The Effacing (Book 1.5): Valley's End (4 page)

   Z2: Did you catch that, Zone One?

   Z1: Roger that. Just blow it, Zone Two.

   Z2: Copy. Okay… do it!             

   The age-worn city sewage worker in a reflective vest hit the red button on a detonator that triggered a dynamite explosion, creating a twenty foot deep, hundred feet wide crater crossing hole through all eight lanes of Maison Parkway. After his task was complete, he turned to the man that ordered it be done, and sadly nodded as if he was a traitor to his own neighbors. He wasn’t, although anyone who did not know the man’s family’s lives were at stake would have suspected so.

   Sworn, the cold hearted son-of-a-bitch who’d ordered the highway imploded did it to keep the resistance from reaching their ultimate destination. The one road leading to the only possible exit out of the city, and he knew it. A muscular giant, standing 6ft 5in and weighing in at 250 some-odd pounds, wore all black fatigues underneath his Dragon Skin level IV body armor. Only a Master Sergeant of the privately owned militia he claims is above the government, he strutted in the company of two of his best men, outfitted in his likes. Their only difference, the riot helmets and the fully operational, heavy XM-29 OICWs (Objective Individual Combat Weapons) they carried as they marched on each of his sides, just one step behind him.

   Sworn stopped at the edge of the two-story building rooftop, bodyguards in tow, lifted his third generation night vision binoculars and admired his damage from a mile out with a wicked, one-sided grin that would have infuriated the holiest of saints. The disaster made, evident. Murky clouds encompassed the flickering streetlights of that surrounding the point of contact.

   He scanned toward the right, observant to the falling city of his mass destruction – dark clouds, sparks and flames through the darkness – pleased by the effect of his four day pillage to the innocent victims he’d tortured beforehand. He panned up north. The headlights of his brethren’s convoy; they were still on assignment. He scrolled back west, to his freshly made hole in the gravel, viewed the headlights of a vehicle approaching, placed a finger in his ear and gently pressed down on the talk button of his earpiece.

   “Zone One, this is Zone Two.”

   “Go ahead, Zone Two.”

   “Vehicle approaching Maison…”

   “Confront, arrest, and transport to base, Zone Two.”

   “Acknowledged—”

  A light drizzle splattered on the guards helmets.

   “That didn’t sound too good.” Neshia shifted her sights from the road to
The End.
“Some of us should go check on them.”

   “N-No…” Maria revved up the engine of the white pick-up. She’d figured it best that Baker and she be separated to keep the peace, so she took Rebekah’s place in the lead while he continued to ride shotgun in the blue pick-up, soon to be driven by one of the armed hoods from the taxi. “It’s dark. The noise will attract them.” She looked to the road ahead of her. “It’s clear now. We need to get to the other side of Maison and meet Ann, Rebekah, and Trivo there.”

   “But what if—” Neshia said.             

   “They said if anything happened to meet them on the other side.”

   A second boom erupted, but this time, more devastatingly explosive, shook the earth around them. Their convoy instantly rattled with questions and concerns that went left unanswered as the four thugs that bordered their entourage each tensed to the rumbling surface. The children leeched to the women, and the women looked to the men.

   “Load up and let’s head out!” Maria called, ready.

   “We can’t just leave!” Neshia exclaimed.

   “We’re not. We’re going to the other side, get everyone in a safe place… and then I’m going to look for them.”

A raindrop tapped at the windshield.

   “I was just beginning to like him.”

   The quake left most of the third floor gutted. Just three badly beat-up doors remained, and they were on loose fragmented rock. The cracked window, a light rain, pecking at the glass behind them was permitting the smut to linger out. But it gave oxygen to the fire.

  Ann shook her head at Rebekah’s comment and looked around for the emergency exit door leading to either the roof, or back down and out the crumbling project building. She moved to the window, sagaciously peeped out making sure she would see whatever was outside, before whatever lurked below noticed her. What she saw left her eyes wandering. The land, missing, replaced with a dark fog that traveled amuck. Freighting, considering what skulked on the city streets had to be seen to have been dealt with appropriately.

   “Nothing’s down there.” Ann whispered.

   Rebekah’s nose went up in the air. “You smell that?”

