The Devil Dog Trilogy: Out Of The Dark

by Boyd Craven III

  If everything had gone to plan, all of the exits would’ve been covered, so I wasn't surprised when a flashlight clicked on, blinding me.

  "Oh, my God. Are you okay?" Mel asked me.

  "If you quit blinding me, I might be."

  "God, it sounded like something crashed up there, was that the bomb going off?" Mel said her face now illuminated by the backwash of the flashlight.

  "Yeah, it took down most of the building and the rest of it’s crumbling in on itself. You heard from any of the others yet?"

  "No, I was getting ready to go look for them, to see if any of the tunnels had collapsed and cut us off. You were gone a really long time."

  I winced. "I'm sorry about that. It took a little longer than I’d thought, they had some tripwires and grenades and other types of things set up. I did get some supplies though and I did get… some other stuff. Let's go find your mom and the others and get back to the main room."

  We were all sitting around the campfire, Mouse half asleep in my lap. It'd been two hours since I'd gotten back into the tunnels and I was telling the less gory details to the assembled group of kids. Many of them smiled, a couple cheered, but when I started pulling out the watches, the earrings, the rings, all of the loot that’d been begotten by pain, everyone fell silent.

  "Danielle and Jeremy, this I wanted to leave up to you guys… The gang members had all of this loot, but I don't think there's gonna be much of a chance of finding who it belongs to. I know that at some point, I'm gonna be leaving the tunnel system to go find my family. You could use this, trade with it topside. Some kind of a stash. I’ll be sure to leave you guys some of the guns and ammunition, too." For a second, they just looked at each other and then they looked at me and I looked at the pile. I’d expected Jeremy to be the one to object, but I' was wrong.

  "How many do you think this is?" Danielle asked me.

  "I have no way of knowing, kid… too many."

  "We have no way of knowing that this even came from victims," Jeremy said. "They could've been going house to house searching through stuff, too. I know before I took up with Dick here, I was doing much of the same. I mean, the people were either dead or gone or headed off to a FEMA camp somewhere."

  "You know," Jamie said piping up, "he's got a point there. You don't know where this stuff came from. That might mean the difference of getting enough medication for one of the kids, or food when the trap lines aren’t producing. Or more shells for the guns. I don't think there's a moral high ground here in regards to the loot."

  "Do you guys recognize any of this stuff, I mean, is any of it yours from… before?" Mel asked the group.

  Danielle used her hands and spread everything out so that no one single piece was covering another and everyone crowded around and took a quick peek at it. One by one, they shook their heads and walked away, giving room for the other kids to see. Even the little kids, including Mouse, went and looked through everything solemnly.

  "I’ve always wanted to get my ears pierced," Mouse said. “Do you think Miss Salina would let me get my ears pierced and I could have a pair of earrings?"

  “I don’t know, sweetie,” I told her, picking her up, “but right now, you don’t need a hole in your head,” I told her grinning.

  “I don’t have a hole in my head…” she said feeling all over her scalp.

  I smiled.

  “Hey, what about the guys you got in the street?” Danielle asked.

  I hadn’t thought of that. They had been carrying guns and potential supplies. I had been so keyed up and ready to roll that I’d forgotten about them and whatever it was they’d dropped. No one was still alive when I’d walked through there, that I did remember.

  “Uh, to be honest, I forgot about them. When I started running after lighting the fuse, I was more worried about not getting my head blown off by flying debris… and when I’d made sure the bank was cleared, I got out of there a different way. It could all still be there…”

  My words choked off when Jeremy walked up with a bundle made out of a sweater. He opened it. It was another AK-47 style rifle and two pistols.

  “You weren’t supposed to come topside!” I was pissed, how could he have done this? I mean, I’d been counting on him to take care of everyone if or when I wasn’t around…

  “You needed someone to have your back,” Jeremy said. “You never saw me. I got the stuff and left before anyone in the area came to see what went down.”

  “Of all of the stupid, thoughtless…”

  “Stop, Uncle Dick,” Mouse said, pulling out the hairbrush.

