Total Annihilation Read online

  “No!” she said. “I wouldn’t have made it here without him! He helped me find you!”

  Roy lowered his gun. He trusted his wife, but at the same time, he wasn’t about to give one of the convicts who had attacked his family’s home a free pass or automatic forgiveness by any stretch of the imagination. Even if he had protected Josie and helped bring her this far, he was still an enemy combatant who was now their mortally wounded prisoner and at their mercy.

  But then Ben started to murmur. His hand twitched and his leg moved. There was still life in him, even if it was growing dimmer and dimmer by the second. And in that moment, seeing Ben struggling to stay alive, Roy felt an ounce of sympathy. As much as he still didn’t trust Ben, keeping him alive was the morally right thing to do, he decided.

  “Then we have to help him,” Roy said resolutely. “If what you told me is true, we have to keep him alive.”

  “Can we?!” Josie asked desperately.

  “Maybe,” said Jon. “And it’s a big maybe. I can’t tell if any vital organs or arteries have been hit but he’s not going to last much longer bleeding at this rate. We have to take him to my house right now if you want to save him.”

  Jon stood up, holstered his G19 in his right thigh holster, and then started to lift Ben’s arms up.

  “Do we have a stretcher of any kind here?”

  “No stretcher!” Josie was growing increasingly frantic. “We don’t have anything, oh god what do we do…”

  “Listen!” Jon looked into Josie’s eyes. “I might be able to help him. But we need to remain calm and we need to carefully carry him back to my place. I’ll grab him by the arms and you by the legs. Roy, I need you to keep an eye out for any bad guys around here. Our lives are on you, got it?”

  Roy checked the chamber on his Beretta to confirm it was loaded. “Got it.”

  “Alright, grab his ankles and lift with your legs,” Jon instructed Josie, staying calm and keeping his cool. “Do exactly as I tell you to do.”

  Josie did as he was told, and together she and Jon lifted Ben up off the ground. Blood was spilling from his torso onto the growing puddle on the floor.

  “Wait, we have supplies!” Josie remembered. “Food, and insulin for Alex—”

  Alex! Josie thought.

  “There’s no time, dammit!” Jon exclaimed it, his calm demeanor briefly abandoning him. “Do you want to save this guy or not?! We need to start moving, now!”

  Josie and Jon started to carefully carry Ben over to the door, Roy leading the way with his Beretta at the ready.

  Roy peeked his head and Beretta outside of the bedroom and down the stairs, scanning for enemy combatants.

  “Clear!” he said and began stepping down the stairs.

  “How far are you?” Josie asked.

  “A few blocks,” responded Roy.

  “Ssshhh!” Jon hissed. “Stay quiet.”

  They reached the bottom of the staircase and Josie nearly tripped over the dead body of the enemy combatant she and Ben had shot before. The same enemy combatant who had shot Ben in the gut and was the whole reason they were carrying Ben now to begin with, she thought. The bastard had gotten what he deserved.

  “Careful,” Jon whispered under his breath. “Watch your steps.”

  Roy advanced to one of the blown out windows. His feet crunched as he stepped over thousands of pieces of tiny glass shards.

  As she helped carry Ben, Josie glanced around the floor, taking note of at least two more dead combatants who were sprawled out in awkward contortions, each with several bullet holes in their limbs and torsos. Josie realized that it had been Roy and Jon shooting across the street, and by the looks of it, none of these hostile men had really stood a chance against them.

  “We clear?” asked Jon.

  Roy was scanning the streets.

  “Maybe,” he said.

  “What do you mean maybe?” Jon snapped irritatingly.

  “I mean we’re clear for now,” Roy clarified. “But that doesn’t mean we will be for long.”

  “Then let’s move,” said Jon. “Make our way to the house. Fast but steady. Be vigilant. Extra vigilant.”

  “You wanna leave the bows?” Roy asked, referencing the compound bows and crossbows that he and Jon had brought with them during their excursion into the town.

  “No time to pick them up now, buddy.”

  Ben started to groan again in Jon and Josie’s arms.

