Pedestals of Ash (43 page)

Hawk didn’t like that idea one bit. “Hold on a second. I saw this guy bust up an ambush and kick the shit out of 20 of our guys. He’s no amateur. He’s went silent to draw us out
,
and I don’t think it’s a good idea to do what he wants.”

Smokey looked at his friend with a slight expression of disappointment. “If we stay here, eventually the army will show up. I don’t know about you, but I’m never going back inside. Now, we can sit here until this asshole or the army gets us, or, we can go get him and be on our way with his gear. You saying that we have a better chance against the army?”

Hawk, as usual, couldn’t argue with Smokey’s logic. He nodded and moved to the next set of doors.

Bishop was about to give up. This was all taking too long
,
and he was worried about the man he had left behind. While the sounds of shooting had died down outside, it was getting dark quickly
,
and the thought of approaching the church after sunset didn’t seem wise.
He was standing up to leave when he heard the rustling of footsteps down the hall.
“
Gotcha!”
he thought.

Bishop shouldered his rifle and waited. Hawk’s voice sounded, “Bishop, you still here? I’m waiting. You spouted a lot of bullshit a bit ago…come on out and back it up.”

Bishop could tell the man’s voice was pretty far away. Each grade at the elementary school had two classrooms with the grades advancing down the hall. Bishop was hiding at the first grade rooms and had left the oxygen beside the third grade doors. He thought Hawk was in the hall around the fifth grade
classrooms
.

“I’m still here
,
Hawk. I’m sorry I interrupted you and your friend. Is he mad at me
,
too?”

Another voice rang out from about the same position as Hawk
’
s, “I’ve got no quarrel with you
,
friend. Why don’t we talk this over like gentlemen? These times are challenging enou
gh without everyone attacking
each other. Come on out and talk – you have my word we won’t shoot.”

Bishop almost laughed
out loud. He got control of him
self and replied. “I don’t know you, but I have a good measure of your friend
,
Hawk. He’s a chicken shit piece of scum. Was it your idea to have those breasts tattooed on his back?”

Bishop heard boots moving up the hallway. He leaned around the corner and fired at the oxygen canister.

The explosion wasn’t that large. There was very little structural damage done to the school or to Smokey
,
who was about
10
feet away
from the detonation
. The effects were similar to a flash bang grenade. Smokey was momentarily blind, deaf and stunned. A moment was all Bishop needed. Seeing Smokey’s outline in the flash of the blast, Bishop fired four rounds at the motionless criminal. Two loud grunts and the sound of a body hitting the floor told Bishop he hadn’t missed.

Hawk had been moving up the hallway parallel with Smokey, but was on the other side when the tank erupted. The effect
of the explosion on him was lessened by
distance
,
and he ducked into a doorway recess as Bishop’s shots rang out. His vision still hadn’t recovered from the flash, but he heard Smokey fall. Hawk shook his head to clear the cobwebs and decided he had better move. He stood and turned to retreat
,
when an odd noise reached his ears. He thought for a moment he was hearing bells or ringing. Then the sound changed to something rolling across the floor. Movement caught Hawk’s eye
,
and he looked down to see a small, shiny silver canister rolling down the hall toward his feet. His semi-stunned brain registered what it was and the words “
Oh s
hit
,” had almost made it to his throat when Bishop’s shot rang out.

Bishop saw Hawk’s body slammed into the wall by the explosion. He watched for a moment as the man was enveloped in flames from the oxygen and slowly slid down the wall to the floor. One of the two explosions had caught the scattered papers lying all over the place on fire. Bishop took a moment to verify Hawk’s body didn’t move. The smell of burning flesh reached his nose
,
and Bishop decided it was time to leave.

He exited the school the way he had entered and started moving back toward
the place
he had left the President of the United States.

Nick and Terri had hung around for se
veral minutes at the
p
resident
’
s
insist
ence
,
the
man
sure
Bishop would be coming back for him. Nick didn’t like being stationary in such an exposed l
ocation. There were still indiscriminate echoes
of
gunshots
ringing all over Alpha
,
and he wanted to get back inside of the church compound as soon as possible. Eventually, Nick convinced
Terri that with the approaching dusk, the group needed to make its way back to the compound for safety’s sake. Besides,
Bishop could make his way to the
church on his own
.

Sending a few men ahead to scout, a short column of the church’s men slowly started making their way toward the compound. The park was too open to cross, so Nick chose a route that would take them around it and provide more cover. Terri stood with the president
, scanning the area
one last time
,
hoping
to
see Bishop. She and the chief executive eventually followed the column, last in line.

