Every second counted. I gave up hope of finding Olivia and now focused on getting out of there. That would be tricky. I didn’t want to get shot, but I also didn’t want to lead Chris back to Tori and the others.
The small room led to a pantry that emptied out into a common service hallway. I didn’t stop to think or strategize; I just ran to daylight, which was through a door on the far end that led outside. I hit the door and blasted out to find myself back in the courtyard between the two buildings. My first thought was to run back to the north building, get inside and out of sight, and make my way east to the far end, where I’d be close to the Explorer.
My second thought was that I wasn’t going anywhere.
When I jumped outside, I was faced with a handful of Chris’s cowboys… surrounding Olivia and Jon.
“Tucker!” Olivia called, scolding. “What exactly are you doing?”
My brain froze. I couldn’t calculate another move. “Jon?” I said. “What the hell?”
“I’m doing this for you, Tucker,” Jon replied. “I don’t know what it is you saw, but these are our friends. They’ve done nothing but take care of us. We can’t turn on them.”
If I hadn’t been out of my mind, I would have jumped at Jon and punched him in the head.
“You told Chris I was looking for Olivia?” I asked, hardly believing it myself.
“Yes, he did,” Chris said as he walked up behind me, casually tapping the black weapon against his leg. “Jon is far more appreciative of what we’ve done here than you seem to be.”
“Why are you making everybody so crazy, Tucker?” Olivia asked. “They’re protecting us.”
Other survivors started gathering to see what the ruckus was all about. I wanted to shout out the truth and tell them it was all a trick and that we were being held prisoners and set up to be slaves to the very people who had wiped out most of the planet’s population. But the words caught in my throat. I knew they wouldn’t believe me. None of them had seen what I had.
Chris and the cowboys stood there with smug smiles on their faces. They knew the truth, and they knew I was done.
I had only one play left: a Hail Mary.
“We’ve been lied to!” I shouted to the group. “By Chris Campbell and everybody who works with him. The survivors who left here didn’t move on. They were taken to Fenway Park to help the murderers build a structure.”
There were confused murmurs followed by a guy who called out, “What kind of structure?”
“I… I don’t know. But it was huge. Right in the middle of the field.”
That got a couple of skeptical laughs.
“It’s true! But it was destroyed by SYLO. They bombed it. Didn’t you hear the explosions? Or see the fighters fly over?”
One of the cowboys shouted, “Maybe it was a monument to the Yankees, and the Red Sox blew it up!”
That got another laugh.
“You don’t have to believe me,” I yelled to the group. “You’re going to find out for yourselves soon enough. There’s a group of soldiers headed this way. They’ll be here any minute. They don’t need us anymore, and I’m afraid they’re going to wipe us out the same way they did so much of the rest of the population.”
Chris shouted, “Or maybe they just heard how good we have it here and want to stay for lunch!”
That got a cheer from the crowd. They loved Chris. He was their protector. Their benefactor.
He would be their executioner.
“I’m telling the truth!” I screamed. “We’ve got to get out of here. Now!”
Chris and the cowboys didn’t even make a move to shut me up. They knew I had no credibility. I saw them exchange knowing looks and laugh. These guys were ruthless. They knew what was coming, and they were enjoying the warm-up.
Olivia took a step forward and held her hand out for me to take it.
“Let’s go, Tucker,” she said softly, as if she were trying to calm a raving lunatic.
“No,” Chris said. “I think we should all stay right here and welcome these soldiers that Tucker warned us about. What do you think, Tucker?”
That got another laugh.
I wanted to smack the guy. He was keeping everyone together because it would be so much easier for the soldiers to do their dirty work if we were all in one place.
I suddenly realized that instead of warning these people, I had managed to gather them together like sheep to be slaughtered.
“Come on out, everybody!” Chris commanded. “Looks like we’re in for an exciting afternoon!”
People flooded out of the buildings. And why not? Chris was their Santa Claus. He gave them food and shelter and protection from the big, bad, black planes.
I turned to him and asked, “Why?”
Chris shrugged and answered softly so that nobody else could hear.
“Don’t take it personally. You should be proud. You’re all making a sacrifice for the greater good.”
“Hey!” came a terrified shout. “Look out!”
People suddenly scattered, screaming with surprise and panic.
I figured it was the beginning of the end and that the soldiers had arrived.
“Don’t worry,” Chris said to me. “It won’t be painful.”
He was wrong. It was going to be very painful.
The soldiers hadn’t arrived… it was Tori.
Kent was behind the wheel of the Explorer, headed directly toward us. People dove out of the way of the careening SUV. The group of cowboys stood their ground and pulled out their own baton weapons… too late. Kent drove into them, scattering bodies like bowling pins. I heard several sickening thuds as they were hit dead-on.
I didn’t care.
Olivia screamed.
Chris lifted his weapon and took aim at the car… as I took aim at Chris. I threw myself at him and wrapped my arms around his body, driving him to the ground with the best open-field tackle I’d ever made. I landed on top of him and wrestled the black baton out of his hands. I had no idea how to use it, and even if I did I was too close to him to fire, so I did the next best thing: I swung the handle and hit him on the side of the head, knocking his cocky smile into next week.
I shouldn’t say that it felt good.
It felt good.
The Explorer screeched to a stop directly in front of us.
“Giddyap, Rook!” Kent shouted.
I looked for Olivia. She stood alone, looking bewildered at what was happening.
“Get in!” I yelled to her.
She hesitated a moment as if debating what to do.
“Now!” I screamed.
That shook her out of her own head. She focused and ran for the Explorer.
Jon, on the other hand, still looked paralyzed.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked, near tears.
His answer came in the form of another explosion… and a scream.
In the center of the courtyard, four people were blown off their feet as the bricks beneath them erupted.
The Air Force had arrived.
On the far end of the courtyard, the soldiers were advancing as if it was a military assault… because it was. They walked in a loose formation with one guy at the point and the others fanning out behind him like an arrow, giving each a clear shot at their victims. Every one of them held a black baton gun.
Every one of them opened fire.
“Get in the damn car!” Tori screamed at Olivia.
She ducked down and jumped in the back.
A cowboy took a run at us and fell in his tracks as Tori dropped him with a shot to his legs.
“You coming?” I shouted to Jon.
Jon looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He nodded quickly but didn’t move, so I grabbed his arm, pushed him toward the car, yanked the door open, and shoved him inside.
“Go!” I shouted.
Kent jammed on the gas before I could close the door.