Yeah, Willie thought, Alfred was a nasty little bastard all right, and he had no doubt that he would manage to bring the woman back.
The phone call from Luther had been short and to the point. Get her, but get her alive. "It should be easy, even for a no-brained fuck-up like you, Willie," Luther had said. "After all, Willie my sweet, I did the hard work for you, I lured their big shots away, I opened the door and left her alone, and I think you should be able to handle one old man, hmm, Willie, think you can handle it?"
Luther had an inside man over there, Willie correctly guessed. He had no idea who, and hadn't asked, but whoever it had been had told him that the four men, who in Luther's estimation held everything together, were gone. While Alfred went for the woman, Willie himself would lead a small army right into their midst. There wouldn't be anyone, or anything, to stop them, Luther had assured him.
Willie planned to be sneaky about it though, he already had snipers stationed close to the roadblocks. They were so stupid that they didn't even try to hide behind their barricades. They just walked back and forth, like they were on guard duty at a friggin' factory somewhere. Apparently, Willie thought, they didn't take a threat from the north side seriously. After today they would though, Willie promised himself, and smiled as he did.
He got up from the worn sofa. "MIKE, where the fuck is that little bastard you sent to the liquor store?" he yelled, as he opened the front door. If the little prick didn't get back soon, there wouldn't be time for another drink before he'd have to leave.
~ 8 ~
Annie stood up from the small table. It was nearing 6:00 PM, time to play the tape. John had left ten minutes before to get them some fresh coffee, but hadn't returned yet. What's keeping him? She wondered, as she walked toward the hallway. She was almost to the door when a red-haired wild-eyed looking kid came running through it, nearly knocking her over.
"Ma'am...Miss Davidson, ya gotta come quick, ya gotta, they're coming through the barricades, and they got John, Ma'am, they got... you gotta come quick!" the kid said in a panicked voice.
The kid was clearly scared witless, Annie realized. "Calm down, calm down," she said as she grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook him. The kid was carrying what looked to be a machine gun, Annie saw. What the hell are they doing putting a young kid like this on guard duty? Annie thought angrily.
"Miss Davidson?" the kid asked still sounding panicky, "you are Miss Davidson I was supposed to come get, right?"
"Yes, now calm down," Annie said sternly, turning away from the kid and heading toward the table where she had left her gun, "just let me get my..."
"Good," the kid said from behind, cutting her off. "Real good."
Bright stars exploded in her head, cutting off the rest of what she had been going to say. WHAT... she thought, as she crumpled to the floor. She was dimly aware of the sound of gun fire, before she passed out.
Hank Nelson entered the room just as Alfred clubbed Annie in the back of the head with the machine gun. Alfred quickly reversed the gun and aimed it at Hank.
"Hey!" Hank yelled in surprise, and then looked fearfully to the gun in Alfred's hands. "Hey, don't kid, I'm on..."
Alfred didn't let him finish. He squeezed the trigger and in a split second Hank was cut in two by a hail of bullets.
"Fuck you," Alfred spat, as Hank fell to the floor. Two men appeared in the doorway behind him, Alfred whirled around cat-quick but lowered the weapon once he recognized them. "Pick her up, let's go," he ordered. The two men quickly did as ordered, and followed Alfred out into the hallway. They passed John's lifeless body in the corridor, where Alfred had let it fall, after he had snuck up behind him and clubbed him in the back of the head as he had Annie. He had slit John's throat, almost before he had hit the ground, and so he had made no sound whatsoever. Alfred kicked an empty paper coffee cup, resting by one of John's outstretched hands, out of his way as they trotted by.
Outside, in the late afternoon air, the sound of gun fire reverberated through the Streets. It was audible now, even inside the building. Alfred mowed down a group of seven people with the machine gun, who had been crouched fearfully just inside the doorway to the building, as he came upon them. None of them had the chance to return fire, or even turn around, and Alfred, followed by the two men, trampled over their bodies as he pushed through the doorway and out into the Street.
The South side of the city was in the grip of a battle that had begun two blocks away, when Willie himself had taken out the patrolling guard, and then quickly rushed through the barricade, toward the War Memorial.
All was not going as planned however, as a heavily armed group in the County Court House building had pinned them down before they had been able to take the War Memorial, and that had allowed the people in the War Memorial, to react.
As a consequence Willie's group was rapidly falling in numbers, and although he did not wish to, he would have to drop back, or risk losing all of his men if Al didn't show soon. He had just started to draw back, when Alfred came trotting out of the television station, in a deafening roar of gun fire. The kid had done it,
