Jeb’s jovial façade had shifted into one of paranoia. His head moved along with his eyes, scanning up and down the street. “You’re gonna have two on the door, left and right, as soon as you go in. You’re gonna have two more on either side of the room. Toby is going to be standing in front of the stage.”
Dominic closed his eyes and drew a quick map in his head. “Shit, that’s a lot of crossfire. It’s not ideal, but it can be done.”
“You gonna kill her?”
“You see any alternatives?” Dominic asked.
Silence.
“Alright then,” Dominic said. “Are we clear to move?”
“I got you covered.”
Dominic rode the corner with Blake and Zach at his heels. They crept behind Jeb and huddled together at the doors. Dominic leaned in, whispering, “I’ll take right. Blake, you go left. It’s got to be quick, don’t give them time to react. Zach, stay by the doors, you’re not going to be much of a match on the trigger with that bum hand, no offense. But people are going to try to run, discourage that notion, don’t shoot them unless you have to.”
“What about Toby?” Zach asked.
“I’ll be on him before he can break leather.” Dominic removed the magazine from his rifle and checked it, even though he could feel in the weight that it was fully loaded; force of habit. “Blake, Mother keeps breathing until we get what we need out of her. After that, she’s all yours.”
“I can live with that.”
“We all set gentleman?”
Clenched jaws and silence, shifty eyes and sweaty palms; it was all the answer he was going to get. These men were formless. They were soft. They’d never aimed a gun at something that was aiming back. They’d, no doubt, talked it up in their heads, but it wasn’t the same thing as doing it. The real thing was quicker and more absolute, there was no time to think, you didn’t get to pick the man standing beside you, you just had to trust he could aim straight and pull the trigger when the occasion called.
“Jeb, get the doors behind us.”
“Good luck ya’ll.”
Dominic braced his right shoulder at the center of the double doors and counted off in his head. When he hit three he threw all of his weight forward. The doors burst inward, meeting a small wall of resistance before continuing their journey. His vision narrowed. He saw his first target sprawled face down on the floor in front of him, scrambling to get back to his feet. Dominic put a round in the back of his head. Less than a second later he heard a shot go off behind him. He hoped it belonged to Blake. Dominic raised his sights. His second target was right where Jeb had said he’d be. The bastard was quick—quicker than most, at least—he already had his weapon halfway up his shoulder when Dominic sighted him. The shot wasn’t perfect. It blew through the top of his chest and burrowed into the wall behind him. It wasn’t enough to take him off his feet. Dominic readjusted and put the second one below his left eye.
“Don’t you think about it! Don’t do it! I’ll blow you away!”
Toby raised his hands above his head. He was outmatched but not defeated. “You just bought yourselves a whole new level of pain.”
“I’m gonna check with you in five minutes, see if you still believe that.” Dominic rounded the pew and manually disarmed Toby, sticking his revolver in the back of his belt before bringing him down with a kick to the back of his knees.
Blake was coming around the other side. Dominic hadn’t heard him down his second man.
The doors were secure. Zach was standing guard, waving his gun at the herd of settlers encroaching on his position, the stock of the weapon tucked beneath one armpit.
“Sit down, all of you!” Dominic’s voice echoed against the high ceilings, adding weight to his commands. “This is your only warning before we start shooting people. We’ve got enough bullets to go around.”
Old lady Harriet shambled from the crowd. “This is the Father’s house. You’ve got no right.” She was pointing a finger, as thin and delicate as a dead twig. Her old age had made her brave, perhaps too brave.
Dominic waited until she was close enough, then he rolled his hand into a fist and hit her in the jaw with everything he had. He felt the brittle bone shatter. She spun like a top, twice, and dropped to the floor, splitting her head open on the wood. It was harsh, but it worked. The flock slowly began slinking back into their seats.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.” Mother was the calmest of them all. She hadn’t moved. Even with the bullets flying and the crowd going wild, she’d remained behind the pulpit, steadfast, her hands folded neatly at her waist.
“Judging by the four bodies, I’d say we’re feeling our way along just fine,” Dominic said, hopping up beside her. “Get on your knees.” He grabbed a fistful of her hair and forced her down.
Lerah heard the guards racing towards their position.
“Those were gunshots!”
“Fan out!”
She was watching Jeb from the shadows. He didn’t seem concerned. He just stood there beside the door, whistling, tottering from foot-to-foot.
“Jeb, your Watch ended hours ago, why aren’t you inside?” The leader of the pack held his fist up, halting the five man team behind him; they all took a knee and stared, mouths open and chins up.
“It was getting a little stuffy in there. It’s a nice night. Figured I’d take in some air and help you boys keep an eye on things.”
The man lifted his nose, as if sniffing for something he may have missed. “It feels no different than any other night, and we’re eight men deep, we’ve got a full crew.”
Seven.
“Ah, well, you know, can’t ever have too many willing hands.”
“We heard gunshots.”
“Really? That’s strange; I didn’t hear nothing over here. I’m sure it ain’t nothing to worry about.”
“I hear gunshots, I get worried.”
“I’ll let ya’ll know if I hear something.”
“It’d be better if we took a quick look inside.”
