by Harley Tate
“That’s enough!” Tito stalked into the open space, his own handgun held tight in two hands. He swept both men with the barrel, back and forth before pausing on the accuser. “Mikey, you put that gun down and you kick it over here or I’ll shoot you so full of lead, you’ll die watching your blood congeal on the concrete.”
The man named Mikey lowered into a crouch and set his handgun on the ground. He kicked it over to Tito and Tito stomped on it with his boot before turning to the Affiliated man. “Randy. You do the same.”
Randy hesitated.
“Don’t make me ask twice.”
At last, Randy did as Tito commanded and slid his weapon across the ground. Tito exhaled and bent to scoop up the two guns. “There. Now that that’s taken care of we can all get some much-needed rest.” He turned around and smiled at the room. “Carry on.”
Chapter Nine
DANNY
Saturday, 8:00 pm CST
The Heritage Arms Apartments
Gary, Indiana
Danny leaned back against the wall and inhaled until his lungs ached. The air in the bomb shelter was clean and fallout free and he would do anything to stay inside for the next forty-eight hours. He ran his hand over the hilt of DuBois’s gun, still tucked inside his waistband, and watched Mikey and Randy take their seats.
Those two would be a problem. Based on the plans they overheard in the warehouse, the Fresh Boys and Affiliated hated each other. Trapping two of them in a small room with a bunch of bystanders could be a powder keg waiting for a spark to explode. If only he had more ammunition.
He glanced at Midge. In the commotion of their escape, he hadn’t told her that he’d fired the last round before they escaped the warehouse. Without her cover from the carriage, he might not be alive.
Danny leaned back against the wall, exhaustion tugging at his eyelids. He ran a hand down his face. They had been running on adrenaline and fear ever since the power failed on the airplane. He didn’t know how much longer he could stay awake.
“Hey, Danny?” Tito’s voice roused him from his stupor and he looked up. The older man motioned for him to come over and Danny reluctantly forced his aching body to stand. He wiped his eyes and tried to smile.
“Thanks again for letting us stay here.”
“Of course.” Tito leaned in. “You seem like a good kid with a solid head on your shoulders.”
Danny raised an eyebrow.
“I know this is a big ask, but can you help me keep watch?” Tito ran his hand over his cropped gray hair and sighed. The dim light from the battery-powered lanterns in the room accentuated the bags beneath his eyes and the stubble peppering his chin. “I need someone who’s not a local and doesn’t have a dog in this fight.”
“You mean a gang member.”
Tito nodded. “Mikey and Randy aren’t bad guys. I know them from the neighborhood. But they can’t be trusted in the same room.”
“I saw that.”
“If someone doesn’t watch over them, I’m afraid of what might happen.”
Danny licked his lips. He understood the rationale, but he didn’t understand Tito’s choice. “Why me? Why not that guy who didn’t want us here. Mark? He’s got a family to protect. You’d think he’d want to help.”
Tito pinched the back of his neck. “Mark’s a hothead. I need someone calm and collected. Besides, you look like you come from good stock.”
Danny looked down at his clothes. Blood splatter stained his T-shirt and dirt covered both knees of his jeans.
“Now, I’m not saying you haven’t had your share of troubles in life, but you aren’t a part of a bad group like those boys are. Not with a fancy watch like that and a girlfriend straight out of the movies.”
Danny tried not to cringe. He picked him because he looked rich? What if he told him that was all because of his dad? He shoved the thoughts aside to correct the obvious. “Midge isn’t my girlfriend.”
Tito’s eyes sparkled. “If you say so. But I need some help. You’re a big guy. That’ll count for a bit if you have to break the two of them up, and I want to know that I’m leaving someone in charge who is capable of what needs to be done. Will you help?”
Randy and Mikey sat in opposite corners, both sulking and staring each other down. Could he really break up a fight between two gangbangers? Danny swallowed. There was only one way to find out. Danny looked Tito in the eye. “I’ll do my best.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” Tito clapped him on the back and led Danny over to a far corner of the room. He unlocked a small locker and pulled out a gun. “This is Mikey’s. Standard 9mm Glock. Can you shoot?”
