5
“Milo! What the hell are you doing here?”
The boy looked up, lost in thought, surprised to see her. “You shouldn’t be here Jessa. That bad man is coming and he has Mike tied up. I think it is only him, but I can’t be sure.”
Jessa liked those odds, but not the fact that the man supposedly had a gun. She could deal with a lot, but it was hard to fight against a piece of metal flying at ridiculous speeds towards her. There was no going back from that.
“Milo it will be fine. Take them to a place where I can jump him and it will be all over.”
Milo wasn’t so sure, but he had seen her in action and didn’t doubt that she would do what needed to be done. “It is too dangerous. Michael didn’t want you involved in any of this. That is why he left in the middle of the night.”
She didn’t want to hear it, knowing why he took off. It wasn’t because of anything but his desire to protect her. Jessa wanted him to know that she didn’t need his protection. She would rather be a partner, not just the doll on the shelf that could break.
“I don’t care. I will scout ahead. You take them this way, away from everyone else. I remember a building up here that looks like a good place for an ambush. It’s an old fire house. You have to get them there. Okay?”
He nodded his head, not wanting to go against her and still very aware of the men that were no doubt following the trail he was making. He didn’t know what Mike’s plan was, but he knew that the woman looking at him then with fire in her eyes was harder to ignore. Mike would be pissed and if they made it through it, Milo was sure that something bad would happen. But he would worry about that later. He had to worry about Jessa then.
“Fine. I will take them there.”
“You know where I am talking about?”
He nodded, remembering seeing it as he had passed by it that morning. He didn’t know much more about what she was going to do, but he could only imagine. Jessa scared him. Milo would be the first to admit it. He knew that she was a kind person, but when she was crossed, Jessa was capable of anything.
“Yes I saw it before. Are you sure you want to do this? He is not going to be easy to take out. From what I have heard, there is more to it with him. He laid waste to Jason’s family and to Mike’s too I think. He isn’t just a bad guy. He is a really bad guy.”
Jessa just shook her head, tuning Milo out. She didn’t want to look at it like that. Though she was happy to have as much information as she could, there was little that was going to deter her away from him. “I can be really bad too, Milo.”
***
Milo did as he was asked, taking the two men right to Jessa. He knew that there would be angry people when it was all done, but it had to be done. He was taking them away from the rest of the group, the ones that couldn’t really fight for themselves.
When he was almost to the fire station though, a man came out of the bushes and grabbed him. It looked to be one of the guys that he had seen sleeping through the window. Milo had no idea how he had got there or how many more of them there might be. His eyes went to the firehouse as he was dragged back the way he had come.
“Caston. I found him.”
The older man sighed and looked at the boy. He was a pitiful display, obviously suffering from radiation poisoning. “What do we have here?”
Milo looked over at Mike, who was trying to cover up his expression. He didn’t want him to know that he knew him. Not answering the question, he waited for him to repeat himself before he told him that he had never seen him before.
Michael was also worried about the man that had popped up in front of them in the trail. He was supposed to be alone with Caston so that he could find his moment. That wasn’t going to happen if there were more of them. Were they all there? His eyes took in the area around them and didn’t see anyone else.
“I don’t know who that is or who the other guy is. I told you who I was travelling with. I thought that was why we were out there looking for her.”
Caston wasn’t sure that he believed him. “So you say that you don’t know him?”
He gestured to Milo, then grabbed him up and shoved him towards the man so he could take a good look. “I thought I saw a look that said you did. You are telling me you don’t?”
Mike shook his head. He didn’t think it would be any better to tell him that he did know him. It seemed that everything he was doing was somehow the wrong choice. He hesitated and then he shook his head no. “No, I don’t know him.”
“Good, I didn’t want to see him all day.”
Then Caston turned back to Milo and shot him at point blank range in the chest. It happened so quickly that Mike didn’t have time to respond. He knew not of the plan to get them to the firehouse, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it did. How could one answer have caused so much grief?
“I thought you said you didn’t know him?”
He sneered back at Mike, liking that he had hurt him in some way. It wasn’t just physical pain that got Caston off, emotional pain was so much deeper.
“So you knew the boy? Is that your Jessa?”
Mike was still too shocked to say anything. He couldn’t recover and didn’t know what to do. He looked over at Caston, the same hateful look in his eyes as there had been the first time. “Now we are getting somewhere.” He smiled a little too big for Mike’s mind and he grimaced.
“Boss, I think there are more tracks going towards that Fire Station not far from here. I think it is the woman.”
Caston sighed, thankful that Jessa was not made up or some boy that had the face of a demon. “Good, then we will carry on towards the fire station. Is there anything that you would like to add Mike?”
“You don’t know what you have just done.”
Caston was not expecting that answer and it made him think twice. Did the man have something up his sleeve that he wasn’t ready for?
“Why do you say that Mike? You are there and I am here. I am not the one with my hands tied.”
Mike wanted to tell him to piss off and the anger that he had inside of him didn’t have to do with the past. It had to do with what the guy was going to do in the future. He looked at Milo’s lifeless body on the ground. His mind had already started playing tricks on him, seeing what he wanted to see and thinking that he had seen Milo move. But that would be impossible.
“I thought you said you were not the same man anymore?”
“I’m not. If I was, you and all of your friends would already be dead. But you keep lying to me Mike. How am I supposed to trust you, when I can’t trust what comes out of your mouth? This kid was trying to lead us somewhere, or he was trying to get back to someone. Either way, I will find out what it is. Be thankful that you make me curious more than angry. I will get my answers.”