  I swear she kept that in her pocket for occasions just like this. She held up her hands and I swooped her up and held her close to me. She laid her small head on my shoulder with her hands around my neck.

  “I can always brush your hair if it would make you feel better.”

  We all busted up at that. It was just too funny.

  “I’d love to see that!” Mel said, and Danielle nodded, poking her in the ribs.

  “I wonder what the Devil Dog looks like with his hair cut?” Jeremy asked.

  I stopped laughing. “You know what, that’s a great idea. Losing the beard really threw them off… I mean…”

  “I can do it when you’re ready,” Jamie said. “I used to be a hair stylist a long time ago.”

  “That might work,” I admitted. “Give me half a second, maybe walk up on them…”

  “Where’s the next big gang?” Pauly asked me.

  “You remember where I found you and Mouse?” I asked him.

  The little boy shuddered and shook his head. I regretted answering him at once. Apparently, he still carried the memories as vividly as his sister did. It had been thoughtless of me. Dammit.

  “Yeah, the museum where the bad men are,” Mouse answered from my arms.

  “How many?” Jeremy asked.

  “It’s a big group. It’s going to take a lot of watching to set them up. In the meantime, we have to make sure we stay on top of everything else we have to do. We can’t just do another trap house with this gang. There’s way too many of them.”

  “Just blow them up,” Mouse said, and I put her down so I could look her in the eyes.

  “I blew up the guys that hurt you two already. I’m going to get the rest, though, don’t you worry. You’re too little to worry about mean stuff like that.”

  “So, tell me about the museum,” Danielle said and Jeremy, Jamie, and Mel nodded as well.

  The ground level was split up into a ton of extra exhibits. Danielle had busted into a boarded up gas station that had already been ransacked and picked up a couple of the brochures that they’d had around the city. I was mildly shocked to see that there was a floor plan on it, with a description of what was where. For a place to take over, the museum looked like it’d be a hard nut to crack, to be honest. It was built of stone, with large columns facing the entrances. Inside, there were three levels. Depending on how much they had done with the interior, there wouldn’t be a ton of tactical terrain when first entering. So I had to come up with a plan or a distraction…

  And no, I didn’t want to use Danielle as bait again. She had a cut on her foot to show for it, and I was uncomfortable with how Jeremy had reacted after she’d come back. He was beside himself and I had to decide whether to act the proud father figure for Jeremy, or the angry father figure protecting his daughter. It left me all kinds of conflicted… But perhaps they could still do something to help with the distraction.

  “Jeremy, what about the truck?” I asked him.

  “What truck?” he looked at me puzzled.

  “When I shot up those guys… was the old pickup truck still there in the middle of the stalled cars, or…?”

  “I don’t remember, to be honest,” he said, “but I can go check while I’m out there tonight.”

  “I told you,” I said. “I can do it. The market people know me.”

  I fumed, he’d been angling to get out more and I’d stopped it, citing the d
angers and his responsibilities.

  “So how am I going to meet the right people if I never get to go? I mean, you’re not exactly planning on staying in Chicago forever.”

  Dammit again, he was right.

  “You can’t be seen with me, though. Too many people are gunning for me.”

  “You ever stop to think that maybe we should be gunning for them? Make them wonder and worry themselves?” Jeremy was defiant and Danielle, still looking fresh and neat, nodded.

  “I’d go too, but I think I’d cause more issues than you would, Dick,” she said.

  “Yeah, it isn’t a safe place for women and children lately. It's like every asshole in the world is topside, with only a handful that are honest, decent folks.”

  “So,” Jeremy said, “We need a couple more things. We’re out of canned goods, salt, seasonings. Unless you like your baked rat souffle without the special dry rub…” he let his words trail off, and I grinned.

  “None of us want to eat like this,” I told him.

  “I know, but it makes it taste better, doesn’t it?”

  I sighed. I knew that. I knew that we’d have to do something, and there was only so much I could carry myself, and I could only tempt fate so many times a week.

