by Christa Lynn
“Emma, please, don’t do this. I’ll let you guys walk out of this building and no one will stop you, you can move on and forget out this place.”
“Forget about this place? Oh, Vic, this place isn’t going to exist anymore. And neither will you,” she says as she presses the knife against his cock and severs the nerves, Vic’s screams filling the empty halls of the clinic. He’s bent over at the waist as Emma kicks him, causing him to roll over and look up at her. She grabs his face, squeezing with all her might as she shoves his own dick into his mouth. “Doesn’t feel good being forced to suck a dick, does it?” she asks, and I chuckle inside as Vic screams in pain around his own dick.
She steps back and holds up her gun, squeezing the trigger and pumping three bullets in his chest, his body slumping over with his own cock still in his mouth. “Let’s go, this place is gonna blow any second. Clark’s men have the building set, and as soon as we exit the alley, they’re gonna blow it,” she says, though Hank and I are stunned silent on what we just saw. Her eyes are bright and her face is full of relief, something I’ve not seen since we met. Hank walks up to her and cups her face, before kissing her softly and forcefully. “That was hot.” He smiles as he pulls back, taking her hand and letting her lead the way out of her hell.
We follow her down the hall and to the stairs that we came up and make our way back to the door to the alley. But she stops as she sees Joel’s body lying there. She scans the room and sees the other bodies lying there as well, “You guys did this?”
“Yeah, when the lights went back out we just started shooting blindly into the dark,” I say as I come up behind her. “You did good, Emma, I’m proud of you,” I say as I kiss her cheek, but she pulls away and smiles.
“Let’s get you back to Kane,” she says.
A bit of static flows from the walkie-talkie that Hank has, and soon, Kane’s voice comes through. “You guys all right?” he asks.
“Yeah, on our way out. Get ready to light the fireworks,” Hank says.
“We’re ready,” he says as the static stops.
We make our way out of the clinic and back into the alley, Hank leading the way and the rest of us behind him. “As we get out of here, the building is going to blow. So once we get to the end of the tunnel, run. Once we’re spotted by the others, they’re going to set off a series of explosions. No one will ever have to be subjected to this place again,” I tell the women as we reach the end of the alley.
We scan the grounds, but all we see is darkness. “You guy ready to run for it?” I ask the women, who are scared and trembling. “It’s okay, your lives are about to change for the best, I promise you.”
As we take off running, I hear something behind me that sounds like a cat, or an animal of some sort. Hank takes off with Emma and the others and I run back inside the clinic to see what it is, as I can’t leave anyone or anything living behind. “Jo! Come on!” Hank yells as I run back inside.
“Go with the girls, I’ll be right out!” I say as I disappear back into the clinic.
I walk slowly into what looks like an exam room, the whimpering coming from behind a curtain. As I slowly pull back the curtain, I see a small child in the corner, dirty and crying.
“Hey there, I’m Jo,” I say as I walk slowly toward the little boy. He’s hugging on a stuffed animal and crying, the tears washing away the dirt on his face. I hold out my hand for him to take, but he backs himself further into the corner.
“What are you doing?” a female voice echoes behind me, causing me to jump.
“We need to get out of here,” I say as an explosion rocks the other side of the building.
“Jo!” I hear Kane outside screaming. “Stop the explosives!” he yells as his voice gets louder the closer he gets to the building. But before I can get the kid and his mother, the heat of the explosion rocks the floor and we all fall down, rolling through the smoke and fire. “No!” I hear Kane scream as the building burns and crumbles around us, snuffing out any life that might still exist in this Hell.
I grab the kid and wrap him in my arms, his little body fighting me. “You put him down!” his mother cries.
“Come on, we have to go. The whole building is collapsing; we have to go now! We can explain who we both are once we get out of here, now let’s go!” I say as I climb over the mountains of rubble toward the back door, the boy’s mother in my shadow.
