Hey guys! Vlad here with the FINAL CHAPTER of SD. Big ending, trust me, yer gonna be bitin' yer nails and then maybe tearin' up, who knows.
Anywho, enjoy, and make sure to come back at the bottom, little previews yo.
OH! And YES, Tyler's mother is French. Honest to goodness French. Well, French-Canadian, but she grew up speaking French before learning English. So yes, there's some French in here. And because I have not yet begun learning that language, it's all cruddy GoogleTranslate stuff. So any French speakers, DO NOT HESITATE to hand over the correct words. I tried to get them before doing GT, but no such luck, so it's all I could do.
Non-Frenchies, the translations aren't all that important, so don't blow a gasket thinking you've missed something big. It's pretty cut-and-go.
*Edit: I completely forgot about having to add the lines in. ;j; Whoops. Sorry about that, to those of you a little confused with the scene jumps. We just put a bunch of astericks when we're writing, but they get erased on here so I have to use the line break. I don't know why it didn't occur to me with this (and now I have to go back and check the other chapters because I feel like I've forgotten them on a few back, too. gahg).
Tyler's mother and father lived not even half an hour from Jaquilen, in a humble abode in a humble town a short drive away from a small military base. Tyler was pretty silent on the way there, but it was less of a loaded silence then it had been before, which made Burt feel a bit better. He sent a silent prayer that this would be an assignment they could quickly put behind them.
The house sat on the very edge of town, only a few blocks from the highway. Burt pulled up in front of it, catching a glance of the gas gauge as he did so. "Oh damn."
"What?"
"I forgot to fill up the tank before we left Jaquilen. Listen, I'll do that now, get some sandwiches for the road, and then come back. That way we can just head straight on out. Where's the nearest gas station?"
Tyler nodded his head to the street in front of them. "Turn left and follow it for a few blocks. Downtown's not far."
"Alright. Won't be long."
Tyler climbed out and headed up to the porch as Burt disappeared around the corner. He raised his fist to knock on the door before freezing. Something felt wrong. Very wrong. Suddenly wishing he hadn't agreed to Burt's plan, Tyler reached for the doorknob instead. It was unlocked. Not that that was a bad sign; growing up, the only time his parents had ever locked the doors was when they were going on a long trip.
Tyler opened the door slowly. He was immediately met with a harsh, horrifyingly familiar voice from the kitchen.
"Oh, Annie, if you only knew how hard it was for me to track you down," Jed's voice came with a sickening lilt to it. "I've heard of playing hard to get but this, this is," a crack sounded, like someone being violently slapped, "Is downright punishable."
Tyler's blood ran cold, then hot, then cold again as terror and anger coursed through him. Settling on anger, he hurried into the kitchen. Jed had his mother by the throat, shoved against a wall, trying to kiss her. Annie was small, a couple inches taller than Jodi, but what she lacked in height and strength, she made up for in fiery stubbornness. Bruised and bleeding from a cut on her lip, she didn't stop struggling, biting Jed's lip in the process just as Tyler grabbed his uncle from behind and yanked him backwards.
Jed let out a barrage of curses as he hit the floor, twisting to see who had interrupted him. It was then Tyler noticed the others; three equally muscle-bound men who had been sitting at the table on the other side of the kitchen. Two of them grabbed Tyler, pulling his arms tightly behind his back. Annie cried out in French, grabbing for one of the men, but the third kept her back.
"I figured you would try to be the hero again, kid," Jed snarled, grabbing the collar of Tyler's shirt into his fist. "That's gunna be the death of you."
Tyler spit in his eye. It did nothing but anger Jed even more and earn him several punches to the stomach from the men holding him, but it was still oddly satisfying.
Jed grabbed his nephew's chin, jerking his head up to look at him. "You are really asking for it," he growled, throwing a punch across his face.
"Leave him alone!" Annie screamed.
"Shut up!" he barked over his shoulder. "I ain't going to let anything stand in my way anymore," he continued. "I can't take being separated from my lovely Annie for one more day; I've lived with that long enough. Finding replacements for a woman like her ain't easy and they are never good enough. 'Bout time I get what I wanted."
"Replacements…" Tyler repeated quietly. He stared at Jed in shock. "Those women…"
"You're pretty slow on the uptake, aren't you?" Jed smirked.
Tyler shook his head as everything fell into place. "You knew about the graboid from the beginning, didn't you? That's why nobody knew about it 'til now. You kept it hidden."
"Yep!" Jed grinned proudly. "It was born in a closed canyon, couldn't get out. Would've died if I hadn't found it. Which happened by pure luck when I was dumping the first body. No one ever ventures in there. I figured it'd be a good enough spot. Turns out it was the perfect spot!"
