Behind Our Walls (22 page)

Desperation became pretty enticing when it was the only option left.

Lot and Meredith crouched down low and stuck their heads back out into the corridor. They looked to their left and saw nothing. To their right they could still see wisps of smoke from the explosion earlier, some shouting and sporadic gunfire.

"Give me another gun," Lot said. Meredith dropped her pack to the floor and pulled out a pistol, handing it over. They crept out into the corridor, the other four following close behind. He spotted several rifles on the ground that had been discarded and lifted one up, making sure it was set to auto and the safety off. Two of the others did the same.

"Come on," he said. They continued making their way up the corridor, keeping close to the wall until Lot spotted movement up ahead. He held up a hand for everyone to wait and crept closer to get a better look. There were at least a dozen left, facing in the direction of the food court. They showed no sign that they suspected any danger from behind.

Lot stepped out from cover, raising the gun and firing, sticking to short, controlled bursts to keep the gun from running away from him. He heard shots around him as Meredith and the others did the same. One of the rovers looked like he might have sensed them as they stepped out, but all he had time to do was turn halfway around before Lot cut him down. The others jumped at the sound of the shots and turned to face them. Lot stepped forward, methodically moving from left to right, taking no small amount of pleasure at the crazed marionette dance they did as the bullets struck them and knocked them to the ground.

One last man came running from around the corner, and raised his gun to fire. He was immediately taken out, but not before Lot felt a burning impact in his thigh, bringing him to the ground.

"Hold fire!" Meredith called out. All of the rovers were down. Lot let the gun drop from his fingers as he rolled over onto his back. Meredith knelt down and pressed down on his leg, putting pressure on the wound. He yelled out as she did so.

"How's it look?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Could be worse," Meredith answered. "I think it just hit the meat of your fat leg."

He laughed, despite himself and looked back up the corridor. "Take their rifles," he said. "We don't know many of them there are left."

"You can't—" Meredith started to protest.

"I know. Just get moving, I'll be fine."

"But—"

"Go!"

Meredith nodded and reached for the nearest gun. Lot watched them take off down the corridor, guns raised. He pulled the bandanna from his back pocket and tied it around his leg, wincing as he pulled the knot tight. Despite the injury, he looked at the bodies around him and for the first time started to think that maybe they would be able to win out in the end after all.

-51-

It was the worst possible outcome.

As Sophie and Clive rounded the corner, the rovers had evidently figured out their plan and were ready, fortifying their position and taking aim as they approached. Sophie skidded to a halt, nearly running into Clive and in the few moments she had, tried to make what peace she could.

Then she saw Meredith coming up from the other side.

Not just Meredith, but four others, all with automatic rifles raised and ready to fire. Sophie grabbed Clive and screamed back at the others.

"Get down!"

The rovers saw her reaction and turned, far too late. Meredith and the others opened fire. Sophie curled up and wrapped her arms around her head, both to keep from being hit by a stray bullet, but also because she didn't want to see what was happening. She thought she heard Clive saying a Hail Mary when just as abruptly as it had started, the firing stopped.

"Holy shit," Clive said as they lifted their heads. They were all dead, every one of them and for the first time in what felt like a week, the stadium was finally silent. Sophie could smell the smoke and the gunpowder in the air, but as that all settled down around them, it began to sink in that they were still alive.

"Is anyone hurt?" she yelled out. She reached to her side and grabbed for Corrine, feeling her sister reaching for her as well and sensing that she was all right. "Are you guys okay?" she yelled out again. The question seemed to shake Meredith out of her trance and she turned back.

"Lot was hit!" She looked like she was going to say more but she stopped short as Lot stumbled into view, using the wall to support himself. Meredith ran to him and took his arm over her shoulder to help support him.

"Are you all right?" Sophie asked.

Lot shrugged. "Not as bad as it looks. I think I'm gonna be fine as soon as we dig this slug out of my leg. It could be worse."

"Did you lose anyone?"

He nodded and again, there was little else that needed to be said. Sophie felt the pain in her gut twisting like a knife and for the first time, she started to cry. She saw Rowen's face in her mind and her awareness of anything else slipped away. She felt someone put an arm around her. This wasn't the time. She ran the back of her hand across her eyes and shook her head.

"The kids," she said. "We were going to move the kids down below when this all started. We need to check on them."

The five minutes it took her and Clive to run down there felt like hours. She felt sick at what they might find, that the death they had been fighting so hard to prevent had happened, regardless.

The children were unharmed, all where they were supposed to be.

Sophie got her next shock as she took in the sight of Fiona, wading around the crowd, counting the kids to make sure everyone was there.

"Fiona?" she asked. She couldn't understand, not just why Fiona was down here, but how she had even managed to get back into the stadium in the first place.

"How bad was it? How many are hurt?" Fiona asked.

"I...don't know." She was surprised to hear what sounded like actual concern in Fiona's voice. "Where did you come from?" The last time she saw her, Fiona had been face down, out in the parking lot.

"Someone told me where the kids were being kept." It was the only explanation she would likely get. The two of them stared each other down, sharing the moment of relief in their survival. It was a feeling of contentment that slowly dissolved into discomfort and before long, Fiona was ducking out of the room and running off.

"Clive, can you get some people together and sweep the stadium?" Meredith asked when they returned. "Make sure there isn't anyone else wandering around. Maybe see if you can figure out how they got in here in the first place."

Corrine came running up through the crowd and Sophie grabbed her, holding her tight in an embrace before she realized that her sister was actually trying to tell her something.

