“Hold on. Let him open the gate first. Might be a combo lock, and I don’t want to climb that monster.”
As John finished, the man swung the gate open and turned to resecure it when John’s round struck him somewhere between the ear and nose. The man dropped on cue without so much as a twitch.
“Lights out, motherfucker,” John muttered gravely to himself.
“Jeez,” Barry murmured.
Chapter 10
To date, Barry hadn’t seen anything this violent. The suppressed crack of John’s rifle and the body lying on the ground just inside the gate shook him to his core. Most of his life had been lived in theory, accurate theory, but nothing like the raw reality he’d just witnessed. Barry stared at the motionless body, his heart pounding while his head swam with the memory of John’s callous remark after the biker hit the deck.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Barry groaned.
Jared looked over and saw Barry’s skin was ashen white. “John.”
John looked over just in time to see Barry pitch forward into the dirt. “Ah, for crying out loud,” John blurted out in annoyance. “Roll him over.”
Jared moved to Barry’s side and grabbed the man by the shoulder in order to turn him onto his back. Jared’s touch triggered Barry to flail and start swinging indiscriminately. Jared stumbled back and plopped on his butt in the dirt while Devon watched in wonderment at the spectacle.
“Come on,” John barked. “Watch the house.” John moved over, swatted Barry’s thrashing arms to the side, then rolled the dazed man the rest of the way onto his back.
John took a quick look back at the house before turning and smacking Barry across the face. Barry’s eyes snapped open but didn’t seem to register what he was seeing.
“What happened?” Jared asked, his voice laced with anxiety.
“Fucking panic attack,” John snapped, stepping away from their downed man.
Jared thought about how many times he’d felt on the verge of losing control, and how his training and late-night drinking sessions with Bart allowed him to put new and unreal experiences into perspective, affording him more control when the panic threatened to overwhelm him. Barry probably thought he had everything figured out after he’d effectively predicted the downfall of civilization, but he was nowhere near prepared for the gruesome reality of this new world.
As John looked back at Jared and Devon, who hovered over the fallen Barry, he realized Devon didn’t have the rifle he’d carried when they met. He thought back to earlier in the morning and couldn’t remember seeing the teen with the rifle, but also couldn’t say for sure Devon hadn’t been carrying the weapon.
“Where’s your rifle?” John barked, staring directly at Devon.
Devon looked nervously around as if John were speaking to someone else.
“Where is it, kid?” John demanded.
“I-I don’t bring it out on stuff like this,” Devon replied, his voice wavering ever so slightly.
“Why the hell not? We just got into a gunfight, and you didn’t bring your rifle?” John admonished, scowling at the teen.
“It’s the only one I have, and I can’t run with it like I can without it. I only bring it out to hunt for food. If one of these guys sees me with it, they’ll want it and come after me. I don’t carry anything anyone would want.” Devon spoke and acted with the logic of a teen who wanted to survive but did not intend to harm others in the process.
Barry was still groggy, but was in a seated position now as Jared and John stared at Devon. He was skinny, wore filthy pants and possibly a dirtier shirt with some unidentifiable design on the front. His shoes were lace-up high-top Vans, and his hair was a mess. After studying the kid for a moment, John snorted.
“Mr. No Gun and princess fainter, stay here. Jared and I are going down to the house. Confirm you’ve never seen anyone else coming or going from this place?” John asked again, giving Devon a raised-eyebrow stare.
Devon shook his head. “No, never, only the two guys—the guy back there.” He tossed his head back towards the alleyway. “And this one.”
John pursed his lips and gave Jared a sideways glance. “You ready?”
Jared got to his feet in answer as John turned and moved towards the front gate, where the skinny biker lay dead. They passed the skinny dead man on the ground, and Jared tried not to look too closely at the wound John had so kindly given him. Once inside the gate, John ran towards the right side of the derelict ramshackle structure. John’s rifle swept each window as they passed down the side of the house. Once they were in the rear yard, John slowed his movement as he approached a sliding glass door.
John stayed off center of the doorway as he approached, and Jared mimicked his movement. Both men stopped at the side of the glass slider and peered inside. The inside was darker than outside but appeared to be the living room or some sort of dayroom. John was about to breach the glass with the barrel of his rifle when Jared reached out and stayed his hand.
Jared moved forward and tugged on the handle, causing the door to slide soundlessly open. John chuckled under his breath in spite of his near mistake. Jared looked at John, waiting for his cue. John shrugged and gestured to Jared, indicating the younger man just earned the privilege of being first through the door. Jared didn’t hesitate and stepped inside the room, reading it as he entered. Halfway through the opening, Jared cut to his left, clearing the hard corner before sweeping back to his right, stopping his scan at the center of the room.
Jared took one step in and an additional step to the left so as to not overpenetrate the room. This tactic left John enough space to move in behind him and to the right. Both men were
