Once Lauren’s eyes had acclimated to the darkness, aided by brief flashes of sporadic gunfire, she led the way. The boy and his sister followed her diligently, and moments later, the threesome met with the building’s cinderblock exterior. “Good job, you two. It’ll be a lot safer here with bullets still flying around. We’re much less likely to get hurt here.”
“I don’t want to get hurt at all,” the boy said. “And I never wanted my sister to get hurt, either. But these people don’t care. All they did was yell at us and hurt us, especially her.” He gestured to the young girl with his head timidly. “I think they liked doing it. I tried to stop them, but they just didn’t care. Nobody cared.”
“Well, I’m here now, and I care. And as long as I’m with you, I won’t let anybody hurt you. And I won’t let anyone harm your sister, either.”
The boy gawked at her and some innocence returned to his expression. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
He held up a hand with his pinky finger sticking out. “Pinky swear?”
Lauren smiled slightly at the gesture, remembering its popularity in her youth. “Pinky swear, of course.” She hooked her pinky finger around his. “I’m Lauren.”
“I’m Daniel. And my sister is Lily. We were trying to run away before you came. I saw goliath coming, and I didn’t want him to grab my sister again.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Daniel. And you, Lily.” Lauren cocked her head slightly. “Who’s goliath?”
“He’s the big man,” the boy said, hesitating as his eyes stretched and darted around. “Bigger than anyone I’ve ever seen. I hope you never meet him. Or the weird man, either. They’re the worst.”
Lauren thought a moment, her grip tightening on the AK. “Does goliath talk a lot?”
The boy shook his head. “No. He only makes noises. I don’t think he knows how to talk. I think he’s half-witted.”
Lauren nodded after spending a couple of seconds deliberating who this ‘goliath’ could be, and it wasn’t long before a rendering of her old pal Gus popped up in her mind’s eye.
Chapter 28
Lauren huddled in closer with Daniel and Lily as a startling round of explosions went off not far away. A pair of others boomed together a few seconds afterward, both feeling even closer than the previous ones.
Lauren helped them guide their fingers into their ears, Lily first, followed by her brother; then she plugged her own as the thundering blasts became persistent.
Daniel looked to her, fear amassing in his eyes. “Who’s doing that? The good guys or th—”
Another bellowing explosion sent them all cowering as the sky lit up in a blinding flash and fragments of debris showered them.
Lauren pondered the boy’s question while recalling what Dave had said about this particular camp, that hostile forces here had sequestered an armory. “I don’t know. But our plans don’t change, okay? We need to stay calm and wait it out. This is all going to be over soon, I promise.”
“I’m scared, Lauren,” Daniel said, his terror noticeable now.
“I said I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, and I meant it.”
After an extensive blitz of back and forth artillery fire, it wasn’t long before the outbursts came to a close. Lauren unblocked her ears, then used her NVDs to survey the camp. Bodies were strewn about as far as her eyes could see, and the weapons their foes had been using during their ephemeral counterattack lay peacefully on the ground amidst scattered fires, plumes of rising smoke, and piles of rubble. The stillness that had taken over the expanse was nearly deafening.
“Daniel, where exactly did you last see goliath?”
The boy didn’t offer an immediate response. After a second, Lauren turned to him while reaching to remove her helmet, and upon doing so, she saw the horror in his eyes achieve apogee.
A hard smack to the back of her head sent Lauren face-first to the ground in a daze. Before she could react, someone with incredible strength reached in and grabbed an oversized fistful of her hair, twisted it and entangled it between his fingers, then hoisted her off her feet and pulled her backward and away with ferocious force.
Lauren shrieked and lost control of her M70, the rifle tumbling to out of her grasp as both of her hands flailed and reached for the enormous fist in a desperate attempt to free herself. She could feel the pain around the knot on her head begin to throb as he dragged her, kicking all the while. She tried with everything she had to free herself while looking beyond to the eyes of the young boy and girl as they stared helplessly back at her, wide-eyed, faces pale white, screaming for her and for the man to release her.
