The Forgotten Holocaust

Chapter Forty-One

Erin sprawled face down to the hard concrete, dropping her gun, all her senses disintegrating into a wild tumult of pain and confusion. Something had pierced her shoulder, but it wasn’t a bullet. A bullet would have blown right through her, spraying a mist of blood outwards and across her cheek. She’d have felt the wound channel open up inside her, sinew and bone and soft tissue turning to jelly with the shock of the impact. This was something else.

A terrible current of agony was rippling through her whole body. She couldn’t control her movements. Her arms and legs were thrashing, her spine arching backwards so tightly that it felt like it would snap, if her muscles didn’t first. She was only dimly aware of the curly wires connecting the dart in her shoulder to the device that the ponytailed man had clenched in his fist as he strolled casually up to her with his automatic weapon slung behind his shoulder.

‘Hey there, darlin’,’ he said. ‘How’s about you take a little ride with your uncle Billy Bob?’ He smiled as he peered down at her. There was a wad of white gum rolling around between his teeth; she caught a sharp minty smell off his breath that took her confused senses straight back to the nightmare memory of the cabin.

He did something with the object he was holding and the awful electric convulsions stopped as suddenly as they’d begun, but Erin was too stunned to resist or even stand up. She was aware of figures of men circling her. Strong hands reached down and yanked her roughly to her feet. There was a jolt of pain as the thing stuck in her shoulder was plucked out. ‘Get your fucking hands off of me,’ she said. Her cheek was throbbing badly from the fall, and her voice sounded faraway and slurry. It was beginning to dawn on her that she’d been tasered. She kicked and struggled and lashed out with her fists. One of her punches made contact, but only weakly.

‘She shot me!’ It was the one she’d fired at through the Honda’s windows. Blood was soaking through his shirt and he was unsteady on his feet, pointing at her with a look of amazement. ‘She fucking shot me!’

‘Try and run, bitch,’ the one called Billy Bob said, taking out a pistol and shoving its muzzle under her chin. The steel was cool and hard. ‘Go on. Be a sport,’ he said. ‘That’s all I want, so I can blow your brains out.’

‘Get the gun out of her face,’ said the other man she recognised from the cabin, slapping the weapon away. ‘Boss wants her back alive, remember?’

‘Your boss. The mayor, right? Another one who’s got it coming.’

‘That’s right, bitch. You got yourself an appointment with the mayor. Should be honoured. He’s an important guy.’

‘I know who you are,’ she said. ‘You’re Moon. And you’re Ritter. Call yourselves soldiers? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.’

‘How ’bout I wrap your head round and round with duct tape?’ Moon said. ‘Keep that smart mouth of yours shut.’ He thrust the pistol in his belt and grabbed her roughly by the arm.

‘Let’s get the hell out of here,’ Ritter said, walking towards the driver’s side of the van. ‘Put the bitch in the back. I’ll drive. Moon, in with me.’ He pointed at the wounded man. ‘Jesse, you best let Skeeter drive the Taurus. Quincy, you ride in the back of the van with her. She tries anything, do what you have to do. But no rough stuff.’

‘That part comes later,’ Moon said, baring his teeth.

‘You won’t be grinning when they’re dragging your scrawny ass into the deathhouse,’ Erin seethed at him.

Moon’s face turned sour. He spat out his wad of gum. ‘I’m gettin’ tired of your talk, lady.’ With an iron grip on her arms, he began hauling her towards the van. She tried to kick him again, lost her footing and fell. He hauled her painfully along the ground.

Skeeter helped the injured Jesse into the back of the Taurus, leaving a blood trail. The one called Quincy walked round the rear of the van, opened up the doors. As he stood waiting for Moon to shove their captive inside, he heard something from the direction of the ramp and twisted his head around to see. ‘I think we got company, boys.’

‘That’s their fuckin’ problem,’ Skeeter said, closing Jesse inside the car.

The sound of an approaching vehicle grew louder, a growing echoing rumble in the underground cavern. Ritter and Moon turned to look as the grey Jeep Patriot appeared around the bend and came down the ramp. It was moving fast. Much too fast. Its headlights blazed at them.

Ritter’s eyes narrowed to slits. ‘What the—?’ Moon began. He let go of one of Erin’s arms and his hand moved to unsling his assault weapon.

The Jeep hit the bottom of the ramp without slowing down. Its suspension bottomed out and sparks flew as its chassis scraped the concrete.

With a roar, it came right at them.

It wasn’t going to stop.

‘Jesus!’ Quincy yelled as he realised the Jeep was speeding towards the back of the van.

Moon released Erin’s other arm, letting her fall to the ground. Pulled the weapon from his shoulder and took aim at the Jeep. Ritter had his gun raised as well. A blast of automatic fire sounded over the roar of the Jeep’s engine. Its windscreen fractured into a spider’s web of cracks and its front end instantly became a colander of holes. But nothing short of a rocket launcher could have slowed its momentum as it sped towards the back of the van. The Jeep’s driver’s door flew open and a figure tumbled out, hitting the ground and rolling. The Jeep was an unmanned missile, three thousand pounds of metal hurtling towards them. Quincy let out a yell and grabbed the mini-Uzi subgun he had stuffed down the front of his trousers. A smart guy would have been leaping out of the way already. But Quincy wasn’t very smart. He hesitated just a fraction too long.

The Jeep impacted against the van with an explosion like a Howitzer going off inside the car park. Quincy was caught between the crumpling back doors of the van and the radiator grille of the Jeep and cut almost completely in half, his right arm severed at the shoulder and sailing through the air in an arc that carried it across the Jeep’s roof.

The impact lifted both vehicles clear off the ground. The front of the van was driven ten feet forwards and slammed into a concrete pillar.

As if in slow motion, wreckage and broken glass spun in all directions. The Jeep bounced back down on its suspension, rocked twice and was still.