Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Dad pointing at the door, a silent order for us to leave for school even though we’d begged him to stay home. I’d been suspended later that day when the boy who’d been threatening to beat up Charlie actually attempted it. I’d jumped on his back and choked him until he passed out, falling like a tree with me still dangling off his back.
Mom brushing us off when we tried to tell her that Charlie’s teacher wouldn’t stop the kids from harassing him. That she’d made him stand in front of the class for an hour while she taught because she said he’d been disruptive in his seat.
Dad picking Charlie up off the bed he’d made on my floor and carrying him crying out of the room because he said Charlie was too old to be sharing a room with his little sister.
Mom ignoring my scuffed cheek and elbows, rat’s nest hair, and dirty clothes because some kids had ambushed us on the way home from school. Charlie’s nose had been bleeding. She hadn’t noticed that either.
“I don’t think he’d be offended,” I replied flatly, pushing those memories away. “He’d probably like that.”
“And what about you?” she asked.
Was that a shadow? Why was it so quiet outside? The hair on my arms prickled.
“What about me?” I breathed, trying not to spook myself.
“Would you be offended?”
“Of course not,” I replied, rolling to my knees.
Something was about to happen. I didn’t know what, but I knew.
The other two windows shattered as bullets sprayed into the room. I threw myself on top of Matilda and put my arms over my head as we cowered at the end of the couch. Something stung my ankle, and I jerked my legs back. It felt like it went on forever, but it had to be only a few moments.
As soon as it stopped, I dragged myself off of Matilda and looked at her. She nodded silently. She was okay.
We both turned toward the window, and Matilda racked the shotgun.
She shot the first man dead center. It was gruesome and fucking disgusting the way the closely grouped balls tore through him. She was racking the shotgun again when the second man came through. I shot twice and hit him once as we backed away.
Matilda shot him again and then snapped the shotgun in half, pulled two more shells out of her pocket, and reloaded.
I shot the next man three times.
Then there were too many to count.
I couldn’t hear anything as they came in the window, every sense almost muffled as I fired and Matilda fired beside me.
They didn’t shoot back, and that was almost scarier because I knew what it meant. They didn’t want to kill us.
I shot until the bullets ran out, and then I threw the pistol at the closest man, hitting him in the face. He didn’t go down, but it gave me enough time to grab the bat where I’d left it on the couch.
Matilda and I worked our way backward as she fired.
Then, from the top of the stairs, came a rifle shot, and the next man went down.
Another.
Another.
They just kept coming through the fucking window. There were so many of them. They had to step over the men who had already fallen, and sometimes they stepped right on top of them. It was heinous and terrifying. Reese just kept shooting, and Matilda just kept reloading and shooting again, but eventually one of them got close.
I swung the bat so hard that when it bounced off his shoulder, it reverberated in my arms. I took aim again as he reached for me and hit him in the side of the face that time, knocking him out cold.
All the while, the room rang with gunfire.
Bang. Bang. BANG. Bang. BANG.
Matilda let out a whoof sound, and I glanced at her.
Blood bloomed on the front of her housedress.
I lost my fucking mind.
Screaming so loud that I drowned out everything else, I ran toward them, my bat braced over my shoulder. I hit the first one in the throat, and while he was clutching it and trying to draw in air, I swung for the next one. He lifted his arm to block it, and I heard his forearm snap as he screamed. Then I reached the one who’d shot her.
We both knew he wasn’t going to shoot me because he wasn’t sure who I was, but that didn’t mean he was going to let me hit him, either.
Reese was still firing, but her shots were limited now that I was in the middle of everything.
I swung the bat, and he ducked, taking it on his shoulder as he rushed me.
The air in my lungs left in a whoosh when his shoulder hit my chest, but I didn’t let it distract me. As he tried to lift me off the ground, I arched and threw my weight backward, throwing off his center of gravity. We both fell to the floor in a heap, and I landed half on and half off a still-warm body.