| Subject: Sometimes the Dragons Are Real, Chapters 17 & 18 |
Author:
Jaron
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 16:43:11 12/13/01 Thu
In reply to:
Jaron
's message, "Sometimes the Dragons Are Real" on 18:37:45 12/12/01 Wed
Sometimes the Dragons Are Real, Chapter 17
Michael felt the winch brake a split-second before his feet touched the floor. He
grabbed Rene in a tight hug as the little boy stood and jumped into his father’s
embrace, but Michael quickly pulled Rene’s arms from around his neck and motioned
for him to step into the harness he was holding. Rene did what his father showed him
to do. Michael raised Rene into the air and Nikita worked the winch which swiftly and
silently lifted Rene through the hole in the ceiling.
The hostages watched this scene in shock. It was as if Michael had just materialized
in front of them in a blaze of glory because the flash of the armored car exploding
out in front of the bank had startled and temporarily blinded them. When they
opened their eyes, there stood Michael, guardian angel extraordinaire. Not one of
them made a sound. He motioned them all to lie down flat on the floor, then turned
to confront the three would-be bank robbers. The explosion of the armored car out
in front of the bank had greatly surprised and momentarily stunned the three men.
They had been peppered with shards of safety glass from the glass front of the bank
as the glass shattered inward.
Before they could turn, Michael started firing at them, swinging his gun in a swathing
motion from left to right. He quickly emptied the magazine in his gun, let go of it
and reached to his thigh for that gun. Two men were down and would not get up
again. The third man, Nick, dove behind a marble customer counter in the middle of
the lobby.
Before Michael could bring his .45 up to target him, Nick stood quickly and emptied
his own magazine at Michael. All of the bullets hit Michael squarely in the center of
his chest. The impact of the bullets hitting him propelled him off of his feet and back
into the hard marble counter. The hostages screamed and flattened themselves into
the floor, as if seeking to melt into its shiny surface.
Grace watched in indescribable horror as Michael hit the marble counter, his head
smashing into the hard marble with a sickening thud. He fell to the shiny floor and
lay still, much too still.
Sometimes the Dragons Are Real, Chapter 18
I saw Michael lying on the floor of the bank and I scrambled over to him on my knees.
As I crawled to him and knelt by his still form, I became aware of a high-pitched
keening wail coming from somewhere above my head.
“Oh, God,” I breathed, and looked up. I had a fleeting glance of Nikita’s anguished
face in the hole in the ceiling. Her hand reached out to cover Rene’s mouth as she
pulled my screaming son away from the sight before his eyes. I shut my eyes tightly
and then forced them open. My son, Michael’s son, had just seen his father shot
down in front of him.
Can’t think of Rene now, have to help Michael, if I can. I bent over him and ripped
open his jacket unprepared for what I expected to see. What I actually saw surprised
me. There was no blood, but embedded in the kevlar vest that Michael was wearing, I
counted 8. 9, 10, 12 smashed bullets. Not reassured by the absence of blood, I found
and pulled loose one of the Velcro fasteners that held the vest in place. Carefully, I
ran my hand up under the vest and found no sticky wetness between his sweater and
his warm skin. What I did feel were ribs that bent where they should not bend, so the
vest had stopped the bullets, but the impact of Nick’s bullets had broken and bruised
Michael’s ribs. I thought that this sternum was also cracked, but his heart still beat a
steady rhythm under my hand. I refastened the Velcro and noticed as I pulled his
jacket back over his vest the grip of a very large gun. Its mate lay about six feet away
where it had fallen when Michael had been shot.
A voice startled me and I looked to its source and saw Michael’s green eyes blinking
rapidly as he struggled to focus on my face and keep from surrendering to the
darkness hovering on the edges of his consciousness. He was saying something
about Walter.
“Got to thank Walter. He....made....improvements to the....vest.” Michael spoke each
word in pain, so I put my hand over his mouth.
“Be quiet. There will be time for thanks later.” I told him, watching as the pool of
blood under Michael’s head grew outward like a red halo.
“I don’t....think so, Grace. Tell Rene.....tell Rene....that I will....always love him.” He
closed his eyes to gain composure and a respite from the pain for a moment and then
looked over my shoulder at something, at someone.
“Is he coming?” I asked.
Michael nodded weakly and put his hand out, but we both knew his gun was too far
away, and the machine gun was empty, and in any case, it was laying half under
Michael and was inaccessible. He slowly put his hand inside his jacket. A puzzled
look crossed his face as he pushed his hand further inside his jacket, grimacing in
pain as he put too much pressure on his chest as he searched for the other gun.
When he looked back at me, his eyes widened in shock as he saw what I held tightly
to my chest.
“Grace, no, please!” he begged as he also called out to Walter before losing the
struggle with the darkness. “Diversion, Walter, another diversion now!” Then he
closed his eyes and his face fell to the right into the pool of blood, staining his cheek
red.
I heard Nick’s voice behind me. “Get out of my way, I’m going to finish this guy.”
As he said this, we both heard the roar of a truck engine and a screech of tires. Nick
turned to see what was happening. I turned also, letting the noise of the big, black
Suburban cover the noise created by the slide on the gun as I chambered a bullet and
flicked off the safety.
When Nick glanced back at Michael and I on the floor, the last thing he ever saw was
the .45 pointed at his head. I squeezed the trigger and held it until all I heard were
the clicks that signified an empty clip.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 