Chapter 25
Riptide
With Ricochet heading back to guard Hellfire I could turn my attention back to Ethan.
The truck was still where it’d crashed. I could see the headlights shining against the cactus.
I was ready to take off after the men who’d bailed from it, but the gunfire behind me forced me to put Ethan aside for a minute.
I ran back towards the armory, moving through a parallel alley for cover. I found Lockout not far from where I had left him. “What’s our status?” I asked him, taking a knee next to him.
He was kneeling at the corner of a house, using the wall for cover but giving him a clear view of the armory. “They’ve dug in around the building. They have more ammo than we do, they’re ready for a standoff.” He gave me a grim look. “Are all the civilians out?”
“There are a few wives who refused to leave. I don’t know where they are, but I’m sure their husbands have them hiding somewhere out in the desert.” At least that’s what I wanted to hope.
“If they’re not waitin’ to put a bullet in us,” Hush said with a grim look on his face.
“Hush, Toxic, go search the surrounding homes. I don’t want to be responsible for killing women who are just trying to hide, but be careful. Who knows how involved they are.”
“There are only a handful.” I gave them directions to the houses the women lived in.
If they were hiding anywhere inside the village it would be in their homes.
It’d nearly fucking killed me to leave them behind.
I’d told Sloane that I’d just drag them out of here.
Force them to leave with us when the time came.
She’d only shaken her head, sadness in her eyes.
Forcing them would give our plan away. It’d come down to being unable to sacrifice them all for the sake of a few.
Butcher had warned us about this. We came here prepared to execute all the fanatics. We hadn’t been fully prepared to deal with having women and children turning against us as well as the men.
He told us how this could become another Waco or Jonestown. Jonestown would have been preferable. They took themselves out. Lockout needed to be sure that there were no hostages before he did the next part.
“Ethan is still out in the desert. I have to go after him before he escapes. There’s no one left in there,” I pointed to the armory, “no one left to be saved anyway.”
I waited until Toxic and Hush came back. There wasn’t time to spare, but I wasn’t going to leave Lockout down two men. Our brothers came around the corner and I could tell by the grim looks on their faces it wasn’t good news. “Did you find them?”
“Yeah, we searched all the homes,” Hush responded, “but they were all in one.”
“The fuckers murdered them,” Toxic spat out. “They stayed and were loyal and for that they got a bullet between the eyes.”
My heart dropped. I knew somehow I was going to have to tell Sloane what had happened.
It would break her heart, but she deserved the truth.
She’d tried to convince more than a few of those women to come with us and they’d refused.
They hadn’t given us up, though, and they could have.
They’d given everyone else a chance to run.
For that I’d always be grateful to them.
“I have to go,” I told them. “Ethan’s not getting away with this.” There was no doubt in my mind he’d given that order.
Lockout nodded, fired a few shots towards the armory, then sprinted over to Butcher. I didn’t have time to see this through. Lock and the others would handle it. That’s why they were here. To watch my back and help take care of shit when I couldn’t be in two places at once.
I was already jogging down the alley toward Ethan’s truck.
I’d only made it just outside the perimeter fence when I heard the screams. The area in front of me lit up nearly as bright as day.
I glanced over my shoulder to see twenty foot flames erupting out of the armory.
Smaller, human sized flames ran out the sides.
I don’t know how Butcher did it, I would ask later, but I knew this was his and Toxic’s handiwork.
Toxic was a bit of a fire bug and Butcher was an expert in demolition.
Explosions started as the flames reached the ammunition.
Soon the whole village would burn to the ground. We were so close to the end.
Continuing up to the truck, I kept a close eye on my surroundings.
Who knew where these fuckers were and I didn’t want to get ambushed.
As expected, the truck was empty. I circled around it looking for signs of which way they went.
I looked out to the desert, I could see the glow from the city lights out in the distance.
It was miles away, tens of miles, but the only thing to navigate off of.
