Chapter 20
Sam's body was moving before his brain knew what was going on. He scooped Tamara into his arms as she continued to scream and hold her head. What was wrong with her? This was the second time she’d acted like that after seeing what looked like a satanic ritual.
“Brock, it’s time to go,” Adrian screamed. “Alex is in trouble!”
Sam turned to see that Brock wasn’t moving. Sam wondered if he was aware of what was happening around them, now that Subie was back in his arms.
“Adrian, take Tamara,” Sam bellowed to be heard over Tamara’s screams. He hated to hand her over, but he was going to have a hard enough time making it back up the stairs. “I’ll get the blockhead!”
As soon as Tamara was lifted from his arms, he rushed over to Brock and Subie. “We’ve got to go.” Neither one moved. Sam was getting sick of the young man. For a split second he was tempted to leave him behind. But that would mean leaving Subie as well and she was the one they’d come to rescue. He wasn’t a Jarhead, but he’d be damned if he left anyone behind.
“Listen to me,” Sam screamed into Brock’s ear. “Those people are still out there, and if you don’t want them getting their hands on your girl again, you’d better get her out of here!”
Brock finally turned an angry glare on Sam and yelled, “Never! They’ll never touch her again!” In one swift motion he picked his naked girlfriend up and rushed to the stairs.
Sam followed Brock up and met Adrian at the top. Tamara had stopped screaming. She looked to be resting fitfully in his arms.
“What’s going on out there?” Sam asked, hoping Alex had just been spooked. He couldn’t hear the car honking anymore. Had she left them? Flickering orange light filtered through the broken windows, making Sam’s stomach tie in knots.
“You’ve got the gun, man,” Adrian told him. “I’m not poking my head out there.”
Sam swore under his breath about the cowardice of today’s youth until he remembered that he was the trained soldier, not them.
Sam’s left leg was beginning to throb. He’d been running on the wrong prosthetic too much. The stairs hadn’t helped.
He crunched through the debris on the floor as he went to the window. Sam peeked out. “Fuck!” he yelled as he made out the car in flames. No one seemed to be around. “The car is on fire,” he gasped as he rushed to do door. “Please don’t let Alex be in there. Please don’t let Alex be in there.” Sam repeated the mantra as he pushed down the path to the fence.
Before he reached the old gate, the car exploded, sending a fireball into the night sky. The concussion knocked Sam back into Adrian and Tamara following close on his heels. They went down in a tangle of arms and legs.
“Sam?” Tamara asked, her voice thick with confusion.
Sam rolled over and looked up, staring around until he located what was left of the car. He was dizzy and confused, remnants from the blast. He shook his head and struggled to his feet. "Hang on," he mumbled.
“Alex was in there,” Adrian said on the edge of panic.
“I know!” Sam snapped. The gate was on fire from the explosion. Sam kicked it open with his prosthetic, shooting even more pain into his thigh. He ignored it as he moved to the driver’s side of the twisted wreckage.
The heat was too intense to get close, but Sam didn’t need to. Bright yellow flame billowed from the driver’s side window. Nothing could survive in that.
“Is she in there?” Adrian called, but Sam ignored him.
He’d failed again. These kids had relied on him to help them through this, and he’d gotten one of them killed.
What was I thinking, leaving someone behind, alone? He demanded of himself. He’d left her, defenseless and vulnerable.
He didn’t know when he fell to his knees, and he didn’t care. His Lieutenant. Specialist Andrews in the back seat of the HUMMV. And now Alex. All dead because he couldn’t save them. One more ghost to haunt his dreams at night.
“Oh, God!” Adrian gasped next to him.
Sam looked up and saw the look of horror on Adrian’s face. Had Alex been his girlfriend? The two hadn’t acted like Brock and Subie, but not all couples did. He hadn’t taken the time to get to know his girlfriend’s friends, and now he wouldn’t be able to get to know one of them.
His girlfriend. . . . Tamara’s pretty face forced itself to the forefront of his mind. His left thigh screamed in pain as he got to his feet, but he ignored it.
He found her sitting up in the weeds and staring at the burning car. “Tamara!” he gasped. “What happened to you?”
Her brown eyes blinked in confusion as she looked up at him.
“Sam?” Her voice was raspy, sore after so much screaming. “What? I—?” Her head dropped into her hands. “Alex was still in there, wasn’t she?”
The pain in her voice echoed in Sam’s heart. Sam knelt next to her. He enfolded her into his arms. Her head tucked under his chin as she cried. He couldn’t stop his own tears from dripping down his cheeks and into her hair.
