by ES Richards
The Gov outnumbered them ten or eleven to one in some cases. They overpowered them with their arsenal of weapons, the onslaught never slowing down or pausing for intermission. Luc’s group were just pushing upwards through Brooklyn, they hadn’t even made it to Manhattan yet and already their numbers were dwindling. The work that had been carried out by the bomb squad and the recruitment facilitated through the propaganda could only get them so far. They needed to make up ground through the city, and while they had made progress, it had been at the cost of several lives.
Luc hadn’t seen Taggy in over an hour. He didn’t dare to entertain the thought that something serious had happened to her. The second any sort of a thought entered his head, he made himself focus on something else, concentrating his efforts elsewhere. He told himself she was just with another unit now – they had been forced to separate to avoid one of the bombs which was still live. Half went left and half went right. Taggy had gone right, but that was all that happened. She was still alive somewhere – Luc needed to believe that.
Austin was still by his side though, fighting courageously and showing extreme bravery as friends and foe fell on both flanks. Luc looked over at him now and nodded, both of their weapons reloaded and ready for the next siege of bullets. In unison, both men twisted around and poked their heads and guns over the low wall where they sheltered. Luc’s eyes were drawn immediately to where he knew bullets were coming from, his eyes narrowing as he picked out a dark-clad man half hidden inside a building. His cover wasn’t properly planned though and with a squeeze of his trigger, Luc was able to fire off a single round and bring the man down with ease.
Their original plan of close combat fighting – subduing the enemy and restraining them rather than shooting to kill – had only lasted for a couple of blocks. It had been too brutal to persist with, even those that managed to win their up-close contests battered and bruised to a point where it wasn’t sustainable to continue. The Gov put up more of a fight in person and they fought dirty. For the safety of those from the cave, a new tactic needed to be implemented.
Re-sighting his gun, Luc quickly took aim at the next assailant. With military precision he picked off two more, ducking down between the rounds he fired to avoid a shot that ricocheted off the wall in front of him. The cry of his latter victim as Luc’s bullet lodged in his chest pierced the air. He watched as the man sank to his knees on the ground, his head lifting up just at the last moment so the man could make eye contact with his shooter before he tilted over to his side and lay still on the ground.
Luc tried not to look. He knew that was the very worst thing to do in this situation. When things weren’t going to change, he needed to stay focused on the final goal, all emotions and worries pushed to one side until it was reached. He was trained for that – one glance over at Austin told him immediately it wasn’t coming as easy to everyone else.
***
Austin felt like he needed to catch his breath after every bullet that he fired. Most went wide or high of their intended targets, but there were some that lodged in the flesh he had aimed at. Bile rose in his throat every single time. This was different from anything he’d done before – he’d fired a gun yes, but never like this.
Austin recalled shooting aimlessly at the bear in the forest before Poughkeepsie, he hadn’t even thought about it back then, not considering for a second anything except what he could do to save his own life. After that, there had been the man at the roadblock that he’d aimed at, shooting him in order to get to his family. The price had been well worth it then, one innocent bullet in return for seeing his husband and son again. Just like in the forest, Austin hadn’t really thought about it, squeezing the trigger and then dealing with the aftermath later.
Now, however, he had nothing but time to think about it. The progress through the city was slow, so slow that it almost felt like they were moving backwards and so, in the minutes that ticked by and he waited, Austin had all the time in the world to think about what he was doing.
“Move, move!”
Luc’s voice in his ear ushered Austin into action again. New cover had opened up and so they scrambled quickly out from behind the wall that protected them and made a mad dash to their next location. They zig-zagged across the street gaining just a few yards each time, but every time they moved it gave Austin a fresh view of what they were doing.
His eyes swung immediately to the closest dead body as he jogged out from behind the wall, hot on Luc’s heels as they moved. He saw the woman’s eyes staring upwards at him, her mouth open with white spittle dried in both corners. Like everyone from the cave, she wore an orange armband around her right bicep, the rag tied there to signify her allegiance to the cause. And like too many others, her clothes were stained with red.
Tripping over his own feet, Austin kept moving. There was an overturned delivery truck on the side of the road ahead of them, the first of their small group already there and flinging the back doors open. Austin was bringing up the rear and he needed to move quicker.
Sure enough, bullets began to pepper the ground as he ran. His legs felt heavy, but he had to keep moving. With one last push he lurched forward into the back of the truck, landing beside Billy who gave him a quick grin, then popped his head back to release a stream of bullets from his semi-automatic. Austin on the other hand, needed an extra minute to catch his breath.
“They’re killing us here,” Billy exclaimed as he ducked back down. “There’s so many of them.”
“Just a little bit longer,” Luc encouraged. “We’ve got this. Come on.”
The passion and drive in his voice were impossible to miss, giving Austin the push he needed to shift onto his knees and check his pistol, ready to fight again. His ears rung from the sound of gunfire, coupled with boots pounding on the tarmac as fighters and civilians alike ran for cover, all married together with a crescendo of screams. It was a symphony of terror, his heartbeat the steady, beating drum that kept everything in motion, a constant rhythm, for however long he could remain alive.