“Nah, now, you know Mother don’t like anyone coming in late.” Jeb took a step to the right, centering himself with the doors.
“I think she’ll understand, given the special circumstances and all.”
“It’s better if you and your boys just wait it out here, let her finish.”
“It’s not your call.”
“As the senior man here, I think it is.”
“That ain’t how it works; my Watch, my command.”
Lerah heard shouting coming from the direction of the lockup. There was a man running and flapping an arm above his head. She only caught the last part of his proclamation, “… gone!”
Shit!
“Slow down, what the hell is it?”
“The prisoners, they’re gone. Jeremy is in the gatehouse, dead. Guns are missing too.”
The leader dropped back and took aim at Jeb’s chest. “Step aside, last chance!”
Jeb stared into the void of the gun barrel as if he were watching a sunset, all peace and tranquility. “You’re making a mistake, son.”
“Now that we have your attention, there are some things you need to hear.” Dominic and Blake stood on the stage with their rifles trained on the congregation. Some of the more capable men in the crowd were leaned forward with their hands braced on the backs of the pews in front of them, their fingernails changing from red to ghost white as they clenched and released, staring over the tops of their eyelids.
“Don’t listen to this heretic. They have defiled this sanctuary. Their fists are raised against your Father… against me, His prophetess. I command you to act. I command you to seize them.”
“Yeah, go ahead, try that. I’ll shoot the first one of you that pulls their ass from their seat.”
“And I’ll shoot the second,” Blake added.
Folks exchanged glances, daring each other, but none of them moved.
“You see, Mother, they don’t give a shit about you or your invisible friend. They gi
ve a shit about safety. Self preservation trumps all; I would think a woman in your position would have realized that by now.”
“We love Mother, we love the Father!”
“You might have the guns, but you boys ain’t gonna make it out of here!” One of the burly fellas staring over the tops of his eyelids pounded the pew in front of him with his fists.
“Before any of you do anything regrettable, please, listen. We’ve all been deceived by Mother and her sons,” Blake said.
“Do not listen to Doctor Scroggins, or this man. They are conspiring against Reeman. They are Union scum.”
“We don’t need you breathing for this, Mother. One more word and I will pull this trigger.” The cold metal barrel of Dominic’s rifle kneaded the nape of her neck.
“You take that gun off her!”
Blake fired a shot into the big man’s shoulder, knocking him back into his seat, screaming and bleeding.
“Anyone else wanna try?”
When the gunshot from inside pierced the night air, the battle was on.
Jeb was fast on the draw, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid two bullets from being pumped into his chest. He fell back against the sanctuary doors, aiming from the hip. He buried his finger against the trigger and strafed the targets in front of him as he struggled to keep his footing. The leader of the pack was the first to go down, followed by the man that had sounded the alarm on the jailbreak. The rest of the guards scrambled for cover. One took a bullet in his right leg as he dove towards a pair of copper ringed barrels. He was dragging himself through the dirt when Lerah ran to the corner of the building beside the church, knelt, and put a second round through his skull.
She turned to check on Jeb. He was on the ground, still propped up against the door, a considerable amount of blood staining the surface behind him.
“It’s the damndest thing, just the damndest thing,” he kept reciting the mantra as he changed out magazines and bullets whizzed past his head.
Muzzle flashes lit up the square as men popped in and out of cover, working slowly to advance their position. Lerah used the flashes to find her targets. She was lenient on the trigger, with only one magazine left to spare, she didn’t want to run out of bullets before she ran out of bodies. She squeezed twice and a strangled scream announced that she’d found her mark.
“There’s another shooter! We’ve got another shooter, west corner of the building!” The proclamation was followed up by a series of bullets ripping into the surface in front of her face.
She took cover, temporarily blinded by dust and shrapnel.
Jeb drew their fire. His aim faltered as the strength leaked from his body. Every shot he took sent the gun leaping towards the sky, but the spectacle was enough to distract the rest of the men from Lerah.
She snapped out of cover and let off another volley. Two more screams pierced the night. Two more targets down. She ducked back in and began changing magazines, her hands were shaking, and the blood was pumping in her ears.
Jeb had slumped to his side and his rifle was on the ground beneath his belly.
It was just her.
Dominic wasn’t there to save her this time.
There should only be two left. You can do this, damn it!
“You hear that? Even now, the Father’s justice is swift.” Mother leaned into Dominic’s gun defiantly as the battle outside raged.
Dominic’s heart beat a little faster; he was all nerves and sweaty palms. His first thoughts were with Lerah. Each rattle of gunfire brought him a little bit of comfort, as long as it continued he knew she was okay.
“Should we help them?” Blake asked, breaking him from his trance.
Dominic shook his head. “No, we’ve got our job and they’ve got theirs. We’ve got to hold up our end.”
“Ya’ll should run while you can. Once our men come through that door, you’re finished,” Toby said. His words were aimed at Zach.
“You’re done! You and Mother, you’re standing over your own graves right now,” Zach shouted from the back of the room.
“Your own kind… you turned your back on your own kind for the Union?”
“My own kind? Ya’ll had me chopped up and tossed aside, there ain’t no love between us.”