Danny stared at the gun. The last thing he wanted was to carry one of the gang member’s weapons. He lifted his shirt and pulled out DuBois’s hand cannon. He managed a sheepish smile. “I’ve been using this, but I’m out of ammo.”
Tito whistled. “A nickel-plated Colt 1911. Sweet piece. Can I?” He held out his hand and Danny deposited the gun onto his open palm. Tito ran his fingers over the pearl grips. “I always wanted one of these as a kid. Too many war movies, I guess.”
He did something and the empty magazine discharged. “You said you shot this whole mag? Forty-fives kick like a bull in a china shop. You sure you can handle it?”
Danny puffed his chest a little. “I have so far.”
“All right. Then let’s see what we can do.” Tito rummaged around in the locker and pulled out a faded white box. “I haven’t shot forty-five in a long time, but I thought I still had a box. Sold that gun way back when I realized I was never gonna shoot a grizzly bear in Gary, Indiana.” Tito chuckled. “You know how to load it?”
“Not a clue. Before all this went down, I’d never shot a handgun.”
Tito smiled. “I didn’t think the gun was your style.” He opened the box of ammo and held it up. “I’ll show you how it works.”
While Danny stood beside him, Tito explained how to load the magazine, slide it into the magazine well, and rack the slide. Then he moved onto the safety and the hammer and by the end of the lesson, Danny felt like he actually knew what he was doing.
Tito pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped at his eyes. “I’m sorry, I don’t usually stay up this late. I run my building maintenance rounds at five in the morning most days, so if it’s after eight o’clock, I’m falling asleep with the TV on.”
“Have you even slept since the power went out?”
Tito shook his head. “Not more than an hour.”
Danny empathized. If he could let the older man catch a few hours of sleep, then maybe Danny could do the same during the day. He smiled. “You should try and get some rest. I’ll keep watch.”
“Are you sure?”
Danny nodded.
Tito reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “I’m trusting you with the group. You’re going to need to keep them in line. Hopefully they’ll all just sleep and nothing will happen.”
Randy and Mikey still glowered at each other from across the room. Danny suppressed a shiver and stuffed DuBois’s gun back in his waistband. He wasn’t sure the night would go as smoothly as Tito wanted.
The older man shut the locker and snapped the padlock tight before ambling over to a sleeping bag laid out against the far wall. He lowered himself to the ground and Danny walked over to a folding table stacked with boxes of food and water.
After shoving a half a case of water over and rearranging the boxes of granola bars and bags of trail mix, he made enough room to sit on top of the table with his back against the wall. From his vantage point, not only could he keep an eye on the supplies, but he could survey the entire room.
Everything stayed quiet and Danny took a moment to assess his fellow shelter-mates. Randy and Mikey were obvious problems with their crossed arms and never-ending sour expressions. Mark, his wife, and two children huddled together on what appeared to be a yoga mat in the middle of the right wall. The girl huddled up against her mother, fast asleep beneath a throw blanket.
The boy sat beside his father, trying to keep his eyes open. Danny wasn’t great with ages, but neither could have been older than twelve or thirteen. Danny hoped the original outburst from Mark was the last he would hear from him.
The two older women chatted quietly on the other side of a metal door, shoulders touching. Danny knew they wouldn’t be an issue. The other family with only one child kept to themselves, the four- or five-year-old sleeping on her father’s chest. That left Jack, Cassandra, and Midge. As soon as Danny made eye contact with her, Midge pushed herself off the floor and headed his way.
She made a spot on the table beside him and hopped up. “So you’re the big man in charge now?”
Danny made a face. “Tito’s exhausted. He needs to sleep if he’s going to keep any kind of order around here.”
“What about you? Aren’t you exhausted, too?”
“Yeah, but I can sleep during the day. We’ll have to stay down here until Tuesday morning, at least.”
“That long?”
