by Connor Mccoy
Domino loaded the gun while Jacob turned around. A bearded man with a shotgun jumped out of the smoke and emerged into their crop row. When he saw them, he shouted at the top of his lungs. Jacob already was turning to fire and managed to squeeze off two shots that felled him before the gunman could take out Jacob or Domino.
“Damn. I was right,” Jacob said while he turned back around. That wasn’t Alex. If they didn’t get away, the remainder of Cramer’s men would close in on them and cut them off from the others.
But wait, was Alex even shooting at them at all? How close was their nemesis? Alex had shown himself to be clever as an outdoor fighter. He came ready to burn their fields. He also knew Jacob was hobbled by his leg wound.
“Doms,” Jacob said, “We’re almost to the end of the rows.” He stopped to cough again. “Alex might be waiting for us just ahead.” With all the smoke, it was hard to see more than a few feet ahead, and their visibility did not extend to the end of the crop rows. Open grassy fields lay just ahead. There would be no easy cover if they emerged from the crops.
“We have one chance.” Jacob whispered his plan into his wife’s ear.
“Got it.” Domino slowed her pace. Then she screamed at the top of her lungs, “Watch it, Jay, they’re coming up right behind us! Put everything you’ve got into it!” At the same time, Jacob made as much noise as he could, stomping his good foot and batting at the corn leaves near him.
Make as much commotion as we can. And then…
As soon as they got to the very edge of the field, the pair separated into two directions and dove for the ground. They aimed their guns off into the open air just ahead of them.
Jacob spotted a shadow crossing into view. The silhouette fired at the very spot Jacob and Domino had been moments before.
Jacob and Domino opened fire at about the same time.
A shout rang out.
Jacob screamed as well, his leg flaring with pain the moment he hit the dirt. But the other shadow also buckled and fell. Either his shot or Domino’s had nailed him.
The smoke caused Jacob’s eyes to water. He couldn’t stay here, but the pain was almost overwhelming. “Doms!” he cried.
His wife ran up to him. “Jay!” She coiled his hands around her right arm and lifted him up.
“I think we got him,” Jacob said with a grunt as he used whatever strength he had to rise.
“I saw him fall. You were right. He was trying to flush us out,” Domino said.
Jacob made it to his feet, but barely. He leaned on Domino to help him out of the crop rows. Sure enough, Alex was on his knees, grunting and moaning. He was trying to rise.
“Damn him.” Domino leveled her gun with her left hand. Unfortunately, her dominant hand was her right one, which was bracing Jacob. She couldn’t aim as quickly.
But then a feminine voice cried out. “Stop!”
Jacob turned his head. Josephine was dashing into view, her own gun drawn on them!
“Don’t kill him!” The fire in Josephine’s eyes seemed ready to bore through both Jacob and Domino.
“He shot Jay!” Domino gritted her teeth. “He’s trying to kill us! I don’t care if he’s your brother, he’s got to go down!”
By now Josephine had made it almost between the Averys and Alex. “I’ll deal with him! Now go!”
“No!” Alex suddenly rose to full height, though his body shook. Blood poured from his left shoulder. “I have to finish this!”
“Shut up!” Josephine now aimed her gun on Alex. “I don’t want you to die. But I’m not letting you kill anyone else, even if I have to shoot out both your hands and drag you back home on my shoulders!”
“Jo,” Alex said, “I can’t go back home. There’s nothing there for me. Nothing for me anywhere. This, this wilderness, this is where I’m going to die. Today, tomorrow, it doesn’t matter.”
“Stop it, Alex. You’ve got Cramer’s garbage stuck in your head. In a few weeks, when you’re home…”
“Jo, it won’t matter. Weeks, months, years, it’s not going to work for me. I was broken before I showed up. I’ll never be whole again. What the world took from me, I can’t get back again.”
Jacob wasn’t sure what to do. Alex, was he a desperate man? A broken man? An evil man? Josephine would not let them shoot him, but then what would she do if Alex tried to kill him and Domino?
Jacob coughed. The smoke was becoming unbearable. A choice had to be made.
