by Hadena James
Finally there was Aislinn Cain. Her deeds were the most nefarious. There were a string of bodies and brutal assaults connected to her. All of them in self-defense. She just seemed to attract the wrong kind of people.
What bothered Nick the most was that this had been the easy to find information. He’d found more broken links searching for their backgrounds than he’d ever seen. Even paying for the ability to do a background check on them, brought up little information. He felt robbed as it had cost him $49.95 per person and that was all he’d found out. It didn’t explain the scars he’d seen on Reece or Cain. Nor could he understand why the internet, with its vast resources of user input, would be mostly void of anything except a handful of newspaper articles.
Nicky, it doesn’t matter. After tonight, none of it will matter. You have two jobs, do them and move on. The SCTU is not your concern.
That voice. Nick was sitting in the parking lot of the fair in Quincy. He’d slipped in earlier and planted the first two bombs. He was amazed at how easy it had been. All his prep work of creating an ID badge to say he worked there had been for naught. No one had bothered to look at it or ask him what he was doing. There’d been no sign of the SCTU.
He’d been up late the last two nights working on the plans and bombs. Timers were tricky things. The explosive mixture had been even trickier. It wouldn’t do to have it mix early and blow up his house or his car.
Tonight, there wasn’t a bag to carry into the fairgrounds. Just himself and he easily went through the process of paying for entry and surprisingly, being frisked. They hadn’t been searching people on Thursday. However, they must have increased their security since all the bombs had been set on weekends.
A large cowboy hat covered his face from the cameras. He’d seen a handful on his previous visit, near large rides, looking for suspicious activity. It made him smile to think they were worthless. The biggest explosion would be in the only logical place and they didn’t have cameras there.
He checked his watch, ten minutes until ten. Walking slowly, he went to the concession stand and bought cotton candy and a lemonade. The band was in full swing, the music beat against him, even outside the grandstand. A few lines of a song caught his attention. They had a great headliner this year. An up and coming country singer that everyone seemed to adore.
At the Kiwanis Club food counter, he found a table and took a seat. The show was about to begin. He checked his watch again. He’d need to act shocked. He’d need to act frightened. He hoped he was up to the task. If he wasn’t, he’d just sit here and eat his cotton candy and watch the entire place burn to the ground.
The first bomb exploded near an exhibition barn. For some reason, there was a large propane tank there. He’d set the bomb near the propane tank. Flames illuminated the sky, towering over what was left of the exhibition barn. The flimsy metal building had collapsed like Lincoln Logs when the bomb exploded. Fire spread across the dry summer grass. Bits of hot metal rained down from the sky.
Action time, Nicky. The voice told him. Nick just sat, mesmerized. He’d seen the aftermath of his work on TV, but he’d never seen it happen live. A shock wave hit him. It wasn’t hard, just a blast of hot air mostly. He’d seen it coming, racing towards the entire Kiwanis crowd, debris and dirt making it somewhat visible. It had happened so fast though.
Rides were screeching to a halt. Riders were screaming to be let off. Those near the bottom of the rides were panicked, trying to get their children off. The operators were doing their best to maintain control, but it was nearly impossible.
A flash of someone he knew. Xavier Reece was running towards one of the rides. One of the rides where he had planted a bomb. Nick’s eyes darted to the ride and found Aislinn Cain was already there. She grabbed a little girl and nearly threw her to a man standing a few feet away. Nick checked his watch. She had a minute, maybe less to clear the ride before she and the riders were gone.
The last person was pulled off the ride. Reece and Cain began to run, shoving the crowd towards the nearest exit as the ride exploded.
How’d they know it was that ride, Nicky? Nick couldn’t answer the voice. They hadn’t been busy evacuating any other rides. They had gone specifically to that ride, like they had known. Perhaps they had figured it out.
A few of the ride’s cars were flung outwards, they slammed into the crowd. Reece went down. Cain immediately stopped to help her fallen partner. Nick stood up and sipped the last of his lemonade. One more to go.
