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Chapter 37: Give Me a Reason
"Was that a gunshot?" Mike asked, his heart sinking into his stomach. He ran over to the window and peered outside with Micky right behind him. What he saw made his heart sink even further. The car was parked out front, but he didn't see anyone inside it anymore.
"I can't see that far," Micky said.
"I think they may have run off into the trees," Mike said seeing movement in the tree line right behind the car. But he couldn't make any people out through the trees.
"I think I recognize that blue car," Micky said. "Take Marcy and run back to the principal's office and call for help."
"No, I don't want to leave you!" Marcy pled.
"Marcy, go with Mike and Patty," Micky said kneeling down next to Marcy. "You'll be safe, ok."
"What about you, Micky?" Mike asked growing concerned for his friend. "You're half blind; don't tell me that you're going to go out there alone."
"I'm not half blind," Micky answered standing back up and speaking quietly to Mike. "I think I know that car which means it's probably my parents. They aren't going to kill me until they find Marcy, too. I'm just gonna go get Davy and Peter. You're going to call Mukada for help. I need to make sure Marcy stays safe. I can't worry about her and them."
"I'm going with you," Mike said.
"No," Micky answered firmly which startled Mike a little. Micky never took charge like that. "If I'm wrong and that's your father, then you'd be dead within a second. If I'm right and it's my parents, they'll keep me alive to find Marcy. I need you to keep her safe. I trust you." Without waiting for a response, Micky took off down the hallway towards the doors. Mike desperately wanted to follow him, but suddenly they heard another gunshot ring out and Marcy suddenly started crying. Micky turned long enough to make sure Mike, Patty, and Marcy were unharmed before he continued through the doors.
"Mike," Patty said looking sternly at Mike. "We have to go." Mike grabbed Marcy, picked her up and started running down the hallway. When they reached a classroom, they ran inside.
"I'm gonna go call Mukada," Patty said. "Stay here with her. Away from the windows."
"Be careful," Mike answered.
"Mike, I'm scared," Marcy said sobbing.
"I know, sweetie, but I'm here," Mike said kneeling next to her and tucking her hair behind her ears. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise."
"What about Micky and Peter and Davy?" Marcy cried.
"Everything's going to be ok, sweetie," Mike said pulling her close to him. As he did, another gunshot rang out and Marcy screamed and started shaking with fear. Mike sat on the floor and pulled Marcy into his lap. She wrapped her arms tightly around him and sobbed into his shoulder. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine." Mike carefully stroked her hair to try and keep her calm and relaxed. It seemed to work at least a little as she stopped shaking at least. After a few minutes, Patty came back and locked the door to the classroom behind her.
"Mukada is on his way," Patty said and sat down next to Mike. "I told the principal what happened and he's making sure the rest of his staff is safe."
"Good," Mike answered.
"How you doing, sweetie?" Patty asked placing a hand on Marcy back.
"I'm scared," she answered tearfully.
"I know," Patty answered. "Me too. But Mike is going to keep us safe in here."
"I know, but what about Micky?" Patty asked.
"He knows how to take care of himself," Patty answered. "He's gonna be ok." Mike looked at Patty hoping they were both right and that Micky would be ok. Patty seemed a little pale, but Mike assumed it was just because she was worried about what was happening. Her brother was missing and they'd now heard three gunshots. Mike had to focus on the idea that if someone had wanted to simply kill Peter and Davy, they would have done so instead of taking them into the tree line. And hopefully Micky was right and he knew what he was doing. They sat there for several minutes trying to calm Marcy down when Mike noticed Patty holding her stomach as though she were in pain but trying to hide it.
"Patty, are you ok?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Patty answered unconvincingly.
"Are you sure?" Mike asked.
"Just a little pain," Patty answered. "Maybe a little dizzy."
"When's the last time you went to the doctor?" Mike asked.
"Before I came out here," Patty answered.
