Dominatus (23 page)

“What about those kids…you want to condemn them too?  For a single person?  A stranger?  I’ll kill those kids too you know, without a fucking thought.  Give me Neeson, or everyone in here will pay the price for this stupidity, including those kids right there.  I will rip their limbs off and shove it up your ass.”

Bear took two slow and deliberate steps toward Alexander Hess, the floor of Freedom Tavern groaning under his considerable weight as his low voice growled its own warning to the operations officer.

“Make another threat toward my kids.  Go ahead…see what it gets you.”

The three other officers who had entered with August Hess shifted uncomfortably, likely out of their inexperience in dealing with people who simply did not cower and comply to their every demand.  The New United Nations and all those who worked within its massive bureaucracy had grown accustomed to very little opposition to its near absolute authority.

“I am going to have another thirty officers here in minutes, and this place will be leveled.  And every last one of you---“

The timing of the explosion, likely some two miles away, could not have been more ironic given August Hess’s just spoken promise.  It was Mac’s turn to now smile.

“That would be your thirty men Officer Hess, getting their ass handed to them by one of our RPG’s.  Yeah, we got those up here too.  Looks like those men of yours might be just a little late in coming.”

Another explosion was heard, followed by yet another.

Officer Hess backed toward the door as the two officers carrying the electric riot guns pointed them at the citizens of Dominatus gathered inside Freedom Tavern.  As soon as Hess found himself safely behind the two armed operations officers he locked eyes with Mac, both men glaring at one another from across the room.  August Hess grinned as he hissed the order to his men.

“Fire.”

XVII.

The sound of Mac’s handgun was quickly followed by Bear’s move to protect his family and others from the electrical net of the riot gun, his massive arms stretched upward as his body spread itself as wide as possible.  The net was fired, its electrified charge both felt and heard as it flew from the gun’s barrel.  Both of Bear’s hands wrapped itself around the net and then drew it toward himself, his body already convulsing as it hit the ground, but not before he had managed to wrap yet more of the net around him, protecting others from being harmed by its charge.

The other operations officer who had been armed with a riot gun was already on the floor of Freedom Tavern, shot dead by Mac before he was able to pull the charge gun’s trigger.  That left August Hess and one other operations officer inside the room.  Hess had his back to the door, pushing the other officer in front of him as he began opening the door behind him. 

“Keep them here…I’ll be back.”

Hess’s order was met with a confused look by the remaining operations officer whose hand rested on the butt of his charge gun as Hess slid outside, shutting the door of Freedom Tavern behind him, followed by the sound of a locking device being turned.

Dr. Miller knelt beside the now motionless body of Bear, as the large man’s wife frantically helped to remove the fully discharged net from around her husband while the two children repeatedly asked if their father was going to be ok. 

“He’s suffered a significant electrical shock.  His heart rate is unstable.  Breathing is somewhat labored.  His hands, there is some burning there.  I need to move this man to the medical room, either at the operations center or the cave.  I think the way his heart is reacting, he will be in need of defibrillation very soon.  If he wasn’t such a large man, he’d probably be dead already.  Mac, I need to move him now.”

Mac pointed his gun at the remaining operations officer.

“Ok buddy, looks like you’ve been locked up inside here with the rest of us.  Now I’m guessing Hess is calling in an armed drone strike – that’s how you people do this kind of thing isn’t it?  If you can’t intimidate people, you just blow them the hell up, right?  How about you try that door and see if I’m right?”

The operations officer, who appeared to be no more than thirty years of age, reached back to push Freedom Tavern’s door open.  It didn’t budge.  Mac walked slowly toward him, his gun still pointed at the officer’s head.

“Here’s the deal now…we are gonna walk on out of here.  You’re welcome to come with us.  No sense you dying in here when they blow the place up – unless you’d rather follow orders and stay.  Your call.”

The operation officer’s hand tightened on the grip of his still holstered charge gun while his other hand pointed at Mac.

“None of you are going anywhere, you are to remain here until---“

Mac’s weapon fired – and another operations officer’s body fell to the floor of Freedom Tavern.

“Like I said…his call.”

Mac leaned down to look at Bear as well.

“How’s he doing Doc?”

“Mac, if we don’t get him to one of my medical rooms he might very well die within the hour.  He’s fighting like hell right now, but his body is at war with itself.  His heart is not doing its job - he’s going into shock.”

Mac smiled, his hand clapping the doctor’s shoulder.

“Well then I guess we need to get to gettin’.  Reese, in the room back there, the one you slept in, bring out that cot.  We need to use it to haul him out of here.  And it’s gonna take a few of you to do it, he’s a big boy.  Now we are going out the back door and sneak into the trees behind here…go wide until we are out of site and then make for the operations center.  Whoever isn’t here is likely there right now waiting for us.  I’m pretty sure we have no more than an hour before the drones arrive, so we need to be at the cave by then or we are really gonna be in a world of hurt.  Dublin, if you need help with your grandfather, you need to speak up.  Don’t let his stubbornness prevent you from getting that help – we can carry him if we need to.”

Dublin nodded, but then asked a question.

“Mac, we’re locked in here…what back door are you talking about?”

Mac smiled again as he made his way to the hallway toward his office.

“Old dog…old tricks.  Now everyone, we walk out of here single file, no need to rush.  When we are outside, I want your guns out and ready.  If Hess has put some of his men around the perimeter, we will need to shoot our way out of here – don’t hesitate.  You see one of them, shoot.  Don’t think – shoot.”

Dublin pointed to Stacy Carter who remained unconscious on the floor after being stuck by August Hess.

“What about her - Stacy?”

Mac paused for a second before looking to the Old Man for guidance.  Alexander Meyer looked down with sadness at the woman who had betrayed them.

