Yield (46 page)

Groggily, Isabel gets to a knee. She puts a hand up to the right side of her face, feeling it begin to bruise.
“
Terra!!
”
she screams again. Isabel looks with blurred eyes at the blood on her hands. She presses against the gash pulsing from her cheek.

Devin and Chris hurtle through the parking lot toward her. There
’
s no sign of the dark-haired girl she was with. Terra is gone. Isabel
’
s ultrasound photo sits in a dirty puddle, the image wrinkling away in the water.

“
What happened?
”
Devin yells. His own hands
tremble
as he tries to steady the pregnant woman. Her eyes flicker across the parking lot, searching for any glimpse of the traumatized teen in her care.

“
They took Terra! I couldn
’
t
…
”
Isabel stammers. Her head whips around.

“
Who?
”
Devin yells, grabbing her shoulders.
“
Who took her?
”

“
Two men with tattoos and a shotgun,
”
Isabel gasps. Her body begins to shake.

The words discharge like a gunshot through Chris
’
s stomach. The basketball star doubles over, his body heaving.

“
They just
…
”
Isabel fades off. She winces, feeling the shotgun handle slamming again into her face.

“
Where?!
”
Devin shouts.

“
I don
’
t know!
”
She points to the side of the store.
“
I think they went around!
”

The innocence in Terra
’
s sapphire eyes burns into Chris
’
s mind. Unquenchable anger at his own cowardice builds with it. The thoughts feed
—
igniting into a violent rage.

Chris lunges forward and roars toward the back alley of the grocery store. Like a runner launched from the starting gate, his long legs quickly begin to blur over the uneven ground. Cars and people scream past.

“
Chris, wait!
”
Devin shouts. He takes off after the basketball star just as the sun disappears below the horizon.

*  *  *

“
No!!
”
Terra screams. Her melodic voice cracks in horror. The terrified cry bounces back across the alley, its naivety shattering into thousands of irreplaceable pieces.

“
Shut up!
”
Derrick shouts into her face. The waning light disappears into his black war tattoo. He rips at Terra
’
s thin upper arm. His fingers pierce her skin like talons. The sun
’
s fading rays swallow them whole, forcing her unwilling body to succumb to their shadows.

“
Help me!
”
Terra shrieks as loudly as she can behind her. Someone has to help. Someone has to come and stop this horror before it has begun. But people just walk by the alleyway, looking sympathetically toward her before moving on.

“
Shut the hell up!
”
the Asian screams, slapping Terra with the back of one scarred hand. Derrick throws the young woman down on the ground and stands over her in the darkness.

She crawls back, eyes filled with panic. The predators tower over her. Unleashed. Ravenous.

“
Don
’
t
…
”
she cries. Her pure blue eyes beg them to stop.

“
Shh
…
”
Derrick puts a finger suggestively to his mouth. The ex-felon smiles, handing the shotgun to his partner. He drops to his knees and forces her hands away.
Derrick
tears the letterman jacket buttons apart, pushing her blue blouse up.
The
pink lace bra shimmers in the darkness. Savagery spreads with the grin across his face.

Derrick unzips his pants and climbs on top of her shuddering body. His partner watches on, his own eagerness growing. Only the barbwire tattoos around his neck and the whites of his eyes shine back from the shadows.

“
Please
…
God
…
”
Terra pleads softly. Tears run down her beautiful face. Hands full of scars and purpose rip at the buttons of her pants. She pushes them back with all of her strength. But the pulsing weight continues to crush down upon her.

“
Shh
…
”
Derrick whispers into her ear. His hot breath burns on her skin
—
like
prey at the kiss of a dragon.
“
He can
’
t help you now.
”

The Asian pulls her jeans down and shoves the front of her silk underwear aside. Derrick
’
s body quivers. His barbarous lust overpowers everything but itself. Begging. Commanding its release
…

A brilliant, red flare flies over their heads like a flaming arrow of hope from the heavens. It illuminates the colored silhouettes of all three figures, bouncing and hissing behind them.

Derrick spins toward the sound of uninvited footsteps. The urges inside shriek at the delay.

Enraged screams grow louder and louder from the darkness. The deep sound is chilling. Primal. Derrick
’
s eyes widen, doubt suddenly coursing through him. Long legs blur up the alley and into the red light.

Chris
’
s wrath grows with each rapid step. His eyes are steel. The basketball star viciously smashes the thug in the face with a two-by-four at full sprint. Derrick
’
s head snaps back, his limp body arcing off of Terra. Chris instantly reverses his swing and slams the board into Derrick
’
s tattooed face again. And again. The wood finally shatters in his bloody hands.

