Grunting, he hurled his rifle at me like it was a damn javelin. I leveled my gun and squeezed the trigger at the same time.
The bullet hit him in the shoulder and his gun flailed in my direction like an angry baton. It slammed into my face and I fell back, dropping my gun a second time.
I could taste the warm metallic hint of blood as my mouth radiated in pain. But I ignored it and scrambled after the pistol. It slid across the floor coming to a stop at Steven’s feet a few yards away.
I paused as he slowly knelt and picked it up. Holding the pistol like it was cursed, he swallowed and took a deep breath. His rifle was propped against the wall behind him and neither firearm was within my reach.
Steven stared at the gun then to me then back to the gun, over and over. His hands shook with fear and dried tears cut rivers through the dirt on his face. In that moment, he reminded me of my son so much. The innocence in his eyes, the uncertainty. He was nothing more than a boy that desperately needed his mother.
“Steven…Steven just hand me that. Okay?” I said lowly.
“Steven, you shoot that bitch,” the other man groaned as he pushed himself off the floor.
“I don’t wanna do this anymore, Ted,” Steven said with a break in his voice.
“Just, just give me the gun, Steven,” I whispered and reached my hand out.
I could hear Ted behind me, shuffling toward me, huffing in pain. I had seconds, maybe less to get the gun from Steven. I didn’t want to hurt the boy, but I wasn’t gonna die in a dusty, old warehouse.
“Steven, give me the gun!” I raised my voice.
“Shoot her!” Ted roared. “Shoot her now! You wanna die in this fucking city? You wanna die like your mom did, like your dad did? You shoot this bitch, Steven and let’s get the hell out of here.”
Steven twitched with every punctuated word Ted shouted. He was likely to shoot me on accident as his hands quivered with fear and indecision. But I’d had enough, a child was not going to decide my fate.
I pushed up from my knees and leapt at Steven. Stretching my fingers, I reached for the gun, but an explosion erupted in my ears and I ducked my head. Blood drenched my face like someone had thrown a bucket of it and Steven’s body fell to the floor in front of me.
“No!” Ted shrieked as his words were swallowed by several more gunshots.
I turned around as his lifeless body fell into the shelves then hit the ground. His face was still twisted in an angry snarl and his eyes were wide with shock. Ragged holes in his chest and neck pumped that last bit of his life onto the filthy floor.
“MJ,” Craig called out. “MJ, you okay?”
I looked back at Steven, blinking as his blood ran down my forehead and onto my eyelids. The bullet had torn through his head, leaving his face unrecognizable. His empty shell lay crumpled on the ground like trash, like a broken mannequin.
“MJ…you okay?” Craig called again.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m good,” I mumbled.
I straightened up and wiped the blood from my eyes. With a deep breath, I walked over to Steven and pulled the pistol from his lifeless hands. “He was just a kid,” I said to myself in a voice barely above a whisper.
“Close call,” Craig grumbled. “Come on, we’ve gotta get out of here.”
He grabbed my arm and started to pull me toward the door. I paused and looked back at Steven one last time. He shouldn’t have died there. None of them should’ve died there.
Sighing, I followed Craig out of the warehouse. It was quiet now, at least the racket of constant gunfire had ceased. Dead bodies lay everywhere, and Craig’s team was already heading back to the hangar.
“We’ve gotta be quick,” Craig said to me. “They’ve almost breached the gate.”
“I thought they already did,” I replied and looked around.
“No…these guys made it through an auxiliary gate at the back. Main gate was still up, but we’re pulling all of our guys and getting the hell out of here.”
I nodded my understanding and sped up. We quickly made our way back to the hangar where they’d already started re-fueling. People were hurrying around like nothing ever happened and Toby was standing near the front of the plane, looking wide-eyed and bewildered.
