by Rod Little
“He agrees,” Bohai said.
“He said that to you?”
“I feel it. I can feel his words and meanings.”
Bohai looked up at the behemoth, then bowed slightly and turned to go. “We're done here. Let's go.”
Sam didn't need to be told twice. He was more than happy to get away from the furry mammoth and his army of hairy, creepy giants.
As the boys walked back to the lodge, most of the spiders dispelled. However, two of them followed the boys back to the Peak's gates, keeping a distance and staying as hidden as possible in the tall grass.
“Our bodyguards?” Sam asked.
“They'll watch over our home for us. A couple more might come and go, and keep an eye on the lodge.”
“I guess that's comforting,” Sam smirked. “In a weird way. So, was that their king?”
“No. I doubt we'll ever meet their leader. The one we met is more of a General.”
“I'm not afraid of him.”
“He knows. He likes that about you.”
“He likes me?”
“It's you they want, you know,” Bohai said, closely watching Sam. “The spiders want you on their side. That's why they sided with us humans. It's about you. They think you're the next savior of the planet.”
“I hate to disappoint them, but I'm not.”
“You don't practice enough,” Bohai scolded. “You need to try more. Your power is like a muscle. You need to workout every day, and make it stronger.”
“I don't like using it at all.”
“That's your problem. It's a new world, Sam. You'll need it – we'll need it. We'll need all our abilities to survive. It's not like back at school when you were teased and made fun of.”
“How did you know?” Sam asked.
“You don't think I experienced the same? I talked to mice and birds. You think that was considered normal? And once I got someone expelled for cheating. A mouse told me – how's that for a pun inside a pun? He ratted on a cheating ring. Two other students got suspended. And I got my ass kicked for a week.”
“People always say they loved high school, but high school was hell,” Sam said, his tone bitter.
“If one is different, one is sure to be lonely. I read that somewhere once. You know?”
“I think so.” He actually had never read that, but it sounded right.
“It's over, man. High school and play-time are over. And now you need to get stronger. We're going to need your power. It has to get bigger. We both have to grow up.”
Twigs and brush crackled under their feet until they reached the road that led to the front of the lodge.
“And another thing,” Bohai said. “The spiders won't help us against those men, the ones who had captured Camila and Lucy.”
“Dexter's men? Why?”
“Because their deal with us is to protect the humans against the lizards and bats. We're human, and those men are human. It's an internal fight for us to handle. We'll have to deal with them ourselves. The spiders won't get involved in our internal conflict.”
“Politically sensitive spiders,” Sam mused. “Who would have thought?”
“I told you – they're smart.”
After a long pause, Sam confessed something to Bohai. “You know, when I was fifteen, I almost killed a kid.”
“Seriously?” It wasn't the worst thing Bohai had heard this year. He and Sam didn't stop walking, but slowed their pace.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “There was this kid, Billy Morksi, a total jagoff. He'd been in trouble a lot, and even with me and Shane, and once he tried to kill us. Years before. But anyway, that's not important here. This one day he showed up at a weekly card game my brother used to play in. I was fifteen and Shane was seventeen. They sat across from each other at the table, about six guys were there, and I watched from the side. So anyway, there was this one hand with big money on the table, like two hundred dollars. That was big for us. There was an Ace on the table and two Jacks. I see this kid Jepp has an Ace in his hand, and he raises the bet. We called him Jepp, even though his name was Jeff, I don't know why. Anyway, everyone else folds, but Billy calls and raises, and keeps re-raising. It's over three hundred dollars by the time the final card is shown. That last card is a 5. It's useless to both of them. You know how to play cards?”
“Yeah, I know how.”
Sam continued, “So Billy smiles and lays down his two Jacks, three of a kind. He's ready to take the money, but then Jepp lays down his two Aces: a full house. The look on Billy's face, I'll never forget. It wasn't disappointment, it was anger. I've never seen anyone so angry. So anyway, he accuses Jepp and the others of cheating, then splashes the pot. That means he throws the money across the table, I think. He pulls out a big hunting knife and grabs me from behind, puts the knife at my throat. He said he'd kill me, if the others didn't confess to cheating and hand him the money. Billy wasn't very smart, wasn't good at cards, and didn't always think things through.”
