“John has set up an ambush for these guys and wants us to come to him now. Remember the guys a couple of days ago and how they used whistles to move on us?”
Stephani didn’t seem to understand what Jared was talking about and had until now thought Jared and John were just whistling in order to come together. “No, I don’t know what you mean.”
“They used whistling to communicate, and so are we.”
Stephani nodded hesitantly, but didn’t ask for any further explanation, which suited Jared, who turned right and moved at a brisker pace till he felt he was at least within a street or two of John’s southernly position. Jared veered right again, pushing their pace a bit harder now that he knew they were within a few blocks of reaching John. Jared held off whistling until he was sure his pursuers couldn’t cut him off. Jared tried to remember his physical education class and how long it had taken on average to complete a quarter mile. He couldn’t remember for sure, but knew a couple of things were different today than back in high school. He’d never attended PE class carrying six hundred rounds of ammunition and a rifle, not to mention the heavy pack pulling at his fatigued shoulders. Jared estimated four or five minutes at the very quickest to cover the distance in his current state.
Chapter 34
A few minutes later, Jared almost keeled over when he heard John’s voice from the front window of a house.
“Don’t look, bro, it’s me. Keep going up this street. I saw three guys following you earlier. Just keep going, and hopefully they’ll follow right behind you.”
Stephani didn’t so much as flinch as far as Jared could tell, but it took every ounce of self-control Jared possessed not to glance over at John as they passed his position.
Inside, Stephani was so incredibly overwrought, it wasn’t hard to stare straight ahead and listen to John’s voice off to their left. She had been scared in the past where the slightest noise would send her jumping out of her own skin. At the point John spoke up, Stephani was well beyond that point. She was now more in a state of dread, following Jared and expecting to die at any moment. She’d seen Jared jump when John called out, and this propelled her deeper into a state of terror. If Jared, who seemed like he had done this a hundred times before, was on edge, things must be as bad as they could possibly get.
Jared and Stephani continued up the street at a slow jog while John sat coiled like a viper in the living room of some family who was likely dead, waiting to eliminate three men who just four short months prior might have been the coaches of their kid’s soccer team or sat on their child’s school board. Now they were out in the darkness of the early morning, hunting a man and a woman they knew nothing of other than the two might have food or water the men seemed to think they had a right to. Jared’s skin crawled as the thought entered his mind that the men might take a shot at them before John had them in his field of fire.
This thought gave rise to Jared turning to look over his shoulder. John couldn’t possibly be compromised by this move; it was a perfectly normal thing for one being pursued to have a look over their shoulder now and again. When he turned his head, Jared saw three of them, maybe an eighth of a mile behind. They moved in the middle of the street with the confidence of people used to preying on the weak.
The men were running just like Stephani and him, only they seemed to be moving quite a bit faster. The men had without a doubt adopted the mentality that they would simply wear their prey down, then take what they wanted and move back into their neighborhood. None of the three men took the time or effort to shoot at them, so Jared figured the distance must seem as futile a shot as it seemed to him.
Jared continued furtive glances back, not remembering the exact spot John lay waiting for the doomed men to cross into. The darkness was beginning to lighten, but only a little as morning descended on the earth, and still Jared was barely able to make out the three lone figures doggedly gaining on him step after step.
When it happened, it happened fast and spectacularly. Jared heard the low snaps of John’s suppressed rounds as they tore into the men. Two of the men fell like dropped sacks of flour. Sparks flew from the street and even the men’s gear as John’s bullets glanced off the men’s weapons and any other metallic gear they were wearing. The third man never attempted to engage John, instead choosing to flee, but was gunned down from behind. Jared knew what was coming, but still the sparks from bullets impacting metal and asphalt was like an unexpected fireworks death show, all too reminiscent of yesterday’s slaughter. As fast as it all started, it was over as the three fallen men’s bodies lay twitching briefly before settling into what was assuredly going to be their aboveground graves.
As the fireworks show started, both Jared and Stephani spun, watching the insanity behind them. When the third and final man dropped to the hard road’s surface, Jared started, realizing he was standing frozen in the center of the street. He elbowed Stephani, and they both moved off the road, into a front yard, where he dropped to the ground behind a large landscape stone.
“Watch the road,” Jared ordered, gesturing in the direction the two were originally headed. Jared remained fixated on the pile of
