Pedestals of Ash (41 page)

Hawk immediately ran to his old friend and
reported,
“We
got to
get the fuck out of here. There are army guys all over the place. I think they’ve come to put us back in the slam
mer
.”

Smokey looked at his best man and replied, “Show me.”

In a few minutes, the two leaders returned to the gathered skinnies and announced that anyone who didn’t want to be arrested should move out; the army was in town.
Most of the convicts decided to stay with Smokey
,
and the 15 men took off running in the opposite direction of the encroaching army unit.

Bishop had progressed slowly, stalking from structure to structure
,
dragging the president along, trying desperately to avoid contact with anyone. He estimated they were within
10
blocks of the church when two men started shooting at him from a small park down the street. Bishop would have backtracked and circumvented the contact all together, but there were all sorts of skirmishes going on behind him. He decided there wasn’t any choice but to address the threat
that lay
directly between the compound
and him
. Forcefully instructing the president to stay put, he went out the side door of the house they had been hiding in and ran along a p
rivacy fence bordering the back
yard. It took him less than two minutes to flank the two men in the park. They had been so focused on watching his previous posi
tion they didn’t even notice his
appr
oaching from the side. As he drew
closer, Bishop saw they were only kids, perhaps 14 or 15 years old at most. He could easily shoot them right where they stood, but lowered his rifle, not having the heart. Moving just a little further off angle, he maneuvered to
a position dire
ctly behind the two teenagers and charged.

The pounding of his boots on the ground alerted one of the youth, but it was too late. Bishop lowered his shoulder and literally knocked one young man into the other, both of them sprawling onto the ground in a heap. Before either could react, Bishop had their rifles out of reach and stood looking down at them with
carbine
at the ready.

The two frightened boys looked up at Bishop with terror in their eyes
,
but made no move to escape. Bishop growled, “Where are your parents?”

The older one responded in a weak voice, “They died in the gas cloud. We…we…we were hungry and couldn’t find any food. The guys from the jail said they would feed us if we would fight for them.”

The other boy started crying and joined in, “We didn’t shoot anybody…honest we didn’t. I always aimed high when we went to the church.”

Bishop tilted his head slightly and made his response as mean as possible, “Both of you little shits get up and get moving toward that church right now. Don’t go left
,
and don’t go right
,
but head straight for that church. I’m going to be there soon. If I don’t find you there, I’m going to come hunting for you.” Bishop pulled his fighting knife and showed the
saucer-eyed
boys the blade. “If I have to come hunt you down, I’ll skin you and eat you
myself
. NOW GET!”

Bishop had to smil
e as he watched the two adolescents scurry
away. After mak
ing sure they crossed the gardens
without incident, he turned around and took a step back toward the president’s hiding place. Before his boot even touched the ground, grass and dirt erupted all around him
,
and he had to dive for cover behind a nearby tree.

Smokey’s group had been rushing up the street
when Hawk spotted Bishop. The second
in command pointed the target out to three of his men
,
and they all fired at once. Bishop rolled behind an oak tree with a trunk three times the size of his torso. As more of Smokey’s men came rushing up, a
hailstorm
of bul
lets began to slam into the oak and surrounding turf
. There was no way Bishop could even poke his head around to see who was shooting at him. The only thing he knew for sure was that given the number of rounds cracking past his head, there must be a hell of a lot of them. In less than a minute, all of Smokey’s men were firing at Bishop. When the boss asked what was going on, Hawk told him
whom
he had spotted. Smokey glanced from his man to the tree and back several times
,
before motioning for Hawk to follow him. The two men scooted off together, moving at an angle away from Bishop’s position and having thoughts of flanking him.

Terri and Nick were working their wa
y back to the church when a massive
amount of gunfire erupted almost directly in front of
them. The church’s defenders
moved forward
to get a better view of the battle. From their vantage,
they could see several men shooting at someone
apparently
hiding behind a tree. The church’s men didn’t recognize any of the shooters
,
and
hoped
that meant they were on the other side. Nick’s people opened fire.

Several of Smokey’s men jerked and fell on the opening volley. By the time they recovered
,
and went to ground, Smokey had heard the com
motion and believed the army’s soldiers
had caught up with the group he had left in the park. Smokey hesitated, torn between going after Bishop and making his escape. In the end, self-preservation won out
,
and Smokey
momentarily
forgot all about his grudge with Bishop.

