Chương 145

Someone struck the door again.

"Open up." Jory moved toward the door. Louis caught him by the shoulder and pulled him back hard enough to make him stumble. Mina screamed. Maeve crouched beside the kitchen doorway and raised her pistol. The handle turned from outside. Louis raised the M1911 and fired through the door. The first shot went through the wood at chest height, and he fired a second shot immediately. Something heavy hit the porch and fell against the door. A man screamed outside.

Jory opened his mouth and screamed in a thin voice, and Mina crawled backward under the table. Gunfire broke out outside. Several rifles fired from the trees, some in three-round bursts and others in single shots. Someone shouted. A crossbow bolt broke through the window and buried itself in the wall beside Louis's head. Maeve grabbed Jory by the back of his shirt and shoved him to the floor beside the stove.

"Stay down, you little freak." Mina stayed under the table with both hands over her ears. Jory kept screaming for Ma. Louis could barely hear the movement outside over Jory's screams. Through the gap in the curtain, he saw people move through the ATV headlights. Several raised their rifles while another dragged the man away from the door. Louis fired through the wall where he had seen one of them pass. The scream outside stopped.

Maeve moved past him and fired through the splintered wood around Louis's bullet holes.

"Back door."

"What?"

"They'll have the back too." Louis turned toward the kitchen. A figure moved past the small rear window. Maeve fired twice through the window, shattering the glass. The figure struck the outside wall and dropped below the window. Mina shrieked again.

"Louis!" Angelique shouted from outside.

"Move!" He grabbed Maeve by the sleeve and pulled her away from the window. A shotgun blast struck the front door and sent splinters across the room. The blast knocked the lamp over, and it went out. The room went dark except for the ATV headlights outside, brief muzzle flashes, and the orange glow from the stove. Rifle fire continued from the trees. A woman screamed in the yard. Louis moved beside the side window and lifted the curtain with his free hand. A woman was crawling toward a rifle.

Shots came from the trees, and she collapsed before she reached it. Gladice emerged from the trees into the ATV headlights and fired as she advanced. One of the men reached an ATV at the edge of the yard. He threw himself onto the seat and started the engine. The engine revved, and the rear tires threw dirt behind it.

"Runner!" Savannah shouted. Gladice turned and fired. The driver slumped backward, and the ATV veered into the brush before stalling. Another engine started behind the house. Louis caught sight of another ATV passing between the trees. Its headlight was off, but he could make out its outline. A rider leaned low over the handlebars.

"Behind the house!" he shouted. Gladice turned her rifle toward it too late. Two single shots came from the trees, but the ATV disappeared down a narrow track behind the shed. The engine grew fainter in the woods.

"Fuck!" Gladice said. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. The gunfire stopped. Louis heard someone choking outside while Jory sobbed beside the stove and Mina gasped under the table. Gladice moved through one side of the yard and fired once into the head of each fallen person she passed. Savannah entered from the other side and did the same there. The others ran from the trees. Angelique reached the house first with her rifle raised.

She stopped in the doorway.

"Are you hurt?"

"No." Louis lowered his pistol. Cherish ran up behind Angelique with her rifle held in both hands. She stared at the bodies in the yard, her face white.

"Louis," she whispered. He went to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"It's okay."

"I think I shot one of them," she said. Her voice trembled.

"In the trees. I think I hit someone." Louis looked at her. Her hands were shaking. She lowered the rifle, and he holstered the M1911 before putting both arms around her.

"No. That one was mine," Angelique said before he could say anything.

"You didn't shoot anyone." Cherish looked at her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I am sure." Angelique looked away.

"Now, let's clear this house." Angelique looked past him at the children. Jory had stopped screaming, but he was still crying. Mina remained under the table, making small sounds.

"Take their weapons," Gladice shouted from the yard.

"Two rifles. One shotgun. One crossbow." Angelique looked toward the porch, then stepped outside. Cherish stayed beside Louis and looked toward the two bodies dragged from the ATVs. The bodies lay where the hunters had dropped them, their wrists and ankles tied and their faces covered with dirty cloth. She turned away.

"Hurry," Savannah called from the yard.

"One of them got away." Gladice came up the steps with her M16 slung over one shoulder and stopped when she saw Jory and Mina.

"Who the fuck are these two?"

"Kids." Maeve stood against the wall beside the stove, one hand pressed to her bruised ribs.

"The hunters' kids."

"Great." Gladice shook her head.

"Let me end their suffering."

"No." Maeve pushed herself away from the wall.

"We are not killing children."

"They are just as fucked up as the others," Gladice said.

"Trust me." Louis remembered that night at Barlow's lodge. He had lain awake beside Gladice, trying to picture the blue-eyed girl who had begged for her life. All he could imagine was the gunshot. He looked at Gladice.

"We are not killing them. Leave them here." Gladice glared at him.

"Fine. Hope they don't eat us tonight." Cherish turned away. Donya entered the house and knelt in front of Mina.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"Donya." Louis kept his voice low.

"No time." Donya hesitated, then stood and followed the others outside. Jory had crawled under the table beside Mina, and the two children clung to each other. Mina's lower lip trembled. Jory stared at the doorway.

"You killed Ma," he said. His voice was flat.

"She was going to kill us," Maeve said. Jory stared at Maeve for a moment, then turned to Louis.

"Will you kill us?"

"No," Louis said.

"We are leaving." Jory nodded once and kept watching Louis. Louis left the house with Maeve without looking back. Bodies lay among the ATVs, and blood darkened the dirt. Angelique had taken one of the captured rifles. She handed the M16 back to Maeve. Willa inspected the crossbow. Donya picked up the shotgun and held it awkwardly for a moment before slinging it over her shoulder by its cracked leather strap.

Near the porch, Savannah and Gladice stood with their rifles lowered, watching the track where the last ATV had disappeared.

"Take the rifle." Gladice held out the other captured rifle.

"I've checked the chamber." Louis took it and slung it over one shoulder.

"How long until more come?"

"Could be any minute." Savannah kept watching the track.

"We need to move."

"We can take the vehicles." Willa gestured to the ATVs.

"Get out faster."

"Which ones work?" Maeve asked. Gladice pointed to three ATVs in the yard, then toward the brush.

"Three of them here. There is another one over there. Might still run."

"Then we take four," Angelique said.

"Two on each. Keep close."

"What about the kids?" Donya asked.

"They are doomed anyway," Gladice said.

"Leave them."

"They are children," Donya said.

"We can't just leave them."

"We need to survive," Louis said.

"We can't and we won't save people who aren't us." Donya stared at him.

"We can't leave them to die."

"They won't die," Gladice said.

"They have meat now." She walked to the nearest ATV and swung a leg over the seat.

"Come on, Angel." Angelique got on behind her. Louis found the fourth ATV half-hidden in the brush. It lay on its side. He braced himself and rolled it upright, then checked the fuel gauge. It showed more than half a tank. He climbed on. Cherish climbed onto the seat behind him. The M16 on its sling knocked against Louis's back as she settled behind him.

"Hold tight," he said.

"I will." She wrapped her arms around his waist. She was shaking, and he could feel it through his jacket. He covered one of her hands with his for a moment.

"Don't let go."

"I won't." Maeve took the lead with Willa behind her. Gladice and Angelique followed, with Savannah and Donya next. Louis started the ATV, and the engine settled into a loud, uneven idle. Maeve turned her ATV toward the road to the northwest. Louis looked back once. The orange glow from the stove lit Jory and Mina in the doorway as they watched them leave. The house disappeared behind the trees as they reached the road.