“Sounds like an a-hole,” Bohai said.
“Exactly.” Sam continued, “So he has this knife right at my throat, and he's got his arm around me, almost choking me. I'm scared that Shane is going to do something crazy, or one of the others might, so I want to get Billy off me as soon as I can. I figured I could just shock him and he'd let go. Except I was all pumped up with adrenaline, and I never shocked anyone actually touching me before. So I hit him with too much juice. It ran into him and he fell clutching his chest. He had a heart attack right there.”
“Damn. What did you guys do?”
“We called 9-1-1, of course,” Sam said. “They took him to the hospital, and blamed the heart attack on the buffet of drugs he was taking. I knew it was me, though. I tried not to ever use it again, my power, after that. Billy was a freak, but I didn't want to kill him.”
“Is he still alive now?”
“Well, probably not.” Sam shrugged. “Unless he's alive as a lizard. But last I heard he was messed up, in a mental hospital. I wonder if I'm part of the reason why he's there. Or was there.”
“You can't analyze the past, Sam. It's fluid. Sounds like this kid Billy was on a bad path, with or without you.”
“Fluid? I don't know what that means. But here's the rub: Jepp did cheat. He was good at magic tricks and he brought that last Ace from his sleeve or something, from out of nowhere. He had one Ace, not two. I knew he'd cheated, and I didn't say anything.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah. I still feel bad.”
“Let it go, man. You can't control everything in life. And things are different now. You need to practice, because we need your abilities. Your power is about the only advantage we've got.”
“Really?” Sam laughed. “I thought a truck-size tarantula was the best thing we've got.”
“Yeah, that too.”
Shane had the night shift in the tower, so Sam sat with him for an hour to keep him company. The two boys cleaned their guns the way they had been taught by their grandfather on hunting trips, years earlier. They also serviced some of the other guns that had been fired. This was more of an attempt to keep busy than a real necessity. Afterward, they practiced with the new crossbow, shooting a target on the grass between two trees outside the wall. Sam's aim was rusty, but Shane was sharp as ever.
He told his brother about the big tarantula and the walk into the woods. Shane didn't say much; he just nodded a lot and kept adjusting his crossbow. Perhaps he thought his little brother was exaggerating. Certainly he had mixed feelings about the arachno-human alliance.
“I tried to talk to Tina tonight,” Shane said. “I think she'll be okay. She's strong. I gave her a shot of whiskey for a nightcap. She'll be better tomorrow.”
“Speaking of whiskey, how is our alcoholic rock star?”
“She's a pip. Not the best mother I can guess. I've hidden all the booze, but she'll find it. She's persistent.”
“The kids?”
“Lily's in another world. But I guess most kids are, at ei
ght. Mark is strong, though. A tough little kid.”
“What do you think of Camila?”
“Same as you, Sammy. She's hot as hell. Damn.” He motioned as if to cup big breasts.
Sam smiled and shook his head.
As the night wore on, Sam went back to his room and tucked himself into bed. He tried to think about the giant spider, their impressive new ally, and their new hope. But instead, he couldn't stop thinking about Ken being drowned in a sea of lizards, buried under a black throng of killers.
The living will never be as strong as the dead. They alone have the power to reach you wherever you are.
One of his teachers had said that once. The context was different, talking about case solving in crime labs, but the words meant something different to him now. The last two years had taught him the effect of death on the living.
Lying back on his soft bed, he closed his eyes. His tired body quickly drifted off. Sleep was the best medicine tonight for both mind and body. Unfortunately, tonight's sleep was short.
Footsteps and commotion in the hallway woke him up at a few minutes past midnight. Jason threw open the door. “Somebody's coming up the road, and fast! Get your gear.”