  “He’s waking up,” said Josie.

  “Then we better move fast,” said Jon. “Because if he starts screaming, we could all be dead in a matter of seconds.”

  * * *

  The party glided down the trash littered streets, past apartment buildings and convenience stores with boarded up doors and windows and bullet riddled walls. As far as Josie could tell, the little town of Carleton was long abandoned, with no sign of living or dead civilians in the area anywhere.

  Josie had begun to lead Jon over to the walls of one building, but he tugged away in favor of the center of the street.

  “Stay away from the walls,” he whispered. “Death trap. They’ll aim for the walls to try and hit you.”

  While Josie and Jon carried Ben, who teetered on the edge of consciousness, Roy continued to keep watch with his sidearm at the ready a few feet ahead of them. He watched the abandoned streets, the corners, the alleys, the windows, and the doors for any remote sign of movement.

  “DOWN!” Roy suddenly warned, and a second later a bullet WHIZZED past Josie’s head and struck the wall of the building behind her!

  “Ah!” Josie instinctively reacted by letting go of Ben and his lower body crashed to the ground.

  “Shit!” Jon cursed, struggling to hold onto the weight of Ben’s upper body.

  The impact of his legs and feet to the cement combined with the noise of the bullet caused Ben to stir faintly awake.

  “What’s happening…where am I…” he murmured as he groggily opened his reddened eyes.

  It was then that he looked down and saw his entire front side soaked to the skin in his own blood.

  “Oh my…” his shocked eyes were unable to comprehend what he was seeing and he quickly rolled back into unconsciousness.

  “Ben!” Josie cried, but he had already faded away.

  “Stay low!” Roy ordered, scanning the area for any sign of where the shooter was.

  Jon had drawn one of his Glock 19’s with his right hand while awkwardly trying to hold onto Ben by the jacket collar with his left

  “Let’s keep moving!” he growled. “This guy doesn’t have much longer!”

  Two more gunshots suddenly whizzed past the party and also struck the wall.

  This time, Roy’s alert eyes had discovered the position of the shooter. He took aim with his Beretta and popped off two shots at a fleeting humanoid target that was diving for cover behind a row of parked cars. Both bullets ricocheted off the trunk of an abandoned Kia sedan and the flash of blur that was the target disappeared.

  Roy continued to keep his Beretta 92 trained on the cars as Josie and Jon picked up Ben and continued moving on behind him.

  Even though the target never re-appeared, Roy fired two more shots as insurance as he backed up with Josie and Jon and they took cover behind a corner.

  “How many hostiles?” Jon asked.

  “One was all I saw,” said Roy, peeking his head cautiously around the corner. “Don’t see him anymore though.”

  “Just a couple of more blocks to go,” Jon nodded his head towards his walled concrete house up the street. “But we’re not in the clear yet. You mind trading places, buddy?”

  Roy holstered his Beretta and he and Jon switched positions so that Roy was now lifting Ben by the arms and shoulders.

  Josie took a good look at Roy’s house up the street on the hill. A concrete wall around eight feet high surrounded his property, with his two story home that was further reinforced with concrete nestled nicely in the middle. Clearly, he was someone who was at least
a little bit concerned about security.

  “Let’s make a run for it,” Roy hurriedly suggested. “It’s a miracle this guy is still alive. We need to get him into that house and we need to get him there now.”

  “Too risky, my friend,” Jon was peering around the corner for any signs of hostiles.

  “It’s risky enough that we’re even out here,” Roy countered. “I say we make a run for it. Or else this kid will bleed to death if he hasn’t already.”

  “I agree,” Josie said, her knees nearly buckling under the weight of carrying Ben the whole time.

  Outvoted, Jon sighed.

  “This could be a big mistake,” he said.

  Suddenly, three more bullets struck the brick corner, dust spraying across Jon’s face!

  “Screw that, make a run for it!” he called out after Roy and Josie, who were already making a beeline for Jon’s house with Ben in their arms.

  Rather than follow them, Jon held his ground. Two more bullets struck the brick corner.

