Glory (Book 5) (16 page)

Scooter tutted. "I don't think she listened."

Adam sat up. "She didn't? Why not?"

"Doesn't matter. I'll go and check on her."

"Okay," Adam agreed. "I'm going to stay here and try to figure something out. I want to get another look at the guys out there. This time without getting shot at."

Scooter rushed out of the room and made his way to the other end of the hallway. He rounded the corner and followed it until he came to another staircase. As much as he wanted to call down to Marianne to see if she was all right, he didn't want to alert any of the men that might be around.

He went down the stairs, his boots thumping with each step.

When he got to the bottom, Marianne was nowhere in sight.

*

Marianne didn't know what she was doing. She had come much further that she was supposed to have, and she should probably turn back. Yet, even knowing that, something still wanted her to push on
.
To make sure that the school was safe. That those men weren't inside.

She made her way up to the front of the school and saw the big glass window that led out to the main road. She crept down and made her way closer to it.

Once there, she tried to peek outside. She saw one man. But aside from him, she couldn't see anyone else.

But what if there were others?

She tried to get closer.

*

Adam looked out of the window again. This time, he kept the side of his head pressed against the wall and did his best to stay out of sight.

The five men remained out there
.
Make that six
.
Another man walked into view. They all had guns.

Adam looked at his own gun and realized that it probably wouldn't do much good from where he was. From what he had seen, his gun sprayed its shot. He wouldn't be able to aim it on anyone.

Though that didn't mean he wasn't going to try.

He placed the barrel of the gun against the broken window and, without much preparation, pulled the trigger.

There was a loud blast. And the gun nearly flew out of his hands.

He grabbed at it quickly and pulled it in from the window. His ears rang, but he could still hear. He hoped that there would be screaming. Or maybe a groan.

He heard more laughter.

*

Marianne was bent down as far as she could, but she could still only make out that one man. And there wasn't much more that she could do without being seen.

She didn't want to risk that.

She started to back up.

At least they're not in the school yet
,
she told herself, keeping her hand on the wall to steady her
.
That was a good thing.

She backed up more.

And more.

Then Marianne felt something connect with her back. It gave her a sharp pain and forced her forward onto the floor. Her gun went flying across the tiles. It knocked the wind out of her as well.

Sprawled on the ground, she turned around and saw a man standing over her. He smiled before kicking her in the ribs.

She gasped.

"What the fuck to we have here?" the man asked. His shirt was ripped off at the sleeves and he flexed his muscles as he spoke. Except it wasn't the muscles that Marianne noticed. It was the rifle he had trained on her. "You're a bit fuckin' old, aren't you? I was told that there was a bunch of young pussy here. You're not the only pussy here, are you?"

Marianne didn't reply. Her breath had yet to come back to her. And, even if it had, she wouldn't have told him anything. She wished that she could grab her gun. Wished that she could shoot him and run back to the library. But she didn't know where he gun had gone. And she couldn't look around for it.

"What's your name?" the man asked.

Marianne still didn't answer. Instead, her eyes glanced at his gun
.
If only she could find a way to take it from him.

"Fuck," the man said, "gonna be like that, are you?"

With a quick raise of his foot, the man kicked Marianne's face. The pain exploded in her nose, in her cheeks. She let out a little cry as her head slammed against the floor.

"So yo
u
ca
n
make a fuckin' sound,” the man said. “Now what's your name?"

Marianne didn't know why he wanted to know her name
.
There had to be more important things than tha
t
. But he had asked her it as if he needed to know.

"My name?" she asked.

"Yeah, your fuckin' name!"

She spit at him.

He kicked her again.

Then he pressed the gun to her face.

Marianne had been afraid since the first kick, but now she was petrified. She knew that he was going to kill her if she didn't answer. Like he had said, she wasn't th
e
young puss
y
he had come from. Her life meant nothing to him.