Kane
I see them exit the alley, and I hit the button on the detonator to set off a series of explosions that will begin in the back of the building and will make their way to the front. By that time, Jo, Hank and Joel will have the women out, safe and sound. I watch them run from a distance, waving my hands so they can see me, even though it’s pitch-black dark outside. Hopefully, once the glow of fire lights up the sky, they’ll see me.
Then I realize Jo isn’t with them, so I run toward the alley. “Where’s Jo?” I ask Hank as he runs toward me.
“She ran back inside, she’s on her way.”
“There’s no time, Hank,” I say as another explosion rocks the building, a soft glow coming from behind it. “Get the girls out of the gate, I’m going in for Jo,” I say as he runs off, leading the women out.
“Jo!” I scream, but I don’t hear anything but rubble. “Stop the explosives!” I yell down the hall, knowing no one can hear me from inside. “Jo!” I scream again.
“Kane? Help us!” I hear Jo from behind a demolished wall. I start moving heavy pieces of concrete out of the way.
“It’s okay, Kane will get us out,” I hear her say.
“Who’s with you?”
“Another woman and a little boy. Please hurry, it’s hot in here! The fire is coming toward us!”
Fuck, I have to get them out. But a little boy? I wonder where he came from. I know now that I have to get them out. “Did you find her?” Hank asks as he runs back in.
“Yeah, they’re buried under the rubble. Help me dig them out,” I say as a loud crash comes from behind the collapsed wall.
“I told them to stop the explosives, but there may be a few they can’t get to in time, so we have to hurry,” Hank says as he starts moving slabs of concrete.
“Why in the hell did you let her run back in here?” I ask.
“I didn’t even realize she had until it was too late, I needed to get the others out.”
“Damn it, if you’d stopped her we wouldn’t be in this mess,” I growl, though I know now is not the time to fight.
“What’s that sound?” Hank asks as we both hear the crying coming from the pile of rubble.
“It’s a little boy, Jo found him.” I grunt as we move a larger piece out of the way, creating a hole in the pile. “Jo?” I call out into the hole.
“In here,” though the voice is not Jo’s.
“Where’s Jo?” I ask.
“She’s unconscious, a part of the wall collapsed on her, I can’t move the pieces, they’re too heavy.”
“Where’s the boy?”
“I’ve got him, but you have to hurry. The fire is getting closer,” the woman cries.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Dani,” she whimpers.
“Well, Dani, hold tight. We’re going to get you and the boy out. Just hold tight, is Jo breathing?”
“I think so; her chest is moving.”
“Good, keep an eye on her, we’ll be right there.”
Hank and I double time it and continue to move the debris as Abe comes in. “What are you guys doing? You gotta get out of here!” he yells.
“Not without Jo,” I say.
“Jo’s in there? I thought she got out with the others,” Abe asks as he too starts moving debris.
“She heard something and ran back inside, now we have to free her and the other two that she found.”
“Two?”
“Yeah, another woman and a little boy, I don’t know how old,” I say, knowing it doesn’t matter, we just have to get them out. We pull the larger pieces off the pi
le and the hole gets big enough for me to see in, the area illuminated by the fire that’s raging toward them. “Fuck,” I scream as I move the largest piece out of the way, opening the hole big enough to get them out. “Hand me the child,” I yell into the hole, and a small hand grabs mine.
“Go on, Aiden. He’ll get you out, I’ll be right behind you,” the woman says as I pull the kid from the hole and hand him to Hank. “Get him outside. Abe and I will get Jo and Dani,” I bark out as Hank runs out carrying the crying boy.
“Grab my hand,” I call out, Dani taking and I slowly pull her out. “Go with Abe, he’ll get you out of here.” She stands up and brushes the dust off of her, and her eyes meet Abe’s.
“Come on, let’s go,” Abe says softly as she follows him down the hall.
“Kane,” I hear Jo on a rush of air.
“I’m here, can you move?” I ask as I crawl into the hole.
