Page 30 of Crucified By the Dark
There was no slacking here, no moping or wishing you could leave. Once you arrived, either as a patient or club member, you never left the fold unless it was because you graduated out, got permission or in a body bag. Those were the only three ways, and she made no exceptions to this rule.
Morry glanced over at Jeremy, he hadn’t said much the rest of the trip, but his silence said more than any words could. She wasn’t sure what to make of his proclamation. It took her completely by surprise, but it shouldn’t have. She opened the door, and he kicked it out of her hand. There was no one to blame but herself for this.
The gates were open before they pulled up, and Morry lifted a hand to wave as they drove through.
“What do you want me to do?”
“What,” Morry asked, pulled out of her brooding thoughts.
“What do you want me to take care of first?” Jeremy said.
“Oh.” Parking the Hummer, she watched the motorcycles roar past and disappear inside the long storage building and out of sight. Glancing at the time, an idea formed. “How would you like to play nurse?”
“Well, hello, straight into roleplaying. I like it,” Jeremy said, reaching for the door handle.
She grabbed his arm and shook her head as he looked at her. “No, I mean, actually pretend to be a nurse?”
“I’m not following.”
“I want to see my son, and I need a distraction. You are my distraction. Can you keep Andrew busy talking while I sneak into the room?”
Jeremy pulled down the visor, and she lifted a brow as he opened the mirror and the light flicked on. He stared at himself in the mirror and then nodded. “I need to shave and grab a different set of clothes, but yeah, I can do it.”
Morry smiled and surprised herself when she reached out and grabbed his face to lay a hard kiss on Jeremy’s lips.
“Thank you.” Hopping out of the truck, she paused. “Well, are you going to get ready or what?” She barely managed to hold back the smirk as Jeremy jumped out of the Hummer. “I’ll be in my office. I need to check in with the few patients and make sure the latest shipment of guns has arrived,” she said as they went their separate ways.
Her phone dinged as she stepped into the office, showing a missed call from Trev, but whatever he wanted to talk about would have to wait. Walking to her desk, she grabbed the latest intake folder that had been put into her tray and flipped open the cover. Her hand and the air in her chest froze as she stared at the name of the newest patient: Stephen Kekewich.
Morry swallowed the lump lodged in her throat. Her pulse raced as her finger slid down the intake information, the year he was born, his family history, and there it was in black and white, brother to deceased Tyler Kekewich. Was it coincidence or just fucked up timing that brought TK’s brother to her just as she tried to let go of some of the pain in her past? It was like the universe never wanted her to heal.
There was no forgetting the only other person she’d ever loved or watching TK die in her arms. Morry screamed and threw the folder across the room. Papers flew in all directions, then fluttered to the floor, reminding Morry of the rain of bullets that took Tyler from her.
“Run!” Trev yelled as the sound of an RPG screamed closer.
Sand exploded into the air like a torrent with a deafening explosion as the missile hit near them. They were running for their lives across the desert without any cover, needing to put distance between themselves and those following them. There was a rough path on the maps that vehicles couldn’t cross, and that was where they were heading. It was their only chance of surviving, even if it added an extra week to their journey. They would be dead for sure in a matter of days if they couldn’t take real cover. They were all low on ammunition and water, plus they were moving slowly, having to help Jimmy— who’d just taken a bullet in his leg— and Kes, who was delirious from the pain of his burns on his side.
The sound of gunfire broke out once more, and it was something you never got used to. The bang and whizz, then the soft thud as the bullet narrowly missed you. Each one was like a deadly game of dodgeball, but there were no timeouts. This game was for keeps, and the winner was left alive while the loser bled out in the middle of hell.
“Over here,” Trev yelled again to be heard over the sound of the artillery raining down on them. It was only by some grace of God that they were not all being taken down one by one with the amount of lead that was falling all around them.
A Jeep came racing over a sand dune to the right of where she was running. She stared at the driver and the man standing at the back with his gun trained on her and knew she was dead. She had no idea where TK had come from—he’d been helping Dean run with Kes—when he appeared out of the periphery of her vision.
Bang, Bang. Two shots rang out. The man standing on the back of the Jeep fell, and the driver slumped over in the seat.
“Watch out!” Morry screamed as the Jeep careened toward the spot they were all running to for cover.
In a move that should’ve been on the big screen, TK ran like a man possessed and grabbed the door handle of the Jeep. Morry ran after him, unable to believe what she was watching as he pulled the driver out and somehow, without getting sucked under the wheels, got inside the Jeep and brought it to a stop.
“Get on, everyone. Get on,” TK called.
Everyone diverted course to get on the Jeep. There were too many of them, with the civilians and the injured. TK jumped out of the driver’s seat and told Trev to get in.
“You should go with them for as long as the fuel lasts. It will give you a chance to live,” TK said as Morry ran up to the Jeep. Kes and Jimmy were being loaded into the back.
“No, I go where you go,” she said.
TK looked at the Jeep and then back at those who had lost some ground but were still coming.
