Dark Creations: Dark Ending (Part 6) (7 page)

What she and Daniella were doing would help the best chance they had at saving the residents of Eldon.  Of course, he and Joe and the other men had an alternative plan.  If Daniella and Alexandra had refused to help them outright, they would have had no other choice than to kick down the front doors of the mayor and the sheriff’s homes and take them that way.  But the plan involving the girls was much neater and posed a lesser risk of being seen in the process.

“Yeah, yeah, enough with the sappy bullshit,” she said less heatedly.  “What do you need me to do?  What is Daniella doing?”

“Daniella is going with Joe as we speak.  She is going to ring the mayor’s doorbell.  When the mayor answers, she will lure him outside and Joe will grab him then hightail it to a house we surveyed that’s closest to the border of Taft, the one we believe Terzini’s members will storm first.”

“That’s all well and good, but I still don’t understand why we can’t just tell the sheriff and the mayor what’s happening.  I mean really, Jack,
kidnapping
! Why do we need to kidnap him?  Why not just, I don’t know,
tell him
what the hell is going on?”

“You don’t think I tried to tell him?”
he fumed and now it was his temper that flared.  “You think I want to do this?  You think I want to kidnap innocent people?  Because I don’t!  I met with the sheriff and the mayor and tried to warn them four days ago when Taft was first invaded.”  Jack paused and rubbed his temples.  “I don’t think I need to tell you how that went.”

“They thought you were a fucking lunatic,” Alexandra filled in the blanks and was absolutely right. 

“Exactly,” Jack nodded.  “Of course, after they’d offered me a cozy stay at their finest mental health facility at the southern end of town and I refused, the sheriff, Tom Baker, put in a call to the sheriff of Taft, you know, to appease the nut-job who was refusing to leave,” he continued and pointed to himself.  “And guess what?”

Alexandra shook her head slowly and closed her eyes.  “The sheriff
of Taft answered and said all was fine there.  Shit.”

“Bingo!  The sheriff
of Taft, who was one of Terzini’s drones, answered and shot my warning to shit, not that it had needed any more help.”

“Holy shit,” Alexandra breathed.

“I guess I can’t blame him for thinking I was stark-raving mad.  I would have thought the same thing a few years back before I met you people,” he chuckled mirthlessly.  “So now do you see why we can’t just march up to his office or front door and tell him what is happening?”

“Yeah, Jack, I do,” she said solemnly.  “He didn’t believe you and he sure as hell won’
t believe more strangers.”

“Not
until it’s too late he won’t.  That’s why I came up with this plan right after I met with him,” Jack added. 

Alexandra took a deep breath.  “Let’s go,” she said.  “Come on.  Let’s go kidnap Sheriff Baker.”

She walked to the door of the trailer they’d been in, opened the door and stepped out.  He followed and they stood on flat grassland and looked around.  Nearly a dozen trailers were parked there, all of them Jack’s men, brave souls who’d abandoned their homes not once, but twice, to follow him.  Their current homes were their trailers that were parked in an open field in Eldon. The field was near the outermost edge of town without any homes close by.  For that reason, it was the safest spot in Eldon, for now, at least.  He planned to take one of the men residing in the trailer on his trip with Alexandra.  James Miller had volunteered to go. Jack could see him in the distance, see his permanently flushed face and strawberry-blonde hair standing up on end in random tufts as he waited beside Ed’s Ford Bronco with a rifle in hand, courtesy of the interior lights.

“James!” Jack called to him
, and he waved.

After he’d waved to Jack, James did not waste any time and set about loading the SUV.  He leaned his rifle against the Bronco and packed a cooler, lengths of rope and weapons into the trunk. 

“Guy is efficient, huh?” Alexandra commented under her breath.

“Yep,” Jack said as they walked.

“Never would have guessed it,” she grumbled.  “Red face, messy hair, dirty, sloppy clothes, I would have pegged him as a drinker.”

“Oh he’s that, too.  But he’s efficient,” Jack smiled.

“Great,” Alexandra said sarcastically.  “Nothing to worry about when good ‘ole James the drunk is armed and on our side.”

