by Connor Mccoy
Sykes was so startled by Arnie and Sheryl’s cries that he jerked his arm upward as he fired his gun into the room. He spun around in Arnie and Sheryl’s direction. “Son of a bitch!” he cried.
Sheryl raised her own weapon, but only got off one shot at Sykes before Sykes returned fire. However, at this distance and in this darkness, neither one of them scored a hit.
“Hey!” shouted Jacob’s voice from the window. “Doms, are you alright? Are you hit?”
“Jay?” Domino called out, “Is that gunfire?”
“Shit!” Sykes turned back to the window.
“No!” Sheryl fired back. Sykes, ducking his head, ran off toward the other end of the house.
Arnie was trembling. “Shoot…shooting? Why shooting?” he asked. “Bad, bad man?” The man’s mind was trying to piece together the current situation.
“Arnie, Sweetie, go back inside.” Sheryl took Arnie’s arm. “Sykes is here.”
“He hurt nice Miss Domino, Miss Sheryl?” Arnie asked, “Mister Jacob too?”
“Yes, yes, he will. And he’ll hurt you too. So, please, hurry inside!” Sheryl turned to the door.
Arnie’s fists shook. “No! He won’t hurt you, won’t hurt you!” Arnie then broke into a run after Sykes.
“Arnie!” Sheryl cried, “For God’s sake, come back!”
Chapter Twenty
Jacob and Domino had hit the floor soon after that loud pop awoke them from their sleep. The pair, confirming that each of them had heard the bang, crawled toward their bedroom door. If there was a shooter just outside of their window, they had to hurry out of the room and into the hall.
“Jubilee!” Jacob cried, “Brandon! Sheryl! Courtney!” He had to warn them, and quickly. If the shooter showed up outside of their windows before they took cover…
The instant he hit the hall, he rushed to Jubilee’s room, which was the nearest one. The teenage girl already was up and at the door. “Dad! What happened?!”
“A shooter, Baby. Probably. We don’t know,” Domino said breathlessly as Jacob hurried to Brandon’s room. His son just then was arriving at the door.
“Brandon!” Jacob closed in on him. “Keep away from the windows!” He passed by his boy on the way to the den. “Sheryl! Courtney! Arnie!”
Jacob nearly ran into Courtney, who was bounding toward him from the other end of the hall. “Mister Jacob!” she cried over and over again.
“Easy!” Jacob took hold of her. “Where’s Sheryl and Arnie?”
Courtney fought to speak amid her rapid breathing. “Outside…now!”
Sykes nearly tripped as he rounded the corner, ending up in the front of the house. The moans and heavy footfalls followed him. That man didn’t sound right in the head. Coupled with this darkness, the pursuing man sounded like a bogeyman.
He was so flustered that he didn’t see the front gate until he slammed into it. He bounced off it so hard that he fell flat on his back.
“Shit!” Sykes rolled onto his side. How the hell did his plan go so wrong? His targets were right in front of him. He had fought his way all the way here. Now it all was crashing down because of some woman with a gun and whoever the hell was chasing him.
His primal instincts were taking over. Escape. He had to escape from here. He ran along the fence, but the darkness made it hard to discern if there was a gate handy. No, he would have to climb over.
“Dammit!” He started climbing onto the fence. “Dammit!” His foot slipped. He wasn’t gaining traction.
The shout of that man rang through his ears. Sykes turned. He was here!
“Holy shit,” Sykes whispered. The man wasn’t any more visible than a moving shape in the front yard.
“You!” the man shouted. “You bad man? You beat on nice Mister Jacob?”
What the hell is going on with this guy? Is he screwed in the head? Sykes couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You stay back, boy. Run along now,” Sykes said. The man let out a moan that sounded equal parts fear and rage. It jolted Sykes down to his bones.
“Wait a minute!” Sykes finally pieced together who this guy was. “Arnie?” He was so stunned that he didn’t recognize him before, though he had spent little time in Arnold Lerner’s presence and was content to pawn him off to others when he could.
