“It’s a miracle,” Skyler joked.
“Nah, not this time darlin’,” Everett replied.
He shined his light around the front of the building and settled on a yellow and black metal sign bolted into the stone siding. On it was the symbol identifying the structure as a fall out shelter. Skyler was surprised.
“Huh, I never noticed that before. Hey look —,” she pointed toward a broken window around the corner of the building. “Candlelight.”
Everett nodded. “Looks like someone made it, let’s check it out, see if anyone needs any help.”
He and Skyler headed into the church through what was left of its entranceway. Buddy stayed outside, opting to sniff around the area for a while longer.
Just inside the entrance it was evident that someone had taken the time to clear a narrow path through the overturned pews and other debris leading in and out of the church.
“Anybody here?” Everett called out. “Need any help?”
No one answered and they continued to make their way toward the church’s nave. When they reached the open area in front of the altar waiting for them were a half dozen dead bodies lined up on the floor, all of them face down. Skyler instantly recognized that Father Donnelly was among them.
“What the —,” Everett didn’t complete his thought. Skyler assumed he was in shock over the scene in front of them.
She ran over to the preacher and checked for a pulse. When she found none, she pulled her hand away from his neck. Her fingertips came away bloody.
Imperceptibly her nose twitched.
She rolled him over onto his side and aimed her flashlight toward his neck. A long gash had been made with a sharp object nearly from ear to ear. Who would do this to a man of the cloth?
Without taking her eyes off of the preacher Skyler called out to her grandfather. “Grampa over here!”
She shined her flashlight on the other bodies in the group. All of them were laying face forward in a pool of their own blood. All had suffered the same fate as Father Donnelly.
Skyler took a step back from the bodies. “Grampa!”
She stood up and swung her flashlight toward her grandfather, wondering why he was not answering her.
Everett’s hands were in the air. Dick Ross was standing behind him. He had one hand over Everett’s mouth and she could see the handle of a box cutter he held in the other. The business end of it was against Everett’s throat, beneath his bandanna.
Skyler had no time to panic. Quick as lightning she dropped her flashlight and drew her Ruger from its holster. She slid back the barrel back and aimed it at Dick’s head.
Dick sneered at her. “Never aim a gun unless you’re willing to pull the trigger.”
“Oh, I’m willing.” Her finger rested on the trigger, ready to shoot.
“We’ll see about that.” Dick tightened his grip on Everett. “You two left me to die in the street like an animal.”
“Let him go.”
Everett shook his mouth free from Dick’s grasp and called to Skyler. “Shoot him.”
Dick moved the box cutter blade closer to Everett’s throat. “Shut up old man. I’m in control here.”
He turned his attention back to Skyler.
“Do you know what kind of hell you left me to rot in?”
Skyler slowly started to inch closer to the men, adjusting her angle as she moved, all the while her gun aimed at Dick’s head.
As she moved closer and into the candlelight, Dick got a better look at Skyler and his eyes widened.
“Haven’t had a chance to enjoy the sun yet I see.”
Skyler had no idea what he was talking about but she was fully focused on getting her grandfather free.
“LET. HIM. GO.”
Everett once again spoke to his granddaughter. “Skyler, shoot him.”
Dick moved his head behind Everett’s, limiting Skyler’s target, just in case she did intend to shoot.
From behind Everett Dick yelled out. “You’ve got two choices. Drop that gun and kick it over here to me and I’ll let him go ... Or don’t and I’ll slit his throat right now.”
As he spoke, Dick’s head bobbed with each word. As he finished his statement, his head moved emphatically, nodding as if he was a child making demands right before having a full blown tantrum. Right. Now. His left ear became visible behind Everett. That’s all the target Skyler needed, she took the shot.
The bullet traveled just past Everett’s face, leaving a burn trail across his cheek as it continued on to its target, shearing Dick’s ear from his head.
Dick started to scream and instinctively placed his hand over the hole where his ear had just been. Everett, now freed, turned toward Dick and punched him hard in the jaw, sending him down to the floor. He then headed toward the rucksacks and started searching for something to tie Dick up with. Again.
Skyler kept her gun trained on Dick, ready to finish the job if he provoked her in any way. Everett found another utility tie in the rucksack.
“Grampa are you ok?” she asked. He didn’t look up. The sound of the gun blast had temporarily affected his hearing. She tried again, louder this time. “Grampa are you ok?!”
He looked up as he crossed the room and approached Dick. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He looked up at her and winked. “Nice shot.”
Everett put a booted foot on Dick’s chest, holding him down while he wrapped the utility tie around his wrists and behind his back, pulling it tight. He kicked the box cutter away from Dick and headed back to the other side of the room to stand with Skyler. Once he was back at her side, Skyler re-holstered her Ruger.
She looked to her grandfather and said, “Now what?”
Everett looked down at the group of bodies in front of the altar. Each of these people had endured so much in the past few weeks, and yet they managed to survive ‘XF11 despite the flooding and the earthquakes. They each had been brutally murdered by the neighborhood sociopath. Justice needed to be served. “Well, he’s a murderer. What do you think we should do?”