  Jon spat out dust from his mouth and rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. Getting a firm two handed combat grip on his Glock 19, he instinctively whirled around the corner and immediately blind fired three shots in rapid succession, hoping it would cause whoever was shooting to instinctively jump for cover.

  Upon firing his third shot after coming around the corner, he spotted and zeroed in on his target, a relatively short masked man dressed in camouflage and holding a semi-automatic carbine of some kind.

  Both the masked man and Jon fired simultaneously. The masked man’s bullets missed Jon by mere inches and struck the bricks behind him, but Jon unleashed hell with his Glock, advancing on his opponent while firing seven rapid fire shots without any hesitation in between trigger pulls. Several rounds struck the masked man in the torso region and caused him to reel back.

  Rather than change magazines Jon performed a New York reload, tossing away his now empty Glock and drawing his extra one with his left hand, while continuing to advance on the wounded masked man.

  The masked man was staggering around uncontrollably, going into a state of shock from his numerous bullet wounds. His shaking hands let go of his carbine and it clanged to the pavement.

  Jon saw that his opponent was defeated, but he also knew that he was still dangerous and thus he kept his pistol trained on him.

  “How many guys are you with?” Jon asked through gritted teeth.

  The wounded man didn’t reply, instead losing his balance and crashing to the ground.

  “How many?!” Jon asked again, knowing full well he was exposed out in the open.

  Again, the masked man didn’t respond. He tried to pull himself back to his feet, but failed and crashed down again to his knees.

  Jon saw it was a hopeless struggle and knew he had to get out of the open quickly to re-join Roy and Josie. Getting split up was bad enough and lost would be even worse.

  He took quick but careful aim at the masked man’s head, and fired a single shot to put him down and out of his misery.

  With that, Jon quickly recovered his empty Glock, took a quick look around of his surroundings, and then jogged back around the corner.

  He saw Roy and Josie were already nearing the wall of his property. His eyes and ears on full alert on the hostile environment around him, Jon sped up his pace to catch up with them.

  Chapter 25

  “Mom!” Alex cried as Roy and Josie burst into Jon’s house with the bloody and unconscious Ben in their arms.

  “Alex!”

  Josie couldn’t contain her relief and excitement to see her ten year old daughter again despite the situation. Alex ran across the room and tried to hug Josie across the waist.

  “Keep moving!” Roy barked when Josie stalled.

  In the front yard, Jon locked shut the gate to the wall and then dashed across his graveled lawn to the front door, which he promptly shut and locked behind him as well.

  “Take him into the kitchen!”

  Roy and Josie dashed through Jon’s home and into the kitchen, carefully setting Ben down on the dinner table. Waves of relief swept over Josie’s numbed arms as she was finally able to let go of Ben’s weight.

  Jon swung open cabinets and drawers in the kitchen and began fishing around for his emergency first aid supplies. Several glasses and dishes crashed to the hardwood floor and shattered into pieces. His boots crunched over them as he zipped back and forth between all corners of the kitchen in the hurried search for the first aid.

  Alex hopped into the kitchen to look Ben over, appalled and yet also curious at the sight of all the blood.

  “What’s wrong with him?” she asked innocently. “I can help out!”

  “Go to the top level and keep a look out for anybody you see!” Roy ordered his daughter.

  “But I want to help!” Alex insisted.

  “We may have been followed, so you can help by keeping a look out!” Roy shot back.

  Knowing better than to argue with her father, especially in intense situations such as these, Alex turned and disappeared up the stairs to the upper level of the home.

  “Just the two bullet wounds, right?” Jon asked as he glided over to the dining room table with an armful of bandages, gauze pads, tourniquets, morphine, and other medical items.

  “One more in the leg,” Josie said.

  “WHAT?!” Jon’s eyes went wide.

