With his body shaking violently, Jacob raised his Ruger P89 pistol and fired quick shots from only feet away. The first rounds went low; the others, directly to the man’s chest. Jacob twisted away and dodged as the man's momentum carried him past before the body tumbled to the ground, landing on its stomach. Not waiting to see if he was dead, Jacob turned hard and stepped on the man’s back. Enraged, he fired one more shot into his head. The body stiffened before going slack. Jacob’s terrified daughter screamed from where she lay on the pavement; he scooped her up and ran back to the car.
On the passenger side, Laura was struggling with a second attacker. The large man was on top of her and almost had her pinned to the ground. Jacob sat Katy down, ran full speed, and then, leaping onto the man’s back, grabbed him under the arms. Rolling forcefully, they tumbled away from Laura and into the grass. The crazed attacker was able to gain position on Jacob. Having the advantage in strength and weight, he tussled and twisted until Jacob found his own back to the ground. The man now stared down into Jacob’s face as his hands grasped Jacob’s throat and began to squeeze.
Looking into the man’s dark eyes, Jacob saw no emotion that could be reasoned with. Like a rabid dog, the man seemed to have no regard for Jacob’s life. Jacob pushed against the man’s chest and gasped for air while struggling under the attacker’s weight. The man suddenly dropped and fell limp over Jacob’s chest, having taken a full kick to the side of the head from Laura.
Jacob hoisted the body up and rolled it off him. Grabbing at the grass, he pulled himself away and pushed up into a sitting position. He coughed and choked for oxygen as he looked at the unconscious man. His attention was distracted when he noticed Laura was on the ground, sobbing and pulling Katy into her lap.
The attacker let out a moan and stretched an arm, reaching for Jacob’s ankle. Jacob pawed at the grass until he found the pistol and then turned back to face the man. Leveling the weapon, he shot the attacker once in the face, snapping back its head violently, causing the girls to scream.
Staggering back to his feet, he looked in both directions. Jacob's focused tunnel vision faded enough to allow him to see everything. The sounds of the wailing weather siren seemed to come back even louder than before. It was over; the threat stopped. Suddenly exhausted, he struggled to stay on his feet as adrenalin pushed spasms through his legs and knees. Jacob turned and looked around him; his neighbors were standing on their porches, staring at him accusingly. He ignored them and reached down for Laura.
“Are you okay? Come on, get Katy back in the house,” he said, lifting Laura to her feet.
Laura looked at him in shock. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, get Katy back in the house, Laura!” he said over the sound of the siren.
Laura looked at the dead man at her feet. She asked again, “What happened?”
Katy began crying hysterically.
With his heart still racing, he lifted Katy and handed her off to Laura. “Please get her inside; I’ll be there in a minute.”
Laura turned her head to look at their neighbors before backing away toward the porch. She held Katy’s head to her shoulder in a belated attempt to shield the young girl from the horror of what lay on the ground.
He watched them move across the porch and waited for the door to close behind them. Jacob’s head ached, and the sound of the siren clouded his mind as he struggled to collect his thoughts on what had just occurred. He stepped to the house and wearily dropped to the porch steps.
They were trying to flee to the country, or at least get to Laura's parents north of the city—anywhere as far away from people as they could get. He remembered pulling out of the garage and barely entering the street before the speeding car collided with them. But the men… where did they come from? They must have been pursuing the other car. Why did they attack them?
Under the spiteful eyes of his neighbors, Jacob stood and went to the other car.
“Thanks for the help, guys,” he said under his breath.
He ignored their stares and opened the passenger-side door, stretched across the front seat, and checked the man’s bloodied wrist for a pulse. The driver was dead; the lack of a seatbelt had allowed his body to thrust partway through the windshield.
Looking in the backseat, he found it filled with luggage. He saw a plastic grocery bag stuffed with oranges and bottles of water. Jacob pondered them briefly before taking the bag and joining his wife back in the house. Ignoring his neighbors’ cold stares, he shut and locked the house door behind him. Even if the phones worked, the police wouldn’t come.
Moving across the room to a window, Jacob parted the curtains and looked into the street. The incessant wailing of the weather siren was better behind the plate-glass window. Even with the power out, it wailed. Why had it not been shut off yet? Jacob looked at the smoking vehicles in the street and saw his neighbors approaching the crash scene.
The anxiety built up in his chest; he was sweating, and he felt his heart racing. Jacob was fighting off panic… and losing. He had to do something.
“Laura, get everything and take it upstairs to our bedroom,” he said.
Laura was in the kitchen, handing Katy a glass of water and still trying to calm her. “Why? What are we doing?”
“Something is changing, I’m not sure what, but I think we need to get to the safe room. We need
