by Schow, Ryan
“And you as well must die, beloved dust. And all your beauty stand you in no stead, this flawless, vital hand, this perfect head. This body of flame and steel, before the gust of Death, or under his autumnal frost shall be as any leaf. Be no less dead than the first leaf that fell, this wonder fled, altered, estranged, disintegrated, lost. Nor shall my love avail you in your hour. In spite of all my love, you will arise upon that day and wander down the air, obscurely as the unattended flower, it mattering not how beautiful you were, or how beloved above all else that dies.”
When she was done, he said, “That was beautiful.”
“I think I said it right,” she said, wiping her eyes. “If not, they’ll at least know I love them. That this poem will be the message that binds me to them, to Shawn, to all the beautiful souls that have since parted from this world.”
“And to the beautiful souls still here,” he said, looking at her.
“I heard your brother speaking,” she said. “Why don’t you go to him and let me bury them.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
She went and hugged him hard, tight, so much so that he could feel her breast pressed upon him, and the devastated heart beating behind it. “Thank you for all you’re doing for me,” she said.
“I want you to stay here with me,” he said before leaving. She nodded, like it was the easiest of decisions. “I hope you understand that, what with us laying them here to rest.”
“I understand.”
That’s when it hit him. A sick, uncomfortable feeling swept through him. Swallowing hard, he said, “I should have asked if you wanted to take them home.”
“Home is where the Chicoms stole her from. That’s where I last saw my father alive. I don’t want to be there, with all the reminders of life, family and joy. With them gone, I think it would push me over the edge.”
“I understand,” he said.
“If I can help it, I don’t ever want to go home.”
“Like I said, you’re welcome to stay with me,” he said. “Indefinitely if you want.”
She nodded, turning her head against his chest, still holding him.
Clay had craved the warmth of another human for so long, but not like this, not under these circumstances. But then he realized he didn’t care how someone had come to him. Just feeling this wounded bird clinging to him for dear life gave him purpose, value, a reason to live. And for that, he held her a little tighter, a little closer.
“What did Boone say about the SAA?” she asked.
“You bury your parents and I’ll figure out what’s what,” he said before leaving. “We’ll meet up afterwards, if you want. I’ll tell you everything.”
Clay drove over to Boone’s place, but he wasn’t there. He then headed up to the one place he was sure everyone would be: the Madigan homestead.
When he arrived, he got out of the Blazer, climbed the hill and headed up to the barn. Inside, he found the war planners. All of them.
“We heard about your friend,” Skylar said, looking up at him.
Her head was a thin layer of hair, three months growth after having it buzzed off while she was being held and tortured at what was once a maximum security prison.
“She’s going to need a sense of community to see if she can heal from this,” Clay said.
“So her parents died then?” Harper asked, clearly bothered.
“The Chicoms cut off their heads and put them on pikes in the middle of the prison camp. Apparently her father stood up to one of these Chicom pukes while he was cutting off a woman’s head.”
“Oh, my God,” Orbey said. “That poor thing.”
“What did she do?” Boone asked, sensing in her a similar situation to his own.
“She shot the man’s closest confidants, then she sawed off his head with my knife.”
“Holy cow,” Ryker said, every bit as stunned as the rest of them. “Why isn’t she here with us now?”
“She’s pushing the dirt over her parents as we speak,” Clay said, sitting down. “Boone said we have a problem with the SAA.”
“A very big problem,” Logan agreed. “One that might be too big to handle.”
“He’s being polite,” Noah said. “This is definitely far more than we can handle, which is why we need to see if we can strategize this thing right.”
“Why don’t you start by telling me what you found,” Clay said.
“We found a guy with loose lips,” Noah said. “We left him a little loose on the backside, too, but he talked nevertheless.”
Skylar shot him a look the old man plainly ignored.
“The SAA got burned by President Hu,” Logan said. “He not only roasted half the SAA, he incinerated his own men. Meaning he’s not only a liar, he has no respect for his people either.”
“So now the SAA’s out for blood and they don’t mind traveling up through the wasteland that is California to exact it,” Skylar said.
“Do they know about us?” Clay asked.
“Not Five Falls, per se,” Ryker said, “but they’ll definitely know about us personally.”
“What did you do?” Boone asked.
Logan and Ryker told them everything, with Skylar and Noah chiming in occasionally to add what details they felt were pertinent to the debriefing.
“We need to rally the troops,” Harper said. “Make sure everyone is armed and ready for war. But we won’t be enough. Not even close, if what you’re describing is accurate.”
Just then, the screaming engine of a four wheeler sounded outside, along with the heavy blades of a chopper. Otto all but rode the Yamaha right into the barn. He hopped off, a bow slung over his back. His quiver of arrows was full, and two of them had dynamite sticks attached.
“This chopper was doing recon in town!” he said, breathless.
They heard the big bird coming up the hillside, so much so that Boone turned and said, “You idiot, you brought it right to us!”
Everyone rushed outside the barn, gathering up armaments as they went. When the thing appeared just over the treetops, Otto knocked his arrow, pulled back on the bow string and told Clay to do it.