  “It’s old, it’s old!” Josie clarified. “The ones in the arm and the abdomen are the only ones of concern right now. Sorry, sorry…”

  Jon shook his head as he used a pair of scissors to cut open Ben’s shirt, soggy in all the blood. “Man, this poor kid sure has been shot up far worse than anyone should ever have to be. Reminds me of this infirmary in Afghanistan back in 2001…”

  With Ben’s shirt now removed they were quickly able to locate the two bullet holes, one in the upper left arm and one in the gut. The wound in the gut was bleeding far more profusely due to the tourniquet above the wound in the upper arm.

  Jon took a towel, wrapped it up, and then carefully pressed it over the wound in the abdomen to help prevent the flow of the bleeding.

  “Take this and keep the pressure on!” he snapped to Josie.

  “Okay, okay,” Josie tried to keep herself calm as her hands replaced Jon’s over the towel. “So we just gotta pull the bullets out and close up the wounds, right?”

  “If only it were that simple,” said Jon as he rummaged around in his med kit. “In some cases, there may be small shards of the bullet lodged in the flesh in the surrounding area. Ideally you would remove those pieces too, but considering the fact that we don’t have all the personnel and equipment I’m used to it might be more dangerous trying to remove them than it is just leaving them there.”

  “We have to remove the larger parts of the bullets at least,” Roy pointed out. “It’s the only way to properly clean and disinfect the wounds.”

  Jon withdrew small bottles of painkillers and antibiotics from his emergency med kit. He handed these to Roy.

  “Force these down his throat,” Jon instructed as he next pulled out a pair of medical tweezers and began wiping them down with an alcohol sanitizer pad. “They’ll prevent the progress of the infection and help subdue the pain. Won’t be much but it’s enough to matter.”

  Roy did as he was instructed, prying Ben’s mouth open and forcing the pills down.

  “Okay, now for the main event,” said Jon, taking a deep breath to prep himself. “Listen very carefully. We’ll start with the abdomen first. Roy, after Josie pulls back the towel I want you to hold the wound cavity open so I can locate the bullet or at least the largest fragments. Josie, I want you to grab a kitchen knife and some matches and go outside and get a fire going. There’s firewood in the shed. You take that knife and put the blade into the fire until it gets as hot as it can. We’re talking red hot. Got it?”

  Roy and Josie both nodded affirmatively and yet nervously.

  “Okay, okay, now pull back the
covering and do exactly as I said,” Jon instructed.

  Josie slowly pulled back the towel to reveal the messy bullet hole. The flow of blood had slowed but it hadn’t stopped. Looking deep into the wound, Josie could see that Ben’s skin and flesh had been completely ripped apart like tissue paper. She couldn’t even imagine how bad the internal organs might be. It was just amazing someone could be wounded so grievously and survive, she thought.

  “What you are still standing here for?!” Jon snapped Josie out of her mesmerization. “Go and heat that damn knife blade!”

  Josie immediately bounded for the kitchen and yanked open drawers before she found the cooking utensils and withdrew a butter knife. Behind her, she glanced to see Roy and Jon working on Ben’s abdomen.

  “Get that fire going now!” Jon yelled, blood spurting from the bullet wound as he struggled to locate the bullet fragments with the tweezers.

  Frantically Josie swung open more doors and cupboards until she located the old box of waterproof matches resting amongst other utility items.

  She then ran out the backdoor to the graveled backyard with the knife and matches in hand. She went first for the shed near the corner, but to her dismay the front door was locked.

  Dammit! She thought.

  Rather than run back into the house to ask Jon for the key she hurriedly circled the shed in an attempt to locate any kind of firewood that she hoped would be there, instead only gathering a few sticks and leaves that she could find to use as kindling. At least it was better than nothing.

  Matches spilled everywhere as Josie ripped open the box and struck one of them to get a small flame going. Kneeling down, she held the flame to one of the leaves to ignite it. Once it took hold, she began adding more leaves and smaller sticks to grow it.

  Hardly the best way to get a fire going, but in the considerable rush she didn’t care. She just had to get a large enough fire going and she had to get it going fast.

  Once the little fire was going, Josie carefully placed the blade of the knife into it to heat it. As much as she wanted to relax and stare into the fire before falling to sleep, she pulled herself away to search for more fuel.