Savage Rising

by C. Hoyt Caldwell

  Nola surveyed the distance between the front of the bus and lavatory. “That’s a lot of wasted space.” She pushed on the back paneled wall of the lavatory and felt it give. She pulled back and turned to Kenny. “There’s something behind that wall,” she said quietly.

  Kenny pushed on the wall and chuckled when it popped open. “Well, look at that. You’re right.” He pushed the false wall all the way open and stuck his gun past the opening.

  The occupants of the secret room screamed and begged Kenny not to shoot.

  Nola urged Kenny to step out of the way as she entered the room. The heat from the vast array of electronics and computer equipment hit her almost immediately. She was greeted by wide-eyed stares from three rosy-cheeked techs who almost appeared happy to see Nola.

  “We don’t have guns,” one of them said. “We’re not really with them…I mean, we just…”

  “The jammer,” Nola said, “shut it down!”

  One of the techs jumped to his feet and pressed the button on the top console.

  Nola pulled her phone out and looked at the display.

  “Give it a minute,” one of the techs said. “Signal will be back online in three…two…and…”

  Chapter 102

  A dozen or so phones went off at once, all with different ringtones. Harley, startled, trained his gun on the first row. “What the fuck?”

  Oliver pushed Dani aside and shouted, “Now!” He fired at Harley and couldn’t help but revel at the sight of the master general falling to the floor.

  Dani pulled her gun and fired at the militiaman at the right of the dais, hitting him in the groin. She hopped up onto the stage and yelled, “Down! Down! Everybody down!”

  The militiaman to the left of the dais fired across the table, narrowly missing Dani. Oliver returned a lethal barrage of fire.

  The Gray Rise members at the side of the room were slow to react. The flare-up of noise and bullets left them momentarily confused.

  Dani crossed the stage and got off a couple of shots at the two militiamen on the right before they returned fire.

  Oliver sprinted to the other side of the room and cut through his two fellow soldiers in the blink of an eye.

  The hostages bolted for the door in a panic. Dani lost the two gunmen she’d fired at as they were overtaken by a flood of people.

  Oliver moved back to the front of the room and searched through the crowd. He was a man on a mission. He had Gray Rise bloodlust, and his intense focus would do him in. Harley made his way back to his feet, blood gushing from a deep groove left by the bullet that traveled across his cheekbone and through his earlobe. He held a hand to the wound to stem the red tide, raised his Chaos 555, and repeatedly pulled the trigger, nearly dissecting Oliver’s skull in two.

  Dani turned at the sound of the first shots being fired and froze at the sight of the flames bursting from Harley’s rifle.

  “Fucking GC One Payne! Fuck you, you fuck!” Harley shouted as he stepped awkwardly toward the now dead Gray Rise member.

  Dani aimed her weapon. “Put the gun down!”

  Harley turned to her, still holding his hand to his wound. “Who the fuck are you?”

  She moved toward him, her hand steady. “I’m the law, asshole. Deputy Dani Savage. Put your fucking gun down.”

  Harley grinned and spit blood-coated saliva onto the floor. “No shit. Savage? The Dani Savage?”

  Chapter 103

  The sounds of sirens could be heard coming from every direction. A fast-moving mass of law enforcement officials from every level of government was approaching, including Otis and Randle. Step had put a call in to them right after he’d hung up with Spivey.

  The first official vehicle to roar into the parking lot and screech to a stop in front of the blue-and-silver bus belonged to Armstrong. She and Spivey stepped out of the car and shared a look as they approached the bodies of the fallen militiamen.

  “Well, this is a mess,” Armstrong said.

  Kenny stepped out of the bus and smiled. “Didn’t have time to clean up. These boys threw a hell of a party. Step gathered up a good number of the ones that are still drawing in air, and he’s keeping watch over them in that bus over yonder,” Kenny said, pointing at the other end of the parking lot.

  “How many in all?” Armstrong asked.

