The McClane Apocalypse Book 4 (3 page)

Her small hands shake, so Simon squeezes her
right one to give her courage.

Cory immediately scans the area and then does
so again with the night vision scope on his rifle to get a better
gauge of their outlying surroundings. Simon does the
same.

“I’ve got nothin’,” Cory says.

Simon agrees with him, “Yeah, me either. We
should move.”

“Em, mount up. Let’s get out of here,” Cory
orders and they all jump into action.

They are twenty yards into their return trip to
the cabin when a shot rings out in the moonlit night, causing both
men to jerk their heads to their left where the sound originated.
Cory spins his stallion in a tight circle and trots to the rear of
their caravan.

“Go!” Cory shouts. “Take her to safety, Simon.
Go!”

Two more shots are fired. Cory takes
off at a canter to hunt down their enemy as Simon takes lead and
rushes with Em in the direction of the cabin. He’s taking a
different route, lest they are followed. John and Kelly had taught
them when they were still just teen boys how to take evasive
maneuvers, avoid the enemy and get out of a tight spot. Within
minutes, Cory is back with
them,
and they’re all riding at a fast
pace.

“What happened?” Simon asks him as they climb a
short hill.

“Shot two. Think there were more, but they got
away,” Cory answers. “Let’s just keep moving.”

They certainly don’t want to engage the enemy
in a firefight since Em is with them.

When they come to flat ground
again, another shot rings out, this time from ahead of them. It
whizzes past
Simon,
and another follows in lightning succession. They
had not anticipated the enemy circling around and flanking them.
This is the type of move they’d do. It doesn’t
generally
happen to them. It
pisses Simon off that they were able to do this, and he unsheathes
his pistol and quickly fires directly at two men on foot at the
crest of the hill. He hits the one in center mass, and Cory strikes
the other to the head with a round from his rifle.

They ease over behind a copse of trees and
dense foliage to obtain better cover and to observe. Holding as
still as concrete statues, the horses also picking up on the nerves
of the situation, their group waits for more gunfire or movement.
Nothing happens, though. Apparently the threat has been
neutralized. They wait like this for another full minute before
turning back toward their trail. They start out at a slow trot.
Time to get back to camp and lock down for the night.

A dull thud behind him alerts Simon, and he
swings around in his saddle just in time to see Em hit the ground.
She lands hard on the forest floor. He and Cory rein in tight,
skidding to stops. Em’s horse trots a few feet away from
them.

“Em!” Cory screams.

He swings his leg over the thick
neck of his stallion and rushes to his sister, falling
to
his knees
beside her. Cory rolls her on
to
her back as Simon jumps down and
whips off his goggles. He clicks on the flashlight from his cargo
pocket. They hadn’t even realized she’d been shot. Under the harsh
glare of the grayish white light from the flashlight’s beam, Simon
can see a lot of blood.

Rushing to his saddle, he unhooks
his medical bag and then drops to his knees beside Cory, who is
cradling his sister’s upper torso and head in his lap. It looks
like she’s been hit in the shoulder, but the bullet does not appear
to have gone all the way through as he examines her more
closely
. That’s
not good. It will need to be extracted.

“We gotta get her home to the farm,” Cory says
in a panic.

Simon can read the fear in his friend’s eyes.
They’ve been through bad situations together but nothing like
this.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Cor,” Simon
counters. “It’s too far to ride. Let’s get her back to the cabin
where I can work on her and get her stabilized for the trip. We’ll
have to radio the farm. Have Doc or Reagan come out to the cabin
with supplies and a truck to transport her.”

As he is relaying this, Simon has
taken strips of cloth from his satchel and is pressing them to her
shoulder. Cory also pushes another rag tightly against it to
squelch the blood flow. Simon uses a piece of long, thin material
to tie the
cloths
tightly against her shoulder, wrapping it under
her armpit and knotting it.
Em’s
lovely hazel eyes are wide with fear, and she’s clearly in shock
because she says nothing but stares up at them with blind
faith.

“Let’s move,” Cory demands as he
quickly collects his horse and mounts with a
wide
swing into the
saddle.

Simon carefully, gently lifts Em and then
passes her with extra care up into Cory’s lap where he balances her
in front of him.

“Just go!” Simon tells him with new urgency.
“I’ll get her horse and be right behind you. Cory, just
go.”

Cory wastes no time in spurring his stallion
into motion and literally races over the hill, disappearing from
Simon’s line of sight. Simon chases down Em’s frightened mare and
remounts his gelding. He gallops after Cory, not bothering to look
overly long at the two dead men on the hill who are prone and
awkwardly twisted in puddles of their own blood. Clenching the
reins of both horses in one hand, he yanks the satellite radio from
his saddlebag so that he can call the family.

“Tango Three to Bravo One, come in,” Simon
pleads desperately. His impatience at not getting an immediate
response erupts from him a guttural and urgent groan.

“Bravo One here. We gotcha’,” John says after
another minute.

“Em’s been shot, John,” Simon responds. “We’re
headed to camp two right now.”

“Shot?”

John’s voice is disbelieving. Of
course, he’s incredulous. Nobody in their family has been injured
like this during any of their city raids. John had been stabbed
during the
raid
on their neighbor’s farm, but none of them have been
wounded
like
this.

“Repeat
sit rep
. Repeat,” John
demands.

“Em’s been shot! We’re going to camp two so I
can look at her. Shoulder shot. We need Reagan or Doc.”

“Got it. We’ll be there within the hour. We’ll
meet you on OWR7,” John responds.

