As John looked back at Jared and Devon, who hovered over the fallen Barry, he realized Devon didn’t have the rifle he’d carried when they met. He thought back to earlier in the morning and couldn’t remember seeing the teen with the rifle, but also couldn’t say for sure Devon hadn’t been carrying the weapon.
“Where’s your rifle?” John barked, staring directly at Devon.
Devon looked nervously around as if John were speaking to someone else.
“Where is it, kid?” John demanded.
“I-I don’t bring it out on stuff like this,” Devon replied, his voice wavering ever so slightly.
“Why the hell not? We just got into a gunfight, and you didn’t bring your rifle?” John admonished, scowling at the teen.
“It’s the only one I have, and I can’t run with it like I can without it. I only bring it out to hunt for food. If one of these guys sees me with it, they’ll want it and come after me. I don’t carry anything anyone would want.” Devon spoke and acted with the logic of a teen who wanted to survive but did not intend to harm others in the process.
Barry was still groggy, but was in a seated position now as Jared and John stared at Devon. He was skinny, wore filthy pants and possibly a dirtier shirt with some unidentifiable design on the front. His shoes were lace-up high-top Vans, and his hair was a mess. After studying the kid for a moment, John snorted.
“Mr. No Gun and princess fainter, stay here. Jared and I are going down to the house. Confirm you’ve never seen anyone else coming or going from this place?” John asked again, giving Devon a raised-eyebrow stare.
Devon shook his head. “No, never, only the two guys—the guy back there.” He tossed his head back towards the alleyway. “And this one.”
John pursed his lips and gave Jared a sideways glance. “You ready?”
Jared got to his feet in answer as John turned and moved towards the front gate, where the skinny biker lay dead. They passed the skinny dead man on the ground, and Jared tried not to look too closely at the wound John had so kindly given him. Once inside the gate, John ran towards the right side of the derelict ramshackle structure. John’s rifle swept each window as they passed down the side of the house. Once they were in the rear yard, John slowed his movement as he approached a sliding glass door.
John stayed off center of the doorway as he approached, and Jared mimicked his movement. Both men stopped at the side of the glass slider and peered inside. The inside was darker than outside but appeared to be the living room or some sort of dayroom. John was about to breach the glass with the barrel of his rifle when Jared reached out and stayed his hand.
Jared moved forward and tugged on the handle, causing the door to slide soundlessly open. John chuckled under his breath in spite of his near mistake. Jared looked at John, waiting for his cue. John shrugged and gestured to Jared, indicating the younger man just earned the privilege of being first through the door. Jared didn’t hesitate and stepped inside the room, reading it as he entered. Halfway through the opening, Jared cut to his left, clearing the hard corner before sweeping back to his right, stopping his scan at the center of the room.
Jared took one step in and an additional step to the left so as to not overpenetrate the room. This tactic left John enough space to move in behind him and to the right. Both men were inside and had the first room cleared in less than three seconds. John made a slow it down motion with his hand, and Jared nodded in response. The tactics they were using were ones taught to Jared by Bart, and John knew them well, but they weren’t the tactics he and his mates used. For the time being, John worked within the tactics Jared knew and was comfortable using. There wasn’t time these days to train people to the level John was trained, so he made do with what he had.
The kitchen was to the right with a hallway directly to their front. Jared assumed the hallway connected with the kitchen, making the two rooms interconnecting. Without a word Jared moved to the hallway and stopped as John moved laterally to the right in order to clear the kitchen. John was surprised since he had never worked with Jared in a real-life situation, while Jared was secretly proud of the fact that he was taking some initiative in their little two-man operation.
He knew John viewed him as a lesser, and for some reason, it bothered Jared. Again, this post-event psychology garbage was baffling him. Why was he jealous of Shannon’s obvious affection for John, and why did he care what John thought of him when it came to tactical skill and prowess? Secretly Jared was glad Bart had spent all that time teaching him how to clear a house. He should have been proud that Bart’s teaching allowed him to save his or someone else’s life, but, truth be told, Jared was most happy about being capable so he didn’t feel inferior.
When John was finished with the kitchen, he moved close to Jared and whispered in his ear, “Kitchen connects to the hallway up there.” He finished by pointing Jared farther up the hallway.
Jared dipped his chin in acknowledgment before moving into the hallway, his rifle up and at the ready. John pushed up against Jared in the tight confines of the hallway, trying to ensure they had two rifles pointing ahead in case trouble reared its ugly and unwanted head. A hallway was no place to be in a gunfight, and John knew all too well your only real choice, if some bastard stepped out of a bedroom doorway, was to fight forward—violently.
If he and Jared tried retreating, they would both surely be gunned down from behind and die in a pile of humanity on the floor of the hallway. If they returned fire and advanced on an assailant, they could disrupt the aggressor’s perceived advantage. This would greatly enhance their ability to gain back some of the disadvantage they gave away by being in the hallway in the first place.
