Chapter 26 - Photograph
Carley and I duck for cover behind the rock wall as gunfire rings out from both sides. The unmistakable "whizz" of bullets flying past me rings in my ear and I immediately duck back down.
"Stay down, and crawl along the wall. Stay out of their sight." I poke back up and start firing, striking the Russian woman right in the chest. Another bullet whizzes by my head and I turn to see the leader, the bald one with the tattoos, firing his rifle in my general direction. I duck back down into cover as Luke pokes out and sprays a few rounds at them.
"Clem!" He yells to her. I look out from the side, she's lying right in the middle of the gunfight. Not shot, but not in an ideal place either. She gets up, and starts running. Running towards… the baby? Holy shit. The baby. He's laying right there, right in the middle of the crossfire. She picks him up, running with the baby like he's a football until she ducks down behind cover next to me.
"Holy shit! You guys ok? He's not shot is he?"
"No. He's ok. Just frightened." Good. Good.
"Jesus Christ. What do we do? We can't let these guys take potshots at us until they run out of ammo." Luke tells us, poking his head out before more gunfire forces him down.
"I'll cover you. Just make it fast." I tell him.
"Yeah. Yeah ok. Do this on my go. Ready… Go!" I pop up from cover and hold down the trigger, shooting towards one of them as the bastard hides behind a rock. He pops out again and fires, and I hear Luke scream out to my right.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck" He yells out, gritting his teeth and clutching his bloody shin. 2 or 3 bullet holes in his lower leg, blood seeping out, staining the pure white snow.
"Oh Jesus. Did the shots go through?"
"Yeah. Yeah I think so. Fuuuuuuck that hurts."
"You're gonna be fine once we end this. We'll patch you up, alright?" I dump my empty magazine and grab a new one, ready to spray more rounds his way.
"Right right. End this."
"You get out here, or I put a bullet in this kid's head!" I poke my head out to see Kenny holding the Arvo kid hostage as the other alive Russian continues to hide. This is Kenny's way of ending things.
"Leave him alone Kenny! He's just a kid!" Bonnie says to him.
"I'm ending this shit, Bonnie." He responds, keeping the gun at Arvo's head. Out of the corner of my eye, the woman's body twitches. Once. Twice. Another time. She's turned. I shot her in the chest but I never put her down. She gets up and starts crawling towards us. But before she can get to close, Clem takes initiative and pops her, just as Arvo looks over to us.
"Nooooooooooooooooooo!" He yells as he squirms away from Kenny's grasp. "Natasha! Natasha!" He yells to the dead woman. Of course, there's no response. She was long gone. He turns to us with a glare in his eyes. She shot at us, so I really couldn't give any fewer damns about what happened to her.
The last Russian yells something before all I can hear is the sounds of choking. Blood pours out of his mouth and he turns to reveal a knife in the back of his neck. He claws out at nothing, but the inevitable continues with the knife in the back of his neck. The owner of the knife? None other than Jane herself. We all stand there watching him struggle for his life for a few moments before Kenny puts him down for good with a shot to the head.. Sans the baby crying, there is silence. Finally, it seems safe.
"Jesus Christ." Luke exhales. "That was… That was intense."
"I thought that was it man. I thought we were done for." Mike winces as he holds his shoulder, which apparently also got hit by a bullet during the exchange of bullets.
"It was us or them. I'm just happy it was them." Carley remarks. I put an arm around her, glad to see she was unscathed from the incident. Given some of our past gunfights, it's nice to see Carley and I both alive and not wounded. Hopefully our luck doesn't run out anytime soon.
We huddle around Rebecca's body. She had no last words, didn't say anything, just died.
Fucking tragic.
"She turned. Just like that. She must've lost too much blood. Ain't nobody's fault. Nothing we could've done." Luke says somberly.
"I'll never forget how she and Alvin kept Mia alive. I owed them the world for that, but they're gone." I frown. I'll be forever grateful to those two.
"Ian. You saved the boy's life. They would've wanted that." Mike reminds me.
"Yeah. Yeah you're right."
I walk over to her body, seeing her eyes still open, and close them for good. "Thank you for keeping Mia alive, Rebecca. Now you rest easy, and we'll keep your boy alive."
CRACK
We all freeze at the all too familiar sound of a single handgun shot.
And my heart stops.
I look up to Carley. A pained look on her face as she collapses.
"CARLEY! CARLEY NO!" I rush to my wife's side, and a dark red spot forms on her chest. Blood seeping from the wound. She's been shot.
