The Living and the Dead Page 25

  Obviously, that half full thing was coming back to haunt me. That and my pig ignorance for not keeping track of my ammunition. I’d like to say that I was distracted or I had bigger fish to fry, but the truth of the matter was that there was little forgiveness in our world. Make one mistake and it could be your last and it looked like that’s what I had done.

  The only small blessing was that he understood immediately what had happened. I had gotten the drop on him only to discover that I was out of bullets. So, he didn’t open up on us with his rifle, cutting us to pieces. Instead, he just smiled. It made me think this is how a shark would smile just before it chomped down on a baby seal.

  I don’t know if that wasn’t worse than being shot. The way his mouth turned up in a malevolent grin felt like hopelessness.

  Maybe it was the look of self-satisfaction in his eyes? Maybe it was the thought of what he had done to Kara and the idea that he might just have more ugliness in store for her? Whatever it was, it seemed like my world had turned to shit.

  “Thought you had the drop on me, didn’t you, you piece of shit?” he said as he took a long step into the hallway. Involuntarily, I took a step back, but Kara nearly lost her balance and we ended up half stumbling for another step.

  “Where’s the rest of your crew?” He asked.

  “Long gone,” I said.

  “You better not be shitting me,” he said with a growl.

  “There’s no one else here,” I said. “I wanted them out of here.”

  Marlow whipped up his rifle, aiming at my chest, “Don’t fucking try anything or else I’ll blow your damn heads off!”

  I steadied us as Kara leaned into me for balance.

  “Now, drop the rifle,” he said motioning at me to toss my rifle off to the side.

  That left me stuck in a quandary. If I tossed the rifle, I’d have no weapon at all. If I kept it, he would more than likely shoot me or both of us. I weighed the chance of me rushing him and trying to bash his head in with it, but I figured that was such a long shot that no one in Vegas would even consider giving me any odds.

  To gain a few more seconds of precious life, I complied, tossing the rifle aside where it rattled off the wall.

  A spray of gunfire sounded off to the right, not that far away and Marlow glanced back out into the parking lot. For the briefest of moments, I considered making a run at him, but he knew we were the most imminent threat and turned his attention back on us quickly.

  “I have to ask, what did you do to bring this attack down on us?” he asked, then added, “And don’t fucking lie about it. There was no coincidence about you arriving here and them showing up and asking for you.”

  I figured I could lie, but that wouldn’t get me anywhere, and in the end, wouldn’t make any difference. “I used a sat-phone,” I said.

  “No shit?” he replied. “Those things still work?”

  “I think they’re the only thing that does.”

  “Where’d you have it hidden?”

  “In my boot,” I said.

  “Fucking Paulie,” he said, shaking his head. “He’s such a lazy asshole.” He paused for a moment, possibly conjuring up an image of this Paulie character who was supposed to have searched us thoroughly for weapons or other items. “Oh well, he’s probably dead now, so I don’t have to kill him for being a total asshole loser.”

  Shots sounded again off to our right, echoing off the walls of the buildings. I couldn’t tell if they were closer or not, but I guessed they were.

  “Last question,” he said. “Why did they come to rescue you?”

  The “last question” thing really bothered me, because that meant our lives would most likely last only as long as my answer. I was certain he wouldn’t allow me to go on some epic monologue. As I started to reply, Kara shifted herself off my shoulder and I felt her hand sliding down my back. I could tell that when she let go that she nearly went down. I almost grabbed her, but she steadied herself.

  “Well, if you want to know the truth,” I said. “That’s no rescue. They’re here to kill us.”

  “What? Why?” he asked, and I was overwhelmed that he gave me another question.

  “They’re after someone,” I said.

  Kara’s hand continued to move down my back. I wanted to tell her to stop moving, but I finally figured out what she was doing and realized that she was the smart one between us. Her move was another long shot, but it was better than me making a run at Marlow. By a mile. I just had to keep him talking a few more seconds.

  “And you’re not that someone?”

  Another question. That sarcastic part of me wanted to tell him that he said there’d only be one more question, but the pragmatic part of me told the other part to shut the hell up.

  “No. Like I said, they got out of here fifteen minutes ago and are probably miles from here. I wasn’t lying when I said we were on a mission from God.”

  “What a load of horseshit,” he spat out, but half chuckled.

  I thought he might shoot us then, but gunfire sounded again and I could see the impacts on an overturned truck in the parking lot behind Marlow. Marlow took a peek in the direction of the shots. Kilgore and his men were closing and doing it fast. Our clock was running down.

  Marlow took a step back to give him a vantage onto the parking lot, then ducked back inside.

  “I was planning to have one more go at your lady friend,” Marlow said, and added, “because she is one feisty piece of ass, but it looks like I won’t have enough time.”

  “So, you’re going to just shoot us and there’s nothing in it for you?” I asked.

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” he said moving a step closer and bringing up his rifle. “First, you’re standing between me and my exit route. Second, I’m going to enjoy shooting the mother fucker who brought down my little empire.”

