The McClane Apocalypse Book 4 (45 page)

“Thank God, Simon,” she
frets as two tears escape her eyes.
“We’re not doing so good.”

“Everything’s going to be
ok now,
honey,
” he says and touches her cheek with the back of his
hand.

His hand has gun powder residue on it
that matches the black paint mixed in with green covering most of
his handsome face.

“They have Paige!” she says
in
a low
voice.

“I know,” he grinds out
fiercely.

John motions for Simon to
move out. The women all know the same military hand signals as the
men. Sometimes the women will go on supply runs with the men but
never on a mission for blood. These
signals
are important for them to
understand so that nobody makes a mistake or gets hurt during times
like this one. Except that they’ve never been through anything this
dangerous together.

Simon tugs her arm, and she
goes with them. They sprint as quickly as they can in the dark.
They climb up the side of the gravel driveway toward the top
grazing pasture. The men both have night vision goggles on, but
she’s literally in the dark. She stumbles once over a rock or a
divot, but Simon grasps her arm before she takes a fall. They climb
through the barbed-wire fence near the steep driveway, and Sam’s
jacket catches on a steel
barb
. Simon frees her quickly enough.
They walk slightly downward until they are at the crest of a small
hill. Simon tugs her arm gently until she kneels. They end up on
the cold, wet grass on their stomachs. All three of them have a
rifle with a scope. Hers is outfitted with one that enables her to
see in the dark, but she can’t remember what it’s
called.

“Sam, you see those men by the front
porch?” John asks in a rush of breath.

“Yes, sir,” she answers in
a barely audible whisper. Her heart is racing again from the run up
the hill and the high levels of adrenaline pumping through her
system
...
and mind-numbing fear.

“Try to take out one or two, honey,”
he tells her.

“Yes, sir,” she squeaks to John. If
there was ever a time that she was going to feel pressure being a
part of the McClane family, it’s going to be right here, right now.
They need her to be fast and accurate. They need her to help kill
their enemies. They all need each other if they’re going to make it
out of this alive. Her mind begins conjuring up the horrible,
possible outcome of losing this fight.

Simon butts in to explain,
“Derek and Kelly are down behind the cattle barn. Kelly’s in
position
with
Reagan. They’ll take out the guys over there. He’s probably already
got a few taken care of.”

She can breathe a little
easier knowing that those two members of her family are still alive
and unharmed. She hadn’t heard shooting over there, so she is left
to assume that Derek and Kelly have killed them in an alternative
way. She doesn’t want to dwell on that. Her oldest adopted brothers
are too kind and sweet and gentle for her
to even ponder
them being
cold-blooded killers. When the men go on assault missions together,
they never discuss what happened out in the field when they get
home.
Never
.

John says into his mouthpiece, “In
position.”

She knows the other men in their
family will echo him when they are ready. She knows they are
somewhere on this farm, moving around like stealthy thieves of the
night. Cory is the most stealthy of them all, thus the nickname
Death Stalker. But Simon is the deadliest, most accurate shot,
other than John.

“Just
breathe,
Sam. Steady now,”
John says to her softly.

“Yes, sir,” she answers.

“The Reynolds brothers will get the
ones behind the truck,” John says as he rises to one
knee.

“Where are you going?” she cries out
with urgency.

“Got this?” John asks of Simon in a
calm voice, ignoring her question.

“Yeah, I’ve got this. Go on,” Simon
says firmly.

“Slow breaths, little
brother,” he says and places a hand
on
Simon’s shoulder. “Slow breath. I’ve
got your
back-up
. Lead us off, Professor.”

And with that, John jogs
away, going down the hill toward the back of the house until she
cannot see him anymore because the light from the spotlights don’t
reach there. She
worries for
him. He’s like her big brother. All three of the
Rangers are like her protective, older brothers; Cory,
too.

Down the hill in the
light-flooded side yard, the man still holds Paige’s body somewhat
upright while yelling and promising false security in exchange for
their complete surrender. Sam wonders if Simon’s
pretty
sister has
a concussion from the blow from that jerk’s gun. She is no longer
fighting him. Sam had seen the whole thing go down but hadn’t been
able to do anything to help her. That’s why she’d
been
coming around
the equipment shed. She was planning on sneaking up
behind
them so
that she could at least try to get off a shot. Surrender is not an
option for them. They can’t risk the children and women being
harmed, taken captive, raped or killed
for
just one person. It was just
the cold hard truth of the life in which they all live. The
children have to come first. They are the future, the survival of
their country and this family. Sam could never sit back and watch
what happened to her at the hands of the visitors, happen to one of
the McClane children. It would break her heart. She’s willing to
give her life
before
watching that happen.

“Ready?” Simon asks calmly.

“Yes, Simon,” she responds with full
faith in him.

He glances at her in the
dark, the tension and
strain
so readable on his handsome face. His blue eyes
resemble icy, glacial shards in the moonlight. The dark black paint
under them makes him appear more menacing than she knows he is.
Tonight, however, like so many nights, he’s become someone he
doesn’t like having to be. She knows he’s killed people tonight.
She’s seen this intense look in him many times before. It never
sits well on his conscious. He’s just not like Cory or John. He
wrestles with this side of him that he must tap into at
times.