“It hurts, but I think so,” she says as I kneel down next to her. Her face is cut and dirty, but she still looks beautiful. I stand up and push outward, knocking the debris out to make the hole bigger and I scoop her up into my arms. “I’m sorry if this hurts, princess, but I have to get you out of here,” I whisper as her eyes close.
I place her over my shoulder in a fireman’s hold and slowly climb out of the hole, my feet sliding and losing their grip as I make my way through the hole. As my head gets out of the hole, Dale is there and he puts his hands under her arms and pulls her through and I climb out behind her just as the pile of rubble collapses, burying the area where they were.
“Fuck, let’s go,” I say as I take Jo from Dale and cradle her, moving slowly through the building as we make our way out. We reach the alley and make a run for it.
We get to the gate and I look up just as the building blows, catapulting Dale through the air amid the golden-orange firebomb lighting up the night sky, embers trickling down to the ground catching the grass on fire.
“Dale!” I scream as I set Jo down and run back to where Dale’s burning body lies. “No!” I scream, falling to my knees at his side. I drop my head on to his chest and cry at the loss of my longtime friend, and the hero that saved myself and Jo. “You weren’t supposed to die, Dale. Oh God, this is my fault! I never should have planned this; we should have just stayed at the compound. You’d still be alive if we hadn’t come,” I cry to his body.
“He wouldn’t have allowed that, you know that, right?” Abe says quietly behind me. “You and I both knew this could happen, and he knew too. He died for his friends, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
I brush the tears away and look back at Jo, who’s lying on the grass crying. I press my fingers on Dale’s face to close his eyes. “Thank you friend. Until we meet again,” I cry as I stand up and walk to Jo, lifting her in my arms. “Let’s go home.”
I pick her up and carry her over to Dale to say her goodbyes. She whispers quietly to him and then kisses his cheek, before I pick her back up.
“I think I can walk,” she says.
“Not on your life, I’m not letting you out of my arms until we’re off of this property,” I say as another bomb explodes into the air. “If the Heretics didn’t know we were here, they do now. So we have to roll,” I say as I lift her over the gate to her waiting brother, who takes her and runs toward the rest that have gathered in a large field across the now dirt road that leads up to once was Brampton.
I get Jo settled on Corndog and take the reins, leading her and the others back through the woods and back toward Arrow's Crossing, where we’ll set up camp and plan our next attack. “We’ve taken down Vic,” Hank says as he and Emma walk alongside Corndog.
“You got him?”
“Well, I didn’t. Emma did,” I say as I nudge her shoulder. She grins and looks down, and then proceeds to tell Kane how she fed Vic his own cock, before filling him with lead.
“That’s awesome, I wish I had seen that.”
“It wasn’t pretty,” Hank laughs as Abe and Dani walk up behind us, carrying the little boy.
“How old is he?” Emma asks, her face curious as she looks at the boy.
“Five,” Dani says. “Vic had me taking care of him while he …”
“I don’t even want to know,” Emma says smiling at the little boy, who looks a little like Emma with blonde hair and blue eyes. I supposed it could be hers, but I decide to not say anything. If the boy is hers, the truth will come out eventually.
We travel quickly, the other men up ahead keeping watch. Once the Heretics find out we blew up Brampton, they’re not going to be happy, so we have to move fast. “How are you feeling?” I ask Jo over my shoulder.
“My head hurts, but I’m okay. I’m hungry, though,” she tells me.
I pull out a secret stash of dried meat and hand her a large piece. She eats it and then grabs the bottle of water from the saddle bag, “That was salty.” She laughs. “But good. What I wouldn’t do for a large batch of fried chicken.” She giggles.
“Well, I think they’re might be a few chickens where we’re going, maybe that will happen. I want to stop by the compound on our way, just to see if there’s anything left,” I say as we continue our travels. We finally make it to the old building that we stopped at on our way to Brampton and we all take rest. It will be morning soon, and we all need rest. Aiden, the little boy, is riding on Abe’s shoulders, with Dani close by. Once we get settled in our new home, we can all start to live a little before the next battle.
