by Kara Hart
She lifts the cover open and a diamond ring is sitting on page one. A note is attached. It’s something I wrote: This could be page one of our lives. I really hope it is because you’re the most beautiful girl in the world. I’d do anything if it means getting a whole book’s worth of memories with you. I promise, if you marry me, I’ll cherish you for the rest of our lives.
I grab the ring and look her in the eyes. This is the most intense moment of my life. I grab the ring and place it on her finger. She opens her mouth. “Yes,” she says. “Yes, I’ll marry you!”
I touch her face gently and move in for the kiss. My heart is about to fucking explode. I swear, things better start working out for me now. I can’t believe she said yes. Our lips gravitate toward each other. And then we hear it, a loud screeching sound coming from outside, followed by large boom noises, like a car backfiring.
Thwack! A hole is penetrated in the wall, right above my head. “Down!” I scream.
I cover her body as the sound of metallic rain levels the walls of the house. I scramble and move us to the corner, where Mary’s metal table sits. I throw it on its side and use it as cover.
“We need to get to the bunker!” I scream.
“What the fuck is happening?” Gabe and Julia come diving into the room.
Emma won’t say a word. She’s white with fear and I don’t blame her. I didn’t think they’d be here so soon. How the fuck did they track us down so fast? But just as I wonder how, I hear Mary’s voice yell outside, “Get to safety, goddammit!” It’s followed by a loud scream, as if they hit her in the legs or back, right after.
“Mary,” I whisper. “Shit!”
“Follow me,” Gabe says, crawling on the floor to the bunker.
We make our way to the metal door. When we get to the bunker, the women go in first, followed by Gabe and me. Before I drop to the bottom, I look at the front door. Boots are coming in close. Mary, what have they done to you? I quickly close the door and reach up from a shattered area of concrete, where the floor has been blown out a bit. I grab the rug and cover up what I can.
“What do we do?” Emma whispers.
The truth is, I don’t have a fucking clue. Gabe grabs an M16 and tosses it my way. I grab and it feel the weight of the gun. This is not going to be pretty, but I try to keep the image I had of our future in my head. I’d do anything for Emma, right? Even take a bullet? You’re goddamn right I would.
Mary screams upstairs. “Get your fuckin’ hands off of me, you punks!”
“Where are they?” A voice asks. “I know you have them here!”
“Just kill me already,” Mary shouts back. I hear her spit at the man and then there’s a loud slapping noise.
I start pacing the room. “I can’t deal with this shit,” I mutter. “I can’t let them hurt her!”
“Quiet down,” Gabe motions. “There’s nothing we can do.”
“Then why the fuck are we here, huh?” I ask him. “Why did we come if we’re not going to fight back?”
“They’ll kill her if we do,” Gabe says.
“They’ll kill her if we don’t,” I argue.
“Either way, you’re fucked,” Emma says.
“Shit,” I whisper.
“We’re so done for,” Julia says, tears streaming down her face. She looks like a ghost.
I look at Gabe and he stares back at me. We’re at a standstill and nothing can be done. At least, that’s how the situation is presenting itself to us. Then, out of nowhere, Emma sighs loudly and stretches.
“I’ll do it,” she says. “I’ll go upstairs and handle this.”
“Fuck no,” I firmly state. “You’re not risking your life any more than you already have. We’re stayin’ down here until they leave.”
“Search the house!” A man upstairs yells. “Every single nook and cranny.”
“Then we better hope and pray they don’t find us down here,” she says.
We can hear each step that’s made upstairs. A bomb shelter is nice and all, but what are you going to do when the enemy won’t leave your place. There isn’t even any food down here, dammit. My mind is on Emma’s safety, while also trying to find a way to save Mary in the process.
Boots walk right above us. Dust falls onto our head with each step that’s made. I knew things might get tight during this, but I didn’t realize we’d be trapped like animals. All we can do is hope for the best. Gabe and I sit, aiming our M16’s, pretending like everything will be okay. Truth is, we have no fucking clue.
