El Paso Under Attack - 01 (34 page)

Fortunately for Javie, he wasn’t in El Paso when the outbreak occurred. The man loves to travel and he was lucky enough to have been in New Orleans at the time. However, he now had no home to come back to. Thinking the bunch of us might be at the cabin, Javie ventured on over to see for himself.

Now there were five.

That made me nervous. Jaxon had his lieutenants. Still, it was hard to think of Javie as a violent man. He just wasn’t that kind of person. He was the most gentle of the bunch. Of course, Jaxon and Dudley were the only ones that actually looked like they could fight. Georgie however, was really good with guns and Kingsley had at some point in his life been a marine.

I didn’t like the way things were transpiring. It was almost as if some cosmic power was trying to force this group of men to become warriors. I knew if Jaxon decided to go out and play hero, the boys would all follow him. I was pretty sure that none of them wanted to, who in their right mind would? Yet, I knew they were waiting for Jaxon to decide what to do.

All was not lost yet. For the time being and it looked like it might even be for eternity, Jaxon had no interest in fighting. I was glad for that, Lucy was glad for that and Ivana was glad for that.

“
Jaxon said that he didn’t believe he was the Guardian. Did you believe he was the Guardian?
”

I had no doubts in my mind that my husband was the hero they were looking for. I saw with my own eyes the power he wielded when he let go at the fence. It was amazing. No mere human being should have been able to do what he did. I also saw the way he healed from all those bite marks he received, when only one of them should have killed and turned him. In addition to all that, I had read the posts on EPUA almost religiously. So, I knew some of what he did when he was trapped in El Paso. My husband was no normal man, for whatever reason, he was the Guardian. He was the chosen protector.

It was inevitable I suppose, he had the kind of personality that made people want to follow him. It made people want to root for him. I always knew he was made for something greater…but, I sure as hell didn’t think it would be this.

“Promise me that it’s finished,” I asked Jaxon one night. “Promise me that you won’t go back there and fight no matter how hard they try to talk you into it.”

He looked at me in a strange sort of way.

“I won’t go back there,” he finally answered. “I’ve done my part. It’s up to the military now. I just don’t understand why they don’t get off their asses and do their jobs.”

“You have done your part you realize?” I asked. “Nobody else risked their life to save everyone. You did that. You took your chance, now it’s over. You made it back to me and now it’s done.”

“What are you so worried about Skie?”

“Because I can see it in your eyes…you feel guilty. Some part of you thinks that there’s something you could be doing.”

“Skie…I’m afraid to go back. I hate admitting it, but I’m terrified. You don’t understand what it was like for me and It’s not only that I’m afraid for myself, I’m also afraid that I might make a mistake and others will die. I don’t know how to face it. So even if I wanted to and yes, you’re right, there is a part of me that wants to…I simply can’t do it. I don’t know how.”

“Then I’m glad that you’re afraid,” I told him. “If that’s what keeps you and all the other guys safe, I’m glad for it.”

“Then what’s bothering you now?” he asked.

“I’ve never seen you afraid of anything. I’m not sure how it’s going to sit with you. I’m not sure you’ll be able to be afraid of something without fighting back.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“I’m worried that the fear will at some point make you angry,” I said. “If you get angry, fear itself isn’t enough to hold you back. You’ll go out and fight. I just don’t think you’re the type of man that can avoid facing your fears head on.”

“I’ve been doing pretty well so far,” he said. “Besides, I can’t leave you to go out there to fight. I know how worried you are about me. That in itself is enough to keep me away from any danger. I don’t want you to have the kind of life in which you’re worrying every night about whether or not your husband is going to come back alive.”

“Good,” I said.

With that, I changed the subject. I was satisfied that he was not only safe, I was also satisfied that he was going to stay that way.

I never for a moment thought that I was the one in actual danger.