Without hesitation, Clay lit the stick of dynamite and Otto let it fly.
The gunner pod was in view, the gunner swinging the big gun around when the arrow hit him in the chest. A second later the explosion ripped the bird apart, the parts of it falling back down the hill in a rain of fire, metal and obliterated flesh.
“Five Falls is officially at war again,” Harper said. “Let’s round up the troops.”
An hour later, after a mad scramble, the call came in from the spotter. Noah picked it up. “The convoy is a mile deep, maybe a mile and a half. Oh my God. Oh, sweet Jesus, we’re screwed. We’re so freaking screwed!”
“Get back here on the double,” Noah said. “It’s all hands on deck. And have someone get eyes on that helicopter wreck! We don’t need a damn forest fire right now!”
“Roger that,” the man said. It sounded like he was already making his way out of his catbird’s seat.
When Clay asked if the entire town was on board with this crazy plan, Skylar said, “Most of them are prepared to fight to the death. But only a few dozen of them know how.”
“We could try diplomacy,” Clay said. “It worked before, with the men transporting the generator.”
“No more diplomacy,” Skylar hissed.
“You’re going to get us killed,” Clay said. “All of you are.”
“Time to grab your balls and see if you still have them,” Logan said. He fired Logan a look, but knew the man was telling the truth. “Like they say, Clay, it’s time to nut up or shut up. This action’s moving forward whether we want it to or not.”
“Well hell,” Noah said.
A long, sad silence followed, this moment of reflection touching every single person in there.
“It’s been an honor getting to know all of you,” Logan said, reverently. “I’m going to be down the line killing as many of these sons of bitches as I can.
” Without another word, he stood and walked out of the barn, Harper going after him.
“We don’t have time to mess around,” Ryker told all those who were left.
Everyone in the barn nodded in agreement, and each and every one of them had faces that had gone bloodless with the reality of the situation.
Orbey said, “We need to take out who we can, then get up in the hills. That’s what the bug out site is for. Just remember to break down those tents and get in the emergency shelters if it comes to that.”
“If we all get there now, then what?” Boone asked.
“I want to fight!” Skylar shouted, slapping her hand on the table. “The Chicoms took everything from us! For the last decade they’ve infiltrated us, raped us, killed us, and now you want to just let these people in to do what the Chicoms have already done? I don’t think so!”
“They’re not the Chicoms,” Connor said. Cooper had crawled between his legs, his nose tucked away.
“What’s the difference between the SAA and the Chicoms, Uncle Connor?” Skylar asked. “How they abuse us? Their freaking management style? No, I’m not submitting to them. NO!”
“We’re all resolute on that,” Orbey said, trying to calm her.
“It’s too much,” Skylar said.
“I know, Sweetheart. It’s just…people are going to die.”
“People are already dying,” Ryker said.
“Otto officially started the war shooting down the recon unit,” Clay interjected. “It’s already on. So if we’re done here, let’s go shove some hell up these people’s asses.”
Within a half an hour, everyone who could fire a gun, wield a knife or light a stick of dynamite was down on what they called “the line.” They were set on either side of the highway, staggered so as not to kill each other in the cross fire.
Clay swallowed his stomach, looked over at Felicity next to him and said, “You can leave if you don’t want to do this. Five Falls isn’t home to you.”
“No,” she said, “but you are now. You’re my home and I want to fight beside you. I want to fight. I have to.”
The Uniden at Clay’s side suddenly came to life. Clay and Felicity both fell quiet, listening to the scared voice on the other end.
“They’re coming.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Half the residents in town agreed to be led by the Madigan clan, Logan, Harper, Ryker, the Nichols brothers and Noah. They had all lined up along the tree lines running parallel to the highway. There they had the kids and the guns.
Skylar opted to run point at the head of the convoy, meaning at the trench. Everyone else would be hiding in the trees, waiting.
Their line of defense ran a long way down, too far for Skylar to contemplate.
When everyone saw the convoy coming, there was a collective clenching of the cheeks. What they saw wasn’t just scary, it was terrifying. As the convoy got longer and longer, their collective fear doubled, and then it tripled.
“How long is this thing?” Orbey asked Skylar.
“A mile, maybe mile and a half,” Skylar told her aunt. Looking at her cousin, she said, “Stephani, it’s time.”
Stephani hugged them both, then took her guns, the bucket of dynamite and a group of kids and crossed the road behind the cluster of destroyed Chicom vehicles. They were quick, moving into the woods and down into position.
Orbey looked like she wanted to cry. Skylar understood. This might be the end for some of them, maybe all of them.
“Let’s go,” Harper said to Orbey. Logan was with Harper, saying nothing, his game face scary, his game face on.
Orbey hugged Skylar hard, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. “I love you, Skylar.”
“I love you, too, Aunt Orbey,” she said. “It will be okay.”
Skylar said this, but when she looked at the convoy again, this huge, winding black snake of vehicles, she knew it wouldn’t be. If anything, she just got half these people killed. Her stomach worked its way into her throat. She fought back the urge to puke.
“See you on the other side,” Logan said to Skylar. She nodded hard, then smiled at Harper, trying not to let her fear show through. The woman saw it, though. Skylar was sure of it.
