me, it can hold you.”
“Shut up!”
She trembled her way to the next plank. The shadowy depths were a rictus of death, leering up at her through the spaces between each strip of wood, whispering her name, threatening to pull her down into the invisible waters below. Dominic had made it to shore. He was clapping with cryptic delight and sounding off a series of catcalls. She didn’t have the voice to cuss him. She was too busy expelling muffled prayers to invisible gods. She squeezed her eyes shut, guiding herself with her hands, feeling out each shaky step with pointed toes and bent knees. The boards creaked like rusty piano keys, threatening to give out beneath the wrong note. She didn’t know how far along she was. She had every intention of moving blindly, until her feet once more touched down on solid ground.
Without warning Dominic’s arms closed around her waist, picked her up, and carried her through the final step. She shoved him away and boosted her pack, tightening the straps. “I’m fine.”
He watched her with an amused little grin on his face. “Oh yeah, so that pale, pukey complexion you’re sporting, that’s a natural color for you?”
“Just… where the hell are we?”
“We’re not far now. We should make Reeman before nightfall, easy.”
That wasn’t the answer Lerah had been expecting. It definitely wasn’t the answer she’d been hoping for. She’d hoped to delay it a bit longer. There was a part of her that longed for one more night beneath the stars, entwined with Dominic, before they had to enter the lion’s den. “Shit, we’re closer than I thought.”
“Yeah, it’s not far.”
“So what’re we gonna do?”
“What we came out here to do, I guess.”
“So, we just walk up and knock on the front gate?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Dominic answered a bit more breezily than she’d have preferred. “You ready to move out?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
They tramped up a small path between two misshapen boulders. The ground before them evened out and gave way to another flat stretch of Wasteland, drawing them ever closer to their destination.
30
“Man, I can’t hit shit like this.” Zach stared down range at the cross shaped planks of wood Jeb had nailed together behind the lockup. He had his rifle tucked under his left arm. He’d squeezed the trigger three times and had only managed to scrape one of his targets. The rest of his shots had veered wildly off course.
“You can and you will, this is just getting you used to pulling the trigger without that other hand involved. Do it again.”
Zach huffed and squeezed again. Same result, the shot sailed past the intended target and buried itself in the sand. “Sonofabitch! I’m done with this shit.”
Jeb gently removed the rifle from Zach’s grasp. “Okay, just getting you warmed up. Let’s try something else. I think you’ll like it. It’s gonna feel strange at first, but bear with me.”
“Old man, you’re pressing me.”
“Shut up and roll with me on this.” Jeb started maneuvering Zach around as if he were some lifeless puppet. “Cock your knees a little, lean forward. Alright, what you’re gonna do is take it and press the stock back against your shoulder. Control the rifle with your cheek… yep, just like that. Aim down them sights just like you would if you was working with two hands. Brace yourself for that recoil.”
Zach exhaled loudly, giving voice to his displeasure. He wrapped his finger across the trigger, preparing himself for another round of disappointment. He squeezed. He hit the target. It was low, but a hit was a hit. A shower of debris rejoiced on his behalf. Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, Zach raised his sights a couple inches and fired again. Another burst of fragments littered the air in exultation. “Well, I’ll be d
amned, that one would have blown the throat right out of a full grown man.”
“It’d have put him down, that’s for sure.”
Zach froze up, the gun wagging against his shoulder, his mouth half open. All the zeal that’d built up inside him over the past sixty seconds went right out through his toes. “Ah, hell, this is useless.”
“What do you mean it’s useless, you just hit your marks?”
“Say we get into some shit and I go dry. How do you suppose I reload?”
“That’s what you was getting your panties all in a twist about? Give me that damn thing, boy. You gotta be patient, one thing at a time. Here, let me show you.” Jeb ripped the gun away and wrapped his right arm behind his back to handicap himself. “Watch me closely.” He held the rifle sideways between his thighs, just above the knees, the stock going straight out in front of him. “You want to make sure you grab that magazine with your hand while holding down that release button with your thumb at the same time.” The magazine came loose and fell away as if it were drenched in butter. “All you’re gonna do after that is get that fresh mag and pop it home. Make sure you pull back on that charging handle while you still got the gun secure, don’t ride the damned thing forward, you pull it back and then let it go, after that you’re hot. Practice that enough times and you’ll be as competent as any man with two hands, I guarantee.” Jeb handed him back the rifle before crouching to retrieve the still partially loaded magazine.
“Guaranteed, eh?” Zach gave a little laugh and shook his head.
“I seen my daddy do it, time and time again. He was much further along in years than you. If he could adapt, so can you. It’s just a matter of wanting it.”
The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1 Page 24