“Mom!” Lucy said letting the gun fall to the floor. She dashed to her mom and peeled the tape off her mouth.
“Cut us free,” Kieran said. Lucy nodded before vanishing from the room.
I got to my feet and gathered as many of the guns as I could find. The other three guys had simply been knocked out. They wouldn’t stay out for long.
I helped Shawn to his feet as Lucy came back into the room. She quickly cut Shawn free, then her mom, and then the others.
“Are you okay?” I asked giving Shawn a quick hug.
“Not really,” he said looking around. “I’m alive, though, so I guess that’s good, right?”
“Yeah,” I said smiling at him. “It’s awesome.”
Gage gave me a half-smile as he rubbed his wrists. “What about me?”
“I’m glad we’re all alive,” I said. I turned and gave Lucy a quick hug. The gestured surprised her just as much as it had surprised me. “Thank you. You saved us.”
“I… I…,” Lucy shrugged and fell into her mom’s arms.
“What are we going to do with these other three baboons?” Gage asked.
I shook my head. “Tie them up for now. We’ll figure something out.”
“We can’t let them go,” Gage said.
One of the guys quickly got to his feet and ran out of the open front door. I chased after him but he was already halfway across the yard.
“Dammit,” I said as Shawn stepped out beside me. “He got away.”
Shawn peeled the gun out of my hand and narrowed his eye as he raised the gun. He fired twice.
The guy stumbled and flopped face-first into the mud. I slowly turned and looked at Shawn.
“I had to do it. To keep us safe,” Shawn said.
“Okay,” I said after sucking in a breath.
My body shook after two more gunshots pierced the air. I grabbed Shawn’s arm and turned toward the house.
“Gage took care of the rest of our problem,” Shawn said. “If we let them leave, we could lose everything and maybe everyone.”
“We still might,” I said.
“This bought us some time,” Shawn said.
Everyone worked together to help with cleanup. The bodies were buried as deep in the mud as we could manage and as far away from the house as possible. The floor and wall were scrubbed until the bloodstains were dark brown smears and smudges.
I sat next to Shawn as Kieran tended to Shawn’s wound. The bullet wasn’t lodged inside of his arm but it had ripped the skin to shreds.
His leg bounced and I held his hand as Kieran carefully tried to stitch his skin together. She kept apologizing.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “You’re going to have a scar. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be doing this.”
“You’re doing great,” Shawn said. “I just hope you’ll be done soon.”
“Lucy!” Kieran called out.
Lucy stepped out from around the corner as if she’d been waiting there… as usual. “Yes, Mom?”
“Could you get something for Shawn’s pain?” Kieran asked.
“Of course,” Lucy said with a nod.
She was back in a second with a thick white pill and a small glass of water.
“What is this?” Shawn asked.
“Vicodin,” Kieran said. “We don’t have a lot, so take it easy.”
Shawn shook his head and held up his hand. “Save it for someone else.”
“We can find more sometime,” Kieran said. “Take it. You are the someone that needs it.”
Shawn looked at me and I nodded. He swallowed down the pill.
That night, we all stayed in the main house. Two people were on watch at any time.
We were fortunate we had more weapons but we weren’t lucky that no one really felt comfortable using them. Even still, no one refused to hold one.
It was late when Shawn and I made our way to the bedroom. I felt selfish for taking time to rest after everything that had happened but there really wasn’t anything left to do… at least not until morning.
We’d have to get serious about our backup plan. Figure out the escape route and make sure the basement would be secure for when the people from the northern town returned.
I turned on my side and stared at Shawn. He couldn’t turn his body due to his bandaged shoulder.
“What?” he asked with a smile as he turned his head stiffly.
“Just looking at you,” I said.
“That’s not like you,” Shawn said. “Should I be worried?”
I smiled but it quickly vanished. “I was so worried. Still am, to be honest.”
“It hurts but I’m fine,” Shawn said reaching over to take my hand into his.
“I don’t want to lose you,” I said looking at his shoulder.
“It’s going to take a lot more than that to get rid of me,” Shawn said squeezing my hand. “We need to get to work on our plan… they’ll come here eventually.”
I exhaled slowly. “I know.”
“And it’ll probably be a bigger group,” Shawn said.
“We’ll work on the basement first thing tomorrow,” I said.
“Sure, we can do that but also, I kind of think we should fight for what we have,” he said.
I looked up, narrowing my eyes at him. “Did you hit your head on something?”
“Maybe,” Shawn said with a stiff chuckle. “This place houses everything that keeps us alive.”
“We’re not fighters.”
“Are you sure about that?” Shawn asked. “I saw a group of fighters today.”
I rolled over onto my back but I didn’t let go of Shawn’s hand. “I guess we have a lot of stuff to figure out.”
“Yeah, but I really believe we’ll be okay,” Shawn said. “There is a good chance this place is the last safe place out there. Everything else could be gone. I don’t think we should give it up easily.”
“We’re outnumbered,” I said.
“Then we’ll have to outsmart them,” Shawn said with a yawn
