Dead Lucky

Dead Lucky 4

I'll have to walk around the car and I'll be out in the open when I do. I check to be sure that they're not looking then take a deep breath before I walk around the car, unlocking the driver's door with the key so the car won't beep. Then I open the door slowly and get in, slouching in the seat so I'm below the window, pulling the door closed without latching it.

I need a moment to calm my nerves. I take another cold pill and some pain pills, chewing them up and swallowing them dry. Before starting the car I think about getting Mary and the boy from the lobby to the car and I don't see how it's possible. When I start the car, they'll hear it and come for me. Faced with that prospect, it's very hard for me to summon the courage to move and when I do, I sit up just enough to peek out the window. They're looking around and I'm afraid that I've missed my chance. I'm tempted to drive away. I tell myself that they might follow me; that I could lead them away from Mary and the boy; that I could come back later, but I'm afraid that's not what would happen. I'm afraid that I might not come back.

The car starts easily and they hear it. They're looking in my direction. I gun the engine, swerving out into the road, then around a body and onto the sidewalk in front of the lobby. I stop the car with the passenger doors right next to the lobby entrance. That'll make it easier to get Mary and the boy in the car. But I'll have to go around the car to get them, and again when I come back, and I'll be out in the open when I do.

Those fiends are close now and they're coming fast. I won't have enough time to get both Mary and the boy in the car, so I decide to leave the boy. I hit the unlock button on the door handle as I get out of the car so I can open the passenger door when I come back with Mary. My legs tremble. I have to will them to move because I'm afraid that time has run out for us.

As I run around the front of the car, I spot a man carrying a tire iron running toward me. He's closing the distance between us quickly, too quickly, so I stop and begin to backup. Then he shudders and lurches forward, as though someone has given him a body block. As a grisly looking mass of viscera erupts from his chest, I hear a pop from somewhere off in the distance. I freeze next to the driver's door and scan the buildings, spotting movement high up on a balcony a block away. I hear the gun again and see another one of the car people drop as his head explodes.

The shooter must have a scope on his rifle to be so accurate at such a distance; probably one of those survivalists. There was a time when I would've called someone like that a nut case, but now I want to yell out, "Kill the bastards," and I would if he wasn't too far away to hear me.

The last of the car people are crouched down behind parked cars watching the shooter. It's their turn to cower in fear. There's some satisfaction in that.

I force myself to walk around the car the last few feet to the lobby door. One of the car people sees me and we lock eyes for a moment. It gives me a chill, but he doesn't come out of his hiding place. The shooter has bought us some time, and probably saved our lives.

I'm reaching for the lobby door when I'm hit in the back with such force that I'm slammed against the lobby window. At first I'm confused because I didn't think anyone was that close to me. I assume that the man with the tire iron did it, but then I remember his chest exploding. As I slump to the ground, I see blood smear the window and I know that it's mine, and I realize that the man with the rifle thought I was one of the car people.

Lying on the sidewalk, my blood pooling around me as my nightmare descends, I see Mary and the boy through the lobby window and I'm afraid for them.

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