“Get up, dumbass,” he shouted to his partner, who was still on the ground. “That prick isn’t getting away with this.”
The man with the Sigma ran, jumped and slid across the hood of one of the cars like he belonged in a scene of an old Dukes of Hazzard episode. He began to give chase, even though Alex had a good head start. His partner reached through the window of the car that Alex tossed the rifles into and grabbed the SKS, before joining the pursuit.
“I’m gonna kill you!” The man with the pistol shouted as he began to close the distance between himself and Alex. He didn’t have the extra weight that Alex was carrying. In addition to that fact, he had also been a CrossFit junkie prior to the disaster and was still in fairly good shape. His partner, the pizza and Chinese food junkie was not in very good shape, but he still trusted his friend to have his back as he continued the chase.
Alex ran along on the uneven sidewalk. The roots of the large oak trees that lined the street often pushed up and cracked sections of the sidewalk, causing it to be unlevel in many places and his late night run was starting to feel like an obstacle course from hell. On one particular uneven step, Alex felt a sharp pain in his right knee, which gave him cause for concern, but he barely broke stride and just kept moving. He had previously injured the knee slightly on a hiking trip in the White Mountains in New Hampshire and he worried that the downhill run was putting too much stress on his knee.
In the distance, Alex could hear the pounding feet on the pavement behind him and he realized that the sound was getting closer. When listening to the noise pattern of his own feet in comparison, it also sounded like the other man was much faster. Alex suddenly seemed to lose steam and was beginning to panic. He knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun the man and he was going to have to fight, something that he had hoped to avoid. However, he had come too far to give up at that point and the reality was that he couldn’t afford to get caught. Not only was his life and Jack’s life being held in the balance, but he also had reason to worry about his entire neighborhoods safety and security. He still had his radio on him and he knew that working electronics would seem like a miracle to most survivors. From their hilltop, he had to assume that the crew he was trying to evade would be able to pick up transmissions from his neighborhood. That could endanger all of his family and friends.
Alex was consumed by his anxious thoughts and fatigued from the run, when he decided he would have to stop and try to shoot the man that was chasing him. He had finally reached the golf course parking lot and decided he would make his stand there. However, just as he came to that conclusion, he stumbled on a broken piece of the sidewalk. Alex tumbled sideways in a not-so-tactical roll and slid to a hard stop, crashing shoulder first into a low standing stone wall that surrounded the parking lot. His entire body hurt and the injury count was climbing. In addition to his previous wounds on his head and arm and the massive headache that continued to intensify, Alex added scrapes to both knees and his elbow as well as a bruised shoulder and a stubbed toe from his less than graceful crash landing.
When he went down, he dropped the shotgun, which bounced on the pavement and hit the wall beside him. Alex was still quite dazed and his body was signaling pain from just about everywhere, but he knew that he had to get up quickly and take cover behind the wall. He retrieved the shotgun and hurdled the rock wall, feeling his knee pain even sharper, when he did so. He squatted down on the other side, just as the man caught up to him and fired a number of wild shots in his direction. The bullets either flew over Alex’s head or struck the stone wall, knocking chunks of rock off. Alex covered his head with his hands as he ducked behind the old wall. When he realized that the man had stopped firing, he took his own wild shot in the man’s direction, missing him completely and hitting the windshield of the car that he was using for cover.
Alex tried to pump the action on the shotgun and the fore end would not slide back. He looked down at the now useless hunk of metal in his hands and realized that when he dropped the gun, it had damaged the action bar, bending the metal just enough to prevent it from pumping. At that moment, he heard the second man catch up to his friend and join him behind the car 30 feet away from his position. He reached for his 9mm and his heart sank immediately when he realized it wasn’t in the holster. A cold sweat overcame him and he frantically looked around, hopeful that it had fallen out on his side of the wall. He didn’t see it anywhere and knew that it had to have fallen out on the other side, when he had his accident. He instantly regretted his careless mistake to not pick up the pistols that belonged to the two men that he encountered earlier in the day with the German Shepherd.
“Give me that, I’m out of ammo,” The first man said stuffing the unloaded pistol back into his pants.
The second man handed the old SKS to his friend leaving himself without a weapon. He knew that between them both, his friend was the better shot with the rifle. However, the box fed magazine only had 7 rounds left, in addition to the round that was already chambered. They did not have much of the 7.62x39mm ammunition to begin with, when the EMP hit, and the men used up most of their rounds during the first few weeks after the disaster.
“Why are we chasing this guy? He’s obviously not after our shit.”
“I don’t give a fuck! Nobody gets past us. Besides, the others probably heard the shooting and are up by now. Do you want to explain to them that we were fucking around and counting stars instead of keeping watch?”
“So what do we do?”
“We need to try to flush him out,” said the man gesturing with the rifle towards another car a short distance away on the street. “You run for that car and I’ll cover you. He’ll know we’re trying to get on either side of him and maybe I’ll get a shot at him.”
“Wait, why do I have to run for the car?”
“Because I have the gun, you idiot. How the hell would you cover me running over there? Spitballs?”
“So give me back the gun.”