  “Ok. Dammit, ok. You come with me to the market, and we’ll swing by and see if that old truck is still sitting there.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked.

  “I don’t know if the gang moved it or left it. They strung up the guys I’d killed and…”

  I broke off, a wet burp almost gagging me as I fought my gorge down. The men I’d killed had been hanging up like a side of beef inside the vault of the bank.

  “We’ll check it out. It’ll be good to see who’s around, checking on the bank,” I told them all.

  “What do you need us to do?” Pauly asked.

  “I need you little ones to help Miss Danielle as much as she needs it. Find as much wood in the storm drains as you can, and work on your reading.”

  “I don’t like reading,” Mouse mumbled. “I like the picture books and board games.”

  “Tell you what,” I said, “How about we reward you kids with an equal amount of time? One hour of reading for one hour of games or stories?” I asked them.

  They cheered, their joyful voices echoed in the dank subterranean chamber.

  “Can you shoot?” I asked Jeremy, who was grinning ear to ear about being able to join me topside.

  “I was in the ROTC, planning on enlisting this fall,” Jeremy said, picking up the AK-47 and working the charging bolt.

  “You any good with that?” I asked him.

  “I qualified as a marksman at an NRA range. My dad taught me how to shoot before…” his words trailed off and I nodded. Before was a heavy subject, not one we all liked to talk about much.

  “How many mags you have?” I asked him.

  “Found two spares on the man you shot in the street and the one that was in the gun from inside the bank. Four twenty round mags. Only two of them had any ammo in, but I think I have enough loose rounds to fill them all up.”

  “What about a pistol?” I asked him.

  “I’ve shot a 1911 .45, my dad had one…”

  I pointed to the pile. I already carried one, but hardly ever used it. I’d gotten spoiled by my shotgun and although I could shoot anything, and shoot it well, the KSG was fast becoming my security blanket.

  “Take one of the .45s and all the spare mags you can find. If we’re going to do this, let’s get enough supplies between the two of us that we won’t have to go back topside until we’re ready to hit the gang in the museum.”

  “You got it,” Jeremy said grinning.

  “I want to go, too,” Jamie said. “I need to get some stuff… for me and Mel.”

  “No! No way. That’s out of the question,” I told her indignantly.

  As it turned out, I was wrong.

  10

  “Why do they have the market set up in the middle of an intersection?” Jamie asked me.

  She’d covered her hair with a stocking cap and wore a large plaid shirt of mine to hide her figure. Her curves still showed through, giving away the fact that she was a lady, but it dulled the feminine effect she had when guys first saw her. Not that I trusted everyone inside the market, but it would make life a little easier. Hell, it would’ve made life a lot easier if she’d have just stayed home. Instead, she’d gotten indignant, then angry, and in the end, she told me she would go and there was nothing I could say or do to stop her.

  Since she wasn’t a prisoner and I didn’t want to set a horrible precedent, I had to do the right thing. I did what men all over the world have done when confronted with a woman who had her mind made up. Yup, I gave in.

  “They use the cars to restrict movement in or out through one entrance. From inside, they can see down the four streets and there’s a few guys who are paid in food to watch for any approaching trouble. They may not recognize me with my beard shaved off, though,” I told her.

  She looked at me and smiled, “You’re doing nothing to keep it smooth, though, it’s already growing back.”

  True, I hadn’t shaved since that first day. Still, not having half a chest full of beard would throw off a lot of people. Hell, I couldn’t remember if Salina had ever seen me without that beard. Time was funny for me like that, when you quit caring about things, about perceptions of others. You just existed. You survived. The days now began to be measured by how much food you could eat, waking up without pain… It was a struggle.

  “Yeah, I know,” I told her. “I don’t want to stand out too much. Most people don’t shave topside anymore. Sometimes, they knock the fuzz back with scissors, but disposable razors aren’t being made anymore. But you can sharpen scissors.”

