Chapter 9B: Friendly Visits
Bullets fly, friends fall, and the airborne terror finally reveals itself. John and Jessie face the fight of their lives as an ally arrives from the unlikeliest of places.
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They found Hugh Godswold heading up to work on his cache of weapons. Dylan De Saunt strode alongside Hugh, lathered in sweat from the effort of matching the big man’s pace.
Godswold’s face lit up on seeing them but he didn’t break stride.
“Great to see you two! C’mon, I want to show you my latest toy.”
John and Jessie exchanged an arched eyebrow look but no further information followed. Ahead of them Godswold and De Saunt conferred in low tones, but from what John could make out it wasn’t conspiratorial. Dylan appeared to be bringing Hugh up to speed with events in town. Laughter peppered their conversation.
Jessie looked deep in thought and couldn’t be drawn when John attempted chitchat; he soon quit trying and tramped up the rocky incline similarly silent.
Once inside the cave they paused a moment to let their eyes adjust to the light. John scanned the space, looking for whatever it was had Godswold so upbeat. There was a new crate a little in front of the others.
He pointed. “Is that it?”
Godswold beamed and made straight for the crate. He threw the lid back, reached in and pulled out something that made John think, ‘Bazooka’. He could only guess how the word had jumped into his head.
Godswold held the weapon aloft. “Behold, Charlie Gutsake, the nemesis of Rhinos everywhere!”
“You mean that will take out a Rhino?” Jessie asked.
“You betcha! It’s a standard antitank weapon; this is the latest version. The proper name for it is, ‘The Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle.’ Ha, some rifle! Might not work on a top-line modern tank, but it will destroy anything we’re likely to encounter, certainly anything the cops can throw at us!”
Jessie whistled. “Your sources have really come through this time.”
John remained uneasy. “Are we going to war with the cops? Seriously, wouldn’t it just be better to avoid them?”
“Sure, if it was possible to do that, I would,” Godswold said. “The problem is, I’m convinced they’re coming after me, and after they’ve done with me, they’ll start on folks like you. We don’t necessarily need to wipe the bastards out, but we have to make it obvious to them that we’re no pushover either.”
“How? Are you just going to blast one of the Rhinos off the road? Seems to me that would just bring them down on us like a hornets nest.”
“No, you’re getting ahead of the action a bit there. These are for if and when the situation goes completely to shit. Initially, I’m just getting a little pile of protection together to keep us safe from the gangs. But then, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for all situations.”
John shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I just don’t want to go creating trouble where it doesn’t exist.”
Godswold spread his arms. “Hey brother, I hear you. As I said, it’s all about being prepared for the worst scenarios.”
* * *
They drove back to town along the Great Northern in silence. Dylan had left earlier to plan his next Voice broadcast. The road drummed hypnotically beneath them and it was only when Jessie slammed on the brakes that John broke from daydreaming. The car skidded sideways off the sealed surface and shuddered to a halt on a verge of dry grass. He followed her eyes to the other side of the road, straining to see through a light veil of smoke.
Dylan’s distinctive red truck had run off the bitumen and scored deep furrows down a small embankment to end nose-first into a tree. Flames licked out from under the buckled hood. Two vigilante cops had parked their black star-emblazoned SUV above the embankment and were in the process of dragging Dylan from the wreckage.
Jessie got there first.
“What happened?” she asked the cops and then turned to the dazed Dylan. “Are you alright?”
“None of your business, young lady. Step aside please.”
John didn’t recognise the cop who spoke; he didn’t recognise either of them. He’d only known they were cops because of the distinctive SUV. Both were dressed in rough civilian clothes whose only distinguishing feature was the leather badge at the shoulder of ex-army shirts proclaiming, ‘Death Wheelers’. Jessie had mentioned them; one of the more unsavoury motorcycle gangs rumoured to be setting up camp near Dyall’s Ford’s borders.
Jessie persisted. “It IS my business, this man is a friend!”
John stepped beside her building anger and spoke.
“Dylan, what happened, man?”
Dylan’s face came up groggily and he sucked in breath. As he took in the situation his eyes regained clarity. He looked thoughtful a moment before replying.
“Just a spot of bad luck, my friend. Don’t remember much, must have swerved to avoid something on the road.”
The cop who hadn’t spoken yet grinned and carried on the narrative.
“Yeah, probably something like that. He’s damn lucky we came along when we did!”
The first cop scowled at his partner.
“Jerry, what do you hope to gain by that talk? You think we can just let them go after they’ve seen this?”
John and Jessie exchanged a look. Jessie played for time.
“Well, thanks for pulling him out, officers. We can take him to the hospital from here. I’m sure you guys have plenty to do.”
The boss-talking cop turned slowly to her and smirked. John’s flesh crawled; this had to be one of Keemon’s recruits.
“I’m afraid neither of you will be going anywhere. We have some business with this De Saunt character here, then we’ll deal with you.”
