Chapter XVII: Riposte (Part I)
Click.
YOU FUUUUUUCKING USE-LESS PIECE-OF SHEEEEEEEETTTTT-
The rifle jammed, leading me to swiftly re-chamber the charging handle in hopes it would un-jam; just as Dina began turning her head to look back, I raised the rifle at a WLF soldier that exited from the opposite side street, pulling the trigger once again.
BANG!
The WLF rifleman clutched his throat, his gun clattering into the snow along with the dying soldier. I heaved an exhausted sigh; my body was still recovering from the forest incident, and that snap-shot likely reopened some external wounds. I could not nearly begin to describe the heaving waves of relief that rolled over my body and mind; that such a convenient enemy would show up to give me an alibi for my attempted murder!
I happened to glance down and see Dina gazing at me with eyes wide in bewilderment, as if trying to comprehend what had just happened.
"My gun's jamming, cover me!" I urged her with a bold lie, barely able to contain my clawing animosity. My provocation miraculously worked, and she quickly turned back and raised her pistol; just in time to sight the enemy soldier running in right behind his buddy.
"You said they were coming from behind!" Dina uttered, a mixture of confusion and apprehension in her tone. I was incredibly paranoid that she had potentially figured out my intentions against her, but I couldn't focus on that because-
"SHIT!" I cursed under my breath. "DUCK!"
Jolting around, Dina had somehow provoked my lie into truth as I viewed two WLF demolition members aiming a pair of machine guns at us. I shoved Dina forward into the snow and fell back with her; both of us narrowly missed by a spray of bullets overhead. I had no time to aim, and spray-fired in the direction of our assailants.
BRRRRT-T-T-T!
Hilariously, all of the bullets whiffed by their figures and completely missed, but that was enough to force them into cover. I took these precious seconds to pick up Dina's body by the waist and hauled ass towards City Hall. It was certainly a chaotic and harrowing few moments, with Dina yelling at me to shift her body around so she could shoot at the enemies (what a fucking loony statement!) while sprays of bullets hit the snow around us. City Hall was only around a dozen meters away, but once I looked back and saw at least a dozen enemies moving from cover to cover toward me, I knew I had to find a temporary spot to hide before they decided to use concentrated fire.
I hooked a right and nearly collapsed with agonizing exhaustion as I dropped Dina into the snow, plummeting myself onto the ground. In the corner of my vision, I saw Dina wasting no time recovering and huddling against the edge of the wall, taking potshots at the incoming WLF with her pistol. Once again, I begrudgingly admired her combat initiative, as well as her fearlessness to fight despite the gruesome odds against us.
I can still blast her with my sidearm, I plotted malevolently in my head; the desire to kill her still strongly resided in my mind. However, I quickly lost any further opportunity for premeditated murder once another group of Jacksonites sighted us from down the street, gesturing for us to head toward city hall. It was Jesse, Owen, Doctor Logan, and some other Jacksonites; I was minimally relieved that they hadn't died in the first minutes of the siege.
Trying to conceal the magnitudes of bolting pain running through my body, I shakily picked myself up from the snow. It was then that Dina outstretched her hand, offering to help me stand up.
BAH!
I barely contained the urge to slap her hand away and draw my pistol to blast her in the face, instead ignoring her offer and standing upright, plastering on the most forced smile of my life.
"Thanks for... having my... b...a...ck..."
Blood seeped from my left hand as my nails dug into flesh; Not only did I fail at eliminating this cancer from my ideal life, but now I was thanking her merely to gaslight her away from the thought that I had potentially tried to end her only minutes ago. I really could not tell what she was thinking, her face still carrying that expression of concern and perplexity.
"Y...Yeah. Thanks for getting us out of there." She responded honestly.
"Let's not count our coins before they hatch."
Dina stared at me in confusion, then burst out laughing nervously in the atmosphere of a massive siege.
"Did you mean "count our chickens"?"
"No, I, uh, the coins... count our... chickens? Oh. Before they... hatch. Fuck."
Peeking around the corner, Dina and I made a sprint for Jesse's fireteam, meeting up with them and heading toward City Hall to recuperate. I spent much of that time mentally double-checking all the phrases I used in the past to make sure I hadn't made some other stupid ass mistakes in my retelling of the idioms.
JOEL
"I'm gonna hang a left here."
I watched anxiously as Ellie peeked her head around the corner, rifle raised with experienced swiftness; She proceeded down the narrow corridor of the shelled building; I watched our flank and kept an eye forward in case she missed something I didn't.
"Joel-"
"Eyes forward!"
She jolted slightly at my scolding tone, but kept her eyes on the front. I couldn't let her see my miserable state of terror.
I was completely beside myself. The number of revelations and heart attack-inducing worries that'd hit me in the last month... Jack being the primary concern. From the moment we met; when he'd told me of his birth mother, of what he'd been doing and how he got here... I felt as if my whole world had been flipped on its back. A son I hadn't known about... fucking... Tess kept him a secret!
GODDAMNIT!
In all of my years of living, not once had I been struck with such indecision and shock as I had in that lodge where we'd met. Never had I experienced such a vivid, overwhelming state of pure horror at the amount of time I had lost with my only son; whom I knew was my son. I had seen our shared genetics; in his eyes, his movements, his demeanor, his grit, and unparalleled resolve. Even the way he spoke oozed the essence of myself.
And... her.
Tess.
Oh, God above. It was indescribable. Jack had both of our mannerisms, Tess and myself; yet he carried his own energy and personality that mixed and merged with everything else.
