The Inn

by D. R. Mather

  “Honey, we each have a job to do. This one is mine. We have to live with it, and it’s the only way.”

  The ‘strong’ Judy of earlier was gone. Kevin now had crying Judy to deal with.

  “Come with me honey, let’s go talk,” he said to her as they both left the room.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Kevin was sitting with Judy on the bed when he heard the sound. Two of them to be more precise: heavy diesel engines climbing the hill out on the road. He looked up, turned to Judy and said, “NOW!”

  He jumped off the bed and dragged Judy with him, out of the room and over to the elevator.

  As the bell rang for the elevator on the first floor, Kevin was already trying to get the doors open, even before they were ready.

  “Come on, come on.”

  They opened and Kevin moved at ‘Kevin speed’ over to the coats, grabbed his trench coat and yelled out, “It’s NOW GUYS!!”

  Judy caught up and grabbed him as his hand grabbed the knob.

  “Not like that you don’t mister man,” she said, and grabbed him tightly as she gave him a deep kiss. “Give ‘em hell you badass!!”

  “I love you Judy, bar the doors now.”

  “I love you too Kevin.”

  As he left the door to close on its own, he looked back and saw Judy grabbing a bar from the side. He walked off to the left of the building.

  “Time to end this shit, assholes,” he said to himself, then disappeared into the wood on the side of the mansion. The night was moonless, which was good for cover.

  Two buses came into view just on the back side of the driveway and then they stopped. Beth, Alex and April were in the attic with no lights on, looking, but not seeing a lot. They could barely make out the front vehicle.

  Judy came up behind them, “Can you see anything?”

  “A tiny bit, but not a lot,” Replied Beth.

  The lights suddenly went out at the Inn.

  Beth peaked from a low corner of the window, “The pricks must have dropped someone off at the road. They’ve cut the power.” She never finished her sentence before it went back on.

  Kevin was in the woods, “…2, 3, 4, 5…”

  Everyone heard it…

  “FUCK, THE SHITHEADS HAVE A GENERATOR!”

  A few seconds later, one shot rang out across the mountains. Apparently Benny thought it was the fault of the man who cut the power at the street.

  Alex looked out, “Beth, do you think we could send any of them to Valhalla if you blew up that bus?”

  “Hum, it will give us away, but I think it’s worth it. Yeah, maybe a few near the rear, where the fuel tanks are.”

  “Then by all means my lady, fire away,” answered Alex.

  Beth turned and Alex bowed.

  “It’s a good thing I love you or you’d be the first to go.”

  There wasn’t a pause; Beth said the last few words as she spun back to the window and let go two beams of radiant blue rods of light. They missed their mark a bit at first, just because Beth couldn’t really see where the back of the bus was, but when the two beams hit, she made the adjustment instantly and blasted the rear of the bus.

  Benny made sure that Mick got buses with extra fuel tanks so they wouldn’t have to stop as often. He now regretted that decision.

  The rear of the bus exploded and rose into the air in a brilliant ball of light; they could see bodies and parts of bodies flying in all directions. As it crashed back to the ground another flash of fire and sparks lit up the area. There was no time to count over five bodies lying on the ground before the light died down into shadows. They all heard the cry to battle, they all ducked away from the window; under it was two feet of stone which should provide a safe zone.

  “GET THOSE FUCKS!!!!”

  The sound of automatic fire rang through the air. Some of it was coming through the attic dormers; most of it was hitting the windows on the other floors.

  Judy turned to April, “Apparently most of them didn’t see where it came from.”

  April puts her hand on Judy’s back, “Good, then if they spread out, some of them may not be told.”

  They did spread out; most of the gunfire had stopped. April moved to the front under the window, and they all only whispered now.

  “Stay down, I need to see,” said April. She slowly peaked up at the very lowest corner of the window. She saw movement on the side of the garage but couldn’t tell for sure if it was night shadows or a man. Then he fired a round into the first floor shutter. The flash was all April needed. She jutted her hand out a bit and the man screamed. He didn’t scream from the grass though, no, he screamed as he went above April’s height. April never knew exactly what she was capable of and naturally the man never went to the moon. In fact, orbit was as far as he went, and of course he wasn’t alive by that time anyway.