“Please don’t! Please let her go! Don’t hurt her!” Daniel yapped. He reached for his sister while she cried in fright, and told her to stay put; then he stood and started closing the distance.
Lauren gave Daniel a stern look through her agony. “No! Daniel, don’t! Stay…back!”
The boy heeded her request and second-guessed his decision. Then his eyes caught sight of the stray AK-47 where it had landed.
Lauren couldn’t see Daniel go for the rifle. Her neck was being jerked and craned in multiple directions, and she was in far too much pain to even think her situation through. The sequence of events was moving in fast-forward now while the brawny man continued to drag her farther and farther away.
Breaking free a hand, she made a frantic grab for her Glock 19, which in spite of her hysterics, remained safely holstered on her left thigh. As she made a move to retrieve it, she received another vicious tug.
The sudden surge of pain was overwhelming, and both her hands flew instinctively above her head, attempting to pry his hands from her hair. There was nothing she could do to stop him. Nothing she could do to quell the immense pressure within his grasp.
Then Lauren heard something zip through the air narrowly above her, followed by a loud smack. The man’s grip turned to jelly in seconds, and he let go of her hair. She rebounded quickly, turning just as the man fell, watching him land on his side. He gasped for air while reaching for a fresh, hemorrhaging bullet wound in his chest.
Lauren struggled to gather herself as best she could. She slid away from the man in a panic, her heart pounding out of her chest, her breathing shallow and rapid. She extricated her sidearm, and while taking a second to scan for additional threats, she gradually rose to her feet and approached the bleeding man.
“Unbelievable,” Lauren spat incredulously. “I had a feeling I’d run into you somewhere along the way.” She stepped closer, gripping the Glock with both hands, aligning the tritium sights with the man’s massive head. “Looks like someone finally had you put down.” She paused, exhaling slowly. “It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it, Gus?”
While reaching for the bullet hole in his chest, the burly man grunted and groaned while making faces at her, but he didn’t say anything—having chewed his own tongue off many years before.
Lauren moved to within a couple of feet of Gus, the man who had hit her from behind and taken her to the camp that had almost killed her and her friends. The man who had spit in her face and laughed at her and who no longer had the upper hand. “Did you ever see the movie Old Yeller?” she asked him, her tone bearing zero sentiment. “I cried like a baby the first time I saw it. It’s about two brothers and a stray golden retriever who protects them and earns their love and trust. The dog ends up getting rabies and attacks the younger brother, and the older brother has to put the poor pup out of his misery.” She paused before continuing.
“That’s where I first started to learn about responsibility and having to do what’s necessary. Sometimes you have to cast your feelings to the wayside. After I watched that movie, I told my dad I would never be that person—I would never take aim and shoot a dog even if it needed to be done.” She paused, widening her stance. “You know what he told me? He said never say never, because no one knows what the future holds. He said if I ever had to, it would be justified, and he’d forgive me for it. And so
would God.”
Lauren’s expression deadpanned. “Dogs are beautiful animals. I’ve never had one myself, even though I always wanted one. And I’ve never put one down. Until today.”
Lauren leveled the Glock and pulled the trigger three times in succession, sending a trio of slugs into Gus’s chest and head. She watched as his body convulsed into tremors; his breathing slowed and ultimately ceased. She sighed. “Now, I just have to find your owner so I can tell him the bad news.” Lauren leaned over and spit on Gus’s mangled face. “Play dead…and stay that way.”
There were about twenty possibilities where the shot that had begun the process of sending Gus to meet his maker could have come from. Lauren assumed it had come from Sanchez, theorizing he had never taken his eye off her since the point she’d decided to run off on him.
Lauren held a hand aloft, palm facing outward, in the direction of the sniper hide she’d abandoned. A second later, a red dot from a high-intensity weapon-mounted laser appeared on her palm. The dot disappeared and reappeared, and at first, the sequence escaped her, until she realized the sender was repeating a word using Morse code.