“Oh my God!” he shouted as he rushed toward me and grabbed me by the shoulders. He brushed his hands across my face and swept the hair from my eyes, staining his hands with Steven’s ruined life. “Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”
I didn’t answer. I locked eyes with Grayson as he slowly walked over. Something welled up inside of me and my eyes started to tear. I collapsed into Toby’s arms and buried my head into his chest.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” he repeated over and over.
But it wasn’t. Everything I touched, everyone I encountered turned to dust. I was a pariah, a cancer that couldn’t stop no matter how hard I tried.
I took a few deep breaths and swallowed my self-pity. Picking my head up, I whispered into his ear. “I love you.” Then I kissed his cheek.
“What were you thinking?” he asked.
“I was keeping you guys safe. Keeping all of us safe. It’s my job.”
“But MJ look at you. I can’t…I won’t raise Grayson alone.”
“It’s not my blood, Toby. There, there were kids out there, hardly older than Grayson.”
Toby gasped then swallowed his words. He looked up at the sky and let out a deep breath. Grayson wrapped his arms around my waist and squeezed.
“You okay, Mom?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“MJ!” Garner’s voice blared. “Can I have a moment?”
I looked across the tarmac and found him standing near the ramp to the plane. His lips were crooked to the side and his eyes were squinted, hiding a fury that I could almost feel.
“I’ll be right back,” I grumbled.
I made my way to the back of the hangar where there was a large basin sink. I turned the knob on the rusted faucet and let the water run for a few seconds. I wet my hands then rubbed them across my face before dipping my head under the cold flow.
Blood swirled in the sink before vanishing down the drain. It was the price of my safety, my ticket for another day alive.
“MJ!” Garner called again.
I turned the faucet off and glared at him. He nodded his head toward the plane and reluctantly, I followed him onboard. As I crossed the last step and disappeared into the cabin he whirled around like a mad man.
“What the hell were you thinking? What was that back there?”
“Sir? What did you want me to do, let them shoot the plane?”
“We have soldiers, we have men with guns here, whose only job is to shoot and get shot.
You’re not in the military anymore, you’re not a field agent anymore, you’re the damn deputy director of the DIA. I want you to let other people do their job!”
“Jesus, Tim! I’m not some washed up desk jockey. I can handle myself.”
“MJ, I told you before, your position is crucial!”
“I’m sure you can do it…I’m not the only one on that list.”
“No…no you’re not. But you’re on the list. I’m not, that was the point. We needed safeguards. If you die, we all die.”
“Stop being so fucking dramatic. Sarah, Secretary Morris, hell even Bruce can fill my role.”
He sighed and lowered his head into his hands. His jaw tightened and he sat down into one of the chairs.
“Tim? Secretary?”
“They’re dead, MJ. All of them are dead. The process requires at least three and there’s only four of you left, there were only four of you left. We lost coms with the sister site hours ago.”
I covered my mouth and leaned against the seat back. Sarah and I had come up together. From our early years in military intelligence, through the ranks of the Defense Intelligence Agency. She was like a sister to me and while we hadn’t spoken in a while, she was never far from my thoughts.
“M
ichael and Mason?” I asked.
Tim frowned then shook his head from side to side. I felt like I’d just been smacked in the face with a battering ram. It took me a moment to catch my breath and the wave of nausea to pass.
Sarah was a single mom. Michael and Mason were her twin boys, one year younger than Grayson. They all played together when we were both in town and were nearly inseparable. I couldn’t believe all of them were gone.
“Jesus,” I mumbled. “It wasn’t supposed to be anything like this.”
“It wasn’t even supposed to be happening now,” Tim added. “But here we are.”
“What are we doing about the pilot?”
“Co-pilot is still alive and one of the guys from central flew in Vietnam. Best we got.”
“Sir?” Craig called from the door. “All the men have pulled back, fueling is at seventy-five percent. It’s now or never.”
Garner cleared his throat and stood up. “Now it is.”
The dead had been moved into the hangar and covered with a tarp. It wasn’t the fitting farewell they deserved, but it was the best we could do under the circumstances. Judging from the quiet rattling of the ground, it wouldn’t be long before the entire base was buried anyway.
