“Ok, boss just said to check on you. We got most of the truck unloaded, so it’ll be time to move the girls when the second truck comes.”
“Oh yeah,” I said in the gloom. “I know Manny was excited about this shipment,” I said holding the knife out in case he came into the pitch black bathroom.
“I hear ya there. He wouldn’t be sitting and shitting if he was here, he’d have one of those ladies bent over the…”
I hit the flush button and the swirling water surprised me. I hadn’t seen any buckets up here for them to fill the old fashioned toilets, but somebody had apparently or they had running water.
“Yeah yeah,” I said, “I’m coming— “
A staccato burst of gunfire shattered the night's silence and somebody from below shouted an alarm.
“Shit,” the guard muttered and the door slammed shut.
I could hear running feet and I waited thirty seconds before I heard shouts and calls for reinforcement and gunfire from within and outside the museum. Time for me to exit stage left.
The lanterns on the top floor were bright to my eyes at first glance, like coming out of my tunnels and into the daylight. I squinted and moved. I headed towards the women and saw two men rushing towards the stairwell behind me. I let them run past before turning and firing three shots off from the KSG. They fell, shot in the back right between the shoulder blades. They slumped to the floor, one of them not quite DOA. I put one more shot into him and then started walking, pulling shells from my right coat pocket and fumbling them into the odd spot in the back of the gun.
I was careful to get four shells, two into each loading tube, when I caught sight of another man poking his head around to see who was coming. He was the one who was guarding the ladies.
“What’s going on?” I screamed to him, his eyes the only thing visible.
“They’re shooting at us,” he said. “The guys unloading the truck got gunned down. What the fuck are you guys doing?” he asked, a barrel of his rifle poking up around the corner.
He hadn’t seen the bodies yet, but he’d heard the nearby shots. I’d been truly hoping that they hadn’t left somebody to guard the women when the shooting started, but I’d never done something exactly like this. Every time I’d set out to try to save innocents and kill bad guys before, I’d had a rough plan and then made shit up on the fly when things went south, which they usually did.
“That isn’t my guys! Manny and one other guy were bringing the other truck,” I said, still holding the KSG at the forward position.
His eyes suddenly got wide and I could tell he was looking over my shoulder, taking in the still forms on the staircase, and then he moved. The rifle barrel I could see started moving down and he stepped around the corner. It was almost in slow motion as I raised the shotgun and let loose. The slug hit the corner of the wall next to the man’s head and he flinched back, the gun going off despite me being ready and faster on the draw. A sickening pain and a sledgehammer blow hit my left side under the ribs and I fell to my knees as his bullet passed through me. Sometimes, Murphy played for the wrong team and tonight, he did.
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
I was holding a hand over my side when the blonde stepped out, a smoking .22 in her hand, holding the hand of a young girl no more than twelve years old.
“Oh shit!” she screamed. “He’s shot!”
I was blacking out, not from blood loss, but from the pain. I felt hands checking me and something pressed on the wound, making me scream.
“How are we getting out of here?” the fierce woman said, filling my vision, a crazed look lit her face, making her seem like a woman out of the things nightmares are made of.
“I have a truck stashed half a mile from here. Help me up,” I said, the pain bringing me back from almost passing out.
“How bad is it?” she asked, pulling on my good arm.
“I don’t know,” I gasped in pain as the crew from the bathroom helped me to my feet, and women and kids came out of the room they’d been held in.
“Martha,” the fierce woman said. “Lead us down the staff stairs, so I can help him move. Steffy, you get his other arm.”
“But…”
“Move, woman!” she shouted.
“My .45,” I said and Mary - wait it wasn’t Mary. dammit! - the redhead nodded and reached in carefully and pulled the pistol out of the holster. “Yeah, that one’s loaded. Just turn off the safety.”
“What about those,” she said, looking at my shotgun.
“If I can’t use it, I’ll let you know,” I told her, my mouth going dry.
We made our way to the back, where a dented steel door was set into the wall. The staircase was old and probably part of the original construction of the museum. It was cramped, dark, and when my feet tried to trip me up, several hands got me by the back of the belt as we moved as one down the blackened stairs.
“Where’s the truck?” the fierce woman asked me.
With a start, I realized that even though I was moving, I had spaced out. It was like the time I’d taken shrapnel when a landmine converted into an IED had gone off, seven years ago. They had been picking metal and concrete out of me for a few days. I’d walked to the medic before collapsing, not remembering the walk at all, made with the help of the men I’d served with.
“It’s down there,” I said, pointing to an abandoned paint store half a mile away, a little disoriented before I remembered the layout. We’d come out the west doors and I looked over my shoulder.
The west entrance had been barricaded from the inside, but we’d gotten through it without them noticing us. Gunfire still rang out… actually, it hadn’t stopped but had picked up during our mad dash in the dark. Now, it was falling silent as voices, one by one that were screaming, fell silent.
“Where we going, where is it?” the redhead asked.
“The Sherman Williams on the right,” I told her. “If you prop me in, I can drive us to the next stop where we’ve got people waiting for us.”
