He turned as the sixteen arrived, their hickory staffs in hand.
“Where is Brother Jarryd?” he asked.
“Just closing the tailgate Sir, here he comes now,” said a man at the back.
Jarryd ran up to them, his staff in hand.
“Sorry, had to get my staff.”
His cheeks were flushed. Rex paid it no mind, they were all excited to finally bring this chase to its bloody end. He addressed the men.
“Follow them in, be ready for anything. Leave none alive except the big redhead.”
“Yes Sir!” they called in unison and sprinted after the gunmen.
“Come Jarryd,” said Senior Brother Rex, setting off at a more leisurely pace. “There’s something I wish to discuss with you.”
Jarryd fell in beside him. His free hand slipped into the big roughly sewn pocket of his habit. They looked ahead as their men cautiously approached the building that housed the car showroom.
“What is it Rex?”
If the use of his name without the honorific disturbed him, Senior Brother Rex did not show it.
“Well I’ll come right out and say it. Brother Simon informed me that two Brothers left Willatan Green that day.”
“Really? Well, he has been known to be wrong.”
“That would explain Brother Taylor’s missing body though, wouldn’t it?”
Jarryd stopped.
“Are you accusing me of something?”
Rex paused and turned to face him.
“Yes. I am. I don’t know exactly what it is I’m accusing you of yet, but I’m sure with Brother Simon’s help I can get to the bottom of it…” he was interrupted by the abrupt popping of gunfire from the car dealership.
He glanced in that direction and then turned back to find himself looking down the barrel of a snub-nosed revolver. Jarryd had broken into the glove compartment of the truck and taken it. The weapon was secreted in there in case of emergencies and to Jarryd, the threat of Rex spilling his guts to the Council was an emergency.
“No need for all that work,” said Jarryd. “I confess, Rex. I killed Brother Taylor.”
Rex didn’t look shocked. In fact, a self-satisfied smile curled his lips. He nodded.
The bastard is happy he’s right. Why the fuck isn’t he scared?
“You don’t need to say anything Rex,” he said, hating the whine in his voice. He shook the gun at the bigger man. “The knowledge won’t do you any good because now I’m going to kill you too.”
Rex’s face was that of a teacher dealing with an errant child. He was confident and in control. Jarryd was a cocky but ultimately powerless annoyance and Rex knew he had him.
“Really? And how will you explain that away?”
“I won’t need to, you smug asshole.”
Rex’s smile dropped away and he began to raise his staff.
The shot took him in the forehead, the loud report lost amidst the gun battle behind them. Rex collapsed to the ground, his staff falling from lifeless fingers.
“Amen,” said Jarryd.
He put the revolver back in his pocket before stepping over his victim’s body and running for the car yard.
36
Diana fired the first shot. It was ear ringing loud. She hit the first guy through the door in the throat and he fell in a cloud of crimson. There were screams of “get back”. It took all of twenty seconds for the response.
The plate glass windows exploded in a storm of hot metal.
Luke fell to the cold, sealed cement floor and held the pistol tight. Bullets hammered into the car in front of him and the walls behind him. Shattered auto glass fell over him like a soft hail.
Twenty feet away he could see Diana’s feet under the partition. For a second, he thought she might be dead, then she squirmed, and the toe of her sneaker made a squeak that he somehow heard over the din.
The barrage continued for around forty seconds then stopped.
Luke thought about moving them. Had visions of running out Rambo style with his pistol. Then sense prevailed. Better to wait for them. If the four men behind the truck were the only ones armed with guns, the odds were now significantly better than they had been, 3-2 instead of 4-2.
He turned his gaze from Diana and swung his long body around to look at the glassless doors and windows to his left. He couldn’t see any movement but knew it wouldn’t be long. Keeping his belly against the floor, he crawled out from behind the car using his elbows for propulsion and began to slither to the front. He had made about five feet of the fifteen when a face appeared at the jagged edge of the window then ducked out of sight quickly.
Oh shit.
He’d been made. Luke rolled to his right as the gunmen reappeared, his bullets cratering the concrete where Luke had lain a second before. Luke felt a hot slice of pain across his thigh and began firing. The one-handed shooting wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was ugly. But he got lucky.
The gunmen had slipped back out of sight, but Luke’s third shot hit the drywall beside the window. It pierced the wall, striking the Brother in the back.
Luke heard his groan and the clatter of the falling gun.
2-2.
Boom!
There was no scream to accompany Diana’s second shot, but lots more return fire.
While the remaining gunmen were concentrating their fire on her window, Luke took the opportunity to crawl the rest of the way to the front wall and slowly stood until his face was level with the hole his bullet had made. He judged a quick look through the hole was worth the risk to see how things stood outside.