“Hang him in the public square.”
“I’m afraid the public square washed away, darlin’.”
Skyler thought about it for a few seconds. “I could just shoot him again. And again. And again ...”
“Might be considered ‘cruel and unusual.’”
Skyler shrugged. She looked over toward Dick who was lying on the floor and bleeding. Her nose wrinkled for a half second, a strange and confused look came over her face. She brushed the feeling off.
“Grampa, you know damn well I’m not against cruel and unusual.”
Dick groaned and managed to sit himself up, leaning his back against a damaged pew.
As far as Skyler and Everett were concerned Dick was no longer a threat. His hands were secured behind his back and the box cutter had been kicked a few feet away, out of his reach. What they failed to realize, however, was that there was a ragged metal bracket on the underside of the damaged pew Dick was leaning against. And while he sat there, seemingly in a daze from the pain and the events of the last few minutes, he was actually working furiously to free himself from Everett’s utility tie.
When he realized they were both looking in his direction, he began a conversation, purely as a distraction, making sure they concentrated on his face and not his hands.
“I did all of them a favor,” he said, nodding toward the bodies. “It was mercy not murder.”
“And why do you think that?” Skyler asked.
Dick accidentally jabbed himself in the wrist with the ragged metal bracket, drawing blood. He couldn’t help but wince, though Skyler and Everett didn’t give it much thought. His ear had been shot off and the wound was bleeding down his face. Wincing in pain was to be expected.
Through grated teeth Dick managed to answer. “Because of what they are. What they were. What they became.”
Everett looked at Dick. “And what was that?”
Dick nodded his head toward Skyler.
“The
y were like her. All of ‘em.”
Everett looked at his granddaughter. Even in the candlelight her skin was ridiculously pale.
Skyler was getting impatient with Dick’s vagueness. “What’s the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Dick smiled, revealing a mouth full of blood. Behind his back he had already cut through the utility tie. “You don’t know?”
Dick started laughing maniacally while rocking back and forth. “She doesn’t know! She doesn’t know!”
Everett had had just about enough of Dick. “She doesn’t know what?” he hissed and took a step toward him.
Dick taunted them in a sing song voice. “Let me go and I’ll tell you.”
Everett shook his head “Not happening.”
Dick shrugged. “You’ll find out soon enough. Everything will make sense at sun up.”
Skyler grabbed her gun from her holster and aimed it at Dick’s head. Through gritted teeth she gave him a final warning.
“I don’t care much for your cryptic bullshit.”
Behind his back — and unseen by Skyler and Everett — Dick pulled a spare box cutter blade out of his back pocket.
“Boo hoo, bitch.” Dick liked that he had something over both of them. Tying him up in front of the neighborhood and separating him from his family was humiliating and wrong. They would both pay for that. Oh boy would they pay.
Everett put his hand on his granddaughter’s arm. “Ignore him Skyler.”
Dick stood up and yelled “Ignore this!”
In a flash he hurled the blade at Skyler, aiming for her head. Everett leaped into its path, shielding his granddaughter. The sharp blade lodged deep into his neck, piercing his jugular. Blood immediately began to pour from the wound and Everett sank to the floor.
Skyler yelled out at the sight of her injured grandfather. Dick took the distraction as an opportunity to lunge at her, knocking the weapon from her hand. He followed that up with a quick hard punch to the jaw, sending her down to the ground.
Dick towered over her, raising his fist, about to reach down and punch her again. Skyler was groggy but was able to take full advantage of his close proximity and kicked him squarely in the balls. He doubled over in pain giving her another opportunity. She scrambled to her feet, clasped her fists together and struck him hard between the shoulder blades. The blow knocked him off his feet and face down onto the floor.
Dick landed on his stomach and spotted the Ruger only a few feet away. He stretched his arm out and made a grab for the weapon, his fingers less than an inch away from the barrel. Skyler was able to kick the weapon away before he could wrap his fingers around the gun.
It was Dick’s turn to take advantage of positioning. As she kicked the gun away from his grasp he reached out and tightly grabbed ahold of her leg. Dick gave it a violent twist, knocking her off balance and bringing her crashing back down to floor level. She hit her head on a pew but she was not out.
With her down on the ground and a little sluggish Dick jumped up and rushed to snatch the gun from the floor. He whipped around to aim the Ruger at Skyler when Everett, very much weakened by his wound, lunged at him, doing his best to shield his granddaughter, giving her precious time to spring to her feet and regroup.
“Doesn’t matter to me which one of you dies first, old man.” Dick sneered. He raised the gun, finger on the trigger and aimed it at Everett. Skyler took advantage of her second wind and launched herself at Dick with a jumping round kick, breaking his wrist while causing the gun to fly out of his hand. Everett sunk to the ground, his energy expended.
Weaponless and injured, Dick tried to brawl with Skyler but was no longer a match for her. He lunged toward her but she used the opportunity to flip him over her back and onto the floor. He rolled over to his stomach and began searching for the gun.
