by Max Lockwood
"We can't fight them on our own," she said with a look to Cooper. "You were right about that one thing."
"So, you're going to give up the whole idea?" he asked hopefully, though his face was cautious.
She shook her head and he sighed, leaning his head back against the seat. He crossed his arms, and she sighed at how much they mirrored each other in that moment in their stubbornness born of fear and anger. Cooper really did fit into her family well.
"It's all right this time. We're not doing it alone. We've talked to the neighbors and the police. I just came from the station. They promised to send some officers over to give us some help."
Cooper looked up at that. "You went to the police?"
She nodded. He pursed his lips, looking indecisive for a moment before dropping his arms and losing the tension in his shoulders.
"Well, if the police are involved, I guess it will be okay. They have more firepower than we do and the experience.”
Clara smiled, knowing she'd gotten Cooper on board. She was just glad that he agreed with her, now that the risk to themselves had been reduced significantly. He looked more than ready to cooperate with her, and she preferred that to having him angry. Tessa still looked wholly uninterested, but that was okay, too. Clara didn’t plan on making her sister a part of this after the scare she got last night.
"So, what's the plan?"
"Well, we don’t have a clear one yet. We are hoping the police will have something to say, some advice that they can give us on how we should deal with this. But at least this time when they come, we'll have some way to defend ourselves, and we'll have enough numbers so we might stand a chance of winning. Tess, I'll need you to stay with grandma and look after her, okay? You'll have to tell her all of this, too."
She felt a little guilty that she wasn’t going to do it herself. She still hadn't seen her grandmother yet after she'd convinced her to go back to bed after the women left. She could imagine the state Viola was in, and she probably needed some reassurance, but Clara would have to leave that to Tessa for now. She still had work to do before the officers came, more people to go out and talk to.
Tessa didn’t give any verbal reply. But she did turn to face Clara, even if it was to send her a glare. Then she rose and strode out of the room, and went up the stairs. Clara took that as her consent and let Tessa go, leaving her and Cooper alone together.
He still looked troubled, even knowing they had more help now. Clara sighed, wondering what it would take to convince him that this was the right thing to do.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked to get his attention.
He frowned at her. "What else, Clara? What happened last night and what's going to happen sometime soon because of it."
"We can't exactly avoid it, Cooper."
"Oh, yes, we could," he countered, standing up and pacing. "No matter how many people we have helping us, there is still a risk one of us could get hurt, or even killed."
"You already got hurt," she pointed out. "Because for once, you were the one to open your mouth when you should have kept it shut."
It was what got her hit on the cheek both times, talking back to people in a higher position of power than she. The first time, because they had guns; the second time because she was behind bars at the police station. It had surprised her when Cooper spoke up to those women, knowing her experience with doing the same thing.
She appreciated it, of course. Unlike her, Cooper hadn't been complaining about some injustice. Cooper had tried to tell the women they didn’t have anything in the house for them to take, and even though it didn’t amount to anything, at least he tried. He must have felt as afraid as she did, yet even she had kept quiet in that situation.
Cooper actually smiled at her, even though she hadn't been giving him a compliment. But then he winced and her eyes traveled to where his cheek was swollen before forcing herself to look away.
"It's all right," he said softly, probably noticing her slight flinch when she saw the injury on his face. "You know, I actually did it kind of hoping you wouldn’t, that time. I didn't want them paying too much attention to you in case they hurt you."
Clara sighed. She should have known it was something like that. Cooper was entirely too protective of her sometimes, but even though she was exasperated by it, a part of her was flattered that he thought so much of her. She stood from her seat and stepped up to him, touching her fingers to his chin and turning his face so she had a proper look.
As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t keep running away from it. Cooper had looked into her eyes after she'd gotten injured, so he deserved the same consideration, not her shying away from him.
"I'm really sorry they hurt you."
He scoffed and pulled her hand from his face. "It's not like it's your fault, so please don’t. Look, I'm going to support you in this thing. But please keep in mind that it's dangerous, all right? I won't forgive you if anything happens to you."
She grinned at him, threw her arms around him in a big hug, then pulled back. "It's fine. I need to go now and do my share. Michelle is actually helping me with this."
His stunned expression only made her grin wider. "Seriously? Michelle? I thought she was still mad at you."
"We've… settled the issue," she said, feeling uncertain.
Honestly, she couldn’t tell without asking, and she was afraid of an unfavorable answer so she wasn’t even asking at all. It was enough for her that they could work together on something this important without a fight breaking out. Actually, they agreed about a lot of things pertaining to the plans.
"Well, in any case, I need to get going. Please look after my family for me. I'll tell you if I hear anything more from the police."
She left the house and rejoined Michelle who had just left her house after giving Dante the news. They put together a list of the houses they'd already gone to, and divided the ones left between the two of them then went their separate ways to continue the preparations.