Bishop had no idea who rescued him from behind the tree, but he was thankful. When the fire directed at him changed direction, he wasted no time
sp
r
i
n
t
ing away
, hurdling
over a low
stonewall
fence that border
ed the parking area for the gardens
. He had seen Hawk and another guy split off from the skinnies and guessed they were trying to flank him. He bent down low and
dashed
behind the wall as fast as his feet would carry him. Bishop’s mind kept remembering Hawk’s blows to his head when he had been bound to the chair and his desire for revenge made him
momentarily
forget all about taking care of the president.

After the last of Smokey’s men had surrendered, Terri decided to rest while Nick searched the prisoner
s
. Across the street was a beautiful white Victorian home with a wide, shady front porch. There hanging from the roof was a wooden porch swing. The sight was just too tempting
,
and she made a beeline for the ho
us
e. No sooner had she planted herself in the swing than a noise from the side yard put her on alert. She begrudgingly rose up and went around to the side of the home where thick
oleander
bushes lined the yard. The noise sounded again, and Terri could tell it was someone trying to hide a cough. She shouldered her rifle and made her voice sound as
gruff
as possible, “Come out with your hands up. Come out
peaceful,
or I’ll shoot you in those bushes.”

The voice of an old man answered her, “Okay…okay…don’t shoot. I’m coming out.” An AR15 rifle flew from the bushes followed by a man in an U.S. Army uniform. At first glance, Terri thought the guy was
a soldier, but she quickly ascertained
he was far too old to be in the
infantry
. She thought, “There’s something familiar about his face. Where have I seen this guy before?”

Terri turned around and yelled for Nick, “Nick! I’ve got another one hiding over here.”

As Nick hurried
over, he never looked at the face of Te
rri’s prisoner.
His
focus was on
the man’s hands and torso,
search
ing for weapons. Nick had just started to
frisk
the guy when Terri said, “Nick, there’s something familiar about this guy. Have you ever seen him before?”

Nick glanced up at the president’s face and froze instantly. Terri was stunned when Nick took a step back from the man
, snapped
to full attention
,
and saluted. “Nick! What the hell are you…” and then it hit her where she had seen the guy’s face before. Terri’s reaction was a little different than Nick’s. She ran off of the porch and immediately confronted the President of the United States. “Where’s my husband? Where’s Bishop? Was he with you?”

Nick realized what was going on and saved the president from a potential assault being delivered by the charging woman. The big man caught Terri mid-stride and raised her into the air, almost laughing as her suspended feet kept trying to
move her closer to the chief executive
. Terri suddenly realized her lack of forward progress and turned her ire onto Nick. “Put me down
,
damn it. I want some answers from this guy.”

Nick held her suspended until Terri assured him she wasn’t going to attack anyone. When she had regained her feet, she straightened her top and changed her tone of voice to that of a demur, well-mannered southern lady. “Mr. President, my name is Terri
,
and my husband was on his way to Fort Bliss to deliver a report to you. Have you seen him
,
sir?”

The president smiled at her and stepped forward offering his hand. “Yes, young lady, I did meet your husband. As a matter of fact, he saved my life and is
around here somewhere. He left me here a few minutes ago and
went to take care of someone who was
shooting at us. I’m sure he is fine.”

Terri smiled and began looking all around, hoping to
hear Bishop make that porch swing squeak.
Her spirit was dampened somewhat when Bishop didn’t magically appear, but
at least
she knew he had made it this far.

Nick was completely lost about
what step to take next.
His sketchy plan had not included this event as a parameter.
The commander bailed him out by suggesting they
proceed
to the church
where Bishop was originally lead
ing him. Nick didn’t know if that was such a hot idea, but couldn’t come up with anything better, so he sent some of his men ahead to scout the route.

Bishop stalked through a few blocks of homes
,
wait
ing
for Hawk and the other man to fall into his trap, but they never showed up. He shrugged his shoulders and decided revenge could wait. Hawk didn’t seem like the type of guy who knew a lot about field craft and would probably die badly in the desert anyway.
Maybe
Hawk’s buddy will resort to
cannibalism
while they are lost in the desert,
he thought.
Bishop
turned around, heading back to retrieve the
hider-in-chief
.