Austin tried to slow things down in his head, breathing steadily and remembering what he was doing this for. The city deserved a future and he wanted to be a part of it. With that in his head, he squeezed his trigger and began to fire, aiming for two of the Gov’s soldiers who were crouched in a low doorway. Most of his bullets slammed into the concrete around them, but one zipped through someone’s arm, Austin seeing the blood splatter from the injury and immediately fighting back the familiar taste of bile in his throat. With no time to be distracted, he looked away and searched for a new target.
The Gov seemed to keep on coming in waves. For every one they shot down, two more appeared in their place. It was an endless battle that they didn’t look like they’d be winning any time soon. Not only were they short on people, but their ammunition would run out sooner or later. Once they didn’t have anything to fire back with, the streets would become a bloodbath quicker than they could ever find a white flag.
“Arghh!”
Luc’s cry erupted in Austin’s ear, the man staggering backwards a couple of paces and dropping to his knees, his left hand clutching his opposite shoulder.
“Luc!” Austin was by his side in a second, placing his hand on his friends’ shoulder and immediately feeling the wet blood in that area. “Let me see. Are you okay?”
Luc nodded firmly; his mouth set into a solid line as he tried not to whimper in pain. “It’s just a flesh wound,” he grimaced, moving his hand so Austin could see the bullet hole. “I’ll be okay.”
Thankfully after a quick look, Austin agreed. The bullet had skimmed through his upper arm, cutting through the skin and muscle but avoiding the bone or any major arteries. “Yeah, you’ll live,” he reassured his friend with a wry smile, preparing to dress the wound. The orange rag Luc wore there was tattered and torn, Austin tearing it off and replacing it with a bandage from his backpack. He wrapped the bloody mess as best he could, just about putting Luc back into action before anot
her cry came from Billy.
“We need to pull back!” He delivered the instruction with panic in his voice. “There’s too many of them. Pull back!”
Before Billy had even completely finished speaking, a shower of bullets rained down on the side of the truck they sheltered behind, several piercing the metal frame and coming dangerously close to their group. Someone else screamed out in pain and Austin twisted around just quickly enough to see another one of their group fall backwards, a bullet lodged in his chest.
“Lance!” Billy was by his side in a second, applying pressure on Lances’ chest, but his bullet wound was far worse than the one Luc had suffered. The man barely had a minute left to live, looking up at Billy through desperate eyes and shaking his head. Austin had to force himself to look away, unable to watch the man die in front of him.
“We’ve got to go,” Luc nodded, watching Billy a little closer than Austin and seeing the moment that Lance died in his arms. “Come on, let’s wait for a gap in the gunfire and then make a break for it. Head back south out of Williamsburg. They’ve got this place under too much control.”
“On my word,” Billy said on Luc’s shoulder, Lance’s body lying still behind them. Billy fired off a couple of rounds in the direction of the Gov, providing a shred of covering fire before he gave the signal. “Now! Go, go, go.”
This time when he ran, Austin didn’t dare to look around. Gunfire still surrounded them almost from every angle, some covering fire for their dash being provided but nothing much but luck granting them the opportunity to escape the scene. He heard a cry behind him and the sound of a body tumbling to the ground, but Austin didn’t dare to check back and see who it was. He kept his eyes focused on the corner ahead of him and Luc’s heels, following his friend to safety and away from the horrid street of death.
“Keep going,” Luc ushered him onwards as Austin rounded the corner, his friend standing there and encouraging people along. As he ran past Luc, Austin snatched a look back over his shoulder and could just see Billy in the distance, the last of their group to escape. He was still firing at the Gov, doing everything he could to provide cover for his friends as they escaped, putting his life on the line for their safety and their future. It was one of the most noble acts and Austin thanked the man for it silently; Billy was a hero, and he should be treated as such.
With more of their unit following him around the corner, Austin was eventually forced to turn his head back and look at where he was running. Others from the cave surrounded him as they fled, running hopefully into an area of more safety, an area they could win over, defend and control. But the gunfire never seemed to stop around them. Weapons fired from every direction and Austin couldn’t tell whether they were running away from the danger or just into more of it. When the group eventually stopped to catch their breath, they were no closer to safety or anywhere secure than they had been the entire day.
“Is this it?” Luc asked when he caught up with them, nodding at Austin and a few others in greeting. His arrival made their group total seven – less than half of what had set out from the cave that morning.
“Where’s Billy?”
Luc didn’t need to reply. His expression and the slightest shake of his head told those that remained what had happened. Billy hadn’t managed to escape like they had, he had died for them and none of them would ever see him again. Austin looked to Luc and tried to form his face into an apologetic stare, he knew he should say something to his friend, but it wasn’t the time or the place. It was now up to Luc to lead them and continue the fight, he didn’t need any kind words or moments of sorrow. The time to grieve and remember the dead would come later, first they needed to make sure they didn’t die for no reason. They needed to keep going and win back some ground, their numbers might be small, but that didn’t mean the battle was over. One way or another, New York City was going to be won again.
