DeadEarth: Mr. 44 Magnum (6 page)

“You want me to open my eyes,” Shade spat,
turning back to her sister. “Fine. Dad’s not coming back. He’s
dead, and we both know it. His plan was stupid and so is yours. I’m
not going to tuck tail and hide for the rest of my life. I’m not
going to stay holed up in a box just because you’re—”

“You’re going to do exactly what I tell you
to do,” Rikka yelled as she stepped in Shade’s face. From her
demeanor, it was clear she was through arguing. But Shade was just
getting started. “Dad put me in charge—”

“Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time,”
Shade said, raising her chin in defiance. “Dad’s dead.” She said
those two words slowly, enunciating each syllable to make herself
completely clear. “And I’m not going to live and die in that bunker
just because you don’t know what else to do.”

Rikka stepped closer to her sister, her
demeanor darkening further. Despite the four-inch height
difference, she seemed to tower over Shade like a mountain next to
a pebble. Shade was tempted to step back, to put some distance
between them, but she knew that if she did, she would be backing
down from Rikka for the rest of her life. She refused to go back to
living the last two months on repeat until she died, and if she had
to fight her sister to keep that from happening, so be it.

“I will knock you unconscious and drag your
sorry ass into that bunker,” Rikka said, her voice as dead as
everything around them. “Then I’ll handcuff you to the wall and
beat you senseless if I even think you’re thinking about leaving.
Don’t fuck with me, Shade, because you always lose.”

Shade huffed and smiled. Not because she
found anything funny, but because she knew that was the one thing
she could do to piss Rikka off even more. “When Lou’s safe and the
house is secure…” She shook her head, dropping the smile along with
her childish antics. In that moment, she realized that the laws
that governed her life only a few moments ago no longer existed.
For the last two months, they were figments of her imagination. In
the world left for them, she was an adult, capable of making and
living with her own choices. It was stupid to argue with her sister
about what she was and wasn’t going to do. Rikka didn’t have power
over her anymore. No one did. “When the house is secure, I’m
leaving.” Shade looked away and shrugged, trying her best to stay
the tears pushing at the back of her eyes. When she felt in
control, she looked back up at her sister. “I hate you, Rikka. To
the deepest part of me, I truly hate you.”

Shade held her glare for another moment
before turning on her heel and trotting west towards Lou. She could
feel Rikka glaring holes in her back as she pulled off her book bag
and fished out the pieces of her gun, but she didn’t care. She said
the words she spent her whole life swallowing, and in another hour,
she would be dead or free. Yes, she was walking away from Lou too,
and that would eat at her for a long time to come, but it was the
only option left. She had no other choice.

After gathering all the bullets strewn around
the bottom of the bag, she loaded them in the magazine.

“This isn’t over,” Rikka said as she walked
passed her sister. She was putting her gun together as well.

“Yeah,” Shade sighed. “It is.” She pulled
back the slide on her M1911A1 to drive the point home. Rikka didn’t
say a word in protest, so Shade knew she had won…for now. Rikka was
a sore loser. She would retaliate sooner or later, but not until
after Lou was safe.

Shade would be ready.

Staying under the cover of trees, the girls
made their way back to their house. They moved slowly, weighed down
by both the rain and the desire to move on in silence. Their father
taught them to navigate the woods like ghosts, but with dead sticks
and branches strewn about, it was difficult, even with the patter
of rain masking their footfalls.

The girls didn’t speak throughout the entire
trek. The tension between them was palpable, and Shade made sure to
keep her weapon in hand just in case Rikka decided now was a good
time to put her in her place. That was a constant fear growing up,
but with the end of her torment in sight, fear was replaced with
caution. Before, she dealt with Rikka by playing the passive middle
child. Not anymore.

The tree-line snuck up on them. Though the
house wasn’t visible through the rain, Shade stopped at the edge of
the trees and gazed in the general direction of their backyard.
Rikka stopped next to her, staring intently ahead.

“Don’t choke,” she jeered as she stepped out
into the clearing.