Bishop worked his way toward the Victorian home where he had left the president.
In the fading light, he spotted a group of men moving on the opposite side of the park and was pretty sure one of them
was the chief executive
.
“Shit,” he thought, “I played around with Hawk too long.” The fact that the men were moving toward the church allowed him to relax a little
,
but
in the fading light
he couldn’t be sure
he had seen the president or if
the right side had
found his charge. Bishop entered the house and found it vacant.
He moved out quickly, thinking to catch up with the men he had seen earlier.  

It took Bishop a few blocks, but he finally saw people moving in front of him. As he closed the gap, he became aware that one of the people moving up ahead was a woman. His initial thought was that Deacon Brown had joined her men in whatever they were doing outside of the compound. As he moved closer, the female’s movement became more familiar to him
,
and he realized it was Terri.

Bishop started to call out to her, but stopped. His voice would give away his position to anyone nearby
,
and there was still a lot of craziness in the streets of Alpha. He decided to
venture
closer before announcing himself. He wanted to see the look on his wife’s face anyway.

Bishop was abou
t 20 feet behind Terri and the p
resident
,
when movement to his right caught his eye. There, in the
fading
light of dusk was a man with an AK47.

Smokey had never been shot before. In addition to his left arm being burned by the fire, he had taken a bullet to the shoulder and another to the thigh. The smell of Hawk’s burning body and the smoke from the
burning papers had given him
a
surge of adrenaline that prompted
him to get up and out of the school. His mind was clogged with emotions of anger and revenge. Hawk had been a good man and close friend. They had had a good thing going in Alpha before this guy Bishop and that bitch at the church had fucked it all up. Smokey knew that without serious medical care, he was done. The chance of infection from two bullet wounds and some bad b
urns was high. The chance of his
dying in the desert without food or water was even higher.

The realization that he was out of options made his mind snap. Smokey transformed from a reasoning, sentient human being to a biological machine programed for a single purpose – revenge. He ignored the pain spreading throughout his body and moved toward the church compound where he sensed the target of his wrath would go. He didn’t even notice the blood filling his boot or the skin starting to peel from his burned arm. He could only think of killing Bishop and Deacon Brown.

Smokey managed to cross the park at a reasonable pace. He
recognized
the same group of people as Bishop and started moving to intercept them. Despite his injuries, he closed the gap because he wasn’t worried about being exposed. He simply wanted to kill those responsible for his failure. The dying man was hiding behind the hulk of a burned out car as Nick’s men crossed a street just a few feet away. He was watching each face, looking for either Deacon Brown or Bishop. A woman’s voice, speaking in low tones gave him one final surge of energy. He
rose
up, sweeping his rifle in a wide arch and began pulling the trigger.

Bishop was moving, but
the world
seemed to be going in slow motion. He was trying to command his legs,
throat,
and arms all at once
,
and nothing was working fast enough. The warning trying to rea
ch his throat wasn’t going to be heard
in time. His arms couldn’t bring up his rifle fast enough. The only thing that was responding to the desperate commands being issued by his brain was his legs. Bishop’s focus was split between Terri and the man with the rifle. His wife was walking beside the president, talking in a low voice while looking up at the taller man. The guy with the rifle was looking right at her, swinging the weapon around.

Bishop sensed
,
more than felt
,
his foot land
on
the second s
tride
. His muscles strained while his heart pumped loudly in his ears. His right foot landed at the same time he detected the shooter
’
s arm muscles flexing his trigger finger. He could see the
index
finger start to pull back. Bishop’s mind made a calculation. He could save either the president or Terri, not both. Bishop’s left foot hit the ground
,
and he strained with every ounce of power he could muster.
His boot rocked from heel to toe, and he launched himself into a full forward dive.
He had just become airborne when the AK barked its deadly
blast
.

The round snapped the air behind Terri’s head and hit the wall of the building beside her. So close and so loud was the noise, she froze in mid-stride. The second shot was igniting in the Russian weapon’s chamber when Bishop’s arms extended around his wife’s shoulders. He was practically flying horizontally through the air when he grabbed
Terri
, rolling to his side so as not to land on top of her. The second AK bullet grazed Bishop’s side right above the hip and slammed into the President of the United States. Terri and Bishop were just striking the ground when the third shot hit the older man in the chest.

Bishop and Terri hit the pavement hard
,
and before the momentum had bled off, Bishop was trying to roll on top of the stunned woman to protect her. His head turned to look at the threat
,
and he watch
ed,
fascinated
,
as
the man’s body jerked
spastically like he was being hit with a surge of electric current. The sound of multiple rifle shots reached Bishop’s
ears,
as did the screaming of several people
,
including his wife. The shooter’s rifle pointed skyward
,
as clouds of red mist appeared in the air around his body.
The AK never fired again, and its owner fell face forward onto the sidewalk
, the rifle adding a weak rattling aftermath as it bounced free of the dead man’s hand
.