New Title 3 Read online

  “Listen.” John took it upon himself to give us a reality check. “It was us or them, man. Joel tried talking them down but no go. We were left with no alternative but to fire back. They asked for it! They signed their lives away by firing at us.” With each spoken word John became more determined. “Christ, I think I shot two of them dead myself. You think I feel guilty about that? You think I feel bad about protecting my girlfriend, this house and my friends? Screw that, I’ll do it again in a heartbeat, I look forward to it!”

  Jake nodded and sipped at his water. Shit changes everyone in some way. Jake, I now believed, had had a helping hand; that was the accepted word around the house. Just to have been present for Jake’s transition was enough to believe in a higher power.

  The evening saw Sara, Kevin and Seth finish their shift and join what had transformed into another victory party. We’d essentially accepted our decisions, accepted who we were and who we would have to become in order to stay alive. The weed made us laugh. It also made us forget the awfulness of the afternoon.

  *****

  October delivered a wind so powerful that it blew the tops off the dead birches in the front yard and felled many more trees whose roots had long since lost their hold in the black muck. It was a stronger wind than that of September’s, still from the north and getting cooler.

  On the first Friday of the month, we celebrated Caroline’s birthday. The clan gathered in the addition to enjoy a party that, for once, had nothing to do with victory over the elements or our enemies. Caroline was visibly touched by our efforts to make the day special for her.

  “Thanks, you guys,” she said, standing at the north end of Skylab while we looked on. “This means a lot to me...” Then her face began to contort, thoughts of her absent family haunting her. John hugged her against his bare chest. Then he turned to us.

  “A little music, Maestro….”

  Sidney pushed the button on the CD player, and John and Caroline’s song came on over the speaker system throughout the addition. We watched them dance to the gentle, haunting melody while candlelight shadowed their movements. It was beautiful. Our new existence had its ugly aspects, like the darkness, the mud, and the murdering. But it never got so bad that love failed to flourish. I reached for Sara’s hand and squeezed it.

  The party skyrocketed after that. The guard shifts were shortened to an hour at a time so that everyone could enjoy the evening. Except for me- I couldn’t relax my vigilance.

  My spell at guard duty passed quickly enough. After saying goodnight to Sara, who arrived to replace me, I stumbled to bed.

  I stood in my room, rubbing my eyes to ease the ache. I fell easily into bed, my body limp with fatigue. But no sooner had I closed my eyes, they were forced open again by an awful vision. A vision so realistic, I knew I had to tell someone immediately. What was happening to me? First the skunk, then the angel and now this. Was I turning into Conner?

  I knew better than to doubt something like this, given the circumstances, so I hurried back into the addition, where everyone was slouched in their couches and chairs. “We’ve got to open the gates,” I said urgently.

  “Right now?” Kevin looked confused.

  “Yes, right now! Don’t ask why: let’s just get it done!”

  We moved quickly while a skeleton crew remained on watch in the addition. Thank God we did, because minutes later, we heard the soft growl of approaching vehicles. Then their headlights shone mercilessly over our sanctuary, and we were compromised.

  Chapter Eighteen

  We lunged for cover behind the line of cars on the front lawn.

  “How’d you know, Joel?” Connor whispered as we huddled behind his old four-runner. “I mean, you couldn’t have seen them.”

  I raised a finger to my lips as the motor cavalcade approached. Then I glanced at Earl and John, who were all solid stare and coiled muscle, waiting to spring into action.

  The intruders were riding motorcycles: big, nasty-looking engines. We counted seven of them. They stopped barely ten feet from us, parked, and looked the silent house up and down. Their leather jackets, long hair, and decorated hogs identified them as bikers. One of them made a comment about this being a great new clubhouse; another wondered if any women were inside. Our stomach muscles and trigger fingers clenched as we imagined our sanctuary - and our girlfriends - being exposed to the desecration of these assholes.

  John sprang out first. He shoved his shotgun barrel right into an approaching biker’s balls. Connor, Earl, and I appeared over the vehicle hoods, covering them all.

