How It All Ended

Chapter 11

I sat upright on the cot. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I groggily asked everyone in the room, "What's going on?"

"Sounds like we have company," Shauna replied.

"What the shit? Tommy said he was giving us twenty-four hours."

"I don't know if you noticed this, Dom, but Tommy's not exactly the most honorable guy around."

Once I had my wits about me, I looked around; Shauna and Amber were in the room with me, but Jonathan was outside on the balcony.

"I'm telling you, Thomas, back off!" Jonathan hollered down towards Tommy.

"Nope," Tommy answered Jon bluntly. "And don't call me that."

"Wait a damn minute, Tommy. You said that you'd be back here in twenty-four hours. It's barely dawn."

"What can I say? I got bored and grew impatient. Now hand them over."

"No!"

"Fine then. We're coming in," said Tommy.

I heard Jon ready his rifle while Shauna tried her best to comfort a panicking Amber.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," I whispered. "Jon? Get back in here, and we can sneak out through the back door."

"Shh," Jon replied.

"Talking to your new buddy?" Tommy asked Jon.

"Maybe I was. Maybe I wasn't. Why do you care?"

Tommy sighed. "That's enough of this. Let's go!"

There was a loud bang. Jon had fired his rifle, and it was deafening. Jon hurried back into the upstairs room, closing the balcony doors behind him.

"What happened?" Shauna asked Jonathan.

Jonathan had a scared expression on his face, "I missed," He replied.

I heard some pounding coming from the downstairs. "Sounds like they're at the back door," I told the others. "Hear it?"

"Yeah," Jon replied.

"Yep," said Shauna.

Amber was shaking and trying not to cry. She didn't give me an answer.

"That back door's pretty sturdy," Jon told us. And you guys saw the boarded-up windows down there. We should be okay. Tommy doesn't have enough people to break those down."

"Look out!" Amber shrieked.

One of Tommy's crew had made it up the front of the building and, he climbed onto the balcony. The gang member was wearing a black jacket and leather gloves. The guy had on a pair of black sunglasses and a blue skull cap. He smashed through the windows with his gloved right fist. Jon spun around and tried to fire his rifle, but the gang member managed to reach inside, and he swatted the gun away from Jonathan.

The gang member then tried to unlock the balcony doors. I went to grab my wrench, but it wasn't beside my cot where I had left it. Shauna had picked it up before I could, and she rushed towards the balcony doors to attack the member of Tommy's crew.

Shauna swung the wrench, connecting with the gang member's right forearm. The guy bellowed out in pain, and he pulled his arm out of the room and retreated from the doors. Then, the gang member began kicking at the entrance, trying to knock the balcony doors down.

"Shauna, move!" Jon yelled. He had regained control of his rifle and took aim at the gang member out on the balcony. Jon fired his weapon.

The loud bang damn near made me go deaf. I clutched at my ears and dropped to the ground. Amber helped me get back to my feet. She was asking me something, but I couldn't hear a damn word that Amber was saying to me.