Walking in the Rain: Surviving the Fall by William Allen Read Free Book Online Page B

twenty yards away.  Before his barrel completed that arc, I heard another shot.  Then a second, and what sounded like a shuddering sigh.
    Not hesitating for a second, I squeezed the trigger as soon as I had a sight picture, then fired twice more before going back to the first flanker and drilling a bullet into the top of his exposed head.  He might have been dead, or wounded, but that insurance shot made sure short of the Second Coming, he wasn’t getting up.
    How long I lay there, dazed by the insanity of those few mad minutes, I could never recall.  I was alive, and I didn’t expect to be.  The next thing I knew, I heard a familiar voice calling out to me.
    “Luke!  Luke!  Are you okay?”  Amy cried from some distance away.
    Not wanting to give away my position, I had no choice now that Amy was announcing her presence to the world.  Muttering under my breath, I finally replied.
    “I’m fine.  Calm down.  Stay where you are and don’t say anything else.” I called out.  “Stay still and I will come to you.”
      Sitting there, I realized the tubular magazine on the little rifle was almost empty and I started feeding spare rounds into the loading gate.  By the time I was done, the shaking in my hands had nearly stopped.  I felt tired and shaky from the adrenaline dump, but still forced my legs to work as I low crawled over to a fallen tree limb that offered some minimal cover.
    Daring to peek around at my surroundings, I saw several shapes that had once been men, but none of them were now moving.  Three by the truck, including the man who should have killed me and a fourth corpse lying sprawled in the overgrown back yard.  Nothing was moving, and the quiet was stifling after the barrage of gunfire.
    “Hey, mister, you okay?”
    The voice surprised me, but after a second I realized it was coming from the house.  I looked closely at the front window I could see clearly, but no one was foolish enough to silhouette themselves.  I thought about not answering, but I didn’t want the people in that house getting antsy now that the fighting was done.  Or, at least, done as far as I was concerned.
    “Yeah, I’m good.  Thanks for getting that last one.  I just wasn’t fast enough.”
    “No problem.  It was my pleasure, believe me.  He was so focused on you he must of forgot I was here and armed too.  Are you one of Dwight’s men?”  The man had a deep, husky voice that sounded friendly enough, all things considered.
    “No sir.  I don’t know any Dwight.  My friend and I were just passing by and heard the shooting.  And then the baby started crying.  We didn’t know what was going on here, but anybody shooting into a house with a baby in it must be on the wrong side of things.”
    The pause that followed stretched on for over a minute before the man spoke again.
    “We thank you for the help.  You could have just kept on going and no one would have known you were there,” he said.
    I decided to avoid mentioning my conversation with Amy suggesting we do that very thing.  She was right because somehow we both managed to survive.  There is a reason I try to hold to my rule of not taking on groups of more than three.  The odds just don’t work out.
    “We would have known it, sir.  A man’s gotta be able to sleep at night with what he’s done, or not done.”
    “Well, call your friend.  Both of you are welcome to join us for lunch.  We don’t have much but under the circumstances, how can we not share?”  The man’s voice was softer now, and seemed to ring with sincerity.  I decided to discuss the proposal with Amy first, so I called her to me by way of answering the man’s offer.
    In a few minutes, I made out the shape of my travelling companion creeping through the tall grass and making her way to where I had initially set up.  I was impressed at how smoothly, and quietly, she worked her way across the terrain.  Amy carried the shotgun with a competent, confident grip,