Author's Note: Hey all! I'm back with new content on an old story! With all of the completely improbable things to happen since the world stopped spinning, I doubt any of us saw this one coming! :)
So, this draft has existed since the beginning with this super short segment I'm posting, and then a long epilogue to tie up everything else. Once my CM muses started to go though, it was the epilogue I could just never get totally cleaned up. But I figure the whole point of ANY post is simply to kick the can down the road, and I know from the notes I continue to get (thank you so much for those :)) how many of you still do read my old stuff, so I thought there would be some people out there who would appreciate another chapter here. All it needed was a little smoothing out.
And I know this is six years later, (ridiculous) so you'll likely be 'brushing up' on the story, but whenever you get back here again, know that it's a direct continuation. Again, it's short, so, low expectations!
Life & Limb
Aaron whipped his head around to see that the deputy had disappeared down behind the cruiser. That was also when he saw the blood on the hood of the car.
It was a LOT of blood.
SHIT!
"Quickly," Aaron hissed with a light thwack to Emily's hip, "into the house!"
Though neither of them were in peak physical condition to 'quickly' to do ANYTHING . . . even attempt to save their own lives . . . Emily did try her best to comply.
She started inching forward on her belly.
Aaron didn't actually let her shimmy out from under his protection though. All he did was push himself up slightly so she could have a little space to move. Basically he was still half hovering over body, trying to keep her shielded from what he knew would be coming around the corner of the house, any second.
And he did know it would be ANY second!
Because this asshole wasn't going to give them time to bunker down. The only (plausible) reason for his delay at all, was because he couldn't actually see the condition of the deputy.
Unfortunately Aaron couldn't see his condition either.
Though he was clearly down, if he was still alive . . . and still in the game . . . he could take Patrick's head off if he came around the corner too fast. And good Christ, would Aaron LOVE it if that happened! But unfortunately he couldn't wait to see.
They had to keep moving if they wanted to stay alive.
And Emily was just then crawling through the open doorway, when over the bleat of the alarm, Aaron heard a sound coming from the east corner of the house. His ears perked up.
Cursing.
It was coming closer . . . and getting louder.
Apparently Emily had just heard it too. Because even as he was frantically trying to drag his body in and off the porch, she was twisting around to pull her legs inside the house. Then before he could blink . . . she'd yanked him through the open space. Neither of them had time to fully clear the entranceway though, so that meant they weren't able to get the door shut before a shot was fired across the front porch.
THEY ONLY HAD SECONDS LEFT!
And while Aaron was blindly shoving Emily back, trying to get her clear of the next shot, she wasn't being quite as cooperative on this point as she had been earlier. But he had no time to turn and yell at her, because suddenly there was a thud . . . and then feet pounding rapidly across the floor boards of the porch.
Patrick must have jumped over the side railing.
Ah Christ!
Aaron twisted again.
"EMILY MOVE!" He screamed while grabbing at her shirt . . . but she shoved him away. And that's when he realized what she'd been doing while she hadn't been following his orders.
Snatching up her arrows from where they'd fallen out of the bag.
Then she whipped around, the bow already up on her shoulder.
"Watch out!" she snarled, "I've got this!"
Just then there was movement from right outside the door. Aaron had time to do little more than duck, before Emily fired.
Even as there was the yelp of pain from directly behind him, Aaron spotted something bright and shiny a few inches away from his left hand.
A fire poker.
And while he was scrambling to snatch it up, he heard the 'thwack' of the bow as Emily shot another arrow over his head.
That one made contact too.
This time there was a full on scream, followed by a ragged, "you BITCH!" and Aaron felt a perverse mix of pride and rage filling him. Pride in Emily, that she was handling herself so well, but rage that this animal STILL needed to be put down. And that was his job.
Not hers.
So as his fingers closed around the shiny brass rod, his jaw clenched. And knowing that this was the LAST chance to end it . . . hurt or not, Patrick was still armed with that God damned RIFLE(!) . . . Aaron spun and rolled.
He could see then that their attacker was down, and bleeding, but his injuries were nowhere near fatal. One arrow sticking out of his calf, and another out of his shoulder. Enough to slow him down, but nowhere near enough to stop him.
So Aaron went in for the kill.
And he did it without a second of hesitation. Seeing Patrick's flash of panic as he fumbled to pick up the rifle from where he'd dropped it in the doorway, Aaron frantically clamored along to close that two feet gap separating them. Of course the other man tried to move back, but Emily had hobbled him pretty effectively.
At that point, with their respective injuries, their physical abilities were about even.
The difference was though, Patrick couldn't get the rifle up before Aaron had lunged at him with a roar of, "NOOOOO!"
There was just a split second as his arm was coming down, when he had to decide how to take him out. To jam that poker into his eye . . . or his throat.
Aaron went for the throat.
And he did that simply because ripping out a man's throat was slightly less horrifying than tearing through a man's eyeball.
These were not life choices he'd ever expected to be making.
But make them he did. And as the sharp point of the fire poker sliced through Patrick's soft flesh, Aaron felt no hesitation or remorse. There was only rage. Rage for what this man had done. For the terror he had inflicted on Emily. And the injuries that he'd inflicted on the deputy. But mostly though, rage that it had ever come to this insanity.
That Patrick had brought all of this on himself.
And then the blood spurted, splattering back onto Aaron's face and chest. Really, it went everywhere.
He must have ripped through the carotid.
There was a strangled gurgle, and he could feel the other man's nails scraping down his right arm, drawing their own blood. But there really was no struggle, not with that much blood. It took only maybe thirty or forty seconds before Patrick's eyes glazed over.
Then he was dead.
From behind him, Aaron finally focused in on the fact that Emily was screaming. That had been going on for a little while, but he'd been too busy to do anything to comfort her. And as he fell back to his haunches, he started to speak . . . to say what, he didn't quite know . . . but then his head began to spin. That's when he realized that whatever bit of clotting his wounds might have managed to do, the final attack on Patrick had yanked them all wide open again. That, combined with his now rapidly fading adrenaline was not a good combination. Adrenaline had been the only thing keeping him going for the last hour.
He was on the verge of passing out.
And feeling that darkness pulling at him, Aaron blinked frantically, trying to stay conscious for just a little while longer. Just long enough to make sure that his backup had arrived, and that Emily was safe.
But that wasn't to be.
Because he'd already lost too much blood. And as his eyes began to fall shut, he felt Emily's hand fall to his leg. She sobbed his name.
"Aaron! Aaron! Please! Please, stay with me!"
"Sorry sweetheart," he mumbled back, "I, I . . ."
And then everything went dark.
A/N: This came about because I'm home sick this week. Seven day medical leave. It's not COVID, (my test was negative, phew) but I have been wiped enough that I've done basically nothing but lay on the couch and watch movies. Eventually movies morphed to organizing my old Dropbox files, and that's when I realized I had a few basically complete chapters on the stories that were never wrapped. The issue always seemed to be that my brain had gotten to a certain point in the story, but could never get any further. And because I've always posted such HUGE chapters to move everything forward, it was never in my head to simply 'post what's done' and let it go. Finally I said, fuck it, why not?! So I hope some of you enjoy this extra bit, and I guess now we can never say never that I might get the epilogue done some day too. Or another short chapter like this in another incomplete story. That actually is pretty likely to happen. *hint hint* ;) And I hope everyone is well! Stay safe!
