by Schow, Ryan
“Famous last words,” Hudson mumbled while casually looking away. Everyone fell silent, then Hudson turned back to Marilyn and saw the death stare. “What did I say?”
“I’m not standing shoulder-to-shoulder with this bitch,” Marilyn said.
“Suits me fine,” Hudson countered. “You’re not first-string anyway.” He pointed to Leighton and said, “She is.”
Marilyn said, “She’s just a kid.”
“But you don’t scare me.”
“And she does?”
Here, he remained quiet, and Garrity wondered how much of that McDaniel blood Leighton had charging through those veins.
“So, are we gonna go and smoke these asshats or what?” Leighton asked.
“We most certainly are,” Garrity replied. “Just after I take some ibuprofen and a few shots of Pepto Bismol.”
“Green apple splatters,” Marilyn whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. “Heard him talking about it earlier.”
“Was not,” Garrity said.
“Were too.”
“Oh, my God,” Gator said.
“So now you’re religious?” Marilyn asked.
He lowered his sunglasses, gave her a big smile, then got on the hog and said, “Giddy up, Buttercup.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Leighton McDaniel
Part of her couldn’t believe what they were about to do. But then Leighton thought of Niles, Kenley’s father, Buck’s father—all people who had died or lost loved ones because of these moronic fools. She also thought of all of the people who hadn’t died yet, but would pass on as a result of all these HR and HR off-shoot turd burglars.
Looking at Sheriff Garrity, she thought he didn’t look so good. Gator, however, looked ready to go. So did Hudson. Her eyes flicked back to Garrity. The guys they were going to see had beaten Garrity without remorse or hesitation. They had also tried to kill her father and Gator.
“This is a necessary evil,” she told Garrity.
He nodded, then said, It is.
Then she thought of her uncle Walker, the guy who started her down this road so long ago. He’d given her the tools and wisdom to protect herself and others, and for that she was grateful.
But then they murdered him.
These creeps had come after her and her family, her house had been destroyed in the process, and now she was stuck in this hell without family or blood relatives for comfort or support.
Any hesitation she felt in that moment was a burden she could not bear, for hesitation was born of fear, and fear perpetuated weakness.
Weakness will get you killed, she told herself.
She buried her emotions as deep as she could inside herself. She knew what she would have to do—who she would have to become—and she found a way to accept it.
She checked her gun and adjusted everything she’d been given from the armory. Checking the Glock 43’s extra mags—the ones she’d snugged into her mag pouch—gave her confidence in her personal ammo stores. What made all the difference in the world, however, was the violent high coursing through her. With fear and hesitation gone, the need for vengeance floated to the forefront of her consciousness. There was a restlessness she felt in her blood, the McDaniel coding for savagery deep within her DNA. This was what Walker once told her. She hadn’t believed him until now.
These people she was about to go up against were bullies and revolutionaries. They needed to pay for all they had done to pitch this country into a perpetual state of fear. They had to answer for the lives they took in Silver Grove and Melbourne. They must be stopped where they stood—these thieves, these tyrants, these sick domestic terrorists. Did they even have a cause they were fighting for? Or is this all just chaos? None of it made sense, which made matters so much worse. They blatantly ignored the laws surrounding public protests, and they used intimidation and brutality to further their power. Worst of all, they displayed no regard for human life or liberty.
Someone tapped her shoulder. She turned and glared at the Sheriff, suddenly aware at how wild her eyes had become.
Garrity backed up a step. Whoa, he said.
“What?” she snapped.
Your eyes…they’re…it’s like they’ve changed color.
She drew a breath in her nose, lifted her chin, said nothing.
That’s the McDaniel bloodline talking, he said.
“Are we going or what?” she asked.
I just wanted to ask if you’re up for it, he said, but clearly…
“You’re damn right I’m up for it. In fact, I’m getting more pissed off by the minute.”