"NO! FUCK! FUCKFUCKFUCK!" I apply as much pressure as I can to her chest, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. "BONNIE! BONNIE GET THE FUCKING BANDAGES! FUCK!" I unzip her jacket frantically, throwing off her shirt, leaving her in her white undershirt, most of it now stained red in her blood. An exit wound, just above her midsection, seeps blood.
"Ian here." Bonnie hands me some bandages. I unroll them, laying them on the wound and holding them down as hard as I can.
"Ian…." my wife says to me weakly.
"Not now Carley! You're gonna be alright. Fuck!" I frantically apply more bandages.
Not now Carley.
Not now.
Not ever.
This isn't how it ends for us.
It can't be.
"Ian…" she says even more weakly. "My jacket. Pocket. In there…"
"Carley… Baby no. No. You're gonna be alright. YOU'RE GONNA MAKE IT! CARLEY!" Tears well up and my voice breaks.
"I love you." She leans up to kiss me one last time as I feel her fade away in my arms and my heart finally shatters as I lay her down, her eyes glued to the sky and a blank expression on her face. She's gone.
My wife, the woman I loved, the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with, taken from me in the blink of an eye. Just like that. Like someone blew out a candle.
I put my face in my hands, letting out the most painful scream of my life. A mixture of blood and tears coats part of my face as Luke puts his hand on me. I shove it off me, walking over and crouching over her jacket. Reaching inside her pocket, I see what she wanted me to have. The Polaroids from back at the cabin. One of her and I kissing, and the other of just her. I have to cover my eyes and cry. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not like this. A last gift from her. A way for me to always remember her.
Clementine, tears in her eyes, hands me her gun, which I take graciously from her with a hug. With a sniff, and a squeeze of the trigger, I make sure she doesn't come back.
"I'm sorry." I whisper. She's in a better place. She doesn't have to worry about this anymore.
Hopefully I won't have to, either..
"You son of a bitch!" Kenny roars as he throws a punch at Arvo. "You piece of shit! You killed his fucking wife!"
I walk next to him. "Hold him down." I tell him as I draw my pistol. He grabs his arms and pins them behind his back, all while setting him down on his knees.
I send a swift kick to his ribs. And another. And another. He coughs up a little blood and I point the gun right at his temple.
'Give me one good reason why I shouldn't put a bullet in your brain right fucking now."
"Ian don't! He's not a threat to us." Bonnie says to me.
"Not a threat? I'm sorry, did you see what he JUST did?" I fire back to her.
"Please…. There is house… food. Please, I can take you." He weakly says to us.
"Bullshit. He's fucking lying." Kenny says to me. Frankly, I agree. This is exactly what I'd say to save my skin if I was in his position.
"Wait. Hold on. Ian, think about this. If he's telling the truth, we'll have food and shelter. If he's lying, then you can shoot him. But if you kill him now, we'll never know." Mike says to me.
"Is true. We have place. Food. Not far. I can take you." Arvo pleads.
"Why the fuck would you want to help us? And why the fuck should we trust you?"
"I not want to see more people dead."
"You don't want to see more people dead? That's fucking rich. You just killed my wife 3 minutes ago."
"Please…"
"Think about the baby. This ain't gonna matter if we all starve." Bonnie says to me. I sigh and look up to the sky for a second, before looking back into the kid's eyes, lowering my weapon.
"Alright, kid. You've bought yourself some time.." I raise my gun and point it at him once again. "For now. But just give me a reason…. Just give me a fucking reason."
"You're making the right decision, Ian." Bonnie tells me.
"Yeah whatever. We got something to tie this fucker up with?" Bonnie hands me some rope.
"I got it." Kenny offers and I hand him the rope, watching him tie Arvo up and not being too kind about it. Kenny might hate this guy more than I do.
Arvo starts leading the way as I take one final look back at my wife's body. Her final resting place, the middle of some field in Tennessee. She deserved better. She deserved a proper burial. She deserved a proper life for the princess she was. Not this.
But instead, all I have now are a couple photographs. A couple photographs is all that's left after years of love.
"Ian. You coming?" Bonnie asks me, the others well ahead of us.
"Yeah. I'll be right behind you." I take one last glance at Carley. The last time I'll ever see the love of my life ever. With a frown and a sigh, I walk away to catch up with the others, but Bonnie cuts me off, pulling me in for a hug. Defeated by life, I nearly collapse into her arms and I just want to cry again.
"It'll be alright Ian. She's watching over you in Heaven. Everything's gonna be alright, don't you worry."
