Fury of the Six (The Preston Six Book 5)

by Matt Ryan

  “Then he’ll stay, but what we are going to get isn’t what you want,” Evelyn said. “It’s not what any of us are going to want.” Tears flowed from her face. “You have to let him go. He’ll be free, with his soul intact.”

  She turned from her daughter. “I can’t.” Fight it, Joey. I’m right here for you. She wished she could feel him, she wished she had the extra sense of him that Evelyn had.

  If you did, you wouldn’t be doing what you’re doing, Evelyn’s voice sounded in her head.

  “Was that you?”

  Evelyn looked away.

  No one said anything as Poly leaned against the door, crying her life out from herself. She knew deep down what Evelyn meant, but she couldn’t let go, even if she wanted to. Letting go of Joey would be letting go of her own life. If there was even the slimmest of chances, she’d take it. She’d hold on until there was nothing left to grasp and then she’d keep reaching, trying to find him. It wasn’t a conscious decision but one her own soul made for her.

  She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but she felt Travis touch her shoulder.

  “It’s done,” he said.

  LUCAS RAN ACROSS THE SCORCHED ground in front of Marcus’s fortress. It killed him to be split between his wife and his friends. They both needed him and he hoped he didn’t just leave them to their deaths.

  The hill they’d left Julie on felt distant. He checked his Panavice again and wondered why she stopped responding. His mind went wild with child birth complications. He cursed himself for leaving her alone.

  Shapes formed as his eyes grew accustom to the darkness. The bodies of Arracks, charred and smoldering lay everywhere and he dodged a few, jumping over others, while running as hard as he could. He glanced back to see Gladius still trailing him. He didn’t think she had it in her to keep up but she looked as determined as he felt.

  He stumbled over a burnt Arrack and took a few steps to get his footing before continuing to run. At the bottom of the hill, he kept pace, even as his lungs and heart protested the exertion. He knew she should be at the top of the hill and kept pushing through the soft soil.

  Reaching the top, he searched around, frantically trying to find his wife. He thought about calling out her name when he saw her pants on the ground. He picked them up and they were soaked. He tossed them to the ground and looked at the soil, checking for the impressions from her departure—any clue as to her whereabouts.

  “She couldn’t have gone far,” Gladius panted out in a whisper, looking at the ground. “Look, heel drags.” She pointed at the two lines in the dirt.

  They led down to the abandoned town. Wind gusted up, bits of sand hitting his legs and stinging the tears in his eyes.

  “Someone took her?” He faced the wind and ran into it, down the hill.

  “Wait,” Gladius whispered, grabbing his arm. “We’ve got to be smart about this, you might get her killed.”

  Lucas slid to a stop. “What do you mean?”

  “One, she’s in labor. Two, she’s been taken by someone for reasons we don’t know. Bottom line, we need to approach with caution.”

  “Fine, we go in silent, but not slow. The wind is in our favor.”

  Gladius nodded.

  Lucas ran down the hill. He avoided a few large rocks and jumped over a small bush as he kept his max pace. The first roof tops came into sight. It didn’t take long, even with the wind gusting against him, to get to the edge of the first house.

  He waited for Gladius and she ran up next to him, breathing hard. He bent over, thinking he might throw up, but fought it back down. “I can’t catch my breath,” he said.

  “You’re telling me.”

  A scream sounded from a building across the street.

  Lucas stood erect and faced the noise. “Julie.”

  “Wait,” Gladius said grabbing his arm again. “Let’s split up, you take the right and I’ll flank the building from the left.”

  “Okay.” Lucas slid next to the wall and heard Julie scream again. He took out Prudence and held a few arrows. Staying close to the wall, he stepped into the building through a hole in the wall. Julie screamed again and he heard the mumbling of a man in the room. This sent Lucas into a flurry of emotion. He rounded a corner and crept up to the busted out opening that once probably held a window. He saw the man behind the voice.

  Emmett knelt near the bottom of Julie’s spread legs. “Come on, you can do this,” he said.

  “It’s too soon,” Julie cried.