"Yeah, maybe we need to make that a priority," Mike said as he realized it had probably been about 2 months since she'd had a check-up. And being pregnant with the stress of everything that was happening was probably not a good thing.
"Patty?" Marcy asked pulling away from Mike a little. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, sweetie," Pattie answered offering a smile to Marcy. Marcy laid her head down on Mike's chest and they sat there like that for another few minutes before they finally heard the sirens of the police cars approaching. Patty stood up quickly to get ready to flag them down, but she suddenly raised her hand to her head and fell back into the wall.
"Patty?" Mike asked standing up with Marcy still clinging to him.
"I'm just a little dizzy," Patty answered.
"Take it easy," Mike said. "Just relax." Marcy closed her eyes for a minute and focused her breathing and Mike instinctively readied himself to catch her in case she fell again. Instead she cried out in pain and clutched her stomach.
"Patty?" Marcy said worriedly.
"Marcy, I need you to let go for a minute," Mike said trying to stay calm so as not to freak out Marcy. He could tell something was wrong with Patty and he didn't want Marcy to be any more scared than she already was.
"I'm ok," Patty said as Marcy let go of Mike.
"Patty, sit down," Mike said softly helping her sit back down on the floor. "We need to get you to see a doctor. Something's wrong."
"What's wrong with Patty?" Marcy asked.
"I don't know, sweetie, but I need you to stay here next to her," Mike said. "I'm going to go let those police officers know where we are. Can you do that for me? Can you stay right here next to Patty and don't go anywhere unless you see me, Micky, Peter, or Davy come in here?" Marcy nodded and sat down next to Patty. "Ok, I'll be right back. Just relax and hang tight."
Micky ran out the door of the school. He wasn't sure he really recognized the car, but he was pretty sure he did. He couldn't see the details on it, but it looked similar to a car owned by a friend of his parents named Rugen. He was a man that had come over frequently when he was a kid and always laughed at Micky being forced to clean the house and egging his father on when he'd hit Micky. Rugen and his father were always close, but Micky had nearly forgotten about him until he saw the car. Who else would help harbor his parents from the police? The only question now was did he bring them to the school looking for Micky and Marcy or did they come on their own? Rugen wasn't really the type of man to do anything on his own; he always needed the encouragement and support of Micky's father to do anything.
Once outside, Micky verified that this was Rugen's car when he looked in the backseat and saw the blanket Rugen always kept back there. Micky never understood why he had a blanket back there when he was a kid, but now he had an idea and rolled his eyes at the thought. With his vision hampered, his other senses had kicked up a little. He could smell the strong aftershave Rugen always used and heard twigs cracking in the distance. He followed the sound through the tree line that Mike had thought his friends had been taken into. After a minute, he heard another gunshot close by and ran towards the sound. Pretty quickly he was able to hear people talking.
"Shut up!" Micky's father yelled as Micky ducked behind a large bush. "Hurry and gag them up so I don't have to listen to them."
"What do you want with us?" Davy asked.
"To start with, you're bait," George answered. He peered through the bush and could just make out Peter and Davy being tied back to back by Rugen with his mother and father standing nearby. His father had a gun pointed directly at Davy's head. "Lure Micky and Marcy away from the school and witnesses."
"So then you're going to kill us?" Peter asked.
"Absolutely," George answered. "Can't have any witnesses around. But first, you little English twit are going to suffer."
"Why?" Peter asked his voice filled with fear.
"Because the little brat shot my wife," George barked. Micky looked around for a way to free Peter and Davy. Micky knew what George was capable of and knew he had to get them out fast before George turned his wrath on Davy. "That's why we couldn't kill you sooner. Had to nurse her back to health and I promised her that I would make him pay."
"I'm sorry, but you were trying to kill us," Davy said fearfully.
"Do you know how much it hurts to be shot?" Micky's mom asked.
"I didn't even know I shot you!" Davy said. "I wasn't trying to; I was trying to get you to leave us alone!"
