You and Me against the World: The Creepers Saga Book 1 (27 page)

“Okay, here’s the game plan,” Devin said. “Annie, I want you and Goldie to get Caroline, Susan, and the children. Bob and Pam can take you out to the van. Now listen to me”—he paused and looked from one girl to the other—“your one job is to keep those kids safe and out of Bart’s hands. Is that understood?”

Annie nodded.

“If we don’t show up in thirty minutes, you get in that van and you go.”

“Oh, bullshit,” Annie said. “We’re not leaving you here. Fuck, Caroline and Susan would probably slit my throat if I even suggested it.”

Devin shook his head and said, “I’m not gonna hear it, okay? You tell Caroline that I … well, she’ll know. Bob, Pam, I want to be clear—thirty minutes and then you go.”

They both nodded. Golden stamped her foot and looked furious. Nick touched her arm and whispered something to her, but she pulled away and stared at her brother in defiance. Devin returned the stare.

“Just do it, Goldie. Dad didn’t die so you could be killed in this insanity.” His voice was firm, but Thorn saw the hurt it caused him to play the “dad died for you” card. Golden turned away.

“Nick, Adam, and Brad, get to that garage. Kill anyone who tries to stop you.”

“Devin, we don’t have weapons,” Brad reminded him.

“Use your fuckin’ hands!” Devin yelled. His rage had peaked, and he wouldn’t accept any obstacles. The room was silent, and then Devin collected himself, took a deep breath, and then continued in a calm voice.

“When you get the Tahoe, two of you bring it down this back alley to the weapons depot. Someone needs to go get that Escalade, but don’t bring it back here. Head out to the woods, and meet up with Annie.”

“Brandon, Austin, Thorn, and I will get to the weapons depot and get our guns back. Bob, how secure is it?”

“Not very,” Bob answered and threw Devin a set of keys. “But there is another thing.”

“There always is,” Brandon said and chuckled.

“Brother Bart has a bomb.”

“A bomb? What kind of a bomb?” Thorn asked.

“Incendiary,” Pam answered. “It’s about the size of a football. The explosive pattern will take out everything fifty to sixty feet from the center.”

“Explosive experts, Pam?” Adam asked.

Pam nodded. “I did a little work in the Persian Gulf.”

“Why does he have a bomb?” Devin asked.

Pam shrugged. “The nutcases love bombs. Who knows, but his doesn’t have a remote detonator, so the only way it will work is if someone feels like volunteering to push the button. It has a three-second delay, so denotation is a suicide mission.”

“So it’s useless to him, unless he wants to die using it,” Nick said.

“No, I’m sure Bart could convince one of his brethren to sacrifice himself for God’s work,” Kira said.

Devin contemplated the bomb’s threat.

“Seems like it’s the least of our concerns,” he said.

“Until a few weeks from now, when someone shows up and blows us all to hell in our sleep,” Kira added.

“You think he’s gonna follow us?” Brandon asked.

“I’ve known Bart for over a year. He hates to lose. He will absolutely follow us. With the bomb he only has to send one guy to end us. Without it he may have to rethink the revenge strategy.”

“Okay, so we need to get the bomb. Is it in the weapons depot?” Devin asked.

“No,” Kira said, “it’s in his bedroom.”

Devin sighed. “Great, a third stop.”

“No, I’ll get it,” Kira said.

“Bullshit, that’s way too risky,” Adam said.

“Oh, darlin’, I appreciate the concern. It’s very noble, but Bart is obsessed with me. I won’t get caught. It’s not my first time in his bedroom.”

She laughed, but you could hear the coldness in it.

Adam frowned and his expression was heavy with concern.

“I’ll be in and out in no time, and then I’ll head out to the woods to the meeting point,” Kira said and gently touched Adam’s arm. Their eyes met, and it was such a deeply personal moment that that the others looked away. For an instant, Kira’s blue eyes shifted back to Dani’s gray. And then it passed, and she chuckled and then kissed Adam.