Looking around at the others, the Sheriff said, Alright, let’s roll. To Leighton, he said, You’re with me.
Leighton pointed to Gator. “I’m with him.”
Gator waved her over to the Harley. She saddled up behind him while Derek, Marilyn, Hudson, and the Sheriff stuffed themselves into Marilyn’s ancient beater.
Gator fired up the hog, gave it some gas. Leighton felt the burly engine rev beneath her, the aggressive rumble reminding her of her many injuries. Shoving that out of her mind, she slid her arms around the big guy, prompting him to put the Harley in gear and take off.
Swallowing hard, she watched the cold, empty city pass by. She was on her way to war, but it was also like looking around and seeing the affects of another war that had already passed her by. She was in the fallout of a storm that would soon take everything from everyone.
A dozen questions filled her mind. How far was the EMP’s reach? Was the destruction limited to half the nation, or was this something affecting the entire nation?
If it was a nationwide event, the turbulence in America would cause world economies to change. Nations were interconnected by food, commerce, currency, and oil; without the world working together to keep all nations functioning—especially America—humans would devolve quickly. The lack of food, resources, and trade would result in mass starvation. Looting and rioting was expected, and mass executions would follow. This catastrophe would befall America, and then it would spread throughout the world. Whoever triggered this EMP would soon be responsible for the greatest die-off in modern history, they just didn’t know it yet.
She was sick to her stomach thinking such dark thoughts. How was she supposed to put something as big as the end of humans out of her mind? One minute at a time, the voice inside of her said. Focus on the war ahead.
Gator tapped her knee, then pointed forward. Leighton spotted the hardware store a few blocks up. They pulled over to the side of the road and parked the bike. Leighton got off, rolled her neck, loosened up her shoulders.
When she’d nearly killed Buck’s father, she hesitated pulling the trigger. Aaron had killed him instead. When she shotgunned the creeps who ran over Niles, they were already hurt from crashing their car. When she slaughtered the anarchists in Silver Grove, it was because she’d burned half of them to death and then capitalized on the element of surprise. What advantage did she have now? She was just a silly deaf girl playing with guns. If she had to go toe-to-toe with these guys, and if she didn’t have a way to make up for her size and inexperience, then she could very well get killed. They all could.
One minute at a time, the voice inside her repeated.
Gator and the others met up then began to strategize. They looked down the street at the target location, discussed the hardware store as well as the numerous buildings on the property surrounding it.
How many do you think are in there? Hudson asked.
We shot five or six of them, maybe more, Gator said, but there might be twenty or thirty? I don’t really know. We have to prepare for the worst.
Hudson looked at Leighton, but didn’t say anything.
“What?” she asked him.
You need to be on your A game, Hudson said.
“That’s awesome, thank you,” she said. “By the way, you don’t know anything but my A game, so why would you even think otherwise?”
Hudson held up his hands lik
e he was under arrest.
Gator looked at her and said, You stay on my six and you’ll be fine. He turned to Garrity. Why don’t I take Hudson and Leighton, and you take your team? We can split up and maybe flank these guys?
“We need to be as quiet as we can, Gator,” Leighton said. “Can we go in together, take each building down one at a time?”
That’s the plan, but the problem is, we may start making noise right away. Unless someone’s got a knife. Does anyone have a knife?
No one indicated that they did.
Gator looked at Leighton and said, Do you know how to fight?
She shook her head, no. “But I know this…eyes, nose, throat, balls.”
She stared at Gator, humorless; Gator remained stoic.
If you need to go to that, then go to it, Gator said. Do you understand what I mean?
“I know exactly what you mean,” she said. Get primal if it became necessary. “Let’s go.”
Moving as two teams, they trotted across N. 3rd St., guns in hand, every one of them ready to pin the tail on this donkey. The moved swiftly, staying low because most of the brick building’s front façade was comprised of windows. Even the front doors were made of glass.