It also happened to be the same direction as where we had stashed our vehicles.
Damn. I hadn’t thought about that. We parked so that we would have the quickest route out of here.
It never occurred to me that if anyone escaped, they would head that way, using the city lights to navigate off of.
All other directions were pitch black and led further into the desert.
Right now it was an obvious mistake, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I took off running toward our vehicles.
Fuck! I was kicking myself the whole way.
He didn’t need to know where we were parked.
Just by heading toward the lights he would likely hear or intercept the women.
Ethan and Jacob were probably still armed.
I didn’t see any weapons in the truck. Now that the village was on fire, who knew what kind of a state Ethan was in.
I skidded to a stop and held my breath. I was already panting but I needed to hear clearly. My chest ached from all the running. Who knew a couple months of not working out religiously would cause me to be so out of shape?
Nighttime in the desert was excellent for carrying sound. I could hear feet shuffling and the kicking of rocks. I took off in that direction. My lungs burned, but I forced my body to keep moving. Nothing was going to stop me from finishing this.
My imagination was threatening to run wild.
I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and kept running.
I stopped again, listening. There was more shuffling and female voices.
Scared voices. My feet were moving before my brain could even send the command.
I was running, breakneck, through the desert now.
I had to get to Ethan and Jacob before they got to the women and children. Before they got to Sloane.
Sharp stabbing pains jabbed at my shins as I plowed straight through every type of cactus out here.
I ignored the feeling of death by a thousand pin pricks, all that mattered was getting to those voices.
I tried to reassure myself, I told her to stay with the group, stay with Smokehouse and Static.
There was no way she was close enough for Ethan to get her.
The group should be nearly to the vehicles by now.
I should be able to get to Ethan before he got to her.
But I knew my wife. Fear and pride pierced my heart. If anyone had wandered off from the group, Sloane would be there to find them. There was no way she would leave her people behind. I loved her for that, though right now it was the one trait of hers that filled me with the most fear.
I prayed as I ran that I was wrong, but I knew what I was about to run into.
The moon was starting to crest over the mountains, illuminating my path.
It was a small break, but at least someone was looking out for me.
I picked up my pace. I could hear the voices over my breathing and stomping. They were scared. Ethan was near.
I was going so fast I almost collided with the girls. I grasped one by the shoulders, both to slow myself down and to keep her from bolting. “It’s me, it's Derek,” I huffed before she had a chance to scream.
Tilly, bless her, got right to the point.
Mostly. “He has Miss Sloane. We were looking for Abigail. Ethan had her and was going to take her, and us, and then Sister Sloane was there and she told Ethan to take her instead and to let us go and-” She broke off on a sob as Janice, Audrey, and Abigail circled around, offering comfort.
Tilly was doing her best, but I just didn’t have time for all the details. I squeezed gently on her shoulders, making her pause. As gently but urgently as I could I asked “Where are they?”
Tilly opened her mouth and froze, stopping herself from rambling. “That way.” She pointed towards the lights in the distance.
“Thank you.” I turned toward the mountains to the east, where our vehicles were parked. “Do you see that peak there?” I asked, pointing.
“Yes,” Audrey was the one who answered this time.
“That's where the group is. Walk toward that peak, until you hit the road, then take a right and follow it. You’ll find the vehicles and the group. Stay together and go.” I was sending them a bit out of the way, but that was so that they wouldn’t accidentally run into Ethan and Jacob again.
It was too dangerous, so instead I was sending them east, then south, versus straight south on the line Ethan had gone.
That was the way I was going, though. I took off running south, hoping to catch up with the monsters who had my wife.
Stabbing pain coursed through my side, but I didn’t slow down.
I didn’t try to assess the situation. I leaned into my run and went full bore.
Nothing was going to keep me from getting to Sloane in time.
She was mine and if either man thought they’d have a chance to hurt her, they’d find out they were dead wrong.