"Shut up!" George barked. "I don't care! You shot my wife and I'm going to shoot you! She spent the last month in miserable agony because of you, you little twerp!" Micky saw a large round rock lying a few feet away and gripped it in his hand to get a feel for the weight. Then he quietly stood up when he was sure that Rugen and his parents had their backs to him. He aimed and threw the rock directly at Rugen's head and took off running so he wouldn't be in the same spot when the rock connected. He ducked behind a tree and heard the rock make contact with Rugen's head and the thump of his body hitting the ground.
"What the hell?" Brenda asked and slowly moved to investigate Rugen. "Someone threw a rock."
"Micky, where are you?" George asked. "I know that was you."
"You have about 5 seconds to show yourself or we shoot your friends," Brenda added. Micky kicked another rock toward the bush hoping it would make just enough noise to lure one of them over there. He'd hoped they would come out and look for him so he could take them on one at a time.
"I heard that," George said pointing the gun by the bushes and squinting to try and find Micky.
"Don't be a coward, Micky," Brenda said angrily. They still weren't going to separate which was going to make this harder.
"You're five seconds are up, boy," George said and turned the gun back on Davy.
"Wait!" Micky yelled from behind the tree. He put his hands up and slowly walked out from behind it.
"Where's your sister?" Brenda asked.
"Yeah, I really don't want to tell you that," Micky answered.
"She's still at the school," George smiled. "I'll kill you then search every inch of that school for her."
"You do and you'll have about a dozen witnesses you'll have to kill from the staff alone," Micky said. "That's a lot of work, don't you think? I don't even think you have enough bullets in that gun. You've already wasted 3 on what I can only assume were warning shots seeing as how my friends aren't bleeding."
"Bring her back here," Brenda said. "Or we'll kill them."
"Do you think I'm stupid?" Micky asked taking a few tentative steps closer to them. "You're going to kill them no matter what. I heard you. And I know you can't leave any witnesses behind. Even though the cops will know you killed us anyway."
"Doesn't matter," George snapped. "We don't really plan on sticking around."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Micky said taking a few more steps toward his father. "You've got the entire police department and even the FBI searching for you. Getting out of the country might be a good idea. But how are you going to get there? You don't think they don't have airports monitored for you? That's how they know you didn't leave. Not to mention it'll be impossible for you to cross the border without getting caught."
"What are you saying?" Brenda asked.
"Well, maybe you'd be able to flee better if you had a hostage," Micky proposed.
"Micky!" Peter exclaimed.
"Shut up," George snapped pointing the gun at Peter.
"Peter, I know what I'm doing," Micky said trying to silently tell him to keep his mouth closed and he had a plan.
"Do you?" Brenda asked.
"Yes," Micky said. "I'll volunteer to be your hostage for however far you want to go just so long as you let my friends go and leave Marcy alone."
"Not gonna happen," George sneered. "Why don't we just kill you and use one of your friends as a hostage. I say we take the short twerp who shot your mother. Then we can make his suffering last longer."
"You really don't want to do that," Micky said.
"Back up," George snapped realizing Micky was trying to get close to him. Micky stopped moving forward, but didn't back up.
"I can't see you that well," Micky said. "I've spent the last month in the hospital mostly blind and almost died. I need to get closer to you to see you."
"You don't need to see us," Brenda snapped.
"I don't believe you," George sneered.
"It's true," Davy said. "You're not the only ones who want to kill us. He really is partially blind."
"He walks into things all the time," Peter said. "Just this morning he stubbed his toe on the table."
"I don't care if he can see or not," George said. "Get back." Micky heard police sirens in the background and figured he'd stalled long enough. It seemed to take a second to register for Brenda and George to realize the cops were closing in on them. He was going to kill them all and run for it. Micky darted for his dad's gun just as he started to aim for Peter. Peter and Davy flattened themselves as much as they could to avoid being hit and Micky grabbed his father's arm and twisted it away from his friends. He inadvertently twisted it towards his mother just as his father was pulling the trigger and the gun went off a fourth time. This time, the bullet hit his mother. Time seemed to stop as George realized what had happened. Micky saw his father's face contort in rage like he'd never seen before and Micky felt that fear he had as a child rise up inside him. His first instinct was to run, but he couldn't leave his friends tied and vulnerable with his father that angry.
