by Harley Tate
They both screamed.
He fell back, the shard sticking halfway out his ruined eyeball, and Melody tugged her shorts back up her legs. She couldn’t leave him alive. Not after the hell he put her through. The last time, she’d run away and look what happened? Next time, she might not survive.
She hoisted her body up, balancing on her good leg. Ferguson’s gun still sat in his holster on his belt. It was the only option. He writhed on the ground, screaming and moaning while blood pumped out of his eye socket.
Melody dove for the weapon, landing practically on top of the man as she scrabbled for the grip. Her hands slipped on his blood and she tried again.
Clawing for purchase on the butt of the gun, Melody managed to pull it out an inch, then one more.
Ferguson reached for her, flailing his arms in a wide arc and connecting with her face. His nails scraped her cheek, smearing her with his blood, and Melody screamed in anger and desperation. He wouldn’t beat her. He wouldn’t win.
He swung again, but she tugged the gun free before he found her face and she stumbled back. The gun clattered to the ground. Melody lunged for it at the same time as the captain, but she reached it first.
She was the survivor here, not him.
With shaking fingers she pointed the barrel at Ferguson. All the horror he inflicted on her family. Burning her house. The physical abuse. The might-have-been. Melody sucked in a breath and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
What the hell?
She pulled again.
Nothing.
Ferguson laughed, his one good eye mocking her as he pushed himself up to stand. “You’ve got to flip the safety, bitch.”
He dove for Melody, arms outstretched, ruined eye grotesque and oozing. She fumbled with the gun, searching for something to flip. Her thumb hit a lever and rocked it into position.
She aimed and squeezed.
The gun fired, jerking up into the air as the bullet hit Ferguson straight in the chest. Melody fired again and again and again, squeezing the trigger as air fled her lungs in a triumphant scream.
All the fear, terror, and grief raced from her body like the bullets from the gun. Ferguson jerked with each impact, his arms flailing out behind him in a gruesome dance.
He lingered on his feet, even after the magazine emptied. Melody stood frozen, arms outstretched, until he fell.
His head hit the ground and Melody dropped the gun. Her breath wheezed in and out in wretched spasms and she sank to her knees.
Sobs bubbled up from her throat, catastrophic bursts of sound and grief. I killed a man. She stared at his ruined face and body.
I have to run. I have to get away. But where? How? I can’t even walk. Ferguson was dead, but the army would catch her. She would still suffer.
“Melody!”
She looked around, eyes wild and unfocused. “Larkin?”
A man in an army uniform ran toward her and Melody threw up her hands to defend herself.
“Melody, it’s Larkin. We’ve got to go.”
He raced by her, but she didn’t move.
“Melody?” He came back and stopped beside her. Only then did he see the body. “Is that Captain Ferguson?”
She nodded, too numb to speak.
“Can’t say he didn’t have it coming. Are you all right?”
His hand landed on her shoulder and she jumped a mile. Her words came out on auto-pilot. “My ankle is busted. I can’t run.”
Larkin glanced down at her legs. “Then come on. We’ve got to find a vehicle.” He scooped her up in one fluid motion and dumped her over his shoulder, head behind, legs straight in front. “Sorry about the rough transport. In case we’re stopped, I’ve got to make it convincing.”
He took off at a steady lope and Melody bounced on his shoulder, her view the little patch of ground behind Larkin’s feet. Every jolt shook a bit of the fear and panic away. She was alive. Ferguson was dead. He couldn’t hurt her anymore.
She called out to Larkin. “Have you seen Colt or my brother?” The words came out humpy and bumpy, but Larkin understood well enough.
He twisted her toward the dorm. “They’ve been busy.”
Flames licked the roof, lighting up the night sky. In her pain and panic, Melody hadn’t noticed. “Will they make it out?”
“Don’t know. Now keep quiet.” Larkin hustled down a small hill and into a parking lot of five or six vehicles, all military. He eased her to the ground and reached for the closest door. “Get in. We don’t have much time.”
