The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3)

by Scott B. Williams

  He saw a flash of movement among the pines, and then he recognized David, who he knew had been with Tommy earlier. David was running right at the stranger with the knife, his crude wooden spear poised to throw. When he did throw it, Benny saw it miss completely, sailing right past the boy with the knife, who didn’t seem to care. Instead he just laughed and stepped closer to David, waving the big blade in a way that left no doubt as to what he intended to do with it. Benny moved in to intervene, but the boy was focused on David and oblivious to his approach. From where he stood now, Benny could see someone lying on the ground between David and the stranger. He couldn’t see his face, the way he was sprawled on the ground, but he could see what he was wearing, and the rifle that was lying there beside him, and that was enough: It was Tommy! The rifle shot he’d just heard was someone shooting Tommy, and now this boy was about to stab David!

  Benny raised his shotgun to his shoulder and drew a bead on the stranger’s chest. When the boy took his next step in David’s direction, it was his last. Benny let him have it center of mass with a round of double aught buck.

  Seven

  THE RIFLE FROM ACROSS the road rang out again as Benny crawled closer to where David was bent over the prostrate body that Benny knew was his boy. Benny saw a bullet kick up dirt just beyond where it skimmed over David’s head, and knew the next one probably wouldn’t miss.

  “David! Grab Tommy’s rifle and get over here and get down behind these trees before you get yourself killed! How bad is Tommy hit?” But Benny already knew the answer before he asked. The rifle that had put down those 800-pound steers with one shot each would certainly be lethal to a man if it was a solid hit. Seeing his boy lying there, he feared the worst already.

  David did as he was told and scrambled on his knees and elbows to the cluster of trees where Benny was now crouching, another bullet just missing him before he reached safe cover. “He won’t move Benny! I told him he needed to get up and get over here, but he wouldn’t do anything!”

  “Is he still breathing? Could you tell if he could hear you or not?” Benny had to find out, but with that rifle over there across the road, it would be suicide to try. He glanced at the body of the one that he’d shot, the one who’d threatened David with the knife. That one sure wasn’t going to hurt anybody. He’d been dead before he hit the ground. Benny checked the magazine of Tommy’s .308. It was full but for the one round Tommy had already chambered. That left four more to follow-up. Five rounds wasn’t much but Benny knew the extra reach of a rifle over his shotgun would be helpful in this situation. He eyed the weapon the dead boy had left leaning against a tree over by the steers. It looked like an older semi-automatic hunting rifle, maybe a .308 as well or perhaps a .243 or something. Benny figured it might come in handy as a back up to Tommy’s rifle and his shotgun if they could get their hands on it without getting shot. Whatever it took, he aimed to get that bastard over there across the road that had shot his boy. But first he had to get Tommy moved behind these trees and see if he was even still alive. To do that he had to somehow draw fire from the shooter and try and figure out where he was. And he needed that other rifle so they would have enough ammo to keep him busy while one of them went to get Tommy.

  “I’m gonna make a run for that rifle over there by them carcasses,” he told David, handing him the shotgun. “As soon as he takes a shot at me, you shoot a couple rounds of that buckshot up there to keep him ducking.”

  “What if he hits you with his first shot?”

  “Let’s hope he won’t. I don’t plan on making it easy for him.”

  Benny was just about to make his run for it when he suddenly heard bodies crashing into the leaves behind him and realized Lisa and Stacy were there, diving for cover with him and David. They had run there from where he’d left them, Lisa with her 10/22 carbine in her hands and Stacy still carrying the axe.

  “What are you two doing? I told you to stay put!”

  “We couldn’t stay back there with all this shooting going on,” Lisa said. “It sounded like you needed help.” She looked at David. “Where’s Tommy?”

  “He’s been shot, Lisa!” Benny said. “I’ve got to get him over here without getting shot myself in the process.”

  Lisa looked to where Benny pointed and saw Tommy lying there. As she did, gasping in shock, Benny glanced at her little 10/22 and got an idea. It had a 30-round magazine and it was a semi-automatic. It might have only a fraction of the stopping power of their adversary’s weapon, but rapid firepower would come in handy for what he had in mind.

  “Listen here, Lisa. If you want to help, here’s what you can do. When David and I get ready to go and I give the word, you open up with your rifle and keep up a steady rate of fire against that hillside; not too fast, but just steady. We don’t know exactly where that feller is, but if you just keep shooting that way maybe you can keep his head down so he can’t shoot us. We’ll run out there and drag Tommy back over here just as fast as we can. Do you think you can do that?”

  “Of course I can, Uncle Benny. But wouldn’t it be better if you did the shooting and the three of us went to get Tommy?”

  “I might be old, young lady, but I’m plenty fast enough when I need to be. And besides, if anyone else is gonna get shot trying to get my boy back, it ought to be me. I hate for David to take the risk too but I am not going to put you two in that kind of danger. I ain’t planning to get shot though because I’ve got to get Tommy and then I got a feller to hunt down just as soon as I do! Now let’s not waste anymore time! David, I’m ready to go when you are!”

