Blake came to his feet, wobbly, hunched over to one side, his hands compressing the spot on his ribs where Zach’s boot had made impact.
“Do you know Scripture, Doctor?”
He tried to speak, but heaved forward instead, as if he were about to puke. Mother jumped back to avoid any potential splash damage. It was a false alarm. Blake straightened back up—sort of—and nodded.
“How well do you know it? Can you quote me chapter and verse? If I were to speak them, could you discern the words of the Creator from my own?” She lifted his chin with a fingernail and searched him with frenzied eyes.
He gave a weak nod.
“Then you are familiar with the book of Syr, the fifteenth verse and the ninth Lament?”
All of the pain seemed to disappear from Blake’s body. He jumped aside and put himself between Mother and his family. “No, you can’t! I won’t let you!”
“Wait, what’s going on right now?” Lerah backed towards Dominic.
Toby didn’t try to stop her. His attention had been drawn elsewhere.
“It’s not going to be good,” Dominic said, grabbing her elbow and pulling her the rest of the way.
“Hear me, children of the new world—this day I give you a new command, that thou shalt love me. He that says he loves me, but does not follow my commands, is cursed. And his sins shalt be on his children’s head and their children’s head and the heads of the generations to come. For I make it so. Selah.”
“No! No! It’s me, not them, it’s me!” Blake held his arms out to either side, as wide as they would go. He danced back and forth, attempting to shield his family. “Dominic… Lerah… help me! You said you came here to save us, then save us!”
“We’ve got to do something,” Lerah whispered.
Dominic was lost. Out of moves. Anything he did would get all of them killed. “Mother, I don’t know what you’re planning to do, but—”
“That’s right, you don’t know. So stand there and watch. If you speak again one of my men will saw your lady’s feet off and salt the wounds.”
Dominic took Lerah and hid her face beneath his embrace. “I don’t think you’re going to want to see this.” Dominic locked eyes with Blake and watched as the final threads of hope began to unwind. In war it was often the ones without the guns that got the worst of it. He’d seen it too many times. It never got any easier.
“Toby, move the Doctor.”
Blake swung and clawed and screamed. Toby extended a hand and retracted it. Blake was like an animal that wanted, desperately, to stay in its cage. Toby stepped back, holstered his pistol, and charged in. He hit Blake square in the chest with his shoulder, pinned his arms at his sides, lifted him from his feet, and slammed him to the floor.
“Don’t hurt them! Don’t you dare! Please, please, please, don’t hurt my family! I’m begging you!” Blake shook, vibrated, and wiggled, but he was no match. Toby just laid there on top of him and laughed. Blake, the man, had melted away. Now he was just a helpless boy, sitting in the center of his room while the bad men worked their way around him, picking apart his toys, taking those things he held dearest.
“Do it!” Mother commanded, the third guard—the only one not pointing a gun at Dominic and Lerah—began making his way around the table
“What? Wait? No, you can’t! You promised us! Not my girl!” Riley slid to the floor, attempting to take cover behind the dining table.
“Riley, Judith, I love you! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Help us, somebody, please!”
Dominic watched, nuzzling into Lerah’s hair. “It’ll be over soon,” he whispered.
The guard circled the table, moving foot over foot, already lining up his targets.
“Go Judith, run!” Riley shoved Judith under the table, prodding her towards the door.
The guard fired. The first round pierced Riley’s chest and bounced her off the wall. Her mouth gaped and her eyes went wide, as if something had surprised her. She began trying to suck air, a ragged tune played somewhere deep in her throat. The second round hit her in the neck and sent carotid spray leaping across the top of the table. The third round scalped her and shut her eyes for good.
Judith was beneath the edge of the table, tears spilling from her eyes, staring at the open door.
“Go, Judith, go!” Blake cried.
Mother reached down and grabbed the little girl by her hair, coiling it good and tight around her fingers, before yanking her from her hiding spot. She stepped behind her, straddled her back, and forced her to her stomach. “Look at your daddy. Go on, look at him.”
“Let her go! I’ll kill you! I swear that I’ll kill you!”
“Don’t look Lerah. Whatever you do, don’t look.” She began to shake in his arms.
“Tell her you’re sorry, Doctor.”
“Let her go!”
“Daddy… she’s… hurting… me…”
Mother forced Judith’s head back. The little girl squealed. The arteries in her throat pulsated against the taut flesh. “Tell her.”
“I’m so sorry… sweetie… I’m so sorry. Don’t be afraid, okay? Just look at Daddy. I love you so much. Just look at me.”
“Yes, just look at Daddy,” Mother parroted before slicing Judith’s throat open and letting her head flop limply to the floor.
There was a wet splash, a small gurgle, and the sound of Blake’s sobbing filled the air.
43
Night had turned to morning and morning had turned to night. The light under the door had shifted from right to left like hands on a clock. As the day wore on they could hear the settlement going through its paces. Laughter and conversation entered the room like sounds from another dimension; completely surreal considering their circumstance.