“Sykes?” Arnie spelled out the word as if remembering a long lost relative.
“Yes! Yes! It’s me! It’s me, your friend, Jimmy Sykes. I picked you up when my boys and I found you wandering on the road! I brought you here to live!” Sykes patted his chest. “Jimmy’s your friend. You know that.”
“Friend?” Arnie approached, a little slowly.
“That’s right, boy. You know I’d never hurt you.”
Arnie was close enough that Sykes could recognize the rough outlines of Arnie’s face in the starlight. “But you shoot gun in house. Why?”
“I was coming to save you, boy. I thought you were in trouble,” Sykes said. “Guy and Terri are gone. Did those people in the house kill them?”
“No! No!” Arnie pointed to the land over Sykes’ shoulder. “They go. I have new family now.”
“Well, they’re not your family, Son. I am, and I need your help. Now, what you got to do is…”
“Arnie!” Sykes turned his head. That woman who had shot at him arrived, and she still was packing.
“Miss Sheryl?” Arnie asked.
“Arnie, get away from him!” Sheryl shouted, her gun trained on Sykes. “He wants to hurt us, to kill us! Don’t listen to him!”
“Sheryl, huh? You’re the little spitfire who’s trying to mislead my boy here?” Sykes said. “Arnie knows I’ve taken care of him, housed him, fed him. He knows who his real friend is.”
“Arnie, Baby, this man is a murderer! He…he hurts people! He’s trying to trick you!” Sheryl cried.
Arnie looked back and forth between Sheryl and Sykes. “But…Miss Sheryl, Miss Domino, Mister Jacob, they are nice to me. But Jimmy is too.”
This sucker’s confused as hell. That’ll keep him from doing anything stupid to me, Sykes thought. But can I get him to turn on that lady and the rest of that bunch?
Then he thought of something. I know what button to push.
“Arnie, boy,” he said with a silky tone. “That woman’s got a nice cup of coffee for ya.”
Arnie’s eyes widened. “Coffee?”
Sheryl was puzzled. I have coffee for Arnie? What did that mean?
Suddenly, Arnie roared. “Coffee! Coffee! No, don’t hurt Arnie!” Arnie suddenly rushed toward Sheryl. “No coffee!”
“Arnie, what’s wrong?” Sheryl cried as Arnie closed the gap. He was so out of control that Sheryl had to flee onto the house’s front porch.
“That’s it, boy. She’s out to get you! She’s going to splash your face good with hot boiling coffee just like your old man!” Sykes crowed.
Sheryl then remembered what Courtney had told her about Arnie’s father. “Sykes, you bastard!” Sheryl called out. Sykes was using Arnie’s past traumatic history with his dad to sway him.
Arnie was closing in on her. The confused man easily could kill her if he got his hands on her. Sheryl kept running. “Arnie! Stop!” Should she shoot him? There was no other way she could stop him unless he heeded her words, and right now it didn’t seem likely she could get through.
However, she didn’t get to plan her next move. She was so frantic to escape that she tripped and fell off the other side of the porch, landing on the grass. The next thing she saw was Arnie looking over her from the porch.
Sheryl screamed.
Arnie clenched a fist—but he hesitated.
Fear paralyzed Sheryl. What was Arnie going to do?
“What’s going on, boy?” Sykes approached the other side of the porch. “It seems the cat got your tongue, or at least your leg.”
Maybe he doesn’t think I want to hurt him. Sheryl figured she may have a chance to dissuade Arnie. “Arnie! Don’t listen to him,” she cried. “I n
ever would hurt you. Never!”
“It’s all a lie, boy. You think these folks really are going to keep you around? You know what you’re really like, Son. It takes a firm hand to keep you on the leash, and that hand is me.”
Sheryl sat up. “What he’s really like?” she asked Sykes.
“Arnie here has a history. He knows it. It’s swimming around in that malfunctioning head of his, even if he can’t spit it out.” Sykes slowed his pace short of the steps to the porch. “Your pop. He was mean to you, wasn’t he? You took care of him one day, didn’t you?”