  “Marcus wants this baby, so you can either push it out or I can take it out.”

  Lucas spotted Gladius on the other side of the room and he directed her to go to the back door. She disappeared around the corner and he waited for her distraction.

  His sweaty hand held the arrow and then he heard the knock on the door at the back of the house. Emmett stood up and looked toward the noise. Lucas jumped up and fired two special arrows meant for Marcus, in quick succession. Emmett didn’t even see him as the arrows crashed into his chest. He slumped forward, stunned at the sight of them sticking from his body and fell in between Julie’s legs. She screamed and scrambled backward.

  “Lucas?” Julie called out, panicking.

  He jumped through the window, pulling back an arrow, waiting for Emmett to move.

  Gladius came through the door, holding a large knife.

  The dirt floor ground under his feet as he approached Emmett’s body. Lucas kicked him and rolled him onto his back.

  Emmett coughed, blood spewing from his mouth and down his face. He reached for his side, but Gladius stepped on his arm. “So this is how it ends?” he asked, coughing again. “I’m okay with it, I’m ready to go. Finish me off, I don’t want to bleed out like this.”

  “I . . .” Lucas held his bow steady on Emmett’s face. The man didn’t deserve a quick, clean death.

  Julie screeched in pain, making his decision easy. His wife needed him. Letting the arrow fly, it landed with a thud in the middle of Emmett’s face. Slinging Prudence over his shoulder, he turned to Julie.

  She groaned and grabbed her bare knees, face strained. After a few seconds, her face relaxed and she said, “I don’t want to have my child here. Not on Arrack.”

  He wanted to grant her wish and ran his hands through his hair, pacing next to her, thinking of a way. “We are too far away from anything. Can you stand?”

  “This baby is coming, Lucas,” Julie said.

  “Julie, I’m going to check your dilation, okay?” Julie nodded and Gladius went between her legs. “I’d put you at a seven. You think you can move?”

  Julie nodded again.

  “Let’s get you up then,” Gladius said and reached down low. She put Julie’s arm over her shoulder and Lucas took her other side. Together, they lifted her to her feet.

  She cried out and hunched over.

  “The building next door is cleaner and doesn’t have a dead body in it. How about we get you there?” Gladius suggested.

  They helped Julie walk out of the room and into the next. Gladius had been right, the room felt cleaner and the dust hadn’t settled much on the floor. Gladius took off her jacket and laid it out.

  “Okay, we’re moving to the floor now,” Gladius said.

  “It’s too soon,” Julie said. “I’m not due for another couple months and then some. Something’s wrong.”

  Lucas gave her a smile and took off his shirt. He placed the shirt over her bare legs. “I hope you know about childbirth.” He looked to Gladius, pleading.

  “I do, but it’s been in hospitals. Not in . . . whatever you’d call this place.”

  “What do we do?” Lucas asked.

  “Did you kill him?” Julie asked.

  “Yeah, we just killed him in the last room.” He wondered if she was losing her mind.

  “Not Emmett, you imbecile, Marcus.”

  “I don’t know. The whole rest of the place has been cleared out though.” He looked at his Panavice and sent Poly a ping.

&nb
sp; “Was there a hospital in the fortress?”

  “Yeah, a real fancy looking one.”

  She grabbed his shirt and pulled him close to her face. “Take me there.”

  “We ran for two miles to get here.”

  “There are wagons outside.” Julie groaned and got to her feet, holding onto Lucas’s shirt.

  “You sure?”

  “I’m not having my child in this shit hole!” She walked out of the room and into the windy darkness of outside.

  They found a wagon with decent padding and set up Julie in the backseat. Lucas climbed in with her. “You okay?”

  “You ask me that one more time and I’m going to stab you.”

  Lucas knocked twice on the wood paneling and Gladius got the wagon moving.

  “Okay, we’re moving.” He leaned across the wagon and kissed Julie on her sweaty forehead. “You look great.”

  “Liar.” But she smiled.