She read out the visually sent dits and dahs, deciphering them to spell out the word okay.
“Looks like Neo was right again,” she said, smiling broadly and sending her grateful stare to the hide. “Thank you, homeboy. Te amo mucho.” She made sure to mouth the words well so her guardian angel above could lip-read. “And I’m sorry for being a dumbass—I just had to save them.” She looked to her palm again and the laser rattled off additional characters in code. Okay was sent and repeated, followed by a long pause and five more letters spelling out the word alive.
Lauren nodded, a firm yet humble look in her eyes. “Yes, I am.” She pointed to Daniel and his sister, watching them as they drew near, taking hasty, cautious steps. “And so are they.”
Daniel handed Lauren her M70, and she press checked it, returning her hand to the vented foregrip. The symphony of gunfire had begun to die down, and she returned with them to their location of safety from whence they came.
“Are you okay?” Daniel asked, the fear in his eyes still evident. “Did goliath hurt you?”
Lauren patted his head. “I’m okay, thanks for asking. No girl likes to have her hair pulled like that.”
The boy’s gaze fell to Gus’s dead body. “Those things you said to him…it sounded like you knew him.”
“We’ve met before. He tried to hurt me and my friends a couple of weeks ago. Now his days of hurting people are over.” Lauren eyeballed the boy’s sister, who seemed entranced, almost catatonic. She was using her right index finger to draw outlines of flowers and butterflies in the loose dirt beside her foot. “Once the shooting stops, we’re going to walk together to somewhere safe, okay? Does that sound good to you?”
The boy nodded slightly, his eyes remaining transfixed on Gus. “It does sound good. Anywhere is better than this.”
Lauren picked up on how closely Daniel was studying the deceased. “If it bothers you to see him like that, we can move to the other side of the building.”
The boy bit his lip. “It’s not difficult, and it really doesn’t bother me. It’s just that…I’m wondering.”
“Wondering what?” Lauren asked, smirking. “If he’s dead or not?”
“No. I’m wondering where the weird man is.”
A chill ran up Lauren’s spine, and she adjusted her position, placing her back to the wall of the building. “What weird man?”
“The one who’s always with goliath.”
“You want to tell me about him?”
“He’s strange…looks weird and talks weird, and he’s almost always right beside goliath. We saw him run away right when the shooting started.”
Lauren shuddered. “Daniel, what does he look like? Can you describe him for me?”
The boy looked away from Gus’s body. He nudged his sister on the shoulder. “Lily…show her. Show her the weird man.”
Lily looked up innocently before her eyes sagged downward. She wiped clean the soft dirt canvas with her hand, erasing the flower bed and insects she’d been working diligently on. With her index finger, she drew a circle, then placed two dots inside to represent eyes. She drew in a nose, which was generously larger than what would be considered typical, and then added a crooked mouth and a set of ears. Then Lily drew a set of circles around the eyes and connected them with lines and finally ran a line from the edge of each circle to an ear.
Lauren didn’t respond until the girl removed her hand from the image in the dirt. “Son of a bitch. It’s him.”
The boy cocked his head. “You know the weird man, too?”
Lauren nodded, turning her head away. “Yes. Unfortunately, I do.”
“Did he try to hurt you? Like goliath did?”
“No, he didn’t hurt me. He tried, but my friends came and stopped him.” Lauren paused. “I got lucky.”
Lily finally spoke, her voice inundated with trepidation. “That man is scary, and I don’t like him. I don’t like him at all. He says mean things, and he—”
Lauren reached for her, pulling her close and stopping her midsentence. “Hey, you don’t have to say anything, okay? No matter what it was, it wasn’t your fault. You don’t have to say anything else at all. I get it.”
Daniel’s face contorted, and his expression filled with ire. “My sister wasn’t as lucky as you were.”