But unfortunately, he had no more time to make that choice. Ray Cramer just had arrived, stumbling into the scene, smoke rising from his burned clothes. But the man was very much alive, and with a murderous gaze.
“How nice,” he said, “a field full of dead men. Oh, dead women, too.” He cocked a glance at Domino.
Jacob shifted so he would stand in front of Domino. “I think that’s a little soon to say,” he said.
“Oh?” Cramer chuckled. “I bet you’re the SOB who set that house to blow up. Fortunately, I hung back a little farther, though I guess not enough.” He winced as a fresh spurt of blood trickled down the side of his face.
“Cramer, these three are mine to deal with,” Alex said.
“Really? Why aren’t they kissing the dirt?” Cramer asked. “And where’s Greg? You really did let your student get away from you? And why isn’t your sister dead? My God, you have become a failure in every way.”
Alex trembled. Did those words cut him to the quick? Jacob wondered what Alex would do now.
“Oh well.” Cramer glanced at Josephine. “I wanted the pleasure of blowing her pretty face off myself.”
“You’re outnumbered,” Josephine said with a laugh.
“Am I?” Cramer asked.
Alex now had his gun pointed at his sibling.
Now it was Josephine’s turn to tremble. Evidently, she had not expected Alex to go this far. Damn, Jacob thought. This is going from bad to worse.
“Jay,” Domino whispered, “Get ready.”
Jacob might have asked “For what?” but then his wife pushed him down to the soil, back into the smoky crop field. Shots rang out, but by then Jacob was on the ground and not able to see what was happening.
He coughed again. He now was growing weak, and it was hard to be aware of his surroundings. His eyes grew heavy. Soon, the sky grew dark.
“Wake up!”
Domino’s shout was accompanied by a sudden gush of water in his face. Jacob spun his head back and forth to fling away the water and tried opening his eyes. Once he wiped his face, he finally could take in his surroundings.
Greg was standing over him. Domino, close by, sat with her hands cupped. Jacob was now by the small stream that ran near the back of his property.
“Doms?” Jacob wiped his face again to be sure of what he was looking at. “Greg, where did you come from?”
“He saved us. He was rushing toward us. He fired on Cramer. He helped drag you away from the smoke,” Domino explained breathlessly.
“And Josephine and Alex?” Jacob asked.
“I don’t know.” Domino coughed before replying further. “The smoke was spreading. I heard Josephine shout. I think she was hit but I don’t know who nailed her.”
Jacob tilted his head up. The smoke had obscured the view of his crops and any trace of his home. The fire was not only active but likely spreading.
“Hey!” Mrs. Kennan was running toward their position from the forest, along with a handful of the survivors. “You three having a picnic? Time to move your tushies!”
Jacob struggled to stand. He was too weak. He needed Mrs. Kennan, Domino and Greg to do it. Fortunately, his leg wound was bound with a rag. Either Domino or Greg must have done it.
“C’mon, Jay,” Domino said, “We’re going to make it. We’re going…” She caught herself. “I was about to say ‘home.’”
“I know.” The loss of his beloved farm finally hit home for Jacob. He blinked back tears. “I know.”
Chapter Nineteen
Jacob looked ou
t of the corner of his tired eye at his daughter. He had been drifting in and out of consciousness for the past few hours. Sometimes he was not sure if he was awake or dreaming.
He was startled by the image of his daughter. She was kneeling there, clutching the Cutie Bruiser doll that he had found in a pharmacy in Middleburg. Through his blurred vision, the teen looked several years younger. In fact, for an instant, Jacob flashed back to a time when Jubilee was eight years old and seated on the sofa watching the Cutie Bruiser cartoon show. He could even clearly hear the audio of the animated program through the television speakers.
“Dad?” Jubilee asked. Her voice sounded as young as Jacob imagined, but when Jubilee repeated her call, Jacob snapped back to reality, hearing the voice of his fifteen-year-old daughter, as he expected. “Dad?”
Jacob wiped some sleep from his eyes. “Sorry. I’m still a little sleepy. I guess I’ll be that way for a while.”