“Okay, then we have it covered,” Devin confirmed.

“Devin, I don’t want to add more to the plan, but we can’t leave Doc Crazy to his own devices down in that lab.” Thorn’s expression suggested he didn’t like what he had to say.

“Sure, we’ll be safe for the moment, but what happens if they find a work around for their plan? What happens if they start breeding Creepers that have complete human intelligence?” Thorn asked.

“Do you really think that it will work?” Devin asked.

“I don’t know, but I think we can’t take the chance,” Thorn answered.

“So what do you suggest?”

“I’ll go back to the lab. Crash the data, kill the pregnant Creeper, and destroy the computers. I’ll take that back alley out and meet you at the van.”

Devin nodded and then looked around.

“You know something is going to go wrong with this, right?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, but we’ll just improvise.”

Bob and Pam reached under their shirts at the same time and each pulled out a nine-millimeter Beretta. For a moment, Thorn thought they had been deceived, and then Bob handed the weapon to Devin. Pam handed her gun to Adam.

“I could come with you,” Bob said to Devin.

“I appreciate it, but just keep my girls safe,” Devin said.

“I’ll put myself in harm’s way, son. On that you have my word.”

Devin’s big break

Things went bad pretty fast.

At the weapons depot, the key worked as planned. Inside, however, the room was empty.

“Oh shit,” Brandon said. “Did Bob just set us up?”

“No.” Devin looked around at the empty shelves. “I think Bart doesn’t trust him as much as Bob believed.”

“That, my friend, isn’t the half of it,” Bart said from the doorway.

Two men entered with shotguns. The two men weren’t Bart’s normal henchmen, just guys who up until a few moments ago had been middle-aged average men. Things had changed fast.

“And don’t worry over your friends at the garage. You’ll be joining them shortly. Brothers, take these young men over to the dining hall and secure them. I’ll be there in a minute. There is something else I must attend to at the moment.”

The men approached, and Austin raised his baseball bat.

“Save it, Austin. Not here, not now,” Devin said.

Austin let the bat drop to the floor.

The men led them to the dining hall. Brad, Nick, and Adam were tied to chairs, and three more empty ones were awaiting them. Brad’s nose was bleeding, and he was going to have a black eye.

“Sorry, dude, they were waiting for us,” Adam said.

Devin nodded. “It’s not over yet,” he said, and one of the brothers shoved him to a chair.

They were bound, and four of Bart’s men stood silent guard over them. Mike, a black-haired guy with a thick mustache, took practice swings with Austin’s baseball bat.

“Later,” Austin said and looked at the Mike, “I’m gonna crack your fuckin’ skull with that bat.”

“Yeah, good luck with that. Later, you’ll be dead,” Mike said and laughed.

“We’ll see,” Austin said softly and stared at him. Mike returned the stare for a second, but he saw something in the boy’s eyes that made him look away nervously.

“Now, boys, let’s all try to get along,” Bart said as he entered the room.

“Sure, just let us go, and I’ll send you a nice fruit basket at Christmas,” Brandon said.

“Well, that was the plan,” Bart ignored the sarcasm. “But then you boys had to go and screw it up, and now here we are.”

“No problem. Release us and we’ll be on our way,” Devin said in a flat tone.

“Yeah, I’d like to do that, I really would but”—Bart paused, and then the calm expression evaporated into rage and he screamed in Devin’s face—“then you went and took my fuckin’ children!”

“They’re not your children, you psycho,” Devin said calmly.

Bart slapped him in the face.

“That is where you are mistaken—they are my children,” he said and straightened his hair.

“Did you really think we’d let you keep them?” Devin asked.

“Actually, I hoped you wouldn’t, but still I needed a plan to eliminate you without causing the congregation too much stress.”

“Well, we haven’t given you an excuse … yet,” Devin said.

“Oh, but that’s where you are wrong again, my young friend.” Bart smiled and the insanity in the expression was clear. “Turns out you’re all a little crazy. You killed poor Brother Paul, you’ve assaulted our doctor, and we have learned that you’re molesting the children.”