Lily’s eyes welled up with tears, and she took Lauren’s hand, while Lauren ran her hand through the dirt to erase the likeness. “Daniel, you said you saw him run off…which direction did he go?”
“I think he was headed back to his house.”
“What house?”
“He doesn’t stay here with the others.” Daniel pointed beyond to a hill displaying the back side of a small wooded neighborhood not far away, on the other side of the river and just outside the encampment. “He stays over there. It’s in a subdivision.”
“Does he live there alone?”
The boy looked at her curiously.
Lauren rephrased. “Does anyone go with him or stay there…to guard the house?”
Daniel nodded.
“People with guns?”
The boy nodded again. “I think so.”
“Terrific,” Lauren spat. “What does the house look like?”
“It’s a brick house—not the red brick, though, the lighter color. The windows have black shutters. It’s at the end of the…cull d…cul de—”
“The cul-de-sac?”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “Yeah cul-de-sac. Sorry, it’s a weird word. It’s a pretty big house, it just doesn’t look like it…from the outside.”
Chapter 29
Lauren kneeled and opened her arms to Lily, who bashfully turned away. She shuddered a bit. “Come on, sweetie, it’s okay. It’s over now. I promise, no one is going to hurt you ever again. I won’t allow it.”
Her head lowered, Lily gradually turned until most of the freckles were visible on her soiled face. She soon skittered into Lauren’s arms and placed the side of her head between Lauren’s shoulder and neck.
While holding his sister tightly with one arm, Lauren stood and carried her, then reached for Daniel’s hand, and the three walked together to where the unit had gathered with the other children, offering them comfort.
Woo Tang was the first to see them approach. He looked upon Lauren sharply at first, but upon seeing her condition, the resolve in her expression, and the children accompanying her, he thawed his composure. “Glad to see you are still breathing, Lauren Russell. Especially after hearing about your most recent escapade. And who have you brought along with you?”
“Jae, this is Daniel, and this is his sister, Lily.”
Daniel stared at Woo Tang strangely, while his sister barely peered out from under her hair.
“Guys, this is my friend Jae. His friends call him Woo Tang. He’s a good guy, like me. We’re on the same team.”
Woo Tan
g held out his hand after kneeling, and the boy took it with a lopsided head. “It is nice to meet you. Please join us. We have refreshments…and hot chocolate.”
Daniel nodded slightly. “Why is your name Woo Tang?”
Woo Tang smiled, his lips slightly apart. “Why do you ask?”
“Because it’s a weird name.”
“That is true. But it is also unique in much the same way.”
Lauren tapped Lily on her back and gently set her down, allowing her to rejoin her brother.
Daniel tilted his head. “You’re leaving us?”
“I have to,” said Lauren. “I still have some work to do.”
“Work? You’re going to visit the weird man, aren’t you?”
Lauren nodded. “He got away once, and I can’t let him do that again.”
Daniel turned his head away when his sister reached for him. Lily put her mouth to his ear while staring Lauren’s way.
“My sister says thank you for everything you did, and please be careful.”
Lauren smiled broadly over her apprehension of what she was about to face. “You tell her she’s welcome, and I will. I’ll see you guys soon. I’ll check in as soon as I get back.”
Daniel took his sister’s grip and walked away with her while Woo Tang regarded Lauren with a somber, judgmental look on his face.
Lauren held up a hand. “Jae, wait. Before you say anything or start chastising me for what I did, there’s something we need to talk about.”
It took a moment for Woo Tang’s expression to mellow, but eventually his vexation evaporated. “Go on.”
“This isn’t over yet,” Lauren said, looking around. “The leader from the camp where you guys found me…he’s here.”
The former Navy SEAL scowled while cradling his M4. “I take it he is not among the dead?”
Lauren shook her head.
“Approximate grid coordinates?”
Lauren pointed to the small group of houses in the distance. “According to the little boy and his sister, he stays in a house up there. They saw him run off when the shooting started, along with a few others.”
Divided We Stand Page 29
