It was a good plan.
There were only three of them.
“We all have one shot at this,” I stated. “One. If we each do our part, this should work.”
Spencer was armed, as was Nelly. Since I was deemed some sort of hand to hand combat Rambo because of Lenny, I had Peter’s pocket knife.
The plan was this. Spencer would take position, with his back flush, out of sight, against the exterior door, while Nelly and I made our way up the spiral stairs.
To get to the lower level, we had to use the exterior staircase. This meant sound. Feet on metal.
In order to pull it off we needed a distraction. We had two. One was Peter and the other was Joie.
I crouched down to be at her level. “If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to do it.”
“I can do this. I want to save Daddy.”
I couldn’t believe I was putting a child in danger. Nelly was convinced that her theory of non threatening sound would hold true.
After giving Joie a kiss and quick embrace, we left Peter and all quietly made our way down the walkway.
Once we made it to the top of the stairs, Spencer rushed into position and we signaled Joie to begin.
She stared vocally at first. Steadily singing a children’s song. We hurried down the exterior steps into the lower level.
Joie was loud.
She clicked her feet against the floor as she skipped and sang.
Nelly and I moved across the lower level and to the spiral staircase.
“Hold it. It’s just a kid,” I heard one of the men say.
We inched our way up the stairs.
“Oh, hey Daddy.” Joie said happily. “What are you doing? Why are you bleeding?”
Please, be careful, Joie, I thought and placed the ear piece to my radio in my ear, while hooking the radio to my belt.
“Come… come here baby, come here. Stand by Daddy.” Tony said.
We were nearly at the top.
“Get the kid.” Meagan stated.
“No!” Tony yelled. “It’s my child. She can stand by me.”
“I want to be by Daddy.”
Finally we had made it. Eyes over the edge, Nelly and I stayed low. I held up my finger to Nelly and mouthed the word, “One shot.”
She winked, took aim and pointed out. Her way of conveying, she was good.
I couldn’t see Spencer at all. I hoped he was good, too.
Joie stood by Tony.
“Where… where’s Anna?” Tony asked.
“Oh.” Joie put her finger to her mouth. “She’s with some man. He was kissing and hugging her, “Joie sang her words with devilish sarcasm. “I let them go. It was yucky. They love each other. Does that bother you Daddy? Are you mad?”
Tony closed his eyes.
Meagan, Birthmark man and the other man laughed.
I lifted the radio and whispered. “Now.”
Peter was on. After only a slight hesitation, the sprinkler system was set off and the water sprayed down.
All three captors exposed their weakness when their attention was drawn up in surprise to the spraying water.
I sprinted forward at the same time Spencer emerged from the door way in SWAT Team fashion. They were waiting on me. It had to be timed. We couldn’t take a chance on Baby John. I arrived at the man who held him. Everything moved so fast, I didn’t even have time to comprehend what all was happening. My pocket knife sank into the flank of the man holding Baby John at the same time that Nelly fired at Meagan.
Down went Meagan and the second shot was a single bullet fired at the forehead of Birthmark man.
The sprinklers stopped, but the floor was slippery and as the man struggled with the wound I had inflicted, I lost my footing and slipped to the floor. The blood from his wound spurted out and Melissa charged forth, grabbing Baby John before he slipped from the hands of his captor.
It was a plan that wasn’t thought out over a long period of time. We moved on an act of faith and acted on gut instinct and passion.
It could have gone terribly wrong. Thankfully, it didn’t.
Peter raced into the room, jumping with a victorious “Yes!”. He bounced up and down in enthusiasm, seemingly forgetting all the death that had occurred.
I raced over to Tony and using the bloody pocket knife, I cut the ropes from his wrist. He immediately grabbed on to Joie and me and brought us into him.
“Oh my God.” He kissed her then me. Back and forth, over and over. “I was so scared for you two. So scared.”
Tony was rattled, I couldn’t imagine what he felt.
“We’re fine” I told him.
“Lenny. Did he hurt you?” Tony asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “Thanks to your daughter, he didn’t have a chance.”
Tony looked curiously at Joie but then embraced her again in gratefulness.
“I’ll explain it to you later,” I told him.
It was as if Tony didn’t want to let either of us go, but he had to. Despite his tough exterior, Tony was injured.
He said something to the effect that it was over.
In a way he was right, it was over. The situation had ended.
I looked around at the carnage in the dining room, and at the mess that had become of our perfect, tidy, preplanned world.
Yes, the danger was over, but emotionally and physically, I knew the situation was far from over.
39 – CLEANING UP
The blood on the floors, the bodies, the water that soaked the kitchen, they are part of the clean up process, but so was something else.
The two children, Angel and Luke along with the eighteen month old girl were among remaining fire hall people.
The only adult survivor was Luke’s mother.
“Get rid of them all,” said Nelly.
“Nelly, come on,” Spencer said. “They’re kids.”
“I don’t care. Well, the baby can stay. The six year old boy and five year old girl danced around without a care in the world.” Nelly stated. “Our people were tied up, guns pointed at them, and they didn’t blink. Something is wrong with them. If they don’t turn now, they will later. They’ll be trouble.”
Spencer laughed in disbelief. “They are children. They stay.” He looked at me. “They stay.”
I glanced over to Peter. “What do you think?”
“I think we need to think about who is going to take care of them. Because obviously, the mother has to go. We can’t let her stay. Honestly, I’m on the fence about the kids.”
I found it hard to believe that rational people like Peter and Nelly were speaking like they were. We four were making the decisions, while Craig treated the wounds of our people. The decision of the children, not the mother. That was unanimously voted on.
But the kids….
I did see Nelly’s point. Prior to knowing Joie, I would have argued that there was no way the kids could have known what was happening. I thought back to how aloof Jackson was at that age. But Joie had been an intricate part of the rescue. She knew what had to be done and said.
If she understood. So did those kids.
But they were kids, and ignoring the ‘You’ll be sorry’ from Peter, I made up my mind that they would stay. Angel was dealing with seeing the father killed and Luke would lose his mother as well.
They were still young enough to be influenced with love and kindness.
Before the remaining clean up could occur, we had to toss out the trash.
The remaining guilty.
Clarisse.
That was her name.
All the drama had happened before it was lunch, and it would be almost dinner time, if we all worked together, before we got the bunker back to normal.