“Fuck that, you’re going or I’ll shoot you myself,” he said pointing the muzzle at his partner.
Alex crawled along the wall to a different position. If they were going to have a standoff, he at least didn’t want to be in the same spot that he was last seen, giving them a chance to hold their aim at the spot and wait for him to peek out. He envisioned himself being the mole in a deadly version of the whack a mole game.
For a minute, Alex considered making another mad dash for the golf course behind him. There were a couple of golf carts spread throughout the parking lot that he could use for cover. He looked over his shoulder, beyond the parking lot, and could see the slight incline of the first green. He knew that a grassy hill would slow him down and the fact that there was a lot of open field to cross before he could hit decent tree cover didn’t sit well with him. Alex also wasn’t sure how his knee would do if he attempted to run. So for the moment, he decided to just stick with the relative protection of the old stone wall and listened for any sudden moves that the men might make. This presented as somewhat of a challenge, since he still had ringing in his ears from discharging his weapon a minute earlier.
All remained quiet for a couple of minutes, when Alex suddenly heard one of the men running from where he had last heard them. He was worried that they were coming straight for him, so he quickly peeked up from his spot and prepared to run for the nearest golf cart, if he needed to. When he exposed his new position, the man with the SKS opened up on him, firing a succession of shots in his direction. Alex had only looked up quickly and ducked back down just in time to avoid having his head removed from his shoulders.
He quickly crawled away to a new position behind the wall and decided he needed to move, before they could get into a better position to flank him. He looked at the two nearest golf carts and made a quick decision to go for the one furthest from the guy with the rifle. Alex took up a stance like an Olympic sprinter and prepared to go, knowing that another burst of gunfire would likely follow him. He still held onto his shotgun, mo
re out of familiarity as he was running on instinct now and wasn’t considering the fact that he might move faster without the additional weight. His only other weapon was the Kabar knife on his belt, but he didn’t think it would be appropriate to practice his knife throwing skills under the given circumstances.
Alex took a couple of deep breaths and gave himself a silent count, before he bolted for the golf cart. The rifle barked again, sending another barrage of bullets in his direction. By changing positions again along the stone wall, he had given himself a split second advantage as the man had to adjust his aim again before firing. By that time, Alex had already reached his cover, which was promptly filled with holes.
“Fuck, I’m out again!” The man shouted in frustration.
Alex heard the man, but thought it might be a ploy to get him out in the open, making it easier to shoot him, so he remained where he was and thought about his next move in their chess match.
Beyond the wall, the two men also planned their next move as they considered the dangers of coming out from their own positions of cover.
“I think he’s empty too. When you ran over there, he didn’t take a shot at you.”
“What the fuck! You wanted him to shoot at me?”
“Oh quit crying ya big baby,” the man replied. “I say we rush him and stomp the living dogshit out of him.”
“You sure?”
“Fuck it, we’re doing this!” He said as he got up to lead the charge toward Alex.
The second man hesitated at first but followed his partner’s lead and charged at Alex’s golf cart from his side. Both men were coming over the wall by the time Alex stood up enough to see them and realize that they were advancing on him without any guns. In a split second, Alex moved forward to meet the second man’s attack, since he was just a bit closer. He used both of their momentum to his advantage, shoving the barrel of the broken shotgun into his face. The muzzle easily tore off a piece of the man’s upper lip and shattered his front teeth, cutting the roof of his mouth in the process.
The man instantly crumpled to the ground in a fit of pain as blood filled his mouth and tears filled his eyes. Both trickled from his face in a steady stream. At the same time, the more athletic of the two caught Alex in the eye with a running punch, knocking him down, as his momentum caused him to trip over Alex’s feet and land on top of him. The broken shotgun fell as well, sliding away from both men.
Alex was dazed again as the pain from his already tremendous headache intensified some more. His eyes lost focus as he hit the ground, but his backpack cushioned his fall a bit and prevented him from hitting his head again. His brain still felt like it was throbbing though, like it was trying to pound its way out of his skull. He regained focus with his eyes, expecting to be hit again, but realized that the man’s hands were occupied with his throat, as he choked Alex from the mounted position sitting on his chest. A wild look of sick joy was plastered on his face as he relished his ability to physically dominate Alex and eagerly looked forward to ending his life with his bare hands.
The man’s grip was so tight, that Alex couldn’t even manage to move his head in an attempt to wiggle free and he couldn’t pry his hands away. With his airway cut off, he felt himself beginning to lose consciousness, when he remembered the Kabar on his right side just behind his empty M&P holster. In a last ditch attempt to survive, Alex used his legs to raise his hips and shift position under his attacker in a move that he had seen a hundred times while watching mixed martial arts events on TV. This momentum gave him enough room to be able to reach his knife, which he pulled from its sheath and shoved upward as hard as he could. The blade found its way in between the man’s ribs, where it severed his aorta.
The last thing Alex saw before passing out were the wide eyes of his attacker and the look of joy being replaced with a look of fear on his face.