Chapter 9

Jax

Once again, I have to wait for my meeting with Jax. The team has gone into battle. The outbreak (according to them) was small. There were no casualties. The fight was over in moments. I was actually able to watch from the top of a building as about one hundred zombies strolled into town. For me at least, it was terrifying. Not only the zombies, but the casual violence the General is capable of unleashing. One thing is for certain as we sit down and begin our discussion, if I ever needed rescued; I would want Jax to be the man who got the job.

So, you want me to talk about my last evening of living a normal life?

“
Yeah, just start off where Skie left off.
”

No problem. I had assured her that I wasn’t going to fight anymore. I had a bad case of the nerves. I’m not sure if it was the fight by the fences or just the aftermath of everything, but the thought of facing zombies again just turned my blood cold. Some Guardian I turned out to be.

He makes light of his problems with a little laugh and begins to scratch Merrick behind the ears. I’m pretty sure that he’s going to clam up on the subject, but I’m just not ready to quit yet.

“Does it make you uncomfortable to discuss what you went through after you left El Paso?
”

It does. I know I’m being ridiculous, but I just feel embarrassed about it. Skie was right though. She knows me very well. I can’t stand to be afraid of anything. It won’t be long before I confront whatever it is that’s giving me the nerves.

In this case, I had a little push.

The conversation Skie told you about was right before we went to bed; I was sitting by our bedroom window listening to the rain fall. I like the sound it makes when it hits the metal roof of the cabin. Then again, I’ve always loved the rain. Skie hates it. She’s like some kinda weird solar battery. Give her lots of sun and she smiles, but put out a rain cloud and she’s liable to be in a mood.

“
I think it’s perfectly normal to be afraid after what you went through.”

I had to tell him that. This man should in no way be embarrassed about what he internally went through after all the times he risked his life for others. It falls on deaf ears however, he simply continues on with the tale and it isn’t long before he has me captivated.

I fell asleep thinking about how wrong she was to be worried about me ever endangering myself again. My time was done. Thanks for the fame. Thanks for the good times. I’ll leave you with the bill, but my ass is going home.

I’m guessing it was around two in the morning when I woke up. To this day I have no idea what woke me up, I certainly never felt Skie leave the bed. Something just didn’t feel right. Merrick was still asleep next to me, I could hear her snoring.

Once Skie falls asleep, nothing ever really gets her out of bed until morning, so I went to go see if she was alright. She wasn’t in the bathroom, so I went upstairs to see if she wandered over to the fridge for a late night snack.

She wasn’t upstairs, but across the room, under the light of a soft lamp was a young man sitting in my father’s lazy boy. He was rather wet, so I took it that he had recently just come out of the rain. He had long, tangled black hair that fell to his shoulders. He wore dirty jeans and black combat boots. He had no shirt on.

I knew who he was of course. At least I had an educated guess. I just didn’t know what the hell he was doing in our living room reading one of my books.

He finally found me worthy of attention and glanced over at me.

“I realize this must be rather odd meeting me like this,” said the young man. He couldn’t have been over twenty. “I just really felt it important that we meet and I noticed that you weren’t coming back to El Paso, so I came to you. My name is Max.”

I was right about who he was, but I wasn’t really patting myself on the back. I was staring at his face, or actually the left side of his face, around his jaw. There was no skin. His cheek had been torn off and drool was occasionally dripping down to his chest. It was pretty disgusting.

“Hi Max. Have you by any chance seen my wife?” I asked.

“She’s safe. I can’t exactly tell you where, but I can tell you where she’s going to be. All you have to do is come and get her.”

“Max… I’d rather rip you into pieces then play games.”

“That’s the spirit,” he said. “I was hoping you wouldn’t disappoint me. You know I’ve seen another Guardian once…a long time ago. It was in France. Man that guy could fight. It took me about a half an hour to convince him to die.”

“What do you want?” I asked. Because to be perfectly honest with you, I had no idea what this freak was after.

“I want to fight you. I want to kill you and I want major Crass to know it was me,” said Max. “My boys are currently paying him a visit in order to cover that last part by the way.”

