“Anyone in here?” Michael heard Rob call out from the back.
He could give them away to other intruders by yelling. Michael went to radio Rob when he was hit from behind by a heavy force. He heard Marilyn scream as he fell to the ground. He managed to roll over to see a large burly man raising his fist in the air to smash Michael’s face. “Marilyn, get upstairs now!” Michael yelled out just before his attacker brought his large fists down.
Chapter Fourteen
No Time To Mourn
Jack looked left to right as he tried as hard as he could to travel inconspicuously down the alley behind the road he was supposed to be on. He heard the sounds of houses being pillaged. There were faint screams coming from the basements of houses where innocent families are hiding and an intruder had discovered them and done their will but he had to advance quietly because Jack knew that the angry mob would be looking for him and he couldn’t save everyone but there was a good chance that he could save Pete’s family.
He could tell just by the way the group acted cohesively that they had a hierarchy of leadership. Jack couldn’t understand how someone could gain control over such a large group of people in such a short amount of time. It seemed as if the convicts descended on the town seeking control and either the citizens joined or the dreadful gut-wrenching sounds that he was hearing was the result of a refusal. Jack could accept that but he couldn’t imagine where they would have come from. He knew there was a penitentiary close to the county line but he wasn’t sure exactly sure where it was. Could they have really traveled this far and sustained control over that large of an area? In this short of time? The town was the closest one to the prison if Jack remembered correctly. Jack just couldn't imagine how much will, leadership, and intelligence they have acquired to govern so much, so soon. There had to be someone with experience running the show. The mob was more gang-like than militaristic but there was definite organization present.
He shook the thoughts out of his head and focused on the task at hand. Jack realized he could have thought to take some clothing off of Pete and bring Jake along with him. Jake would sniff the piece of clothing and either go back to house from which it come or back to Pete. Nevertheless Jake wasn’t here, he had no article of clothing, and he was traveling deeper into pillaged neighborhoods. It had to only be a few blocks down the road. There were roughly eight houses or duplexes on one side of each block. He was close. People could be heard on the street up above. Jack lowered himself further and was almost traveling from trashcan to trashcan. People were everywhere. He wondered if this kind of swarm of people was the incident that Marilyn tried to describe. She said people raiding houses come shortly after the army. He was walking behind someone’s backyard fence when a woman came screaming out of the house. She ran down the walkway and into the alley. Jack held his gun ready. He was feet from where the lady had emerged. She hadn’t noticed Jack and happened to run the opposite way down the alley much to Jack’s surprise. Jack’s figured some psychopath was trying to rape and still from an innocent person. The raider followed the terrified victim out of the house and followed her exact path missing Jack altogether. Jack lowered his pistol as he watched an orange suited man running after her. It was another convict. The vermin were everywhere. Maybe he was a loner. Jack continued his slow, steady, nonchalant walk. He may not follow the same instructions as the ones in downtown. Jack knew for a fact that the convicts from the school and those from the gas station were from one group because of the Jesse person (who happens to never get shot) had shown up everywhere. Perhaps they all formed their own groups and branched apart after they were let out of the prison. It would be nice to hope that they were all fractured groups and not as well organized as he had formerly thought. Jack took a deep breath and decided he had to focus on the task at hand. He had to quit letting his mind trail off. He had to stay sharp.
Trying to stay out of sight he crept from fence to fence and from garbage can to garbage can. Jack was a mouse traveling undetected scurrying along all the while staying hidden from the ever increasingly violent shrieks and yells from the street and house only feet from him. Jack knew it was only a moment of time before someone would wander into the alley looking for more victims. These raiders and convicts must have formed a group and were traveling neighborhood by neighborhood because as Jack advanced he heard the commotion on the street and in the houses. Every few minutes a house would be silent and the perpetrators would move on to the next victim. Jack could see the end of the first block. There was a street to cross and he had to do it quickly and quietly. He hadn’t been discovered yet amidst all the uproar around him. He arrived at the street looked down both ways. He didn’t see anyone either way. Still he could hear yells and shots that pierced any silence left in the night but he had managed to get ahead of the raiding group. He set off across the street at a fast walk. He made it halfway across when two men came around the corner. One wore a bandanna and the other was shirtless. They were struggling to hold up a bald man. They drug him by the arms struggling to keep him from squirming but once the two men saw Jack they let go of their burden and advanced toward Jack. Everything happens so quickly leaving little time to respond.