Chapter 21
Revenge comes at midnight. It always comes at midnight. Sam didn't know why, but he felt it.
At midnight Shane heard the sound of car engines and loud voices approaching from a distance. Through the binoculars he spotted two pickups barreling up the road, heading straight for the front gate. Their headlights appeared like the wild eyes of a charging bull. The first truck hit the tin can wire fence and brought it with them, trailing cans in a loud cacophony along the way. The nine-fingered Mitch could be seen at the front.
This was Dexter's men!
Shane ran down the stairs into the second floor of the resort and sounded the alarm. He banged his hand against the wall and shouted for everyone to get up. At that moment he realized: we need an actual alarm bell. Too late now, he made do with shouting and clapping.
Jason ran shirtless into the hall, struggling to pull a concert t-shirt over his head. “What is it?”
“Dexter's goons. Lots of firepower. Get everyone up!”
Sleepy and confused, the others stumbled out of bed and into the hall. Jason passed the news on and grabbed for his guns.
Shane ran back to the watchtower and loaded his new crossbow. He didn't need the binoculars anymore, the trucks were no more than seventy-five yards away. They stopped in the middle of the road, headlights on high beams. He counted eight men in the first truck, and six or seven in the second.
One of the men in the truck-bed of the first pickup hoisted a big bulky gun onto his shoulder. He leaned over the front and rested the huge barrel on the cab roof.
“A bazooka!” Shane whispered. “Oh my God!”
Jason joined him with his sniper rifle. He saw the big gun, too, and took a knee to get a good aim. His knuckles were white from their tight grip on the barrel.
“Take out that cannon first!” Shane yelled. He aimed his crossbow and let an arrow fly. It sailed into the right arm of the bazooka gunner. A miss – he had been aiming for the head or throat. The gunner shouted a curse into the air, but didn't let go of the gun. His eye squinted as he took aim at the gate.
And then he fired the rocket. The boom was deafening.
At that exact same flash of time Jason shot the man in the eye, and the gunner fell back. The bullet entered the gunner's brain, instantly killing him, and his gun flew out of his arms. The blast hit a tree and exploded it into pieces, its bark and branches flying in all directions. The tree trunk burst into flames.
Another two men scrambled to lift the bazooka again, and plopped the cannon back onto the cab roof. One of the men took the gun in hand, but he hadn't been trained with it. His partner took a good minute to get it reloaded, and steadied him with his hands.
By now Sam was poised in the second watchtower, which had not been manned until now. He started shooting a rifle at the men in the truck. Jason and Shane also fired from their tower. They peppered the trucks from both sides, but only took out two men, the wrong two men – the bazooka was still on target.
The big gun fired again, and had more buck than its gunner had expected. It fired high, but this time it did hit the stone gate and blew the top half of it off. The courtyard was partly exposed.
The clumsy gunner and his mate reloaded the bazooka, while the rest of Dexter's men fired their guns at the two towers and kept the boys pinned down.
Two minutes passed. Bullets flew in both directions. Even Mark helped; he joined Sam in the second tower and did his best with a small pistol. Although he couldn't hit much from this distance, he did manage to shoot out one of the truck's tires.
The men had one final load left for the bazooka, but that's all they needed. They loaded it and fired. The third blast instantly destroyed the rest of the front gate on impact. It collapsed inward, sending pieces of stone flying across the courtyard. A few chunks rolled out onto the road. A huge gaping hole now presented itself where the gate used to be – a hole big enough to drive a truck through.
The first pickup revved its engine and raced forward. Jason shot the front windshield out, then shot the driver in the head. The pickup swerved and crashed into the right side of the gate opening. It now blocked the second truck from driving in. The men got out of their trucks and fired their guns. A bullet hit Jason. Three men climbed over the front truck and got inside the lodge.
“They're inside!” Sam cried. He told Mark to stay in the tower and keep shooting. He turned and took the stairs two steps at a time.