  * * *

  Lisa Henley tried to spot anything that looked like a person hiding on the wooded slope across the road, but nothing moved. She aimed her rifle at a stump for the first round and figured she would just shoot randomly all around the area and hope she was getting close. Like Uncle Benny said, at least if whoever it was over there thought he was under fire, maybe he would keep his head down and not try to shoot back at the same time.

  When Benny said ‘Go!’ Lisa pulled the trigger and methodically fired round after round as she saw him and David out of the corner of her eye, scrambling low until they got to either side of Tommy and reached down to grab him under his arms. Lisa knew it was up to her to keep them covered, so she kept firing, trying to pace it so that she wouldn’t empty the magazine before they had Tommy back. The two of them worked quickly so it only took a few seconds. When they were back behind the trees, Lisa stopped shooting and turned to look at Tommy.

  What she saw was horrible. Poor Tommy’s wool shirt was completely soaked with blood and he was trying to say something but couldn’t seem to even breathe well, much less talk. Uncle Benny was bent over him, trying to wipe away the blood to find his wound and stop him from bleeding to death. David was looking on, wide-eyed and confused, completely at a loss as to what to do. He and Uncle Benny both had bloody hands from moving Tommy, and it looked to Lisa like there was so much blood poor Tommy was bound to die. She glanced back at the empty woods across the road, wondering where the awful person who shot him was now. She wished she could see him to get a clear shot, but there had been no return fire either during or after her fusillade of bullets. She glanced at the clear plastic magazine and saw that she still had two rounds left. She had fired 23 in all then. She removed the magazine and began reloading it from the stash of loose rounds she carried in the pocket of her jeans.

  “Lisa, you and Stacy need to get back to the house right now,” Uncle Benny said. “You get back there and tell April and Samantha what happened and get that wheeled firewood travois we built and pull it out here. We’ve got to get Tommy back to the house but we’ve got to move him gently. Rolling him back on that thing is the best way I know to do it.”

  “But what about that other stranger that’s still out there, Uncle Benny? He could still be waiting for a chance to shoot you and David too. He might come over here.”

  “I think whoever shot Tommy is probably trying to get away right now.
With all your shooting on top of me killing his partner, he probably figured he was outnumbered and high-tailed it. But I aim to catch him before he gets far. I’m the only one that can do it and I don’t think it will take long. David can stay here with Tommy until I get back, or if y’all get back first, go ahead and move him to the house. Don’t wait for me. Now go!”

  Lisa had never seen Uncle Benny look so serious. His eyes were practically burning with fury, and she understood his rage. Although she hated for him to go alone, what he said made sense. They needed to get Tommy to the house where they could see what they were doing to try and save him. It was going to get colder out here after dark, especially in this rain, and he probably wouldn’t last long if they didn’t get him home.

  Lisa knew that April and Samantha would have heard all the shooting too and must be worried; wondering what in the heck was going on. If Mitch and the others were back they would surely come to investigate, but they couldn’t count on that. She and Stacy both gave Uncle Benny a quick hug and she looked at Tommy one last time before she turned and took off, wiping the tears from her face as she ran.

  * * *

  The boy running back to tell the others had not gone far when he heard more shooting from behind him. The first shot sounded like his father’s rifle, but then there was something else, and then the rifle again. He hesitated but knew better than to disobey his father’s order. Thankfully, he didn’t have to go a half-mile before he ran into six of the other hunters. They were on foot and already coming down the road to investigate, having heard the gunfire.

  “We heard shooting,” the first to speak said.

  “Yes, we found a herd of cows. My dad got two of them and hit another one. He said to come back and tell Mr. Drake and the rest of y’all to get on down there with the horses. He said tell him to send somebody back to tell the others too. He said there would be a feast tonight and that we’d round up the rest of the herd tomorrow. There was some more shooting after I was already running to get you, but I don’t know what that was about.”

  “Did you see anybody around there where those cows were?”

  “No, but my dad says there must be a house nearby. That’s why he wanted me to hurry back and get everybody. He says we’re going to have a new place to stay and plenty for everybody to eat for a long time!”

  Before the man could reply, even more gunfire echoed through the woods from the direction from which the boy had come. But this was a popping crack rather than the thunder of a deer rifle. And it was round after round, going off in evenly spaced, one-second intervals.

  “What the hell?”

  “That sounds like a .22. That’s not Kenneth or his boy, Kenny. We’d better get down there and see what’s going on!”

  The man who’d been questioning the kid turned to him with another order. Jimmy, we’re going to slip on down this road and see what’s going on. Your old man and your brother might need some help. You run on back the way we came and get Mr. Drake. You’ll find him and the others waiting with the horses. They’re back there around the last couple bends to the west. Now get!”

  Eight

  WHEN APRIL HEARD ANOTHER rifle shot some fifteen or twenty minutes after she had gone back inside, she knew something unusual was going on. Benny and the girls had still not returned to the house, despite the increasing rain; and neither had Tommy and David, who should have had time to finish making their rounds by now. It would be dark in another hour, and everyone but Mitch and the guys would be back before then. Maybe they would too, but she knew it depended on the outcome of their hunting.

