DeadEarth: Mr. 44 Magnum by Michael Anthony Read Free Book Online Page B

in her back as she pulled off her book bag
and fished out the pieces of her gun, but she didn’t care. She said
the words she spent her whole life swallowing, and in another hour,
she would be dead or free. Yes, she was walking away from Lou too,
and that would eat at her for a long time to come, but it was the
only option left. She had no other choice.
    After gathering all the bullets strewn around
the bottom of the bag, she loaded them in the magazine.
    “This isn’t over,” Rikka said as she walked
passed her sister. She was putting her gun together as well.
    “Yeah,” Shade sighed. “It is.” She pulled
back the slide on her M1911A1 to drive the point home. Rikka didn’t
say a word in protest, so Shade knew she had won…for now. Rikka was
a sore loser. She would retaliate sooner or later, but not until
after Lou was safe.
    Shade would be ready.
    Staying under the cover of trees, the girls
made their way back to their house. They moved slowly, weighed down
by both the rain and the desire to move on in silence. Their father
taught them to navigate the woods like ghosts, but with dead sticks
and branches strewn about, it was difficult, even with the patter
of rain masking their footfalls.
    The girls didn’t speak throughout the entire
trek. The tension between them was palpable, and Shade made sure to
keep her weapon in hand just in case Rikka decided now was a good
time to put her in her place. That was a constant fear growing up,
but with the end of her torment in sight, fear was replaced with
caution. Before, she dealt with Rikka by playing the passive middle
child. Not anymore.
    The tree-line snuck up on them. Though the
house wasn’t visible through the rain, Shade stopped at the edge of
the trees and gazed in the general direction of their backyard.
Rikka stopped next to her, staring intently ahead.
    “Don’t choke,” she jeered as she stepped out
into the clearing.
    Shade stared after her, wondering what part
of Rikka’s soul evaporated to produce the creature before her. She
had always been mean, even cruel at times. But the viciousness she
took on now was unparalleled and unjustified. It was as if the
spark of anger that always flickered inside of her conflagrated,
burning away the ties that made them family, however turbulent they
had always been. Shade was tempted to lose herself in the woods,
allowing the dead, twisted branches and darkness to swallow her. It
would have been a better fate than spending another second with
Rikka. But she had a duty to Lou. Despite how much she blamed her
older sister for keeping them holed up in the bunker, there was a
better way to handle Mr. .44 Magnum and his people. Shade shouldn’t
have barged out like she did. It was reckless, and if harm came to
Lou because of it, she didn’t know if she would be able to live
with herself.
    Shade checked the safety on her gun before
following Rikka into the lion’s den.
    The grounds around the house were clear. The
sisters checked twice before silently stepping onto the portico,
one sister braced on either side of the front door. Shade’s heart
was pounding, not out of nervousness, but out of fear. Mr. .44
Magnum didn’t have a single person sweeping the grounds for
intruders. That meant one of two things: he was stupider than Shade
thought, or (more likely) they had already spotted her and Rikka
and were gathered in a centralized location to initiate a brute
force attack. One on one, the sisters could have cut through their
numbers with ease. But if they didn’t have the element of surprise,
they were on a suicide mission.
    Shade tightened her grip on her gun as sweat
mingled with rain, making her palms feel thick with oil. She did
not feel comfortable storming the fort through the front door, but
Rikka insisted—demanded—that she just shut up and do as she was
told. Shade complied for Lou’s sake.
    Both sisters jumped when a crash shook the
door. Mr. .44 Magnum screamed a curse as something else was knocked
over