   Ann turned from the window. “
Weed?!
” she said, confused.

   Rebekah tapped her thin index finger across her lips, pointed to the door she’d suspected the aroma came from, stood beside it and reached into her lower back. Ann moved to the other side, her .45 lowered; nodded.

  “Hello?” Rebekah said, waiting for a response; nothing. “We’re trapped… the floor collapsed.” She waited. No response. “We know you’re in there, we can smell the weed. Can you let us in? We’re not with Sworn.” She waited; nothing. “We were looking for survivors… make it to the roof to see if there is a clear path for us to leave the city. Now we just need to get out of here before the place goes down.”

   That,
looking for survivors
, and,
leave the city
, and,
before the place burns down
, caught Jim’s attention.

   “You the resistance?” his muffled voice shot back,

   Rebekah released her semi-auto. “Part of it...”

   “Prove it.”

   “Open the door.”

   He grunted.

   “It’s just two of us here. We just lost one in the blast.”

   “That don’t sound like no rescue squad.” Jim shot back.

   “The rest of us are close by. A larger group should be on their way from cross city now. This’ll work a lot better if you would open the door. A fire is burning below us. We need to get out of here! And yourself as well!”

   Ann inserted, “We have a convoy close by waiting on us. My cousin’s a nurse, if you’re hurt she can help. Please…”

   There was a brief moment of silence.

   Jim’s voice broke out closer to the door.

   “Are you sick?”

   Ann replied, “We’re all healthy. And you?”

   “We’re fine. Are you armed?”

   Ann looked to Rebekah.

   Rebekah looked at Ann, then back to the doors crack. “What do you think? Of course we are. I’m pretty sure you are too.”

   “Where’s Rain?”

   If for any reason the hoods behind the door suspected the girls had anything to do with Rain’s death, they’d for sure blast right through that fucking door with no hesitation.

   Rebekah took a few seconds to answer, not knowing if what she would have said would have started conflict. How was she to know if Jim was from Centre City? He may have been one of Rain’s rivals since they
were
camped out in rival territory. How could she configure a way to determine exactly what side of the field Jim was really on?

   “
Billy
Rain!” she said, with a crafted delivery. You wouldn’t know if they were friends or enemies. “He helped to assemble the resistance for the city, not just for his own people. He’s a hero to us all… lost his life defending the ones he cared about.” She looked to Ann. “In the end, he was a brave and fearless leader that won’t be forgotten, no matter who hated or loved him.”

   There was a long pause.

   CLICK!

   The door unlocked, the knob twisted, and the door cracked open.

   “Step in… slow… hands first.” Jim instructed.

   The light drizzle turned into a well necessitated shower. The dense smoke from Sworn’s explosion lingered across the deserted land. It had been more than an hour since Rebekah took Ann and Trivo on an expedition through the destroyed projects. The three of them still hadn’t returned, but Maria worried about just one in particular. Her cousin… Ann.

   Neshia kept an open eye on her mother and brother through the rear view, holding a tight grip on Rebekah’s .40 caliber semi-automatic. She was more concerned of her father at this point. He’d stayed back with the resistance, attempting a heroic mission in which he might not return, against Sworn’s fortified group of elite scum.

   But Baker, what nobody knew, he went back to the 4x4, rummaged through the compartments and found a fully loaded .9mm in the dash. He’d shoved it in his pants and quickly calmed. Relaxed, he thought of a way he could prove his worthiness to the group, seeming the resistance demanded he travel to safety with the women and other children. He still had his thoughts fixed on vengeance.

   “We should get everyone off the streets for a while. I’ll go through the apartments, find Rebekah and the others.” Maria finished.

   A stone thunder shook the pained streets. The lightning struck, revealing its blood redness through the unsympathetic night. The frightened passengers of the small convoy were dampened and cold. The children, their whimpers rattled Neshia’s concerns.

   “Where are we supposed to go?”              

   “Come with me!” Maria exclaimed, opening the door of the white pick-up.

   They were in another business section of the city, surrounded by boarded breakfast shops, a row of brick duplexes across the deserted streets, a few lone vehicles, clothing stores and other small company buildings ten blocks away from Maison. Locked and boarded, abandoned or destroyed, in their desperate time of need, breaking into one of the establishments or bugging out in a few vehicles for shelter and security was considered a priority on the
To Do
list, equivalent to finding Rebekah, Ann and Trivo.

