She actually laughed before telling him off. “You pull that trigger and the sound will be for all to hear.”
“Least Alice will be safe.” There was sense to his thinking. He'd have a full-on shit storm to clean up but there were circumstances where he might get away with it lightly.
A third voice joined in, coming from the dark depths of the van. A figure came through the gloom. Harry had seen the photographs to know it was Noolan, older, with grey about his head, but still that wild-eyed predator who made up his own religion so that he could delve into perversion after perversion. “I think you need to put the gun down.”
“That ain't gonna happen,” promised Harry, training his gun slowly over to Noolan but ready to swing it back and let loose its wrath the moment that Mary decided to try and cut away at him some more.
Harry saw that Noolan was armed as well, the murder weapon that had killed the driver, still sporting its silencer. Harry knew that if Noolan was fast enough he could drive a bullet into him and fell him and no one would be any the wiser. Noolan smiled watching that realisation sprout like pox over Harry's face. Noolan stooped at the lip of the van and stepped down, keeping his gun on Harry at all times. “You served your purpose and delivered our errant Alice back into our fold.”
Harry looked to the mother, not fathoming how she could subject her daughter to more of the man's attacks. It seemed as though she understood his unspoken question. “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
“But she's your daughter?” Harry was incredulous, she had a knife levelled at him and Noolan had the gun.
Noolan added somberly, “As she is of my flesh and blood also.”
“What?”
Mary grinned as though inside she was beaming. “The Lord gave me his seed and blessed me with a child.” Then her face slipped its fresh serenity. “A child who grew up to be ungrateful and a child that destroyed our world with blasphemy.”
“And now that Father is going to take the ungrateful daughter to task.”
Harry raised the gun higher, deciding that even if it meant getting shot or put in prison for wiping these two abominations off the face of the earth then that was a price worth paying.
Noolan grinned. “I can see it in his eyes, he wants to kill us.”
Mary added her grin to the visual tune of their insanity and said, “Want me to show him how strong our beliefs are?”
“He needs a lesson.”
Mary moved forward, making stabbing gestures in the air. Harry judged she had the best part of two steps before she would be in striking difference. He proved to himself once again that gunshots carried no melody and fired a round into her thigh. It dropped her, she rolled on the ground, the knife discarded as she howled in a mixture of anger and pain. Noolan didn't hesitate and fired two quick rounds. One hit Harry right where he'd been stabbed and had never felt this dizzying echelon of pain. The second bullet buried itself into his side. He joined Mary on the ground, rolling over to be on his good side and fired off a shot that put out the rear brake light in the van. He decided not to try again in case he accidentally put a slug into Alice; he could see her crumpled body bound and unconscious in the back. Noolan closed one eye and trained a better aim. Harry knew he was lining him up for a head shot and his life was now measured in moments, but he was no coward and kept his eyes open and looking at his murderer. Harry was glad to have kept his eyes open. He looked to Noolan's left. Noolan couldn't help but be intrigued at what the condemned man saw. Noolan cast a glance. It was only a quick gesture; there was nothing that Harry could've done in that heartbeat to turn this crazy scene around. Noolan offered him another chance when he had to take a second look, one a bit longer this time. “You're dead! I killed you.”
The driver was stone-faced. Harry thought the man was going to explode with the wroth that was clearly running riot through his every fibre. Noolan turned the gun away from Harry and pointed it at the driver. “I killed you once, I can kill you again!” Noolan started yanking on the trigger aiming to empty the weapon as quickly as possible. The driver was quick with his gun and fired some of his own. Harry took this chance and put a couple into Noolan's back whilst the driver sent one into Noolan's face that took away most of the left side. Noolan collapsed to the floor; everything that was wet within him was flowing out, from piss, to blood, to the bile in his perforated gut. Mary was crawling snake-like on her belly towards her fallen lover; the noises she made were pitiful. The driver walked over, no mercy in his eyes as he double-tapped her. Harry wouldn't have executed her like that but he was glad of the quiet. The driver moved to him. “Think we made enough noise to know we're not gonna be able to sneak away from this.”
Harry made it to his knees. “Help me.” The driver helped Harry to stand. He allowed the driver to guide him over to the van. Things were getting dark inside his mind. He wanted to know that the girl was alive, or all of this had been for nothing. No, not quite nothing: Hell had acquired two more beasts in the sable hours of the morning. Harry could see the slow rise and fall of Alice's chest, she was alive, that was the main thing. He turned; there was the sound of a commotion. He looked to the driver. “Go on, get lost, you've done your part.”
“It's a big mess.”
“It's a fucker of a big mess. Gimme your gun.”
The driver wiped his prints off it and passed it over. Harry smeared it with his own blood and put it in his pocket. “Do me one favour, yeah?”
“What?”
“Put the radio on in the van, I wanna hear some music.”
The driver nodded, climbed up, stepped over Alice, reached through and turned the radio on before nodding to Harry and disappearing between the cars. Harry closed his eyes and listened to the music, ignoring the shouts as workers came to investigate the volley of small explosions that had broken up the normality of the twilight sailing, listening to the music until either it was the song or himself that faded out.
BIO:
Lee Hughes would never describe himself as a ‘literary god’ or a ‘wordsmith extraordinaire’, because he is far too humble to do that. However, he is much admired as a teller of wild tales in mainly the noir and horror genres, and has a legion of fans. He has been widely published in webzines, anthologies and collections, and also completed a stint as horror editor at the award winning webzine ‘Thrillers, Killers ‘N’ Chillers’. Lee is currently working on his next novel, and can be found at http://www.LeehughesWrites.blogspot.com
BONUS TALE
SUITED AND BOOTED by Matt Hilton
2008, Iran/Pakistan Border
A breeze plucked dust from the desert; throwing grit into the eyes of the man lying prone in a ditch he’d dug with his bare hands. He’d concealed himself beneath a camouflaged tarpaulin alongside his HALO jump gear and parachute, leaving only room through which to peer out. Dirk Ramm, a Specialized Skills Officer of the CIA Special Operations Group, squinted against the sandblasting, crunching down on a grain that caught between his teeth. He tasted silicone. He pushed the grit from his mouth with the tip of his tongue. It would have been simpler to spit it out, but he daren’t make a sound.