A single teardrop rolls down my cheek. "I can't even think right, Bonnie. I just can't. My wife, she's gone. Just in an instant. She was taken from me, just like that."
"Best thing you can do for her is to keep fighting. Don't let her death hold you down. I know you're strong enough to do 're a survivor. So keep on surviving."
I pull away from the hug, with a teary smile on my face, and I nod.
"Thank you."
A few hours later, Arvo leads us to a clearing in the woods. An old power station comes into view.
"This ain't it, is it?" Kenny asks him angrily.
"It what?" The Russian asks cluelessly.
"The house you're taking us to. This isn't it, is it?" Clementine asks.
"No. Is still more walk. Several hours."
"God damn it. He fucked us." Kenny curses aloud.
"It's getting late, we should settle for the night." Bonnie suggests. The general consensus agrees.
"We should scout the place out, check for any weaknesses in the fence. If it's secure, we may as well." Jane says.
"I'll check it out. Can you calm him down?" Kenny hands me the baby, who's acting a bit fussy for God knows what reason.
"I'll go with." Jane volunteers as well. The two of them leave, as I try to deal with Alvin Jr., the name they chose for him along the way.
I try to rock him in my arms slowly, shushing him, bouncing him lightly in my arms, nothing. He continues to cry. But Clem takes him from my arms and does a silly face, instantly quieting the boy, somehow.
"I guess you're just a natural" I remark.
"I guess so" She says as she continues to hold him, rocking him slowly.
"Come on over y'all. It's safe." Kenny's voice calls to us from just outside the power station.
Soon enough, we're all huddled by a fire. Well, most of us. We tied Arvo to a pole and Jane opted to not join us by the fire. As for everyone else, we enjoy the warm glow of the fire.
"Today's my birthday… I think" Luke tells us, breaking the silence.
"Happy Birthday, man. How old?"
"27. But I feel a lot older."
"Oh don't even get started with that shit." Kenny remarks with a smile.
"Got out of college five years ago. Feels like a million." Luke says, looking down at the cement ground we sit on. Five years ago, he was done with college, that means it's been about three since I got drafted. And I never got to take a single snap. All the work for none of the glory. It sucks. "At least I don't gotta worry about any student loans." he sheepishly grins.
"I hear that!" Mike smiles. "But I bet there's some asshole that's gonna be sitting on the paperwork, waiting to collect."
"I miss college. It's funny, I got drafted in the NFL and was so excited to be done with school, done with worrying about money forever. Yet here I am, willing to give anything to go back to those times."
"Yeah. Not havin' to worry about money must've been nice while it lasted. I majored in Art History, hasn't exactly helped too much in the past few years." Luke says to us, which gets a chuckle out of Kenny.
"Sounds like you majored in workin' in a coffee shop."
"Pretty much. I did minor in agriculture to keep the old man happy, at least."
"Oh I almost forgot." Bonnie pulls out a big red bottle with black and gold trim. "I was saving it for a special occasion and well, bein' your birthday and all, I figure why not."
"Rum? Where the hell did you get good rum in this mess?" I ask with a smile.
"Bill didn't like us drinking. He said it turned strong people weak and weak people into liabilities. He kept it all in the armory, so I snuck a bottle when we broke out." She hands Luke the bottle.
"Well I feel guilty taking the first sip."
"Woah woah. You gotta say a toast before you drink." She lightly scolds him.
He shrugs embarrassed, "I'm not really the talking type."
"Come on birthday boy, it don't have to be fancy."
"Well alright then… To the loved ones we lost along the way, and to the hope that we see them… someday." He raises the bottle before downing a sip of the rum.
"Here, here." Mike says and I nod in agreement.
"I'm gonna take first watch." Kenny offers, standing up and walking off before any of us can try to convince us otherwise.
Luke hands me the bottle. "I think you need a drink the most, man. How're you holding up?"
I graciously accept the bottle and take a swig before saying anything. "This past week, I've seen the two people I love most taken from me in the blink of an eye. When I came home that first night and saw my parents and brother dead on the basement floor, I never had a chance to say goodbye. When Carver shot my sister, I never had a chance to say goodbye. But Carley, I had a chance to say goodbye. I got to tell her I love her one last time. I thought it'd be better, but it's only felt worse. I can't think straight, I don't know what to do. This whole time, I acted in Carley's best interests, but now that she's gone, I don't know what to do." I take another big swig, and I start feeling the booze hit me. "It's kinda funny in a fucked up way. I did so much to make sure she was safe, but now that I failed at that, I have no clue. That was my only plan, keep her alive."