   Maria led the group of survivors, sprinting toward the dupes across the street, the safest place, she figured, for the group to hideout while waiting on the resistance to catch up. And the perfect opportunity for her to solely recover her missing allies.

   “I need one of you to kick the door in.” Maria exclaimed, to the M16 wielding hoods through the bails of rain. “Two of you go in! The other two get to the rear and cover us!”

   Two of the hoods hustled to the rear of the huddled group, one of them passed Maria his M16 and pulled a Glock .45 with a small custom flashlight attachment from underneath his sweater, kicked the door.

   BOOM!

   Two entered.

   The house, cleared. The rest hurried inside flicking Bic lighters and flashlights. And Maria, after everyone was accounted for, addressed the group. 

   “Everyone needs to stay here until I return. Barricade the door and stay as quiet as possible. Hell, light a fire to keep warm. If I’m
not
back by the time the guys get here…
don’t
wait up.” Maria said, in a convincing tone, passing the M16 back to its owner.

   “How will they know where to find us?” a woman called out from the crowd.

   “The vehicles are parked across the street. I should see them they come my way.” Maria finished, made her way back out into the storm. The hood began closing the door behind her.

   “Hey!” Neshia exclaimed, as Baker pushed pass her.

   Baker zipped for the dupe’s front door as it was being shut, slipped through the just-big-enough crack in route behind Maria, fast. But if he wanted to prove himself worthy to the group, then he should have stayed with the group and not run off behind her. Rebekah mentioned that to him earlier, but Baker was too big-headed to listen.

   “Stop him!” Neshia called out, as she attempted to stop Baker, dashed behind him, keeping hold of Rebekah’s gun.

   The thug at the door missed him flying by, extended his arm across the crack preventing Neshia from going out.

   The beefed up gangster said, “Let him go. You go out there...” he shook his head, “The nurse chick catches up with the others and he’ll be alright.”

   Everyone else looked on, listened and observed, but none disputed, not a mouth-drop in the building. Clearly they’d been panicky, now pushed into a corner waiting on their salvation.

   “It’s not right!” Neshia said, Chase and Brea now by her side.

   “It’s okay, baby.” Brea said, to her daughter, hand braced upon her shoulder. “They don’t move much in the rain anyhow. He’ll be alright.”

   “We can get outta here from off the fire escape.” Jim pointed at the window.

   “Great.” Rebekah stated, moving toward the frame, lifting the window. “Everyone should be together by now.”

   “We don’t know what’s down there.” Girder warned.

   Rebekah held half of herself out the window, pulled back a dripping wet upper-body. “You can stay here if you want.”

   “I’m right behind you, girl.” Ann mentioned.             

   Rebekah continued onto the fire escape, into the stormy night.

   Jim looked to Girder. Girder shrugged his shoulders.

   Ann made her way out.

   “I ain’t stayin’ up in this bitch witcha. You better getcha ass up.” Jim ordered, moving to the window.

   “Main, we don’t know what’s out there.”

   “We know the building’s burning down. Sworn an dem gotta be gone by now.” 

   “Main… we don’t even know what’s at the bottom.”

   As Jim reached the window, Ann shot back through. Rebekah followed. Both girls were drenched, Ann was panicking.

   “We do now!” Rebekah exclaimed, slamming the window shut. “We need to put anything that moves against the windows… like now!”

   “What is it?” Jim asked in a hurry.

   Rebekah grabbed the overturned loveseat, rapidly slid it to the window. “You already know! Just hurry! We’re going to need some light.”

   Jim and Ann both grabbed the plaid sofa, leaving Girder no choice but to stand up. They lifted the couch to the window. Rebekah pushed the refrigerator to the front door.

   Girder struggled his way to the candle, flicked his lighter.

   “We need another way out!” Rebekah said. “Is there anything in here that we can break through the wall with?”

   “What?” Jim frowned. “Fuck all that. Let’s just shoot our way out.”

   “Not if we have a chance.” Rebekah responded.

