The Beginning of the End (24 page)

“Oh my god! Ty, I
don’t want to die!” I put my hand on Chevy’s face, “You’re
not gonna die brother!” I pulled one of Chevy’s throwing knives
out of his boot and cut away his shirt. There was blood, but not as
much blood as I had expected. I was expecting Chevy to pass out any
second.

I ran into the bunk
room and grabbed some sheets off a bed. I ran back out to Chevy and
packed them against the wound. I put pressure on it and yelled at
him, “Stay awake! Don’t go to sleep!” I wiped blood away from
the wound and found another section of clean sheet and wiped more. I
stopped the bleeding! I inspected the gunshot wound, “Are you
kidding me?”

“What?” Chevy
moaned.

“It barely broke the
skin!” The bullet went between his arm and rib cage taking off a
few layers of skin about nipple height. Chevy looked down at the
wound, “Ty, it's bad. Oh it’s bad!” he prattled. He sat up,
still smiling, and playing with the cut, “Oh, that’s gonna leave
a mark.”

I stood up and chucked
the bloody sheet at Chevy’s face, “I hope it gets infected!” He
gave me a pouty face, “I’m sorry, Ty. If it makes you feel any
better. It really stings a lot!”

I walked away and over
to the third door. I gave the door a knock, “Hey, who’s in
there?”

“It’s me, Sidara
and your mom’s here too.”

“Stand back!” I
yelled as I kicked the door open. I stepped in and was embraced by my
mom. Sidara joined in. There were two other girls in the room, and
they hugged me too. I felt like a hero, “Is everyone okay?” I
asked. “We’re fine, Two-gun, but that Kane guy, who shot Chevy is
a maniac. There’s three more guys in their crew, and they’re out
in the Humvee looking for you! We need to get out of here.” I
looked over and saw my mom checking on Chevy. “Hi Mom!” he said.
“I was shot!” Jen looked at the superficial would, not falling
into Chevy’s trap, “So I heard. Would you like a band-aid for
that?”

“Yes, please.”
Chevy said with a huge smile on his face.

It was time for us to
leave before the others came back, “Hey, if you two are done
fooling around, we need to get moving!” Chevy looked at me and back
at my mom, “He does know I’ve been shot. Right?”

October 14th 6:15am

“If we’re going to
switch this Humvee out, we need to drive a little faster. That fuel
gauge is reading empty, and we’re still a ways away.” No matter
how hard they tried, Luther and Tommy couldn’t seem to do anything
right, when it came to Cowboy. Between Kane losing his mind and the
incompetence of his partners, Cowboy was believing his days with this
outfit were numbered. “We’re just a couple of miles away from the
fairgrounds.” Luther informed Cowboy who responded by saying
nothing. Tommy spent most of his time hiding from Cowboy in the
turret, where he would occasionally drop a few rounds in a dead as
they passed by. Luther turned into the all too familiar fairgrounds.
Cowboy finally spoke as he did, “Take the far road to the vehicle
impound so Kane doesn’t see us back here. He said he’s got plans
for all the extra Humvees, seeing us take one would piss him off.”

Luther did as he was
told and took the long winding dirt path that led along the old
abandoned airstrip. “Tommy!” Cowboy called out as he pulled
something from his pocket, “Here’s the key to the impound gate.
Go open it.” Luther stopped at the gate's edge, and Tommy hopped
out to unlock it. Luther pulled in and headed toward the other parked
Humvees. As he pulled into an open spot, the vehicle died, running
out of gas. He looked over at Cowboy, “That was lucky!” Cowboy
glared back at Luther, “Lucky for you!”

Cowboy got out of the
vehicle and walked over to the next Humvee, where he was met by
Tommy, “Let’s try this one.” Tommy jumped in and grabbed the
starter switch on the left side of the steering wheel. A turn to the
left and the vehicle started right up. “You’ve gotta love these
things.” Cowboy said.

“Let’s grab
everything out of the other one and load it in here. Tommy, you grab
the fifty-caliber off the turret.” Luther climbed into the turret
of the new vehicle and waited for Tommy to hand up the fifty. Cowboy
watched the slow progress and made a comment when he saw Luther
staring into the woods. Cowboy scanned the tree line, but couldn’t
see anything, “What are you looking at?” Without breaking sight
of the object, Luther said, “There’s something in the trees over
there.” Cowboy looked again, “I don’t see anything. What is it?
A dead?” Luther pointed to the tree line, “It’s getting light
out, and I can see something reflecting in the woods over there.”
Cowboy climbed up on the Humvee to get a better view. He scanned the
tree line and caught a reflection near the stone outcrops, “I see
it. Let’s check it out! Grab your rifles and we’ll head over.
Tommy, you swing wide out into the field and stay low. Luther, you
wrap around to the back of the stone outcrop, and I will head
straight in.” Cowboy had given himself the worst approach. If there
was someone nearby, or in whatever was reflecting, they would have
the drop on him. He made it a point to take it slow. About ten yards
out, the cresting sun was revealing the object. “Is that a
vehicle?” Cowboy thought to himself. He worked his way in closer,
waiting for a gunshot to kill him.