Evening fell before they realized it.
Clara, Cooper, Dante, and Michelle waited anxiously for the arrival of the women, hidden out of sight in their front yards.
Her heart couldn’t keep still, beating with the speed of a freight train as she waited with her body tensed for something to happen. There was no guarantee the women would even come back tonight. It was too early, but there was the chance they had realized it would be better to attack before they could rally. Or they went back and decided to be greedy come quicker for the food.
It had been the police's opinion, anyway. It had never even occurred to Clara to think they would be back in a day, had she been on her own she would have been thinking there was still time to prepare. She was so grateful to have the help, even more, grateful to have Michelle be her voice of reason. Clara was clearly still too naïve because she had thought they would eat the food they got before coming back for more.
Clara had hoped they at least had more time to prepare, but the anger in her blood wanted this to go down faster. Besides, they already had everyone present and ready for this, too. If it dragged on too long when they were already in place and waiting, how many more of them would be able to do nights like this before they got exhausted? If they could be done with this today, Clara would have one less thing to worry about. It helped a lot that this would be a way of getting revenge for those women's taunts.
"Will Viola and Tessa be okay on their own in the house?"
Clara turned to Cooper at the question. She couldn’t exactly involve them in all of this. The only words she'd spoken to them were to explain what was going to happen and to stay indoors no matter what. They were both worried, but they'd promised to keep hidden. Clara just hoped they would sleep through the whole thing, but it was too much to ask for if something did end up happening.
"They'll probably get scared, I'm sure they are now, but they should be fine." She hadn't been any more lax in her duties, making sure before she came back outside to join everyone else. "
I gave them instructions in case anything happened. I made sure they hid upstairs out of sight. They promised not to come out, and they're together, so hopefully, that will help."
It was the best she could hope for, really, that they could find some comfort in each other. She would have loved to be there for them, but she could protect them better being out here and making sure the problem went away, so they would have no reason to keep fearing that it would happen again.
Clara clutched a knife, wondering if she had it in her to fight. She would have preferred a gun, but she didn’t want to anger the police when she was already undergoing punishment. There were enough people properly armed to calm her anxiety, but she was having some second thoughts at the last minute. This had been her idea, to begin with, but even though her heart beat with excitement, part of it was fear, a great big part.
She remembered last night, and how useless she had been. She didn’t want to freeze again while others stepped up and did what she couldn’t. Cooper had talked back and gotten himself hurt, but at least he'd had the courage to do something. But because this time, the attack had been in her home, Clara hadn't been able to get herself to do anything, much to her shame. She had Cooper by her side, even though he was still injured, and she knew that if he hadn't been there she wouldn’t have a fraction of confidence she had just then, with doubts suddenly clouding her thoughts.
Clara reflected on how many people on the street decided to help. She had been right in her assessment. Once they learned that the police would be in on it, many more people had been willing to come out of their houses. Among those, Alice from down the road said yes even before the police were mentioned. She had children to take care of on her own, after all.
A few other people had weapons that could be used for the fight. Both men and women had come out to help, some more enthusiastic than others. Combined with the police, she had unbiased confidence that they might win this battle.
Clara realized that the community members cared about each other, at least the people of this neighborhood. She didn’t get around much herself, but her grandmother did, as did Michelle. There were those with doubts, but they had been willing to help when Clara and Michelle explained that it was for the good of all of them; for all their sakes. They were willing to protect each other, despite the risks. That thought filled her with warmth, and hope for the future.
It made her more comfortable about staying in the area. Aside from a few bad apples, it really was the best place to live. If they monitored people and continued with their volunteer efforts, the town should make it, if only for a bit longer than some of the towns she had seen before. She'd visited a few towns, much larger than theirs where the residents had already fallen beyond reason. She was grateful that her neighborhood wasn’t quite so bad, yet. Hopefully, it would never be that bad, if we are lucky.
When they heard a car engine, they stiffened, getting into place. Clara almost couldn’t believe they had shown up. She wondered if it was arrogance or overconfidence that had them coming back so quickly. If they had waited a while, kept second guessing themselves, the outcome might have been different for them.
Everyone to be involved in the fight, including the officers that had come with extra guns and ammo, were hiding all down the street. The plan was to ambush them before they even realized what was happening and take them down. It was brutal, but the police weren’t any more interested in showing mercy than she was, knowing if they left them alive, they would risk getting killed themselves. Allowing any of them to escape meant they could come back with reinforcements. There wasn’t anything they could do if they chose to flee because they had a vehicle on their side, but they were all to open fire on the enemy until every last one was down or they were too far away if they did run.