“I think that last part belongs to you, fuckhead,” Adam said, and one of the guards punched him in the face.

“You realize that you’re totally insane,” Devin said. “I mean, please don’t tell me that mating infected with kids seems like a rational idea to you.”

“You can’t see the big picture, my son,” Bart said and paced back and forth.

“Oh, I see a picture, all right, and I think it should be drawn in crayon and hung on the wall in your cell … or stapled to your fuckin’ coffin,” Devin said.

Bart laughed. “You know, the shame of it all is that I really like you, Devin. Under different circumstances, I think we could have been friends.”

“Under different circumstances I’d be unloading my gun into your crazy, fucking head.”

“Well, no matter,” Bart said as if he talked to himself. “What I need from you now is the location of the children.”

Relief washed over Devin’s face. The others had at least gotten away.

“No problem, let us go, and we’ll go find them for you and bring them back,” Brandon added.

Bart looked at him. “Careful, wise ass, I only need one of you alive to provide the children’s location.”

“We aren’t gonna tell you where they are,” Devin said to distract Bart’s attention from his friend.

“I don’t know, you may change your mind with the correct motivation.” Bart smiled his crazy smile.

“Yeah, you know that seems to be the favorite line of all you crazy rapists,” Devin said.

Bart walked over to the guard with the mustache and took the baseball bat from him.

“You know, in college, I was quite the player.”

He took several practice swings.

“I used to hit a solid three fifty,” he said as he approached Devin.

“Three fifty, I’m calling bullshit on that one, you fuckin’ weasel,” Devin said and smiled.

“So I’m gonna ask you again,” Bart said, ignoring the comment. He paused and put his face an inch from Devin’s. “Where are my children?”

Devin head butted him. Bart drew back and screamed in rage as he rubbed his forehead.

“Fuck, that hurt!” he yelled.

“Too bad I missed your nose, you fucking loon.”

“Brothers, pull his chair out to center stage,” Bart said and stepped back. “Let’s see if we can apply some motivation.”

Two brothers dragged Devin’s chair to the center of the room.

“Last chance,” Bart warned. “Where are they?”

“I think they went to a party at Chuck E Cheese,” Devin replied.

Bart swung the bat. He caught the side of Devin’s knee, and there was a loud crack. Devin’s head went back, but he wouldn’t give Bart the satisfaction of a scream, so instead he growled loudly.

Austin went crazy. He pulled against his bonds and screamed at Bart, “I will fuckin’ kill you. You touch him again—you hear me, you crazy fuck?—I will tear you’re fuckin’ head off!”

Mustache Mike punched Austin in the ribs. Austin coughed and blood leaked from his mouth. He spit it at Mike.

“Austin, don’t,” Devin said. His voice was pain-filled and tears welled up in his eyes.

“Now, are we ready to talk, or perhaps you require a little more motivation?”

“Eat me,” Devin said and spit at Bart.

Bart wound up and swung a second time. This time, Devin howled in rage. Bart’s expression was one of dissatisfaction. He
wanted the sound of pain, but all he could draw from Devin was more sounds of anger.

“I knew you were a strong one, but I didn’t expect such control,” Bart said. “I mean, that has to really hurt, and still no cries for mercy.”

Devin lifted his head. His face expressed his pain, but his brow still creased with determination.

“Ah, maybe I’ve gone about this all the wrong way,” Bart continued. “Perhaps you care more for your brother than yourself.”

Bart looked at his henchmen.

“Gentlemen, why don’t we bring the other brother front and center,” Bart said and then smiled at Devin.

“Hey, there Bart Simpson,” Nick called. “Do you rape children because you have a small dick, or do real women just find you repulsive? Wait, I know. As a kid your mommy touched your penis in an inappropriate way.” Nick laughed. “Its multiple choice, Barty, so it’s okay to circle all the above.”