Squished together, the two advanced toward four doorways down the hall. In the absence of artificial light, the hallway was dim at best, while the floor was equally lacking with boards that creaked and groaned with even the lightest shift of one’s body. The first was open, and John easily cleared most of the room without ever entering the space. Once Jared was slightly past the first room, John swept in and easily cleared the tiny area, including an even smaller closet. They repeated the process with the second bedroom and a small hallway bathroom before arriving at the last door, which was closed. The door had a large latch on the outside with a padlock on it. John didn’t bother checking to see if it was a key or combination type; it didn’t matter.
Chapter 11
After seeing the padlock on the door, John leaned into Jared. “Go in the room next door, and if I take any hostile fire, light ’em up through the wall. I’m gonna tear that lock off and make entry. I’ll let you know when I’m going in, so don’t tear the place down with me inside,” John whispered.
Jared bobbed his head and ducked into the bedroom that shared a wall with the locked room. Once inside, Jared thought about the situation and wasn’t comfortable not being able to see John. He moved to the doorway, where he could still cover the shared wall while maintaining a visual on John. Jared wanted no part of any sort of friendly-fire incidents.
Jared watched John about to strike the latch with his rifle butt. Then he stopped and appeared to mentally measure whether he could pry the latch with his weapon’s barrel. Finally, John seemed to abandon any desire to intellectually game plan because he ended up simply kicking in the door. The door caved easily under the heavy kick John administered, but the latch held, causing only the bottom of the door to cave inward. Without hesitation, John squatted and pushed under the door, then stood straight up and ripped the rest of the latch and door off their moorings.
If there was anyone inside, John must have looked like some crazed monster with the rifle up and the shattered door hanging from his large shoulders, Jared thought as he refocused on the wall he might have to shoot through. One last peek outside and Jared knew he wouldn’t be shooting through the wall as he watched John disappear into the room.
“Don’t shoot,” John roared just as Jared reached the door himself.
Jared found John standin
g just inside the room, staring at the far side of the room, where two young women were cuffed to the wall. The young women looked terrified, while the two men stood dumbfounded staring at them. The woman to the left looked to be in her mid-twenties, with brunette hair and brown eyes. She was barefoot and wore leggings and a torn T-shirt with the Santa Clara University Broncos logo on the front. The second woman seemed to be in her late teens or early twenties, blonde with green eyes, and was also barefoot. She wore jeans and what had once been a stylish blouse before being overused and under washed.
Jared looked on in horror at how the women were secured to the wall. Someone had bolted a two-by-twelve-inch plank of wood across the back wall and then placed several large eyebolts, with hitch rings, through the plank. Each hitch ring had a short length of chain attached by way of a small padlock.
The two women were each secured to the end of a three-foot length of chain that came off either end of the plank, which gave them just enough mobility to reach an orange Home Depot five-gallon bucket that, by the smell of the room, was serving as a latrine. John let the rifle hang loosely from the sling and raised his hands, palms facing out.
“Ladies, we are not the bad guys,” John confirmed as he studied the padlocks. Both locking mechanisms were small Master Locks that unlocked with a little key. “Jared, go get Nancy and Mr. No Gun, and while you’re out there, check our friend for keys—likely a little brass one. If he doesn’t have keys, send those two to check our other friend, and you come back here.”
Jared was barely able to tear his eyes from the tragic scene in the room as he wordlessly turned and fled the house of horrors. He didn’t realize it until he cleared the front door and took a huge breath of fresh air, but he’d been holding his breath inside after he’d entered the dungeon. As he walked towards the corpse, Jared waved the two men over. Barry seemed to pretty much be back to normal after his fainting episode, which Jared elected not to address at the moment.
“What’s going on?” Barry asked as the two reached Jared’s side.
“Two girls inside,” he said as he again held his breath and fished through the dead man’s pockets, wishing he had a pair of gloves and vowing to try to find some in the future for situations like this.
“Alive?” Devon asked, dread written across his face.
“They’re alive, but you two might want to wait out here,” Jared said, looking at Barry just a second longer than he intended.
“What are you saying, man?” Barry whined defensively.
Jared found a ring of keys and drew them out of the man’s grimy pocket. He hung his head and sighed for a moment, knowing when John saw Barry, he’d certainly insult the man in front of the women, and frankly, Jared yearned for a little peace. The world was bad enough without adding internal conflict to it.
“I don’t care, but John’s in there with them,” Jared said as a way of giving Barry a warning that he could take or ignore.
Jared stood and began walking back to the house. Barry hesitated, then followed, as did Devon. Back inside the dungeon room, John was kneeling next to the girls, inspecting the locks, as Jared traipsed through the shattered doorway. Jared handed the key ring to John, who quickly found the right key and released the girls. Both girls stared at one another for a second, then glanced at the door. Both Jared and John moved to the side, giving the girls unfettered access to flee the room if they chose to do so.
Before either girl made a move, Barry and Devon appeared in the doorway, causing both girls to shrink back against the very wall they’d been tethered to just a moment before. The blonde actually fell to the floor, cowering at the sight of two additional men. John waved them off as he pushed at Jared, guiding him toward the door.
“Wait out front, guys. Let’s all wait out front,” John soothed softly.