The quick glance didn’t tell him much at all. He couldn’t see anyone and assumed the enemy had taken cover behind the used cars in the lot. He caught movement to his right and jerked around. It was Diana. She crawled to him, staying below the sill of the window, then stood up when she reached him. He motioned her to duck down with him. He didn’t want a stray bullet to end their last stand.
“Did you see anything?” she asked.
Luke opened his mouth to answer but didn’t get the chance.
“You may as well come out!”
Luke didn’t recognize the voice but from the look on her face, he knew Diana did. She shook her head furiously as if he might actually consider the request.
“You can’t fight your way out,” Jarryd continued. “There are too many of us. If you come out now, I’ll spare the children. We’ll take them back with us and they’ll live long happy lives.”
“Fuck you Jarryd!” screamed Diana.
Luke cringed and waited for another hail of bullets. Instead, he heard low calm voices. That was somehow worse. His worried gaze met Diana’s.
“Momma?”
Diana clapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes filling with tears.
“You have ten seconds to come out with your hands up. After ten, we start killing the children, starting with… what’s your name, son? Good boy… starting with Samuel!”
Diana closed her eyes and hugged the shotgun to her as she slid the rest of the way down the wall, finally defeated. Luke shook his head. They were done. As sure as he was that Jarryd was lying, he couldn’t take the chance that the bastard wouldn’t show some mercy. He sure as hell couldn’t let the kid die, any more than his mother could.
“Come on,” he said gently as he rose to his feet.
She wiped the tears from her eyes with the heel of her hand and nodded, accepting his hand. Luke pulled her to her feet and asked if she was ready. She nodded again.
“We’re coming out!” Luke called.
They stepped into the open window with their hands up, weapons in the air. He half expected they would be shot as soon as they appeared, but it seemed this Jarryd had a flare for the dramatic.
“Ahh! That’s the way,” he said, “Now slowly put the weapons down and come on out.”
They put the weapons on the floor and stepped over the low window sill onto the pavement.
“See son, I told you everything would be okay,” J
arryd said, putting his hand on Samuel’s shoulder.
Diana tensed but didn’t move.
One of the last two gunmen stood on the other side of Samuel, the muzzle of his gun pointed at the boy’s ear. The rest of the Diana’s group were in a huddle, on their knees with their hands on their heads. The other gunman stood over them.
One look in Brother Jarryd’s eyes told him how this would go down.
The rest of the Brothers stood silently, sentinels watching what Luke knew now would be a bloody massacre. Tears of helpless rage blurred his vision. Not for him, but for these poor kids and their mothers.
“Aww, look the big man is crying,” said Jarryd, an ugly look on his face.
It was then, over the bastard’s shoulder, Luke noticed the black robed body in the distance.
“What happened? Did you have a falling out with your friend?”
Jarryd’s face displayed annoyance. His men turned to look back at the body of Senior Brother Rex.
“One of your bullets killed Brother Rex, God bless his soul. And you’ll pay dearly for it.”
“Hmm, that’s quite a distance. I didn’t think I was that good a shot. Especially one handed-” He held up his hook for illustration. “-with a pistol…”
“Enough!” Jarryd yelled, not quite managing to keep the strident tone from his voice.
The men of the Brotherhood began to look at each other and Jarryd knew he needed to get the situation under control quickly.
Luke wasn’t done though. Just the way you can’t avoid prodding a sore tooth with your tongue, he couldn’t let this go.
“No, I think you and the big guy had a falling out…”
“Shut up!” screamed Jarryd.
“Is this true, Senior Brother Jarryd?” asked one of the younger men. Luke recognized him as the one who had discovered their hiding place.
“Of course not, you idiot! Can’t you see what he’s trying to do!?” He turned to the man with his gun trained on Samuel. “Shoot the boy!”
“No, please! Don’t…” called Diana, shrugging off Luke’s arm and running over to her son.
“Too late,” Jarryd said, looking at Luke triumphantly. “Shoot the boy, then his mother.”
The man put the muzzle of his gun against the boy’s temple. Jarryd stepped back. Diana, sobbing, hugged Samuel to her. Luke, unable to stand by and just watch them be slaughtered, charged at them.
He had barely taken two steps when the gunman’s left shoulder exploded. The distant crack of a gunshot followed a split second later. The force of the snipers shot spun the gunmen around even as he pulled the trigger. Jarryd ducked and fell to the ground. The three Brothers behind him weren’t so quick, and the automatic gunfire from their own man cut them down as he fell.
