“You’re right. Tonight is about resolution.” She repeated the word ‘resolution’ in her mind as she rolled the kill pill gently between her fingers while staring down to it.
TWENTY-SIX – PENULTIMATE
March 13 – Day 328
Amarillo, TX
It was a strange feeling to Rachel. She truly believed that if ever faced with the reality of her death, she would be scared. But that wasn’t the case as she walked down the hall with Yates and Stafford and one other armed guard. Rachel felt at peace.
She rolled the kill pill around her mouth like a tick tack, trying to resist the urge of prematurely biting it like she used to do with a cough drop or life saver.
“You two aren’t being mouthy today,” Stafford said. “Not feeling as cocky.”
“Stafford!” Rigs’ voice carried down the hall.
His sharp exhaled breath sounded annoyed as he turned around. “Rigs.”
Rigs approached them.
“Look, I saw your little display of strength out there,” Stafford told him. “We aren’t scared. I even let you in when I didn’t have to. I do thank you for moving the EPEV closer for us.”
“We aren’t here to scare you. They’re here as assurance and the EPEV, it’s yours. Take it. I’m sorry Al …”
“Please, one last time, it’s not Al,” Yates said.
“You can make another,” Rigs said. “Your lives are more important.”
“Another?” Yates asked. “Do you know how long it took me to make that one?”
Stafford shook his head. “Not gonna work, Rigs. We’re getting that EPEV anyhow, and we’re ready for you guys if you decide you’re gonna storm this town. It’s embarrassing the way you folks are begging. Right now, they have a challenge to meet.”
Rigs nodded.
“Rigs,” Yates said. “I swear to God, if you don’t kill this asshole after all this. Someway. Somehow, I will haunt you.”
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Rigs replied and turned to Rachel.
“Hey,” she said softly. “Please know it has been a pleasure and honor serving with and knowing you.”
Rigs shook his head. “It’s not over. Don’t give up. Just …” He placed his hands on her face. “You grab what you can as fast as you can. Okay? Don’t delay. Grab what you can as fast as you can. I’ll be outside. By the fence. You got this.” He backed up, turned and walked away quickly.
Yates tilted his head and looked at Rachel. “That has got to be the strangest advice I have gotten. We have our weapons. Grab what?”
“Maybe our wits.”
Stafford nudged them forward.
“Now is not the time,” Yates said. “For him to be philosophical.”
Rigs literally had to run to get to the playground fence before they led Rachel and Yates out to the yard. As with the dead challenge, four armed guards in padded suits were present inside the fence. He guessed they were there to put down the dogs after they finished off Rachel and Yates.
He was the only one outside other than them. He stared up measuring the height of the fence, then he grabbed the flashlight. He knew not to do anything with it too soon.
“I’m in position,” he spoke. “Do you have me?”
He was ready for it, but the shock still made him jump.
“Four inside with weapons. Do you see them?”
Another buzz, another jolt.
Rigs cringed.
The door opened and Rachel and Yates were moved out by Stafford.
“Give them thirty seconds after I’m inside.” Stafford turned, went back to the school and stood behind a metal gated door, allowing him to see and call out his command.
“Rach and Yates are out here. See them?”
Buzz.
“There’s another armed guard outside the school.”
Jolt.
Another wince.
“Double hit me when you’re locked on.” Rigs slowly unscrewed the bottom of the flashlight, inconspicuously letting the cap drop down.
Buzz-Buzz.
“On my call,” Rigs said,
“I wish he wasn’t there,” Yates said. “He’s twitching. He must be nervous.”
“Don’t look at Rigs,” Rachel told him. “Focus okay. Don’t lose sight of what you have to do. You have the kill pill?”
“On the side of my mouth.”
“I wish I would have gotten to know you better, Yates.”
“Same. And thank you for this.”
Rachel raised her weapons, as did Yates.
It wasn’t much of a sound that anyone really would have noticed. A slight sound or more so a sound like a fast whiffle bat through the air. The noises that followed couldn’t be ignored. They came fast. Thud-crack, thud-crack. The double tap shot to the chest and helmet, quick and efficient took down all four padded guards in the yard. The last one falling just as he opened the gate to the Growlers.
Stafford’s loud shout of, “No!” rang out across the yard. “Rigs!”
By the time the fourth had fallen, Rigs had the piece together.
Instantly, Rachel spit out her pill and spoke rapidly. “Grab what you can as fast as you can. Shit! Yates, their guns!”
The Growlers sped forth bumping into each other, paws sliding on the pavement, as Rachel and Yates both ran for the guards.