Annie exchanged glance with her son. She hadn't heard about the rash of killings in the neighboring town. Tyler just shook his head ever so slightly. Jed took no notice of the exchange, too caught up with his classic retelling of "This is how I did my evil plan and I'm a genius."
"I had to throw it stray animals as well to keep it sufficiently fed, but nobody ever missed them. Didn't even notice. Worked well up until they morphed into assblasters. Then they could fly! Thankfully, by then, they were so used to being fed that they didn't have much interest in hunting themselves. Still, giant flying turkeys are bound to be noticed." Jed sighed, looking back at Tyler. His fist tightened in his shirt. "And then you showed up. I was fine with it at first. Happy even. Nice to see family once in a while and I didn't believe you would find anything. Seems I underestimated you and Gummer."
"We get that a lot, actually," Tyler muttered.
"Yeah, well, you won't have to worry about that anymore," Jed sneered, releasing Tyler's collar and stepping back. "Have fun, boys."
A hard fist instantly slammed into Tyler's chest, knocking the breath out of him. He doubled over but the men yanked him back up to hit him again. Black spots swam in front of his eyes as his ribcage was relentlessly pummeled before they finally let him fall to the floor. Jed watched for a while but then turned back to Annie, who was struggling in the third man's arms, crying for her son. Jed yanked her toward him and into a bruising kiss.
Tyler caught a glimpse of them as the third man joined his friends, pinning Tyler to the ground. An angry bellow from his uncle and a pained scream from his mother sent a fresh wave of adrenaline through him. Jerking his knee up, he managed to hit one of them in the crotch, making him keel over into another. Tyler punched the last guy with his free arm and scrambled to his feet, grabbing Jed again and slamming his fist in his nose.
"Terme!" Tyler yelled at his mother.
"No!" Jed, his nose crooked and gushing blood, gripped Tyler's arm and threw him against the counter. Annie screamed as Tyler's head connected with the edge and he crumpled to the floor again. He didn't move. Jed shot her a look as she took a step forward but didn't follow her as she turned around and ran out of the house, crying for help.
A few of her neighbors were already outside or poking their heads from their doors, having heard the yelling and screaming and wondering what was going on. Burt had just returned, walking up the sidewalk when Annie ran into him.
"Help, please!" the woman cried.
Burt started, a slightly worried expression behind his dark sunglasses. "What's the matter, ma'am?"
One of her neighbors was already over to them as well, looking shocked at her bruised and battered appearance. "My God, Annie, are you okay? What happened?" the woman asked.
Annie looked between the two people, tears of pain and fear streaming down her face as she rambled an explanation in French that neither could catch. Her neighbor grabbed her shoulders gently. "Annie, English!"
"My husband's….Jed...he... My son! He's hurt! In the house!" she stuttered, struggling to remember the language in her panic.
"Your son? Tyler?" Burt demanded, and Annie nodded slightly. He turned to the other woman. "Take her and go get help," he ordered before rushing into the home.
The survivalist ran through the living room towards the sounds of a struggle, bursting into kitchen in time to see three men run out a back door. He caught sight of none other than Jed, sending a kick into the side of a disturbingly limp Tyler.
"Hey!" Burt barked, clearing the space between himself and Jed and grabbing him, pulling him away from his partner.
The deputy tried to throw a punch but Burt dodged out of the way. "What are you doing here, Gummer?" he snarled before Burt caught him under the chin.
Jed was a bit taller than him, but the man was already hurt so he and Burt struggled back and forth, neither causing much damage until Jed knocked Burt to the floor with a solid hit to the chest. Burt went down but brought him with him.
The wind was knocked out of both of them, Jed ending up on his stomach, but Burt managed to grab his Eagle and roll over onto him, cracking the butt of his gun against the back of the man's sandy-colored head.
He stayed down.
Sucking in a sharp breath, Burt struggled back to his feet. He stepped over to Tyler, kneeling next to his partner and looking him over, vaguely aware of the sound of sirens in the distance. He took care not to move him, having no doubt he probably had broken ribs. He turned Tyler's head carefully to look at the long, deep gash stretching from the bottom tip of his left ear to his temple. Definitely bad, but at least he was breathing. Burt took off his top shirt and pressed it against the cut and tried not to think about how heavily it was bleeding.
Everything felt numb and his head felt light and breezy. Tyler never thought he could feel breezy, but he did. There was annoying hum coming from somewhere next to him, but he couldn't get his eyes open to look. He wanted the noise to stop though, so he kept trying until he finally convinced his eyelids to move out of the way. He blinked a few times, clearing the fuzziness and light glare until he could focus on the splash of green and brown in front of him. A moment later he recognized it as Burt, leaning back in a chair and working on a crossword. He was also humming.
