“Leave her alone!” I yelled.
The man didn’t even so much as glance at me.
He was about to leave his feet for a dive at Slim when I let an arrow fly. I was no expert archer like Slim, just a normal American kid of my times… a kid who’d done plenty fooling around with all things lethal: knives, firearms, blowguns, home-made spears, explosives, swords, bows and arrows.
My arrow went in just under the man’s armpit and sank into his ribcage. He hit the mud skidding.
Slim scurried under the bleachers and vanished.
Bleachers I’d thought were empty.
From somewhere near the top, however, came applause. It sounded like one or two people clapping their hands.
Chapter Sixty
My skin went all crawly with goosebumps. I couldn’t see who was up there, but I knew anyway.
As I peered toward the top of the bleachers, the beam of a flashlight reached up through the darkness, swept this way and that, and found two men at the very top of the stands—found them for an instant, then lost them as they lowered themselves behind the structure.
“Look out, Slim!” I yelled, getting to my feet “The Cadillac twins! They’re coming after you!”
She didn’t answer.
The beam of the flashlight lowered and whipped back and forth through the lower rows of the bleachers. Shadows jerked and leaped. I looked for Slim, didn’t see her, then turned my head to find out who was holding the flashlight.
Its beam came from a cluster of three or four people standing just outside the door of the bus. The bus had stopped about twenty feet back from the cage. Not very far, but the people were in darkness and I had headlights shining in my eyes so I couldn’t tell who they were. Stryker was probably one of them, though. And Vivian.
I turned in their direction, readied an arrow and drew the bowstring back to my chin.
“Shut off the flashlight or I’ll shoot!” I yelled.
The light went dead.
“Thanks,” I said. A dumb thing to say, but it came out before I had a chance to think. “Now come over here and let us out.”
“Why would I do that?”
Before I had a chance to think about it—much. anyway— I released the arrow. It vanished into the darkness. Then came a quiet
I reached down to the quiver clamped between my knees and pulled out another arrow. Before I could shoot it, though, my targets had disappeared inside the bus. They’d left the wounded one on the ground, writhing and whimpering.
“That’s two down,” Lee said. “Three, counting Valeria. Not bad.”
“Except they’ve got us trapped and surrounded.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Big deal.”
I laughed and so did she. As she came toward me, I slipped the arrow back into the quiver.
When she hugged me, the quiver fell over. But I didn’t care.
My shirt had been ripped off by Valeria, so Lee’s chambray shirt was the only thing between me and her skin.
“You’re doing really well,” she said into my ear.
“Thanks.”
“I always knew you were a good guy, but you’re even better than I thought.”
“Well… I’m trying.”
Her arms tightened around me. The way she was standing, I figured she could see the bus over my shoulder. And I could see the headlights of the truck over hers. If anything started to happen in either direction, we would know it.
“The thing is to stay brave,” she said.
“I’ll try.”
“Me, too.”
I let out a sad little laugh. “And we don’t have to worry about Slim.”
“Huh?”
“Staying brave. That’s the least of her problems.”
“I just hope she’s careful,” Lee said.
“Yeah, me too.” Then I started to cry.
Lee stroked the back of my head. “It’ll be all right,” she whispered. “She’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know,” I blubbered. “If anything happens to her…”
“It’s okay, honey. It’s okay.”
I kept crying, Lee holding me and stroking my head.
“You know what?” she asked. “It’s like you said when Valeria got shot. ‘Slim’ll happen to
I sort of laughed and sobbed at the same time. Then I mumbled, “God, I hope so.”
Lee stepped back slightly, moved her face in front of mine and looked me in the eyes. To me, she looked blurry. As I blinked, she wiped the tears and raindrops off my face with her fingers. All that touched me were her fingertips and breasts. It would’ve been very sweet and exciting if I hadn’t felt so scared.
After a while, she asked, “Feeling any better?”
I nodded. “A little.”
She eased forward and kissed me gently on the mouth. Then she stepped back and put her hands on my shoulders. “We’d better get ready for the attack.”
“What attack?”
A smile flashed across her face. “The one that’s sure to come.”
“Oh, that. What’ll we do?”
“First…” She stepped away from me, bent down and picked up the quiver. After counting the arrows, she muttered, “Eight. Plus three is eleven.”
“Three?”
“Put it on.” She gave me the quiver.
While she held the bow. I swung the quiver onto my back so its strap rested on my left shoulder and ran diagonally down my chest like a bandolier. Then she handed the bow back to me. “Keep us covered, okay?”
Nodding, I slipped an arrow out of the quiver and nocked it on the bowstring. Then I followed Lee toward Valeria’s body.
She crouched beside it.
I said, “Oh, my God,” as she reached for the feathered shaft that protruded from Valeria’s eye socket. “Hey, no. Come on.”
“Sorry,” Lee said. “But we might need these.”
She started to pull at the arrow. I turned away fast.
And took the opportunity to check our situation. The truck was still in position, engine rumbling quietly, headbeams reaching into the cage. The hearse remained motionless behind the other bleachers, shining its headlights at us. And the bus was where they’d stopped it after dropping off the guy who chased Slim.
The wounded gal was gone. She’d either gotten away on her own or someone had helped her.
On the other side of the bleachers into which Slim had vanished, the parking area was dark. No headlights, no taillights, no brakelights. Except for the abandoned vehicles such as Lee’s pickup truck and the twins’ Cadillac, all