  “Wait,” I said, putting up my right hand. One time, long ago, I had seen some self-defense expert on YouTube (back when civilization still existed). This so-called expert suggested that you could keep your attacker off guard by asking questions. I’ll be damned that it worked because he staved off pulling the trigger. All the while, Kara’s hand made it the final inches to land on the pistol that I had shoved into the back of my jeans at my waist. The gun I had completely forgotten about.

  “What?” he asked, sounding annoyed.

  Kara slid the gun free from the waistband and slowing looped her arm fully around my body, leaning into me. If it were me, I would have pulled it back towards myself, but maybe it was because she was having trouble standing upright on her own. Still, the shot was going to be a real challenge. She would literally be shooting around my body with her hand between my torso and arm. Plus she was as weak as a bedridden geriatric and just as shaky. Without being able to aim, she was going to have to fire on him before he fired back, and hope to hit something vital on his body.

  While his broad body gave a big target, it also looked like it could take a lot of punishment.

  The odds of this ploy working for us was a long shot, but we had no chance if it didn’t. So, why the hell not go for it?

  I decided I needed to get us another second or two. “Why can’t you just let her go and kill me?” I asked.

  He shook his head and said, “Fuck that.”

  A dark swell of fear swept across my mind. What if the safety was on?

  He squinted his eyes and I could tell he was getting ready to fire. But Kara beat him to it as she pushed the weapon around my side.

  She pulled the trigger five times in quick succession. I couldn’t tell which of the bullets hit, but three of them hit home. One hit him dead center in the abdomen. Another hit him in the shoulder, knocking his grip off the rifle. The third grazed his skull, making a deep groove in it.

  He was a big man and could have probably taken one shot, and maybe two, but the trifecta of bullets brought him down. He collapsed backward, falling like a skyscraper, sending up a cloud of dust from the dirt on the impact with the
ground.

  We waited for five seconds, watching his body for signs of life. I was afraid it would be like one of those horror films where you thought you had killed the monster. Then, out of nowhere, it lurched up and stabbed, shot, gored, bit, or did some other dastardly thing to you because you had gotten cocky and had the audacity to think little old you had vanquished it.

  Life isn’t like the movies. While Kara’s shot hadn’t killed Marlow, his jumping up and grabbing people days were long gone. In fact, his minutes were numbered. His left leg kicked in small convulsive moves and he groaned with each little kick, but he wasn’t getting up. Not ever again.

  “Take me over to him,” Kara said. “We need to make sure he’s dead.”

  “He’s dead or soon to be dead,” I said. “We need to get out of here.”

  “No! Take me to him,” she said and tried to pull away from me. I knew she wouldn’t make it a step without my support, but I decided I’d honor her request. I wrapped my arm around her and we trundled over to where Marlow lay in the dirt and grime of the entryway hall.

  He gurgled a little as we looked down on him and his leg still kicked but less spasmodically. His eyes opened, but looked unfocused as he stared up at the ceiling. After a couple moments, he shifted from the ceiling to us and I could tell that he could see us.

  “You bitch,” he half-said, half-gurgled out. Bloody bubbles popped out of his lips as he spoke.

  “Fuck you,” Kara said. By now she had shifted the gun from her right hand which was wrapped around my side, to her left, which hung free. She lifted the gun and shot him in the crotch. He let out a scream and his body bucked off the floor.

  I wanted to tell Kara that she had used the F-word, but I knew better. Actually, I was surprised I hadn’t said it and then kicked his head in, but I might have dropped Kara in the process.

  “You’ll never do what you did to me or to any girl ever again,” she said and lifted her aim to his face. Her hand looked amazingly steady as she pulled the trigger.

  One moment Marlow had a face and in the next, it was a bloody, pulpy mess. If I hadn’t seen a thousand more gross things in my life since the zombie apocalypse erupted, I might have found it disturbing. Too bad, I had seen worse, so it was just another day in the grisly neighborhood.

  Kara let the gun down and it bounced off the side of her leg and fell to the floor. All the strength went out of her and her total collapse nearly took us both to the floor, but I was able to adjust and support her weight.

  “Kara, Kara, baby,” I said. “What’s wrong? Stay with me. Stay with me.”

  Her body was completely slack against mine and the worst thoughts came to my mind.

  “Kara!” I shouted, moving my hand to her face to raise it so that I could see it. My complete focus was on her at that moment. My ears registered gunfire off in the parking lot, getting closer than ever before, but it was in the background, nearly on mute.

  “Kara,” I said again.

  Seconds passed, then her eyes fluttered open, weakly. It took her nearly twenty seconds to rally back to consciousness and focus on me.

  “You back with me?” I asked.

  A bullet slammed into the wall of the entryway, knocking dust and pieces of plaster onto us.

  She nodded her head, but it seemed it take all her energy.

  “Baby, we need to go,” I said. “Can you do that?

  She nodded again with a little more force.

  “Okay, let’s get going,” I said, but she dug her fingers into my side.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Get the gun,” she said, her voice low and weak.

  “Yeah, you’re right about that,” I said. “You are always the smartest side of this duo.”

  It took some maneuvering, but I was able to support her and still get the pistol. If I had had time, I would have grabbed the rifle, but the clock was winding down as the enemy approached. As I ducked down, a whole series of shots peppered the wall outside the entryway and a few made it into the hall. More plaster chipped off the wall, showering us with dust and debris.