His free hand whipped out an automatic pistol. “Both of you: SIT DOWN! Right where you are, right NOW!”
John pulled Jessie close; neither sat until the cop operated the pistol slide and pointed the gun at her head.
“I said now, and I won’t be asking again.”
John pulled her down with him and they sat, their eyes boring into the cop’s.
“Good, keep doing what I say, and we’ll get along just fine.” He turned to his partner. “Jerry, take mister De Saunt up to the Rhino and see he’s safely secured.”
Jerry spluttered. “Then what? Jesus, Sav, we only came out here to do this one. Are you telling me we have to off them all?”
Sav never took his eyes off the seated pair as he spoke.
“You got any better ideas? I’m making this up as I go. One thing I know is we sure as hell can’t let them walk!”
John kicked dirt at Sav’s feet and swore. “You’re going to kill us? Fuck you if we’ll let that happen!”
“Yes, shithead,” Sav gloated, “we’re going to fix all of you, that’s very smart, go to the top of the class. Jerry, what the fuck are you waiting for? Get that arsehole into the Rhino and get back here fast.”
Jerry held a gun at Dylan’s head and shoved him up the embankment to the road’s edge. Dylan twisted about in Jerry’s grip and growled back at Sav. “You think you can get away with this? What are the chances of someone else coming along before you’ve neatly disposed of our carcasses? You’d have some explaining to do. I’d advise you to just let us go and disappear yourselves.”
Sav sniggered. “That’s brave talk. These two happening along might be a bit of an interruption to my plans, but you’ll see I’m plenty adaptable. Jerry, if he opens his mouth again beat him till he don’t breathe anymore, then chuck him in the back of the Rhino.”
John leaned against Jessie. A slight breeze sprang up, cool and gusty. At any normal time, he would have welcomed it.
So what the hell was he going to do now? In all probability they had moments left to live. But there was a considerable distance between them and Sav, and the waiting bullet would cover it much faster than either he or Jessie could vault across that space. In a frustrated rage, he spat on Sav’s boot.
“Fuck you, you piece of shit! Put that gun down if you’re man enough. I’ll tear your bloody head off.”
It was feeble, he knew that, but it was all the dignity he could retrieve from the situation.
Sav snorted. “What do you want, a goddam duel? That’s too funny! No thanks, I think I’ll just keep my advantage.”
The seated pair shot a glance at one another and exchanged a slight nod signalling the same thought. If either could have articulated it, it would have gone something like, ‘Better to die on your feet fighting’. They rose as one and split as soon as they stood, dodging, ducking, and weaving like prize fighters either side of the cop so he had to switch pointing the gun from one to the other.
“Enough of this crap,” Sav barked. “Stop moving right now or I pull this trigger.”
But each would freeze whenever the gun pointed at them, only to resume their creeping pincer advance as soon as the barrel swung away to cover the other’s movement.
Sav waggled the gun between them snarling. “Do you think I care if I shoot you now or later? The only difference to me is I don’t have to drag your stinking bodies up to the Rhino if you walk up there first. And you get to live a little longer.”
His face twisted in a demented giggle as he went on. “Who knows, I might even change my mind by the time we get up there, I might let you live; we only came for De Saunt anyway!”
Sav had John fixed in his sights when Jessie leapt. Ducking the first of the bullets, she wove side to side as she covered the precious space between them. Freed by her decisive action, John also rushed the cop.
Sav jumped back, then stopped and steadied. He drew a line on Jessie and this time when the pistol cracked, she yelped and spun away before going down on one knee. She swayed a moment, clutching the left side of her chest and half growling, half groaning. She tried to rise, then slumped back and hunched over trying to squash the pain.
“Bastard,” John screeched, “you fucking, lowlife bastard!”
He launched himself headlong into Sav’s stomach and bulldozed the cop to the ground; the automatic bellowed in his ear and a bullet grazed the seat of his jeans as they went down.
With the fight switching to such close quarters, the gun filling Sav’s hand became a handicap. He flung it sideways and threw his arms around his furious assailant, scratching and grabbing at John’s shirt as they toppled backwards.
Sav tried to rise but John was pummelling him now, breaking teeth and closing eyes with his farmwork-hardened fists. Blood burnt into Sav’s vision and he shook left and right to clear it but couldn’t. The fists’ effects built until his eyes faded and he passed out.
John had a fist raised in midair when he saw the last of Sav’s consciousness go. He ran to Jessie, snatching up Sav’s discarded weapon and shoving it in his belt as he went. She was lying on her side now, her eyes closed and barely breathing.
“Oh honey, oh baby, Jesus, don’t leave me, stay with me. I’ll get help, I promise.”
He ran up to the Rhino looking for the other cop and De Saunt. He had no plan for what he’d do when he got there and faced Jerry’s gun, but he’d run out of options.
The cabin itself was empty, so he went to the rear compartment where they threw prisoners in and locked them behind barred doors. He pushed the lever of the bar up and pulled the entire door back as he leapt aside.