Emma
The men quickly divide the hours by watch times. Soren will take watch for the first four hours. Then comes Gabe. Then me. Then Julia. We’re all hoping Julia’s turn doesn’t come and they’ll just leave. So far, the men upstairs have been too stupid to pull out any rugs, but who knows how long that’ll last.
They’ve got their plans, but I’ve got plans of my own. Soren and I are… well, we’re getting married once this is over. Once this is over. Yeah. I have to remain positive. I just have to.
As everyone takes their turn, I keep my eyes open. I’m not falling asleep while they’re right above us. So, when it comes to be my turn, I do what I proposed to do earlier. I begin my leave of the shelter.
What’s my plan? It’s loose, but I’m hoping it’ll allow Gabe and Soren to close in on them with some space. As for me, I trust that these men follow some sort of code and won’t kill me. But all night, we’ve heard Mary’s moans. We’ve heard her crying in pain. I take it all back. These men need to pay.
“Hey,” Soren whispers. Fuck. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m leaving. I’m creating a distraction and there’s nothing you can do about it,” she says.
“I’m not letting you die up there, dammit,” he picks himself up from the concrete floor.
I quickly poke my head out of the flat metal entrance and notice no one is in the hallway. I pull my body out and duck into Mary’s room. So far so good. I hear Soren come out behind me and I see him follow suit. He grabs me. He whispers, “Great. Now we’re fucked.”
“No, we’re not,” I tell him. “This is just like in Gwen Talbathon’s book. We just have to create a distraction. We’ll leave her house quietly and cause a scene outside.”
“This isn’t a fucking book,” Soren says. “This is real life and one small step in the wrong direction can cause you to get killed.”
“What’re you guys planning?” Gabe crawls into the room. “You think you’re going to go on without me?”
“Oh, fuck me,” Soren whispers. “Where the hell is Julia?”
“Sorry, guys,” Julia whispers, crawling in herself.
“Great,” I whisper. “All of you are out of the shelter now. It’s a big party.”
“If we’re going to go,” Soren whispers, “then we should go now.”
“And head where?” Gabe asks.
Soren looks at me. I’m hanging on a thread, waiting for his response. “Fuck this,” he finally says. “Let’s just get a motel outside of town and regroup.”
“Fine by me,” Julia says.
We get outside the house. All it takes is one look at Mary’s car to understand that we’re not going anywhere in a nice set of wheels. The hood is smoking, the wheels are punctured, and the windows are shattered. “Fuck me,” Soren whispers, running over to the vehicle. “We’ll have to leave on foot.”
“What about Mary?” I ask him. “We can’t just leave her.”
“You’re right,” he says. His eyes are full of urgency. “Go without me. Motel 6, on Marshall Way. You know the place?”
“I know it, brother,” Gabe says. “But if you aren’t going, I’m not either.”
“You need to escort them to safety,” Soren says. “I can’t have any disagreements on this right now. You hear me?”
“I hear you,” Gabe mutters through his teeth. “Come on, gals. Let’s go.”
“You can’t stay,” I plead. “Come with us. We’ll come back for her.”
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“Go,” Soren says. “I’ll be there in a few hours. If I’m not there within three, you’ll know I need help.”
Just like that, he turns his back. Gabe grabs my arm and we start running. When I look back at him, he’s walking through the front door and staring into the abyss.
Soren
The things I do for people…
Well, this is one of the first steps in righting my wrongs. A selfless man helps those in need. I can’t be a husband to Emma knowing I could have done more in this situation. I want to give life my all, and Mary sure has given me a lot this life. It’s time to give back.
“Hey!” I scream, kicking the door in. “You lookin’ for me?”
Out of the hallway, come three guys, dressed in black suits, and they look dumbfounded when they see my M16 pointed straight at them. “Sixty bullets per minute,” I warn them. “Don’t hurt her anymore. Let her go.”
The men laugh, but they don’t advance. They’re waiting for their turn to turn their pistols on me. “Soren?” I hear Mary call out to me. “You shouldn’t have come back, you idiot!”