He pressed the gun closer to her face. "I should just blow you the fuck away, you know that? Just take this fuckin' gun and…"

He didn't finish his sentence. There was a deep thud and he fell on top of Marianne. Blood started to drip from his mouth and onto her face.

She pushed him off without knowing what had happened.

Scooter was standing beside her. "Are you all right?" he asked. He pulled his axe free from the man's skull. A burst of blood accompanied it.

"I…uh…yes, I'm fine."

He put out his hand for her to grab. It was covered in the dead man's blood, but Marianne took it anyway. Scooter helped her to her feet.

"How did you know I was here?" she asked.

"Doesn't matter," the young man replied. "I'm just glad that I found you when I did."

"Me too. Thank you." Marianne went and got her gun. Then she picked up the man's and handed it to Scooter. This time, he took it. "Let's get back to the library."

*

When Scooter and Marianne got to the library, Shelly was still at the door, waiting. She went forward to greet them. "What happened to you?" she asked. "Are you all right?" She glared at the blood dripping off of Scooter’s axe.

"Someone attacked Marianne," Scooter said.

"They did?"

Marianne nodded. "One of them snuck up behind me and…I think he was going to kill me. Scooter got to him first."

"I'm glad you're okay." Shelly turned back to Scooter,
"
Bot
h
of you." She stepped back so that they could go into the library.

Once inside, Scooter saw that Adam wasn't back yet.

Claire was still up near the window. She couldn't hide her surprise at the blood on his axe. "What happened? Where's Adam?" she asked.

"He's all right." Scooter crept up to the window and sat against the wall. "I saw him upstairs. He's…"

Adam walked in.

*

"I saw six of them out there," he said.

"Six?" Scooter asked. "I thought you said you saw five?"

"There're six."

"And there's at least another one out front," Marianne added.

Adam shook his head. "That's not good." It was then that he noticed Scooter's axe, and the new gun he was holding. "What happened? Where did you get that?"

Scooter recounted the story.

"So they're already in the school," Adam said, his words bordering between statement and question.

"One was," Marianne said. "But maybe they'll think twice when the see what happened to their friend."

Adam wasn't so sure about that. But he didn't want to argue about it

"What should we do?" Claire asked.

Adam didn’t know.

"Can we leave without them seeing us?"

"I don't think so."

"Then we have to fight!" Scooter said, anger in his voice.

Adam agreed. They didn't have a choice. "We could go up to the second floor - or maybe even the roof - and try to shoot them from there. It’s our best shot.”

Everyone agreed.

*

"What the fuck are you guys doing in there?" the man outside yelled. "You gonna send your women out or what?"

"Fuck you," Scooter replied
.
His usua
l
.

However, instead of the usual laughter, the man responded, "No. We’ll fuck your women. And if you don't come out nice and peaceful, we might just fuck the lot of you guys too."

Scooter opened his mouth to shout back once more, but Adam told him to be quiet. "It's not worth it," he said. "Leave them alone. We'll deal with them soon enough."

Chapter 3

Adam grabbed a chair as he went into the hall with Scooter and Marianne. He walked over to the door leading to the outside of the school and wedged the chair’s legs in the door's handles. He didn't think that it would keep them out forever. But it would take a lot of force and make a lot of noise - enough for him and the others to get back downstairs.

"Good idea," Scooter said behind him.

The three walked upstairs.

*

Marianne went into the first room. Adam didn't follow. Neither did Scooter. Adam planned on going to another room to get a different view. Scooter was going to go to the roof.

She took her place by one of the windows, making sure not to draw any attention to herself. As had happened with Adam, she didn't want the men to start shooting at her.

She moved closer to the window. And closer still. Enough for her to be able to look out. Barely.

Immediately she saw a group of men over at the other side of the school. Adam had been right. There were six of them.

Marianne crouched down beside the window and raised her gun to it. Luckily, the window was broken so she wouldn't have to worry about opening it
.
That would have drawn too much attention.

She placed the gun against the window frame and moved into a position so that she could aim it at the men.