  “Walk away, jerkoffs,” I ordered. “This place belongs to us. You either walk away from here or we take you down.”

  John nudged his gun, making his target wince and step back. “Your dick is going to take the bullet train to the curb, asshole!”

  The other bikers glanced at each other uncertainly. We were at one of those terrible stalemates, in which both sides had too much to lose by giving in. Then there was a flash of movement- John’s man was grabbing for the rifle barrel.

  BOOM!!!

  The stranger fell heavily onto his back, blood exploding from his crotch. Behind us, the door opened. Seth was there, framed by the inside light, aiming an M-16 at the invaders.

  “Get inside, boys!” he shouted to us.

  We ran for it. Seth slammed the door shut behind us. Seconds later, bullets thudded into the door and the windows exploded. The sentries in Skylab fired back, mowing the enemy down, while Seth, John, Connor, Earl and I threw ourselves onto the hall floor. After minutes that felt like hours, the gunfire stopped.

  “They’re scattering,” we heard someone yell from the addition. “Joel, they’re scattering!”

  We ran upstairs and into the addition, taking advantage of the ceasefire. “How many left?” I asked.

  “Three - and they just booked outta here.” Freddy reloaded his automatic.

  Slowly, silently, weapons poised, we went back downstairs. When we opened the bullet-pocked door, the first thing we saw was the silent form of the biker that John had emasculated. The porch light flickered, making the corpse the focus of a horrific light show. Beyond him were three more bodies, slumped on the grass with exploded skulls.

  John stumbled onto the lawn and began puking. So did Sidney. I took deep, gulping breaths to avoid following their example. That was when Earl took charge. I wasn’t complaining.

  “Let’s take stock of these bodies, and then throw ‘em into the pit.”

  Callous as his words were, they were practical. We didn’t need the odour of putrefaction to be added to our sanctuary’s discomforts. Kevin brought a wheelbarrow from the garage, and we hefted the five bodies in, one after the other. When one guy’s brains dribbled over the side and John puked again. Sidney helped him indoors while Earl walked ahead to the pit. The rest of us flanked the makeshift hearse as Kevin maneuvered it toward the burial site.

  “My ….face….hurts.”

  Kevin dropped the wheelbarrow handles and stumbled backward so quickly that he fell on his ass. “Guys! Guys, I’ve got a live one here!”

  We all stared in disbelief. It was one of those surreal moments when you don’t know what you’re supposed to do. One of the bodies was moving, weakly at first, grasping at the wheelbarrow’s metal edges. Then a shape sat up straight, brushing aside the lifeless limbs of his buddies, and stumbled out onto the grass. The man’s face was partially shot away and one arm hung like a bloody dish rag, but he was alive.

  What should we do? Should we take out our weapons and finish this guy off? No… no, we couldn’t. He had survived: he was a survivor just like us.

  “Go,” Kevin hissed at him. “Go, run! Get out of here!”

  The biker staggered toward the field. Just then Earl appeared from the pit, shovel over his shoulder. He took one look at the fleeing figure and yanked out his automatic. Before we could shout, he fired. Three bullets punched through the man’s bare back and exited his chest in a red cloud. Kevin screamed and began
weeping uncontrollably.

  “What are you doing, asshole!!” Connor yelled at Earl.

  “Shooting that bastard before he brought back reinforcements. What the fuck’s your problem? Why’d you let him go to begin with?”

  We couldn’t answer. Standing there in the dark silence, a mass grave awaiting this most recent offering, we didn’t know what was right anymore.

  Or wrong.

  *****

  The next morning, after breakfast, I wandered around the property, ostensibly patrolling it but really trying to remember everything as it had been before the darkness and blood. During my rounds I came upon Jake in his fortress of solitude. Sitting on the ground, gazing into the inky distance, he showed no sign of having noticed me.

  “Jake…” I approached him carefully. “Jake, you awake?”

  “I knew you were there, Joel,” he answered without moving anything but his lips.

  I didn’t know what to say to that.

