by EE Isherwood
“Carmen, maybe you could entice him out,” I suggested.
“Eww, I’m not sleeping with him.”
I double-blinked. “What?”
“Oh, sorry. I misunderstood what you said. I thought you wanted me to entice him, like prostitutes do on the street corner.”
“Good God, no,” I replied with emphasis. “I just meant you could play good cop to my bad cop. Offer his friends an out. See if we can peel away some more of his allies. I find it hard to believe anyone would want to stick around in there if they couldn’t drink water or take showers.”
“Good point.” Carmen moved to the hood of the car, giving her a clear path to see the upstairs windows.
“Hey, everyone up there. My name is Carmen. I actually live next door. Frank really is going to shut off the water and it won’t take long for your house to break down into anarchy. I know I couldn’t go one day without taking a shower or washing my face. Is that how you want to live?”
She chuckled.
“Frank has this EMP thing figured out. He’s making good decisions. Helping us plan. I’m sure if you come outside, we can help take care of you and maybe even send you home. Frank did the same thing for your other friends yesterday. If not, we’ll make sure you’re fed and taken care of until we can, okay?”
After about twenty seconds of silence, Carmen gripped her hair with both hands to lift it off her shoulder for a moment. She’d been doing manual labor in the intense morning heat, so had good reason.
“You’re wasting your time,” Trevor huffed. “I’ve got a small army up here, and they aren’t going to do shit for you guys. I guarantee it. Just leave us alone, and I won’t have to make you regret messing with us.”
It was one of the worst bluffs I’d ever heard.
“Just come down, guy,” Carmen said in a thick accent. “We only want to help.”
Trevor guffawed in his window.
Moments later, there was movement happening next to the garage. As the day before, a pair of women ran down the driveway, followed by two guys.
“Nice work, Carmen,” I said. “I think you talked some of them out of the house.”
“I am good,” she replied in a happy voice.
The small group came over to our position.
“Will you really help us?” one of the girls asked. It was Bonnie, the one who’d turned over Trevor’s two pistols. She was blank-faced like before, as if she’d been through trauma, but there was still a light in her eyes. Freedom was important to her.
“We didn’t sign up for this,” a young man added. “Trevor’s a good dude and all, but he’s been trippin’ balls since yesterday, and his decisions have been totally sus. Now I just want to go home.”
“I wouldn’t say he’s a good dude,” a second girl replied.
“How many of you are left up there?” I asked.
“Right now, it’s just Trev and Pike,” the same man answered. “He’s blowing mud telling you there’s an army up there.”
“Really? Are you sure? I thought there were a lot more of you guys.”
Almost thirty of them had been on the lawn the day before, and about twelve had left with Mitsi. There should have still been another ten or fifteen in the house.
“There were,” he answered, “but a lot of them peaced out overnight. Trevor went somewhere after dark, which was the opportunity everyone was waiting for. A bunch of them ran through the backyard and into the woods.”
“The woods?” I imagined a gaggle of young people heading out into the dark forest. Would they have the skills to navigate, or were they still wandering around out there? Their fate concerned me somewhat, but it also took the pressure off my immediate problem since it meant there wasn’t a group of armed men waiting to ambush us from inside Trevor’s place.
“Yep,” he replied. “They figured it was safer than knocking on your doors at 2 a.m..”
“We wouldn’t have turned ‘em away,” I said.
“You should know,” Bonnie interrupted. “I wasn’t with him all of last night. He and I weren’t…”
“Don’t worry about it.” I touched her on the shoulder. “I could tell he had you reading from a script. You did more than enough by helping remove his guns.”
She flashed a weak smile.
“We bailed because we saw how you helped our other friends walk out of your neighborhood,” the boy added. “We watched them leave from our windows and knew we were missing out. Trevor was pretty pissed at that point, so we didn’t want to make things worse.”
“I can imagine,” I admitted.
Trevor cursed in a loud voice, then he came to the window.
“What are you guys doing?” he asked. “You’re leaving? Bonnie? What the hell?”
“We have to go home, bud,” the man next to me called up to the window. “Thanks for letting us crash there for a couple of nights.”
“Yeah, thanks for nothing!” Bonnie shouted.
“We have to go,” the young man said to Bonnie and the other two as he strode away. “I think he’s going to lose his shit now that we’re out.”
“Thank you,” Bonnie said to me, before following the guy into the street.
The four of them walked directly toward the circle, then they started to jog toward my garage.
I was left with Carmen and Luke. We listened as Trevor cursed and stomped around his upper floor. There were some clear indications he was breaking things and slamming doors, but it wasn’t until a lamp base came out the window I knew his real level of anger.
“I did it for you guys! You four!” Trevor hung out his window, pointing to his guests escaping on foot. “Blow doesn’t just come from nowhere, you assholes! I had to acquire it for you, and this is the thanks I get?”
“Wow, he’s on fire,” I whispered.
“Those kids aren’t stopping.” Carmen pointed toward my house.