  Just after, she felt a piece of stone bounce off the side of her face; April heard the shot and ducked back in. That shot got them all going again, randomly shooting at the building like the whole place was the target.

  Beth looked up just a bit, “Guys, let’s relocate.”

  They all crawled away on their bellies.

  Kevin knew that Benny and Stan could see him; he wouldn’t be able to hide from them. The rest wouldn’t be so lucky. He couldn’t see Benny or Stan as he moved through the woods. There was one thing Kevin never told his group, not even Judy: he could see at night. Not perfectly, but a hell of a lot better than night vision goggles could achieve. It was also all in color.

  He came to the first one, trying to flank the side of the mansion through the woods. Kevin reached out and grabbed his neck. The guy was never going to be able to scream, not with his windpipe being crushed. Kevin slammed him into a tree with enough force to shake all sixty foot of it. He dropped the dead man and moved on.

  Another one, hiding next to a pine tree, was sighting in the upper windows. Kevin got to him, grabbed his neck and squeezed really hard. He dropped another dead man to the ground.

  The gang moves to Cindy’s apartment. Alex and Beth went under the living room window, April and Judy made it to Cindy’s bedroom window.

  April peeked up and right on the ground in front of her was a man holding what looked like one of those weapons you would see them shoot at tanks. An RGP or GRP or something. She put her hand up and ripped it from the guy’s hand, spun it around in mid-air, then made it fire towards the bus. It hit with a thunderous boom and took out the front of the bus. She reset her focus on the guy, who was staring at his hands like he had no idea what had just happened. April sent him to meet his buddy out in the Earth’s lower orbit.

  Kevin wasn’t too deep in the woods at this point; he saw what happened to the guy with the R.P.G.

  “That just had to be April. Nice kiddo, really nice.” He moved off again.

  Judy crawled into Cindy’s living room, “April and I are going to the back windows now.”

  Beth looked over, “Okay hun, we’ll hold the front.”

  Judy and April headed out to the back, in Judy’s apartment.

  Both buses were deserted as Kevin reached the rear bus. He looked all around; they’d all spread out in a flanking position to surround the building. Kevin needed Beth’s attention, but how? He had to play his hand for it, but it needed to be done. He wanted this driveway blocked, but he also wanted the second bus disabled. No one was to drive away from this, no one.

  Kevin watched the attic windows very closely, then he saw it, the top of Beth’s head just breaking to the top of the stone sill. Then he saw her face, just a bit. The driveway curved, which meant from the window, the second bus would actually be about ten feet directly to the right of the front bus, only farther back.

  “BETH, FIFTEEN FEET TO YOUR LEFT, NEXT TO THE FIRST BUS, HIT IT!”

  He ran off ‘Kevin fast’ into the woods and away from the bus.

  Beth peeked out. Seeing the bus, she knew it had been Kevin that had yelled out. She put an arm up and hit the tree line t
hat sat to the left of the bus. She let a bolt go and it hit a tree. It didn’t hit the second bus, but the light from the impact sure showed Beth where it was sitting.

  “No one drives away, huh, Kevin? No problem.”

  She moved her hand to adjust and blasted again; the blue bolt hit the side of the bus. Beth trailed the bus until it hit the rear tanks.

  KEBLOOM!

  The whole bus rose about five feet into the air and crashed back down.

  “No one drives away, got it handsome.”

  Beth peeked up and saw three men running from the woods near the bus as it lit up the night.

  “There you are.” She let a bolt go. A guy was hiding behind a tree, but not for long. Beth’s hit went through the tree and through the man as well. It sprayed out as it hit the tree behind him. Beth raised her finger like they did in the old west and blew the imaginary smoke from it, “Buffalo Bill, who the hell is that?”

  She ducked back down. Alex was looking at her from the next window.

  “Nice shoot’n Tex!”

  “Oh, I do what I can.”