  Kenny shrugged. “Didn’t expect to do math today. A bunch. But it ain’t all. There’s more on campus. Could be a dozen or so. Here and there.”

  “Fuck.”

  “It ain’t all bad. Tech boys inside can run ’em down. They’s all wearing body cameras with them GPS thingamajigs.”

  Without warning, Nola burst out of the bus, clutching her wounded arm. “Dani’s in some shit.”

  Spivey stooped down and picked up the nearest discarded Chaos Triple Five. “Where?”

  Chapter 104

  Harley laughed and then shuddered in pain. “Goddamn that hurts! Fucking burns!”

  Dani took a step forward, her firearm drawn and finger perched on the trigger. “Put the gun…”

  “Yeah, yeah, I heard you, but I’m not going to do it. So just shut the fuck up.” He turned and watched as the last of the crowd funneled through the door into the hallway. “You’ve really screwed this shit all up, Deputy. I mean, I had plans.”

  “That’s great. I’d love to hear what your plans were, but I’m really gonna need you to put that gun down…”

  “Draw them in, Deputy. Draw them in. That’s what we were gonna do. It was fucking brilliant, and it came out of my mind! We kill a shitload of innocents. We open up the communications channel. The cops come in in a goddamn panic. They cut corners to save the lives of the poor students and faculty. Put themselves between the demonstrators and the campus, and wham! We’ve got them in a crossfire! A fucking crossfire!”

  “Sorry to have to tell you,” Dani said, “but your plans have gone to shit, so put down your weapon…”

  He laughed and grimaced in pain. “I just thought of something.”

  “I’m running out of patience…”

  “This is your revolution as much as it is mine.”

  She furrowed her brow.

  “You made all this possible.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He smiled. “That’s right, you don’t know who I am, do you?” He stood up a little straighter. “Deputy Dani Savage, allow me to introduce myself. I am Harley Pike. Brother to one Bonnie Pike, or at least I was until you made her disappear.”

  Dani didn’t say anything. She just stared at him, trying to hide her increasing uneasiness.

  “Had you not made the fat bitch go away, she would have never allowed me to build this. She called this my little pissant side project. She never saw how great it could be.”

  The final hostage exited the room. The final two members of the Gray Rise, having seen too many of their brothers go down, lost their stomachs for the revolution and left as well.

  Harley grinned. “Looks like it’s just you and me.”

  “Looks like.”

  “I’m glad. I’ve always wanted to thank you for what you did. She had no business running things. Bonnie. It’s just not right. I know this may sound sexist, but it has to be said. Women ain’t made to be in charge.” He chuckled softly.

  “You talk too much,” Dani said.

  “That has been said about me before. It is a common complaint…”

  “This is gonna play out one of two ways, Harley. You’re gonna either put your gun down or you’re gonna point it at me. This in between shit just ain’t cutting it.” She shifted her gaze for a split second to the door and saw Spivey quietly step into the room with a gun trained on Harley. Dani stepped to her right to draw the master general’s attention away from the door.

  It worked. Harley turned his body to face her. “You’re an all-the-way-or-nothing kinda gal, huh?”

  “You could say that.”

  “This is one of them standoffs, ain’t it? Fastest gun kinda shit.”
<
br />   Nola entered the room, followed by Armstrong and Kenny.

  “This is more like we got you surrounded kinda shit.” She motioned for him to turn around.

  When he did, he sighed deeply and said, “Well, shit. When’d y’all get here? And two of you’re women? This country really has gone to shit.” He hesitated before he addressed Dani without taking his eyes off of the four guns in the back of the room that were now pointed at him. “Deputy Dani Savage, as much as I appreciate you getting rid of Bonnie, she was my sister, and I just can’t let that stand. Before I depart from this earth, I am afraid Ima gonna have to even things up…” With that, he wheeled back toward Dani with his finger tapping the trigger of his Chaos Triple Five like he was scratching an itch. Bullets sprayed across the back wall as he bared down on Dani, who had dived to the ground when he first flinched into a turn.