Pop. Pop. Rigs took down one, then another.
Three feet away, Yates dropped to a rolling slide at the guard, grabbing his automatic weapon, and swinging it around to fire just as a Growler lept for him.
When Rachel lifted the pistol from the guard, she expected to be tackled by one of the dogs, instead she saw they went after Yates.
She shot one, then another as she stepped his way. Yates fired off another round, it hit the growler in the chest. The animal rolled back, gained his stance once more and lunged for Yates.
Rachel picked it off a second before the growler had him.
“Rachel!” Yates called out in a warning.
She spun around and would have been able to get the final dead animal that came her way, but a bullet to the head took it down immediately.
Was it down? Were there anymore? She looked over at Yates, then saw Rigs climbing over the fence.
“You son of a bitch!” Stafford charged out of the building armed and aiming at Yates. “You son of a bitch.”
Rigs was only halfway down, when he jumped and raced over to Stafford, holding his weapon steady. “Drop it. Drop it now!” He walked closer putting the gun as near as he could to Stafford’s head. “It’s over.”
Stafford turned around to face Rigs.
“It’s over for you,” Rigs told him. “All these sick twisted games. Done.”
Stafford lowered his rifle just a little and Rachel stepped from behind him and took it. She stood next to Rigs.
Still holding an aim on Stafford, Rigs lifted his radio from his belt. “Are you in?”
“Copy that,” Barry said. “We’re in.”
“Go on,” Stafford told him. “Shoot me. What are you waiting for?”
“No.” Rigs shook his head. “No need to. Right now, as we speak our people have entered your town. They’re disarming your men and taking control. Eventually you’ll be executed, but not by my hand.”
Rigs said what he needed to say despite what he wanted to do. He was proud of how in control he was. He was expecting some snide comment from Stafford. What he wasn’t expecting was the fast ‘whoosh’ sound that preceded the clean slice through Stafford’s neck that took his head from his body. His head landed at Rigs’ feet, his body remained standing for a second or two before it, too, finally fell. Rigs looked up from the head. Yates stood holding his sword.
“Really?” Rigs asked. “Really?”
“Fuck him.” With a slight spin of the sword, Yates, placed it in his sheath. “It was a good speech though.” He took a step forward and stopped. “Oh my God. Fuck.”
“What?” Rachel asked.
“I bit the pill.”
&nb
sp; “Oh shit. You bit it?” Rachel freaked out. “Oh my God no.”
“I did. Wait. Did I?” Yates tilted his head in thought. “No. I swallowed it or spit it out. I didn’t bite it. I’m good. I need that drink now.” He walked from the yard.
“Oh, that was close,” Rachel said. “Whew.”
“What pill?” Rigs asked.
“Don’t worry about it.” Rachel took a few steps to follow Yates but stopped. “Rigs?” She looked over her shoulder. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, but Rach …” He followed. “What pill?”
TWENTY-SEVEN – SEASON FINALE
Liz sent teams into the town and they were met with little if any resistance. A Sweep Team Captain even commented that it was nice to not have to go into a city and shoot. The hecticness was dying down as a lot of the troops pulled out.
Rigs double checked the RV for supplies, and just kept shaking his head at Yates. He stood by his EPEV playing that expensive guitar, singing the parody version of American Pie that Rigs had started. Everyone that walked by him stopped to listen and tell Yates how cool the song was.
He didn’t stop playing, then again, the original song was nine minutes.
“Jealous?” Rachel asked as she approached Rigs.
“Nah, I like it. I never could figure out the chorus.”
“Yeah, and it just came to him.”
“He’s written like three more verses. Kasper would be proud.”
“Yep,” Rachel agreed. "Kasper would be proud.”
“You think Yates will be okay?” Rigs asked.
“I think he’ll be just fine.”
Barry stepped from the RV. “Sandy is ready. I think it’s getting late, we need to find a place to settle for the night. Liz thinks we should take some R&R, maybe talk about that before we hit Weatherford and finish Stroud.”
Rachel nodded. “Sounds good. Let’s uh … go say goodbye to Yates.”
The three of them walked over to him.
“Hey,” Rigs said. “We’re getting ready to go.”
“Oh.” Yates stopped playing, stood up and took off the guitar.
Rigs extended his hand. “I want to thank you and wish you good luck.”
“Wish me … wish me luck?” Yates asked. “I thought … never mind. No, wait, I thought I would be on your team now.”
Rigs looked quickly to Rachel and then Barry. “Really, you want to join the Flaming Saffrons?”
“If you’ll have me.”