A large ride called a Catapult, shuddered and collapsed. Beside it, another ride, the Tilt-a-Whirl, began shedding its cars. Screams became louder than the shearing and tearing of metal. The security guards were now rushing into the chaos. Paramedics, fire fighters and cops in uniform were filling the area inside the fences. They were trying to direct people away, direct them to safety.
Seeing it, in person, it was breath-taking. Smoke billowed into the sky. Screaming people and metal wrenching were music to his ears. Fires sprung up in several places.
Nick calmly walked towards the exit. Not too fast. He didn’t want to be in the parking lot. The place was already packed. Cars were started, people were trying to get as far away as possible.
The third explosion happened in the trunk of his car. This shockwave was powerful. People in front of him were knocked off their feet. The cars immediately next to his were just gone. A hazy cloud of toxic fumes began to filter into the air.
The cars trying to get away suffered shattered windows immediately. Several burst into flames. People began exiting their vehicles, trying to run away. The fireball was too large, too fast. It engulfed them.
Nick got to his feet in time to see a woman exit a car. She was on fire. The flames had engulfed her completely. The burning figure screamed and sank to the ground. It was a special scream. He’d never seen or heard anything like it. It thrilled him.
The screeching of metal wrenching itself free, caused him to jerk his head around. The Ferris wheel was toppling over. It landed with a deafening thud on top of the bumper cars and merry-go-round. His eyes found an arm a few feet from him.
His work was done. He looked around one more time. Aislinn Cain was staring at him.
Panic now, Nicky.
Nick followed the advice of the inner voice and took off running.
Chapter Twenty
“Don’t you dare die on me!” I shouted at Xavier. He was bleeding from several places. Pressure wasn’t stopping the blood flow. I searched his pockets for the magic powder he always carried and came up empty.
“In the truck,” Xavier moaned.
“Damn it!” I shouted. “This is going to hurt like hell.” Next to me was a chunk of the ride that had exploded. It was still hot. My hands burned as I grabbed it. Xavier screamed as I shoved it against the worst of his wounds. The blood flow slowed there, then stopped. I did it to a second spot.
“Stop!” He pleaded. “Oh god, stop.”
“You are going to bleed to death if I stop,” I shouted at him, tears sprang to my eyes. I pressed it against a third wound. He screamed and passed out. A paramedic appeared next to me.
“He takes blood thinners for a heart condition,” I told the paramedic. “Usually he carries this white powder that helps his blood clot, but he doesn’t have any on him.”
“Ok,” the paramedic grabbed something from his bag. He worked on Xavier, getting the blood flow to stop. “This is only temporary. We are going to have to get him to the hospital, now, if he’s going to live. I’ve got him, go help some others.”
I turned to look around. The Ferris wheel was collapsing. The parking lot was on fire. My gaze found Nick, the uncle of the little girl from earlier in the week. He was alone and he didn’t seem all that concerned about the place going up in flames. I tried to stand and chase after him, but my leg didn’t support me.
“Whoa,” the paramedic grabbed me. “You aren’t going anywhere with that.”
“It’s fine,” I used him to stand up. A chunk of
colored metal protruded from my leg.
“Don’t pull that, you could be blocking an artery.”
“I’ll live. You just make sure that he does,” I told the paramedic and showed him my badge. I jerked the metal out. It bled for a few moments and then stopped.
“Do you two have the same blood type?” The paramedic asked.
“No,” I answered. “I’m A negative. He’s AB Positive.”
“Shit,” the paramedic pulled something out of his bag. “What’s his name?”
“US Marshal Xavier Reece of the SCTU.”
“Oh,” the paramedic gave me a quick look. “Go find your killer.”
“Ace!” Lucas shouted at me as I left Xavier in the hands of the single paramedic.
“He’s hurt bad, Lucas,” I told the giant. “Really bad. I know who our bomber is.” Lucas moved towards him. “You and I can’t do anything for him.”
“I have to...” Lucas stopped.