Micky twisted his father's arm even further to try and get him to at least drop the gun. His father threw his weight into Micky and pain erupted in his stomach causing him to drop. But he didn't let go of his father's arm knowing what would happen the second his father regained control of the gun, so his father fell on top of him. This caused even more pain to erupt in Micky's stomach and chest and he tried to hide just how much pain he was really in. Micky threw his head forward in the hopes he could get his father off him to reduce the pain. His father reared back in pain from the head-butt and did indeed roll off Micky. He took this opportunity to land a punch to his father's face that took his father even further off guard. His father roared in pain and Micky pressed his knee into his father's arm and twisted his wrist further so he could wrest the gun from his grip. It worked: as soon as Micky took the gun from his father and stood up pointing the gun at him.
"You wouldn't dare," George said when he realized Micky was pointing the gun at him.
"I'm not so sure," Micky spat back. "You tortured me for 12 years. You abused me mentally and physically. You beat me mercilessly until I could barely even move half the time. You made me wish I was dead. I ran away and lived in a damn storage container on the streets stealing food or digging through trash just to eat because it was better than the hell you put me through. Then you did the same thing to my sister. Give me one good reason not to pull this trigger."
"Micky, don't!" Peter said. "He's not worth it."
"Micky, don't become a killer for him," Davy added.
"I don't even think you have the balls," George sneered.
"Don't tempt me," Micky snapped cocking the gun. His father shrunk away in fear a little thinking Micky would actually pull the trigger. Micky knew he couldn't though. No matter what he went through, he couldn't kill his father. He knew it was wrong, but he needed his father to think he would so he would be too afraid to try and fight back. He had to keep his friends safe and he was in too much pain to keep fighting. In the distance he heard the police closing in. He called out to them to let them know where they were and within a minute, the police had found them. Micky handed over the gun and the officers called for EMS to come take care of Rugen and his mother. She had been shot in the stomach and was bleeding a lot, but Micky didn't care. As soon as the police placed handcuffs on his father, Micky collapsed to the ground, his stomach and chest roaring in pain. As soon as Peter and Davy were untied, they rushed over to Micky.
"Are you ok?" Peter asked.
"I don't know," Micky answered.
"You shouldn't have done that," Davy said. "You could have just hurt your injuries again. You're still healing."
"Yeah, if I hadn't, you'd be dead," Micky snapped. "So you should be thanking me for saving your butt."
"That's not what I meant," Davy said. "I am grateful you saved us, but…"
"I know," Micky said. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you."
"Where are Mike, Patty and Marcy?" Peter asked.
"They're fine," Micky told him. "I told them to hide in the school."
"Maybe you should have hid and sent Mike to save us," Davy said a little hesitantly not wanting to upset Micky again.
"We didn't know who took you," Micky answered. "If it had been my parents, I knew they wouldn't kill me until they found Marcy. Mike's dad would have killed him without hesitation."
"Are you alright, sir?" said a medic kneeling down.
"He just had surgery about a month ago," Peter said. "He had some heart and lung and stomach problems. He may have reinjured himself; his father fell on top of him pretty hard."
"I'm fine," Micky said.
"Let me be the judge of that?" the medic said. "Let me take a look at your incision." The medic lifted up Micky's shirt and he inhaled sharply from the pain.
"Can you go to the hospital to get looked at please?" Davy pled. "Just to make sure you're ok."
"Your friend is right," the medic said. "You have a bruise forming already, so you need to make sure it's nothing serious."
"Fine," Micky said and allowed the medic to help lead him back to the school so they could get to an ambulance.