Their code names for the oil well
roads that run like veins and arteries throughout their county and
the surrounding, rural counties tell Simon exactly where they’ll
meet. They have used these
roads
for the past three years to move
about, which is considerably safer than using the main roads or
freeways.

“I’ll get her stabilized and you can take her
to the…,” he doesn’t finish. Talking about the farm on the radio is
off limits, to say the least.

“Over and out,” John replies in a serious,
austere tone.

Simon repeats the mantra and
spurs his horse harder, pushing him even though the gelding has
already been ridden so many hours today.
When he gets to the cabin, Cory is already there, his horse
standing near the stables and recklessly abandoned which is not
something he would do under normal circumstances. Cory is very
conscientious and caring toward the animals on the farm. Simon
ditches both horses in the same fashion,
however,
and sprints for the
cabin.

“Easy, Em,” Cory says softly, placating his
sister.

He’s also holding her down by pressing her
shoulder into the mattress.

“Everything’s gonna be ok. Simon’s here now.
Everything’s cool, Em,” his friend avowals.

Simon is hoping that Cory’s prediction is
correct. He lights the two oil lamps and takes his medical bag to
the bedside. Cory has already removed her coat and sweater, leaving
her in a simple blue t-shirt that exposes a bloody mess.

“The family will be here in less than an hour,”
Simon imparts to his friend, who looks nearly out of his mind with
worry. “We need to meet them on the oil well road so that they can
transfer her back home.”

“Ok, that’s good. That’s good,” Cory says
quickly.

“Let’s get her stabilized before we get you
back on the horse with her. I’m gonna tie this all off,” Simon
explains.

Cory holds a flashlight for him as
Simon
ties
a tight strip of cloth around Em’s shoulder wound and adds
more padding underneath. A dark red droplet splatters onto the toe
of his distressed leather
work
boot
, causing him to look down. Simon grabs
the flashlight out of Cory’s hand and scans the bed, the side of it
and Em’s torso and hip. The mattress under her is soaking with
blood, but it’s not near her shoulder at all. It’s under her
bottom.

“She’s been hit somewhere else, too, Cory.
Look,” he says in a rush of panic.

Em says, “My leg hurts.”

Cory’s eyes grow even wider with fear. As they
move her gently, easing her onto her side, Simon has a pang of
terror punch to his stomach. Em moans loudly from the pain of being
moved.

“Easy, Em,” Cory coos to her. “We’re just
checking you out, honey.”

The mattress and bedding are soaking through
with her blood, and Simon sticks the flashlight right into the
wound area so that he can better see what the hell they’re up
against. She’s been shot through her hip area somewhere, and blood
is literally pumping out.

“I’m sorry, Cory,” she says weakly. “I
should’ve listened to you.”

“It’s ok, kid. It’s gonna be ok, Em,” Cory
tells her softly. “Just be easy. Be still, Em.”

When Simon regards his friend, there are tears
streaming down Cory’s face, but he’s not even sure if Cory realizes
it. Simon frantically pushes another clean towel against her wound,
but when he pulls it back to see what he’s dealing with, it starts
streaming blood again. He yanks the material of her pants away so
that he can find the source to stop the bleeding.

“I’m
really cold
, Cor. Is that normal?” she
asks.

Simon is working as rapidly as his fingers can
move. He’s found the entrance and is glad to see that there is an
exit, as well. Unfortunately, it seems as if an artery has been hit
because he doesn’t think veins would be pumping blood this fast or
hard. He cuts the material away with scissors and presses hard
again to get the bleeding to stop.

“Yeah, it’s normal, Em,” Cory lies.
“It’s cold outside tonight. You’re just cold from that, ok? You’ll
be
fine
.
You’ll be just fine, honey. Simon’s got you covered. We’re
here,
and Simon’s
gonna get you fixed right up and then we’re taking you to meet Doc
and Reagan.”

Cory is soothingly stroking her
forehead and holding the flashlight again for him. Simon doesn’t
dare look up at him. There is blood on both of their
hands,
though his
friend doesn’t seem to care.

He pushes more
cloths
against her side. It
isn’t working, but he can hardly do surgery on her in this cabin.
He just needs to stifle the bleeding and get her stabilized. He
rips another piece of cotton from his sack and
ties
it as tightly as he can
around her slim thigh. She is no doubt going to need a blood donor.
He’s afraid he might be hurting her by
tying
it so tightly, but there’s no
choice.

“We gotta get her to that road,” he says to
Cory, who nods. “We need to move. We have to get her to Doc as
quick as we can. I’ve got this tied good, but I can’t see to do
anything more.”

Simon ties off more rags around Em’s slim hip
as tightly as he can get them so that the bleeding
stops.

“Cory?” Em asks as they roll her onto her back
again.

Simon rushes to the cabinet and pulls down a
wool blanket that will keep her warm for the ride. Thank God they
aren’t too far from that oil well road.

“Yeah, Em? What is it, honey?” Cory asks his
beloved sister.

“I love you, you know,” she confides without
guile.

He is the only person with whom she is so
openly affectionate. Losing her parents, having those parents
replaced with Cory had changed her, made her guarded with most
people. She’s not even as close with Kelly or any of the women on
the farm as she is with Cory. She’s been his constant shadow since
Simon had come to live with the McClanes almost four years
ago.

“I know, kid. I love you, too,” Cory
says unashamedly. “Come on.
We
gotta move, honey. I’ll try to be
gentle,
honey
.”

“Lift her torso and I’ll slip this
blanket under her, Cory,” Simon commands
easily
.

Cory does as he says, and Simon
slides the
heavy
blanket under and around Em’s slight body. She
tries to whisper something to Simon, but her voice is too quiet to
hear.