“You all buckled in?” I asked Grayson as I pulled against his waist strap.
He nodded and took a deep breath. I buckled my own seat then grabbed Toby’s hand and kissed his cheek.
“Ouch!” he groaned.
“Oh…sorry,” I said and loosened my grip.
I hadn’t noticed that I’d squeezed all the blood from his hand and smashed his fingers into a tiny bundle. The rumbling, groan of jet engines was enough to send me into a heart-stopping panic. Toby simply smiled at me as he shook his arm then placed my hand into his and covered it.
“I know, I know,” he whispered.
We started to roll down the runway and I looked out of the window. The recent gunfight had left the base decimated, but none of that mattered anymore. Soon it would all be swept away or swallowed by the Earth. It was hard to fathom that this was the last time I’d be seeing any of this.
As we sped up and started to pull into the air, I leaned my head back and took a deep breath. My stomach dropped and a gurgling sensation threatened to wake up any remnants of food that were still lying dormant.
I closed my eyes and dug my fingers into the armrest as the plane banked to the left. I felt Toby grab my arm and I smiled, trying to put on a face of confidence.
“We’re good. We made it,” Toby said as he patted my shoulder.
Opening my eyes, I looked back to the window as we soared past the base. Hundreds of people stormed onto the runway like ants in a crushed mound, but it was too late. We were gone and their friends were dead.
We climbed into the air, higher and higher until clouds became the ground. The plane leveled out and I breathed a shallow sigh of relief.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Toby suddenly groaned. “I mean this is really happening.”
We’d been through so much that day, I didn’t have the words to console him. All I could do was nod and lay my head on his shoulder. I was exhausted and I didn’t want to think about our grim future. I didn’t want to think about where we were going or how we were getting there. I just wanted to sleep.
The plane settled and we finally found a stretch of calm air. I glanced out of the window a few more times then leaned my head against Toby’s shoulder and closed my eyes. That was all it took and a few moments later I was asleep.
CHAPTER 16
FALLEN STARS
I awoke to the sound of alarms and a feeling of panic in the air, surging like electricity. The plane was shaking and rattling around as the lights flickered on and off. A terrible fear gripped me and I felt immobilized.
“It’s okay,” Toby whispered and grabbed my hand. “There’s a storm.”
A bolt of lightning flashed, and I felt my heart skip a beat. It was happening again, but this time there would be no river landing, there would be no survivors. We were all going to die in a fiery blaze.
“Storm up ahead and some pretty bad turbulence. We’re gonna be looking for a place to set down,” one of the pilots called out over the intercom.
I felt my chest tighten and clenched my fists. Breathing slowly, I looked out of the window at the dark sky. The sun had gone down and the lightning illuminated thick, drops of gray as we cut through the clouds.
“How long have you been up?” I asked Toby.
“The whole time. It’s been quiet until now. Storm came out of nowhere.”
“Grayson?”
“Sleeping like his mom,” Toby said with a smile. “I don’t think he’d wake up if we crashed.”
Frowning, I looked away.
“Sorry,” Toby mumbled. “Bad joke.”
I rubbed away the effects of sleep then looked around the cabin until I found Garner and Bill. They were seated in one of the lounge areas with worried looks drenched across their faces.
Biting my lip, I unfastened my seatbelt and stood up. Using the seat back, I steadied myself and took a deep breath.
“What are you doing?” Toby asked.
“I need to find out what’s going on.”
I pushed into the aisle and balanced awkwardly as the plane dipped again and pitched to the side. We were descending quickly, and I fought off the thought that we were about to crash.
Like a pinball machine, I bounced from seat to seat until I fell into a chair beside Bill. He raised his eyebrow then straightened up in his chair.
“MJ?” Garner said.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“You see it. I think you know more than most about what’s going on. Trying to get on the ground before it gets worse.”
I frowned. “Where are we?”