  Alex looked out and saw one running for cover behind the garage corner; he put out his hand and the man slammed into a barrier. Alex surrounded him with it and then closed the barrier tight, really tight. The man was now ‘compressed’ and didn’t survive.

  “See Beth, there’s a gentler approach to this.”

  “I prefer noise and explosions Alex, but you have your way, I have mine. She popped her head up and got fired at, the bullet missing her by almost two feet but the muzzle sure showed her what she needed to see.

  “Aha, you missed asshole.”

  She released a bolt again, first through a tree, then through the man’s upper chest. Alex and Beth could hear little popping noises just after the impact.

  “What the hell was that Beth?”

  “I think it went through his weapons magazine before it went through him.”

  “Huh, neat!”

  Kevin could hear it in the distance, in between the lodge and the Inn.

  “SHIT. THAT FUCKER’S OUTSIDE. COME ON ASSHOLES!!”

  Kevin knew that it was Benny.

  Five barrels were flashing as the sound boomed through the night and the guys came around the corner of the building. Kevin only watched; he was about two hundred feet from there now, and they didn’t have a clue. He was leaning against an old maple, watching them waste ammo, shooting at a burning bus.

  “Idiots.”

  Suddenly three of them burst apart; limbs flying everywhere. The other two, just the opposite; Kevin saw them crushed to the thickness of a pancake, then dropped to the ground. He looked up in time to see both Beth and Alex duck out of sight.

  ”Nice, very nice guys.”

  A sudden white bright ball of fire slammed into the side of the stone wall next to Beth.

  “SHIT, WHAT WAS THAT?!”

  Alex looked over at Beth, “I think that was Benny. I think he has something like what we have. Time to relocate Beth.”

  They crawled out and back to the first windows they had been at when the fighting had begun. Beth looked out just in time to see someone ducking around the left side of the mansion.

  “Shit, he’s gone, I can’t see him.”

  ”Well, I can see this one,” Alex said. He raised his hand and covered the man that was sneaking across the garage fronts, surrounding him and squeezing tight. The dead man dropped to the ground.

  Kevin heard brush cracking near him. He spun to the right and caught a running guy right in mid-step. Kevin grabbed him by the neck as he ran past and lifted him up. The man’s legs still did a few more runs before they stopped. The guy’s feet never touched the ground again while he’s alive.

  Kevin dropped him and moved out. He needed to see how the back was holding out. As he sneaked quietly though the woods he saw two muzzles sticking out of a tree. He knew it meant two men were hiding behind it, one above the other. As Kevin approached the opposite side of the tree, he wrapped his arms around it in both directions. His connection directly to their necks was uncanny. He yanked them up and slammed them into each other, dropped them and then moved on.

  April and Judy were at the back window in Judy’s bedroom. April could see men walking around the pool and pointing weapons at the pool house. April looked to the right and saw one creeping around the right edge of the house.

  “Oh screw this just once ‘into’ something please, I’m going to create a traffic jam up there if I send them all up.” April reached into his head and ‘fiddled’ with things a bit. A few seconds later, the guy took out his handgun and blew his own brains out.

  There were five more men now, all of them spread out about twenty feet away from each other.

  “Judy, go tell Beth and Alex that they’ve started covering the back.”

  “Right, I’ll be right back,” Judy ran out of the apartment.

  April peeked out; none of them were looking up at the attic. “Well now, this might be fun,” she whispered. She stood up, put her hands out, and with a small grunt; all five men went flying up, up, up, and out of sight. “There assholes, enjoy the flight, would you like a bag of peanuts? Our in-flight movie tonight will be…”

  There weren’t five, there were six. The sixth was Stan, and April was standing in full view at the window. She didn’t see him, and she never heard the shot, the one that split into several fragments as it passed through her skull. April never heard anything after that. He body dropped to the floor next to Judy’s bed.

  Judy, Beth, and Alex came into the room.

  Beth whispered, “Have no fear April, the cavalry has arrived.”

  No answer.

  Judy spoke a little louder, “April?”