God, no... not again. Not another child. I have so little of my soul left to spare for these torments, again.
"JACK!"
My jumbled thoughts aligned all at once; an unearthly vigor filled me as the sight of Jack came into view, sprinting toward the church with Dina, and covered by Jesse Logan, and some other friendlies.
"Oh, Christ!" I mumbled worriedly, seeing the trail of blood seeping heavily behind Jack, spilling down his legs and staining the snow. I bolted forward, scanning the surroundings to make sure I wasn't being sighted in by one of these Washington shitheads. Ellie fell in tandem, until we joined up with the rest and covered their retreat into the church. As badly as I wanted to hug and hold Jack, I had to get him and Ellie somewhere secure and figure out our next plan of action. City Hall was the most well-fortified building in the whole settlement, thanks to the paranoid insistence of a Jacksonite, Bob Hilton- but that was a story for another time.
"The front door's barricaded!" Dina shouted back at us.
Hearing this, I thumbed the radio strapped to my jacket.
"MARIE! MARIE, COME IN! WE NEED ENTRY INTO CITY HALL, NOW!"
I could not describe the amount of panic that haunted me in those fleeting moments- not for myself, but for the very idea that I was risking the health and safety of my two children to waste these precious seconds on idling around and waiting for an answer.
"I tried calling in, too!" Jack interjected hurriedly.
"Head around the building- there's sure to be another way in!"
Everyone agreed in silence, following Dina as she led the way around the tight alleyways of the building; we all looked desperately for windows or side doors to head through, spurred on with rising anxiety by the bombastic, fiery atmosphere. I was enraged that I had not become familiar with this area, what with all the years I'd resided here- I had grown complacent.
Finally, we spotted an un-barricaded window, the head of a Jacksonite soldier peering behind it. The moment he saw us, he pushed open the window, gesturing hurriedly for us to get in. One by one, we climbed through and emerged on the other side, swarmed by groups of grieving people asking if we'd seen their loved ones out there.
Eventually, we came through into the main lobby of city hall, which was set up with dozens of injured and dying citizens lying on hastily-made cots, and nearly in chaos from the sheer amount of different people swarming around, panicking and grieving, shouting in terror and pleading for their lives- trying to find order in the pandemonium. I looked around desperately, trying to find Tommy and Marie to figure out what had caused all this disorder.
They were the heads of command in any defense battle of the settlement, but they had around 10-15 squad leaders and 2nd-in-commands who would have taken over if they'd been taken out of the fight. Still, even with all that preparedness, actually being in a defensive siege was an entirely different ordeal than planning it. I should've expected this lack of grit; the maximum size of our fighting forces numbered around 80-85; everyone else was practically a civilian with a gun. They had been trained, but rarely ever encountered an actual gunfight.
Even if we won this day, it would leave us nearly destroyed.
"LUCKY JACK!"
I scowled in frustration as I heard one of the injured Jacksonites -a young adult by the name of Tanner Hayes- call out jubilantly to Jack. I was not fond of how these buffoons were idolizing Jack's killings; that was the last thing I needed for him right now.
"Shut the hell up!" I chastised him harshly, but by then everyone in the damn room practically jumped for joy the moment he said the nickname. Their eyes bolted toward Jack, and I felt as if the general mood of the room had improved by miles. Waves of excited and muttered chatter passed around like wildfire; subtly, I could tell people had been looking for a symbol, an icon to unite their discord. While I was relieved that everyone had regained their minds, I hated that they were trying to make a martyr out of J- out of my son!
"HELL ARE YOU WAITIN' FOR?!"
I gawked at Jack as the words bellowed from his mouth.
"FIGHT BACK!"
I could barely react- the whole of the assembly exploded into raucous agreement, with scores of vengeful citizens storming for the back window and climbing through to head out and join back in the fight. The portion of medical staff and helpers that stayed inside had to prevent several of the injured from rising off the bed to grab their rifles. Jesse and Owen had been about to rejoin the battle, only to be aggressively head-grabbed by Doctor Logan.
"I have patients here! That means our team is keeping watch!"
It took me a moment to shake from my daze; I'd been genuinely bewildered by the behavior of my neighbors and friends in recent days. I refocused on finding Tommy and Marie, storming between the cots and questioning a militia squad leader I recognized.
"Helen!" I shouted, walking up to her and slinging my rifle over the shoulder. "Where's Tommy and Marie?"
I sickening feeling erupted in my gut as Helen's expression twisted into dismay.
"Marie's... been injured. Tommy's treating her with a team of doctors in the back offices."
She pointed to the second floor of the building, and I was about to hurry off when I noticed Jack and Ellie following behind me. I turned back on my heel and grabbed Jack by the shoulders.
"Stay. Here."
I switched my gaze to Ellie, who nodded in understanding; she'd be keeping an eye on him to make sure he would recover, for however long we had here. I needed to find out what happened to Marie and Tommy- and to get a plan going on how to counterattack.
I peered back once more at Jack to ensure he was finding a cot to rest on, then hurried up the winding stairs embedded in the sides of the walls. My heart sank into the depths of my chest as I saw half a dozen of the town's medical specialists huddled around a table behind the glass panes framed on either side of the mahogany-oak door. Sitting right outside of the room was Tommy, crumpled in the corner; sobbing and cursing more violently than I'd ever seen in my life.
He looked up, and what I saw in his eyes was plain as day; the rage of a man who was in the process of losing everything before his very eyes. Tommy's voice uttered once more, every word coated with murderous rancor.
"I'm gonna m-u-r-d-e-r every single fucking one, Joel."