Sam looked around and saw that Brock had removed his shirt and given it to Subie. He was big enough that on Subie’s small frame, the shirt almost made her look decent.
“Why would anyone do this?” Tamara asked, trying to hug him tighter. Any tighter, and his ribs might crack, but Sam didn’t mind.
“Who knows why—“ Sam cut himself short as he heard a noise off to his left. Was one of the people who’d done this still around? He was almost surprised that he hadn’t heard any sirens yet. This was a bad part of town, but someone should still be on their way to put out the fire.
There was the noise again, almost buried under the sound of the crackling fire. It almost sounded like. . . . Yes! Someone was groaning. The flickering shadows of the still burning fence made it hard to see.
Sam attempted to stand, but Tamara refused to let go. “Tamara, I think someone is over there,” he told her. “Someone else might be hurt.” She let him stand, but refused to let go.
He put her on his left, and gripped his pistol with his right hand. If it was one of their attackers, he wasn’t going to be caught unawares.
“Alex?” Tamara saw her first, hidden in the overgrown weeds.
Sam gasped as he dropped next to her, Tamara still attached to his hip. Blood covered the left side of the woman’s face. One leg and the opposite arm were bent at unnatural angles. With the poor light from the fire, he couldn’t make out her chest moving, but she groaned and moved her head. She was still alive!
“Alex!” Sam yelled. “Alex, can you hear me?”
She didn’t respond. Sam checked her head first. Her face looked like it might be bruised, but that could just be the firelight. There was a knot on the back of her head and a gash above her temple that might need stitches. Sam’s mind went into medic mode, as he checked her over, noting that her left arm and right leg were broken below the elbow and knee respectively, but the bones weren’t protruding from her skin.
“Is she going to be. . .” Adrian trailed off.
“She’s going to need a more thorough examination than I can give her, but I think she’ll live,” Sam told him. “I don’t dare move her, not without setting her bones first. See if you can find some sticks or something to brace her arm and leg with. Has anyone tried calling 911?” Sam looked around again and felt a chill settle into his bones.
Three people, one female between two males, were staring at him from the other side of the low fence. Sam couldn’t make out their faces, but their stances said enough.
“We want the girl,” they said in unison. The man on the right pointed at Sam with a baseball bat.
No, not at Sam, at Tamara.
“What do you want with her?” Sam asked, trying to move his girlfriend behind him.
“Back the fuck off!” Adrian yelled before the trio could answer. “You’re not going to hurt Alex anymore!”
“Adrian, no!” Sam yelled, but Adrian was faster than him.
He took off running,
hurtling the fence in a leap that made Sam Jealous. Even outnumbered, Sam wondered if the man was going to fight them off with his fury alone. The battle was short-lived, however, as the one holding the bat dodged Adrian’s fist, and brought the bat down on the back of his head. Adrian crumpled to the ground and didn’t move.
“We want the girl,” they said again. Sam wondered if they practiced talking simultaneously, to match their voices. The bat was pointed at Tamara again.
Subie started wailing, trying to scramble out of Brock’s arms.
“Don’t let them take me,” she wailed. Apparently these were the same one’s that had tortured her.
Sam’s attention was on the threat. “You can’t have her!” he shouted. He pulled the pistol up, aimed, and squeezed the trigger twice.
Sam’s ears rang with the report of the weapon, but he didn’t care. Two sparks flashed in front of the trio as his rounds struck and bounced off something invisible between them.
“The fallen angel must come with us,” their voices melded in unison.
“That is getting creepy,” Sam muttered. “No one is going anywhere with you creeps.”
Tamara’s fingers gripped the back of Sam’s shirt as she huddled behind him.
He knew that no matter what happened, no matter what these guys were capable of, he wasn’t going to let them get Tamara. They weren’t going to get the chance to treat his woman the way they’d treated Subie and Alex.
Adrian groaned at their feet, but they ignored him. The girl in the middle brought her foot back and kicked the fence. It shattered, sending splinters and debris flying in all directions. Sam turned to protect Tamara, shielding her with his body.
When he turned back around, the three were right there.
They can’t block a bullet this close, Sam thought, and squeezed the trigger without aiming. This close, there was no need to aim.
The man on the left grunted, but didn’t go down. The woman grabbed Sam by the neck, and a second later he found himself flailing through the air and his feet scrambled to keep under him. No woman was that strong!
“Sam!” Tamara screamed before he hit the ground with a pain filled thump. The world went white as Sam’s head struck a rock in the weeds.
The ringing in his ears made his lips curl into a bitter smile. Finally, he thought, Sirens!