CHAPTER 19
Alex woke up a few minutes later, unsure of how long he had been out. Beside him, in a pool of his own blood, lay the man who had choked him out. His eyes were still wide open with the fearful expression frozen on his face as his eyes stared toward the stars, like he had when Alex first came across him. The Kabar was lying on the floor between them, where the man dropped it after pulling it from his own chest a moment before he collapsed.
A couple of yards away, Alex could hear the other man, still writhing in pain on the ground holding his mouth. He pulled himself up and noticed the intense pain in his throat when he sat up and added that injury and his now swollen eye to the laundry list of wounds that continued to grow. Alex rolled over and picked up the Kabar, holding it out in the direction of both men to make sure they were not still in the fight, before he knelt over the dead man and wiped the blood from both sides of the blade on his shirt. He then stumbled to his feet and sauntered away back in the direction of the stone wall to look for his pistol.
Retracing his steps to where he originally fell, Alex found the M&P lying on the grass in front of the wall. He put the knife back in its sheath, picked up the gun and headed right for the first green, without any further delay, leaving his broken shotgun behind in the process. He was not deterred by the pain that he was feeling in his knee. In the grand scheme of things, it was one of the wounds he was least bothered by.
As he jogged by, Alex could see the man with the now disfigured face starting to get up. As a precaution, he aimed his pistol in his direction, but the man made no further effort to threaten him, so Alex just kept moving past the distraught looking man. When he got to the first hill on the green, he looked around trying to get his bearings in order to figure out which heading would be the most direct way of getting back to his bike. He had a general idea of where to go from his memory of an aerial shot of the Stony Brook Reservation on Google Maps, when he was scouting the area after he first moved there. With a general direction in mind, Alex continued at a moderate pace as he crossed the course, which constantly transitioned from open greens that were no longer neatly trimmed, to tall grass or lightly wooded areas that divided up the course.
“I’m not only going home all beat up, but I’ll be picking deer ticks out of my butt for a week while I’m at it,” he said to himself while passing through a knee high section of grass. “But at least I’m going home.”
Before long, Alex reached the treeline and he confidently entered the dark woods that had been his goal. He could remember a time when primordial fears sprung up in him whenever he was alone in dark woods in the past. Likely due to the fact that he watched too many horror flicks as a youngster and the fictional images were permanently seared into his subconscious. However, he was past those fears and the woods now felt safe to him as the trees surrounded him like protective giants.
Alex bushwhacked through some briars that ripped at his clothes, scratching his beaten and battered body. After enduring this for a quarter of a mile, he found a clear trail and followed it in the direction that he hoped would lead him to where he had left his bike. There were quite a few paths that criss crossed the area, but he wasn’t worried about getting lost, since there was a single paved path that did a long circular loop through the woods. He knew that if he stayed on that loop, it would eventually guide him to the path that would lead him to where he left his bike.
Twenty minutes later, Alex found the rocky area with the well used fire pit that was just past the trail where he stashed the bike. The place was littered with broken beer bottles and crushed cans just as he remembered it looking the only other time he had been there, years before. His heart raced with excitement as he continued on and reached the side trail where he hoped to find his bike. In his mind, he almost expected the bike to be missing. Even though he had successfully found the antibiotics that Jack needed, he felt like the rest of his night had been a non-stop train wreck. Nonetheless, he was close enough to home that he didn’t care if he found the bike or not. It was only a means to get there faster at that point.
Much to his surprise, Alex found the bike, right where he had left it.
He felt himself well up with emotion. His eyes became a bit teary and he got choked up, trying to stifle the feelings as he pulled the bike from the bushes and wearily began wheeling it down the path towards the parkway. Once he reached the parkway, he hopped on and started pedaling in the direction of home as an elated feeling began to grow inside him with each passing inch of pavement that went by. He looked up and admired the changing sky as the darkness was beginning to fade away with the dawn of a new day.
Alex rounded a bend in the road and decided to try to radio home. A small hill was the only major obstacle between him and his neighborhood for the next mile, so he hoped he was close enough to be able to reach his friends and family and let them know he was nearby. He reached into his pack and pulled out the radio, which came apart in his hand as the antenna awkwardly hung off to one side. He tried to push some of it back together to see if it would still work, but his efforts were for naught and it would not turn on. He laughed to himself and tossed the pieces back into his backpack as he resumed his journey.
After passing the last hill, the remaining half a mile went by quickly and Alex coasted down the slight decline. His neighborhood came into view as the rising sun began to creep over the horizon at the end of the parkway. Alex approached and could see his brother in law, David, poke his head out of the second floor window of the Kim’s residence, where he had been keeping watch. David did not recognize Alex at first, given his bruised, bloody and tattered state and he raised his rifle to challenge Alex. When David did not immediately acknowledge him, Alex realized why and called out to him.
“Don’t shoot, it’s me,” Alex said laughing. “I had a rough night.”
“Alex?” David yelled back with a combination of relief and concern. He immediately left his roost and a minute later was rushing out the front door to meet Alex, who he grabbed in a tight bear hug, sending numerous shots of pain through his body. “Thank God you made it back; we thought something happened to you.”
The Power Struggle Series (Book 2): The Downward Spiral Page 13