“Do I need to remind you that James the drunk survived the Hunters’ attack, that all of my men who you dis
regarded as crazies fought and protected you?” Jack said without condescension.

“Oh please don’t go into the whole we-saved-you rigmarole, okay?  Spare me the lecture.  I was just calling it like I see it.  I see a drunk with a gun and I run; Plain and simple.”

“Well he’s coming with us, and you’re not running, got it?”

Alexandra rolled her eyes exaggeratedly.  “Whatever you say, Jack,” she puffed.

When they reached the Bronco, James was already in the passenger seat and the keys dangled from the ignition.  Jack slid into the driver’s seat and Alexandra waited outside of the passenger side door.  James screwed up his features at her then opened the door.

“Sorry, guy.  I need to ride shotgun, car sickness,” she said and Jack was sure she’d lied.  Regardless, James climbed out and surrendered his seat to her. 

“Much better,” Alexandra said when she’d shut the door and situated herself.  “Let’s go.”

“All right,” Jack said.  “James, she’s going to ring the bell and bat her eyelashes and tell him her
Bronco broke down.  When he comes out to help her, we’re going to grab him.”

“Bat her eyelashes,” Alexandra mumbled grumpily. 

“Sounds good,” James said and ignored her. 

“You ready, Alex?”

“Yeah, I guess.  But I have a question.  This plan of yours will work, but only if Sheriff Baker comes outside.  What if he doesn’t come out or worse, what if he’s not home?   What happens then?”

In truth, Jack had not considered either option.  Even now, as the bleak but very real possibilities were presented to him, he chose not to entertain th
em.  Tom Baker could be out or he might refuse to help an attractive woman in need of his help. 

“We’re screwed if that happens, aren’t we?” Alexandra asked and no longer assumed the know-it-all tone she’d had a second ago. 

Jack nodded slightly then said, “There are other ways.  Trust me.  But this is the best way.  This has to work out.  He’ll be home and he will help you,” Jack said more for himself than Alexandra or James.  “Alex, you have to really play up the whole damsel in distress act, okay?”

“Yeah, whatever,” she said sourly.

“No, no ‘yeah whatever,’ Alex,” he scolded.  “I know you don’t like being a weak, flirty girl, that it’s beneath you, but you’re going to make an exception here!”

“All right, I got it!” she fired back.

Jack contemplated pulling the car over and finding out exactly what the hell her problem was.  He wasn’t asking her for a kidney or her firstborn.  He was asking for her help in saving an entire town of people from being slaughtered and she was fighting him every step of the way.  He opened his mouth to speak and was about to tell her exactly what was on his mind when a thought occurred to him.

“Alex, Yoshi is fine.  He and Gabriel will be fine,” he said gently.

He watched her from the corner of his eye as she blinked feverishly at mention of his name.  Her lower lip trembled and she took it between her teeth.  She did not speak right away. 

“
But Melissa isn’t,” she whispered as the Bronco rumbled along, deeper into the heart of Eldon. 

He drove down the main avenue and passed various shops and cafés until the more commercial a
rea gave way to modest homes.  But the houses grew larger the further he moved.  The road forked and he remembered the split well, remembered the last time he’d veered toward Poplar Place, a street aptly named after the slender trees that grew along it. 

Sheriff Baker lived off of Poplar Place on Orchard Street a few blocks from where they were. 
He slowed when the green sign for Orchard Street came into view. 

“I’m going to pull over up ahead and Alex, you’ll drive. 
It’s number fifteen, the white house with green shutters.  James and I will go on foot and hide out near his neighbor’s fence.”

“I got it,” Alexandra said.  “Now get out already and let’s do this.”

Jack patted the handgun in the waistband of his jeans then twisted in his seat and gestured to James.  James opened his door and quickly exited.  Jack followed suit and Alexandra drove off.  He watched as her taillights faded in the dark before he and James stole down the street until they reached a high privacy fence that bordered Sheriff Baker’s property and his neighbor’s property. 

They slunk onto the grass and crouched behind a car covered by a tarp
and partially hidden by the fence.  There, Jack watched as Alexandra pulled up feet from Sheriff Baker’s walkway and moved to the front of the SUV.  She opened the hood and looked inside perplexedly then turned her eyes skyward with her hands on her hips.