“Hey!” Cowboy
looked over. It was Luther calling him from behind a tree, “It’s
all clear! It looks empty!” Cowboy made his way over to Luther and
took up position with him behind a tree, “Get a light on it!”
Luther hit the truck with his flashlight. It was definitely empty.
Cowboy walked over with Luther right on his heels. They circled the
truck, and they were met by Tommy. “Who the hell parked this here?”
Tommy asked. Cowboy opened the truck door and looked inside, “It’s
them!”

“Who’s them?”
Tommy asked.

Cowboy slammed the
truck door, “It’s the guys we’ve been looking for all night.”

“Why would they park
here?” Cowboy looked across the open field and pointed his finger
at their building, “That’s why.”

Tommy ran around to the
front of the truck looking across the field, “Why would they come
after us? They must know we’re trying to kill them?” Cowboy took
off his hat and wiped his forehead with his arm. He put it back on
and reached in his back pocket pulling out a can of chew. He opened
it up, and put and oversized pinch in his lip. He spat the excess in
his lip at the ground before answering, “We stole their girlfriend
so Kane could rape and kill her. What do you think they came here
for?” Luther joined in the conversation, “I’ll tell you what I
would do. I would come after us, and I wouldn’t stop until we were
all dead!” Cowboy and Tommy didn’t respond, but they knew he was
right. Cowboy took a deep breath, debating if he should take a chance
and tell them what he was really thinking. He decided to take that
chance. “This is how I see it boys. We can hop in the Humvee over
there, get out of town, and leave this place right now. We’ll find
someplace new, and get away from Kane, and all his bullshit. We all
know he’s lost it. We’ll leave now and never look back. A new
place and a fresh start!” Cowboy paused for a few seconds, “Or we
can head over there, find those guys, kill’em, and get back to
business.” Luther kicked at a stone on the ground. It bounced off
Chevy’s truck tire. “Those are our friends in there, I agree,”
Luther admitted, “Kane has been going through some fucked-up shit,
but I’ve known him my whole life. He just needs some time. He lost
his whole family last week. That’s enough to drive anyone crazy,
but I know he’ll get through it! I can’t leave him.” Cowboy
took another deep breath and released it through his nose, “I
figured you’d say that. So I guess the plan is to go back and warn
them?”

“Yeah, that’s the
plan,” Luther said. “We might be too late. Before we left, I made
sure that door was locked.” Cowboy spit toward the back of the
building, “Now it's wide open.” Luther and Tommy snapped their
heads around to the building, “They’ve already been there!”
Tommy advised. Cowboy tilted his head toward Chevy’s truck and
said, “I think they’re still there!” Cowboy pulled a knife from
his pocket and used it to draw a picture in the dirt, “Here’s the
building. You two head back to the Humvee. Leave the lights off and
take the long road back to the front. I’ll head across the field to
the open door. I’ll wait outside for the signal.”

“What’s the
signal?” Luther butted in.

“I want you to drive
that Humvee right through the garage door. Tommy, you get on that
fifty-caliber, and if they're moving in there, you take them out!
Once that fifty starts cycling rounds, they’re gonna go for that
open door.” Cowboy pointed to the open door again, “I’ll be
there waiting. If anyone makes it out, I’ll take care of them. Do
you both understand?” They both nodded their heads, “We’ve got
it!” Cowboy watched as Luther and Tommy ran back to the Humvee.
Cowboy sat in Chevy’s truck until he saw the Humvee pull out of the
vehicle impound, thinking of a plan of his own.

October 14th 6:50am

I took a quick look at
my watch, “Let’s get moving everyone! The sun’s gonna be up in
a few minutes. Chevy quit screwing around and get off the floor, grab
Wife Beater’s gun and cover the front door where that guy ran out.
Don’t let him back in here!” I motioned to the girl with the long
brown hair, “What’s your name?”

“I’m Sage!”