Garrity indicated that his team would head around back while Gator, Hudson, and Leighton entered the store from the front. Gator nodded in agreement.
As Leighton’s trio crossed in front of the windows, they ducked low and moved quick. Sliding up against the bricks, shoulder-to-shoulder with the guys, Leighton fought to control her breathing. For a second, she couldn’t seem to calm her nerves or dispel her fear. Then she pulled Niles into her heart, let him hold that fear, give her courage, nourish her with the strength to do her part, which was to have her friends’ backs and see this thing through successfully.
Before getting the go-ahead from Gator, Leighton said a quiet prayer for the woman who owned the store. Stratton was one of the finest hardware stores in Kentucky, and a favorite place of her father’s, but they were about to turn it into a war zone.
When Gator glanced back and nodded, she gave him the thumbs-up. Gator indicated he’d breech the door. Both Leighton and Hudson nodded.
The second Gator checked to see if the door was unlocked, he found it was. He snuck in a rapid fire peek, then quickly pulled the door back to where it was closed but not latched. Turning, he indicated that he’d flank right, Leighton would check left and then go straight up the pipe, and then Hudson would flank left.
Leighton glanced back at Hudson. He looked cool as a cucumber. He even winked at her, which caused her to frown.
Gator opened the door and slipped inside. She rolled in behind him, checked left, then headed straight. Hudson moved in just in time for someone to open fire. In her peripheral vision, Leighton saw bullets tearing apart the store. Hudson hit the deck hard and fast. Looking up, he gave her a nod, as if to say he was okay.
The next thing she knew, the entire place had erupted in gunfire. She knew this because everything was getting destroyed around her. It was a dance of destruction.
Heart in her throat, her hands damp with sweat, she dropped down, wiped her shooting hand on her thigh, then crept forward checking left and right. Doing so in perfect silence, however, was about the most unnerving thing she’d ever experienced.
She saw a guy run by, taking fire, shooting blindly over his back. She fired twice, hit him once. He was in pain, his face scrunched up, blood blossoming at his side. The memory of Niles warmed her, his love filling her now-empty heart. She shot the man just under the jaw, the bullet blowing out the other side of his head and leaving meat sauce all over the counter.
She pushed herself forward, keeping low, but then she moved too far into the open. Turning, she saw two men, both armed, both resolute and in the fight.
Her eyes flashed wide, the same as the two other guys’ eyes as they made contact. The fact that she was a girl—and a pretty one at that—seemed to give them pause. She pumped them both full of lead and didn’t shed a tear. Even better, she hadn’t hesitated for a second.
Leighton slowly drew back the slide, saw brass in the chamber. Letting the slide slap back in place, she glanced right and then left. Unfortunately, she didn’t see anyone.
Suddenly, movement snared her attention. To her right, she saw Gator hop up on the counter and start firing. Two guys popped up over the counter to her left in an attempt to run. Both of them jerked hard and collapsed the second Hudson got the bead on them.
Two more guys came running from the back. She lifted her gun to shoot, but their backs arched and gore exploded through their chests.
Behind the dead men, Garrity and Derek stood with their hands up, as if to say, “Don’t shoot.” Leighton slowly stood up and looked around. Everyone else was doing the same. She turned back to Garrity, saw him say, Secure, then wave them forward.
Gator, Hudson and Leighton followed Garrity’s team through the back and out into the yard. Three large buildings faced them, all of them big enough to conceal an army of scumbags and revolutionaries.
Leighton’s eyes immediately went to a campfire burning in the middle of the yard. Half a dozen cups and several plates of food sat in the dirt, most of them overturned. It was as if they had just been dropped. Like the guys eating might have heard gunfire and ran for cover.
Garrity motioned for Gator and his team to take the farthest building to the right while he and his team tackled the one in the middle. After that, they’d join forces and take down the last building on the left.