Toby had dropped in at one point to gloat and mock. He’d spun tales of the pain and horror they were going to face. He’d cackled and kicked at the bars with the sides of his boots. He’d gotten rather worked up when his antics failed to elicit a reaction. Dominic had just sat there, holding Lerah, staring through Toby, staring through the wood and the brick, his vision falling across a vast mirage of open plains. There were so many things he could have done differently, so many diverging paths he could have taken; none of them would have led to this place. He could have kept on through Karaville. But bloody justice and a pocket full of coin were his weaknesses. He always figured they’d land him in a coffin or a cage, he just didn’t imagine the process would be so elaborate.
After Toby left and night fell the settlement went silent.
Zach had one corner of the cell to himself. He’d been quiet most of the day. Quite an accomplishment considering the beating they’d put on him.
Dominic sat propped up against the back wall, cradling Lerah in his arms. She’d been drifting in and out of sleep. The swelling on her face had gone down and deep purple bruises had set in. Her tongue was split on one side. Crusted blood lined the outside of her lips. Dominic thought about trying to clean her up, but he was afraid to touch her face. She’d been resting peacefully, despite the pain, and he didn’t want to upset the balance.
The bulk of the noise came from Blake. It’d been close to twenty-four hours since the cell door slammed home and the key turned in the lock. He’d remained in the center of the room, curled up, wailing into the floorboards. Who the hell could blame him? Even during the war Dominic hadn’t seen that level of darkness. It was always bullets and shrapnel. It was quick. It wasn’t macabre and ritualistic. Blake had experienced a level of hell that few had been to.
Zach, who’d been sleeping since the sun went down, rolled on to his back and pushed himself upright. He grimaced and held his breath as pain surged through his body. “No need for all that moaning and groaning, Doc. You’ll be seeing them soon, believe that. Come tomorrow, we’ll all be nothing more than torn skin and broken bones.”
“Shut the fuck up. If any of us have earned the right to cry, it’s that man. You didn’t see what he had to endure.” Lerah wasn’t sleeping a
fter all.
“My family is about to slice me and dice me and toss my ass off a cliff. You don’t see me carrying on.”
“Save the sad story, they aren’t even your real family.”
“Don’t make the fact any less painful, lady.”
“Oh yeah, how many people have you done the exact same thing to? How many of them have sat where you’re sitting?” Lerah slid up Dominic’s chest and squinted towards the sound of Zach’s voice.
“Couldn’t tell you, I lost count,” he spurted a sick little laugh.
“Piece of shit, you’re the only one in here that’s got it coming.”
We’ve all got it coming, in one way or another.
“You keep telling yourself that, lady. Just because old Doc Scroggins didn’t dig the knife into them don’t make him no angel. His words are what sent them to their graves, every last one of them.”
Lerah stumbled a bit before finding her verbal footing again. “Yeah… well… you just need to leave him alone.”
Dominic was tired of hearing the back and forth; if he had to die he wanted to have a little peace and quiet beforehand. “Listen, Zach, whatever crimes that man has committed, he’s paid up; let him be.”
“I should have never gone along with ya’ll. I knew you’d be trouble. I should have just taken my stripes and gone on about my life.”
“Well, you didn’t. Shut up about it.”
Zach cursed under his breath.
Blake continued to blubber away in the middle of the floor.
Things were about as peaceful as they were going to get.
“We must really be screwed,” Lerah said softly.
Dominic set his nose against the top of her head. “What do you mean?”
“Normally you’d be firing up a plan right about now, telling me how we’re going to be okay. But it’s not going to be okay, is it?”
“I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s a tight spot. Even if we could get out of the cell, there’s the gate, the walls, the guards, and the guns. I’m tapped on ideas.”
“No hope is better than false hope.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you earlier. I should have gotten us out of here.”
“It’s not like anyone held a gun to my head. I chose to stay.”
“We had some fun though, right?”
She laughed. He could practically feel her blushing. “Yeah, we had some fun.”
“I’m glad I met you, Lerah.”
She lifted her chin and kissed him, her fingertips brushing the scar on his face. “Me too, Dominic.”
Throughout his life he’d found himself fighting on the behalf of so many pointless causes. He’d protected the interests of bad men. He’d bled for coin and pride… dust and air. At the end of it all he’d managed to come away under his own power. Now, for the first time, he’d found something worth protecting and fighting for, and he was powerless to do either; perhaps his penance had finally come due.
“I’m not letting that crazy bitch slit me open.”
“We don’t know what’s going to happen, no need to think about it right now.”
“It’s the perfect time to think about it.”
“Let’s just wait until the time comes, we’ll figure it out.”
“No, because when the time comes we won’t have the power to do anything. I’m not going to be one of her victims, standing out there bound and helpless, at the mercy of whatever twisted thirst happens to be parching her tongue. We figure it out, here and now.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“I don’t know. I was hoping you had something.”
“I’m not exactly one for throwing myself on the sword. I’ve always been the type of guy to go down swinging.”
“You didn’t exactly put up much of a struggle back at Doc’s house.”
“I didn’t want to give them cause to hurt you or Doc. If it was just me I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. They’d be in the ground or I’d be in the ground.”
“Sorry to interrupt your last stand.”
“Yeah, well, shit happens.”
