“Don’t do it,” Brooke said to Jon.
“I suggest you shut your mouth!” Judah pressed the barrel harder against her temple.
“Okay, okay,” Jon said. He raised his hands, the gun still in his right one. “I’ll put it down.”
Jon squatted, keeping his hands raised. He lowered the gun and set it on the ground, then slowly stood again, his hands in the air.
Judah laughed. “It’s that easy? You really give up that easy?” He removed the gun from Brooke’s temple and aimed it at Jon. “You’re fucking pathetic.”
Jon gasped, taking his final breath as he stared down the barrel of the gun.
Brooke then screamed out, “No!” as she managed to loosen herself enough from Judah’s grip and bite the wrist of the hand he had holding onto his gun.
Judah cried out in pain and then forcefully pushed Brooke aside, shoving her into a nearby wall. On the way there, she knocked over a couple of candles. They hit the curtains on the way down, catching them on fire.
More importantly, during the bite, Judah had dropped the gun.
Jon didn’t hesitate. He kneeled and picked up the gun he had set at his feet and, without taking the time to aim, proceeded to unload three shots into Judah’s body.
The man staggered backward as blood sprang out from the places in his stomach and chest where Jon had hit him. He hit the wall with his back as the gun in Jon’s hand only clicked with each additional pull of the trigger.
Judah took in rapid breaths, his eyes lost as he put one hand on his stomach and the other on his chest. He slid down the wall, falling onto his ass and continuing to breathe heavily.
The gun Judah had dropped still lay on the floor and Jon grabbed it as a precaution before going to check on Brooke.
She lay on the floor on her side, conscious but in a state of shock. Jon kneeled down next to her and put his hands on her shoulders, and she let out a startled yelp as she looked up at him.
“Are you okay?” Jon asked.
Brooke nodded, then wrapped her arms around Jon.
While Jon hugged her with his eyes closed, he couldn’t help but notice the flickering orange light making its way into his vision. He looked up and saw the fire spreading, already having made it to the next set of curtains. He pulled away from Brooke.
“We have to get out of here.” He looked over at Mouse’s dead body. “We’ve got time to get him outside, but only if we go now.”
They stood up and, as they approached the body, Jon heard a laugh sound out from the other side of the room, followed by a gurgling cough. He turned around and looked at Judah.
The lead Vulture remained sitting against the wall, still holding two of his wounds. Blood colored his cheeks and his goatee. Still, he managed to find a way to smile.
Jon paused to examine Judah’s face, then stepped over toward him. As he did, Judah removed his right hand from his stomach and reached into his pocket. Jon aimed the gun at his head, concerned that he would pull out a weapon. He nearly pulled the trigger, but then he saw what was in Judah’s hand.
The photo of Jon and his family.
Judah laughed again, more blood coming out of his mouth as he coughed.
Jon marched all the way over to Judah and kneeled down, getting eye level with him. He snatched the photo out of Judah’s hand then took one last look at the cult leader before standing up.
“He’s going to find you,” Judah said.
“What the hell are you talking about? Who’s going to find me?”
All Judah did was smile, only irritating Jon. Jon kneeled again and grabbed onto the man’s collar.
“Who the hell are you talking about?” Jon asked, raising his voice. He pressed the gun against Judah’s skull. “Tell me!”
Again, Judah coughed, a weak laugh coming from his mouth. “You’ll find out soon enough. That, I can promise you.”
Jon shook him, but it was no use. Judah’s smile disappeared as he coughed one last time, and then his head went limp as his eyes stared off into nothing. All Jon could do was stare at him, confused by what the man had said in his final moments.
“We have to go,” Brooke said. “This place is going to fill up with flames soon.”
Jon stared into Judah’s dead eyes for another moment, wanting to beat his face in but knowing it would do him no good. Instead, he turned his eyes down to the picture. Blood had leaked from Judah’s hand onto the picture, most of which slid off when Jon picked it up. It created an eerie look to the photo, like blood dripping down him and his family in the photo.
He shoved the photograph into his pocket, then went to help Brooke get Mouse out of the old plantation house before it burned to the ground.
37
The fire crackled, keeping Jon warm as he sat with his knees at his chest next to the pond just outside the gates of Hope’s Dawn.
As he looked out over the water, he pictured many faces. Nine residents of Hope’s Dawn had sacrificed their lives in the previous day’s battle, including Max, who had done so to save Jon’s life. It was hard not to see the curly-haired kid’s face wherever he looked. After the fight had ended, the last of the cult members had either surrendered or run off. Settlers of Hope’s Dawn and Vultures alike had lain scattered throughout the camp, victims of a ridiculous and pointless war started by one man.
And that one man was the face Jon saw most and could not get out of his head.
The bloody smile on Judah’s face during his final breaths, illuminated by the burning house around him, could not escape Jon’s vision. Whether he closed his eyes or kept them open, he saw