Jack, with nowhere to go, quickly pulled his pistol and dropped the duffle bag with a heavy thud. The men were surprised at how fast Jack acted. They took a step back. Jack figured they had gotten used to bullying people over the course of their looting but they have a tough fight on there hands now. The two men looked at each other and then the topless one pulled a small handgun from his back. He pointed it at Jack. Jack tensed. The raider pulled the trigger. Click. No shot. Jack had to hold back a laugh. The bandanna wearing man seemed furious at their humility. He twitched and shook at their embarrassment but quickly they had to make a decision. They ran toward Jack as fast as they could. He didn’t know if they thought they could get the jump on him before he shot or if it was just a last ditch effort but they were in full sprint ready to maul Jack. Jack raised his pistol. He fired two shots. Time seemed to stand still as both bullets met their targets. He hit the topless man in the neck and he went down and the other had crumpled to the ground from a head shot leaving only a third of his cranium intact. The bare chested man's neck poured a red river that slowly surrounded the two men. Four eyes left wide in an endless gaze, they're tyrannical frolic had finally ceased.
The bald man rubbed his eyes. Jack could tell the poor scared man hadn’t seen anyone killed violently in person before this night. The killings were swift but not silent. He had no intention of killing the bald man but he had to get out of the street. The rest of the thugs had only a few houses left to ransack. Jack could hear the shrieks, yells, and cynical laughter advancing towards the street he stood on. The bald man sat on his knees in a silenced awe. He stared at his former attackers almost as if he were ashamed of the fate that befell the two aggressors.
Jack walked up to the man. “We have to go,” Jack reached out his arm but the man flinched and backed away. Jack leaned to one knee and quickly grabbed the man’s arm and forced him closer. “You listen to me. You won’t get hurt. You have to come with or without me but either way you have to get off the road or you die.” Jack looked the man in the eyes. He could see a genuine terror in his face but soon came a half-hearted nod of understanding.
Jack stood the man up by grabbing his arm. “Follow me and stick close.”
Jack took off into the adjacent alley headed in the right direction and he felt he was fairly close to the address. He didn’t bother hiding the bodies. The rampaging group would have no idea who had killed them. The bald man followed a few feet behind Jack.
“So what is your name?” Jack asked panting as they slowed to a jog. He remembered they need to be quiet. That group couldn’t be the only threat around.
“William.” He said quickly between bouts of panting.
“My name is Jack. An old friend gave me his dying wish… and I need to…,” Jack slowed to a walk breathing heavily. “Uphold that wi
sh.”
The man rubbed his scalp. “That’s fine but I need safety. There is somewhere I have to be as soon as I can get there.” William was breathing so hard. He hadn’t had much cardio exercise as far as Jack could see.
“I have friends and family on the other side of town. We are preparing to fortify and survive this. Wait it out if we have to but what I mean is that there is safety. Come with for a little while and tough it out. I’ll keep you safe and depending on how you act from this point on I’ll take you back to where we live and give you safe passage. We will give you food, water, a vehicle (Jack figured any car left on the street was up for grabs), and a gun.” Jack finished and waited on William to respond but he seemed unsure.
“…I don’t know. I really should be on the road now. Can’t you just give me a gun and let me go?” The man looked pleadingly into Jack’s eye as if he were a prisoner.
“Look, I’m not holding you hostage. I just could use your help. I may need an extra hand. Plus all the items we will have will be shared. You also seem like you could use the protection.” Jack reasoned but the man had clearly snapped from his daze earlier. He seemed determined.
“Okay I’ll go with you since you saved my life. It’s hard to trust someone who guns a person down like that.” William said as he and Jack kept in a line close to the backyard fences.
They kept a steady pace. “I can understand that but look what is going on around you. If you don’t kill them they will kill you.” Oh boy, now Jack was starting to sound like his best friend.
There was a silence after Jack had said that but then very quietly William spoke. “That is why I must get to where I need to be soon.”
Jack didn’t respond. He didn’t know what to make of what the man just said. He didn’t know if he was delusional or what if he actually had some profession that had something to do with the bombs. Although Jack thought that he could pass as a scientist. They only thing he was missing was glasses and a lab coat but it still didn’t explain why he was in such a rural part of the state.
He had to focus. Jack thought that the two had arrived. Jack knew he was on the 100 block of Cherry Wood Avenue. A few houses back there was an address on the back of a house that Jack had caught a brief glimpse of while they were running and talking and the address read 150 and the house he needed was 162 Cherry Wood Ave. He stood behind three houses. Unsure of which house to pick Jack he had to either walk around into the street, read the addresses on the houses and risk being seen by the advancing madmen or he could search each house going through the backdoor making the least amount of noise he possible could and alert no one except hopefully who he is looking for.
“This is what we’re going to do. We are going to slowly search each house and remain quiet while doing so. If we do it in a timely fashion we should be in and out and in a car on the curb before those marauders get close.” Jack crouched and clutched his duffle bag.
Jack waited for William to respond. The man jittered and seemed uneasy. He shifted from foot to foot. “We just need to get it over with.” William said impatiently.
