Brian Steele - 4POCALYPSE - Four Tales of a Dark Future

“You guys ex-military?” Jasmine asked.

“No ma’am, we’un’s got our clothes from the police when they’s tried to take us over—” he chuckled. “They’s tried a’fore, and they’ll keep trying but they’s cain’t beat us.”

Jasmine asked, “Why is that, Toby?”

“Cause you’s cain’t beat the ele’mints. Too harsh. And the people they send out here never trained in anything like this.”

Jasmine didn’t respond—he was right—and she looked back at the camp, and that was when she saw another guard walking out from behind one of the lean-to’s. He was dragging a little girl, who, from this distance, looked to be about ten years old.

Jasmine spun around and kicked Toby in the face. He slammed down hard, and when he tried to get up, Jasmine ran a knife across his neck, drawing blood. “You lied to me, asshole. Lie to me again and it’ll be the last words you’ll ever hear.”

Blood seeped between filthy gloved fingers, and dripped from a broken nose. He groaned between slurps, but didn’t say anything. Then he looked into her eyes, which was something he had never done, she’d always worn her goggles, and she scared him more than Owen ever had. “Th-there’s always four g-guards at all times…” Jasmine put the knife to his throat again. “They’s all carry’n pistols. L-loaded. No rifles or anything like that… we’re, we’re just one of Owen’s outskirts to slow people down. Other than for food, he don’t really care if we live or die…”

“And you protect him.”

“Yes’m,” Toby answered with a nod. “His army is bu-big, and they’d kilt us and have us up on a sp-spit a’fore we knows what happened.”

Jasmine pulled him to his feet and turned him to the little girl. “You said no kids.”

“She be-belongs to a family that come out the same door a’fore you. People always come out that door. We always catch’em—” He laughed. “Like bugs to li-lights, ya know. They’s come out those doors and we catch’em.” He looked at Jasmine and hesitated. “But you stayed in the dark… I shud’a let you go. I knows you were special. I shud’a let you go.”

Jasmine snickered, she really wanted to cut his throat and leave him here and it took all the will she had not to kill him. “What happens to them?”

“We gives half to Owen.” He slurped. “He, he says the younger the better… I ain’t never et no young girl…” Then more in a mumble he finished, “Wa-wanted too, but never et one.”

She pushed him toward the Harley. “Climb up there nice and easy, Toby, I really don’t want to kill you, but I will.” He did, and immediately laid his head on the gas tank. “Where are the men, Toby?”

“B-building on the left. W-women on the right. We’s keep’em pregnant for Owen…” Toby said, slurping more, as his stuttering got worst. “We-we’s always hope fer twins… but…”

Jasmine was stunned. The women were the cattle who would produce as many babies as they could to feed Owen or to expand the tribe.

“What’s next for the family?”

“We’ll keep the woman for breed’n. Kilt the husben fer food—he ain’t one of us—and send the b-boy and girl onto Owen.”

She thought about it for a moment. She really didn’t want to stop at any of the camps. She wanted to go straight to Owen’s camp, but she couldn’t leave these people here. She couldn’t let these guys kill them. She wasn’t too sure if it was too late for the women but it wasn’t too late for the family. Then she remembered Dooriya’s card reading; you’ll need that family later. Understand? They’re a key to this whole thing… I don’t know why but it’s important. It was then the reality of what she was doing settled in. The cards said she’d stumble onto a family and that she should help them. The cards also said she was going to die.

She stared at the back of Toby’s head and saw him taking three or four shots into his chest before the Harley crashed. He was driving. He was her shield. The Harley would explode. She wanted to stop that from happening but a shield was a shield, but on the other hand she wanted the Harley.

“Tell me, Toby,” Jasmine said, gritting her teeth and holding back the urge to drop him here. “How long before everything happens? How long before you kill the husband and send the kids off?”

“Tomarra. We been holding dem waiting for word. We got it dis afternoon a’fore I let out on my hunt…”

Jasmine massaged the tension from the back of her neck. She had to go in.

Toby sat up as he drove the Harley into the camp that looked as if it had been a small suburban community, scared out of his mind. Beneath his left armpit was the modified cannon, capable of firing off four rounds before Jasmine would need to reload it.

He felt her breath on his right cheek, her chin on his shoulder, and her fingers on the triggers. He then thought of the pistol in his belt pointing at his crotch and wondered if he could get to it and maybe put a bullet in her. He knew she wouldn’t drop one of the weapons to protect herself, and if she did then it would still be to his advantage. It would be one less weapon she could use against the men that had been his friends for as long as he could remember. He didn’t want to die, nor did he want to see them die by the hands of a gypsy. A gypsy that he failed to stop. Anything she did, he thought, was his entire fault, and his alone.

She leaned tightly against him and said over the roar of the Harley, “Don’t think about it, Toby. Believe me when I tell you this, I’ve been training for this moment for four years and I can’t wait to see how well I do.”

Toby gulped and thought, sumbitchen gypsies can really read minds.

The guard that had relieved himself spun around, raising his pistol, but hesitated when he saw Toby. Before he could get a shot off, Jasmine drew her Glock, leaving Toby shocked when he discovered that he was actually holding the shotgun. Then in the same fluid motion, Jasmine fired the cannon. The building exploded as the first guard dropped to the ground.

“Sumbitchen Gypsy!” Toby screamed out in tears, the guard was his brother.

The guard with the little girl fired off two rounds, which hit Toby in the chest, and the impact knocked Jasmine off the Harley. When she hit the ground, the blast from the shotgun hurled the shooter back a foot or so before he slammed down.

Jasmine rolled and then fired the cannon, taking out the remainder of the building, which exploded and collapsed on two men who were running out. She twisted right as a third guard came around the building and, in the confusion, he shot Toby two times. Toby fell from the Harley but he was already dead and never felt the ground when he slammed down.

The Harley veered off to the right, just as she saw it in her vision, and ran into a lean-to that was a storage area for gasoline and explosives. The lean-to exploded with an impact that killed the guard.

Jasmine crab-walked across the ground and grabbed the little girl, and then lay down on top of her just as another guard came around the corner. Jasmine then fired several rounds from her Glock, dropping him mere feet from where they lay.

“Where’s your mom and dad,” Jasmine asked in a near whisper, unsure of how many men were still alive, and even more unsure if any of the women would put up a fight.

“Behind that building,” the small girl answered between sobs, pointing to the building where Toby had said the women were held prisoner.

Off to Jasmine’s left, another gunman barged around the corner, firing round after round. Once again, Toby had lied, as repeated fire hit the ground in front of her. Jasmine crab-walked again across the ground while firing off several rounds in an automatic fashion. She whipped the cannon from her shoulder and fired. The grenade hit the shooter in the chest, exploding on impact.