I couldn’t be bred.
Rey carried beasts. Not just any beasts, but Alpha Beast’s offspring.
Men of Earth didn’t want beasts’ offspring. They’d come here for the babies.
A heavy weight settled in my gut. It was doubt. Doubt I could protect her and myself against those who were stronger, bigger than us.
The front door clicked. The back door stayed closed.
The man at the front barged inside and swung a fist at me. I ducked and swung my ax, tried to catch his middle. He skipped, then kicked my legs out from under me. I fell back, hitting my head against the wall. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me forward, then flung me across the kitchen floor. My ax flew out of my hand as my back hit the fridge. I groaned at the pain, held a hand over my back.
Enraged, his nostrils flaring, blood gushing out of his hand, he fisted his other hand and advanced, but the gun he carried was still tucked against his side. I guessed he’d rather beat me to death before he passed out from blood loss. Maybe it would give him perverse pleasure. Guns were quick.
I scrambled up and swayed on my feet. Two quick steps, and I grabbed a knife. This one, unlike the ax, was long and thin.
He sneered at the sight of the weapon. “They said you’d resist.”
“They who?”
“Your parents. Your momma said to go easy on you, before I pushed them down the rabbit hole.”
Men of Earth had killed my parents. It meant Vice and Jamie didn’t, but I couldn’t think about anything else besides the madman in the house. “You did me a favor. When you meet them in Hell, give them my message.” I flipped up my middle finger.
With a growl, he lunged. I kicked a chair in his way, making him trip and fall over it. Then I swung my arm down. I jabbed that sucker in his back with all the strength I could muster. The man’s arms flailed, trying to get the knife out.
The metal over the windows ascended.
Shit! The back door was next, and the house would open. I hoped nobody else planned to visit. I twisted the knife for good measure, then picked up the ax and ran upstairs.
I slammed the bedroom door closed behind me. Rey searched the closet, presumably for a weapon. “Rey,” I whispered. “Help me push the bed against the door.”
When she came out of the walk-in closet, she looked better, no longer as pale as before. We rounded the bed and knelt, then strained against the frame. It moved an inch. I twisted around and pushed with my legs and my back against the heavy thing. She helped, and finally, we got it to block the door.
Rey crawled back into the closet, and I followed. Inside, she leaned against the far wall and showed me a gun. “I found this.”
A revolver with one of those circular things on it. It looked ancient, way before the Nuclear War. I knew this because people at the community decorated the sanctuary with ancient finds. I hoped it still worked. “Ever shot at someone?” I asked. I wanted my poison darts back. Around the communities, we used them for hunting food.
“No.” She handed me the gun.
I weighed the thing in my hand. “Me either. Do you know shit about guns?”
“A little.”
“That’s more than me,” I said. “What do I do?”
“Aim and shoot.”
“Ha-ha. How do I open it?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“I thought you knew shit.” I shook the gun, and the circular thing popped open. Two bullets. Enough. “Here’s what we’re gonna do. They’re coming. One may be down, but I’m not sure. If they get into the room, they can’t both fit through the small closet door, so it’s one guy at a time. We got two bullets. I’m gonna stand by the door—”
“Where? By the jeans or the coats on the right?” She pointed.
“Jeans on your left. That’s where I’ll be.”
“And?”
“The guys are about the same size, say five eleven. The head is small but the chest is wide. Shoot at the chest.” I put a gun into her hand.
She snatched her hand away as if I’d burned her. “I could shoot you, Dewlyn. Don’t give it to me.”
I put the gun over her lap. “They won’t spare Jamie’s babies. They got a woman in white who does this shit. They’ll rip them to pieces.”
Rey gripped the gun with shaking hands. I steadied her hands and aimed upper-midway of the door, where I hoped the guy’s chest would appear. “You got this, Rey.”
She nodded, her eyes wide and blinking repeatedly.
I assumed my position by the door and tried to listen past the House’s speakers. When the House broke, the program spoke scrambled English I barely understood. Not that it mattered since it seemed to be stuck on the weather reports. They broke the House’s system, which meant these Men of Earth weren’t the idle threat both Jamie and Vice had thought they’d be.