  Jake rose from the filthy ground in one fluid motion. “I hadn’t expected you so soon. What brought you to ‘the forbidden zone’?” He waggled his fingers, gently mocking Earl’s disdain for places outside our protected bubble.

  “Just patrolling. And… remembering.”

  His face was the picture of empathy. “Yeah, I do that a lot myself.”

  We fell silent for a few minutes. Then suddenly, I began to laugh. Not giggle. Not chuckle. Hysterical laughter ripped through me at a memory of us here, at the shed. Jake grinned patiently while I doubled over.

  “I’m sorry,” I choked. “It’s just…”

  “I think I’m remembering the same memory.” He pointed to the broken window and gave up a toothy smile. “What would we be without them.”

  That’s when Jake left us. A shot cracked behind us, and he lunged in front of me. A bullet tore into Jake’s small frame, puncturing his heart. I caught him in my arms and pulled him from the shed doorway. He groaned terribly, blood flowing freely from his chest. I struggled to stop the bleeding, but it was a losing battle. Two more shots sank into the earth next to us.

  “It’s supposed to be this way,” Jake whispered as blood bubbled from his mouth and nostrils.

  Tears poured down my cheeks, which seemed to disturb him.

  “Don’t do that for me, Joel… please….”

  His head was on my lap. I crouched over him, crying, pushing down on the wound with my fingers. “It’s supposed to be like this,” he kept saying.

  “What? What are you saying? What are you talking about?” I choked.

  “The angel, Joel…. He told me this would happen.” Those were Jake’s final words. His eyes fluttered, and his spirit departed.

  Jake now lay dead on my lap. I gently lowered him to the earth, picked up his machine gun, and peered carefully around the shack doorway to scan the area where the shot had come from. I couldn’t see anyone. I had to move, to get to the safety of the house.

  “I’ll be back, Jake,” I whispered into his ear. Then I sprang to my feet and ran. I hadn’t run like that since the skunk last challenged me: I was fast and agile, weaving around trees and under fallen branches. Shots were fired again- I could hear some hitting the trees while others whizzed past, searching for me. The adrenaline pushed me to my absolute limit as I drew closer to the hill, closer to home. I almost didn’t realize I’d been hit.

  The bullet penetrated my right upper leg, making me stumble and fall. Grasping the wound with both hands, I got up again and struggled to the shelter of a large spruce. The shooting finally ceased and I waited there for some time, listening for my assailants’ approach. They didn’t pursue me, and soon I heard the voices of my friends as they rushed through the woods, calling out my name.

  Sonny found me. “What the fuck happened here, Joel? We heard shots.” He scanned the surrounding forest. “Where are the shooters?”

  “Gone, I think.” The pain was pulsating now, interfering with my motor skills. My whole body throbbed. “I’m hit, Sonny. And Jake...”

  “Jake? He’s out here too?”

  “Jake’s dead.” It was the only thing I could say.

  Sonny flinched as if struck. He scanned my pale, tear-soaked face. Then his lower lip trembled, although he refrained from crying himself. “Where… where is he?”

  “At the shed.”

  “We’ve got to get you to the house. I’ll come back for Jake when we’ve got you safe.” Sonny hoisted me over his shoulder and headed up the path. Earl and Kevin bolted down the lawn to meet us.

  “Guys!” Sonny hollered. “I got Joel!!”

  “What happened to him?” Earl asked.

  “He’s been shot in the leg… and Jake’s dead.”

  “Dead?!” Kevin turned white. “Dead?” he repeated incredulously. Sonny just nodded. Earl said nothing, but he looked just as sick. Gripping their guns and glancing backward, they accompanied us to the house in silence.

  Sara met us at the back basement door. “Oh God, what happened to you, Joel? Were you hit?”

  “He took one in the leg, Sara.” Sonny laid me carefully on the floor. He bunched up a corner of the area rug to create a pillow for my head.

  “I’ll get the first aid kit!” Sara was on the verge of hysterics. Connor pulled her aside.