The truck wasn’t actually inside the paint store but parked beside it. We didn’t have far to go, but I’d known that some of the ladies and kids could be in rough shape and I’d needed a way to move them quickly before the two gangs realized what I had done. The fierce woman had argued with me about driving, but only one other person knew how to drive a stick, and she was half comatose in shock from the rape and abuse she had suffered. So it was me.
“…and pinch those wires together. Don’t touch them cuz they will spark…” I was telling her.
There were three ladies and myself in the truck. Bodies upon bodies were packed inside and out of the truck, making the tires almost rub against the bed's wheel wells.
“Shit,” she hissed, but the starting wire had been held on long enough and I pumped the gas pedal and the truck fired up.
It ran rough for a moment, but it smoothed out quickly.
“Turn on the lights,” the bossy one told me.
“Get the goggles out of my backpack and put them on me,” I told her.
I could have done it, but that would’ve made me twist, and I couldn’t twist. I’d given her my pack, so I could sit in the seat properly and the only thing I still had was the KSG, which was pinched between the women and me. She swore and a second later I felt the goggles being awkwardly placed on my head.
I reached up and adjusted them, flipped them on and lowered them. I put the truck into gear and headed out slowly, trying not to hit high RPMs, which would have echoed. Maybe not enough to overpower the gunfire, but in a dead city, motors were a rare thing to hear and the sound carried far.
“Watch out,” the fierce woman said, pushing the wheel to the left.
“I got it,” I said with a start and realized I had been passing out.
I wiggled and a bolt of pain went through my body. I could feel both my stomach and back sticking to the shirt, pulling at the wound. There was an old hotel ahead of us, where I had planned on meeting everyone in the sub-bas
ement. Instead, I felt myself drifting. My eyes closed again and I heard screams. Startled, I opened them and pulled the wheel sharply as metal on metal screeches could be heard from me glancing off the side of a truck.
“You’re passing out,” she said. “Stop the truck before someone back there gets killed.”
She was right, and the women in the back would be having a rougher time than us inside. I came to a stop and felt for the mass of wires with my right hand. My arm brushed the fierce woman's leg and she shot me a look, but I pulled the wires loose to kill the motor.
“Yeah, we’re basically here,” I said, my mouth and lips dry.
I felt on my belt for my water bottle. I’d always carried two quarts when in the sandbox, and I was parched. I could always get more water from a supply truck further back in the convoy. I cracked open my door, waiting for the soldiers behind me to back me up, and I reached for the water bottle to find the cold metal and plastic of the KSG that swung at my side. Right. I wasn’t in Afghanistan. Got it. Understood, sir, I…
I was falling again. I heard shouting, and as I hit the ground, tilting everything ninety degrees, I saw three figures running towards the truck, two of them women, one a young man. I thought it—
16
“Hold him still,” I swear that’s what I thought I heard.
I felt a straw placed in my mouth and I sipped. Sweet nectar of the Gods, it was good! I tried to get more, but the straw was removed. I was tired, sleepy, warm. I felt a pinch on my arm and then a growing numbness. I half dreamed, half felt hands working on me. Another pinch, this time on my side. Pills were pushed into my mouth. I tried to spit them out, but gentle hands pushed them back against my lips and the straw was put back.
I swallowed just to get another sip of whatever it was in the cup, washing the nasty flavor away. I slept.
I felt more pinching, hands examining me. My side was pins and needles of pain and pleasure. Somebody pulled me onto the side I hadn’t been shot in recently and I could feel the same sensation on my back as several sets of hands held me up.
“I don’t know,” I heard Salina’s voice say. “He’s lost a lot of blood…”
“Can you brush my hair?” Mouse’s voice cut through my sleep-addled brain.
Pain wracked my body. My side was sore and everything around the gunshot felt hot and stiff. I tried to crack open an eyelid, but it was like they were glued shut. My mouth was as dry as the sands of the desert I had been dreaming about and I could taste the blood on my cracked lips. I had been out for a little while, maybe days. I worked at it and I was able to get one exhausted eye to finally open. Excruciating pain hammered me from the bright assault on my eyes. It took me a moment to get my focus and Mouse was sitting there with a pouty expression. She had a silver brush with an ivory handle, her favorite brush, in her outstretched hand.
“Hold on, little dormouse,” I told her. “I’m not feeling so hot…”
I realized that I wasn’t in the tunnels. That more than anything else got my other eye open and I could see sunlight streaming into what looked like a surgical theater, except… there were windows and I could see the sun reflecting off of the glass of a building across the street. We were topside somewhere… and Mouse was here with me…
I tried to get up, but a wave of nausea washed over me.
“Momma Salina!” Mouse screamed and ran for the door, “Uncle Dick is awake!”
I heard footsteps… like a herd of elephants, to be honest, and I was pushing myself as much as I could to sit up, but it wasn’t happening. There was too much pain and I was too weak. I collapsed in curses and sweat from just that little bit of exertion and waited.
Jamie, Mel, Danielle, Jeremy, Salina, and the fierce woman stalked in. All were wearing clean clothing and had recently washed. The bruising on the fierce woman was almost completely gone and I knew I had to ask her what her name was, so I could quit picturing her standing in that bathroom, mostly bare and ready to kill me… Hell, she had pulled the trigger on me.
