Jim Thorn - Invasion

“You’re nothing but a coward, and you know it,” Reno said.

Gerald gave Reno a two-handed shove to the chest.

I’ve got to stop this, Maya thought. She stepped forward to get between them, but it was too late.

Reno’s eyes narrowed. “You son of a bitch.”

And then Reno threw the first punch.

Gerald stumbled back a couple of steps, his neck twisted from the impact with Reno’s fist. He brought his hand to his face and ran it across his mouth. Looking down, he saw blood on the side of his thumb.

Reno hesitated after the punch, looking from Laura, to Aiden, to Maya. He held up his fist, his jaw slack as he stared down Gerald.

All Maya wanted to do was step in between them and stop the madness before it escalated. She went to do just that, but she did so right as Gerald retaliated by lunging at Reno. Reacting quickly, Reno raised one of his hands to keep Maya back, and he used his other to shield his face as Gerald swung—but it didn’t work.

The punch knocked Reno back onto his ass, the dirt kicking up and whirling through the air like a small tornado. Before Gerald could jump on top of Reno, John stepped in the middle.

“Stop it!”

But Gerald ignored him, landing a right-hook to John’s chin, following it with a hard jab into the cop’s gut. John grunted and doubled over, and then Gerald brought his knee up into John’s face, knocking his head against the truck. The crack of John’s nose made Maya wince.

Aiden had begun to cry silent tears while Laura watched with morbid fascination as these grown men fought in front of her. Maya spun and shouted at her ex-husband.

“Gerald, enough!”

But she could see in his eyes that he had snapped. This wasn’t the Gerald she had known, the father of her children, the man she’d fallen in love with and married. He had become unhinged—he’d become a madman. The experience at Fort Campbell had wrecked him like PTSD pulled apart soldiers. Now all she could think about was what he would do first; stop, or kill Reno.

Fortunately, John distracted Gerald long enough to give Reno time to recover. He jumped to his feet and speared Gerald with the top of his head like a linebacker, driving his shoulder into Gerald’s gut and sending both men tumbling to the ground. With the leverage on his side now, Reno pummeled Gerald with two punches to the face.

After the second, Gerald looked up at Reno and laughed.

“Is that all you got? For a bastard who’s been fucking my wife, you sure ain’t got a lot in the tank. Maya doesn’t like soft men.”

Reno gritted his teeth and threw another punch, busting Gerald’s nose and sending blood splatter into the air.

“Stop it!” Laura said, her face red and her words sharp as if Reno’s last punch had woken her from a daze. “Stop punching him!”

Maya couldn’t let it go on anymore, either. She couldn’t watch her best friend and her unhinged ex-husband fight to the death.

“Reno, you’ve got to stop,” she said.

Reno had a handful of Gerald’s shirt, his fist raised and ready to hit Gerald again, but he paused.

He looked at Maya and his mouth fell open, his eyes wide. She felt as though he was staring right through her.

A split second later, Gerald grabbed Reno’s collar, pulled him down, and head butted him.

Blood immediately ran from a gash in Reno’s forehead and he stumbled backward, falling onto his back next to Gerald. Gerald sat up, blood covering his face, and straddled Reno.

“No!” Maya screamed.

Gerald ignored her. He acted like a rabid pit bull as he landed two vicious punches to Reno’s face. Reno was nearly unconscious from the head butt. He spat blood and a tooth out, but Gerald didn’t let up. It was as if he had blacked out and didn’t even realize what he was doing. And if Maya continued to let him do this, Gerald would kill Reno.

Maya grabbed Gerald’s arms and tried to pull him off Reno. As if it was a reflex, Gerald brought the back of his hand up and across Maya’s face, hitting her with enough force to knock her back and onto the ground.

She grabbed her cheek and groaned as she hit the dirt, rolling onto her side.

Only a few feet away from her lay the wrench she’d been using to try to fix the vehicle. Maya grabbed it and jumped to her feet. She approached Gerald from behind, even as he continued spitting blood and landing punches everywhere on Reno’s face.

“I’m sorry,” she said, unsure if she was apologizing to her children for what she was about to do to their father, or to Gerald for what could happen when she did.

Then she swung the wrench.

She hit Gerald in the back of the head, and he immediately slumped over and fell into the dirt. Tears came to Maya’s eyes, but she quickly shoved them aside, knowing she’d done what she’d had to do. She pushed Gerald’s limp body off of Reno, and then checked Gerald’s wrist to make sure he still had a pulse. He did.

Thank God.

She hadn’t wanted to kill him. She’d only wanted to stop him from killing Reno, which she had accomplished.

Turning, Maya next ran her hand down Reno’s cheek, and checked his wrist to make sure Gerald hadn’t killed him. She found a pulse.

“Mom?” Aiden asked.

Knowing both men were alive, Maya rose and rushed over to her children.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“Is he…” Laura couldn’t finish the question.

“Yes,” Maya said. “He’s alive.”

Then she heard a grunt and turned around to see John pushing himself up to his feet. Maya went to him and braced him as he stood.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said with a cough. Then he nodded at Reno and Gerald. “What about them?”

“They’ll be all right. But we don’t have much time and I need your help.”

“Yeah, with what?”

“We need to get Reno into the truck, and we need to get Gerald somewhere hidden, where the aliens can’t find him.”

John looked at Aiden and Laura, and then nodded at Maya. “You’ll come back for us?”

“I’ll try.”

And, as she spoke the words, Maya realized she had made her decision on who would stay and who would go.

Reno woke up and rubbed his eyes. Even doing so didn’t clear up his cloudy mind as he looked around. He could feel the motion of moving down a highway, but he didn’t know where he was or how he’d gotten there. His vision still hadn’t cleared up when the pain rushed to his head. Taking a quick breath, he groaned as he raised his hand to his cheek.

“He’s waking up,” a female voice said.

Following the sound of the voice, Reno opened his eyes to see Maya’s daughter, Laura, leaning over him. Maya was driving, and she pushed her daughter back with an arm bar.

“Give him some space.”

Reno looked to Maya, his memory slowly filtering back. As he stared, three blurry versions of her face appeared and wavered as if he was looking at her through old windows. She reached over and ran her hand through his hair.

“Just relax.”

Leaning back in the seat again, Reno closed his eyes before blinking several times. His vision slowly refocused, but the pain in his face only increased. He opened his eyes and saw Laura next to him with Aiden sitting between her and her mother.

Reno felt a touch on his arm and looked over to see Maya with a bottle in her hand.

“Take two of these.” She shook the small bottle of Advil and looked at Laura. “Get him some water.”

Laura pulled a half-full water bottle from a bag sitting on the floor. Maya shook the bottle of Advil and dropped two of the orange pills into his hand.

“I can take them without it.”