Tyler grumbled incoherently and Burt looked up in surprise. He sat forward with the smallest hint if a smile. "You're finally up," he commented.
Tyler just huffed, his mouth throat too dry to say anything. A second later a straw was in front of him. He sipped eagerly and leaned back with a faint, "Thanks." Burt nodded, setting the cup back on the small table. Tyler took the moment to look around. "Where...?"
"The hospital," Burt answered quickly. "You've been out a couple of days. Jed caused quite a bit of damage, luckily none of it life threatening."
"Oh."
"Broken ribs, cut on your head, and a bad concussion," he added.
Tyler made no reply and for a moment Burt thought he'd fallen asleep. "Where's Ma?"
Burt motioned towards the mostly-closed door. "She's fine. On the phone with your father," he explained. "Nice woman, though I wish we could have met under better circumstances."
Tyler hummed quietly in agreement as Annie herself walked in. She hurried over to the bed when she saw Tyler awake. "Ty! Êtes-vous d'accord? Comment va votre tête?"
Burt smiled as the woman continued fussing over her son. He didn't need to speak French to know what she was asking as Tyler feebly waved a hand in protest. "Je vais bien, Ma, Je vais bien. Can't feel a thing. Promise."
"Do you need some water?"
"I already had some."
"What about-"
"Ma!"
Annie huffed at his interruption but stopped her pestering. Burt got to his feet and stretched. "I'll leave you two to it. I'm gonna go get something to eat. Mrs. Reed, I'll be back in half an hour to sit with Tyler. You need to eat something too, and rest."
"Of course. Thank you, Burt," Annie replied. She turned back to her son as Burt left. She sighed, leaning forward to brush his hair out of his face. "Je suis tellement désolé, miel," she murmured. She shook her head when he frowned. "Mr. Gummer told me what happened in Jaquilen. We had no idea he was so close. That was our fault. We should have been more careful."
Her French accent got heavier with each word as she struggled to keep her calm. Tyler reached up to wipe a tear from her cheek. She leaned into his touch. "It's okay, Ma. We all forgot about him."
She let out a small laugh. "I know. Still...it's our job to protect you two. I can't help but worry." She gripped his hand in hers. "It's nice to see someone has your back, though. I like that man."
Tyler chuckled wincing slightly at the pain it caused in his chest. "He has his moments."
Annie smiled. "I'm not the only one who needs rest. Get some sleep, sweetie."
Tyler mumbled faint agreement as he let his tired eyes close. He was asleep almost instantly.
Tyler's eyes opened again, fortunately much easier this time. He turned his head, expecting to see his mom, but once again Burt was at his side.
"Oh, you. How long was I out this time?" the tour guide asked.
"A little more than an hour," Burt responded.
"Hmm."
"How do you feel?"
"Little more awake. Head hurts though," Tyler admitted.
"As can be expected," Burt nodded, leaning back in his seat. "You've been through a lot. Good news is, once you're back on your feet we can head back home."
Tyler's face shadowed with fear and sorrow and he looked away. Burt frowned. "What's wrong?"
"He knows where I live." The words were barely more than a whisper and the older man had to strain to hear them.
"Who? Jed?" At Tyler's small nod, Burt forced a small smile. "Well, seeing as he has about 90 years in prison, I don't think you have to worry about him."
The look on Tyler's face could only be described as downright shock. "Prison?"
Burt nodded, looking at him with a bit of confusion. "You didn't know he was arrested? I know you were unconscious, but I thought your mother might have told you."
"We didn't talk very long before I fell asleep." Tyler stared at him almost warily. "He's really going to jail?"
"He killed at least eight women and assaulted you and Annie, and there was plenty of evidence tying him to it all," Burt reminded him.
"Well, yeah, but..." Tyler couldn't finish. The very idea that Jed hadn't and couldn't weasel his way out of trouble for once was just too foreign.
Burt caught the meaning and patted Tyler's arm comfortingly. "He's really gone, Tyler. I promise."
Tyler nodded but said nothing, staring at the ceiling. After a moment Burt spoke again, "I need to call Jodi. Told her earlier we'd be a little late, but I guess I should let them know what's goin' on and when we'll be leaving."
He stood and started to leave but stopped when Tyler grabbed his hand. "You didn't...you didn't tell them? What happened?"
"Not yet."
"Could you...not?" Tyler asked. "Tell them it- it was an assblaster or something. Whatever. Just nothing about..."
Burt squeezed his partner's hand and nodded. "I won't."
Next time on MMR...
LGF 8: In the Dark
- The explosion knocked Burt off his chair - A piercing shriek tore through the air. "Duck!" Larry screamed - Tyler paced the hospital room uneasily - "Is it permanent?" "I don't know." - Casey shook her head. "There's just no way to see these things coming." - "Where'd it go?!" -