  Spivey was the first to fire in response. The other three quickly followed. Very few of the shots were wasted. All but a small number hit their target.

  When the final shot was fired, Harley managed to remain standing for a short, painful stretch, long enough for him to look down and watch the blood ooze out of his bullet-riddled torso. He looked up at the smoking barrels in the back of the room, smiled, and said, “Fucking Chaos!” He was dead before he hit the floor.

  Chapter 105

  The reporters swarmed, but they were no match for Kenny and Step. The two closeout kings cleared a path for Dani and Nola as they headed for the approaching gaggle of FBI agents and uniformed officers.

  “You know your life is never going to be the same, right?” Nola asked. “You just stopped a mass shooting on a college campus. That’s the kind of shit that makes people famous.”

  “We stopped it,” Dani said.

  Nola smiled. “That’s good. The media eats that humble hero shit up.”

  “Yeah, well, your life is never gonna be the same, either.”

  “How’s that?”

  “If you think I’m gonna let you walk away from this job, you’re crazy.” Dani spotted her uncle pushing his way to the front of the crowd of lawmen.

  “I told you this town and I don’t go together…”

  Dani kept her eyes on Otis. “Tough shit. My uncle hired me. His daddy hired him. A few of my cousins served in this sheriff’s department.”

  “So?”

  “So that makes this pretty much a family business.” She turned to Nola. “You and Baptist Flats may not go together. But seeing as how we’re blood, you were born for this job.”

  “How I came into this world don’t make us family,” Nola said without being able to look Dani in the eyes.

  “You’re right about that. But the fact that you’re one of the few people I trust does.”

  Nola watched as Otis reached out and pulled Dani into a tight hug, wincing in pain from his stiff shoulder all the while. The temporary hire felt an unfamiliar wave of emotion as she watched the sheriff break down. As much as Nola hated to admit it, it appeared as though Dani was right, she was born for this job.

  Chapter 106

  Laura’s eyelids fluttered before they opened. Otis, fast asleep in his chair, his head lying on the bed next to her feet, had missed the moment she came to. The heart rate monitor woke him. The slow, rhythmic beeping of the machine changed to a rapid pace, and it drew him out of his slumber. Groggy, he wiped the sleep from his eyes and examined the machine before turning his attention to Laura. Her brown eyes zeroed in on his unshaven face, and she tried to speak.

  “Good Jesus,” Otis said. “Holy shit.” He grabbed her hand and wept. From that moment on, that would be their sign-off to each other in cards and emails, although they would shorthand it to GJHS.

  By the next day, the mommas and Sarah had worn out their welcome and had to be gently shooed out of the room so Laura could get her rest.

  Otis and Randle were her only constant companions. Otis there for her, and Randle there for Otis.

  Dani visited on the second day, literally with her hat in hand. There was so much she wanted to apologize for, even though Laura didn’t even know that Dani had made unkind remarks about her.

  “I ain’t an altogether good person,” Dani said. “I just want you to know that. I said some things I didn’t have no business saying…”

  “We love the same man,” Laura said. “Things’re gonna be said. Feelings’re gonna get hurt.”

  Dani couldn’t find the words to reply.

  Laura squeezed Dani’s hand. “The day you brought Sarah and Otis into my life, you give me back my purpose, sweetie. I don’t know if you’re altogether good. Don’t know if anyone is. I do know that you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  Dani sat with her and filled her in on the new hire. “She calls herself a temporary hire, but I’ll talk her into sticking around.”

  “What do the boys think of her?”

  “Friar’s scared of her.”

  “Good.”

  “And Randle can’t stand her.”

  “Perfect. She’ll fit right in.”

  When an hour had passed, Laura showed signs of exhaustion, so Dani said her goodbyes. Before she could pull her hand away, Laura gave it one last squeeze and said, “You’re to do two things for me, Deputy Savage.”

  “Yes, ma’am, anything.”

