Page 88 of Delirium
The tone of him calling someone was deafening, and as he put the phone on the speakerphone, I could hear clearly when Creed answered the phone.
“We’re under attack,” Storm barked, ignoring the pleasantries, and going straight to the point. “We’re at that clearing, not too far from the house.”
“How many?” Creed simply asked, and I could hear the murmur of voices behind him as he spoke to Storm.
“Three, maybe four four-wheelers. We’re sitting ducks here, Creed. I need you guys to hurry.”
“We’re already on our way,” Creed answered as the sound of motorcycles roared through the line, seconds before he cut it off.
“Are you okay?” Storm asked, looking down at me.
No, I wasn’t okay. I was angry. So fucking angry at these people. I didn’t do anything to them. I understood when people wanted me dead because I hurt them or because I did something, but not right now. I didn’t fucking deserve this.
All I wanted was to have a peaceful day, with the man I loved, ignoring the rest of the world. Just one fucking day.
“Do you have a gun with you?” I asked instead of answering.
“Of course I do.”
“Then we need to shoot back,” I said at the same time as Kaiser’s growl cracked through the air, as if he agreed with what I said.
“There are too many of them,” Storm argued. “I don’t want them to hurt you.”
“Stormy,” I started. “It’ll take the guys at least ten minutes to get here. As much as I love you for your concern, we both know how to fight. Trust me.”
I pushed him to the side, turning along with him, turning my front to the blanket. I wasn’t going to risk the kids, but I also wasn’t going to keep lying there like a helpless damsel.
A bullet whizzed right next to me, finding the target in a tree somewhere behind us, followed by an array of curses spilling over Storm’s lips.
“I’m going to kill them.”
“You’re gonna have to get in line,” I grunted. “Me first. Give me the gun,” I instructed, trying to locate the shooters. “There are at least three of them. I can’t see the fourth one.”
“Me neither,” Storm answered, handing over his gun, and taking the other one from the backpack.
“You brought two?” I asked.
“You can never be safe enough.” He grinned. “We need to get to those trees,” he said, pointing at the trees behind us. “We need to take cover.”
“I know,” I agreed. “Together?”
“Together.” He nodded.
We both fell to the ground, crawling over the debris and the grass, heading in the direction of the trees with the thick enough trunks to hide us.
“Kaiser!” I yelled out, calling for him. A couple of seconds later, I turned around to see him following us, keeping low on the ground.
“Did you teach him to do that?” Storm asked, panting as we came closer to our goal.
“No.” I shook my head, looking ahead toward the trees. “But I don’t think you need to have training for your dog for them to understand that there’s a massive danger.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t run after them,” Storm said, ducking down as another shot sounded from behind us.
They were getting less frequent, but I knew that our attackers were just waiting to see if we would get up. They weren’t tired, not even close. Maybe they were reloading, or just waiting for the perfect opportunity, but I wasn’t going to get up and check.
“He’s protecting us,” I said. “I think we don’t give them enough credit. These animals tend to be smarter than us, trusting their instincts. Humans, we don’t do that. We think too much and sometimes that costs us a lot.”
I could feel Storm’s eyes on me. I could feel the heat from Kaiser emanating from behind as we crawled toward the trees. Before we knew it, we were there, closer to safety.