“Unless you want to pick your way through Gary in the middle of the night, I don’t see how we can leave before then.”
Midge picked at a nail. “When we leave…” Midge hesitated. “What do you want to do?”
Danny shook his head in confusion. “I thought we’d decided already. We can give Jack and Cassandra a ride to their place in St. Joseph and then see if their catamaran is sailable. If it is, we could be in Suttons Bay by Thursday if we’re lucky.”
“So you still want to go with me?”
“Of course.” Danny scrunched up his face. Did she really think he would leave her now? He nudged her shoulder. “You’re stuck with me whether you like it or not.”
Midge smiled at the table. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
After a few moments of silence, she spoke again. “If Jack won’t let us use the boat, or if it won’t work, then what?”
“Then we figure out a new plan. That’s seemed to work for us so far.”
Midge nodded, but didn’t say any more. Danny wished he knew what she was thinking. Was it just fear causing her to doubt him, or something else? On instinct, he reached out and took her hand. She flinched but didn’t pull away. “Until we find your mom and you’re safe in Suttons Bay, I’m not going anywhere. You can trust me when I say that.”
She snuffed and wiped at her face and Danny let go of her hand. Midge had to be exhausted. “How about you get some sleep?”
As she nodded and eased forward to slip off the table, a sharp voice rose up from across the room. While they had been talking, Randy and Mikey had stopped sulking and started arguing. Danny ground his teeth together and hopped to the ground.
He’d never been much of an enforcer, content to live and let live and ignore most of the crazy that happened around him. But Tito entrusted him with more than just a gun full of ammunition; he entrusted him with a job and Danny would do it whether he wanted to or not.
Mikey thumped his chest as he glowered at Randy. “You ain’t never gonna get the best of me or the Fresh Boys.”
“Oh, yeah? Well maybe while your punk ass is locked up down here that’s exactly what my boys are doin’.”
Mikey stepped forward, face a foot away from Randy’s, and stuck out his chin. “Maybe someone should just shut you up. Permanently.”
A wail rose up to Randy’s right and the four-year-old rubbed swollen, tear-filled eyes.
“Yo, shut that brat up,” Randy snarled, turning away from Mikey to glare at the crying child.
That’s it. Danny had been waiting to see if the bravado would run itself out, but he couldn’t let either man insult a mother or her child. He hopped off the table before taking a deep breath. Rolling his head from one side to the other, he talked himself up. I can do this.
In the past two days, he’d fought more than he ever had in his entire life and he’d learned he could stand up for someone if the situation called for it.
This one did.
Chapter Ten
DANNY
Saturday, 9:00 pm CST
The Heritage Arms Apartments
Gary, Indiana
Danny strode toward the two men, shoulders back and head up, reaching their orbit just as Mikey pulled back his arm to take a swing. Danny reacted on instinct, lunging forward to grab Mikey by the collar. A few inches taller and at least twenty pounds heavier, Danny put all his weight into the pull, yanking so hard Mikey stumbled back and landed on his butt.
A cloud of dust puffed up around Mikey, but he didn’t stop. He lunged forward, diving for Danny’s kneecaps. Crap. Danny didn’t know much about fighting, but he did know to never let them get you on the ground. Ground fights only ended up one way: bad.
He lifted his shirt and yanked DuBois’s gun from his waistband before pointing it straight at Mikey’s head. “Don’t make me shoot you.”
“Like you have the balls.”
“You wouldn’t be the first Fresh Boy I’ve shot today.”
Danny’s words froze Mikey to the spot. Randy let out a low whistle. “You a secret Affiliated member and didn’t tell me?”
Danny swung the gun. “I’ll shoot you too, if I have to.”
Randy held up his hands and backpedaled with fancy footwork. “That sure is a fancy piece. Your daddy buy it for you?”
Midge’s voice made Danny jump. “He lifted it off a guy about to rough me up. Left him for dead.” She stuck her fingers through her belt loops and tossed her hair. “I wouldn’t mess with him if I were you.”
Randy spat on the ground. “I don’t take no orders from no outsiders.”