“We’ll deal with it later. When I catch this son of a bitch, I’m going to drive my foot into his skull so hard, his teeth will come out his ears,” I told Lucas.
“I’ll help,” we melted into the crowd.
There were body parts everywhere. Chunks of metal and glass littered the dead, the dying and those fighting to survive. Lucas had basic medical training as a Marine field doctor. I did what he told me, trying to save lives. Another explosion rocked the fairground. The heat seared my back as I covered up a child that was bleeding from a head wound. Lucas did the same to an older woman who had lost her hand. The unconscious child was holding it. After the heat stopped rushing over us, I took the hand from the child and tossed it to Lucas. No need to further scar the child by having it wake up and find mommy’s hand detached.
“Ace, are you all right?” Gabriel suddenly appeared.
“Help me with this,” I pointed to the child. I was holding pressure, but my hands were starting to ache. Gabriel took over. As we swapped places he let out a gasp. I looked at my hands. The flesh had holes in it. They weren’t bleeding, the burning was too bad to allow that.
“Oh my god, Ace,” Michael said. “Come on, let’s get you to the hospital.”
“Later,” I waved him away. There were still things I could do at the fairground. I moved to the next person. There was a metal spear sticking out of his chest. His eyes were open, but vacant. I closed them and moved to the next. Another child, another dead body.
Four more bodies in different states of destruction. Blood coated me from head to toe. It soaked into my jeans, making them heavy. My black T-shirt clung to me, the outer shirt had been green, but had become a sickly brownish color. Very little of it was my own blood.
I leaned in close to another victim. She gasped as my arm touched her. Gurgling noises emanated from her throat. Blood bubbled out her mouth. Chances were good that she couldn’t be saved, but I shouted for help anyway. A paramedic came to me after a few minutes. He took her vitals and shook his head at me. He moved away. I held her hand and waited. It didn’t take long. Her chest gave one last small heave, her body shuddered, blood oozed out her mouth, running down her check and her face went slack. Using the back of my hands, I closed her eyes and moved on.
The rescuers worked tirelessly. They moved around the field with swiftness, shouting for help when they found someone alive. Their faces held concern. I had checked at least fifty people, only seven had been alive. There were still bodies strewn about. Every once in a while, some piece of equipment would suffer a failure and we’d have to dash away from another falling carnival ride.
Firemen worked to help people and put out fires. Survivors wandered around, their eyes almost as vacant as those of the dead. Occasionally, one would collapse and a rescuer would run over. Most of them were in shock and had years of therapy ahead of them. The rescuers would fair only slightly better.
The sheer number of dead was overwhelming. The cries were dying down though. The injured were being rushed to hospitals in anything that could hold them. A helicopter had landed a few minutes earlier, not one from a hospital, but from the National Guard. One of the large, twin rotator machines. They’d loaded four stretchers into it. It was taking off again and another was preparing to land.
My hands were numb. My leg hurt, but not as much as it should have. The burns were overshadowing it.
“Your turn,” Gabriel came up to me. The upper torso of a child lay on the ground in front of me. The bottom was on the other side of a piece of sheet metal. It had gone right through the tiny body, the cut was so clean, it almost didn’t look real.
“There are still people I can help,” I told my boss.
“Marshal, that’s an order. You’re burned, you’ve been stabbed, you’re covered in blood, you need to go get your wounds cleaned and dressed before they become infected and you lose your hands or a leg.” Gabriel took hold of my shoulder and spun me around to look at him. “Xavier’s in surgery. You and Lucas are both going.”
I looked at my hands. They were bad, but they could have been worse. I held them up to him.
“I can still use them,” I pointed out.
“But your back is almost as bad, Ace.”
“I didn’t get burned,” I stopped, remembering the searing heat.
“Your shirts have melted to your skin. Lucas too. You both have to go, now. I should have made you go earlier. They are going to take you by chopper.”
“Fill it with the more injured first,” I told him.
“You qualify as among those in need of immediate medical attention with life threatening injuries, Ace. Lucas has already collapsed. They took him away a couple of seconds ago.”