“Yeah great, so if I fight you, I’ll get my wife back unharmed?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Let’s get it over with then.” I said with a snarl in my voice. My adrenaline was pumping overtime. I was prepared to rip this man into pieces for involving my wife into whatever problem he had with me.

“Not yet,” said Max as I took a few steps over to him. “If I killed you now, everyone would think I gave you a great big sucker punch. I certainly don’t want that. I want to kill you fair and square.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“Revenge,” he answered. “That idiot Crass put me out to pasture, now I’m going to show him what a mistake that was. The second I turned bad, I knew another Guardian would be chosen and I’d heard Miriam mention that he was more than likely going to come from El Paso. But I can’t tell you how difficult it was to cause an outbreak. I mean, once it all got going, all I had to do was sit back and watch, but getting that fucking gypsy off that island was a major pain in the ass. We had to kill a few of those little soldier boys in order to pull that one off.”

“You did all this to get even with Crass?” I asked. I sincerely doubt I kept the astonishment out of my voice.

“Of course I did. I’ve been fighting evil since Nam. All of a sudden Mr. Hardin decides to retire and a few months later Crass dismantles my entire team. I had a purpose. I had a cause. I had power. Crass left me with nothing.”

I couldn’t believe that this guy actually enjoyed being a Guardian.

“I’ll kill you just to prove that help no longer exists, but I started the outbreak just to show him how useless he was without me. Of course outbreaks happen all the time, but I needed a big one. One that hits hard and fast…there are only a few places you can go to find that kind of potential.”

“Well, you’re officially a psycho,” I said. “Congratulations on that.”

I rushed him. I’d learned all I needed to know. Now, my plan was to break one of his bones for every second that he refused to give me back my wife.

I can’t tell you how shocked I was when he answered my charge with a backhand that I barely even saw. I flew across the room and through the banister of the bottom floor stairway. I ended up somewhere around the middle of the stairway, flat on my back.

Max strolled over to the edge and peered down at me.

“Come back to El Paso little Guardian. Your wife will be waiting for you.”

With those words, Max pulled a pistol from the back of his jeans and shot me four times in the stomach. It hurt like hell. My blood was gushing out all over the stairway.

I looked back towards Max, but he was gone.

I only had a few moments before I bled to death. I fought through the pain and crawled down the remainder of the stairs. It took way too long; I was getting weaker by the second. I could hear the commotion from upstairs as everyone began to wake up.

I figured someone would come and help me, but then I heard the gunshots coming from outside the cabin. All my friends and family went outside to investigate. By the time they got back, I’d be dead if I didn’t make it to the bathroom.

So, I crawled. Merrick found me and began to paw at me as I slowly pushed myself forward. I didn’t have enough strength left in me to tell her to stop it.

When I finally reached the tub, I cranked on the water. I didn’t much care about the temperature. I just needed that well water. I mean, any water would do, but well water was probably the best. I almost couldn’t haul my broken body up over the lip of the claw footed tub, but I did it.

I felt the sting as the water hit the bullet holes. I felt the push as the bullets were expelled from my stomach. It hurt almost as bad as the gunshot itself. Slowly, my body knit itself back together.

It took about an hour.

Of course, everyone eventually found me. They just happened to find me in my boxers, lying in a tub full of blood.

One thing great about the way my body heals. When it’s over, it’s over. There isn’t any weakness or pain left. When the healing is done, I’m as good as new.

I heard from everyone, that our bodyguards were all dead. I informed them about what happened to Skie and my encounter with her abductor while I was healing.

Then I was finished.

I practically leapt out of the tub and dashed into my bedroom. I dressed quickly in jeans and a t-shirt, while yelling at everyone else to do the same.

I grabbed my tomahawk and stood in front of the mirror while everyone went about getting dressed. I studied the edge of its blade. I ran my finger along that edge and looked at myself in the mirror.

I was going back into hell.

Georgie, Kingsley, Dudley, Javie, Merrick and I were ready in less than five minutes. When we reached the front door, Miriam was waiting.