  Lucas got a message from Hank and felt the blood fleeting from his face. “Marcus is dead, but something happened to Joey.” The thought of something happening to Joey made him nauseated. If he’d been hurt because Lucas left his side, he couldn’t imagine how he’d ever live with himself.

  The bumpy road jostled Julie around and she cried out each time. Lucas attempted to stabilize her, but she didn’t want to be touched. He looked out the windows and saw them passing the hill he ran up. Next were the bodies of Arracks, or speed bumps as he now felt they were, each one making a sickening crunch sound.

  “What are we driving over?” Julie said.

  “Nothing, just some bushes I think.”

  Another minute and they were at the gates. Gladius flung the door open and helped Julie out of the coach.

  “I’ll take care of her,” Lucas said. “Just make sure the path is clear in front of us. We’re going straight to the medical wing. You think you can find it?”

  “Yeah.” Gladius rushed to the front gate, dagger in hand.

  Julie screamed out again and squeezed Lucas’s bare shoulder hard enough to leave marks.

  “You sure—”

  “Just move!”

  He walked her to the front gates and into the main room.

  Gladius was hugging Hank just past the front door. Hank, the damned savior, had brought a gurney.

  “Thank you, Hank.”

  Hank let go of Gladius and set the gurney on the ground. It wasn’t anything more than a few poles and a thick fabric, but it was better than asking a mother in labor to traverse through a dark fortress full of dead Arracks.

  Lucas and Hank got her on the gurney and lifted her up. Hank led the way with Gladius next to them, keeping an eye out for Arracks. In a couple minutes, they made it to the double doors of the medical wing.

  Hank slowed down and pushed the doors open with his back. He took a quick right and Lucas saw the gathering of people down the hall, his dad and all the other parents. He even saw the little girl who was supposedly Evelyn, but he still didn’t know how that was possible.

  “Come on, they have a room over here I found,” Gladius said.

  They took Julie into a private room with a sanitary bed and running water. After they got Julie onto the hospital bed, he hugged her. He didn’t think they were going to make it in time, but she held out. She was such a trooper.

  “Get my mom,” Julie said.

  Hank ran out of the room and soon, Beth and Gretchen returned. Lucas took a deep breath of relief at their arrival. He was way out of his depth in trying to birth a child and then it dawned on him, what Emmett wanted with Julie. Marcus wanted his child as well and even knowing the man was dead, it sent a wave of fear over him. He now knew what Joey felt. He’d die to protect his son. He’d have crossed that river.

  The mothers rushed into action, washing hands and setting up towels around her.

  “Okay,” Beth said brushing the hair away from her daughter’s face. “I’m not going to sugarcoat this, it’s going to be uncomfortable. Just focus on the fact you are bringing a life into this world and that is what you are going to work so hard for, okay?”

  Julie nodded and her face strained. She gripped the bed sheets and Lucas stood next to her head and grabbed her hand. Tears fell down her face. “Something happened to Joey, didn’t it?” she grunted out.

  “I don’t know, they put him in that healing machine,” Gretchen said, before going between her legs with gloved hands. “She’s ready,” she announced. “It’s going to hurt, but your baby is counting on you to get him into this world. You ready to do this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then push, baby girl. Give me all you got.”

  Lucas stayed up near Julie’s head and held her hand. She bared down and squeezed his hand harder than he thought possible and he squeezed back trying to send some of his strength into her.

  “Again,” Gretchen called out.

  Julie whimpered and blew out some of the sweat pouring into her mouth. Her wet hair clumped against the sides of her face. She squeezed hard and grunted.

  “Almost there, don’t stop!”

  Lucas glanced down and saw the baby come out into Gretchen’s hands. Bloody and slimy, she handed the baby to a waiting Beth, who held her grandson with tears in her eyes.

  “After birth, just a second, Julie.” The placenta and the rest of it all came out into a bucket.

  “You want to cut the cord?” Gretchen looked to Lucas.

  “No, go ahead.”