Danny stood his ground. “Tito put me in charge. Either accept it and calm down or I’ll have to wake him up. You think he’ll be so nice this time?”
“Whatever, pretty boy.” Randy made a show of strutting back to his corner. After a moment, Mikey did the same.
Midge tugged on Danny’s arm. “Come on back and sit down.”
After glaring at both men a moment longer, he let Midge lead him back to the table. “You didn’t have to help. I could have handled it.”
“I know. But when he made fun of the gun, I couldn’t stand it.” She glanced back at Mikey. “Jerk. I bet he’s never even shot a single round. Did you see how he held his gun at Randy earlier? The slide would chop off his finger if he pulled the trigger.”
Danny smiled. “So we’re gun experts now?”
“A few more days and we will be.”
Danny sobered. Midge was right. They might be locked in relative safety down in the bomb shelter, but what would happen when they reentered the world? Would it always be fighting for survival and running from the bad guys? Or would life eventually go back to normal? Did he even remember what normal was? Did anyone?
A tug on Danny’s pant leg caught him off-guard and he glanced down. The little girl who’d woken up crying stood beside him. “Are you the boss?”
He grinned. “At the moment. Can I help you?”
She motioned for him to come down to her level and he crouched beside her. She whispered, hot, sticky kid breath tickling his ear. “I can’t sleep. Can you tell me a story?”
Danny’s heart twisted. He wished he could say yes, but he’d promised Tito he would stand guard. He glanced up at Midge. “I can’t because I have to keep watch, but she can.” He pointed up at Midge.
The little girl looked her over. “She looks scary.”
He laughed out loud. “Do you know what ninjas are?”
The little girl nodded. “They wear all black and jump off buildings and break boards with their fists.”
“Exactly.” Danny pointed at Midge. “Don’t tell anyone, but she’s a ninja.”
“Really?” The little girl’s eyes turned into saucers. “A real, live ninja?”
“Mm-hmm. If you ask her real nice, she might even give you a demonstration.”
The girl hopped over to Midge and tugged on her hoodie.
Midge looked down in alarm. “Can I help you
?”
“I’m Emily.” She pointed at Danny and leaned in, hands cupped around her mouth like she was about to whisper. Her voice came out full volume. “He says you’re a ninja. Is that true?”
Midge’s head shot up and she pinned him with a stare. Danny shrugged and pointed at his eyes and then around the room. He watched a whole rainbow of emotions wash over her face: annoyance, frustration, exhaustion, and finally resignation. She sucked in a breath before lowering herself into a crouch. “Is that what he said?”
Emily nodded and shuffled closer. Danny strained to listen. “He said if I’m super nice, you might demonstrate.”
Midge snorted out a laugh and landed on her butt as she fell backward. Before she could say anything, the little girl crawled up into her lap. Midge sat there, arms frozen in midair as the girl snuggled against her chest. After a moment, she wrapped one arm around the girl in an awkward hug and exhaled.
“Well, I can’t show you any of my moves in here. We don’t want to hurt someone.”
Emily’s face fell, but Midge kept talking. “But do you like riddles?”
“Oh, yes!” Emily clapped and stared at Midge with full attention.
“Then I’ve got a good one. See if you can guess what it is. Are you ready?”
Emily nodded.
“I have eyes but I can’t see. I have skin but I can’t feel. I can be sweet but I’m not candy. I can be baked but I’m not cake. I can be peeled but I’m not a carrot. What am I?”
The little girl began to rattle off suggestions and Midge shook her head over and over. At last, she guessed right. “A potato!”
“Yes!” Midge held up her hand. “High five!”
Emily smacked her hand in triumph before leaning in for a fierce little hug. She pulled back and hopped up before Midge could say another word. “My mom’s going to be so mad if I don’t go back to sleep. I told her I was only coming to say hi.”
Midge smiled. “Then you better go. I wouldn’t want to get in trouble with your mom.” She leaned closer to whisper. “It’s part of the ninja code. Always obey your parents.”