  “You’re not to let Otis do no more jawing about retiring. Randle tells me Rucker’s got his sights on the office, and I won’t have that. You hear me?”

  “Loud and clear, ma’am. Otis’ll run again. You can count on it.”

  Laura patted her hand and then asked Dani to lean in closer. “Most important, you don’t let Otis ever find out who done this to me. I got no idea if you even know, but if you should find out, Otis is never to know. He’ll ruin his life to set things straight.”

  Dani leaned in even closer and whispered, “There’s no need for Otis to know because I made a friend that’s gonna set things straight for us.”

  Chapter 107

  Sitting in the dark, Spivey realized he didn’t just like the unlit world, he craved it. It had the feel of closure. He’d never known how much he needed such a thing until now. He sat in the perfectly cushioned chair and settled into the darkness. After a while, he noticed that silence isn’t silent at all. He could hear a constant faint hum. It never varied in pitch or volume. It just rode the darkness, always there, always disguising itself as stillness.

  The bedroom lights flipped on and D. B. Nolen entered, removing his fifteen-thousand-dollar watch, oblivious to the man who preferred the darkness. Nolen sat clumsily on his forty-two-thousand-dollar custom-made California king bed and started unbuttoning his tailor-made shirt before he noticed his visitor.

  “The fuck?”

  “D.B.”

  Nolen turned the gears in his muddled mind, trying to figure out why Spivey was sitting in his bedroom.

  “How is Ms. Fontaine?”

  Nolen continued to unbutton his shirt. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You’re forgetting I know your schedule, official and unofficial.”

  “And I think you’re forgetting who I am…”

  “I can smell the booze and pussy on you from over here.”

  Nolen snapped, “You’re taking way too many liberties, Mr. Spivey. I am your employer…Speaking of which, what’s become of my security team?”

  “Turns out you’re a dick they don’t give a shit about. I paid them a couple grand apiece to take a hike. You really should’ve treated your employees better, D.B.”

  “Should’ve. I’m guessing your use of the past tense isn’t accidental.”

  “It is not,” Spivey said.

  Sweat formed on Nolen’s upper lip, the only sign that he was feeling uneasy about his future. “So, what do you want, money?”

  “Got money. Enough anyway.”

  “What then?”

  “I want you to pay.”

  Nolen attempted a smile, but his lips did not cooperate. “I su
ppose that means you’re going to kill me.”

  “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

  Nolen made a motion to stand, but before he could, Spivey retrieved a small hand gun hidden between the cushions in his chair and shot Nolen in the knee.

  The billionaire grabbed the knee and howled in pain.

  “Don’t worry. It’s small caliber. There’s no permanent damage. Maybe.”

  “You fucking shot me,” Nolen said, grappling with the agony.

  “What gave it away? The loud bang or the bullet in your leg?”

  “Why the fuck did you shoot me?”

  “For starters, you stood without my permission.”

  “I didn’t know I needed your permission.”

  “That is my bad then. Chalk it up to a lack of communication.”

  “Fuck. It hurts.”

  “I should think so. I mean that’s kind of the point of shooting someone. Pain.”

  “What the fuck is this all about?”

  Spivey leaned forward and placed his forearms on his thighs while keeping a dead-eyed stare on Nolen. “It’s about the hit on the Baptist Flats Sheriff’s Department you ordered.”

  “What hit? What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about Sarah Campbell.”

  Nolen didn’t respond.

  “She saw you.”

  “I need medical attention…”

  “On the mountain that day. I stayed in the helicopter. You went down to the bunker, and she saw you. She saw your face.”

  “You’re insane. You’re babbling. I don’t know a Sarah Campbell. I’ve never seen the child.”

  Spivey sat up straight. “I didn’t say she was a child.”

  “You did. You said I saw the child in a bunker. You said it.”

  “I just said her name, asshole.” Spivey whistled.

  Step and Kenny entered the room from the walk-in closet.

  “Holy shit,” Kenny said, “that closet is nicer than my old trailer.”

  “Who are they? What is this?”