   Girder would have rather died of intense smoke inhalation than being a victim of carnage. Deep down inside he did not mind going out in a shootout, he just didn’t want the blaze of glory thing if he had another option. He thought for a quickie, wasted no time hopping right over to the corner of the living room removing the curtains from over top the dumbbells. He picked up a fifty pound weight seven inches off the ground and held it. “Here you go.”

   Ann and Jim charged to the back and threw the beds in front of the windows, the dressers behind them – in record time of 15 mere seconds – the room darkened and they could do no more. The tiny apartment was temporarily secured, and when they finally returned to the front room, there was just enough light to see everyone’s silhouette.

   “Perfect. Jim, wrap the weights in a bed sheet and bang out the brick wall in one of the bedrooms as quickly as possible. Girder, you should go with him and watch the windows while we keep watch here. Shoot on sight.”

   Girder attempted to pass Rebekah the candle.

   “You’ll need the candle, we can handle this.”

   “How are you—” Girder began, before being cut off by his buddy.

   “Come on, man.”

   Jim hustled to the back room. Girder limped.

   “How much time we got?” Ann asked Rebekah.

   “When they start banging I’m sure they’ll come flying up to greet us.”

   “You know I can’t see, right?”

   “Hold my sleeve. We’re going straight back and furthest from the outside window.”

   BOCK! BOCK!

   Jim and Girder commenced to knocking down the wall.

   “We’ve been in tougher situations than this.” Rebekah smiled, so bright it cleaved through the black.

   BOCK! BOCK!

   “Yeah, tell me about it… but with more people and ammo.”

   The banging continued. You could hear the plywood and pieces of brick hitting the floors in the bedroom, and the
umps
made by Jim and Girder on every strike. Then, the howl of a dog arose from the ground level, across the street.

   Girder’s attention was deeply drawn to the howl. He knew it must have been the dog they’d seen earlier, and that beast, indeed was a people chaser who worked for Sworn. Girder thought that damn Akita had been outside all along, and he
so
wished they’d have killed the animal when they initially set eyes on it.

   Jim broke a sweat, he-hoeing the whole while, breaking through the wall. His only intention was getting out the building, away from whatever was on its way up the fire escape. He didn’t respond to the howl, he knew if they did not break through the wall in time they’d end up with their backs against the wall going out in a true blaze of unwarranted glory without ever being heard of in the history to come.

   “We don’t have much time!” Rebekah called out.

   “We’re moving… as fast… as we can!” Jim hollered back, not wasting a second, taking a deep breath before every swing of the 50 pounds of brick busting steel. “We’re almost… through!”

   Scratches were heard from outside the window of the front room. Whoever was out there toyed with them? Rebekah shushed Ann through the dark. Ann grabbed Rebekah’s sleeve, and together, they backed up, raised their guns when a thump came from the opposite side of the front door.

   Rebekah looked to Ann and whispered, “Quiet.”

   BOCK! BOCK! BOOM!

   “We’re through” Girder yelled from the back. 

    Rebekah and Ann rushed toward the rear area just as the fridge-freezer plunged to its side.

   THUMP! THUMP!

   Their trackers were trying to break through the front door. The rumbling irritated the already concave hallway, pieces of rock crashed on the floors below. The scratches at the window, pounding, shattered.

   As the young ladies made it into the back room, Jim had kicked out the last of his breach point, Girder easily slid through. A gap, just big enough for the girls and Girder to breeze through one behind the other; Jim had to position himself sideways, shove his way through the brick last. He ended up getting stuck, and emerging footfalls scarcely grew near the room within the darkness behind him.

   “Pull me through!” Jim demanded, his hand stretched outward, staring at Girder holding the wax-dripping candle.

   Girder stood stock-still, looking as if wanting to smile, but squeezed it back waiting for Jim to get what he had coming, just as planned. Ann and Maria immediately jumped to assist, grabbing Jim by his huge arm, yanking him through the slit, making a dash in route to ground level.

   There was only one of the two things they’d all feared more than Sworn and his brigade, more than burning to death in the fiery project building. Now they were on the run from it, within a searing building kept aflame by the devil himself. Sworn could have been anywhere outside.

   And that’s where they were headed.