The crowd in the square was growing by the second. Every time someone tried to close the gap on Belinda she’d turn the gun on them and they’d stumble away.
Dominic was running towards the ladder. His plan was to get down to street level and decide from there what action to take next. But before Dominic entered the square, another guard planted a round in her stomach, deciding for him. The force folded her up and sat her down. It was the worst kind of kill shot; slow and painful and sure.
Dominic charged into the crowd, shoveling his way through to the center. Belinda was bleeding out; a puddle of thick red syrup flowed across her lap and clumped up in the dirt around her. She was moaning and coughing blood. Her body shook as she attempted, once more, to raise her weapon in the direction of Mother’s house.
“Put it down, it’s over.” Dominic emerged from the crowd. He had his gun trained on her, just in case she decided to swing her rifle his way. He didn’t want to shoot her, but the idea of getting shot sounded even less appealing.
More men from the Watch appeared at Dominic’s back. They were fanning out quick, their fingers curled across their triggers, a firing squad.
“Don’t any of you shoot. You hear me? I’ve got this handled.”
“She’s still an active threat!”
“Mother is in danger!”
“It’s a varmint rifle. She’ll be lucky to crack a window. I’ve got this handled.”
“No,” the crowd parted as if it were on a timer, “I’ve got this handled.” Toby made his entrance, silver revolver extended, the hammer already falling. The bullet took half of Belinda’s face with it. The crowd went silent as her body settled and the rifle rolled from her fingers.
“I had it handled.” Dominic stared down at the pointless carnage, barely able to keep the top secured on the boiling pot of rage brewing inside him.
“Didn’t look handled to me,” Toby said, hocking back a ball of phlegm and loosing it on her corpse. “An attempt on Mother’s life, there ain’t no talking someone down. You get a bullet.”
“You’re an answer to prayer, Toby. Thank the Creator you were here.” Old lady Harriet, the old woman that had previously welcomed Dominic and Lerah, stepped from the crowd and pressed her face against Toby’s gut. A round of light applause followed her praise.
“Ah, now, it’s nothing. I’m happy to serve. Ya’ll get on about your day now; we got a little clean up to take care of.” Toby drew up close to Dominic, pressing a familiar finger against his chest. “I better never hear you giving these boys orders again. They was doing their jobs. If you’re too chicken shit to pull the trigger, say so. But don’t you ever put Mother’s life in jeopardy again, you got me?”
Dominic exhaled, licked his lips, and met Toby’s glare with one of his own. “That’s the second time you’ve put hands on me. I know you’re king shit, I respect that. But I’d advise you to keep your hands off me from now on. You might not get them back next time.”
Toby set the muzzle of his hand cannon beneath Dominic’s chin. “You still haven’t learned your place.”
Before Dominic could react, there was a disturbance at the back of the crowd, someone wailing.
Toby shoved Dominic aside. “Damn it, it’s her husband.”
The man rattled limply through the dispersing crowd. He fell to his knees beside his wife’s body, his arms extended. It looked like he wanted to hold her, but there were pieces of her scattered across the ground, bloody chunks coated in sand. “We did everything. We did everything you asked of us!” His spittle flew through the air, landing dangerously close to the toes of Toby’s boots.
“Robert, you need to just calm it down. Your old lady came out shooting. Any attempt on Mother—”
“We did everything! We gave our daughter for this place!”
Toby aimed his pistol at the top of Robert’s head. “Robert, you need to calm down and get away from that rifle.”
“Go ahead, you fool! Shoot me!” The man got up on his knees and pressed his forehead against the mouth of the barrel. “Come on, do me a favor, shoot me!”
“Give me a reason, old man.” Toby seemed to be pleading for the opportunity.
Robert sat back on his heels, shedding silent tears. “You want a reason?”
“I’d love one.”
The man dropped his face against his wife’s chest and sobbed into her shirt for a moment before gathering his emotions and kissing the good side of her face. “I’m sorry I brought us here,” his voice was barely a whisper, but his words carried in the electric silence. He fell back on to his butt and put a few inches between himself and the corpse of his bride. As he sat there, staring up into the void of Toby’s pistol barrel, his right hand crept towards the rifle.
“Don’t do it. Don’t give him a reason,” Dominic was begging him.
Robert couldn’t hear anything over the sound of his wife’s broken corpse. He wrapped his hand around the stock of the gun and began pulling it towards his lap. A few seconds later a bullet blew his skull apart, sending squishy shrapnel flying in four different directions. Toby stood over the body and pumped two more rounds into his chest for good measure.
Old lady Harriet, once more, stepped forward from the crowd. “Here, use my rag, it’s fresh, I just took it off the line yesterday.”
Dominic had seen enough for one day. On his way back through the crowd he bumped into Lerah.
“Still think there’s anything here worth saving?” she asked, refusing to look at him.
He remained silent and kept on moving. He didn’t have the energy to battle Lerah. Even more than that, he didn’t have the energy to tell her she’d been right.
42
“There are good people here. Me and my family, we’re good people.” Blake sat in his chair.
Lerah was looming over him, a finger in his face. “You’re good people? You’ve let this shit go on and you dare to call yourselves good people?”