  I got us up and back on our feet and asked, “So, do you know if there’s a way out the back? Didn’t Marlow say we were blocking his way out?”

  “Pretty sure we can go that way to get out,” she responded, gasping with each word taking extreme effort. “Get his rifle,” she said.

  As if on cue, another barrage of bullets came our way from off to the right. I couldn’t see who was firing or where the shots were coming from. Some of the shots peppered the side of the building, but more than a few slammed into the left wall of the entryway. I couldn’t tell if they knew we were there, but they could have heard the shots from Kara’s gun and I decided this was no time to take chances.

  “There’s no time,” I said. “We need to go.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  With that, we headed back into the darkness, shuffling slowly along with me thinking that Kilgore and his men were going to appear in the entryway and let loose with their weapons, turning us into human chum. We made the first turn, and that concern dropped down to a lower level, but I knew they could surge into that hallway at any moment and track us down.

  My thoughts shifted to what I could do next. My girlfriend was nearly unconscious and possibly seriously injured. A madman, with his own little personal army, was hunting us and he wasn’t planning on capturing us. It wasn’t dead or alive, it was dead.

  I heartened myself on the thought that we had faced the worst of it and we just had to get away. Or, so I thought.

  Chapter 44

  The Final Showdown

  The soldier’s stopped firing, the sounds of their shots echoing in the hallway, and all Russell could think was, “Holy Shit!” He had his arms over his face and was pulled back behind a ten-inch wall buttress, praying for safe deliverance like a child hiding under his covers from the monsters.

  With the number of bullets that had flown down the hall, it was a miracle that neither he nor Maggie had been shot. For that, he was eternally grateful. When Maggie slumped to the floor beside him, he knew no miracles had occurred. Her fall wasn’t an all-out collapse, but more of a controlled descent to the floor. Still, she was down.

  He slowly knelt, not wanting his movements to attract any attention, and reached out to grab her. The smoke from the barrage obscured much of the soldier’s view, anyway. He knew they couldn’t leave her body lying out in the open. He reached out a hand and grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back against the wall just as the smoke began to dissipate.

  He held her in place but was afraid to do much more. He couldn’t see much in the dark, but her body was limp.

  A voice shouted from inside the dining room, “Can you see any more?”

  A voice, closer than the first voice answered back, “Still waiting for the smoke to clear, sir.”

  Well, at least, he had that going for him, Russell thought, but once the smoke was gone, he had no idea if the soldiers would advance. He was a sitting duck as he held Maggie out of view. If the soldiers did come forward, he’d have to let her go and start shooting.

  It was then that he saw just how thin their plan was. It hinged on a weak distraction and a very big bluff. He hoped the others would start with their part of the plan and they did it soon, or else he and Maggie were toast.

  “We need to get a better angle,” Jo whispered to Henry. She pointed to a set of double doors off to their left that led into the dining room.

  It was tough to leave their safe position looking through the small crack in the rolling accordion door, but they had no ability to shoot at anything. Jo took the lead, and they slowly moved across the kitchen toward the door.

  Like a lot of facilities, these double doors had glass portal windows at head height. Not being tall, Jo had to push herself up on tiptoes to get a good view. Even being as young as he was, Henry had no such challenge. He had his father’s height, standing at just under six feet, and still had some growth left in his
body.

  She kept off to the side of the portal with an angled view of the room. She saw the backs of the soldiers facing down the dark hallway where Russell and Maggie were hiding. When she shifted herself to the other side of the portal window, she had nearly a straight on view of her people, ringed around the tables in the center of the dining hall. Unconsciously, she took an inventory of their expressions, but they all looked terrified. Her mind ticked off their names, Carol, Daryl, Richard, and so on. She knew each one of them and her heart ached for them, wanting them free of this hellish situation, but not knowing how or if she could do anything.

  As people in the group shifted, she had a direct line of sight into the center of their circle and could see Corporal Lodwick and two other soldiers. At one point, three of her people seemed to be in sync and took a step to their right. That’s when she saw Ellen with her arms wrapped around a girl that looked a lot like Madison Bloom, standing just over Lodwick’s shoulder. That puzzled Jo because Madison was supposed to be at the farmhouse.

  Another part of the group shifted and filled in the gap, cutting off Jo’s view of Lodwick and his men.

  “Should we start?” Henry whispered out his question.

  “No, Jones is making the next move,” she whispered back.

  “What if he’s dead or took off?” Henry asked, worried about his mom.

  “I doubt that,” she said, but was taken off balance by the suggestion. “Well, it’s his move now. If he doesn’t take it, we’ll have to. Besides, the soldiers might respond to him.”

  She sort of doubted it because the whole fiasco seemed way past any rational thought, but they had to give it a chance. If they couldn’t talk their way out of this, then it would come to shooting. Once that started, a lot of people were probably going to die. She didn’t want that, but she knew it was a distinct possibility.

  Jones and Del used the roar of gunfire to cover their movement up the hallway. They reached the lip of the abandoned entryway and took up positions there, one on each side, clinging close to the wall.