Melody clambered into the Humvee, wincing as she crossed over the driver’s seat and her ankle bumped the steering wheel. Larkin hauled himself in after and slammed the door.
He started it up and backed out of the space as flames lit the back window. Larkin put the Humvee in gear and tore out of the parking lot, kicking up gravel in his wake.
They drove through the campus like thieves trying to evade police. Up and around, over and down, as fast as the vehicle could go. Melody bounced in the passenger seat, her shoulder slamming into the door every time Larkin banked a corner.
They flew by a gaggle of army men and didn’t even slow down. Larkin glanced in the rearview. “Keep an eye out, will you? I need to know if they follow us.”
Melody turned around in the seat, grateful to have something to focus on other than the horror of her ordeal and the throbbing pain from her cheek and ankle. She watched out the window, searching for any signs of activity. “Nothing yet.”
“Good.” Larkin cranked the wheel hard to the right and they flew down a road toward the campus exit. “Get down on the floorboard. We have to go through a checkpoint.”
“Won’t they stop us with all the commotion on campus?”
“We’re far enough away, they might not know. Besides, it’s our only chance.”
Melody slid down to the floor and curled up as small as possible. Larkin slowed and cranked the window down.
A soldier’s voice barked out a question. “Reason for leaving.”
“Watch duty at the Rockmill Homes site.”
The soldier said something Melody couldn’t hear and Larkin laughed. “You better believe it, Private. You have a good night.”
He pulled out from the checkpoint and after turning the first corner, gave Melody the all clear. “Now direct me to the safe house. We need to get off the streets.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
DANI
Streets of Eugene, Oregon
4:00 a.m.
“Turn here. It’s the third building on the right.”
Harvey slowed the car.
“There’s parking down a level in the back. Use the alley.”
He eased the car past trash bags piled along the wall and ducked beneath the building. After parking close to the stairs, he killed the engine.
Everyone piled out like clowns in a circus: Dani, Gloria, Doug, Harvey, Will, and little Lottie in her carrier. They made it.
She pointed to the stairs. “It’s a hike, but there should be a good place on the top floor. A lady lived up there. Always kept to herself.”
Gloria frowned as she stepped around a pile of moldy food wrappers. “What is this place?”
Dani shrugged. “It’s where my mom lived.”
Gloria’s eyes went wide. “You lived here?”
Dani shrugged. “It’s worse on the inside. Don’t use the handrail.”
Doug held back. “I’ll stay here and wait for the others.”
“Apartment 614. That’s where we’ll be.” Dani turned and ushered the Wilkinses toward the stairs.
“Why are we here?” Will’s voice echoed against the walls as they started up.
“It’s the safest place we could think of. Colt and I were here before. It’s empty. All the addicts are dead or cleared out, looking for somewhere to score. The cars are hidden in the garage. Place looks abandoned.” She shrugged. “The army doesn’t even come to this part of the city. They just let it go to hell, figuring
all the decent people would stay away. They won’t look for us here.”
She trudged up the stairs, sick of explaining the obvious. Dani was tired, bruised, and still wearing a ridiculous dress. Colt’s absence gnawed on her last scrap of patience. He wasn’t there, and neither were Melody or Larkin. Were they captured? Dead? She would never be able to rescue them.
At the top of the first flight, Dani shoved the stairwell door open and eased into the decrepit lobby. The place reeked of trash and vomit and human waste. She brought her arm up to cover her nose. “It gets better the higher we go.”
She ushered everyone to the main stairs, keeping to the edge as she climbed higher and higher to the top floor. “It’s this way.”
As they neared the end of the hall, Dani paused. “The lady who lives here has got to be dead by now.” She glanced at everyone behind her. “It’s gonna stink.”
Harvey stepped forward. “Let me go first.” He knocked on the door while he turned the handle. It swung open. “Hello? Is anyone home?”