“Move her outside far enough from the building to provide some chance of safety, but we don’t take her with us.  She is no longer welcome inside the cave.  She made her choice.”

Mac returned to his office and began moving the bookcase behind his desk from one wall to the other, revealing a locked panel just large enough for a man to walk through.  He withdrew a key and unlocked it, and with his gun ready, slowly opened it up to the outside.  The storm was still ongoing, rain and wind hammering down around them as each stepped through the panel and lined up against the back wall of Freedom Tavern.  The late afternoon daylight was greatly diminished from just an hour earlier, which would make walking off the trail more challenging though also providing much needed cover from more of Hess’s operation officers.

Without speaking, Mac motioned they were to make their way toward a tree line that was nearly forty yards away.  Dr. Miller along with two other men and Bear’s wife Clancy and her children, were near the front – the two men pulling the cot that Bear had just been tightly secured to.  I was only mildly surprised to see both the doctor and Clancy Tedlow holding their own handguns out in front of them, their eyes searching in the near-darkness for any sign of August Hess and his officers.  Mac walked near the rear of the group, his own gaze looking back toward the building that had been his home for the last twenty years – years he had already indicated were among the happiest of his life.  To my right walked Dublin and her grandfather.  The Old Man was saying nothing, instead focusing all of his energy in moving his feet forward through the now wet and treacherous ground below them.

Just before we reached the trees, the sound of Hess’s helicopter being started reverberated around us…its turbine engine howling even over the din of the wind and rain.  Mac yelled for everyone to keep going into the trees.  The New United Nations helicopter rose above Freedom Tavern before turning and making its way with considerable speed back in the direction of the reservation – away from Dominatus.

Mac’s face looked grim as he watched the chopper’s swift departure.

“That confirms it, the drones are on their way, and the son-of-a-bitch Hess is gonna send a whole cluster-fuck of them.  We need to get to the operations center inside of fifteen minutes people – MOVE!”

Within minutes of our journey back to the operations center the Old Man’s breathing became increasingly labored as Dublin struggled to move the both of them forward.  Before I could offer help, a smallish man who I did not recognize took the other side of Dublin’s grandfather to assist her in keeping pace with the rest, though each of us was now struggling to make our way up the side of the hill as the wind blew directly against the group while the last of the daylight gave way to darkness.

As we reached the top of the hill, the lights of the operation center could be seen no more than a hundred yards away, with at least ten snow machines parked near the entrance.  Mac ran to the front of the group and held up his hand motioning for everyone to stop moving as he peered down into the darkness toward the operations center, attempting to determine if the way there was safe.

“Shit…I can’t see if there’s anyone out front.  Too damn dark, my eyes…even with my glasses I can’t see that far.  Not good enough anyway.”

Dublin’s voice called out from behind Mac.

“That’s…I’m pretty sure that’s Keith out front Mac. Looks like his jacket.”

Mac glanced back toward Dublin.

“Keith?  Where?”

“On the right side, next to the red snow machine.  He’s holding a rifle.  Pretty sure that’s him.”

Mac’s eyes squinted trying to make out what Dublin had just told him, but instead he simply shook his head and shrugged.

“Gonna have to trust you Dublin…I can’t see shit that far away.  Ok people, be ready for trouble but let’s head down there.  We’re running out of time.”

As we neared the operations center two snow machines sped toward us –

one driven by Keith and the other by Afrim.  Both were carrying M16 rifles.  Keith was the first to reach us.

“Glad to see you Mac, we were just getting ready to go out to your place and bring you all back here…but they got about ten of them left watching the entrance.  We…we took out the rest of them back on the trail.  Shot them to hell.”

Mac nodded.

“So we heard.”

Mac directed Dublin to put her grandfather behind Keith’s snow machine while he tied the cot holding Bear to the back of the other one and had Dr. Miller sit behind Afrim.

“Get them to the operations center – Bear needs medical attention.  Hurry.  We’re right behind you.”

Both men sped off as the remainder of our group followed on foot as fast as we were able to safely make our way in the darkness.

Inside the operations center the remaining members of Dominatus sat surprisingly calm, speaking to one another quietly and waiting for instructions from Mac.  The Old Man was bundled inside another layer of blankets, looking tired but intact as Dublin urged him to sip from a warm cup of broth.  I followed Mac to a side room where Dr. Miller was standing over Bear who had been placed atop a medical table.  A portable defibrillator device was being prepared, the doctor already placing the contacts on Bear’s massive chest as his wife and children watched from the side.

“Please stand back, and don’t touch him.”

The defibrillator’s charge caused Bear’s body to arch upward violently before crashing back onto the table as his hands curled into claws.  The doctor placed a stethoscope against Bear’s chest and listened intently before placing a small oxygen mask over the large man’s face.

“His heart is stabilizing, breathing continues to be somewhat erratic but given the trauma of that electrical shock he took earlier, he’s doing ok.  The burns on his hands are relatively minor, topical ointment should be fine.  No evidence of broken bones or other internal damage.  Lucky he didn’t end up biting his own tongue off.  Moving him again though, I would rather not but I know we don’t have a choice.  I just wish---“

Bear’s hand swiped away the oxygen mask and his eyes opened to look at the doctor standing above him.  His words, though somewhat slurred, were easily heard.

“Fuck your wish, Doc, I’m ready to go.  Just a little beat up.  Where we going?”

Dr. Miller returned the oxygen mask to Bear’s face and looked over at Clancy with a smile.

“This is one incredibly tough husband you have here Mrs. Tedlow.”

The stress of seeing her husband so recently incapacitated by the riot gun charge finally broke through Clancy Tedlow as she put her arms around Bear and kissed his cheeks, tears streaming down her face.  Her husband seemed more aware of his surroundings than he was moments earlier as he again removed the oxygen mask, his eyes searching the room.