“She’s good,” James surprised him by whispering. 

She strolled to the front door and rang the bell.  The porch light went on a few seconds later and Sheriff Baker appeared, framed by the doorway.  When he saw Alexandra, his posture straightened.  He sucked in his gut in a desperate attempt to whittle his waist and inflate his chest. 

Jack could not hear what she was saying, but judging from her animated hand gestures, she was telling him that the Bronco had broken down just outside his house.  She flipped her hair and touched her hand to her heart coyly.  Tom Baker, like most men, smiled goofily in her presence and turned to go back inside.  Jack assum
ed the sheriff went in to put shoes on as he returned moments later wearing sneakers and carrying a flashlight in one hand. 

Sheriff Baker marched down his walkway with a swagger that was comical and made his way to
the SUV.  He leaned over the engine then handed her the flashlight.

“Hold this here for me, please,” he said and raised her hand that held the light so that it was the correct height, allowing it to linger longer than necessary. 

“Gosh, I really appreciate this, uh, oh no!  You’re helping me and I don’t even know your name,” Alexandra giggled, a sound Jack never thought he’d hear escape her. 

“Tom, my name’s Sheriff Tom Baker,” he emphasized the word ‘sheriff.’

“Oh, you’re the sheriff,” Alexandra crooned.  “Thank God.  At least I know I’m safe with you,” she kept on and Jack suppressed the urge to gag. 

“
All right,” Jack whispered to James.  “As soon as he bends over that engine, we move, okay?”

“Okay,” James replied and raised his gun. 

He waited until the sheriff had just begun to hunch over the engine then Jack and James burst from their hiding place and collared him. 

“Try starting it now,” Sheriff Baker said right before Jack pressed the barrel of his gun to the back of his h
ead.  “What the?” Sheriff Baker started and turned only to stare down the muzzle of Jack’s pistol. 

“
Make another sound and I’ll put a bullet in your head.  Nod if you understand me,” Jack managed in a calm and controlled voice.  His pulse hammered dangerously in his ears, but his hands remained still.

“Do you know who you’re screwing with?” Sheriff Baker tried and Jack jabbed his head with the barrel of his gun so that his intent could not be mistaken. 

“I know exactly who you are,” Jack said through his teeth.  James came up alongside him and cuffed the sheriff’s hands behind his back.  “Move,” Jack said and shoved him.  They walked around the car and James opened the back door.  Jack pushed the sheriff inside and climbed in beside him, aiming his gun all the while.  Alexandra shut the hood of the Bronco then slid into the passenger seat.  James took the wheel and they drove off.  

Sheriff Baker sat up and looked at Jack.  Terror was etched in his features and Jack regretted what he was doing.  “Who are you and why are you,” Sheriff Baker began but did not finish his sentence.  Recognition flashed in his
terrified features and Jack felt like lead had been dropped on his chest. 

“You remember me, don’t you?”
he asked levelly. 

“Yes,” Sheriff Baker answered and his voice trembled. 

“Yeah well, I got something I need to show you,” Jack said and knew the sheriff saw him as not only a madman, but a kidnapping madman now.  Shame burned up his neck and Jack was thankful for the darkness that hid it from the others, from the sheriff.  “If you behave yourself and pay attention, you might just survive this.”

Sheriff Baker did not respond verbally.  He simply nodded nervously then stared straight ahead, refusing to glance Jack’s way. 

Jack felt truly sickened by what he was doing.  Never in his wildest imaginings did he dream he would be kidnapping a town sheriff.  He’d been a decorated soldier, a leader and a pillar in his community.  Now he’d been reduced to someone others believed was a crackpot, a loose cannon.  If there had been any other way to convince the sheriff and mayor of what was going to happen to their town, he would have tried it.  He’d attempted the truth and they’d scoffed at him, dismissed him and suggested he voluntarily commit himself to a mental health facility.  While his current actions suggested they’d been correct in their recommendation, another, saner option did not exist.  They needed to be forced to see for themselves what was coming.