Luke stayed down after the gun went silent but looked around to try and locate the last Brother with an automatic weapon.
He found him quickly. The panicked man was behind the Willatan Green people and looked around frantically before firing in a fanning pattern in the direction of the onramp to the 101. The sniper’s next shot struck the man in the chest and picked him up off his feet, flinging him like a rag doll into the used Chevy behind him. His ruined back left a snail trail of blood on the silver paintwork as he slipped onto the concrete.
“Everyone stay down!” yelled Luke.
It seemed to be friendly fire, but they were still in danger of stray bullets. More shots. More of the Brothers went down. Finally, the last few, guided by the one called Simon, dropped their staffs and fell to their knees with their hands up. People were screaming. Confusion reigned.
Luke looked across to where Diana had been hugging Samuel to her. The boy was cowering on the ground, his hands over his ears, but he was okay. Diana was gone.
So was Jarryd.
37
Luke stood up. A bullet whizzed by his ear and took down a Brother that he hadn’t seen, peeking from behind the corner of the building. He barely registered the near miss. Beyond the used cars and moving along the driveway beside the McDonald’s was Jarryd and Diana. He was shuffling backwards, Diana held against his chest with one arm and his free hand holding a revolver hard under her chin.
Luke limped after them as armed men in faded US army fatigues began to appear from the long brush between the Toyota lot and the onramp to the 101.
“Everyone down on the ground!” someone ordered.
Luke ignored them and kept running. His thigh burned like hell, but he only stopped when, as he drew near, Jarryd jammed the gun even harder into Diana’s chin.
“Not another step, you fucker!”
Luke held up his arms.
“Okay. Okay! I’m not armed. Just let her go, please.”
“Oh sure, since you asked so sweetly.”
He turned the gun on Luke and smiled crazily.
“Nice knowing you, asshole.”
Diana smacked his hand away and the shot went wild. Jarryd still had a grip on her until she kicked backwards, hard like a mule, between his legs. It wasn’t a completely accurate blow, but strong enough that he doubled over. She slipped out of his grip and ran towards Luke. Luke ran to meet her, his arms open.
Jarryd’s shot was like a starter’s gun going off. Diana stumbled forward, a look of agony painted across her face. Luke caught her, and they fell to the ground.
There was a gunshot behind them and Jarryd, already running away, jerked as a bullet struck him in the upper arm. It almost knocked him off balance. Almost. He changed direction 90 degrees and plunged into the thick brush that lined the other side of the driveway.
Luke held Diana.
“He shot me,” she said, in a calm voice.
“You’ll be okay,” said Luke, his voice thick.
“How’s your leg?”
He glanced at his blood-stained thigh.
Wow, that’s a lot of blood.
It pooled in the wound and dripped down onto the concrete. He looked down at her pale face.
“It’s okay.”
“I don’t know if I believe you. You look awful pale.”
“So do you…”
Suddenly there were people around them.
“Stretcher!” Someone close by called. “Make that two!”
Motes swam in Luke’s eyes as someone knelt beside him. A familiar face filled his vision.
“Hey buddy,” said Isaac, as his eyes filled with tears. “Good to see you...”
“Isaac?” Luke said, smiling and squeezing the warm hand that had found his. “Why are you crying? It’s only a leg wound…”
He saw his friend’s mouth working. The only word he heard was ‘happy’. Then someone turned out the lights.
38
Jarryd stopped running after about two miles. He collapsed to the ground, his chest heaving. His bleeding arm stung cruelly and he pulled the sleeve of his habit up to reveal the bullet wound. It had gone right through fleshy part his forearm, miraculously missing bone, but bleeding quite heavily.
He looked back the way he had come. They didn’t appear to be following any more, God be praised. He slipped into an abandoned gas station and headed to the back, scanning the almost bare shelves as he went looking for something he could use a bandage.
After a short search he found a clear plastic pack of handkerchiefs on the floor. It would have to do. Ten minutes later he was walking again, a plastic bottle of green tinged water from the toilet of the gas station in his pocket next to the revolver.
He walked and passed the time by formulating his story. He would return a hero and put this whole sordid mess behind him. He did worry that there might be survivors amongst his comrades, but surely none of them would be allowed to return home.
The question of who the armed interlopers were, could wait until he was safely home.
***
The bumps and noise of an engine woke Luke. He opened his eyes. He was on his back in the open tray of a vehicle. Soft white clouds were scattered here and there on the sky overhead, like fluffy s
heep on a brilliant field of blue. He felt a little disoriented.
“He’s awake,” said someone.
He started to sit up and a hand against his chest pushed him back down gently.
Luke's Trek (America Falls Book 5) Page 17
