There was something utterly wrong about this picture, Randi thought as she watched Carter and Luka fooling around with two rifles. She flinched and ducked as they both turned and pointed the rifles at her. " Jesus Christ! Will you idiots be careful? Its bad enough we can't find these assholes. I don't really want to get shot by one of you retards."
Luka made a shushing motion. " I think we're close." Jeannie and Carter both glared at her. She mentally threw up her hands and followed along as the group trooped through the forest. They were attempting to track some smoke they had seen earlier in the day. It was a bit like playing dysfunctional family outing. Or idiot boy scouts, she thought darkly, idiot scouts with automatic rifles. She held her M-16 close. They had picked up the rifles the day before from a National Guard armory. Luka had stated that an idiot could fire one. At least everyone in on the rescue mission fit that bill.
She was simply tired of being stressed out. God knows she was worried about everyone. She just couldn't maintain the high level of worry. Not when she couldn't help but think that Lucy was probably dead. Lucy was a good sort. She wouldn't want them trooping around the Colorado forest bent on bloody revenge. Randi suspected she was in the minority in her view that if Lucy was dead, they should just move forward. Find Doug and Kerry and get going. Hunting down Lucy's killers seemed like an exercise in stupidity, guaranteed to get someone killed.
The irony, she supposed, was that deep down, she suspected not one person in her group really wanted to shoot. Carter and Luka were egging each other on, but neither seemed into it. Jeanie was depressed and grimly resigned to the task. Randi simply felt overwhelmed. It wasn't that she was against rescuing Lucy, she was all for that, but she was enough of a realist to know it was pretty futile. Men that stole women at gunpoint weren't generally known for their kindness. Lucy was probably dead. If not dead, then badly damaged. She had known that sort of men though she had always been lucky to walk away unharmed.
Then there was the troubling issue of Doug and Kerry. Doug was a drunk, and Randi accepted that. Kerry was depressed. She was also a little weird, but Randi had always thought that about her. On the one hand, she gave both of them credit for being a lot more resourceful than what they all gave them credit for. The two of them, together, would have no problems getting to Carter's place. If they were separated, that was a little more troubling. She could see where both could have problems, Doug more so than Kerry. She could see Doug drinking himself into a stupor and then cracking his skull.
She watched with amusement as Luka signalled for them to spread out. It was silly. It seemed rather obvious that the smoke was coming from the clearing that was noted on their geographical map. She dutifully started moving farther away. She was nervous about it, that was the truth. They had been very lucky in that most of the people they had run across hadn't been hostile. She didn't think they were ready mentally to attack other people. Particularly Carter who was trying very hard to be manly. If the situation wasn't so potentially dangerous, she would have found it cute to see him strutting around with a rifle. Instead, it made her nervous. Somehow, she thought as she stealthily walked through the pine needles and brush, I can't help but think that we're going to end up shooting each other.
An odd noise, the sound of water being poured out onto the ground reached her ears. She stopped and slowly looked around. Sure enough, standing near a tree was one of the bikers. A slovenly looking fellow, he was zipping up his dirty jeans. How attractive, she thought darkly. She put that out of her head as she realized that the man was only ten feet away from her. He turned as he picked up his rifle and his eyes widened as he spotted her.
No time to call in the idiot squad, she decided as she crossed the distance between them. She punched him, kneed him, and then foot swept him into the ground. Kata gatame saves me again, she thought with a smile. He reached clumsily for the gun that was tucked in his belt, but she kicked his hand. Then she pulled out her own pistol. She didn't want to do it, that was the truth, but she didn't want John Carter to do it for her. John was a good man, a sweet man, and she didn't think he fully understood the fact that they had to kill the bikers. She didn't want him to be forced to that. His guilt over simply wounding one of the bikers was haunting him. She aimed the pistol at the biker's head and fired.
Then she looked up. Through the pines, she could see the straggly, badly set up tents of the biker camp. She could also see that they were all jumping up and grabbing their guns. She didn't see Lucy, but she did see, out of the corner of her eye, Carter rushing towards her. " Get down, dammit!" she snarled as she tackled him square in the chest.