“Over Chicago. Gonna try and touch down at O’Hare.”
“And then what?”
Garner looked at Bill and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I snapped.
Garner smirked and took a sip from his coffee mug. The plane jumped and he spilled a bit down his shirt. The smell of liquor wafted into the air. “Oops,” he said then they both laughed again. “Oh, MJ it’s nothing…it’s just,” Garner paused and tipped the mug back. “You’ve always been the, and then what person. Other agencies turned to you to think outside of the box.”
I smirked and shook my head from side to side in disbelief. “You two are fucking drunk!”
“So, what if we are,” Bill retorted. “It’s about time we loosen up. If this storm takes us down, I don’t want to die sober.”
Garner nodded. “And enough of this Secretary Garner shit. My name is Tim.”
I gawked, unsure if I was angry or amused. Here we were barreling toward the ground in a refitted cargo jet and the highest-ranking officials on the plane were trashed. I guess it made sense, everything was out of our control.
“If anybody does die, I hope it’s you, Bill.”
He started to laugh. “She’s still pissed at me.”
“It’s gonna be a rough landing,” the pilot suddenly announced. “Everyone brace for impact!”
I jumped up and raced back to my seat. I’d barely got the buckle across my lap when the plane did a nose dive and I shot forward, slamming into the back of the seat in front of me. Toby grabbed me and pulled me back.
“Thanks,” I groaned as I clicked the seatbelt together.
“Dad! Dad, what’s going on?” Grayson shouted as he finally awoke.
“Everything is alright,” Toby replied. “We’re just landing.”
Grayson looked around the plane and gazed out of the window. He stared back at Toby then took a deep breath. “Why are we going so fast?”
“We’ve gotta get the plane down, Grayson. There’s a storm, a bad storm, and we can’t be in the air,” I replied.
Lightning flashed again and I could see the ground below. The city was dark except for a few small lights that might have been ca
rs. It looked dead and deserted, like we were flying into a ghost town.
The jet engines groaned as the pilot lifted the nose and we started to slow. My seat rattled violently, sending vibrations through my arms all the way down to my feet. I grabbed Grayson and Toby’s hands and mumbled a prayer under my breath.
Terrible noises filled the air. The sound of wind being torn apart as we shredded the sky like an angry dragon. A low grumbling whoosh droned louder and louder until it was the only sound I knew. The pressure squeezed my head like two massive hands nearly bringing me to tears.
“I love you guys,” I blurted out in an uncontrollable sob. “Toby, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything sooner. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” he said reassuringly.
I closed my eyes and envisioned the runway as it rose from the earth to greet us. I imagined slamming into the ground and bursting into flames. Fiery chunks of metal scraping down the tarmac like crumbs. I saw our death and I was helpless to stop it.
Swallowing, I clenched my jaw. The plane whined and shook, then with a loud thud we hit the ground and bounced. My head snapped back into the seat like someone had kicked me in the chest. A rumble sounded as the pilot applied the brakes and I lurched forward before being snagged by the restraints.
I swallowed gulps of air then buried my face into my hands. My tears of panic turned to tears of happiness as I groaned in relief. We were back on the ground and I was still alive. For a few minutes at least, everything was okay.
“Stay seated,” the pilot announced. “I’m gonna taxi us to the apron and see if anyone is home.”
The plane turned and we slowly rolled down the runway. Outside I gazed at the abandoned airport and wondered where everyone had gone. A few planes were parked out front of hangars, but nowhere near the amount an airport of that size would normally have. And while the rest of the city looked like a black swatch of fabric, the airport was shining brightly in the darkness. The runway lights were on, the terminal was lit up, even the sign over the rental car entrance flashed with an ominous intensity.
We’d landed in a ghost town. There wasn’t a sign of life anywhere. Only carts and unattended luggage trains littered the runway. Now the rain punished them as howling gusts pushed them across the tarmac.
Deconstruction- The Complete series Box Set Page 44