Luckily the fence wasn’t privacy style. They could easily see into either of the yards on the opposite side. They walked into the middle house’s backyard. Jack pulled his pistol and exchanged magazines. Jack reached for the back door handle but he heard a sound off in the distance. It was coming from the left. It was on the street a little way off. It sounded as though it was vehicles and motorbikes. Jack crouched and pulled William down with him. He held his finger to his mouth telling him not to make a sound.
Ignoring the silencing finger William asked, “Can I have a gun? I can see how many you have in there.” The man’s eyes were locked on the duffle bag.
“No. We need to be quiet until these people pass. Do you have any experience?” Jack asked in a hushed voice
“No I don’t but I w-" William was cut off by Jack.
“No, you don’t know how to use one and that can be dangerous besides we need to shut up.” Jack said in a more serious tone.
A few moments went by and the sounds became more distinct. There seemed to be a large truck and a number of motorcycles that came roaring down the street. Jack lowered himself just make sure he was completely invisible. He was looking straight into a small window that opened into the basement of the house they were hiding behind but what was most intriguing was that for a moment there was a young lady pulling back the curtain of the tiny window. Once she had seen Jack looking back at her she quickly backed away out of sight. He didn’t have time to ponder about what he had just seen because William had just snatched the duffle bag and took off running around the house.
“Sorry I don’t have time to wait!” The thieving man called out as he disappeared around the corner.
Jack quickly moved toward the edge of the house. He peered around just in time to see William dart out across the road only to be hit by the truck which seemed to speed up to do so. The impact looked worse than the actual damage delivered. The truck driver must have thought that he killed him because he kept driving and so did some motorcyclists a few moments after. Jack could see William laying on the ground. He also seen him turn his head to see if the truck was turning around but of course they weren’t. William slowly got up. He could hardly stand on both feet. He held his left leg and began to hobble across the street. Jack hurried and ran around the house and into the street. He was within eyesight of the truck he hoped that they didn’t look into their rearview mirror. He could also make out the group of house terrorists he was trying to hide from. They were a down the road still causing havoc. They were the same mob that was after Jack earlier, Jack continued toward William. He picked up the duffle bag that lay in the street and then caught up with the injured stocky man. He dropped the duffle bag and grabbed William. Jack forced the man to his knees. He could see that his pale leg was ripped open. Blood poured from the wound.
“Why did you do this? Why did you steal from me? You didn’t have to come with me and I could have helped you. I hope where you needed to be was really important.” Jack raised his gun and pointed it at the man’s head.
“It is.” The man looked into Jack’s eyes pleading.
Jack tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. He told him depending on how he acted he would keep him safe but then he had to steal. Jack held his gun steady. Ready to fire. His finger tightened around the trigger. Jack just couldn’t do it. He wasn’t that cruel hearted. The man seemed to honestly need to get somewhere and Jack being in the same position could respect that. He pulled the gun from his head.
“Take off your shirt and tie it around your leg very tight. Then get to where ever you have to get to and be careful who you stab in the back because others won’t be so forgiving.” Jack said as he picked up the duffle bag and walked away. He looked down the road to see the truck all the way at the end of the street but he they seemed to be heading back toward Jack where he knew he had to be seen by them by this point.
Jack looked ahead and the address of the house he was hiding behind was the same address. 162 Cherry Wood. Ave. Which means the people he was after was in the basement. He could grab them and get out quick and try to lose the truck. The only problem is he had to convince them to come with a stranger.
Jack looked across the street after he reached the porch but William had vanished. Jack couldn't see him anywhere and he didn’t hear a car start. He looked down the opposite side of the street and he saw the ominous black truck still a ways off but getting close. He turned to the front door and tried the doorknob but it was locked. Jack stepped back and firmly slammed his boot under the door handle and the door swung open splintering wood.
To Jack’s surprise the house didn’t seem torn apart and ransacked or packed away to evacuate. Nothing seemed touched. This meant that no one had been in here to do harm. This also meant that the person in hiding Jack had seen through the window must be safe. The truck had turned around so Jack had no time to waste. He quickly scanned the area for any s
ign of where the basement door would be located. The entryway was a hallway and to his left opened into the living room. Along the hallway wall were doors that Jack figured to be bedroom doors since the house was only one story. The kitchen had to be a straight shot back. Then he headed down the hallway. At the end of the hall was another opening. He entered it and stood in the kitchen. There was a back door where Jack and William stood only moments earlier. On the adjoining wall was a smaller wooden door. Jack figured that it had to be the door to the basement. He tried the knob and the door moved only an inch. The dweller of the basement had the door padlocked. Jack took a quick step back and shot the area of the door that held the lock. Keeping his gun raised he kicked the door but it didn’t budge but an inch again. Jack took another step back and forced his shoulder into the door. The old door splintered and a wooden dinning chair went tumbling down the basement stairs.
No Time To Mourn Page 18