“You think that was something? Just wait, when we get out of here we’re gonna chop you up good and proper, finish the job right.”
Zach raised his gun, it was wobbly, but he had every intention of pulling the trigger.
“That’s enough,” Dominic’s voice filled the room, “you’re not here to squabble with him, you’re here to tell these people the truth, so get on with it.”
It took a few seconds for the fight to leave Zach. Through gritted teeth, he spoke. “I’m afraid ya’ll have been deceived. Mother ain’t no prophet and me and Toby ain’t sons of the Creator. Hell, Mother ain’t even our real Mother.”
A series of gasps resounded throughout the room. People began twisting back and forth in their seats, as if they were checking for a resemblance between Zach and Toby and Mother, seeing the truth for the first time.
“It’s all lies. The boy will say anything. He’s hungry for vengeance,” Mother objected loudly.
“It’s not a lie.” Blake stepped to the front of the stage. “You all know me. I’ve grown close with many of you. You’ve sat at my dinner table. You’ve included me in the most intimate moments of your lives. I’d like to believe there is a trust between us.”
“We heard about you, Doc. Heard you were a traitor working for the Union,” one woman spoke up, clinging to her husband.
“Yes,” Mother said, “a traitor that got his wife and his daughter killed. Do you really want to place your trust in a man that sacrificed his family?”
Blake winced, the words slicing into his back, opening up fresh wounds.
Dominic knelt down and brought his lips to Mother’s ear. “I’ve warned you. My patience is gone. One more word and I won’t bother with trying to convince your flock of my story. I’ll blow your head off right now and let the chips fall where they may.”
She was a proud woman, and an intuitive one; Dominic knew she hadn’t attained her position through stupidity. She didn’t hold his glare long, just long enough to tell him that her compliance wasn’t out of fear, but necessity; she had more to do, more to say, and a bullet to the brain would interfere with that agenda.
“My family was killed because of Mother’s secret, not mine. She’s the real traitor. She’s been lying to you, to me, since the beginning. You remember Micah and Susanna?”
A few nods followed the question.
“They were Union. They took the Fall because Mother thought they knew her secret.”
“They were cursed!”
“Were they? Think about that for a moment. They were together eight months, not twelve. Mother lied to you because she knew you’d follow blindly, like we’ve been doing for years. She didn’t tell you who they really were because of how it would’ve looked. She didn’t want you knowing that Union had been living right under her nose for months, undetected. She didn’t want any of you asking questions.”
“We came here looking for Micah and Susanna,” Dominic added, “they were Union; Blake is telling the truth.” The gunshots outside were slowing, the space between each pull of the trigger was growing larger.
“There was no miraculous inception,” Zach said.
“Conception,” Blake corrected, “it’s miraculous conception.”
“Yeah, whatever, we ain’t her sons. She came through our settlement after it was burned down during the war. She claimed us as her own. She started going on about us being her miracle children. Said she got a message from the Father about how we were meant to be her sons. She said the Creator willed it. She fed us a story to recite, about her being our mom, whenever folks asked us. In exchange she said she’d take care of us. Said we’d inherit her power when she was gone. Then she started writing that Gospel she’s always reading from. That wasn’t no speci
al find. That was Mother’s hand, cover to cover.”
A woman stood, there were tears rolling down her cheeks. “Toby, is it true?”
Toby considered the guns. He considered the men holding them. Perhaps he even considered the fact that the battle outside was dying down, yet no one had come to his rescue. “Yes ma’am, yes, it’s true. But there’s something ya’ll need to consider.”
She stumbled back into her seat, one hand gripping her chest.
Soon the room was roaring with conversation and cries of disbelief.
“Nah, listen, ya’ll need to consider something, what we did, it was for the best.”
“I don’t think they’re listening, Toby,” Dominic said.
The center window on the left side of the room shattered. Those sitting on the outside of the pews ran for cover. Within the shower of glass was Lerah. She bounced off the ground and slid to a stop. A man appeared in the window. He leaned through the broken frame with a rifle aimed at Lerah’s back. His face was pulped; she’d done a hell of a job working him over before he’d gotten the upper hand. Dominic kicked Mother to the ground and pinned her there with a knee. He wasn’t worried about sparing ammo. He wasn’t worried about precision. All he saw was Lerah and her reaper. He compressed the trigger and the gun coughed to life. The man in the window was thrown violently against the left side of the frame and impaled by large shards of glass. One of them went straight through his cheeks, locking his mouth open in a perpetual state of surprise.
The crowd was churning, irritated by the sudden explosion of violence.
“Blake, Zach, control them!” Dominic ordered.
“Everyone stop moving!”
“Sit your asses down!”
Lerah dragged herself up by the arm of one of the pews. Blood flowed in wide sheets from her cheeks and brow. Her shirt was now thin strips of fabric. Her torso was covered with cuts and blood. The left side of her pants was cut straight down the middle, from thigh to knee. “So, that’s what it feels like to go through a window.” Lerah gripped the pew in front of her and spit something wet and red on to the seat.
The Fall of Man: The Saboteur Chronicles Book 1 Page 35