As Jared exited the room and John reached the room’s threshold, he stopped and looked back at the two plainly wrecked human beings.
“Hey, we ain’t those two other dudes, ladies. In fact, they are—not with us any longer. They’re dead. They won’t be after you.” He smiled warmly in an attempt to quell their fears. “I’m going out front to wait till you two feel comfortable coming out, and then we can talk. You can let me know what you want. If you want to leave, that’s fine. If you want or need some help and a place to go, well, then we can talk about that too. When you come out front, though, be prepared because one of the guys is lying dead right there. I don’t want you to be alarmed. I confirmed he was dead. This isn’t like the movies where someone is almost dead but gets up and starts going after people. He is no longer capable of wreaking havoc on you or anyone else.”
As John turned to leave, the brunette called out, “Don’t go,” stopping John dead in his tracks.
Chapter 12
Outside, Barry pointed at the dead biker. “We should get that thing out of sight before they come out.”
Jared shook his head. “No way, man, that’s a threat they’ve had to deal with, so seeing it in that condition will put their minds at ease. If they hear he’s dead but don’t see his body, I bet they’ll always be looking over their shoulders. Leave him right there.”
Barry wasn’t about to move a dead body with his bare hands, so he relented. A few seconds later, John came out the front door with both women in tow. Both women shielded their eyes from the sun as they looked around the front of the little compound. Simultaneously, their eyes locked on the dead body at the gate. Both women just stood gawking at the grisly sight until slowly the brunette turned to John.
“Who did it?” she whispered through trembling lips.
John drew a sharp breath, his mouth agape, brows nearly touching his hairline at the blunt question he’d just been asked. There was a human, his head mostly in tatters with a great deal of his brain housing group decorating the ground in the immediate area around the front gate. Now this woman was asking who’d done it like they were all ten-year-old boys standing around a broken window, being grilled by the school principal.
“John did it, and he did it for you two,” Jared said softly.
“And you’re John?” the brunette asked, staring directly at John.
“Uh-huh,” he croaked.
“Where’s the other one?” the woman continued.
“He’s dead too—back up the street a ways,” Jared answered grimly but with the desire to give them answers and a sense of closure.
The woman glanced at Jared and pumped her head, then shook it, then nodded it again. She was very plainly happy to be out of these animals’ control, but she was also clearly not in control of her emotions after what she’d been through. She seemed to nearly compose herself just long enough to step towards John and extend her hand.
“Thank you for doing that,” she said in a shaky voice as she gestured towards the dead man at the gate.
John took her hand, which felt small and fragile in his large callused paw. Before he had the chance to respond, the woman broke down and sobbed. John almost drew her to him in an embrace meant to soothe and calm the young woman’s fears of a very cruel and immoral world, but stopped himself. She had likely been forced to embrace men, and probably more than just embrace, and John didn’t want to be the guy who stirred up those memories. Instead, he released her hand and just stood in front of her with a sad look painted on his handsome face.
Jared was watching the younger blonde, who appeared still terrified, her eyes darting about from Barry to Jared and then over to John. The brunette remained crying in front of John for several seconds, causing an awkward situation for the soldier and the rest of the men. Jared and John had sat up late the nights preceding this little operation, planning for what they thought would be anything and everything they might encounter out on the road. This plot twist had not been planned for.
Jared caught John’s eye and held it as he reached down and withdrew a water bottle full of lukewarm water. He extended his arm, offering the blonde the bottle. The young woman stared at the bottle and then at Jared for
a moment before her shoulders relaxed and she took the bottle. John followed Jared’s lead and handed his water bottle to the crying brunette woman, who attempted to dry her eyes on the back of her hand as she took the water bottle. As the women drank, Jared and John dug into their packs, producing several energy bars, which the women took and, without hesitation, devoured. They drank more water and then handed the bottles back to the man.
Jared studied the women, thinking about how, before the event, no woman would have eaten with the level of gusto these two just displayed. He guessed they had been much daintier eaters before the event when food was plentiful and society demanded a person perform their food intake in a certain fashion so as not to offend. Now, chewing with one’s mouth open was more likely to elicit smiles than ridicule since food had grown so scarce that anyone eating would probably be rejoicing at the same time.
“We should probably get to know each other here,” Jared said, breaking the silence.
John pumped his head in agreement. “I’m John.”
“My name is Jared.”
“I’m Barry.”
Jared waited a second, and when Devon didn’t speak up, he introduced the boy. “This is Devon. We just met him last night, and he’s the reason we knew to come looking for you all.”
Both women seemed reinvigorated after their snack and hydration session. They looked questioningly at the teen.
“He lives near here and seems to have his finger on the pulse of the city,” Jared quickly explained, hoping the two women didn’t think Devon was somehow involved in their recent misfortunes. “John, Barry and I live up in the hills and need a source for power, so we came down, met Devon, and thought he could make our transition through the city a little safer. Then he told us about you guys and those two assholes, and John decided we were going to do the right thing first.”
The Jared Chronicles | Book 2 | Tears of Chaos Page 8
