Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (23 page)

CHAPTER THIR
T
Y-THREE
- Mike Journal Entry 10

Tracy was next to attempt to bridge the gulf that was widening between me and everything around me. Unlike D
ee
,
I heard her footfalls as she closed the gap, although I think she wanted
me to. She didn’t say a word as she grasped my hand. The touch, the human contact, the simplicity and beauty of the act eased my soul. We didn’t say anything, we didn’t have to, I silently thanked her. After a few more hours the
colonel
found what appeared to at one time have been upscale apartments on the outskirts of Roslindale, the looted and burned property would never again grace the pages of good housekeeping but it would do for the night. And then D
ee
did what I thought
wasn’t even possible
;
he made a joke.

“I wonder what kind of amenities they have here.”

Two of the
M
arines bringing up the rear, looked in shock at Drababan. I couldn’t take it, I burst out laughing. Drababan kept right on walking as if that was the most normal thing to say. I shook my head in a vain attempt to stop my gut churning laughter. Tracy kept walking a small smile spreading across her face.

Well fuck if we have nothing else, we can still laugh
.

CHAPTER THIR
T
Y-FOUR

The high-pitched whine of the 30-
30
caliber bullet ripped
Pegged
’s right ear off, even as his momentum spun him to the ground. He was right
,
if he had hesitated even a millisecond longer she would have blown his head clean off. As it was, he could feel the blood running down his neck. If he didn’t get moving
,
she would put one in his ass for all his troubles. For the first time since this mad little dance started
,
Pegged
ques
tioned why he had undertaken the
adventure. Sure it
was his snot-
nosed little brother she had killed, but they had nev
er been that particularly close.
T
he little fuck was always ratting him out whether he committed the act or not.
H
e definitely couldn’t turn back now
though
. Oh no, he couldn’t do that.
I
f not for his brother
,
then
she was going to pay for his ear.
He
crawled to the median, wondering why the fatal hammer blow had not happened.

“Oh my God!” Beth shouted. “I hit him
!
I really hit him
!” Her joy was short-
lived as she watched him put his hand to his now earless right side. She could see the menace in
his eyes even from a
distance, he turned from her and began to crawl
toward
the grass. Beth chambered another
round in the bolt action rifle.
S
he tried to calm herself as
she sighted in on the only target available to her,
his
ass.

“It would serve him right
,” she said
to
no one
in particular. “It might not kill him but it sure as hell isn’t going to make him any better.” Beth slowly eased her finger back on the trigger.
Frustration roared through her.
The trigger pulled the firing pin back and struck the projectile with an audible smack. Nothing happened. “Misfire
!” she screamed
in a rage. She pulled the trigger two more times before enough of her senses returned to think the problem out. She pulled the bolt back to displace the unoffending bullet. As she brought the rifle back to bear, he was
gone
.
S
he screamed.

“Fuck!”

A piece of bark mere inches from her face shattered, long before Beth could process that her
prey
was shooting back. Beth dove for the ground, as a second bullet whizzed over her head like an errant hornet.

“I bet that was pretty close!”
t
he taunting voice yelled.

“Closer than you think
,”
Beth
m
uttered.

Beth was too frightened to r
ise up and take a shot
.
S
he was more afraid that her rifle would prove its inadequacies than she was of missing her quarry.

“What’s a matter girlie, did the sight of blood make you lose your stomach or did you really think that
you could kill me?”
Pegged
was afraid, she had damn near done what his mother had tried to do
twenty-seven
years ago when she found out she was going to be a teenage mother.

Beth had had enough, his taunting on top of all the shit he had put her through the last
few days
was coming to a head.

Screw him
.
H
e wants to play head games I’m all for it
.

“Hey fuck
head!”
s
he yelled
,
doing her best to keep any shakiness out of
her voice
lest she give herself away. “I just wanted to keep you alive a little
lo
nger. I want
to be close enough to see your eyes when I finally kill you!”

That struck
him
harder than thunder.
H
e hadn’t been ready for
that and could only pull out a stock retort. “Yeah
,
right!” But they both knew it lacked any true conviction
behind the words
.

“
About fucking time someon
e besides me is scared shitless,”
Beth said to herself as she crawled deeper into the woods.
S
he had nothing to fear
for now
, it was a good long while before
he
found the nerve to get his legs up from under him. If she came straight out of the woods at him, he wasn’t sure that he would have been able to do much more than wait for the inevitable.

That’s one tough bitch
,
he thought as he wrapped a makeshift bandage around his head, the side throbbed with every heartbeat
.
I
f he didn’t stop the bleeding soon, the girl wasn’t going to get her wish of watching him die. He shuddered as he tightened the bandage.
He
would have turned around if he thought he could catch up with his friends, but he was positive they had already moved on to new hunting grounds. For better or worse
,
he was stuck on this path
.
O
ne of them was going to die and soon, he just wasn’t as sure of the outcome as he had been even
fifteen
minutes ago.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FI
V
E
- Mike Journal Entry 11

As we entered into our luxury accommodations for the evening
,
a light rain began to fall
.
B
y the time we made it up to the third floor it was coming down in sheets. I found comfort in the steady dr
umming of the water on the roof
.
I
t brought me back to my childhood days when it was pouring and I would stay in the house on a cold fall day and read a good sci-fi novel. Who kn
e
w
,
though, if I thought I was someday going to live a sci-fi book I might not have liked those far off exotic places nearly as much. A few of the soldiers came back a few moments later as I stood looking out the window
,
lost in my own thoughts.

“Captain.” One of them saluted. I half turned
,
s
till not completely back from where I was journeying. “The building is empty and secure.”

“Alright
,
Sergeant
, I want you to rotate some guards, and make sure the men get some rest, that might be in short supply soon.”

The sergeant turned to go and issue the orders.

“One more thing
,
Sergeant
.”

“Yes
, sir?” he asked
.

“No,
lights. Not even flashlights unless they have red-lense suppressors on them. There is something amiss here, I don’t quite know what it is. This place may not be the chateau
Deville
, but it’s dry so why there isn’t anybody staying here is tickling something in the back of my head. If I wasn’t so
friggin’
tired, I think I’d move on.”

I could tell by the
s
ergeant
’s expression he thought I might be a little crazy
.
T
o his credit he didn’t voice his opinion.

“I’ll take care of it
, sir
.” The
Sergeant
snapped a salute and turned on his heel.

Tracy came to my room wrapped in nothing more than a towel.

“Well
,
at least the water works, if not the water heater
,” she said
with a smal
l smile. I turned from the rain-
soaked sliding door. She was a sight for any eyes. The water dripping from her red hair on to her almost exposed breasts was m
ore than I could take.
Our slow love-making mixing
with the charged ozone in the air
made
every touch electrif
ied
.
I slept the sleep of the
spent, but it was short-
lived
.
T
he sound of a man screaming had me out of bed and rifle in hand in under
three
seconds. I was butt ass naked but I didn’t even notice. I saw Drababan coming from the end of the darkened hallway,
the colonel
was in his arms as he literally squeezed the life out of him, I could hear his bones snap as
D
rababan approached.