Shade stared after her, wondering what part
of Rikka’s soul evaporated to produce the creature before her. She
had always been mean, even cruel at times. But the viciousness she
took on now was unparalleled and unjustified. It was as if the
spark of anger that always flickered inside of her conflagrated,
burning away the ties that made them family, however turbulent they
had always been. Shade was tempted to lose herself in the woods,
allowing the dead, twisted branches and darkness to swallow her. It
would have been a better fate than spending another second with
Rikka. But she had a duty to Lou. Despite how much she blamed her
older sister for keeping them holed up in the bunker, there was a
better way to handle Mr. .44 Magnum and his people. Shade shouldn’t
have barged out like she did. It was reckless, and if harm came to
Lou because of it, she didn’t know if she would be able to live
with herself.

Shade checked the safety on her gun before
following Rikka into the lion’s den.

The grounds around the house were clear. The
sisters checked twice before silently stepping onto the portico,
one sister braced on either side of the front door. Shade’s heart
was pounding, not out of nervousness, but out of fear. Mr. .44
Magnum didn’t have a single person sweeping the grounds for
intruders. That meant one of two things: he was stupider than Shade
thought, or (more likely) they had already spotted her and Rikka
and were gathered in a centralized location to initiate a brute
force attack. One on one, the sisters could have cut through their
numbers with ease. But if they didn’t have the element of surprise,
they were on a suicide mission.

Shade tightened her grip on her gun as sweat
mingled with rain, making her palms feel thick with oil. She did
not feel comfortable storming the fort through the front door, but
Rikka insisted—demanded—that she just shut up and do as she was
told. Shade complied for Lou’s sake.

Both sisters jumped when a crash shook the
door. Mr. .44 Magnum screamed a curse as something else was knocked
over or thrown. Shade put her ear to the door hoping to make out
what he was saying, but his words were swallowed by a groan of
thunder and the crack of lightening. The only thing Shade noted was
that his voice seemed frantic. Emotional. Completely unlike the man
they met only a few hours ago.

Rikka made eye contact with her sister as she
laid a hand on the silver door knob. Shade nodded and held her gun
at the ready. On the silent count of three, Rikka threw the door
open and stepped back as Shade darted through.

Chapter 7: “I’ll see you soon.”

Daniel stood in the middle of the foyer
staring at Rikka and Shade, unarmed and with tears in his eyes. His
shoulders were slumped as if he suddenly had the weight of the
world dropped on him and wasn’t prepared for it. Mr. .44 Magnum sat
slumped on the stairs, his large frame resting between a broken
guardrail. His eyes were bloodshot, and slid from Shade to Rikka as
if he knew he was about to die but didn’t care enough to put up a
fight.

Pieces of a demolished bookshelf lay at his
feet while the rest was in a heap a foot from the front door.
Scattered around the foyer were shattered angel trinkets that once
found home on the shelves. Shade lifted her foot and kicked away
the angel wing she was stepping on. It clattered across the floor,
coming to rest at Daniel’s feet. He looked down at it, his eyes
hooded and his gaze far away.

“They’re all gone,” he whispered. “We’re the
only ones left.” He dropped to his knees and broke down as he
lowered his head to the floor. Massive sobs shook his chest as he
struggled to breathe through the weight of loneliness and sorrow
pressing against his lungs.

Shade looked to her sister who still had her
gun trained on Mr. .44 Magnum. Her eyes were dead and devoid of all
emotion. It was a wonder she hadn’t pulled the trigger yet.

“What are you waiting for?” Mr. .44 Magnum
bellowed, his eyes glistening with tears that had yet to fall. “Do
it.”

Shade tucked her weapon in her belt loop and
stepped in front of her sister’s line of fire. She knew that
wouldn’t do much to sway Rikka from pulling the trigger, but it was
the only thing she could think to do to keep the situation from
escalating to a point it didn’t need to go. Things had changed.
Rikka and Shade were now a bigger threat than the two before
them.

“What happened?” Shade asked, trying to make
her voice as soothing and non-threatening as possible.

“What does it matter? You’re here to kill us
right. Just get it over with.”

“We’re not here to kill you.” Shade turned to
her sister. “Rikka, lower your gun.”

“Not a chance,” she hissed.

Shade noted Rikka’s weapon was still aimed at
her. If Mr. .44 Magnum made a move, there was no doubt that she
would shoot through Shade if it meant putting him down.