Bohai was the first to confront the three men, and he fired his revolver twice. He was skilled at hand-to-hand combat, but not experienced with guns. His aim was off, and he only managed to hit one man in the shoulder. Another man shot Bohai, who fell to the ground. Barely conscious, he lay on top of stones and rubble blown from the wall, his blood draining out onto the grass.
The cougar sprang up and knocked the shooter off his feet. Its jaws clamped down on the man's neck with incredible force and bit down, crushing his windpipe. Shooting Bohai would be the man's last bad deed in life.
Shane had to put his bow down to help Jason, who had been shot in the arm and neck and was bleeding out fast. Shane wrapped a piece of torn shirt tightly around his friend's arm. He tore another piece of cloth and used it to apply pressure to Jason's neck. Blood still gushed out.
“Just nicked me, nicked my neck,” Jason told him. He took the cloth from Shane's hand. “I can hold this myself. Get back to your gun, man!”
Shane didn't know what to do. Jason looked bad.
Sam reached the courtyard in time to see a large bald man aiming his gun at Camila's head. She stood frozen, a knife in her hand. Lucy appeared behind her and screamed.
“No, we take her alive,” his wounded partner shouted. He aimed his gun for Camila's leg and fired. It missed.
Lucy cried out again and pulled Camila back.
Sam slammed the wounded man in the face with the butt of his rifle, and the bald man spun around toward Sam. The brute stood only two feet away; he pulled out a hunting knife and lunged for Sam's heart. Sam sent the man headlong to the ground with a bolt of electric shock. Baldy was stunned but not hurt. Sam still always instinctively pulled his punches. That was a mistake. Baldy got up and knocked Sam to the ground with one blow from his musclebound arms.
There was no more shooting from the towers; even Mark was out of bullets. Sam only heard gunfire outside. The crisscross of bullets sounded like Dexter's men were either shooting at each other or shooting at the walls.
Shane looked down to see one of Dexter's men sink to the ground. Another one ran off into the east woods. Their shadows and silhouettes moved in the glow of the headlights like phantom stick figures. He looked closely around the trucks. Then he saw a man slip through the gates with a rifle. One of them was inside the courtyard! Shane ran downstairs to stop him, but he was too l
ate to stop the man from shooting.
Sam raised his head to see the bald man who had punched him, now with a gun aimed straight at his face. Sam was drained, and had dropped his rifle in the scuff. Helpless, he looked up at the silhouette of the bald man, back-lit from the headlights of the trucks. Another man came up from behind and also raised his gun. Sam was sure he and Bohai were about to enter the world of the dead.
Instead, the man in back aimed his gun at the bald man's head and fired. Dexter's man collapsed.
Dizzy and aware that his head was bleeding, Sam raised himself on his elbows. The silhouette approached, still holding his gun. The boy thought he heard someone say his name and struggled to see who it was. He spoke four words before passing out.
“Stu? Is that you?”
Chapter 22
State Patrolman Stu Reese had been watching Dexter's men since he first realized they were the ones who had built the road barricade a few days earlier. He already knew most of these men by name, and had arrested at least half of them in the past decade. They were anti-government survivalists, sometimes called “doom preppers,” who built cabins in the mountains and prepared for the eventual collapse of the government. They weren't smart survivalists – they stocked more beer than bullets or food – but they were determined.
Stu was also familiar with Dexter and Walter, but to a lesser degree. He realized there was a University lab in the hills, or so they claimed that's what it was, but rarely had occasion to visit the house. The scientists were more law abiding than the rougher men in the survivalist pack.
When he saw two fully loaded trucks head out from Dexter's compound this night – with an M1 2.3 inch cannon, he decided to follow. He trailed them at a safe distance on his motorcycle, its headlight off. Hugging the roadside a mile behind them, he arrived at the Peak Castle Lodge right on time to see the M1 cannon destroy a tree. Before he could position himself to start shooting at Dexter's men, the second rocket took out part of the gate.