At first light, we move back east and make it to the compound, but sure enough, there’s not much left. The main house is still standing, though two of the walls have collapsed. We go in and salvage what we can from the house, but the electricity has been off since the attack and anything refrigerated is now spoiled. The arms building is nothing but a charred shell, but we manage to gather a few things that we can use as well as some clothing that didn’t burn. The bodies that were here are lying on the ground, picked over by the vultures and other animals that have made their way through while we were gone, the smell of their decomposing bodies almost too much to take.
We load up each man with as much as they can carry and make our way along the river toward the highway, carefully crossing without being seen. “It’s quiet, Abe. Almost too quiet,” I say as we stop to look down the road toward the bridge that’s occupied by Heretics.
“Stay here,” he says as he makes his way down the old road toward the bridge. We stand by, off the side of the road, and after a bit, Abe comes back. “The coast is clear, we can take the road back to Arrow's Crossing, the Heretics have abandoned the bridge.”
“You sure they haven’t rigged it to blow if we cross?”
“We’ll have Joel … Fuck.” He didn’t make it out of Brampton, either.
“Clark, get one of your explosive guys to check out the bridge up ahead and make sure it’s not rigged to blow if we cross,” I say. We make our way and get to the bridge, two of his men go to inspect it. They walk down the hill and under the bridge, before coming back up.
“No-go, it’s loaded with explosives. We step foot on this overpass, and we all go up in smoke,” one of the guys says.
“Good work, we’ll have to take the woods through and into the old town square before making it to Jo’s place.”
“We’re going to where Jo lived?” Clark asks.
“Yeah, if it’s still standing. It was as of a few weeks ago, but they could have blown that place too. But it’s our only option at the moment. I haven’t seen any other places worth setting up camp. There’s the main house, a few out buildings and the bunker that was still pretty well stocked. But we’ll have to dig a well to get water.”
“There’s already a well at the back of the property,” Jo speaks up. “I’m not sure if it still works, as we hadn’t used it for years before the war started, but it’s there. Daddy used it to water the fields out back. I’m sure with a little work, we can get it working and piped into the house.”
“Good, let�
��s keep moving. If we continue like this, we’ll be there before dark,” I say as I look back at Jo. “We’re going home, Jo.” She smiles.
Jo
We made it to town and the tears won’t stop falling. My beautiful home town is nothing but abandoned buildings and overgrown bushes. This square used to hold the Memorial Day town picnic, as well as the Christmas Light Festival. So many memories of this quaint town, and now it’s gone. Well, it’s been gone, but my mind can’t get around the quiet, dismal air about us now. “It looks like a ghost town,” she says as she walks around the square, looking in the old buildings through broken glass.
“After the war is over, we’ll rebuild it. Make it a happy place once again, and people will come back,” he says, though I’m not sure that’s possible. I turn back and look at the large army of men and women following us, and think that maybe it is possible. I take a few moments at each building and flash back, remembering what it used to look like before heading toward the main road toward my house, Kane following who is leading Corndog. The others are behind us and they’re keeping watch, which I’m glad about because the only thing I can focus on is my house that has now come into view. “It’s still standing,” I say as I run toward the house. My head is throbbing so I stop and move in a slower pace as Kane catches up to me.
“Easy, princess,” he says. “I doubt it looks much like it did the last time you saw it.”
“Actually, it’s pretty damn close, Kane. The shrubs are overgrown and the windows are broken, but it’s intact.”
“The porch is leaning a little, some boards are rotten so be careful as you walk up the stairs.”
I go slowly, the boards creaking and bending under my feet, but I get to the top and lift the old, shredded doormat and actually find the hold house key. “It’s unlocked,” he says as he reaches around me and opens the door, but I put the key in the door anyway and absorb the true feeling of coming home.