Deafened by the blood pumping in his ears he waited for a volley of shots to ring out from the dark interior. As seconds stretched and nothing happened, he screamed into the space. “Dylan, are you in here? Jessie’s been shot, come quick!” Still nothing. Edging the barrel of his gun around the door he peered in. His eyesight had by now adjusted to the light inside, and he could see the caged cab was empty.
He ran back to the bottom of the embankment, shoved the gun in his jeans belt, slipped his arms under Jessie, and lifted. She groaned and her shirt soaked red with the movement.
“Hang on babe, I’ll get you to hospital, just hang on!”
He scrambled back to the Rhino. There he pulled up short.
Dylan De Saunt’s bruised and bloodied face sat atop his dishevelled body and trembling legs, and over his right shoulder, Jerry had a gun pointing at John.
“Put the bitch down, lose the gun and stick your arms up where I can see ‘em,” the cop said quietly.
John swore and impotently kicked dirt at the Rhino. His arms were full and the cop was using De Saunt as a shield. He lay Jessie gently in the grass, eased the gun from his belt and dropped it.
Once more time elongated as panic screamed in John’s head. Jessie was dying, fast, even hospital would be stretched to save her. And it all appeared futile now anyway. Jerry would kill them all, and when Sav woke, they’d work to dispose of the bodies.
Remembering from somewhere the old injunction, ‘If you’re going to go down, go down swinging’, he stepped over Jessie’s prone form, his eyes narrowed into beams of hate as he made straight for the cop. He wondered what a bullet would feel like. Jessie could tell him, she would know, lying near death behind him as he made for the death in front of him.
His mind reached a kind of calmness he’d never thought possible. He ignored Jerry’s yells to stop. A subtle, cool breeze was blowing in again and he just didn’t care. He had nothing left to lose but his pride and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let this scumbag take that from him.
The first of the slugs took him in the chest somewhere, he couldn’t exactly locate the point of impact because it didn’t hurt, it really didn’t hurt! It must have passed straight through. He kept advancing on the cop. Jerry drew the hammer back on his revolver and squinted his eyes as he drew a close bead on John’s head.
John staggered a little now. Actually, it did hurt after all. Quite a bit, in fact. The pain was growing outward and everywhere in him, sweeping over like fire. He tried to keep putting one foot before the other but his legs weren’t communicating now and they buckled.
He crashed face forward into the dirt and half rolled over to look up at the cop now standing over him. He gobbed saliva onto his tongue to spit in the man’s face before the final bullet could hit home.
The breeze had freshened and cooled further. It had also brought darkness with it, or was that just his sight failing? And what was the sound, like a powerful beating of great sails? The last of his consciousness spied a great dragon hovering over him, hanging in the air and flapping its wings so hard that Jerry staggered backwards firing blindly at it.
Yes, thought John, I’m hallucinating, this must be the last of life in the first of death.
He didn’t even want to spit at the cop anymore. It was all done, he was all done, but it was somehow alright. He’d put up the good fight, they all had. Nothing for it now but to wait for Jerry to talk one last time through the barrel of his gun.
He closed his eyes to peacefully accept what was coming but a thump alongside brought him back. His head rolled to see Jerry lying face up, frozen, jaw slack, eyes glassy. A brilliant beam shone down on him, emanating from somewhere beneath the dragon’s wings.
Wow, I didn’t know death would be so trippy! His thoughts returned to Jessie. I’ve got to get back to her, get help. He raised on one elbow and tucked a knee below him. But the pain was now excruciating whenever he moved, and he collapsed gasping.
From somewhere up above John a voice came. “Rest easy, man in a boy’s body. We have far to travel. My companions will help, please do not resist.”
Two orbs — which appeared almost eye-like — extended on long necks from beneath the dragon’s wings. One inspected him momentarily and then gently wound its neck around and around him until his whole body was cocooned. The orb itself formed to his head like a pillow. He suddenly felt very sleepy. His last thought was to look over and check Jessie. She too had been cocooned, and where her face had been racked with pain it now looked unlined and peaceful.
Over to his left, Dylan De Saunt’s voice wailed and trailed, strident and tremulous by turns as he twirled his hands above his head and staggered about in turmoil.
“It’s a dragon! It’s a bleeding dragon! It’s a bloody, ginormous, fucking dragon! Well, there goes the neighbourhood! What do I tell them now on the broadcast? At least I’ve got my eyewitness to report on dragons: Jesus Christ, it’s me! This absolutely can’t be happening. That is completely the last time I touch those bloody mushrooms! I don’t believe this; I just don’t believe it. It’s a dragon. It’s a fucking dragon…”
John gazed down groggily on De Saunt with detached fascination as the dragon’s wings beat up into the air, taking him and Jessie with it tucked under its arms. Weirder and weirder was his last thought before black sleep swept in to claim him.
***