Great. I do the right thing and she calls me an idiot. Typical Mary behavior. “Well, I’m here,” I say.
“Run, dammit. Run!” she screams.
I hear the clicking of boots coming from the room. “Who’s with you?” I ask her. “Who is that?”
A man walks out, holding a pistol in his hand, but he doesn’t take aim. He simply smiles at me and nods. “So, we’ve finally found you,” he says. “Do you remember me?”
I grit my teeth and stare at him with fury. “I know exactly who you are. You killed my friend,” I say.
“Yes, well. Something had to be done.” He smiles. “Something like this.”
He aims his gun swiftly at the room he just exited, and fires. All it takes is one pull on the trigger. “Mary!” I scream. I her the dull thud of her body hit the floor. “NO!”
“Don’t you dare move,” he says, aiming the pistol at me now. The rest of the men do the same. “That’s for setting our businesses on fire. We’ve had a lot of attention on us in the last few days.”
“Someone had to do something. You can’t keep terrorizing people forever,” I mutter, still aiming my own weapon. The question is, will I be able to shoot them faster than they can shoot me? It’s definitely possible, but I’m not one hundred percent certain.
“Your little girlfriend will be next,” he says. “Don’t you worry. In fact, we have plans for everyone you know.”
“Fuck you.” I spit onto the floor.
He laughs. “But I’ll give you a choice. It’s a fucking good one too.”
“I don’t give a shit about your little deal,” I say. “Go to hell.”
“Listen, fool,” he says. “You disappear tonight. You don’t say your goodbyes to that woman, nor do you say goodbye to your brother. They’ll never see you again. You’re good at that, right? You disappear a lot, from what I gather.”
“Once,” I tell him. “I left town once and that was twelve years ago. I ain’t doing it again.”
“It’s your life,” he says. “You can choose whatever path you want. But if you don’t leave, you won’t have any path to stand on.”
I look over at the doorway to Mary’s room. There’s still no sound from inside. Mary. She’s dead. Michael. He’s dead. Will I be next?
“And if you decide that you’re too big a man to accept this offer, it won’t just be you that fades into oblivion. It’ll be your cute little girlfriend too. The one with the perfect ass and delicious tits. Of course, I think my friends here might want a turn with her first. You understand, right? I’m only saying this because you’ll be out of the picture.”
“Bastard!” I scream. I place my M16 up to my eye and everyone cocks his gun into the armed position. We’re all stuck in a dead halt. Who’s going to budge first?
The man waves his finger at me. I’ll never know his name. I’ll never give him that satisfaction. He’s just another cockroach that needs stomping on. “Tsk, tsk.” He smiles. “I’m going to give you the count of ten to decide what to do. After that, my friends here are going to take care of everything.”
“Ten,” he counts down.
“Fuck you,” I snarl.
“Nine.”
“You’re trash,” I say.
“Eight.”
I remain silent.
“Seven,” he says. “This is getting fun! Six! Five! Four!”
Sweat from my forehead drops onto my gun. Everything slows down in front of my eyes. I feel my finger grip the trigger. I’m right on the edge. I could end it all now, but it could mean my life. Fuck, it could mean Emma’s too.
“Three,” he says, bearing his sharp teeth. “Two. Getting down to the wire now.”
I close my eyes as if it’s the day of my execution. Everything floods back into my mind. The first time I met Emma. The first time we fucked. The first time she spent the night and noticing that the feeling of emptiness I once had was starting to drift away. Everything floods back.
When I open my eyes, all of them are on the floor, lying in a pool of their own blood. “What the fuck?” I whisper.
Out of the room, comes Mary. She’s holding two pistols in her hand, smiling like a crazy person. She’s limping, but she’s still alive. “You dumb bastard,” she says, before falling to the floor. I throw my gun behind me and run to her aid.