"Carley was nice. And really pretty. She had really pretty eyes." Clem tells me, and I nearly tear up thinking about it.
"I fell in love with those same brown eyes the first day I met her. Every morning, I'd fall in love with her again. She had that effect on me. She was something like no other woman. I truly believe she was my soulmate."
"I'm sorry, man. She was something special." Mike tells me. And I nod lightly.
"She really was. I couldn't imagine anyone I'd rather be with." I take one last swig before pouring some out for her, and handing off the bottle to Mike.
The five of us sit by the fire, enjoying the warmth and the alcohol for some time, before Bonnie suggests inviting Jane over.
Clem offers to talk to her and brings Jane the bottle.
"I cannot figure her out." Bonnie says as we take occasional glances over to the two.
"Why do you think she came back?" Mike asks. Luke and Bonnie shrug.
"Maybe she came back for you." I suggest, "Or maybe it was for Clem. She did take a shining to her."
"Maybe. Maybe." Luke shrugs again.
"Uh… hi" We hear her voice behind us as she walks over sits down next to Mike.
"Welcome." Bonnie's face lights up as Jane joins us.
"So I have a question for the both of you." Mike chuckles. "Were you guys really fuckin' back there?"
"Ugh." Jane shakes her head, smiling. "Yeah. We were."
"Come on now." Luke says. "Was it the worst thing in the world to wanna forget about this for 10 or so minutes?"
"10 minutes? That's longer than I'd last at this point." Mike remarks with a laugh.
"Alright, alright. It wasn't quite ten minutes." He blushes and rubs his forehead.
"I needed it, he needed it, so we did." Jane shrugs, and I chuckle a bit. First time I've legitimately laughed in a while, but maybe that's the drink in me.
"So it was good at least?" Mike asks with a sorta tipsy smile.
"Best 10 minutes I've had in the last 2 years." Luke smiles.
Bonnie looks up and shakes her head quickly. I turn around to see Kenny and Clementine walking back towards us, the baby in Kenny's hands.
"It's nice to hear everyone happy again." Clem remarks with a cheery smile.
"I definitely feel better. Being with you guys, it's made this a lot easier on me. So thank you for that." I smile, despite how I feel on the inside.
I'm not happy.
Not at all.
How could someone be happy after losing their wife and sister?
How does one stay hopeful when they've lost everything they love?
"We've spent so much time trying to stay alive, that we don't really have a chance to be living. I'm glad we could have a night to enjoy that." Luke adds.
"We really do need to make more time for that." Bonnie quietly says in agreement.
"The alcohol helps." Luke responds as he takes another swig.
"Damn right it does." I nod as he hands me the bottle and with a gulp I take my last drink of the night.
Far off to my left, I hear Arvo crying. I can't say I feel bad for the kid, but I sorta get where he's coming from. At least, I understand how it feels. I still want him dead for what he did, yet I'm having a hard time trying to justify killing him.
Mike notices this, too. "Hey Ian. Lemme get that bottle. There's someone else who could use some help."
I hesitate for a moment, looking over at him, I debate if it's worth giving Arvo any booze at all. But it's not fair to him for me to be drinking away my pain if he can't either. So with a frown and a sigh, I drop the bottle in Mike's hands.
"Sounds like a waste of good rum." Kenny mutters.
"He lost his sister today, Kenny. Lighten up." Bonnie says to him.
"Lighten up? He killed Ian's wife. Almost got the rest of us shot, too. It's his own damn fault his sister's dead."
"Kenny." I stop him. "It's fine. Give the kid a drink."
Without another word, Mike walks over to Arvo and offers him a drink.
Despite Mike's good intentions, Arvo is having none of it. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" The Russian kid yells out. And yet, Mike stays and consoles the kid. Kenny gets up with a look on his face that raises nothing but red flags. I look him dead in the eyes and shake my head. He sits back down as we let Mike talk to Arvo.
"We should probably get some rest." Bonnie suggests, "We don't know how much further Arvo'll lead us."
"I'll take first watch." Kenny declares as he stands up.
"Thanks Kenny." Bonnie says to him as she gets comfortable.
"Don't mention it." He mutters with a frown as he goes to his spot.
I sit up against a wall, looking into the dying fire, thinking about Carley. My first night without her. Four years of happiness, all down the drain. How does one get over that? How does one find a way to make up for all that being taken from you, for no good reason?
How does one keep moving forward when they've lost everything they care about?
That's a question I'm gonna have to figure out.
#RIPCarley