Page 55 of Crucified By the Dark
“Fire.”
A dozen small missiles designed specifically for her Hummer flew from the launcher. The missiles were no bigger than a foot long and packed a lethal punch. Lady Luck had been programmed to hit either the engine, gas tank, or take out the wheels, depending on the distance and angle of the threat. The miniatureDeath Dealers, as she called them, could render an armored vehicle useless. These trucks, painted with fancy flames and large wheels for looks, didn’t stand a chance.
Everything slowed down as she watched theDeath Dealerssail through the air. No one paid attention to the lone Hummer sitting on the hill or the possible danger they were now in. Lady Luck was designed for this. The things the boys did with their Hummers in the cities were nothing more than child’s play compared to the damage a lone one could do when outfitted with all the toys. She had Lady Luck stacked with every ounce of killing power she could. Now she couldn’t help wondering if she’d subconsciously known she would need it one day or if it just made her feel better.
As the first missile hit, she gasped as she was forced back in time. The image before her didn’t change, yet the memories in her mind were a wheel of destruction.
She could hear Trev’s pain-filled wails over the ringing in her ears as they all realized what had just happened to Mel. She clutched Dean’s pack as he sat in the middle of the street, stunned and holding onto Perez’s head. Perez’s eyes were blank, and his body was torn in two. She pulled Dean back to safety just as another RPG hit, and the shrapnel sliced open her face. They all watched as Scooter begged Arek to kill him and how he’d soothed his friend before pulling the trigger. The exploding building and raining rumble as they were pelted with chunks of rock. The look on the man’s face as he took his own life trying to kill them with a bomb. Blood and flesh smattered them. His tear-stained face was stuck firmly in her mind. The sound of the helicopter coming down and how she and Trev managed to save Kes while Ringo screamed for them to save him. He reached up from the flames, begging for help as the pain-filled wails clogged her ears. The look in Jimmy’s eyes when he said he didn’t want the antibiotics, and how he’d held onto her hand as if saying goodbye. Then TK’s final words of love spoken with his dying breath.
She shuddered and sucked in a deep breath as the images bombarded her like a horror movie that would never end. She could smell the smoke and hear the guns as loud in her mind as the terror-filled screams of friend and foe alike. Morry’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as she swallowed the panic and forced her mind to return to the present.
The explosions took everyone by surprise, and the men sitting on bikes or taking shots at the trapped men turned to watch their trucks flip and fly through the air. One by one, vehicles erupted into flames and were tossed around with the combination of the sudden impact and momentum.
“Holy shit,” Jeremy said softly, his tone conveying that he hadn’t expected this level of destruction. It was so different seeing it in person.
One of the trucks flew sideways and landed on the men and their motorcycles, which set off more explosions, killing them in horrifying fashion. Black smoke rose into the air like the devil himself was trying to signal that shit was going down. Once more, the wrath of humans brought destruction, doing his bidding.
“How many did they bring,” Jeremy asked as he looked at the long line of motorcycles still coming into view, along with a few more trucks.
“Looks like two…maybe three hundred,” she said as those in the lead peeled away from the fun and raced along the packed road toward the compound. “Hang on,” she said.
Punching the gas, Lady jerked forward off the rise and raced across the sand toward the mass of men. This wasn’t just the Desert Devils. Mixed in with the black and red cuts of the Devils were cuts from at least two other motorcycle gangs. They thought they could waltz on in, overpower them, take their spot, kill their people, and steal whatever they happened to have. That wasn’t happening, not if she had anything to say about it.
The motorcycles fanned out, maybe hoping to deter her from ramming them. She charged them at top speed. Beside her, Jeremy pressed back into his seat.
“This is not going to be pretty,” she said, turning the wheel hard.
Sand flew into the air. There was a crash as one of the bikes clipped her back end. The Hummer barely moved with the impact. Turning the Hummer around, Morry stared at the multiple motorcycles and riders spread over the ground.
“I don’t get it. What just happened?”
Peeling away, she hit the computer pad, and the windshield changed, giving her an aerial view of everything in a one-mile radius. Fuck, there was a lot of them. How had they hidden this many coming into the area? A problem for another time.
She glanced over at Jeremy. “They lined up all wrong. They’re like dominos. As soon as one swerved into the next, it started a chain reaction. The sand blinded the ones in front, and we sent one flying.”
“Like a pile-up on a freeway in the winter.”
“Exactly. Holy shit.” Morry swerved as an RPG came out of nowhere. It exploded behind her, but the blast shook the Hummer and rained sand down on the roof.
“What the fuck?” Jeremy looked at the small crater behind them. “Jesus Christ. That would’ve killed us.”
“Lady Luck, who shot the RPG?”
“Boogie at two o’clock.” Morry looked to her right, and sure enough, a dune buggy was parked on one of the sand hills but low enough on the far side that she barely saw his roof.
“Do we have any more missiles?”
“No, all twelve have been used.”
Morry smacked her hand on the wheel. “Shit. Okay, Lady Luck, guns ready. How much ammunition do we have?”
“Five hundred rounds.”
“Is that going to be enough,” Jeremy asked, sitting forward to stare at the map on the windshield.
“Hopefully,” she answered as the next wave got close enough that bullets began pinging off the side of the Hummer.
Morry weaved her way around the vehicles that seemed to have a death wish, her eyes fixed on the guy on the hill who was having issues reloading the weapon.