“Sage, I’m Ty. Can
you shoot a gun?” She gave me a sarcastic look and raised an
eyebrow, “Yeah, I can shoot a gun.” I handed her my HK416, “It’s
loaded, and the safety is off. Just point and shoot. Cover the back
door.” Sage turned and disappeared into the bathroom. What was she
doing? I saw the barrel of my HK slide out from the bathroom door.
Sage was peeking around the door frame using the bathroom for cover,
“Good for her.” I said aloud. “Sidara I need you and our new
friend to help me search this place for weapons.” She took off with
Kate into the bunk room. “What do you want me to do, Ty?” Mom
asked. I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the office, “I
don’t want you to leave my side, Mom.” I yelled to everyone as we
were running for the office, “We’re out of here in two minutes!”
Mom and I searched the office. It looked empty until I opened the
closet door. Sidara’s MOLLE vest was stuffed in there, with her Sig
Sauer and M4. I grabbed the Sig and pulled the slide back enough to
see it was loaded. I handed it to my Mom, “Here take this, there’s
no safety on it, so be careful. It’s semi-automatic so it will
shoot once, every time you pull the trigger.” She took the Sig from
my hand, pushed the magazine release, and I watched as it slid out of
the gun. She caught it with her hand, turned the mag sideways to see
if the mag was full and slammed it back into the Sig. She looked at
me and said, “I’m married to your father. I’ve been shooting
guns since before you were born. I think I know what I’m doing.”

“Yeah, Mom!” I
cheered.

I pulled out the rest
of the weapons and found my swords buried behind Sidara’s M4,
“Awesome! That’s everything Mom. Let’s get out of here.” We
left the office in time to see Sidara walking out of the bunk room.
She was smiling and lifted up her arm, “Hey Two-gun, I got your two
guns back!” Sidara was holding up my Glocks, and they were still in
the two gun holster. In return, I held up her MOLLE vest, and we met
in the middle of the room, “Trade you.” she said, as she held out
my holster. I took my holster back and handed her the vest. We
couldn’t put them on fast enough. We were old friends reunited,
“Let’s go!” I yelled across the room to Chevy. He left the
front door, and we all headed for the back. “Sidara, you go first
and make sure it’s clear!” I yelled. She pulled the door open,
and she gave us a wave, “All clear!” I was the last to leave the
building. As I stepped out of the door, I heard the rumble of the big
V-8 Humvee engine followed by a gigantic crash! We all hit the
ground. We heard the huge fifty-caliber shooting rounds inside of the
building. Then, the firing stopped.

October 14th 7:05am

Luther turned off the
dirt trail onto the pavement by the grandstand. He stepped on the
gas, and the Humvee’s engine roared. It wasn’t very fast, but the
thing was a tank. The speedometer had just climbed past forty. Around
the last set of bleachers, the garage door came into sight. “Get
down!” Luther shouted. Tommy ducked inside of the turret and
dropped into a seat. He reached for the seatbelt as the Humvee
crashed through the steel door. Luther wasn’t sure the Humvee would
make it through. He hadn’t considered the sheer weight and mass of
the vehicle. Not only did it not stop the Humvee, but it didn’t
slow it a bit. Luther jammed on the brakes, and the vehicle slid on
the smooth concrete floor. Tommy held on to the back of Luther’s
seat to stop his face from bouncing off it. The vehicle finally came
to rest against Kane’s cutting table. Tommy climbed up to the
turret and fired the fifty-caliber machine gun wildly around the
room. Luther scanned the room through the bullet resistant windshield
but didn’t see anyone, “What the hell are you shooting at?” he
screamed. The shooting stopped and Tommy dropped down from the
turret, “What?”

“I said, what the
hell are you shooting at? There’s no one here!” Luther took one
last look around the room, grabbed his rifle and cautiously stepped
out of the Humvee. Tommy followed behind him, “Do you see anyone?”
he whispered in Luther’s ear. Luther pointed his middle and index
fingers at his eyes and then across the room. Tommy followed the
point, where he saw a set of legs on the floor. They made their way
to man on the floor. Their friend lay there dead. No shoes, no pants,
and no wife beater T-shirt. Just his blood-stained boxers. Visibly
upset, Luther ordered, “Spread out. Search everywhere. Kill them
and find Kane!” Tommy headed for the office. Luther checked on the
girls. The door was closed, but unlocked. He stepped in and the room
was empty, “There's no one here and all the weapons are gone!”
Tommy yelled from across the building. Luther raised his rifle and
pushed open the bunk room door with his foot. He stepped inside and
looked around. It was empty. Luther stepped out of the bunk room as
Tommy was checking the kitchen, “Nothing in here either, they’re
all gone!” Luther looked around the building asking, “Where’s
Kane then?”