“I came as soon as I heard about the attack on Crass’s outpost,” she said. “What’s your plan?”

“I’m going back into El Paso after my wife.”

“I’ll take you to the outpost, so you can get some weapons,” she answered.

“Then move,” I told her.

A hug from my mom and dad, and we were driving through the nighttime streets at a furious pace. For an old lady, Miriam was a freaking mad person behind the wheel. She got us to the airport in less than five minutes. Of course, the airport isn’t far at all from the cabin.

There was a Blackhawk helicopter waiting there for us.

In another few moments we were airborne. I can’t even begin to describe the rage that was coursing through my veins as I waited to reach our destination. My anger was a palpable presence in the chopper. Nobody said a word.

Merrick was snuggled up close to me. Dudley was looking out the window. Kingsley was looking down at his hands, Georgie was cleaning a pistol (it wasn’t easy for him to get away from his wife by the way, but he refused to let her convince him to stay behind) and Javie was looking right at me. I could see the worry on his face.

“You really don’t have to come with us Javie,” I said to him.

“Yes I do,” he answered back. No jokes, no nothing.

We landed in the parking lot of a burnt down Motel 6. Soldiers were everywhere. Stretchers and bodies and ambulances were carrying the dead and wounded away from the destruction. I’m not sure that the word destruction can even accurately describe how bad this place was. Max’s boys really leveled the place.

“How many men does Max have?” I asked Miriam.

“He has four, just like you,” she answered. “Guardians always have four lieutenants, not counting animals.”

“Does he have any animals?”

“No, you’re the first Guardian in centuries to have an animal that’s been touched by the power.”

After that, we were off running towards the rear of the motel towards some bunkers that had been (from what I could tell) erected rather recently. We entered one of them and were greeted by about five soldiers with M16’s aimed at our chests.

“The Major would like a word with Jaxon,” said one of the soldiers.

Georgie and I were disarmed (we were the only ones with weapons) and then all of us were led to a small office building down the road. Apparently, Crass had taken over this place as well. There were soldiers and military vehicles everywhere.

As I was being led to Crass, I had that feeling you get when you know things are going to go bad. I was still keeping quiet, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. What happened now was going to be entirely up to Crass.

“
Obviously, you thought he was going to stop you from going into El Paso. What were you going to do if he did?
”

Well, at that point I had no idea. I was just going with the flow, but I can admit that I was seeing everything through a veil of red that began to cover my eyes when Skie was taken and was now turning about a hundred shades darker from being delayed.

I was going to rescue my wife and kill the bastard that took her…end of story.

Soldiers everywhere were staring at me. Some of them even gave me the ‘General salute’, but whenever a soldier did that, another soldier told them to stop. Things were not going to turn out well at all.

Everyone was told to stay in the waiting area, while I was led to Crass’s office. He was waiting there for me, with a smug smile on his face.

“Don’t bother sitting down,” said Crass. “You won’t be here that long.”

“I need to get back into El Paso,” I answered.

“You really screwed up this time,” said Crass. “You really should have stayed off my radar. I was after you from the beginning. I hate your type. You have no respect for those of us that have earned our power. You just come in swinging and defy us at every opportunity. I was actually hoping you’d die back there at the fence, but your bitch of a wife…well; let’s just say that I’ve now been relieved of this command. I been in charge of it for the last three years, I was about to become classified and now…”

“I need to get back into El Paso,” I repeated. I didn’t give a shit about his life, or what he thought of me at the moment, however…when he referred to Skie as a ‘bitch’, I almost snapped.

“That’s really too bad for you. You see, Mr. Hardin is on his way here. He’s been located and he’s going back on the active status. The old man is actually taking my job. However, in the meantime, I’m still holding down the fort so to speak. I’m still in charge boy and I’m shipping you out to one of our less reputable prisons. I have no doubts that Hardin will release you as soon as he finds out, but arranging for your release will eat up a whole lot of time, time that should have been spent on rescuing your wife.