Unable to keep up with the lightning-quick teen, Devin lumbers into the alley toward the light. He lunges at the other thug just as the man cocks the shotgun and levels it at Chris. The gun fires deafeningly into the air. Both men tumble backward onto the black pavement.

Devin struggles against the much larger man, feeling his muscles crumple under the thug
’
s brute strength. Flickers of Terra
’
s mother flash in his mind. The loving hands of mother and daughter are ripped apart, replaced by a look of horror as the flames consume every life left in its path
…
The anger inside him explodes.

Devin digs and tears with a fury he
’
s never known before. He wrestles the gun away, slamming the end of it into the tattooed man
’
s neck and head
,
over and over.

“
Please
…
”
the thug chokes.

Without hesitation, Devin cocks the weapon and leans back, firing it pointblank into the black man
’
s face. Echoes bounce all around the bloody fireman. He can still feel the vibration in his ears as he fires it again. His arms pump and churn from atop the mutilated body, firing the shotgun once more. Devin cocks and squeezes the trigger again. But the weapon
’
s fatal fury is now only a meek and empty sound in his hands.

CLICK
…
CLICK
…
CLICK
…

Chris tries to lift Terra up. Her hands scratch and fight against him. She backs away into the darkness, cowering in victimized shame.

“
It
’
s okay,
”
Chris says. The exotic woman
’
s face is streaked with dirt and pain.
“
They can
’
t hurt you now.
”

He holds his arms out, leaning down to look into her haunted blue eyes. Tenderness and immeasurable loss flicker just below the surface of their fading sapphire color. The shadows around them seem to envelope even the smallest tints of hope. Terra buries her head into Chris
’
s shoulder, beginning to sob uncontrollably.

He glances over to Devin and the carnage now surrounding him.
“
Let
’
s get her out of here,
”
Chris says
.
“
We can make it back to the freeway farther south.
”

Another shadow stumbles forward into the harsh red light. Abd looks around at the murderous scene, his shaking right hand gripping the metal shiv from the plane. The Arab stops several feet behind Devin, his eyes transfixed by the dark liquid seeping out from under the fireman
’
s twitching seat.
“
Allah be merciful.
”

Devin blinks. Civility and reason can
’
t seem to push the rage and violence from his mind. He looks down at the horrific body in front of him, his eyes finally starting to focus. The fireman scrambles back into the darkness, fumbling for several unused shells between the spreading pools of death.

He backs away from the lifeless remains, a spattered shotgun still in his trembling grip. The road flare begins to burn blood-red as they leave the alley and run towards the south. Behind them the phosphorous light sputters, silhouetting the bodies once again before taking the dead with it into the black.

The
sharp hiss
of
a
n
incandescent
bulb pops on inside the Banes
’
dark living room. Katherine
’
s eyes drift down to the soundly sleeping eight-year-old on the couch. She kneels, laying a hand on Tyler
’
s ruddy blond hair. Kat kisses his forehead, just like she
’
s done so many times before the chaos of today. She lingers longer than usual, letting the boy
’
s adventurous scents fill her nose. It
’
s a combination of maple trees, bark dust, and baseball fields
,
mixed with a healthy dose of stubbornness he inherited from his father.

She takes a small medical pouch out of her purse and unzips it. A lock of golden hair tumbles over her ear before she can tuck it back. Kat pulls out two vials of insulin, her eyes narrowing. Holding the glass containers up, the small amount of liquid in the bottom barely catches the light from the lamp beside her.

Katherine looks down at her son. Pride and concern fill her hazel eyes. She sets the boy
’
s life sentence down on the end table with a clink, fighting back a growing fear.

She takes Tyler
’
s wrist and turns it over.
Thank God
…

The blood sugar levels on his GlucoWatch have held steady at 110 for the past two hours. She smiles, sinking into the couch like a deflated balloon. Katherine pushes the delicate curls of hair back from his eyes. A faint smile creases the corners of his mouth.

The color of his skin is no longer an ashen gray. It
’
s still a shade or two away from normal, but imperceptible to anyone other than his mother. To her, it
’
s a warning sign as clear as day of what could have happened. Katherine knows every tint of her children. Every pain. Every scar. Being a stay-at-home mom has been the most joyous, difficult, and exhaustively fulfilling thing she has ever done. At times, she
’
s been happier than words could describe. At others, she
’
s cracked, splintered under the self-induced pressures of perfection. She
’
s even thought of leaving a few times
—
actually walking away from it all and
giving up everything just so she could experience the things she never got to. Devin proposed to her when they were only kids themselves. So long ago
…
T
hey were different people back then.