  “Don’t lose it, Sara,” I heard him whisper to her. “Not when he’s hurt like this. You have to be stronger than that for him. He’s going to be okay. He’s only hit in the leg.”

  “That could mean a million things, Connor. People die from leg wounds. If he’s been hit in an artery-”

  “He’s not going to die.”

  “I’m not ready for him to die, I – I’m not prepared for this…” She started to panic again.

  “Clear your head, Sara. Think about Joel.”

  She took a deep breath. “Okay… okay. You get the first aid kit, I’ll stay with him. Get the advanced kit, grab some towels, and have someone boil some water.”

  Connor disappeared upstairs. The group stood at a concerned yet respectful distance while Sara hovered over me.

  “You’ll be fine, Joel.” She brushed the hair from my forehead while my bloody fingers clasped hers. “Connor’s getting the first aid kit. Sonny, pull his pants off.”

  “Shit, Joel. You’ll owe me for this one,” Sonny said as he obeyed.

  “Jake...” I whispered under my breath. “I’m sorry, Jake…” My eyelids flickered. I felt cold.

  Sara stared at Sonny and asked him what I meant. He told her and the others about Jake. The shock of losing another friend incurred gasps and, from some, tears. Sonny once again refused to give in to grief.

  “That’s why it’s imperative that we all get back to our watch. Earl, I’d put people outside on the ground to listen for shit if I were you.”

  Earl nodded. “Joel would have wanted us to keep the watch.”

  “Jesus, Earl, don’t say ‘Joel would have wanted’. He’s not dead!” Sara’s voice rose in pitch but she otherwise remained calm, wiping the sweat from my brow and smiling reassuringly at me.

  Earl temporarily took command. “Anyone who can’t be of help here, take your place at a window. Sonny- you, John, and Sid listen for anything out back. Stay on the porch, close to the house.” He knelt beside me and laid a reassuring hand on my chest. “You’ll be alright, buddy.”

  The group scattered as Connor resurfaced with the medical kit. Sara loaded a syringe with morphine and jabbed the needle into the meat of my leg with great care and purpose. I winced. She went to work on my leg while Connor hovered nearby, ready to lend a hand if needed.

  The morphine took effect immediately. We’d gotten it while scavenging for medical supplies in a downtown clinic where Sara had worked during her co-op with the high school. Thank God she had. The injection deadened the pain, but exhaustion and blood loss finally made me pass out.

  Hours later I awoke in my bed, groggy and in pain. I rubbed my eyes slowly but deeply, making me see stars when I opened them. When the lightshow clear
ed, I saw Sara. She was leaning over me, running her fingers gently down my face.

  “I’m still here, babe,” I reassured her, smiling goofily. The morphine left me giddy.

  “I’m glad.” Leaning in, she kissed my forehead. “Your leg should be fine. The bullet didn’t break any bones or hit an artery. It passed right through your vastus lateralis.”

  “I thought you said it went through my leg,” I pouted. We both laughed. Then Sara’s face changed mid-laugh from an expression of exuberant happiness to one of deep pain.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “The guys picked up Jake this morning.” She struggled to continue. “He’s been out all night, all by himself. He - he’s in the garage... in a bag…” She began to sob. The memory of Jake’s death assaulted my senses and I lost it too. We cried awhile, together. They say that a man is never gone until he is forgotten. I would see to it that Jake lived forever.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I managed to get out of bed in the afternoon and, with the help of a walking stick Kevin had fashioned into a cane for me, maneuver around the second floor fairly easily. Sara refused to let me use the stairs for the time being. She wanted me to stay in bed for a few days, but that was unfathomable to me.

  We buried Jake during that mystical hour when afternoon transforms into evening. Connor and Sonny carried me gently down to the basement, where the shell that had been my childhood buddy was laid out. He was positioned on a tarpaulin as if asleep, the terrible chest wound concealed by a new shirt. Julia, Caroline, and Earl weren’t present, being on guard duty, but everyone else was there. Their solemn faces all registered grief as they paid their respects to a friend who’d been suddenly restored to us, only to be taken away just as quickly.