The four of them ran alongside my driveway as if they were going into my garage to meet the others, but they diverted to the side of my house and went into the backyard. They checked over their shoulders, as if they were about to be chased down.
“I wonder if they know something we don’t?” Luke asked.
“At least they’re out of harm’s way,” Carmen said with pride.
“Yeah,” I smiled, “I’m going to make you the neighborhood public relations officer. It doesn’t hurt to put a pretty face up front, you know?”
The twinkle returned to her eyes, like she wanted to say something.
“What is it?” I asked her.
Her answer was interrupted by Trevor.
“Well, loser, I should thank you, I guess. Now I don’t have to feed a bunch of worthless mouths. Me and Pike will get along just fine with the stuff we’ve got in here. We won’t have to come out for years.”
I sighed. My threat to turn off his water had worked almost to perfection, getting his friends to jump ship, but it failed to draw out the one person I needed. Zen’s people at the roadblock didn’t seem like the types who would allow days or weeks for him to finally run out of food and water.
“Alright, Trevor, I’ll make this easy. If you won’t give back what you took, I’ll roll your Ferrari up the street and use it as a down payment. I’m not sure about everything you took, but I’d bet one exotic car would cover it.”
“You. Son. Of. A. Bitch!” Trevor roared with rage.
“That kicked him in the bean bag,” I bragged to Carmen.
Luke peered at the window. “He’s got something new.”
I saw it immediately.
The object was painted gold, which threw me off for a second or two. However, as he held it against his shoulder and aimed it in my direction, I soon recognized the familiar shape.
It was an AK-47.
CHAPTER 15
“Get down!” I yelled as I bowled into Carmen.
“Oof!” she yelped when she bumped her head against the Ferrari’s back tire.
Luke dove for cover next to us.
&nb
sp; Trevor fired eight or ten shots into his own car, causing a whirlwind of broken glass around us, along with an earth-shattering pop from one of the front tires.
“You aren’t taking my car anywhere!” Trevor screamed.
He fired a couple more at the Ferrari, hitting toward the front, before stopping. I figured he might have come to his senses about the insane act of destroying his own property, but then he started up again.
“Shit!” I cried out, once I saw his new target.
The rattle of multiple shots struck my brand-new home. A window shattered, then the light fixture next to the front door exploded, some of the bullets hit the roofing tiles up top, then he spent the rest of his ammo firing into my empty garage.
Heart in my throat, I searched for the kids taking refuge there. They would be easy targets for any competent rifleman at less than a hundred yards.
The three bays appeared empty.
“I think the adults got the kids out of sight,” I reasoned.
“Thank God,” Luke added.
Carmen stayed low, and had her hands over her ears, but she chuckled nervously when she saw me checking her over.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“You said he wouldn’t shoot his own car, Frank,” she said in a mocking but playful way.
“So I did,” I admitted. “I know drugs make people do dumb shit, but this guy has apparently hogged all the stupid.”
“I’ll let you off the hook for this one,” Carmen went on.
I peeked through the compartment of the sports car to see if Trevor was still in the window. I didn’t see him, which probably meant he was reloading his AK. “Cars aren’t bulletproof, especially this aluminum machine from Europe, so we should move out of here before he starts up again.”
“Tell me where to go,” she replied.
I slung the AR rifle over my shoulder and picked up the shotgun I’d leaned against the car. Before I did anything, I looked at Luke.
“Well, brother, I told you I was going to put this off as long as I could. I honestly didn’t expect it would happen this fast.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I’m going to fire a gun,” I replied. “You might want to cover your ears, but get ready to run the second I shoot, okay?”
They nodded and got into crouches, like runners at the starting blocks.
One thing I was willing to admit. Reading my books might have given me insights into human nature and the way breakdowns in society take place, but the stories had bestowed little in terms of actionable military strategy and tactics. Just as I could read a book about the greatest soccer games in the world, and how to kick a ball, I would be a lead weight if I ended up on a professional soccer team. Likewise, specific best practices for trading fire with a drugged-out lunatic wasn’t something I could easily reference. However, I knew enough not to stay in the direct line of sight with the shooter.
I balanced the shotgun on the edge of the hood and lined up the window where I’d last seen Trevor.
“Go!” I yelled to my friends.
I braced for the recoil against my shoulder.
The boom of the shotgun was far louder than I’d expected, since I’d never fired it without proper eye and ear protection. The expelled gas and acrid smoke wafted around me, giving immediacy to the fact I was firing at a living person.
The buckshot shattered the top half of my target window.
“Stay low,” I yelled to my friends.
They scurried up the driveway, toward the garage. If Trevor had moved to another window, he might still draw a bead on them despite their cover, so I had to let go of a second round.
I squared the buttstock against my body again, then squeezed the trigger.
A satisfying chunk of window frame turned into a fist-sized hole. If Trevor was still in that room, he was no doubt covered with glass and debris.
It was time for me to move.
As I ran for the next car, Trevor appeared in the damaged window.
“Bastard!” he yelled.
He put two rifle shots in Mitsi’s Lexus, causing me to duck down again.
