The shirtless gunner returned to his tank as if he’d heard Hayden say the words. The others ran back to their trucks. The big machine lurched forward and back in its tracks. It shot forward again as the inexperienced driver found the proper gear, and the tank rolled into the ditch straight toward Elton MacDonald’s farm.
“It’s that horse you rode in on—they can see it from the highway.”
“I think it’s time we went into that cellar of yours.” Hayden could feel Nicholas pressed up to his side. The window had begun to rattle in its frame from the deep rumble of approaching vehicles.
“We’d be better off upstairs,” Elton said quickly. “The bedroom door locks from the inside.”
“They have a tank—locked bedroom doors won’t stop them. We need to hole up somewhere dark. Maybe they won’t even bother looking down there if they find the rest of the house deserted.”
“Please,” MacDonald pleaded. He’d grabbed onto to Hayden’s wide shoulders. “Not the cellar.”
Hayden took one of the boney wrists and forced it down. “We don’t have time to argue. Where is it?”
The old man wagged his head to one side, indicating a hallway off from the stairs leading up. Hayden pulled him along quickly and Nicholas ran ahead both of them. “First door on the left,” he said resignedly.
Nicholas opened the door and an unpleasant smell greeted them from the darkness below. The boy went for the light switch.
“No,” Hayden said. He reached up towards the ceiling and unscrewed the single light bulb from its socket. “If they can’t see what’s down there, maybe they won’t even bother coming down.”
Elton crept down the steep steps first, leading the other two into blackness. “Watch the third step. It’s starting to give in the middle.”
Hayden straddled the stairway, placing each step to the outside. He could feel Nicholas’s fingers dug into the waistband of his pants, using him as a guide. They heard the vehicles pull into the yard—the tank’s rumble, doors slamming shut, men whooping and laughing. Hayden stopped halfway down the stairs and pointed back up at the door. Nicholas scrambled back up in the gloom and pulled it shut. Hayden held his hands out and waited for the boy to find him again.
Gun shots fired when they reached the dirt floor. Multiple rounds.
“Trixie!”
Hayden started up the stairs, but Elton took hold of one of his big shoulders again and spun him around. He was a lot stronger than Hayden suspected. “Don’t be a fool, man. That horse isn’t worth our lives.”
There were more gunshots. Rapid fire. They were unloading entire machine gun magazines. Hayden stumbled into a corner and held Nicholas tightly to him. He was shaking and crying. “It’s okay,” Hayden whispered into the boy’s ear. “It will stop soon.”
The shooting ended a few moments later. Hayden prayed they’d murdered each other. The laughing started up again. Heavy boots thumped up the porch steps, and the front door slammed open against the inside wall. They were in the house, thudding about from room to room. Hayden slid his hand over Nicholas’s mouth. A heavy crash sounded directly over their heads. There goes Elton’s television set.
Something hard tapped Hayden’s shoulder. He reached out, expected to find Elton’s ancient fingers, but his hand wrapped around the barrel of a rifle instead. The old man spoke softly. “Get ready to duck down. As soon as that cellar door opens I’m blowing some fucker’s leg off.”
“Give me the gun,” Hayden urged.
MacDonald pulled it away. “I’m old, son, but I’m still a hell of a shot.”
The cellar door swung in and light flooded down the wooden steps. Hayden saw a long shadow stretch along the wall. Should’ve brought my rifle in the house, he thought. He had seen at least a dozen men surrounding the tank and trucks, and there were probably more judging from all the gunfire they’d heard. At least we could’ve taken a few more of the bastards out along the way.
The shadow above them called out.“Fucking light doesn’t work!”
“Forget it,” someone yelled back. “This place is a fucking dump. It’s already been picked over by some other assholes.”
More laughter. They listened as more commands were yelled out. Something about the approaching storm and getting to the next town before it hit. Boots thumped along the living room floor and thudded down the porch steps. The trucks started up and Hayden heard the tank begin to roll once again.
Hayden lowered Nicholas to the floor and discovered he was shaking almost as badly the five-year old. “I thought you said you were going to fire as soon as the door opened.”
“Can’t shoot what you can’t see. I left my glasses upstairs.”
Nicholas cried out. “Someone’s down here! Their leg’s all cold!”
Elton found him in a far corner and started dragging him towards the stairs. “Get away from her, boy.”
Hayden realized he was still clutching onto the light bulb. He ran up the steps and screwed it back into its socket. He threw the light switch up and Nicholas cried out again. “Her face is gone! Her face is gone!”
It was more than just her face. The top half of the woman’s head was missing. This was why Elton had resisted hiding in the cellar. Her crumpled up body was resting next to a shallow hole in the dirt floor. Elton shoved Nicholas away and knelt before the corpse. “We were supposed to go together... We’d agreed... I end May’s life, and then take my own.”
Hayden picked Nicholas up and placed him back down on the stairs. “Go on to the top and wait at the door.” The boy scrambled up the steps on all fours, whimpering. Hayden went to the farmer. There was a shovel resting on a pile of excavated dirt next to the corpse. “You were going to bury her.”