  Nothing.

  Judy and Beth moved side-by-side around Judy’s bed and saw April lying on the floor.

  Judy moved fast to her, “No, no, no, no, no, no…” She slid the rest of the way and picked up April’s head. “Oh my god no, no, no. April, no!”

  Beth was on the side of April now; they could both see the hole in the top of her left skull, over her eye.

  “Judy, fix her. Hurry, fix her!” said Beth.

  Judy grabbed both of April’s arms and started to glow, only it wasn’t blue; instead it was only white.

  After five minutes, Beth made Judy release her. Judy put April down carefully, April’s blood was all over her.

  “You tried honey. I didn’t think you could help her if she was already gone.”

  They rested their heads on each other and cried hard, April’s lifeless body mixed between them. Alex dropped to his knees and cried alone.

  After a while Judy pulled away, “I’m going to fucking KILL that motherfucker myself!” She jumped up and ran past Alex.

  Beth screamed out, “Judy, NO!”

  It was too late. Judy had already gone. Beth and Alex scrambled to their feet and ran after her. When they reached the hall corner, they saw that she had taken the stairs because the elevator’s doors were open.

  “Alex, this way.”

  They both got in and hit the bottom floor button. As the elevator doors opened at ground level, they dashed out and saw Judy throwing the last bar off to the side. They weren’t half way to her before she was out the door and gone. Beth started to run but Alex grabbed her.

  “Beth, NO, you can’t go too.”

  “SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!!!!!!!!”

  Alex ran and barred the doors again.

  Even Kevin had heard the scream as it came from his upstairs room. He had just got to the back corner of the building, a mere ten feet in to the woods, when he saw Stan standing below, near the pool. Stan spun and saw Kevin standing there. He fired every round at him until his gun was empty, and Kevin was still standing.

  “Fuck. Try this out for size then!”

  Poor Stan never had a chance. He began to make a fireball, but it never fully formed before Kevin was on him. Kevin tore Stan in half in an instant.

  “You piece of shit.”
He dropped the body halves and walked back to the corner, heading to the front.

  Judy was slowing as she knew she was outside; she trotted slower to the corner to go out back and then ran smack into Vince, who popped out of the trees. He grabbed Judy and lifted her high over his head, her legs in one hand and her shoulder in the other. Judy screamed out.

  “KEVIN!!!!!!”

  “Eat some turf BITCH!” Vince slammed Judy to the ground with the same force one would experience from falling from a forth story building. Judy lay crumpled in a heap on the ground. This happened just as Kevin was coming around the same corner from the rear of the building.

  Vince reached down to pick her up again. ‘Two times the charm,’ he thought. Suddenly something jumped on his back.

  “YOU SON OF A BITCH, YOU FUCKING PIG!!!!”

  Kevin was off the ground with his arms wrapped around Vince’s neck. Kevin squeezed. Vince tried to grab Kevin’s arms but it did no good, as Kevin squeezed harder, all the while completely off the ground and hanging onto Vince from behind.

  “TIME TO DIE SHITHOLE,” screamed Kevin. Vince’s head departed from his body nicely. Kevin was then off of Vince and at Judy instantly, “No baby, no. Please no, not you too, please.”

  Kevin picked her up; he couldn’t tell if she was alive or not, her body lay across his arms and he just started walking to the back of the house. He didn’t even know where he was walking. When he reached the back he saw Alex and Beth. Alex had his hands to his side, Beth was beside him, and the bridge was across the pool.

  “Come on Kevin, hurry,” yelled Alex, “I’ll let it up so you can pass in.”

  Kevin ran as Alex lifted his hands. He stopped and Alex put the shield back.

  Kevin looked to Beth, “I think they killed my baby.”

  Beth could only stand there as she started crying.

  A blue light began to appear from the center of the bridge. They all turned to it as the ‘female’ passed through.

  “Give her to me Kevin, quickly.” said the being. She walked to the edge of the bridge as Kevin reached it. She took Judy from him and turned, “We will see what we can do, but I don’t make any promises.”