“What do we do?” Nancy asked Bart. Bart was struggling to sit up straight.
“They’re parked in front of the house!” Drew yelled down the stairs.
“How many of them are there?” Bart yelled up to him. Drew counted a total of five men getting out of the cars. He recognized one of the men as the cop they’d sent running away in his boxers earlier. No good deed goes unpunished. The officers were armed to the teeth and wearing bullet proof vests. They were approaching the house like they knew what they were doing. Or at least they looked like professionals to Drew, and he’d watched a lot of cop movies so he should know.
“If we hurt them bad enough then they’ll leave.” Bart said. He rolled himself onto the floor and had Nancy hand him a rifle before ordering her to get down low behind the kitchen counter.
“They’re almost at the door. Two of them just split off to go around the back!” Drew yelled down. Bart continued to cover the front door but yelled for Yue and LeBron to cover the back.
“Are they at the doors?” Bart yelled up to Drew.
“I think so!” Drew yelled back down straining to see straight down through the tiny holes they’d drilled.
“Ten shots each through the doors!” Bart yelled and started shooting. Yue and LeBron followed his lead and started punching neat holes through the doors. Upstairs Drew watched as the cops in the front fell back. One of them holding the side of his head with a hand covered in blood.
The back door to their house took a couple of shot gun blasts and two large men in SWAT gear tried to force their way in. They were driven back after a brief exchange of fire with LeBron and Yue. They sat in the stupid hot house sweating and scared. The cops tossed a couple of smoke grenades into the house. Visibility on the first floor quickly dropped to zero.
“You’re all under arrest for theft and murder! Lower your weapons and come out and you’ll not be harmed! Continue to resist and you’ll be killed!” Someone yelled into the house. LeBron put some metal downrange in the general direction of the voice as their answer. He was rewarded with a yelp of pain. Yue grinned over at him and gave him a thumbs up.
A blinding flash of light accompanied by a huge burst of sound rocked them all back. The remainder of the door was beaten off its hinges as all five cops came storming into the house. Drew ran downstairs in the smoke and confusion to help in the fight. Nancy stepped in between the approaching cops and her babies and started blasting away with her shotgun. She was screaming in a mad rage while she pulled the trigger. The buckshot she was slinging was ripping the flesh off of every bit of the exposed skin of the invading men. They returned fire viciously even as their charge faltered.
Yue, LeBron and Bart carefully placed shots into the front of the house all around the last place they’d seen Nancy. The smoke cleared enough that Yue could see her mom’s body lying on the floor. She stood up and rushed to help her. Bullets flying all around as the cops retreated dragging their wounded with them. They left out the door continuing to pour bullets into the house as they retreated. Bart walked right through that hail of bullets. He continued firing at the retreating men until they’d disappeared. Looking down with disbelieving eyes he saw Yue on the ground beside the body of his wife.
Nancy was dead. She’d died placing herself between the attackers and her children. She’d fallen defending those she loved. Yue sat on the ground sobbing with her mom’s bloody head in her lap. Drew and LeBron stood next to Bart staring down in disbelief. Bart collapsed to the floor and added his plaintive sobs to those of Yue.
“What about the cops?” LeBron asked. Drew looked up with tears running down his face and nodded. He ran up the stairs to spy on the men who’d attacked them.
“They’re leaving!” He yelled a minute later as he came bounding back down the stairs. He ran back over to where they were all gathered around the body of their mom. Bart looked up from where he’d collapsed on the floor and told them they needed to get to work on fixing the doors and windows. He told Yue to bring him a washrag and his moms favorite comforter.
Bart could barely move after the battle. He directed Yue to clean up Nancy and get her dressed and rolled up in the comforter. He debated on what to do as far as a burial and finally decided on a fire. They didn’t have a casket or the strength or the time to bury her properly. He wasn’t about to dishonor her memory her by letting her body sit around until it started to smell. He carefully directed Yue on preparing Nancy until the body needed to be moved. At that point he had Drew and LeBron come downstairs.
They all prayed over the body of the woman they’d all cherished. A woman who was larger than life. A woman who’d had such a huge positive impact on so many lives. They said their goodbyes to her in the entryway to the