Gator nodded in agreement, then motioned for Leighton and Hudson to follow. He tac-walked with his gun ready. Leighton had seen the technique before. She wasn’t sure why Spec-Ops guys walked that way, but she decided she’d better get on board because speed could save your life. She got her gun ready to move the shortest distance possible for action, then mimicked Gator’s walk.
Like Gator, Leighton stayed low, even though they were out in the open. With her weapon close to her chest and the barrel pointed down forty-five degrees, she made sure she was ready to turn and push the weapon should a threat presented itself.
From the corner of the building, someone fired on them. She didn’t hear the shot, but she knew the firing had occurred because Gator was suddenly struck in the chest, startling her. The big man went down hard, landing right on his back in the dirt. Before she could even register the attack, Gator managed to squeeze off a round. Following Gator’s line of sight, she saw he had failed to neutralize his target. By the look of things, he’d only forced the shooter into hiding.
She looked at Gator with worried eyes; he motioned her forward, working diligently not to show any pain. Glancing down at his chest, she saw where the bullet hit him. It was right over his heart. Her fear for him more than doubled, but this also changed everything.
Go! he said.
Panic lit her eyes. She didn’t know how to lead this fight!
Another round hit Gator as he lay there, jolting his body. It was not far from the other shot. Then a third hit him and he looked up at her.
Go! he muttered.
Hudson was suddenly shoving her in the back, which got her moving. Frantically processing the loss of Gator, she ran for the building, gun out, slightly zigzagging in case the shooter decided to take aim at her. She risked a glance up to where he’d been. He wasn’t there. She looked back and saw Hudson’s gun aimed in that direction. Where is the shooter?! Was he sliding down the side of the building? Would Leighton reach her target location only to face the same fate as Gator?
In her mind she reached for Niles but he’d stopped holding her fear, and that fear spilled over the rest of her so badly she had a hard time recovering her courage. If this kept up, she would freeze on the battlefield. Should that happen, she and Hudson were as good as dead.
Two shooters appeared as if they were running out of the target location to join the fight. They didn’t realize how close Leighton and Hudson were, which was detrimental to them. Leighton lit one of
them up while Hudson put the other down with brutal efficiency.
Hudson ran for the nearest side of the building while Leighton snugged up against the front. There, she tried seeing inside the large opening. Sweating, shaking, she put eyes on the obvious shooter’s corner, but all she saw were shadows.
Without a confirmed visual on any targets or the hearing necessary to pick up what her eyes might have missed, she felt handicapped in the worst way.
Hudson suddenly grabbed her hard and pulled her away from the building while firing on multiple shooters. She saw more men pouring out all over the place.
The two of them made a beeline for the first building because they knew they’d cleared it, but that didn’t mean Leighton wasn’t seeing everything else happening.
She watched Derek take a shooter’s knee and fire at three goons charging him. He took out two, but the third got him. Derek went down from a headshot. Marilyn saw this, paused, then took two rounds to the gut, doubling over. A third shot to her chest had her on the ground sucking wind.
By now, Leighton was so pissed off and scared by what she saw happening, that she broke free of Hudson. Like a fool, she sprinted across the yard, charging right into the hot zone. By some miracle, she made it to the last building unscathed.
Garrity joined her, checking the side of the building to make sure they didn’t get caught flatfooted. Hudson checked the other side, then grabbed Leighton’s arm, hauled her around, and said, Have you lost your damn mind?
She shrugged out of his grip, then glanced inside the third building like she’d seen Gator do in the first building. There was a low light from candles and an oil lamp, but the scene was too hard to read.
She felt Garrity trying to move her out of the way.
She wasn’t having it.
One second she was ready to roll in and murder everyone in sight, the next minute a punch of heat and steel hammered her chest, kicking her backward. She landed in the dirt on her back and just lay there, gasping, unable to breathe.
Eyes in the cloudy blue sky, she couldn’t help but think of how peaceful it looked up there. Was Niles waiting for her? Her grandparents?