He looked down at his stretched out legs. His right leg was bandaged, the bleeding had stopped and the wound had been cleaned, but Sheryl guessed the ordeal of the battle with Cramer’s men plus the blood loss would leave him weak for a while. The Skylar survivors agreed not to push through the woods until Jacob regained some of his strength.
Jubilee crawled a little closer. “Simon said they nailed another one of Cramer’s men this morning.”
“Just one?” Jacob yawned. “They fought off three last night.”
“Maybe they’re finally going away.” Jubilee smiled faintly. “You blew up so many of them yesterday.”
Jacob scratched his right shoulder. “Yeah, I hope we put the fear of God into the rest of them. Without Cramer to lead them, and knowing we can put up a fight, they’ll probably just dissipate off into the woods.”
“Hey, I was wondering, did Mr. Cowell shoot Cramer? Or was it Miss Josephine?” Jubilee asked, “Or Mr. Greg?”
Jacob shook his head. “I don’t know. Your mom and I didn’t see. Greg’s not sure. He said it all happened so fast. He thought he aimed for Cramer, but he wasn’t sure if he hit Cramer or not.” His eyes widened. “Hey, where is Greg? I haven’t seen him since he helped me into the forest.”
“I’ve seen him a few times. He looks a little out of it, like down in the dumps. I don’t know, but I think something’s wrong with him,” Jubilee said.
Jacob steadied himself. “Maybe we should find him, talk to him. He saved my life. I should thank him.”
Greg placed the pails of water near the ground where Krysta reclined. Her two boys raced to the two metal buckets with their open canteens. “I promise none of us peed in the stream,” Greg said, but he joked weakly, not able to muster up a laugh.
“Thank you,” Jamie said politely as he filled his bottle with the water.
“H20 extraction commencing!” crowed Ford as he filled his own bottle.
Greg backed away, his eyes on Krysta. He was glad the boys were in high spirits. However, Greg had felt anything but joyful in the past day. As the boys filled up on water, Greg walked up to Krysta.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything about Josephine. Nobody has seen her. I—I’ve tried looking for her, but Cramer’s men still are lurking out there, and they’ve chased me back to camp a few times.”
“It’s okay,” Krysta said. “If she can, she’ll catch up with us.”
The two of them paused for a moment until Greg said, “I didn’t see what happened to her. I wish I did, but…”
“You had to save the Averys,” Krysta said. “You did what you could.”
The affirmation from Krysta warmed Greg to his toes, if for just a moment. “If we have to leave, do you think the boys will be okay? They were attached to Josephine. This might be hard for them.”
“They’ll be alright.” Krysta sighed. “I’m…I’m sure.”
Greg bristled. He wondered what Krysta was thinking. “I suppose it would have been better if she returned,” he said. “She was better than me, I know. Better than me in just about everything.” He turned away and took a step back to the forest.
“Greg.” Krysta stood up completely. “I appreciate what you did yesterday. Please, don’t sell yourself short. I know you did your best. That’s what I always wanted.”
Greg turned and beheld Krysta’s eyes. Her words of encouragement helped, but it wasn’t enough, not yet. He muttered a “thanks” and left.
About a minute later, after Krysta had watched Greg walk off into the forest, the leaves of the tree behind Krysta stirred. With a yelp, Krysta spun around, but a familiar feminine face was there to greet her. “Josephine!” Krysta cried out.
Ford and Jamie put down their bottles and ran to her. “The protector is back!” Ford cried out.
Josephine smiled. “Hey, you two.” She kneeled down, slowly, allowing the two boys to rush to her. “Don’t hug me too hard. I’m a little weak.” She let Ford and Jamie have their turns at hugging her.
“I knew you were invincible!” Ford pumped a fist. “Nobody can destroy our protector!”
“That’s right.” Josephine chuckled. “Well, maybe not all invincible.”
“Did you get shot?” Jamie quaked a little.
Josephine rolled her eyes. “I probably got nicked a little bit.” She pinched her fingers a little. “I was a little busy patching myself up. That’s why I was gone all night.”