“Ok,” I said. Gabriel pointed to the landing helicopter. “Go now, Cain, we’ll finish up and met you there.”
I didn’t wait for him to tell me again. My feet moved without input from my brain. My shirt wasn’t sticking to me because of blood and sweat, it had melted to my body. My hair was probably gone then.
“Marshal Cain?” A paramedic said to me as I neared the helicopter.
“Yes,” I told him.
“We’ve got room for you, but only just,” he looked at me. “You might be uncomfortable with that burn on your back.”
“I’ll be fine,” I told him. With help, I got into the flying contraption. Helicopters weren’t my favorite thing. I could fly in a plane, but helicopters freaked me out a bit. Better to think about that than my back. I wanted to look and yet, I didn’t. If I couldn’t feel it, it was because either I was numb from being a sociopath or it had burnt the nerve endings. The first was far less likely.
As we began to ascend, a flash caught my attention. It wasn’t at the fair, it was near a house. Muzzle flash I realized. My brain went into panic. I started shouting and pointing. Someone finally gave me a headset. I told them I had seen muzzle flash and that someone needed to respond. No one seemed to take me seriously and I was helplessly trapped inside a helicopter with four people on stretchers, three sitting up, but wounded like me, two medics and two national guardsman.
Chapter Twenty-One
“No,” I told the doctor. He frowned at me. His eyes narrowed with anger. We were arguing over whether I was going to be anesthetized for the removal of my skin. I was positive that it wasn’t happening. The doctor seemed to think this was a bad idea. I longed for Xavier. He’d fix it, he’d make the doctor listen and remove the burnt flesh with just a local.
But Xavier was still in surgery. News of him might come at any moment. I was not going to be knocked out when we learned if he had lived or died.
“Marshal Cain, I can respect your position, but this is going to be one of the most painful things you have ever endured. You need to hold still for it and a local isn’t going to be enough,” the doctor told me yet again.
“She’ll be fine,” a deep voice said. I didn’t turn to look at Malachi. His presence was proof that the situation was bad. “You can do it without a local and she won’t move.”
“She has second de
gree burns,” the doctor bristled.
“That’s why I went through decontamination before entering,” Malachi told him. “I’ll hold her arm, she’ll be fine.”
“Any news?” I asked.
“Not yet,” Malachi answered.
“When did you get here? Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be dealing with Plague in California?”
“We were in the air when the first explosion happened. I made them turn around,” Malachi answered. “When I got to the fairgrounds, Gabriel said you’d just been taken to the hospital. They put Lucas into a coma to do this procedure. His burns are a little worse than yours. We think he may have tried to shield you and the victim he was protecting.”
My throat felt tight. The giant moron hadn’t needed to try to protect me. He was tough as nails and his pain tolerance came the old fashioned way, he’d earned it. Trying to protect me had been silly. I could withstand just as much, if not more, than the lump.
“Ace?” Malachi walked around to look at me. His hand gently touched my face, cupping my chin. “Lucas will be fine. You need to get this done. Every minute it stays this way is more pain and recovery time. You’ll have to stay in the burn unit for several days already.”
“Ok,” I said as he wiped a tear off my face.
“Gabriel will let us know as soon as they hear anything about Xavier. I’m going to sit with you during this, it is going to be painful, but I want you to concentrate only on me. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” he moved a chair to the head of the table. I lay down on my stomach. A nurse put a pillow under my chin. Malachi put his hand on my face again, wiping away another tear. His fingers came away smudged with soot, dirt and blood. Something cold that stung touched my back. It was painfully soothing. Malachi moved, dropping his face so I could see him better. His hands found my arms and he cradled them at the elbows.
As the doctor and nurses worked, Malachi talked. He didn’t really say anything. He relived memories of our childhood together. He told me stories that I hadn’t heard before about things he’d done without me. His voice soothed me. When the doctor began to cause me serious pain, Malachi’s grip tightened and his voice dropped an octave. It became more lyrical and his words were almost melodic.
