I opened the dog pen and reached in and got hold of Switch's collar and said, 'Good dog.' I pulled him out. I could feel his muscles bunching at the smell of all these strangers.
'Whatda you doing?' Soldier said.
'Getting him out of the way so I can dig,' I said. 'Leonard, hold him.'
Leonard reached over and held him and took a step backwards and pulled the dog after him, stuck out his free hand and touched Soldier's shoulder and said, 'Ow!'
It was all Switch needed, thinking Leonard was hurt. He twisted in Leonard's grip and Leonard let go and Switch leapt straight into Soldier and Soldier dropped his umbrella and threw up his arm. The dog hit him hard as a mallet, teeth flashing.
I had already started toward the group with the shovel cocked, and when Switch hit Soldier and Soldier yelled, Angel and Paco turned their heads, and I brought the shovel around with all my might and caught Angel on the side of the neck with the edge of it and it was like hitting a concrete piling. She went down on one knee and her gun arm dropped to her side and her neck split open and lashed a band of blood into the cold air and rain.
Leonard stepped behind Soldier and the dog, pivoted on his left foot and spun around, fast, and his right leg went up, and at the same instant Paco raised his gun and leveled it, Leonard’s foot caught him in the back of the head, low, and Paco snapped forward and the gun went off but didn't hit anyone.
Next instant Paco was face down on the ground with his butt humping like a worm trying to crawl.
Leonard's heel kick had broken Paco's neck.
Switch had Soldier down and his teeth buried in Soldier's arm. He was dragging him backwards on the muddy ground, gnawing as he went, tearing jacket and shirt and meat beneath.
I brought the shovel around again and hit Angel solidly on top of the head and she dropped her gun and went down on her hands as if to do a push-up. I started to go for her gun but Soldier managed to put his automatic to Switch's head and pull the trigger. Switch jerked, then was on the ground thrashing. Soldier was getting up on one knee now, his hat was gone and his glasses dangled from one ear.
He gritted his teeth, lifted the .45, and pointed it at Trudy.
Trudy hadn't moved through all of this, but I was moving. I grabbed her around the waist, jerked her to the side and the bullet went by us. As I turned, I saw Leonard sprint behind the dog pens toward the creek and saw Angel scramble for her gun. I got hold of Trudy like she was a sack of potatoes and ran zigzag toward the creek.
Trudy was too much for me and I dropped her. There was a sudden sensation as if someone punched me in the right side with the end of a fence post. I went down on one knee and yelled, 'Run!' Then I was up again, and Trudy was already moving, long legs flying. She went over the creek-bank and into the water just ahead of me. There was another snap of gunfire, then I was in the creek right behind Trudy, splashing water, running for all I was worth. The brush on the sides of the bank grew thicker as we headed into the greater woods.
Back toward the house I heard several shots and a dog yelp and Soldier yelling. I was surprised they weren't on us right away, and wondered if they had gone after Leonard.
As I ran, pain crawled inside me looking for a place to live. I felt as if my very soul were easing out of me, falling into the water, washing away.
But when I looked down, I saw what was oozing out of me into the water was not my soul.
It was blood.
Chapter 27
I wasn't exactly making the best time in the world, and Trudy wasn't much of a runner to begin with. I could hear Angel and Soldier thrashing through the water behind us. They sounded some distance back, but they were gaining rapidly. Angel had the constitution of a horse and a head like an iron skillet. Soldier had popped poor old Howard half as hard and only once, and he hadn't survived.
I caught up with Trudy and grabbed her by the elbow and pointed to the bank. We climbed out of the water and crawled into a mess of leafless brambles and through that and into a grove of pines and sweetgums.
We hadn't gone far, when I had to sit down. I found a sweetgum and put my back against that and eased myself to my ass. Trudy, breathing heavily, squatted beside me and looked at my side. My coat was bloody and I could feel the blood cooling and sticking my shirt to my skin.
'Oh, Hap,' Trudy said.
I put a finger to my lips. I could hear Soldier and Angel splashing water in the creek. They went past us and kept splashing.
When I thought they were reasonably out of the way, I spoke softly. 'Your hand. How is it?'
'Numb,' she said. 'Mostly it's shock. But that's passing some. All things considered, I'm all right.'
'Well, I'm not. Help me up.'
She got her good hand under my arm and I pushed up and leaned on her a minute. 'We got to make the Robin Hood Tree.'
'What?'
'Trust me.'
It wasn't far from where we were, but it felt like a mile. My side had little feeling in it at first, but now it was as if someone had heated up a jack handle and was sticking it into me, stirring it around.
We went through deeper woods and promptly broke into a clearing, and there in its center was the massive oak that Leonard and I called the Robin Hood Tree. Sitting down, his back against it, was Leonard.
We walked up to him and he opened his eyes and looked at us. 'If you'd been Angel or that other geek, I'd be dead.'