Arnie shivered. “He…he hit me.”
“And you hit back, nice and good,” Sykes said. “When you finally got big enough that you wouldn’t take it anymore.”
Before Sheryl could speak, Jacob and Domino arrived from the east side of the house, fully armed with rifles. “Sykes!” Jacob cried.
Sykes swung his gun toward the nearest target—Arnie.
“Now, don’t come any closer,” Sykes said. Jacob and Domino halted in their tracks. “That’s right. You stay right there.”
Arnie looked at Sykes and uttered a “Huh?”
“Don’t worry, Son. It’s just a little game. It’s a game of chicken. If these folks care about you, they’ll back off. If they don’t, well…” Sykes chuckled.
“Sykes, leave him alone,” Jacob said. “He’s basically a child.”
“A child who can squeeze your heads like a cantaloupe.” Sykes backed up toward the fence.
“Believe me, I’d be doing you a favor taking him off your hands, but I’m willing to gamble that you’re too soft-hearted to let me do that.” He quickened his pace. “Now, where’s the gate out of here?” He glared at Sheryl. “You there, Missy. Over here. Find the gate and unlock her for me.”
Sheryl climbed to her feet. Jacob pointed to the fence near the driveway. “Over there,” he said grimly.
Sheryl hurried over to it. Jacob added, “I need to give her the key.”
“Throw it to her,” Sykes responded.
Jacob complied. He fished the key out, took a few steps closer to Sheryl, and tossed it to her.
“Now, get the beauty open.” Sykes stiffened up. “Now!”
Sheryl fumbled for the lock. It wasn’t easy in this darkness.
“What do you think you’re going to do now?” Jacob asked. “It’s pitch black out there. You don’t have your truck. Your men are gone.”
“The only thing I care about is getting away from here with my skin intact. It’ll be a tough night, but I’m sure I’ll find someone who’ll lend me a hand.”
“Jay, we can’t let him go. He’ll come back with another truck and more men,” Domino said.
“You really flatter yourself,” Sykes said. “You think this trash heap and you all who live in it will be worth risking my neck again?”
Sheryl loosened the lock. With the lock unbound, Sheryl pushed open the gate.
Sykes backed up toward the gate. “Well, Sweetie,” he chuckled, “I know there will be a few less to worry about when I do come back here.”
He spun around, aiming his gun at Jacob and Domino.
Sheryl screamed. She raised her gun but was too late to stop Sykes from shooting. However, at that moment a shadow crossed Sykes’s path, a big one, belonging to Arnie Lerner.
Sykes fired off two bullets before Arnie got in his way. Sykes retreated as Arnie closed in. He didn’t get away in time. Arnie grabbed Sykes’s leg and pulled him down.
Sykes shouted. “Get off me, you son of a bitch!”
Arnie clung to him. “Not let you hurt Mister Jacob!”
“Jacob?” Sheryl looked up. Jacob was cradling his right shoulder. Sykes had nailed him.
Domino was beside him, but Jacob ushered her away. “Stop Sykes! Help Arnie! I’m okay! I can handle it!”
Sykes raised his gun at Arnie’s head. Domino didn’t have a clear shot.
Pop!
Sykes’s head dropped onto its side. Domino did not have an opening, but Sheryl did.
Sheryl quivered. Did she get him? She ran up to Sykes. His arms fell slack. The gun fell out of his hand. His face was frozen open in silent death, blood trickling out of the back of his skull.
Arnie started groaning. “Arnie?” Sheryl rushed over to him. The man released Sykes’s body, showing off his right leg. It was bloody. Sykes had hit him.
“Quick, we have to tie off the wound.” Jacob cried out in pain. “Let’s…let’s hurry.”
The next few hours were an ordeal of bandaging up the wounds and stopping the bleeding. Jacob’s gunshot wound wasn’t hard to deal with. The bullet mostly skewed over his shoulder and impacted somewhere else, not lodging in his body. Arnie was another matter. The bullet was likely in his leg somewhere, plus, the bleeding was profuse.
