11 AMBUSH
The three of us circle the town and lay down on a grassy knoll about a hundred yards off from our target, in the shade of a broken old shack. Outside the clinic we can see someone smashing windows up and down the street. The tinkling of broken glass carries to us on the wind. Archie looks through his scope and surveys the scene.
"I can see two more inside. They must be done looting cause they're smashing the place up."
"Any slaves?" I ask him
"No, don't see any,"
"How do you know they're slavers?"
"Trust me, I know,"
"No really, they could just be scavengers. How do you know?"
He looks at me angrily and I close my mouth.
"They took my wife, that's how I know," he says with a grimace and I turn back to the clinic sheepishly.
I look over as Tee pumps up her BB gun, licks her finger and touches the sight. I half wondered where she had learned to do that, what she had been through before I met her, rescued her. I take up sights myself, using a rock to rest the barrel of Minty’s .22.
"When they come out, they're going to head to the junkies camp to pick up slaves. When they come around that building they'll be coming towards us and we'll have a clear shot. Don't open fire until I do. Tee, guard the rear. " Archie says as he settles in with his sniper rifle, playing with the gauges.
"Yes sir!" she says, and salutes him. I couldn't help but laugh quietly. She turns around and uses her bird watching binoculars to scan the horizon, "I see Triple!" she says and points excitedly up in the air. I glance up but it's only a vulture, circling us far overhead.
A half an hour passes as we watch and wait. Finally the two slavers emerge from the clinic to join the third man and they walk westward, just like Archie said they would. They round the corner and come towards us.
"On the count of four," Archie says, steadying his breath.
"What? You mean three?" I say.
"No goddamnit I said four!"
"Ok ok!" I stammer.
"One... Two... Three... Four!"
We open fire on the three slavers. Archie's target goes down and doesn't move. I must have winged mine in the ear because he grabs at his head and goes to take cover, but there is none. I fire again while Archie ejects the clip and this time I make my mark, and hit him right in the heart. He falls down. The third let's off a clip of automatic weapon fire in our direction but Archie takes him out, his head exploding all over a junk car.
"Was that all of them?"
"I think so. Let's check it out. Maybe they've got some tech we can use.
Tee fires a shot and we both startle and turn,
"Got him!" She says triumphantly and dashes off to claim her prize, a skinny brown iguana.
"Don't move," a gruff voice says as a stranger emerges from behind the shack, holding an AK-47.
Archie and I lay prone on the ground and put our hands up. Tee points her rifle at him from ten feet away. I hear a flapping of wings and Triple lands next to Tee and starts hissing loudly, her stinger tail swinging back and forth in agitation. The stranger is surprised but his gun is steady.
"You don't move!" she says, a gleam in her eye as she pumps up her toy rifle. Fuck.
The man shifts his gun from us to Tee. The lizard starts making an awful sound and barfs up its lunch.
"Don't move or I kill the girl" he says, looking right into my eyes.
"Don't shoot!" I say, begging him. Tee is my life, don't take away my life. I whisper prayers to an absent god.
Tee opens fire right at the man's face. In an instant he falls to the ground and we grab our weapons and secure the area. No one else is around. I check the man's pulse, it's faint but he's still alive. I'd never seen a man stopped by a BB gun and I check his face. There's no wounds but his nose is bleeding.
"What the hell is that thing," Archie says, aiming his pistol at the lizard. I put my hand on his and lower it, "it's her pet, or something." He raises an eyebrow but says nothing.
"Good shot, Tee.. I think that BB went right up his nose and scrambled his brain," I tell her.
"Is he a slaver? How do we know now if he's good or bad?" Tee says, wondering as she slings her BB gun and picks up the flying lizard in her arms.
"What do we do with him?" I ask Archie, who stands with his pistol ready.
"He's a bad one Tee. Russ, just kill the bastard and get it done with. You want me to do it?" Archie says.
"No... Let me do it. Do you want to say last words?"
"Fuck no, he doesn't deserve an afterlife. He was gonna kill Tee, you heard him."
The lizard sniffs at the air, struggles free of Tee and flies off, obviously on its own agenda. I stand over the man and look down into his glazed eyes. His breath is shallow and his arm twitches a little. There's a black heart tattoo on his neck with the name Megan writ underneath. Archie gathers Tee and turns her away.
I wonder who he was, why he wandered the wasteland. He might have been a good man, the wasteland makes murderers of good men every day. Maybe he just needed a meal. Maybe he was just opportunistic. Maybe someone, maybe Megan loved him. Or to him, maybe, we were the murderers.
I blow his brains out all over the hill and the noise of the shot echoes back and forth across the valley, the lilting sound of another man greeting a quick death.
"One less asshole in the wasteland," Archie says.
"Do we bury him?" Tee asks, looking up at Archie.
Archie walks up and kicks dust in the man's face. He kicks the man in the head for long minutes afterwards, his face frozen in a wicked smile of revenge.
"Good enough," he says, and walks away, slinging his rifle on his shoulder.
Tee walks up to look at the wastelander and Archie goes to move her away but I stop him. "She's got to understand," I tell him, and all three of us look down at the dead man.
"Am I a murderer?" she says, looking up at me with glistening eyes. I kneel next to her, take her by the shoulders and shake my head, looking hard into her beautiful turquoise eyes.
"No Tee, killing a bad man doesn't make you a murderer. You were just defending yourself. You didn't just kill him cause you’re mean or for the fun of it. You had to do it. You saved me Tee. You saved us both. I'm sure he was a slaver, or worse," I hug her tight and don't let go for a long time. A child's innocence, traded for our lives.