“Only,” Rachel said, “if you don’t rely one hundred percent on your tech mobile.”
Yates held up his hand. “I promise that. After fighting with you, I see how important it is not to lose your edge.”
“Good.” Rachel extended her hand. “Welcome to the Flaming Saffrons, Yates.”
“You know what?” He winked. “You guys can call me Al if you want.”
“I don’t know,” Barry shrugged. “Not gonna be as fun if it doesn’t annoy you.”
Liz inched in. “Excuse me, hey, I’m getting ready to roll out. Rachel, can I speak to you alone, please?”
“Um sure. Go ahead guys, I’ll catch up.” Rachel joined Liz and walked off a few feet.
“Well,” Rigs said while he exhaled. “Why don’t we go tell Fred and Sandy while we wait for Rachel.”
“Sounds good,” Barry replied as they headed back to the RV. “Get ready to roll out once she gets back. I really want to set up camp early.”
“That R&R may not be a bad idea,” Rigs stepped in first.
“Maybe we can work on the remaining verses,” said Yates.
“What’s going on?” Sandy asked when they entered.
“Meet our newest team member,” Barry said. “Al is joining us.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful, I am so glad.” Sandy gushed.
Fred asked. “How are we doing the RV thing? I mean his is really nice.”
“Why don’t we take both,” Barry suggested. “We can combine into one when we check in with command in Oklahoma City.”
“Sounds good,” Rigs replied. “Fred, why don’t you ride with Yates and get ready to take off when Rachel is done talking to Liz.”
“For sure. His AC kicks better than a mule in a mud bath.” Fred saw the looks he got. “I need to teach you people some of these sayings.”
As he stepped to the side door, Rachel appeared.
Rigs saw it right away, she looked shocked. “Rach? Everything okay?”
Slowly, Rachel stepped inside. “Um … we need to report back to Center City in six weeks.”
“What?” Rigs asked. “I thought that going east to Eliminate stuff was in the past?”
“It’s not for that. Seems, Dr. Stevens contacted Liz. He made progress and wants us to do a test run.”
“With?” Rigs asked.
“Kasper.”
“Hold on,” Barry said. “Kasper is … dead.”
“Ish,” Yates added. “Dead … ish. That’s what Rachel said.”
Rigs just stared at Rachel. “They want us to bring Kasper with us as a test run.”
“Yes.”
“Kasper.”
“I think it will be fun. All of us together and with new members. Think of him as a special version of Kasper,” Rachel said excited. “Oh and wait until he hears the new words to American Pie.”
“Uh-huh.” Rigs turned. “Barry, let’s go.”
“Rigs!” Rachel shouted. “You didn’t give an answer.”
And Rigs would not. In fact he didn’t know what to say. He just continued getting the RV ready to roll, pretending that the inconceivable subject was never brought to his attention. But how could he ignore what he heard or even not think about it? After all, it was Kasper. The dynamics of the team weren’t the same since they lost him. Admittedly, a part of Rigs was a bit curious how things could be if the special version of Kasper would come back.
FLAMING SAFFRONS LOG
March 13
Day 328
Entry: Jeremiah Rigs
We really aren’t very good at being diligent with these logs. In our defense, we had a rough couple of days. We are, however, back on the road, back to our mission of being Eliminators.
With two new members, a high-tech new vehicle at our disposal, and a new theme song, I think we’re ready for whatever lies ahead of us.
Things are different, not just the faces, but the way we look at things, the way we will do things.
Our goal as Eliminators is to not stop. To keep going until we can’t go anymore. To do all we can to rid the world of the risen dead and make it safe. We are driven to make the world a better place. Each of us carries a heartache we wish would go away and the memory of loved ones we never want to forget.
It’s a pipe dream to think we can make it some sort of happy utopia. Where everything is roses and happy. We learned the dead aren’t the only bad in this world, and no matter how much we do, we can get rid of the dead, but never all the bad.
So, all we can do is keep moving and keep trying, onward to whatever adventure the road ahead will bring.
<><><><>
ELIMINATORS Volume 3 Available fall 2020
NOTE FROM AUTHOR
If you’re curious about the Eliminator Pride Parody of American Pie, you can listen and view the lyric here. Sorry, I’m the one singing.
ELIMINATOR PRIDE
Also for more info on the Flaming Saffrons, visit them on Facebook
THE FLAMING SAFFRONS
Thank you so much for reading this book.
Please visit my website www.jacquelinedruga.com and sign up for my mailing list for updates, freebies, new releases and giveaways. And, don’t forget my Kindle club!
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