  “That’s true. What do you think about Jeremy? Do you think he got in already?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I told him what to say to Luis. Jeremy was right, he’s not some little kid anymore. I feel kind of bad for treating him like one.”

  “You’re doing the best you can for these kids,” Jamie said. “The only reason I needed to come up was I was slowly going crazy. I’m… claustrophobic,” she admitted after a moment.

  “So being down there…”

  “Is like a slow kind of agony.”

  “So, you don’t think it’s selfish of me to want to leave and find my family when I’m done here?” I asked her.

  She considered that for a minute or two.

  “Maybe, in the traditional sense, but is that a bad thing? To want to be with your loved ones? I don’t think so… I mean, you said you were going to talk to Doctor Salina about Mouse and Pauly…”

  “Yeah, I can’t take them with me. As much as I like the rascals, they aren’t mine and I can’t be the parent they’d need me to be. That hurts to admit, so don’t spread that shit around.”

  “Don’t worry, Dick,” she said. “Most people probably already have you figured out anyways.”

  “Eh? How's that?” I asked her.

  “Just in everything you do. In how you talk to people, how you act. You’re a dangerous man with a soft touch. A warrior who is forcing himself to be a nurturer. It’s admirable, but you’re trying to be all things at once. It’s going to slowly drive you crazy if you don’t start living your own life…”

  Her words cut off at a hiss as she realized what she’d said, but I chuckled softly and pulled her into a quick one armed hug and let her go. As far as females went, she was a good one. If I wasn’t already spoken for in my heart, I might have even been interested… But she was spoken for too and neither of us was interested. Platonic friends for now.

  “Looks like there’s some kind of commotion inside. Let’s go,” I told her.

  I’d looked up and gotten a glimpse of a large throng of people in the middle of the intersection a couple blocks ahead. We were close enough now to see over or through the side windows of the cars. Some kind of scuffle was going on. We broke into a jo
g and Luis stepped in front of the opening with his gun coming up.

  “Hold on there, you two. You can’t just…”

  “Luis, dammit, what’s going on?” I barked.

  His face screwed up in thought for a moment and then his eyes widened in understanding.

  “Dick? Oh, wow, man, uh… new guy came in. Somebody tried to pickpocket him. The guards are trying to break it up. Probably going to toss both of them…”

  “Later,” I said pushing past him, reaching back and grabbing onto Jamie’s wrist and dragged her along behind me.

  My right hand was free, and I didn’t want to use the scattergun in such close quarters with a ton of people. Instead, I pulled out my single stack Colt 1911 in .45, same as some of the other guns we’d found. I let go of her wrist and considered the crowd of people. There were at least twenty men and a couple of ladies circling and cheering what was happening in the middle. It was like a boxing match I’d seen years ago. The way the crowd was acting… I knew it had to have been Jeremy, and I could see a couple of the guards in the middle struggling to pull apart two men.

  “Get out the way,” I bellowed, but nobody paid attention.

  I pulled one man nearly off his feet and shoved another out of the way as I got close. The man I’d shoved shouted something at me, and when I saw a gleam of metal, I turned catching his wrist, as close to twelve inches of steel headed towards my chest. I used a wrist lock while still holding the .45 in my right hand and pulled his overextended arm across my shoulder as I turned and pulled down. His wrist shattered with a wet crunch and the blade hit the pavement. He started screaming and that, more than anything else, was what made the people pause and look. I held up my right hand and fired off a round into the air for effect. People paused and several reached for their firearms. I ignored them when I saw that Jeremy was on the ground, both of his hands trying to pull away the hands and arms of an older man who was sitting on top of his chest, choking him.

  I was still wearing an old beat up pair of combat boots and they weren’t known for comfort. What they were known for was doing the job, durability, and leaving really funny marks in the sides of people’s faces when you drop kicked them. The boot connected with a thud to the side of the man’s temple. He fell over sideways, his hands releasing his choke hold on Jeremy. I heard Jeremy start gasping for breath and I followed my kick to the head up by jumping over the kid and landing another one into the soft of the man’s sunken stomach.