"What?" she asked.

"There's a guy. One of them. Still out there in the parking lot. It looks like he might have been hurt."

The small group slowly became larger as they went down to the garage, everyone eager to get their eyes on the monster who had started all of this. Sophie had a hard time believing it was true but sure enough, there he was, collapsed into his lawn chair and grabbing at his leg. She saw blood welling up around his hand and when she saw Rowen's body, lying there on the ground, all she could think was that it wasn't enough.

Jerry looked up at them as they approached and actually chuckled. "Well, looky who it is." He gave them a mock salute.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

Jerry nodded at the stadium behind them. "That little bitch of yours got the jump on me. Stuck me with my own knife and took off running."

Sophie could see a gun just a few feet away, as well as a blood-stained knife at his feet but he wasn't making an effort to go for either one.

"So what do you want?" he asked.

Sophie paused, genuinely confused by the question. "What do we want for what?"

He shook his head. "You know."

Sophie's breath caught in her chest. He was actually begging for his life. This was the negotiation stage. What would he need to give up in order for them to set him out onto the road, never to see him again? She looked into his eyes and saw no sign of any of the fight that had been there earlier.

Then she looked down, again, at Rowen's body and her tears returned. The love that she never thought she would feel again lay there, dead at her feet. In a way, she felt like the most vital part of her was gone as well. The man responsible for it all sat there, looking to her for mercy.

It was a sick joke.

Mercy.

What had Rowen gotten? No more than Jerry deserved to get. She felt the rage surging through her like an electric current. It caused her physical pain to stay in place, standing and taking in the sight of this thing in human form before her. She couldn't do anything about what their lives had become, but the one thing she could do was to make this man pay.

Sophie walked towards him, and in that moment she thought Jerry saw his own end in her eyes. He let his head drop as she approached. She reached out for the gun, hanging limply in Clive's hand. He offered no resistance as she took it, likely shocked at her brazenness. Stepping forward, she raised the gun and began squeezing the trigger.

With each shot, she stared out from another universe again, at the sight of blood misting in the air around them, this time with the acrid taste of smoke in her mouth. It was several drawn out, awkward moments before she realized that everyone was staring at her and she began hearing the dry click of the now empty chamber. She wasn't conscious of relaxing her grip, but recognized the sensation of the gun slipping from her hand and heard the hollow clattering of it hitting the ground.

Sophie looked up into the sky, past the roiling clouds and beyond, to whatever higher powers could have made a planet such as this possible in the first place.

She screamed.

-52-

Sophie looked down at the freshly disturbed earth of the field, and then up at the remaining people who had gathered to pay their respects to those who had fallen. A section had been cleared for the dead to be buried, and work was already underway on a monument of some sort for the twenty people who had been killed.

"I wish I had a better idea of what to say right now," Lot said. His medical field experience had been good enough to talk Clive through the process of removing the bullet from his leg but he was now walking with a crutch, the wound still heavily bandaged. "I know, or at least I can imagine how all of you are feeling right now. You're angry. You're scared and heartbroken. I know it because it's the same way I feel and I wish I could say something that would change all of that. But I think you know I can't. All I can do is remember the sacrifice that these people made for us, and promise that we will never forget them."

Not one for public speaking, he lifted a book that Sophie had seen him thumbing through occasionally. "We live our lives amidst the silence of ghosts, and we dream alongside the ghosts of silence. From the ashes we did rise and we return to you thusly, taken in the folds of your providence until we join with you again, forever in paradise."

Sophie felt her attention start to drift as he continued to read, the details fading as the faces of those they had buried rose into her consciousness. She looked down at the fresh patch of dirt and wondered how much more sacrifice would be required of them. She thought about Rowen down there, and she started to cry, painfully aware of everyone who turned to look at her but no longer having any power to hold it in. She put a hand over her mouth and ran away from everyone. Several people took a few steps as if to follow but in the end, she was left to herself. As she turned to leave the group, she realized that someone had been standing behind her. Through the tears, she barely recognized Ricco, standing before her. She took him in her arms and began to sob, clutching him tightly, partly as an expression of the despair but also gratitude that thanks to him, she still had something left in her life.

"Thank you," she whispered to him. He gave her a simple nod and stepped to the side, seeming to instinctively understand what she needed. She ran down the first corridor she came across, down into the comforting coolness of the dark. As she traced her hand along the wall, listening to her cries echoing off the wall, she heard someone off in the distance saying her name. She thought she imagined it at first but soon heard the footfalls of someone following.

"Sophie?" Corrine came to her and without any other words, took her sister into her arms. Sophie felt her body go limp and let the grief wash through her. Time slipped away for them down there. Sophie knew that she was screaming. Corrine didn't try to say anything or stop her. There were no words that would fix anything.

Sophie had no idea how long it had been when she looked up and around. It was like waking up from a deep sleep as she struggled to stand, still leaning on Corrine for help. They took hold of each other's hands and resumed walking down the tunnel until they were underneath the field. She frowned at the sight of light coming from the storeroom up ahead. It was where the kids had been taken, the room where she had found Fiona of all places but she couldn't understand where the light was coming from.

They pushed the door the rest of the way open and in an instant, Sophie's breath caught in her chest and she felt her skin standing up at the sight of a window, still open and looking out into the parking lot. There had been a filing cabinet there, and she could see from the scuff marks in the dust that it had been moved. She also saw a foot stool kicked over on the floor nearby.