He eased into the space with a rifle up and ready. Everyone else waited on the landing, their eyes darting from the open door to the hallway’s peeling paint to Dani’s stoic expression.
After a few minutes, Harvey reappeared. “It’s clear. No one’s home.”
Dani exhaled in relief. The thought of moving the old lady’s body was about as appealing as going back inside her mother’s apartment. She stepped inside and walked straight to the curtains lining the wall. Grabbing fistfuls of the dusty fabric in her hands, Dani yanked them back, exposing an oversized balcony that ran the length of the building.
She opened the sliding glass door and fresh air rushed inside, replacing the stink of stagnant and closed rooms. Everyone fled outside and Gloria set to fluffing cushions on the chairs and checking for spiders.
Will flopped down onto the closest one and unzipped the carrier. Lottie hopped out and licked his face and yipped. Harvey laughed and set down his weapon.
Dani walked back inside. Intruding on their family reunion didn’t feel right. They might have taken her and Colt in, but she was still an outsider. They weren’t her family. Gloria’s laugh carried back inside the apartment and Dani winced. They rescued Gloria, but at what price?
Imagined images of Colt and Melody’s broken bodies filled her mind and she busied herself by touring the apartment, checking out the three bedrooms and the expansive kitchen. It was barely above livable, but it wasn’t filthy. They could stay there for a while and regroup. Heal.
She picked up a photograph on a dresser in the master bedroom and held it toward the window to catch the moonlight. The woman who lived there smiled at her from forty years in the past, her arms wrapped around two little kids with muddy bare feet and giant grins. A happy family. What happened in the years between? Did they have a falling out? Did drugs take her down this road like they did her own mother?
“Dani? Are you here?”
Dani rushed out to the front, hoping to see Colt, but Doug stood in the doorway holding Melody in his arms. A massive bruise purpled her cheek and blood marred the flowers on her dress. “Are you all right?”
Melody nodded as Doug set her on the floor. “I’m alive.”
“Bastard almost broke her face and beat her all to hell.” Doug crossed his arms in outrage.
“The twisted ankle’s the worst of it.” Melody hopped over to the kitchen bar. Her once-fancy dress was ripped and torn and covered in streaks of dried blood. She could have been auditioning for a prom night horror movie.
As if reading Dani’s mind, Melody shook her head. “The blood’s not mine. It’s Ferguson’s. He’s dead.”
“Thank God for small favors.” Doug stared at his sister like he could hardly bear the sight of her injuries.
“Can I help you clean up?”
Melody smiled at Dani and shook her head. “No. As long as I can find some rubbing alcohol, I should be fine.”
Dani hesitated. Melody looked like she’d been through hell, but something about the way she carried herself… She had changed.
“Anybody want to help a fella out over here?”
Dani spun around to see Larkin side-walking into the apartment, his arms loaded with cases of beer.
“We’re running for our lives and you stop for beer?”
Larkin grinned as Doug pulled the two cases out from under Larkin’s arms. He held up the rest. “Natty Light, baby. Found a whole pickup truck just full of it halfway here. I couldn’t help but grab a few.”
“Everyone’s out on the balcony. Harvey probably wants one.”
Melody peeked around Dani. “Lottie, too?”
“Yep. Will kept her safe.”
Doug helped Melody hobble to the balcony and Larkin followed with a case of beer. The sound of laughter filled the apartment, but Dani couldn’t join in without Colt. The one person she cared about wasn’t there to celebrate. Dani walked out of the apartment and down the worn, stained stairs.
She paused on the third floor. Her mother’s apartment sat just down the hall in all its disgusting, drug-fueled glory. Dani’s feet propelled her toward the open door. It loitered on its hinges, a few inches ajar. She toed it open all the way with her foot and stepped inside.
The couch she slept on all those nights. The coffee table with burn scars from her mother’s cigarettes and lighters. The hole in the wall where a dealer punched it.