“I’m ready. I trust you,” she tells
him with more steel in her voice than she feels at the moment.
Although she does trust him implicitly, it doesn’t stop her fear
from rising like a dark bile from the pit of her
stomach.

“Just relax,” he whispers to her as he
pulls down his goggles again.

Sam isn’t sure if he’s
actually talking to her or to himself. She has no doubts that he is
positioned
on this hill
to take out the man who has his sister. He
wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s going to be
a tough
shot. He’s
more than capable of doing it. She’s seen him make
tougher
ones when
they go hunting wild game together. Mostly she
goes
as his spotter and
doesn’t actually shoot the animals. It feels too unkind because
she’d rather be drawing them than shooting and then gutting them.
Tonight they are hunting different animals, but animals
nonetheless.

She listens a few seconds as he does
his weird breathing. It sounds the same as the breathing method
that Reagan does when she’s doing her yoga. She knows Simon is
slowing his breathing in order to steady his shot.

A moment later he squeezes
the trigger and just clips the man
in
the shoulder who is dragging his
sister around. Then shots come from all directions
on
the farm.
Presumably John finishes off Simon’s victim by administering an
injection of lead to the man’s skull who had held Paige and abused
her. This second kill shot comes from the area where John
had
sprinted,
and he’d
told
Simon that he’d back him up. He’s always been a
man of his word.

Simon’s sister slumps to
the ground lifelessly and doesn’t try to rise and run away from the
dangers happening all around her or the man who had her and
now
lies
dead near her. At least she’s not
in danger of being
shot
accidentally
since
she’s on the ground.

The
bad
men return their fire with an
angry vengeance because the McClanes have just taken out their
number two in charge. They are quickly running out of a chain of
command. Nobody else seems excited to take on the newly-vacated
position, either. Sam breathes steadily, draws in a deep breath,
lets it half out and squeezes the trigger without jerking it. Her
intended target goes down, but he’s not dead. Simon shoots him
again. Movement just to the right of her felled opponent catches
her attention. She spies Kelly through her scope. He’s killing a
man. He’s not using a gun. Instead of dwelling on that macabre
scene, she moves on. Swinging her rifle
in
a controlled, short movement to
the left, not worrying about her huge, older adopted brother, Sam
spies more
bad
men. She fires at one but misses. Simon covers her miss and
shoots the man, finishing the demon off.

Some of the invaders jump
into a truck, but the Reynolds brothers close in on them and do
what
needs to be
done
. Derek and Reagan have also moved
forward. She sees them sprinting toward the med shed. Men must’ve
moved toward it. It is the second most important place to secure on
the farm. The family’s arsenal is in there along with their medical
supplies.

Simon leaps to his
feet,
drags her
along and together they run as carefully as they can manage toward
the scene of bedlam below them. Other than sporadic lighting from
the moon, it is pitch dark where they are and she slides on the
gravel and falls all the way down, down a short incline in the
driveway before Simon can catch her. They don’t maintain much of
the driveway anymore since nobody really uses it other than for
moving the cattle and horses from pasture to pasture. The drive is
deeply rutted from the winter months of snow, melting snow, and ice
running downhill and causing uneven ruts and gullies. The rocks and
gravel sting and bite into her palms. Her face skids on the
fine
, pea gravel
mixed in with the bigger base rocks. Simon literally
skids
to a halt in
front of her.

“Sam!” he calls in
surprise.

“I
’m fine,
” she tells him as he helps
her awkwardly to her feet again. “Just go, Simon! Go!”

He looks hesitant but nods
with great reluctance before turning away. He keeps running toward
their farm. She watches in awe as he pauses a moment to take aim
and shoot out the back window of another truck that is trying to
escape. It was quite a long range shot, but he’d
made
it. Then he
takes out their back tire before jogging forward into the fray
again. Sam knows he could care less about these men but is only
trying to get to his beloved sister. She can’t even imagine what he
must be thinking right now looking at Paige’s
prone
, unmoving body lying on
the grass. Sam prays she is not dead. She asks Grams to watch over
Simon’s sister.

Sam pushes on, moving at a
slower pace down the hill until she comes to the front of the
equipment shed where she hides in the darkened shadows. The men in
the family are moving at an all-out military assault pace and don’t
seem to need her help. She knows to stay out of their way in a
situation like this. Unfortunately, one truck does manage to get
away with the flurry of commotion and confusion. Dust is flying,
bullets are flying faster, and the shouting of the
evil
men to one
another is near deafening. She’s not sure how many men were able to
get into that truck, but she is very sure that the Rangers will not
stand for it. If they have to hunt those men to the ends of the
earth, their days are still numbered.

She creeps closer and hears Kelly call
out for a recon of the area. Some of those jerks could be hiding in
their barns and buildings or trying to escape on foot. She waits
impatiently behind some bushes.

Hearing John, Derek, and
then Kelly calling out “clear” or “all clear” a few minutes later,
lets Sam know that she’s safe to come out of her secure hiding
place. Kelly is dragging a captured man into the light. Chet
Reynolds walks over to him and kicks the guy in the stomach as if
he has some personal vendetta against him. Grandpa and Derek begin
filling buckets of water and using the garden hose near the back of
the house to put out the porch fire. Kelly joins them, leaving Chet
to watch their hostage. It doesn’t take them long to get the fire
put out, but it leaves a charred, smoking mess and
half
of the grand
back porch in ruin.