“Stop with the language in front of my kid.”
Judith and Riley were playing in their corner, acting as if they couldn’t hear the argument. “Answer the question. How can you claim to be good when you let stuff like today happen right outside your front door?”
“What would you have me do? Go out there with my varmint rifle? You saw how that turned out.”
“You could have done what we’re doing right now. You knew the truth about Zach and Toby. You could have worked to bring Mother down, just like we’re doing.”
“And risk my family in the process?”
“You’d rather have them live out their days here?”
Blake shook his head. “I’d just rather they live. I don’t want to lose them. Can’t you understand that?” His voice shook as he watched his wife and child laughing and sliding toys back and forth across the floor.
Dominic stood by the front door, checking the window every now and then for some sign of Zach. He didn’t feel the urge to pull Lerah off of Doc. Hell, after today, he saw her point. How could someone live like this? How could they allow their family to live like this? Doc was a coward, plain and simple. He didn’t have the courage to do the hard thing, so someone else had to come in and do it for him.
Lerah gave up and moved to where Dominic stood. “Any sign?”
“Not yet, but he’ll be here. He’s gotta find the right moment to break away. I’m not worried and you shouldn’t be either.”
“This whole damn thing has me worried. You can’t tell me that you weren’t shaken today. You saw those people just standing there, watching their neighbors get torn apart by that cackling buffoon. They didn’t even flinch. They clapped. That’s what I was trying to get you to understand, these people don’t want saving. They’re just as bad as Mother. You’re a violent man, Dominic, I know that, but you don’t go around killing without cause, you don’t kill for sport.”
Dominic nodded and stamped a boot heel against the floorboards. “I reckon you’re right. Toby went a little overboard. There was no reason to br
eak leather over an old woman with a varmint rifle.”
“A little? And her husband, what the hell was that all about?”
“Can’t really blame him, his wife got massacred and he couldn’t stop it. It’d have been a heavy burden to carry and most folks don’t have the shoulders. Didn’t you say their daughter took the Fall a few days back?”
Lerah nodded.
“So he had nothing holding him here. It’d be checkout time for me too; go down shooting.”
“He didn’t get a shot off.”
“I don’t think getting a shot off was the point.”
“So you’ve seen it now. We’re on the same page. What are we still standing here for?”
Dominic tilted his head towards Judith and Riley. “If we leave, there’s a chance this scheme gets out in the open and they get dead. You may be right, there may not be much here worth saving, but there’s something. As long as there’s something, I’m not leaving.”
Lerah huffed and dropped in beside him, placing her back against the door. “Why can’t you just be the bastard I thought you were?” She nudged him with her elbow, the glow of a smile cracking through the stone exterior she’d been building over the past two days.
“One of the Saboteurs greatest strengths is surprise.”
Something heavy walloped the door, bowing it inward and sending Lerah flying to the floor.
Dominic came off the wall, scrambling for the varmint rifle on the other side of the room.
Blake was so damn startled he went toppling backwards in his seat as his wife and daughter shrieked and huddled together in the corner.
There was another wallop.
The door came down like a drawbridge. Three guards flooded the room with their rifles up, all of them shouting commands. Dominic raised his hands and turned to face them. The varmint rifle was on the ground at his heels. Reaching for it would be suicide.
Toby came strolling into the room behind his men, aiming his pistol from the hip. “Go for it, new blood. Give us a reason.”
“Afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you for the time being.”
“You should have taken the shot, you’re not going to get another,” her voice entered the room before she did. “How many more sheep is the Union going to send to the slaughter?” Mother’s fingers were poised as she entered the room. Her white robes sailed behind her. Tremors erupted around her eyes like thousands of tiny fireworks.
It seemed that Zach had fucked them after all. She knew who they were. They were securely in her grasp. There was no use in tiring themselves out trying to break free. It was better to save their strength and their dignity; they’d probably need it later.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lerah rolled on to her back, sitting up on her elbows. “We have nothing to do with the Union. We told you what happened to us and where we came from.”
Toby hopped forward two steps and sent the toe of his boot crashing into Lerah’s face.
“You sonofabitch!” Suicide or not, Dominic charged. He didn’t get very far. Two of the guards stepped in his path and planted the muzzles of their rifles against his chest. He stopped and slowly backed away, watching Lerah as she writhed on the floor. Her face was already swelling as she coughed and spit blood. “You’re going to get yours, just wait.”
“Anytime, new blood, anytime.”
“Soon, it’ll be real soon.”
“Shut up, the both of you,” Mother said. She offered Lerah the hem of her robe. “Wipe yourself off dear.”
Lerah turned her head away.
“Very well. Just so all of you are aware, there’s no use in lying. You’ll only bring yourselves more pain.” Mother moved deeper into the room. She stood over Blake. He was still on his back, still in the chair, legs spread across either side of the seat. “And you, you continue to deceive me, even after the chances I’ve given you.”
“Mother, I’ve never deceived you. I’ve always been faithful.”
Toby delivered a kick to Blake’s ribs.
“No! Stop! You promised you wouldn’t hurt him!” Riley stood, holding Judith in her arms.