Skyler would not allow him that opportunity. She jumped on top of him, straddling his back, pinning him in place. In one move she unsheathed her combat knife and grabbed Dick by a handful of hair, pulling his head back and exposing his neck. Her intention was clear, she meant to slit his throat. An eye for an eye.
As Skyler brought her knife to his neck, a fierce growl grabbed their attention. Buddy had made his way into the church drawn by the commotion. He would not give Skyler the satisfaction of taking Dick down herself. Instead, the dog lunged toward his former torturer and ripped his throat out unceremoniously. Dick’s body fell slack and lifeless as the blood drained from the massive wound.
Skyler let go of the fistful of hair and his face fell forward onto the cold tile floor with a crunch. More blood made its way out of his now broken nose.
She leaped off of his body and ran to Everett. She knelt by his side as she took off her jacket. She folded it quickly and slipped it under his head using it as a makeshift pillow. It was quite clear her grandfather wasn’t going to make it. His breathing was shallow, his coloring all wrong.
Skyler wouldn’t allow herself to cry. Not yet. She wanted to be strong for him in his last moments. When she was younger he told her how he would sometimes have to comfort dying soldiers in battle. As a commander and a friend, he was there to comfort and to listen without judgment. Sometimes their last words were missives for loved ones, sometimes they shared memory or even a confession. Sometimes they just wanted to pray. Regardless of the message, he showed them the respect and honor that was due to them, and though it was difficult not to break down and sob, she knew she needed to do the same for Everett.
“Grampa,” she picked up his hand and held it in her own.
When Everett spoke, it was low and labored.
“Did we get him, angel?”
“We sure did.”
“Good. You ok, darlin’? Did he hurt you?”
She blinked back the tears and shook her head no. “I’ll be fine, Grampa.”
“Good.”
Buddy made his way over to Skyler and her grandfather. He looked at Everett and laid down next to him, resting his head on the dying man’s chest, offering his own form of comfort.
Everett coughed and tried hard to take in a breath. With considerable effort he lifted his free hand and rested it on the pit bull’s head.
“Tell your brother — I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.”
Skyler swallowed back a sob.
“I will, Grampa. I’ll tell him everything.”
Everett managed a weak smile and squeezed her hand as tightly as he could.
“You’re gonna have to save the world without me.” He paused and took another breath. “I love you, angel.”
He lost focus on his granddaughter’s face and began staring at something behind her near the ceiling that only he could see.
“Well, will you look who’s here—”
Instinctively, Skyler looked behind her but saw no one. She turned back toward her grandfather in time to watch him draw his last breath.
She leaned over, kissed his forehead and gently shut his eyelids with her finger tips.
“Love you too Grampa.”
When she had lost her mother as a child there had been so many people around. People who said and did all the right things. Flower arrangements, eulogies, burial plans. In that moment, though, it was just her. She felt she needed to say something. Anything.
She bowed her head, clasped her hands together and recited the poem they had engraved on her mother’s headstone so many years ago.
“May the road rise up to meet you –
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains fall soft upon the fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Amen.”
She opened her eyes and let out a long sigh.
Skyler felt a sense of complete hopelessness she had never felt before. When her mother passed away there was time. Time between finding out Jeannie was ill and her passing. Time to say the things she needed to say, time to listen to th
e things her mom wanted her to know and carry with her. Time to make sure nothing was left unsaid.
And, when Jeannie did pass away, Skyler was still surrounded by the love of her grandfather and her brother. They grieved together as a family and moved forward together the same —
What was that smell?
Her thought process was interrupted. As she had sat there, grieving over the loss of her grandfather, her nostrils had begun to flare. She had become more and more aware of an odor, no a scent, that had enveloped her. At first it was faint and she shoved her curiosity regarding it aside as she sat in mourning next to her grandfather’s body.
But now it could not be ignored. Involuntarily, her nose began to twitch and she realized she was salivating.
She looked down at Everett and couldn’t help but focus on the wound the razor blade had made across his throat.
She absently licked her lips and was immediately horrified with herself.
A small gurgling sound emanating from the gash across Dick’s neck caught her attention.
Skyler got up and crossed the room, approaching Dick’s body. She lodged her foot under his chest and kicked him over on to his back. Buddy really had done a number on him.
“Good boy, Buddy.” She turned her head back toward the dog who was still laying with her grandfather. His ears went back and he responded to her with a soft and low whine.
Skyler turned her attention back to Dick’s body. She knelt on the floor beside him and stared at the gaping wound that was once his throat. The scent was stronger closer to his body. His bloodied neck seemed to be the source. A newfound instinct guided her to reach out and dig two of her fingers deep into the mess of torn skin, blood and tissue.
Her fingers came out coated and dripping with his blood. She brought them up to eye level for further inspection.
This close to her face the scent had become maddening. For the first time in weeks she was hungry. Without any thought she inserted her fingers into her mouth. In just a few seconds she had sucked every bit of blood from them.
Skyler was shocked by her own behavior. “Whoa whoa whoa.”
Plagued (Book 1): The Girl Who Chased The Shadows Page 7