  He wanted to hug Julie. They did it, they’d made a child. He felt so emotional, he hugged her tight, feeling her sweaty body against his. He cried on her shoulder. This child wouldn’t have to be born into a world where MM would hunt him down, where Marcus would manipulate his life and make him forever look over his shoulder.

  “We did it,” Julie said.

  “You did it.” Lucas heard the sink running and a few whimpers from his boy. He tried to get a better look at him as Beth cleaned him up. “How does he look?”

  She didn’t answer and kept washing him.

  “Beth?” Lucas demanded, a ball of worry hitting his stomach hard. “Is something wrong?”

  She wrapped him in a towel and turned with tears in her eyes. “He’s a perfect baby boy.”

  Lucas let out a long breath of relief and stared at his new baby’s face. “He’s so small.” He’d never seen anything better in his entire life and just seeing the little guy looking back at him melted him. “Julie, look at our boy.”

  “Can I hold him?”

  “Of course you can, he’s yours.” Beth lowered him into Julie’s awaiting arms and he looked up at her, silent and intelligent, looking much like Evelyn when she first came out.

  Lucas pushed his thoughts away, as none of it mattered. His friends killed Marcus, he killed Emmett, and it was over. Their kids could be different and not fear some mad men coming after them.

  The door swung open to the room and Evelyn walked in.

  Lucas, surprised by the little girl’s entrance, watched her walk around the bed and get close to Julie and the baby.

  “I finally get to meet him,” Evelyn said, as the baby turned to face her. She laughed, shaking her head. Then she took a few steps back, her eyes going wide with fear, pointing at the bundled baby. “He’s going to kill us all if we don’t kill him first.”

  POLY GOT UP AND STEPPED back from the door. There’d been a brief commotion and some of the parents were missing, along with Evelyn. But she couldn’t focus on that now. The machine was done and she stood next to Travis, gazing through the window. He went to the screen next to the door and typed into it. Opening the door, he walked in and Poly rushed in behind him.

  “Don’t expect much. He’s alive, but—”

  “Get out of the way.” She lifted the lid. “Joey?” She couldn’t stop smiling. “Joey, can you hear me?”

  “He can’t. He’s non-responsive to stimulus. It’s on the report.”

  “What do you mean, like a coma?”

  “No, after what
he just put his body through, this machine doesn’t understand it all. It only repairs what it sees as broken. What we have left now is . . .”

  “What? Like he’s a vegetable?”

  “This machine is struggling to keep him alive, Poly.”

  She noticed a few wires and tubes running into his body.

  “I don’t think it’ll be long now. I’d use this time to say your goodbyes.”

  She felt the panic building and stared at Joey’s face. He looked like he was sleeping. She pushed on him and then shook him. “No, you can’t leave me. Not like this. Wake up, Joey!” she screamed. “Wake up!”

  Travis took a few steps back and Opal came into the room, then Minter and Karen.

  Poly spotted her mom and fell into her. “Where’s Evelyn? I want my daughter!”

  “Shh,” Opal petted her head, “she’s fine, just went to see the new addition.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Julie just had her baby boy.”

  Poly felt like she was floating. Her body had become disconnected from reality as her mom kept speaking. She heard the cries from Karen and the sobs from Minter, but they felt as distant as the constellations. Evelyn told her to let him go, but how could she? She couldn’t live without him.

  Voices floated in space and she felt her whole world go black. Gravity left and she fell. She wasn’t ever going to get her Joey back. His body might have hung on for a bit longer, but his mind had stilled. Maybe if she fell far enough, she could find him. If she fell deep enough, he’d be there, waiting for her just like Evelyn had said.

  “Mother,” Evelyn called out, loud and above all the other distant noises. “I still need you, come back to me.”

  Poly didn’t have the will. She’d already given into the darkness, hoping she could find Joey. If she searched far and long enough, she’d find him again. They were meant to be together for eternity. This wasn’t how it ended.

  The cool floor chilled her cheek and the soft screams around her didn’t register as reality. The hands lifting her felt unreal. They’d beaten Marcus and won, but she never felt so much loss in her entire life. She was broken, and didn’t want to be put back together.