“Dick, are you...” “Don’t crowd him, let me through.” “I told you I should have gone with you.” “You got them all back.” Their words washed over me, but it was the silent woman, the dark haired, fierce one, who never said a word that caught my attention.
“Stop!” Salina yelled. “Let me talk to him. You all get out!” Her voice was deafening, and although my body had recognized that I was dehydrated and had somewhat of a headache, that sent a bolt of pain through my skull.
I winced and they all turned to go.
“You too, Miss,” Jerome said from the doorway to the fierce woman.
“No,” she said simply, walking to the corner and propping herself there as if daring the big man to come and move her.
“Who are you?” I asked her.
“Courtney,” she said, warily watching me.
Salina gave her the stink eye and when Jerome started in the room towards her, Salina put up a placating hand to stop her son.
“Where am I, this isn’t the clinic?” I asked.
“Emergency Veterinary Hospital,” she said. “Though I had the bed brought in from the clinic.”
I nodded.
“How bad am I?” I asked Salina.
“You’re too stupid to die, you know that? I ain’t never seen a man as dumb as you. I figure you’ll still be alive in a month, if you don’t die from infection. Longer than a month, if you quit running into every gunfight in the city.”
“When you get tired of patching me up, just say the word, Doc,” I said grinning.
Her annoyance and insults were something I’d suffered before. She didn’t mean it, it just meant that I’d scared her and this was her way of showing it. I couldn’t really blame her.
“Oh, I will. Now shut up and let me check you out.”
She did and then peeled back the bandages. I tried not to cry out in pain, but I did wince. The gunshot had gone through and through as I had thought.
“Don’t be a baby,” Salina said. “Otherwise, your flinching is going to make me miss, and I have to make sure the wounds don’t start seeping any worse than they are.”
“Didn’t you stitch me closed, Doc?” I asked her, trying to see how bad it was.
My side was a rainbow of hues ranging from green, yellow and dark purple from bruising. The flesh around the gunshot was puckered and red. I didn’t have the telltale signs of infection, though.
“No, we’re letting it seep. You’re going to have to keep this packed and change the bandages frequently.”
I winced in more than just pain. It was at how much it was going to cost in the way of materials, supplies and ammunition. We needed everything we had and…
“What are you such a sourpuss about?” Courtney said.
My eyes shot to her. For a while, I had forgotten she was in the room. She walked closer to me, with Jerome watching silently from the doorway.
“How much is this going to cost me, Doc?” I asked her.
“After tonight, I think all debts are paid,” she said, her smile and the Caribbean lilt of her voice putting me at ease.
It wouldn’t be all that horrible… wait, all debts paid?
“Excuse me?” I asked when the implications of her words hit me like a ton of bricks. “What do you mean, after tonight?”
“Oh, yeah… We explained it to you the other day, but I don’t know if you remembered or not. You were pretty in and out of it,” Courtney said.
“Where’s Maggie?” I asked her, desperate to know where my daughter was suddenly.
Salina and Courtney exchanged glances.
“Where’s my daughter, is she ok?” I begged.
“Who are you talking about, Dick?” Salina asked. “Are you looking for Mouse or Melanie?”
Melanie. Mel. I blinked my eyes, and the irrational fear and pain that had been building up in my chest suddenly left me. I felt so tired, and I hurt all over.
“I… Sorry, I…”
Courtney stalked over to the bed
side. I saw Jerome stiffen, but Salina just shifted her gaze and took a step to the side.
“Hey, they’ve been filling me in. You’ve been out of it for almost a week since you rescued us,” she said. “You’re sick and hurt and the last thing you need to do is to give the doc here even more sleepless nights. We’ll find your daughter, but I need you to stay with us this time.”
“This time?” I asked her, wanting to know so much more.
I’d been out for a week? I was obviously topside, but so were the others. If Mouse was topside, then Pauly was somewhere near, he never left her side. Then, there was the fact that both Danielle and Jeremy were up here. Nobody left the little kids alone, ever. Somebody always stayed behind. In fact, now that I was thinking about it, Mel and Jamie were topside here. Didn’t they understand how dangerous it was? Didn’t they…
“You’ve woken up twice now,” Salina said. “You’ve seemed lucid and then you’d go back to sleep for a half a day. Then this past time, for two days. It’s been roughly eight days since you were shot.”
No wonder I felt dehydrated.
“Can I have some water?” I asked, and Jerome smiled for the first time since I’d woken up.
“He’s good,” he grinned and walked out of the room to return a minute later with a glass.
“Yeah, I think he’s back with us this time,” Salina said.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to gulp, but they’d only given or forced just enough fluids in me to survive. I knew that with the blood loss, that had probably complicated things.
“I hope I’m back,” I said, trying to pace myself. “I… I have to talk to Jeremy. Is everyone topside? What’s been…”
“Rest. Drink some water. Don’t drink too much too fast, but you need to hydrate. I’ll be back with some hot broth soon. You need to drink all of it. Especially the broth.”
“How close was I?” I asked her.
The Devil Dog Trilogy: Out Of The Dark Page 17