Dani swallowed. This wasn’t her life anymore. Her mother couldn’t hurt her ever again. The power was gone, Gran was gone. Her old life was a fading memory, nothing more.
She stomped on a dust bunny the size of a mouse. Kicked at a piece of trash. Colt would come. He had to.
After all they had been through. The escape from Jarvis and the inferno in the apartment. The ambush at the Wilkinses’ place. Rescuing Melody and Gloria and finding an ally in Larkin.
He couldn’t leave her now.
“Don’t tell me you missed sleeping on that ratty old thing.”
Dani spun around. Colt stood in the doorway, not a scratch on him. She rushed up to him, teetering to a stop a foot away. “You’re all right.”
He nodded. “You look like hell.”
She laughed and hugged him around his middle. The second Colt’s arms came around to squeeze her back, Dani smiled.
“So where is everyone?”
She pulled back. “The penthouse. I knew the lady who lived there. She was a hermit, but she had a decent place.”
Colt stepped out of the door. “Lead the way.”
Dani escorted him up the remaining flights to the apartment. “Welcome to our new home.”
He stepped in and looked around. “I couldn’t have picked it better myself.”
Dani kept her face even, but inside, she beamed.
Chapter Thirty
COLT
489 Bellwether Street
Eugene, Oregon
5:00 a.m.
Colt tipped the can up until the last drop landed on his tongue. Warm beer the color of straw never tasted so good. He set the empty can down on the table and leaned back. They sat on a balcony six flights above the dark city of Eugene, Oregon, reveling in being alive.
He smiled as he looked at all the faces around him. Harvey and Gloria and their grandson, Will. They had been through hell, lost their house and all of their possessions, but they still found the strength to smile. Harvey leaned over and mussed up Will’s hair as the teenager laughed.
The last few days brought a change in Will, a maturity Colt hoped would be permanent and lasting. Take the kid out of the mundane everyday where he could lose himself in video screens and give him some responsibility and he shined.
Melody laughed at some terrible joke from Larkin and Colt glanced their way. From the story she told, Melody could credit Larkin with saving her life, although he claimed she did it all on her own. She was bruised and bloodied and would carry the memory of Captain Ferguson around forever, but beneath it all, Melody shined.
Colt e
ven had a newfound appreciation for Doug. The man had been nothing but a pain in the ass with bad taste in friends, but if he hadn’t come through tonight, none of them would have survived.
Colt glanced at Dani beside him. Sometime in the past half hour, her body gave up the fight. Tucked into the corner of the love seat, she slept away the horror of the last few days while everyone else relaxed. She would be mad when she woke up, but Colt wasn’t about to disturb her. The girl deserved a break.
He thought about his missed chance to kill Jarvis. If he’d taken the shot at the first opportunity, the colonel would be dead. Things would be different. But he wouldn’t go back and change a thing.
Dani’s life was worth more than Jarvis’s death. Even if he never got another opportunity to take the man out, it was the right call. He ran a hand over her hair and smiled. She was alive and free.
“You seem pretty lost in thought for a guy who hasn’t slept in a day and a half.”
Colt glanced up at Larkin and shrugged. “What can I say? We Navy SEALs, we’re always one step ahead of you army guys.”
Larkin chuckled. “Who is it that brought the beer to the party again?”
Colt shook his head. Even after all these years, Larkin was still a good man. “Thanks for everything. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
“With Jarvis still alive and kicking, what’s the next move? Do you want to regroup? Take him on again?”
“No way,” Melody interrupted with a shake of her head. “No one is going near that campus again. If we have to pack up and leave Eugene, I say we do it. Better to be safe than dead.”
Gloria agreed. “Melody’s right. We’re alive. That’s what matters. As soon as we’re able, we should head out. Put some distance between us and the National Guard.”
Colt glanced at Doug. “What do you think?”
“I worry Jarvis won’t stop until he finds us. If we take him out, then we can sleep again.”