“Then how about you go make sure Lou’s all
right. Or is shooting him more important than your little
sister?”

Rikka’s jaw tightened as she considered her
options. Shade expected the light to rekindle in her sister’s eyes
as it always had when she mentioned Lou, but she had no such luck
this time. They were still…

Shade furrowed her brows as she took a step
closer. Rikka instantly raised her gun in defense. As a show of
good faith, the younger sister lifted her hands out to her side,
fingers spread. “Rikka, there’s… There’s something wrong with your
eyes.” Shade took another step forward, more slowly this time.
After one more step, she could see it clearly. Rikka’s light brown
eyes were slowly turning black. The darkness floated through her
iris like ink through water, metastasizing and stretching like the
twisted arms of the dead trees surrounding the house.

Shade stepped back just as the blackness
blotted out every hint of the old hue. She was tempted to reach for
her gun but had to stop herself. Rikka’s gun was still aimed at her
chest.

“I’m going to clear the house, then I’ll
check on Lou,” Rikka said, lowering her weapon. She walked over to
Mr. .44 Magnum, pulled his weapon from his side holster, and tossed
it to her sister. “You hear any shooting, you kill both of them and
get to safety. You come after me and I swear I’ll shoot you
myself.”

Shade nodded and turned away from her
sister’s gaze. The blackness of her eyes made her feel uneasy.

“You have any idea what’s going on, or who
took your people?” Shade asked Mr. .44 Magnum after Rikka made her
way upstairs.

He huffed, seeming to conquer his depression.
“No, we don’t. You think we’d be sitting around moping if we did?
Wherever they went, they’re not coming back. Whoever got them…” he
shook his head and wiped a tear from his eyes. “I was lying in bed
with her. One minute she was wrapped up in my arms, and the
next…”

“I’m sorry,” Shade whispered. She glanced at
Daniel before settling her gaze back on Mr. .44 Magnum. “I lost my
dad to whatever’s going on, and it may not look like it, but I lost
Rikka too. She’s…different.”

Mr. .44 Magnum looked up suddenly. “How
so?”

“The house is clear,” Rikka said as she made
her way downstairs. “Looks like they were telling the truth.”

With a groan, Mr. .44 Magnum slowly pulled
himself to his feet—making sure to keep his hands visible—and
walked over to the sobbing Daniel. He knelt down next to the boy
and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “We have no reason to
lie. We’re the only ones left.”

Rikka turned right when she got to the bottom
of the stairs and flipped up the thermostat on the adjacent wall. A
few moments later, the bottom section of the stairs rose revealing
the entrance to the underground bunker.

Mr. .44 Magnum’s lips tightened. He looked
from Rikka to Shade and back again. It was clear he understood the
situation fully. In showing Daniel and Mr. .44 Magnum the bunker,
Rikka was announcing that she had no intentions of letting either
one of them live. Despite urging Rikka to pull the trigger only
moments before, the look in his eye revealed his desire to live—his
primal hunger to find his wife no matter how small of a chance he
had.

“Lou,” Rikka called as she made her way down
the steps. “Louise.”

Shade took the opportunity to maneuver
herself so she was between the bunker’s entrance and the captives.
She drew both weapons tucked in her waistband and handed the magnum
back to its owner. Mr. .44 Magnum didn’t take it immediately. He
stared up in Shade’s eyes, waiting for an explanation.

“I want to help you find the rest of your
group. I know you have no reason to trust me, but you don’t have a
choice at the moment. Neither of us do. Promise you won’t shoot me
in the back, and I’ll do my best to keep both of you alive.”

Mr. .44 Magnum nodded as he took his weapon.
“You have yourself a deal.”

“Good. Now you need to get him”—she nodded
towards Daniel—“to pull himself together.”

Rikka screamed Lou’s name a few more times,
her voice getting more and more frantic. The bunker wasn’t big. If
Lou wasn’t visible from the stairs, she wasn’t there. After calling
her name once more, Rikka fell silent. A minute passed. Then
another. Shade was tempted to see what was going on down there, but
she didn’t want to give up her position between the door and her
charges. Both Daniel and Mr. .44 Magnum would make it out of that
house if that was the last thing she did.