Krysta exhaled. “Thank God you’re alright. I was afraid that you were, well, that you were gone for good.”
Josephine took a step forward. Krysta noted the limp in her step. Josephine’s approach allowed the sun to dapple on her face, showing the pale color in her cheeks. Krysta’s heart raced. Josephine was not well.
“We’ll be going back to Fall Crossing soon,” Jamie said. “When Mister Avery is better.”
“Oh, how are Jacob and Domino? And their kids?” Josephine asked, perking up at the mention of the Averys.
“They’re okay, but Mister Jacob got shot in the leg,” Ford replied.
“I spoke to him early this morning. He’s getting stronger. He wants to head off as soon as possible, maybe today,” Krysta said. “And his family, they’re great. We didn’t lose anybody except for Trang Nguyen.”
“That’s wonderful.” Josephine wobbled a little. She steadied herself on the nearby tree. “It’s all great news, except for losing Trang.”
“He blew up the bad guys.” Ford then expelled a “Boom!” while spreading out his arms.
Josephine nodded. “Sounds like he helped us win the day.” She leaned a little more in Krysta’s direction. “And Greg, he did good, too. He helped us take out Cramer. I think some good sense finally is penetrating that thick skull of his. Maybe he can make a good life for himself in Fall Crossing. I think he deserves another chance. I would be fine if he went back.”
“Me too.” Krysta threw up her hands. “But I don’t know if he and I, if that could work…”
“Don’t worry about it. I think Greg’s got a lot to learn about being a good provider. If he becomes a good man, a worthy man, we’ll see. But if not, I think he’ll do fine in whatever life he finds for himself.”
Krysta smiled. “Right.”
Josephine clutched her side. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t stick around. I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing.” Glancing back at the boys, her eyes grew sad. “I’m afraid this is where the protector has to ride off into the sunset.”
“You’re leaving us?” Ford asked.
“No!” Jamie chimed in just as quickly. “Please, don’t leave us!”
“It’s important. Josephine has someone else who needs her. This might take me away from Fall Crossing for a long time.” Josephine swallowed. “Perhaps a very long time. I might miss seeing you two become taller than me.” She chuckled. “And miss seeing you two grow up and become the lady killers I know you’ll become.”
Jamie sniffled. “But I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to either.” Josephine squatted down. “But som
etimes things like this need to happen. We don’t always travel the same road. Sometimes one of us has to go down a different path. So, I want you two to be brave for me and your mom. You’re going to be her new protectors.”
Krysta’s throat caught. Her two boys held onto Josephine with muffled sobs. As her children hugged the woman, Krysta wondered what Josephine was hiding.
Once Josephine finally released the boys and stood back up, Krysta asked, “Joey, are you…”
“I’m fine,” Josephine said curtly, squelching Krysta’s question. “You don’t have to worry about me. I don’t want you ever to worry about me.” She reached out and took Krysta by the shoulders. “Thanks for sharing your boys with me. I never got the chance to have my own.”
Krysta reached out and pulled Josephine in for a tight hug. “Watch yourself, Joey,” she said with tears streaming down her face.
A short while later, Josephine hobbled through the woods with a smile. Krysta and the boys would be fine. She had a good feeling.
The happy thought was enough to muffle the agony from her side, a continuing reminder of the bullet she took in that part of her body. Did the bullet strike an organ? Was she bleeding to death inside and she didn’t know it?
If so, thank God I was able to say my goodbyes, she thought.
Her left leg bent as she put her left foot down. She quickly steadied it. She had taken another shot in her left thigh, though it did not feel as bad as her side. Perhaps she would survive. Perhaps the wounds, though serious, would heal up over time.
She could not say the same for someone else she knew.
A mound of leaves loomed ahead at the base of a tree. Once she approached the leaves, she brushed them away, revealing the form of Alex Cowell. The man looked up at her tiredly. To her relief, he was still there.
For the moment.
His face looked sickly, white in places, green near the top of his neck. She didn’t have to tell him what he likely knew—he would not survive for very long. Absent a fully functioning hospital, the kind that operated before the EMP, he had no chance.