Chapter 22
As she helped Zayn and Axel pack their bags, Jessie struggled to explain to her sons what was happening and why they had to leave. They’d both been through so much in the last month that this next obstacle almost made sense, except for the fact it went against everything Jessie wanted to do and against all her better judgements. There was no part of her that wanted to leave Kauai behind.
Ever since she and Art had moved to the beautiful island, she had called it her home. Growing up in New York seemed like something that had happened another lifetime ago, she didn’t feel like a New Yorker, she was an islander, through and through. The locals on Kauai always said that to be a real islander you had to be born there, but Jessie had never believed that.
After Dennis had revealed his bombshell about the Chinese ship they had defeated not being the only one, a huge question mark was raised regarding what they should do next. There was no way to prove the theory that more ships were coming one way or another, the only way to find out would be to wait and if they did that, they might end up simply waiting for their downfall. The island and those that remained on it had been through so much under the hands of those from a single vessel, everyone agreed that it would be unlikely they’d make it through another.
As a result, the people of Kauai were left with a choice. They could stay on the island and wait to find out if more oppressors were coming for them, hungry for the land in the Pacific which granted them a naval port and easier access to the United States. They could wait and hope they might never come and try to make do with what was left on Kauai. Or they could leave. They could pack up their belongings and board the ship that awaited in the harbor, sailing it across the ocean to mainland America and finding out what had happened to the world first hand.
Stay or go. Fight or flight. It was only when everyone acknowledged how much damage the first fight had done that it was eventually agreed they should leave. The decision was unanimous in the end. Everyone would leave. Kauai would be left behind to allow the Chinese to take it if they did turn up, or it would be preserved as a reminder of the lives that had once lived there. Jessie hoped they would return eventually, but even she wasn’t willing to put a date on that hope. The world was too uncertain to rely on when’s, instead she had to keep dreaming of the what if’s and how so’s.
“Can I take these, mom?” Axel questioned, clutching his set of model cars and part of the track they raced around in his arms.
“Of course, sweetheart,” Jessie nodded. The ship was plenty large enough for everyone and all their baggage, so that was one silver lining at least. If they were being forced out of their homes, then she was at least going to make sure they brought as much stuff with them as possible. Anything her boys wanted to make the ship feel more like a home while they were on it was fine with her, she was even tempted to bring some of the paintings which hung on the walls, turn their cabin into a proper home.
“Hello? Anybody home?”
“Up here!” Jessie called down to Art as he arrived back, her husband helping get the ship ready for their departure.
“Hello,” Art greeted them as he jogged up the stairs and into Axel’s bedroom, picking up his son in his arms and spinning him around in the air. “How’s the packing going? Have you nearly got everything ready?”
“Nearly,” Axel giggled as Art put him down, going back over to his toy collection while Art moved over and kissed Jessie on the forehead.
“How’s everything going?” She asked, curious about whether the ship was ready. “Does it all look okay?”
“All good,” Art nodded. “The ship’s in perfect working condition and it’s packed with provisions as well. There’s enough to keep everyone going for at least a couple of months, plenty of time for us to get across to the west coast and set up in civilization again.”
“We surely won’t be on board for that long, will we? How long will it take to get there?”
“I’m not sure,” Art answered. “I’ve been leaving the route calculations and all that jazz to Tarek and Gal; you know I’ve never been much of a sailor.”
; “True,” Jessie laughed, remembering the few times they’d gone out with friends on their boats and how useless Art had been at helping out. He could barely even rig the mainsail, though there wouldn’t be any of that on the large vessel they were going to be chartering away from Kauai. “When do you think we’ll be ready to leave?”
“Tomorrow.”
“What? Really?” Even though she’d known it would be soon, hearing the immediacy of their departure knocked Jessie backwards a little. Tomorrow was only a few hours away; she wasn’t sure if she’d be ready to leave their home behind by then. But she had to. They’d all made the decision and they’d all agreed to it. Like it or not, tomorrow she was leaving Kauai behind.
***
Standing on the deck of the ship, Jessie stood next to Art, their two boys positioned just in front of them as they watched the shoreline drift away. It didn’t feel real to be sailing away from Kauai, but the buildings on the island grew smaller with each passing second, the landmarks less distinguishable.
Kauai would never be forgotten by Jessie or her family. It had been her boys’ first home and it would be that to them again one day, she was sure of it. For now, though, she had to trust the collective of her fellow islanders and go where the ocean took them. The collapse of Trident had changed the world in so many ways and if they wanted to survive it and have a future, they needed to change with it. They were headed for America and they were about to find out first-hand what had happened to it.
In her dreams, Jessie pictured a burning shoreline, buildings ripped down and lying in rubble. The dreams became nightmares as she imagined the streets desolate, the people gone and nothing more than a ghost town left in its place. Since the news reports of burning cities on the day Trident had fallen, Jessie had received no news of what had happened, living in wonder just like everyone around her. The Chinese soldiers had filled some gaps during their interrogations, but they only spoke of destruction and defeat, painting America and Europe in a dark shade of failure.