“Wait… you did this?” The firing squad still had Dominic sighted, practically begging him to move.
“Riley… no…” Blake was clutching his side as he corked his neck and took his wife in through watery eyes.
“I told you, didn’t I? I have eyes everywhere.” Mother seemed pleased with herself.
“Baby, I did it for us.” Riley wiped her eyes with one hand and held Judith with the other.
“It’s true Blake, she did it for you. You see, Riley came to me about Micah and Susanna. Your wife was scared for you, for both of you. She told me how those Union heretics had been manipulating you for months, told me that you were scared for your lives. She said that you’d grown desperate and that you were actually conspiring with them, using some nasty rumor about me and my sons. She made me promise her that I wouldn’t hurt you. I kept that promise, against my better judgment. I allowed you to prove your faith and remain a part of this community.”
“Oh, what did you do, Riley? What did you do?” Blake tried to scream, but the pain in his ribs put a lid over his voice.
“I’m sorry baby, I did it for us. I did it for Judith. I was trying to save you. Can’t you see? We have a good life here. We’re safe.”
“You killed us, lady, you didn’t save anything!” One of the guards whacked Dominic in the gut with his rifle.
Mother continued. “It’s true, Blake, this woman tried to save you. I tried to save you. And for a moment, I thought I’d succeeded. Yet, here we are again. You’re working with the Union heretics, again. Even worse, you managed to corrupt my son. It’s funny how the Union just seems to keep coming to you. I’m not a believer in coincidence. But I do believe in design.”
Zach hadn’t fucked them after all. Dominic felt bad for doubting him. “You know, Mother, all this manpower seems excessive. Are you really that worried about some little rumor? Unless of course… it’s not a rumor.” The pain in his side was just beginning to fade, he was just starting to get his breath back, and right on cue the guard popped him again.
Mother stepped gracefully around the top of Blake’s head. She drew a small knife from some hidden compartment in her robes and began twirling it between her fingers. “Even the smallest flame can ignite a kingdom.”
“It’s gonna ignite something, just you wait,” Dominic coughed. “You think threatening to throw us off a cliff is going to shut this down? You’ve got a surprise coming. I’ll shout this shit in the streets. Before I’m dead every one of your ass licking followers will have that spark you fear so much floating around in their heads.” Dominic’s legs were kicked from beneath him, a boot heel was planted against his chest, and a rifle barrel floated inches from his face.
Mother fell to her knees beside Dominic. She began rolling his shirt up, just far enough to reveal the wound on his belly. “I’m curious, how did you really come by this?”
He winced as she began to pull the bandage from his skin.
“Leave him alone,” Lerah’s words were muffled by the swelling in her mouth.
“Ah, I think the girl cares for you,” it was a whisper, a cold sort of empathy.
Dominic couldn’t see what Mother was doing, but he could feel her fingers, like the scurrying legs of an unwelcome insect, working the border around his wound. “Listen, let’s talk. Don’t do anything stupid. This shit doesn’t have to go any further. We can just walk away.”
She pushed the tip of the blade into the wound, twisting it back and forth.
Dominic cried out and he hated himself for it. He never liked giving his torturer the satisfaction of reaction. He clenched his teeth, groaning as the blade probed deeper, tearing flesh that had begun to heal. He could’ve reached out and snapped her arm in two, but he had no doubt that the moment his fingers locked around Mother’s wrist a bullet would split his forehead.
“Stop it! We’ll do whatever you
ask, just stop it!” Lerah was stuck in purgatory, somewhere between standing and sitting, her attention divided between Toby’s pistol and Dominic’s torment.
“This girl, it’s not just an act, is it?” Mother wasn’t taking the blade any deeper and she’d stopped twisting. “My instincts tell me that you care about her as well, yes?”
He began to shiver as the sheet of sweat that’d broken out across his body cooled.
She gave the blade a little jerk and sank it in another quarter inch. “I asked you a question.”
“Yes, damn it, yes! I care about her.”
“Then you’ll take what I’m about to say very seriously. If you so much as utter a word about me and my sons, I’ll have her skinned alive in front of you. Do you believe I’d do that?”
“Yes! Yes, I believe it.”
She slipped the knife delicately from his belly and wiped the blade clean on his pants. “Good, then we shouldn’t have a problem. You can let him up. Shoot him if he tries anything.”
The guard removed his boot and backed away from Dominic, still hungry for blood.
“What’d you do with Zach? He still breathing?” Lerah came to her feet; she looked like she was holding a mouthful of water.
“He’s still kicking,” Toby said.
“We’ll deal with Zach in due time. You should worry more about yourself, you little heretic.” Mother stood over Blake, her hands on her hips, the knife still in her grasp. “As for you, Doctor, what are we to do? I need you to stand up.”
“Why? Why do you need me to stand?”
Toby kicked him again, with the same boot in the exact same place. “Because she asked you to, now get up.”
Dominic was almost positive he’d heard a rib crack.
“Please stop, Mother! You promised you wouldn’t hurt him. You promised,” Riley wept.
“Hush!” Mother aimed her dagger, lowering the point towards Judith. “What happens next is the will of the Creator.”
The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1 Page 33