Jacob feared the worst for a while. He longed for Doc Sam’s presence. Fortunately, Sheryl was on the case. She worked on Arnie’s leg, barking orders for stitches and disinfectants as she did so. She was unflappable, even as it seemed Arnie was in serious trouble.
“Thank God you got those antibiotics, Jacob!” she said as she looked up from Arnie’s leg.
Arnie himself lay on a mat on the floor, semiconscious. Jacob had acquired the antibiotics Sheryl had used on Arnie from a pharmacy in Middleburg as part of his supply run for Doc Sam. The people who had taken over Sam’s house allowed Jacob to take the antibiotics with him as a goodwill gesture.
“He seems to be stable for the moment. Hopefully, the antibiotics will kill any infections that latched onto the wound.”
Jacob heard footsteps. Courtney, Jubilee and Brandon were back from their latest tasks. No doubt they were eager for news.
Sheryl smiled softly at them. “Don’t worry. It’s looking better, but I’m going to stay with him all night.”
“Thank God,” Jubilee said.
Arnie started bobbing his head back and forth. “Miss…Sheryl?”
“I’m here.” Sheryl inched closer to Arnie’s head. The man turned to look at her. “How are you feeling? I’m sure it hurts. We gave you some medicine for the pain.”
“Sykes…gone?” Arnie asked.
Sheryl nodded. “He is. You saved Mr. Jacob and Ms. Domino. You saved us all.” Sheryl’s voice caught. “Thank you.”
Arnie’s mouth dropped open for a moment. “I…I did good?”
“Yes, you did!” Sheryl laughed with joy. “You did, Arnie!”
Sheryl’s patient lifted his head slightly. “Arnie a good boy.” Then he smiled briefly, but it was, in Jacob’s mind, a prize-winning smile. Then he settled back down, his breathing easing a little.
Jacob leaned closer to his wife. “Courtney told us Arnie had a rough life. I wonder if anyone’s ever praised him before. It must have meant a lot to him.”
“I’m sure it did.” Domino embraced Jacob, but carefully, slipping her arm around his waist so she wouldn’t brush his bandage. “I’m sure it did.”
Several days passed. No more of Sykes’s men came to bother the Avery household. Jacob began thinking the menace of Jimmy Sykes finally was over. Now they could worry about getting on with life in a world that had turned much more difficult and hostile.
Arnie continued resting after his ordeal. The news continued to look good. Sheryl was confident Arnie’s wound had not become infected. The man was regaining his strength and could soon try walking again.
On the fifth morning following the battle with Sykes, Jacob joined his wife at the kitchen table. Their routine seemed just the same as it had been before the EMP, with the only exception being the loss of lights and electricity. But by now such creature comforts were ceasing to matter.
“I was thinking.” Jacob narrowed his eyes. “And don’t say ‘run for the hills.’” Domino giggled as she sat down beside her husband.
“We should try to check out some of the nearby towns. Sheryl and Courtney have settled in nicely here and Arnie is doing much better. We need to see if maybe the communities have managed to surv
ive or pick back up.” He stared at his coffee cup. “It’d be nice to know if some of our friends have managed to survive. Or Brandon’s and Jubilee’s friends.”
“I hope so.” Domino reached into her pants’ pocket. She was holding a folded-up list. “I wrote down everyone I could think of. I don’t want to forget anybody.”
Jacob took the list and unfolded it. “A lot of these people are near Skylar. I think that’s where we ought to start.”
Domino sank back in her chair. “We both could go this time. When you had to go to Middleburg to get the medicine for Doc Sam, it was almost unbearable not having you around. If you have to check Skylar, I want to see it with you.”
She nodded to the open door to the kitchen. The sounds of the kids plus Sheryl emanated through the kitchen’s screen door to the outside. “Besides, we do have a babysitter now.”
“That’s true,” Jacob said. A trip to Skylar with Domino. That sounded like a solid plan.
Find out what happens in part four! Coming Soon!
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