This was the first time she was ever going to shoot at anyone. The first time she was ever going t
o
kil
l
anyone.

She took a deep breath and waited. She wanted Adam and Scooter to be in position before that happened. That way they could all start shooting together.

*

Adam took the last room in the hallway. It had two windows. Both were shut.

"That's not good," he whispered as he went to them
.
He'd need to open them.

Of course
,
it occurred to him
,
he could go to another room.

No, he'd stay and try to open the window. This was a good room. He had a clear view of everyone. Was almost right on top of them. If they saw him, he'd run to the other room. That was the plan.

Adam rested his gun against the wall. This time, it wasn't his shotgun. He had given that to Claire and had taken her hunting rifle. He needed something with better aim.

He grabbed at the bottom of the window and tried to push it up slowly. Unfortunately, the window was stuck. He tried again. And again. Pushing harder with each attempt.

Finally, it moved.

And, as it did, it made a loud noise.

Adam could feel his heart race and wondered if the men down there had heard it, or if they had seen it.

He looked through the window. The men weren't looking in his direction.

He pushed it the rest of the way.

*

Scooter made it to the roof. Though the sun hadn't been beating down on the gravel up here for all that long, he could feel the heat coming up from the stones. He didn't like the idea of having to lie down on it. But he wasn't going to walk up to the edge, either.

He lowered himself onto the ground. The stones burned his flesh. They poked into him too
.
But, no, he wasn't going to stand
.
He crawled over to the edge of the roof.

As he peeked over the end, he saw the men. They were talking to themselves. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he figured it was probably something about what they were going to do to the women (and maybe the men) once they got into the school.

He didn't care to hear it.

He placed his gun on the ledge of the roof and felt a moment of sadness that it wasn't his axe. He had left it in the library, knowing it wasn't going to do him any good from up here. He needed the gun. It was the only way that he was going to be able to kill the men from where he was.

Still, he wished that he had his axe.

Scooter moved up closer to the edge of the roof and looked down the barrel of his rifle. He had never shot one before. And he wasn't too confident that he'd do all that good of a job. But he'd try. That was all that he could do.

*

Claire wanted to look out of the window, but she was frightened that they'd start shooting again.

She looked over at Shelly. The young woman had gone over to the door and was standing guard, looking both directions in the hall, gun in hand.

She looked over at Charles and Julie. They were still with the little ones. Buster and Cookie were there too.

She caught Charles's eye and he smiled at her. Then he nodded his head to assure her that everything would be okay, that'd they'd come out of this all right.

She smiled back.

She thought once more about looking out of the window, once more knowing that it wasn't a good idea. They'd be watching the library, waiting for any sign of movement. As soon as they saw something, they'd start shooting.

But still…

Another idea came to her. She went to the library door and spoke to Shelly. "I want you to keep an eye on the windows as well," she said.

"Why? Where are you going?"

"I want to go into one of the other rooms to see if I can get a better look at those men."

"You want to d
o
wha
t
?"

"I want to know who we're dealing with."

"I…I don't know if you should," Shelly said, shaking her head.

"It'll be okay. I'm not going to be long. Only a minute."

"Only a minute?" Shelly asked, sounding like she wanted to believe her.

"Yeah, only a minute. Just keep an eye on the windows. If anyone tries to get in, call me. I'll be back before you know it."

Shelly nodded.

Claire walked down the hallway and went into one of the rooms. She crouched down so that no one from outside would be able to see her. She tried to be as quiet as possible.

She passed a few knocked over desks. Papers had been scattered on the floor as well.

Then she got to the window. It had been shattered and she had to make sure not to step on the pieces of glass. Carefully, she pressed her back against the wall and slid to the edge of the sill.

She took a deep breath, but couldn't get herself to look.

Now that she was there, she wasn't all that sure why she wanted to see who was outside anyway
.
It didn't matter what they looked like, or who they were.

Another deep breath.

When she let it out, she realized that she could hear them talking.