“How is it?” one woman behind Skylar asked after Logan and Harper headed to their positions on the battlefield. There were armed citizens all around her, some of them she knew, quite a few she didn’t.
Still, they were Five Falls residents.
Patriots, every one of them.
“We need to hit our shots,” Skylar said, eyes back in the binoculars. At that point, she was afraid anyone and everyone would see the fear sitting naked in her eyes. “And we need to realize, there will be a point when we get overwhelmed. It will feel like all hell is breaking loose. That’s the right feeling, but the proper response cannot be panic. Remember the plan. Stick to the plan.”
She turned and looked at the people once more. She took in each and every face. All men and women who were brave a day ago, this morning, half an hour ago…they now looked like they wanted to run to the hills and hope this monster found a way through town without killing everyone. Or maybe that was just her.
“We won’t panic,” one man said, resolute.
“Yeah,” the woman next to him said, “we’re with you all the way.”
Skylar nodded, grateful, encouraged. Then she said, “Grab your nuts, ladies and gents. Things are about to get choppy.”
“Is that supposed to encourage us?” another of the ladies asked.
Turning, Skylar said, “It’s supposed to embolden you. Are you here to fight or here to cry? Because if you’re going to do anything less than kill every last one of these maggots, then get the hell out of here and pray to God they don’t gut you on their way through town.”
They all took a deep breath, tightened the grips on their rifles, and awaited orders. The convoy reached Connor, Noah and the spotter, the farthest group of shooters from her, as well as the end of their offensive line.
The convoy was now visibly slowing for the obstruction ahead, the battered Chicom vehicles Skylar was using, in addition to the trench, for cover.
“Get to your spots,” she softly said into the Uniden.
The people behind her found their positions all along the tree line. As the convoy rolled up to the barrier of destroyed vehicles, and the tank—whose truck was nose-down in the ditch—they slowed to a stop.
Skylar chambered a round.
The heads of the assault teams found the people in their charge. Like the five neighborhoods, each of the residents had a representative and that representative was their leader.
Noah, Connor and their team glanced up the line, saw their people in place. Boone and Clay had their people on the line as well, everyone ready. Orbey was in charge of the kids. They were all in line, her runner ready with the dynamite. Logan, Harper and their team were in position, as well as Stephani and her kids, and Otto next to Skylar.
Through the binoculars, Skylar stared at the convoy in growing disbelief. Her colon clenched and she felt sick. The convoy stretched so far back there was not one inch of road the SAA failed to occupy.
There was no freaking way this was going to work.
They were itty-bitty mice in front of a God-sized elephant, each of them armed with a pebble. That’s how it felt. Their defeat was inevitable. For a second she thought of pulling up stakes and heading into the hills.
But Otto shot that damn chopper, so there was no running. The army was going to find that chopper. The second they lost communication—which was an hour or so ago—Skylar knew they would have gone on high alert.
The head of the convoy came to a stop in front of the wall of Chicom vehicles. It cut off its engine, the two doors opening up, and then closing.
The heads of each group now had eyes on Skylar. Skylar had eyes on the lead vehicle. There was no quitting now. Digging in mentally, she watched the driver and his passenger make their way through the smattering of vehicles,
each of them with something to say in a language she didn’t understand.
The second they cleared the vehicles, they saw the trench and paused. Skylar ducked behind her tree. When they looked up to see what the other side of the trench had to offer, Otto loosed the first arrow, striking his target in the heart.
He felt face-first into the pit.
Before the other could turn to run, or even call out, an arrow sunk four inches into his skull and he joined his friend.
Otto then looked to Skylar who nodded and said, “Good luck.”
With a grin, he ran to the other side of the road, disappearing into the woods.
Noah watched this happen from his vantage point and said to Connor, “That finger impaired drunkard is a hell of a shot.”
“Clean shots?” Connor asked, ready to go.
“Both,” Noah replied. “Time to get this party started.”
The old man turned and waved to his crew, all of them moving to the front of the tree line and into position. He looked at their designated child—the one tasked with throwing their stick of dynamite—and made sure he was ready with the lighter. With a nod, the child acknowledged that he was also ready for action.
Sitting in the cabs of the halted SAA trucks, the SAA men were getting antsy. One of them got out and took a piss not ten feet from Boone and Clay and their team. They ducked farther into the brush. More of the SAA men got out, stretched, took a leak. A few of them shut off their engines, preserving fuel. This was working, Clay thought. It was what needed to happen.
A few of them began to mosey up the interstate toward the lead vehicle, trying to see what the holdup was all about. A half dozen men trolled past Logan and Harper, who were also now at the tree line, hiding with their team and waiting for the signal.
Leading from the front, Skylar had to time this just right. If she didn’t, if she was too early or too late, it would be a Five Falls massacre and she would go down in history as the disgraced killer of the West Coast Resistance.
Sweat that had been building along her hairline now trickled down her temple. Her arms were dripping, the small of her back damp. And all that nervous energy building in her limbs? She couldn’t shake it loose for fear of missing her window of opportunity.