There had been a few people that suggested the possibility of talking it out, but Clara didn’t think that was an option. Besides, who would take the first step, knowing these women were crazy, had weapons, and wouldn’t hesitate to use them. Not even the police were willing to consider that option because of the high risk involved.
But when the car showed up, there were more people than the previous day. The car was stopped a short distance from Clara's house, and her hand tightened around her knife. It wasn’t all that clear, but it was late evening and there was a van with large windows so they could see, and there were many voices coming from the within when the loud engine shut down.
Everyone began to panic.
Clara watched as some of them abandoned ship and headed back into their houses. She wanted to curse, even though her own heart beat in anxiety, as they burst out of their hiding spaces, effectively killing the element of surprise. They basically alerted the women that something was going on, and Clara could have strangled them. She couldn’t see how many had run off without coming out of hiding, so she stayed put, Cooper a coil of tension beside her.
A woman got out of the van with a handgun, leaving the door open, though no one else followed.
"Hey! If there are any of you still out there, I suggest you come out of hiding! Anyone who retaliates will be punished severely!"
With that, more people came out of their hiding places, and Clara did curse this time, her voice practically a breath. She couldn’t blame them for turning coward to save their own skins, but it burned at her blood that they would run like that. Her body was too stiff, almost to the point of being painful. Her brain was trying to rationalize her doing as the woman said or just going back inside the house and hiding where her family was. It was the sane thing to do for most people when faced with danger.
She didn’t plan on doing the sane thing, though. She couldn't even claim to be all that sane because she was doing all of this to protect her family and to get revenge. If she did nothing, what happened last night would keep on bothering her. She just couldn’t let it go. So, she watched as other people turned tail and ran, but Clara gritted her teeth and stayed.
After the risk she'd taken already, there was no way she could just turn away from this now. Fear or no, she had too much to lose.
When all the people present saw those women taking things out of her house, despite how ready they had all been to rally together to help, she was sure this was what would turn her family into the pariahs of the neighborhood, no matter what the outcome of the night was. She wasn’t just protecting their supplies. The objective was to keep it all a secret. Dante had, thankfully, not said anything about it, he hadn't even asked. But letting more people in on the secret would be a bad idea.
It was probably not a good reason to be doing all of this. Just thinking it in her head made her feel like she was some villain in a soap opera. It shouldn’t matter what other people thought, but the truth was, it would affect them. Especially with how things were now. This was a good indicator that they needed to depend on each other. If her family fell out of favor with the community over this, they would be getting no more help from them, and that was too important to give up.
Of course, it would be all over anyway, if the women decided to talk before any action started and let it slip. The police hadn't gone to her house, thank goodness, after she'd told them her grandmother and her sister both had mental health issues and were too distressed to see any strangers. It was all true, but it got her out of the problem. Because all it would have taken was them making it to the kitchen and seeing the shed out back, seeing the newly boarded up doorway, with the broken pieces of the door leaning on the side of it. They might have asked questions, and she might have given the game away.
Besides, she didn’t want to live in fear of a bunch of psychos. She'd had the idea before, that if this didn’t end here, it would go on for too long. It worried her that the woman just stood there, the car left idling while the other women stayed inside. She wondered what they were thinking, what their plans were. Could they really be talked down?
But no. In the tense silence, one more person broke out of their hiding place and ran to their door. She watched as the wom
an raised her gun to aim at whoever it was, but they had the door closed before she could make the shot. These women could not be reasoned with.
Clara wasn’t the only one left not backing down. Cooper didn’t move, and neither did her neighbors. In fact, when Clara looked around, she noticed both of them with their guns at the ready and taking aim.
Michelle shouted "Now!" and fired the first shot.
Chapter Five
The gunfire began, and Clara was shocked by how loud it was.
Once Michelle called out and made her own shot, others followed her lead. The woman that had been standing outside fell to the ground, but then the others were shooting from inside their van, only a few of them coming out. The silent stillness was quickly lost in so much noise Clara had to curb the urge to cover her ears so she wouldn't have to hear it all.
Clara had to hand it to them, though. Either they were all very brave, or very stupid, that their first thought was to shoot back instead of just driving the van away and going back where they came from. Of course, that would be bad for them, so Clara knew they couldn’t be allowed the chance to flee if at all possible. Clara watched, and heard, glass from the car windows and windshield shatter under heavy gunfire.
The ones that stepped out of the van went down in short order. Shots were coming at them from all sides when they couldn’t even see well, and everyone on her side was hidden while the women were sitting like comfortable targets in the middle of the road. Still, more of them came out of the van, but never more than one or two at a time.
Cries came from all sides, some shouted instructions that she couldn’t make heads or tails of. The situation escalated so quickly, and all Clara could do was sit back and wait for an opening to jump in. Cooper's hand was suddenly wrapped around her upper arm to keep her right next to him and from jumping into the fray.