Luke and Carmen were at the threshold of the garage.
“I’ll be there!” I shouted.
I crawled the rest of the way to stay hidden from my attacker. There was a brief exposure when I went between the next two cars, but Trevor must not have expected me there since no bullets came chasing after my feet.
The upstairs window allowed Trevor to see down to the driveway, but not inside his own garage. When I reached my two neighbors, I let go of the tension in my lungs. “Damn, that was crazy,” I exclaimed.
“He could come downstairs,” Luke warned.
“What now?” Carmen asked.
She stood there in her curvy shorts and dark T-shirt, looking every bit as feminine as ever. To my surprise, seeing her holding the pistol while being on the edge of a gunfight struck me as far more attractive than when she’d been in the tiny sundress. On the other hand, a gun battle was not the time to notice such things.
“Luke, keep an eye on the door.” I pointed to the entry into the house.
“Roger that,” he said, sounding as if he was playing the part of a soldier.
I turned back to Carmen. “Just stand over here, for now.” I guided her to the front corner of the garage, then around to the side of the house.
“Why out here?” she asked.
“Look, I love that you wanted to help me with this problem, but you don’t have any experience with your pistol. Luke and I are going inside to put a stop to this—”
“We are?” Luke interjected.
“We’re going around back,” I said to Carmen, “but I need you to stand here and be ready if anyone runs outside from the front of the house or the garage. If they do, fire a quick shot or two from behind this corner, then come and let us know. You are our eyes and ears, okay?”
“I can do that, Frank.” Her voice was filled with worry.
“Are we really going in there?” Luke inquired with fear in his eyes.
“Luke, there’s nothing I’d rather do than avoid this danger, but this asshole fired at your kids and our other neighbors, to say nothing of firing on us. If we don’t get rid of him, he’s going to sit in his house from now until the end of time and be a threat to our loved ones. I think you’d agree, we can’t let that happen, especially when there are no police we can call.”
“I don’t want to leave him be,” he gulped, “but I’m no good with this shotgun.”
“Did you see his shooting,” I replied. “He can only hit things the size of my house. Plus, I think he’s hopped up on goofballs or coke or whatever drugs he’s got. I guarantee you’re a hundred times better as a shooter than he is.”
Luke sucked in a long breath through his nose, then let it out slowly from his mouth. “We could just let those guys at the roadblock have him.”
I took a moment to think about it, but not seriously.
“We don’t know anything about those guys. They’re strangers who might act in ways we can’t possibly anticipate. What if they took over Trevor’s house? Maybe they’d find it funny to shoot at us, instead of the thief. Who knows what would happen if one of their guys got killed. Would we get the blame? Any of those could lead to even bigger problems for us.”
“That’s all true,” he allowed.
“Even if we hit the best case, and they took Trevor without us lifting a finger, we would seem like pushovers to them. That might bite us in the ass if this breakdown continues for a long time.”
“I didn’t think of it that way.”
“Our best play is to carefully go in there and basically arrest him like a cop would. If this EMP sticks with us, we’re going to have to be able to take care of our own problems. This is our first BFP. Big Friggin’ Problem.”
“Alright, Frank. I’m not sure I’m your best choice of partner, but I’ll do anything to protect my family.” He didn’t sound as enthusiastic as I would have
hoped, but maybe it was better to have someone with common-sense who appreciated the risks, rather than someone gung-ho who would rush in behind me without thinking of the consequences.
“I’ll go with you,” Carmen said from close by.
“No, I’ll go,” Luke said with more resolve. “I’m good. And besides, Frank was right. We need someone we can count on to watch our backs.”
He and Carmen exchanged nervous smiles.
I went over my plan, which took about twenty seconds and consisted of Luke standing behind me the whole time and covering my ass.
“That’s it?” Carmen chuckled.
“Keep it simple, stupid,” I replied. “I’ve learned that over and over in my books.”
She nodded.
I walked out onto the driveway, just far enough to see Trevor’s window. “Hey, Trevor, I hope you took out gunshot insurance on your car. You sure did a number on it.”
“I can just buy another one, dipshit,” he shouted back.
I didn’t see him in the banged-up window, but his voice sounded like it came from that location. Even if he’d moved to another window, I could rest assured he was in the front part of the house. That was all I needed to know.
After hustling back over to my friends, I grabbed Luke by the arm and guided him toward the back of the house. “Come on, we have to move fast.”
I swapped the shotgun for my Bravo Company AR-15. The shotgun was probably better for trading fire inside a home, but I’d already expended two rounds, which only left me with 4. I had a few extras in case I wanted to reload, but that still wouldn’t be enough if there was a lot of gunfire. By contrast, my AR had a 30-round mag ready to go and a full spare in my pocket.
We stopped when we got to the back corner of the house. Luke panted as if he was scared shitless.
I’m sure he was.
“You alright, bud?” I said in an upbeat tone.
He breathed in and out for a few seconds.
“Yeah, just nervous is all. I feel like I’m going to puke.”