" Randi! What are you doing?" Carter's voice was muffled by her chest.
" I'm saving your sorry ass," Randi muttered. Overhead, she could feel the air displacement as bullets whizzed above them. The bikers were shouting and firing. She turned her head, enough to see Luka ducking behind a tree and opening fire with his M-16. He was using the "pray and spray" method, firing at waist level on automatic. She could just see Jeannie diving for cover. If they were lucky, she thought suddenly, the opening volley might kill them all. Unfortunately, as she turned her gaze back to the bikers, she could see that it wasn't the case. Two of them had gone down, but two more were firing from fairly covered positions behind logs. She raised her pistol again and fired, hoping at least to startle one of the remaining men. From where she was through, there was no way she could hit either of them. She was just wasting bullets. Of course, it wasn't like Luka and Jeanie were hitting anything either. She could see Luka trying to reload.
" Randi get off me." Carter said.
" Keep down." As she slid off of him, the firing started up again.
" How many are left?" Carter asked after a moment. " Can you see Lucy?"
" Two are left. I don't see Lucy." She pulled him down as he started to look up. " Do you really want your head blown off? Because that's not really something I want to see."
He grinned at her. " I didn't know you cared."
" Pay attention. We're about to be killed." She looked back at the bikers, flinching as more bullets flew by. She could see the volley of fire from Luka's rifle striking the logs that the two remaining bikers were hiding behind. She could see the wood chips flying as each bullet hit. Then, first one and then the other biker pitched forward from behind. She could see the blood start to spread across their chest. Interesting, she thought with a smile, now who do I know that likes to back shoot trolls?
After a moment, Luka and Jeanie stopped firing. The forest was deadly quiet. Not even the birds were chirping. Carter looked at her. " What do you think happened?"
" I say we check it out." She rose to her feet, stopping only to brush off the pine needles. Holding her pistol out, she stepped forward, with Carter right behind her. Luka and Jeanie followed. The camp was literally shot apart. There were broken bottles, ripped tents and bleeding bodies everywhere.
" Where is Lucy?" Luka said it out loud, but Randi knew they were all thinking it.
" She's right here." All of them spun around at the sound of the voice. It was Doug of all people, and he was on his knees holding his hands up. He looked more than a little worse for wear, and pale. Definitely pale, though she supposed having all of them pointing automatic weapons at him might have something to do with it. He kept his hands up until they all relaxed and then gestured downward. " She's here. They've knocked her around pretty good. She lost consciousness during the fire fight. I think she's in shock. "
" Doug, " Jeanie asked, a trace of suspicion in her voice, " what were you doing here? "
" Well, I was part of a rescue attempt but you all pretty much put that to rest." Doug grinned, but Randi could see that he was shaking. Being caught in a cross fire can't be all that good for the nerves, she thought charitably, and he seems to be sober for a change. He gestured downward again. " Listen, Lucy needs some help. Let's get a fire going and check her out."
" How were you planning on rescuing her?" Luka asked.
" Well..." Before he could say another word, they all heard more rustling in the woods. Randi wasn't terribly surprised to see Kerry limp out of the woods, her crutch in one hand and a high powered rifle with a fancy scope in the other. She was surprised to see a man trail behind her, also holding a rifle and grinning as though he found the whole situation rather funny.
Kerry threw the rifle down. Her face was red blotched and sweaty. " What the hell were you idiots doing? Dave and I could have been killed! Did you see how they pinned you down? You're damn lucky I didn't kill you all!" She took a deep breath, as if she was going to shout some more, but then went very white. She staggered off a few steps and then started vomiting.
" That's real attractive, chief," her young companion said affectionately. " Try not to spew on your shoes, ok?" He turned his attention back to them. " Hi, I'm Dave Malucci." He pointed to Kerry. " Isn't she just a real sun beam of joy to be around?" Yes, Randi thought suddenly as she started to laugh, this is pretty much exactly how I knew we'd resolve this. With tons of gunfire and vomit. Add a siren and we'd be back in Cook County's ER.