  She barely had time to get to the door to look outside again when she heard another gunshot, a booming one that sounded like a shotgun instead of a rifle. Was that Benny? When two more rifle shots followed the shotgun blast, April stepped outside on the porch, almost running into Samantha, who was trying to rush inside to get her.

  “Something is going on out there, Samantha!”

  “I know. This is really weird. Why would they be shooting so much?”

  April didn’t have time to answer before another sound from the same direction reached their ears—the rhythmic firing of round after round from a smaller caliber weapon. It went on and on, each shot almost exactly the same amount of time apart from the last. April didn’t count them, because she hadn’t expected the shooting to continue like that, but when it finally stopped, she and Samantha were staring at each other.

  “That sounded like a semi-automatic .22. I wonder if it was Lisa?” April said.

  “She emptied a whole magazine if it was.”

  “I know. There’s no logical reason I can think of for wasting ammo like that. Benny would never allow it, and Lisa would know better anyway.”

  “What are we gonna do? Do you want me to go check on them? I know you can’t leave Kimberly.”

  “No. We both should stay here because if you go by yourself you don’t know what you’ll run into out there. Maybe Tommy and David will be back soon, unless they’re out there too. It could have been Tommy’s rifle we heard, but there’s no way to know. We need to just wait, but I want to stay outside where I can hear. With this rain hitting the roof it’s too hard to hear anybody coming shut up inside. Go get your rifle and let’s keep watch. If there is somebody around that’s not supposed to be here, we need to be ready. I’m going to look in on Kimberly and I’ll be right back in a second.”

  Though she’d put on a calm face in front of Samantha, April was filled with dread as her mind raced with the possibilities of what could be happening. The last thing she wanted to think about was more trouble, but she knew that in the reality in which they now lived, it could and probably would come again, and maybe already had. She reached over and stroked her daughter’s hair as she slept, careful to keep her touch light so as not to wake her, then shut the bedroom door and went back outside.

  “Someone’s coming now!” Samantha whispered, nodding in the direction of the gravel lane that connected the house to the road out front.

  April heard it too, barely audible in the rain, but unmistakably the sound of running footsteps pounding the crushed rocks of the drive. She stood there with Samantha watching, her carbine in hand, until two figures rounded the bend and entered the yard. It was Lisa and Stacy, and they were running like they were running for their lives.

  “Tommy’s been shot!” Lisa screamed, when she saw them waiting there on the porch.

  “Shot? Who shot him? Where are Benny and David?”

  “I don’t know, but whoever it was that did it, he was hiding across the road. There was another one too but Uncle Benny shot him! They killed two of my dad’s cows and shot Tommy. Tommy might die, April!”

  “Is it that bad, Lisa? Where is he? Is Benny with him?”

  “It’s real bad! He got shot in the side, but Uncle Benny said it missed his heart. David is staying there with him until we get back. Uncle Benny went to try and catch the other one that shot Tommy before he gets away. We need help getting Tommy, April! Uncle Benny told us to get the travois they haul the wood on and use it to move him. I was hoping Mitch and them would be back.”

  “They’re not. We haven’t seen him. They must have gone farther today. They may not be back tonight at all.”

  “I wish he was here. Mitch could track down that guy easy. I’m worried about Uncle Benny, and I wish he wasn’t going after him alone. But he wouldn’t let any of us go with him. He said we had to get Tommy back to the house but we had to be careful moving him or he might die.

  April was trying to process all these staggering developments. It was simply unbelievable how quickly everything could change, but she’d had a bad feeling ever since she’d heard those first rifle reports. Poor Tommy! He was such a nice and friendly man and he’d already suffered one grievous wound when Wayne Parker had shot him through the arm with a broadhead arrow meant for the center of his back. Now, according to Lisa, he’d been hit in the chest with a high-powered rifle. He might die no matter what they did, fr
om the way she described it. April couldn’t imagine what was going through Benny’s mind. He would stop at nothing to find the shooter, not only because of what he’d done to Tommy, but to stop him from trying to come back. These trespassers were clearly desperate and brazen to shoot someone’s cattle inside of a fence. They had to have known there were people around taking care of them.

  Benny had left David there with Tommy until the girls could get help moving him. Now April faced the dilemma of deciding who would go. They couldn’t all go because of Kimberly, and she, of all four of them was the most experienced at facing these armed confrontations. What if there were more of them than just the two they knew of? Benny had taken a big chance going out there alone to find out, but April understood why he did it. She wanted so badly to go and help, but Kimberly was her first responsibility and she would have to stay here with her. With everyone else away, it was up to her to make the decisions about what to do. With Samantha’s help, Lisa and Stacy could return with the travois. Then with David, there would be four of them to move Tommy back. Maybe by the time they got there, Benny would be finished with his task as well. April knew he was a competent woodsman and that if he had enough time before dark, he would find the other shooter.

  * * *