“Mary!” I yell, ripping my shirt off. To my surprise, there’s only one bullet hole in the side of her arm, but it’s enough damage on an old woman. “Don’t you die on me,” I plead, tying my shirt around the wound. I apply pressure and hold her in an upright position.
She’s still with me. She’s still alive. “Mary,” I start to tear up. “You can’t die on me. Not yet, dammit.”
“Yesterday,” she groans. “I was diagnosed with lung cancer. Had about ten days to live they told me. What else was I to do? I’m proud I could help out a little bit.”
Her eyes are rolling back and forth, as if she can barely see me. “I’m sorry, Mary,” I whisper. “I’m so fucking sorry. For everything. For running out on this town. For not coming back sooner. I’m trying to make it all okay again, but it’s hard.”
“You idiot. It’s okay. Life happens to each and every one of us. You ain’t so special,” she says. “You’ve served your penance. Don’t go overboard.”
“What am I supposed to do now?” Another friend is dying in my arms and it’s all because I didn’t do things the right way. It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.
“What you do is stop blaming yourself, kid. Live your life. Grab Emma and give her the hardest romping of your life,” she says.
“I will,” I laugh, but tears are now pourin’ down my stupid face. This isn’t how I thought things would go.
“Here,” she points back at her room. “I meant to give you something. It’s in my closet. Code is 37, 33, 29. Open it.”
I run over to her closet and find a safe. “Oh, Mary,” I whisper.
“Just open it, dammit,” she says.
I twist the lock in place and it opens up. Inside is a briefcase. I open it to find it lined with bills. “What is this? You can’t give this to me,” I say. “I don’t deserve it. Give it to your nephews.”
“You know full well that I don’t have any nephews,” she says. “And it’s not my money. It’s yours and Gabe’s.”
“What do you mean?” I ask her.
“It’s from your father,” she says. “He sent me checks every single month, ever since you two were little boys. There’s 800,000 dollars in there.”
“Checks? 800,000?! This doesn’t add up. He never had a dime in his life,” I say. “How the hell was he sending you money?”
“He had his problems, the gambling being one of many. But even with his limitations, he loved you boys and knew he had to do right by you. I wanted to give this to you a long time ago, but you were gone. I promised I’d give it to both of you and now you’re here.”<
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“Mary,” I sigh and grab the briefcase. “I know they told you that you have ten days to live, but that doesn’t matter to me. You’re not dying yet. We’re going to the hospital.”
She protests, but she can hardly even move. I pick her up and walk out the front door, holding the briefcase alongside of her. “This is going to be a long walk,” I laugh. “But they’re going to fix your arm. And after you’re fixed, we’ll have the best eight days of your life.”
“You always were stubborn,” she says.
“That’s right.”
Emma
“It’s been two and a half hours,” I tell Gabe. “We should go back. We need to go back!”
“Settle down,” Gabe says. “He said three hours, so we’ll give him three hours. I don’t want us rushing in on a bad situation.”
“He’s your brother! Don’t you care at all about him?”
“I care, goddammit,” Gabe says, grinding his teeth. “You don’t think I care? I’ve been waitin’ for him to come home for the last twelve years of my life! Growing up, he was my best friend and then I lost him!”
“Then let’s go!” I plead. “If we don’t, he could be gone forever.”
“I’m responsible for everyone here, including my wife,” he says. “I’m not going to be the guy who gets the women killed. Not going to happen.”
Fuck it. I’m an emotional, crying mess. Julia, on the other hand, is still as white as a ghost and as silent as a mime. I think this situation has really shaken her up, and I’m not surprised one bit.
Gabe is pacing the room and chain smoking cigarettes. Every now and then, he switches on the news to see if anything is being said on the subject, but nothing has been reported. He eventually gives up and sits on the motel bed.
“We leave right at the third hour mark,” he finally says. “But we’re being careful about things. I don’t want to lose any of you.”
“Julia should stay back,” I say. She doesn’t protest.
Gabe looks at her and whispers something. She nods her head and starts bawling. He holds her and looks over at me, with a tired expression. He nods.
