Private Dublin

Chapter 61

As the four masked men ran at me, I saw two were carrying clubs, one had an ax and the fourth held a machete. They saw their fallen comrades near the fire exit, and I could feel their anger surge.

“You...” the axman yelled, so angry he never finished his curse.

He sprinted ahead of the others and I raised both clubs as I prepared to face him. He didn’t hesitate but took a swipe straight at my head. The ax is a poor weapon in untrained hands because the heavy head keeps traveling if a target is missed, which is exactly what happened in this instance.

The wild swing forced him off balance and I took advantage of his misjudgment by striking his right knee with the club in my left hand, cracking it. As he buckled and dropped the ax so he could soothe his injured knee, I smacked him on the ear with the other club, and he went crashing to the ground, out cold.

The two men with clubs came at me and I parried their blows at furious speed, but one caught me with a vicious strike to my left shoulder. That side of my body exploded with pain, but I’ve had experience of shoulder injuries, which are often sharp and debilitating but pass quickly. The club in my left hand dropped automatically. I rolled to the side and grabbed it as the searing pain in my shoulder subsided.

I stamped on the taller man’s foot. As he stepped back, I caught him with a club to the ribs, winding him. His accomplice swung at me with his weapon, but I stepped forward, moving between the two men. I grabbed the injured man and thrust him into the path of his angry companion as he came for me again with his club. The blow connected and the accomplice stepped back in shock as he realized he’d knocked out his friend.

Exploiting his surprise, I swung with my left club. He recovered enough to partially block the blow, but I caught him on his shoulder, and as he was dealing with the pain, freed him from it entirely by cracking his head with the club in my right hand. He fell to the ground unconscious.

I sensed movement behind me and ducked and rolled. As I came up and looked around, I saw machete man rushing me, swinging his blade wildly.

I tried to parry a blow and the razor-sharp edge of the blade lopped the tip off of the wooden club.

Machete man paused, and in the momentary silence I heard a voice yell, “Hey!”

I looked beyond my assailant to see one of his masked accomplices who’d been at the front of the building register the mayhem at the back. More men started to come around the corner until there was a large group of them.

“He helped them escape,” machete man yelled to the group that had started toward us.

“Let’s get him!” the leader shouted, and ran forward, followed by the entire gang, roaring and jeering as they came.

I couldn’t see machete man’s mouth, but I could tell from his eyes that he was smiling.

I thought about turning and running for the picnic table, but my opponent would slice my back open as soon as I showed it to him, so I squared up to him and the approaching mob and prepared to go down fighting.