"What should we do?" one man asked.

"We've gotta get in there?" another replied.

"How?"

"Fuckin' blow our way in there!"

"They've got guns too."

"We'll blow the ones with the guns away first."

"I can't wait."

"To blow 'em away?"

"Naw. To fuck 'em."

Laughter.

She decided to look.

As her eyes peeked around the edge, there were four men straight in front of her. She could see the fronts of two, and the backs of two others. Their bodies jerked up and down as they continued to laugh. They were all holding guns.

Then one of them turned toward her.

Claire froze. Not because he had seen her. He hadn't. But because she knew the man standing in front of her. It was Big Mike.

Claire had thought a lot about Big Mike, but hadn't actually thought that she was ever going to meet him again. To her, he had been a part of her past
.
A part best forgotte
n
. Yet, there he was.

The sight of him caused her to lose her breath in panic. When it came back, she felt an uncontrollable urge rise up through her
-
the urge to kill.

She placed the shotgun through the open window.

Part of her wanted to scream out, to tell him that his life was over, that she was coming to take it. But she also didn't want to give him any warning, a chance to get away.

When she thought she had him in line with the barrel, she grinned and pulled the trigger.

*

Adam heard the shot.

He didn't know where it had come from, but someone had started shooting.

The battle was on.

*

Marianne heard the shot.

At first, she thought that maybe it had been from her own gun. She had been so close to pulling the trigger, she thought that maybe she had.

When she realized that she hadn't, she knew that now was the time to start.

She pulled it.

Again. And again.

*

Scooter heard the shot. Then there were several more.

He didn't know where they were coming from. And he didn't care. He pulled the trigger on his own rifle and watched as the bullet blasted from the barrel.

Then he took out the cartridges he had gotten from Adam's backpack and reloaded his gun.

He fired again.

*

Claire wasn't sure if she had hit Big Mike. The gun blast had taken her by surprise. It had pushed her back. The sound had nearly deafened her. But when she had regained her wits, she started shooting once more.

*

Adam kept pulling the trigger. He didn't know if he was hitting anyone. He saw the men outside start to run away. He tried to follow them with the sight of the gun. It wasn't as easy as they made it look in the movies. It was hard to see where a moving target was running off to. But he tried his best
.
He really did.

*

After reloading her gun a couple of times, Marianne ran out of ammunition.

She turned around and leaned her back against the wall
.
There was nothing more that she could do.

She wasn't sure if she had hit anyone. She hadn't been able to see. Everything had happened so fast. It had been so loud. Her ears were still ringing. But she hoped that she had
.
She hoped she had killed them all.

*

Scooter had a two more shots left, but he couldn't see the men anymore. They had run away and he wasn't sure where.

*

Adam stopped. Everyone else had too.

He took a deep breath and looked out the window. No one was there. They had all scattered.

He didn't think that the men had gone far. But at least they were scared. They knew that Adam and his group meant business.

They weren't going to go out without a fight.

*

Claire looked out the window. Big Mike was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't hit him. She hadn't gotten any of them. No one was there.

It was upsetting. She had wanted to kill Big Mike, had wanted to kill them all.

But she had missed.

The
y
al
l
had.

*

Adam went to get Marianne. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said, her breathing shallow. "But I don't think that I got any of them."

"No, none of us did." He hadn't seen any of the men lying outside. "At least we scared them."

"We did," Marianne agreed. "But I think we scare
d
m
e
too."

Adam chuckled. "Come on. We did a good job. Let's get the others.

*

Scooter was climbing down the ladder when they got to the top of the stairs. He looked excited. A bit like a child after coming off of a roller coaster.

"That was amazing!" he said.

Adam patted his shoulder. "We did a good job."

"Fuck yeah, we di
d
grea
t
!"

"But we didn't shoot anyone," Marianne said.

Scooter wasn't to be brought down by that. "Doesn't matter," he said. “We let 'em know that we're not going to come quietly!"