“I only see one option,” she said, her eyes shimmering up at him in the darkness.
“Do tell.”
“They open that gate and we fight like hell. We make them shoot us down, maybe even take a few of them with us.”
Dominic pursed his lips and nodded. It was a good plan. Hell, it was the only plan. “That could get messy.”
“You got anything better in mind?”
“Can’t say that I do.”
“Alright then, it’s settled. When they open that gate we fight.” Lerah sat up and curled her legs beneath her butt. Her eyes were now set on the door, as if her captors were due to come through at any moment.
Zach decided to break his vow of silence. “Ya’ll are some crazy, stupid—”
“If you want to sit there and die like a sheep, that’s on you,” Lerah said.
“That’s good by me; I lived like a lion.”
“You mean prowling around, mauling the innocent?”
Zach laughed. “If ya’ll fight, you better pray they kill you. If they get you down and you’re still alive you’re gonna be begging for a slit belly.”
Before the possibility of such a horrific outcome could truly sink in, the door bounced open and recoiled off the wall. A round figure stood framed by the silver moonlight. Both of his arms were loaded down with rifles. “Ya’ll ready to get out of there?” Jeb stepped into the room.
It was such a sudden turn in the tide that even Blake sat up and took notice.
“What the hell are you doing?” Zach used his good hand to pull himself up the bars.
“I’m getting your asses out of here, what does it look like I’m doing?”
“Why? What’s your play?”
“Ain’t no play. Like I told you before, there’s layers to things.”
Dominic and Lerah were up in seconds and standing at the cell door, right along with Zach. It took Blake a few seconds to join the mix; he was quiet and woozy, but seemed just as eager to leave.
“How many guards?” Dominic asked.
“There were eight, now there are seven. I killed one to get my hands on these.” The cell keys dangled from Jeb’s right hand as he crouched down in front of the lock. “Mother is speaking right now, talking up the Fall. I was just in there. There are four guys with guns in the sanctuary, plus Toby.” He turned the key and peeled the door back, handing each of them a weapon as they filed out.
“So that makes five guns total, plus crowd control. Lerah, it’s up to you. I promised I’d get you out of here. Do you want to leave or do you want to see this through?”
“I don’t care what she decides, I know what I’m doing,” Blake said, speaking for the first time in almost a day. He pulled back the bolt handle on his rifle to make sure there was a cartridge in the chamber.
“I’m with you, Doc. What they done to you wasn’t right,” Jeb said.
“I reckon I’m going over to the church with them,” Zach was lacking a significant portion of Jeb’s conviction.
“It’s on ya’ll, we sure could use two more guns,” Jeb said.
“This is what you wanted, right? To see us stand up and fight for our settlement? Well that’s what we’re doing. We could still use a hand,” Blake said.
Dominic nodded and looked to Lerah, the final call rested with her.
“Fuck it, we’re in.”
44
Dominic, Lerah, Blake, and Zach turned right out of the lockup. They were moving in a single file line beneath the rampart. The guards overhead were slowly clunking back and forth, making brief conversation, and spitting over the side of the wall to pass the time.
Jeb made his way casually up the main street towards the square. Despite not being on duty, no one was going to pay him any mind. He was a senior member of the Watch, if he wanted to grab a gun from the gatehouse and go on patrol no one was going to question it.
Dominic’s group
came up behind the church and began moving along the side of the building towards the front entrance, where they planned to rendezvous with Jeb. Dominic led the team, low and slow, hopping between the flickering squares of candlelight being projected on to the ground by the windows. Blake was at his back, followed by Zach. Lerah took up the rear, turning circles and checking for any hostile movement on the ramparts. The moon was sheltered by cloud cover, leaving them mostly concealed; all they had to do was keep their steps quiet. Mother’s voice echoed from inside, cracking like distant thunder in the darkness. Her gears were spinning at full speed, her tone pulsating with jingoistic instability.
At the front corner of the building, Dominic raised his hand and they all took a knee. He watched as Jeb casually moved down the center of the street. He whistled and tapped his heels as he walked, skipping a step every now and then, he seemed downright jolly. Dominic didn’t know if it was an act, or perhaps it was some strange ritual he put himself through before every armed confrontation. Dominic knew a guy during the war that used to burn his wrists before each battle, “As long as I can still feel that shit, I know I’m alive,” he’d say.
“One of us should stay on the door. Once them shots start ringing out it’s going to attract a fair bit of attention from out here.” Jeb was standing with his back against the front of the building, speaking from the left corner of his mouth.
“Well it should probably be you,” Dominic whispered from the darkness. “Maybe you can spin something up and talk them down.”
“I can try. No guarantees.”
“I’ll leave someone with you, in case things get hot.”
“I’ll stay,” Lerah volunteered.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’ve got the training, I should stay.”
Dominic nodded. “Alright, but you stay hidden unless things go ass up, got it?”
She gave him a quick peck on the mouth, even though it must have hurt like hell. “Got it.”
“Blake and Zach, you’re with me.” They shuffled around Lerah to the front of the line. “Give me the run down, how’re these bastards stacked?”
The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1 Page 34