Chapter 8

The problem with making plans was that often others made plans of their own. The case in point being the Friday three weeks after I gave Francis permission to marry my mother. The entire family including Francis (he had flown up for the third time now) was sitting around after dinner. The difference tonight was that Francis and my mom were informing us that they had decided that they were going to have the wedding on the last Saturday in October verses a December wedding in California.

After the uproar from my sisters over changing their plans for a California wedding they explained that they wanted a small wedding with their friends here at Brodie's ranch in the backyard. That sounded like a decent plan to me even though I wanted to go see my friends in California again. The real problem with their announcement was that my sisters had already contacted all of their friends back in California, telling them that they were coming for a visit. That of course prompted a fight between the four of them that would last throughout the weekend.

I wanted nothing to do with their fight and I did not care about the change of date other than basketball tryouts would start the following Monday. The wedding also screwed up the plans I had made with Steve in keeping a low profile as my mother wanted me to escort her down the aisle to give her away. When I balked at the suggestion the week before, the fight between my sisters and mother and me prompted Brodie into refereeing between all of us. In the end I relented when Brodie pointed out that the fight was over nothing and as he stated, "Was this the hill I wanted to die on," meaning was this fight right now really necessary. Of course I did not tell him or anyone else besides Steve why I wanted stay away from people.

So with a second family fight in less than three weeks I made my usual excuse about homework and headed outside to my apartment. Only I did not have any homework since I had turned everything in for the semester. For the present I was intending to sit out on my balcony and watch the afternoon thunderstorm roll in from the south. It was threatening to be a big one since the temperature well over a hundred degrees today. The problem was that the thunderstorm was not the only thing coming towards the ranch from the south. In addition to the storm I could see eight men walking over the hill that shielded the ranch from the road. The fact that they were approaching the ranch hunched over made me suspicious, concentrating on them with my enhanced eyesight I realized that they had pistols in their hands and all of them were wearing their gang colors.

Thinking that being inside out of their line of sight would be a good thing I moved inside and continued to watch what they were doing. The men were still over two hundred yards away when they broke into two groups of four. When they made it to the gravel perimeter surrounding the building the groups of four broke up into pairs, one of which walked right under my window around the building to get to the door to the shop and my apartment. That was enough for me so I called the house on the intercom when I asked for Francis and Brodie I explained what I was seeing outside with the eight men. I was told to lock my door while they called 911. That would have been a nice plan but while we were talking I heard the access door open to the shop downstairs. As they were armed I knew that I wanted to be armed but all I had in the apartment were my practice weapons in my bag. I realized this situation would be better if I had a gun to match theirs but right then wishing I had one did nothing for me.

Looking at what I did have I figured my Sais would be the best for me since my swords were not sharpened and my staff would be a problem with all the tall items in the room. Hearing movement out in the living room, I moved to the doorway and took a look out into the living room. My first thought was that he was alone. Listening I confirmed that as I could hear someone bumping into things far away. I had no idea where he was but right then I had the one guy with a gun to deal with. Watching him I waited as he took his time moving around the room looking for anyone. Finding no one in the living room after he looked behind my chairs and couches he turned his attention to the kitchen, never looking down the hallway. With his back to me I knew that it was my time to strike. Using my speed I was behind him before he realized that someone was behind him. Not giving him a chance to react I chose my target which turned out to be a skull tattoo at the base of his skull. Driving my Sai to the hilt in his head, he was dead before he even hit the floor. Catching the body when he turned into a two hundred pound paper weight I did the best I could trying to lower his body to the floor silently since I did not know where his partner was in the building. Standing over the body I learned a lesson that I had never been taught in the studio, that was when you stuck a knife or in this case a Sai into or through bone it takes a lot of time and effort to get it back. At that moment I had neither so after a pulling on the Sai and not getting it back I left it where it was and headed downstairs to the sounds of the second man who was calling out to his friend in Spanish.

By the sound of his voice he was not as confident as his partner had been upstairs. Listening to him call out for his partner his voice gave me the impression that he wanted to be anywhere else but in the shop. I put that thought out of my mind as he was moving in my direction and I did not have the chance to get behind him. Standing at the back of the small water tanker that Brodie kept for the small control burns I waited.

The wait itself was interrupted as we both heard the sound of gunfire outside. Stepping towards the windowed garage door to see what was going on outside, he never looked in my direction.

As fat as he was I remembered him as one of the two that watched beyond the police tape back at the O.K. corral.

With his attention focused on the action outside I moved to attack from behind. The problem was he either heard me or it was just simple bad luck, he turned towards me. That was when things started to go to shit as the spot I was aiming for with my second Sai was now no longer available. Worse still his gun was coming towards me. Not wanting to get shot while I stuck him with my last Sai, I made a grab for the gun with my free hand. That part went well as I had control of the barrel and pushed it away from me. My Sai on the other hand did not go where I wanted it to which was into his heart. Instead his fat arm got in the way and I drove it all the way into his chest though it was not deep enough to get to his heart. I knew that I did get his lung but not before he cried out. It was at that point in our struggle that the gun went off shattering one of the glass panels in the garage door.

Even as fast as I was I found myself at a disadvantage as my hands at the time were busy with controlling both the pistol and the Sai. Of the two I was more afraid of the pistol so that was the one I focused on holding onto. When he managed to slam me into the water truck I lost control of the Sai but got a hold of him around his neck and I held on for dear life not daring to let go of the pistol while he slowly bleed to death.

Feeling the various electrical signals going through his spine I realized that I had been doing things the wrong way. While I was still holding onto the gun I tightened my grip around his neck then used what Peter had given me and suppressed all electrical impulses in his body. All I will say was that blocking the signal from the brain was easier than what Peter had to do to interrupt the power in a power grid. For the man that I was hanging on to blocking all of his body's electrical impulses turned him into a three hundred pound piece of meat that crumpled to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. Even with him on the ground I could sense that his brain was still trying to send signals to his body but with me blocking them at his neck all he could do was stare up at me while his body slowly died like a fish out of water. In a surprisingly short time all signals ceased and all that was left was him staring up at me with a shocked expression on his face.

For some reason the expression of death on his face bothered me. Why, I had no idea since I had killed before but now his expression accused me of murder. Was it murder? Sure I killed him but he was the one with the gun. I was still looking down at him trying to sort out my feelings on what I had done when I heard more gunfire coming from outside.

The sound of gunfire on the other side of the door broke my concentration from staring at the eyes of a dead man. Pulling on my Sai I felt it pull free with little resistance since this time I had missed sticking the Sai in a bone. As I was going to have to go outside I figured that I might as well take the pistol with me. Opening the door I could see and hear that there were two different gunfights going on as I could see the flashes from the four men in and around the front yard and there were reports of other weapons firing but that there were no flashes to go with them.

Seeing that the range to the closest guy was too far to use the pistol I figured that I would head around the building to get closer so I did not have to cross open ground. When I came around the last corner the man on the right side had his back to me as he was using the car Francis had rented for his trip as a shield from the house. Wanting to keep the element of surprise on my side I moved forward slowly with the pistol raised in case he turned around. Covering the last couple of feet between us he never turned as I drove my last Sai into the back of his head.

Pulling back I was glad to see my Sai come free as he crumpled to the ground never making a sound. That was where everything turned to shit as one of the other men called out to him and when he did not respond they looked in my direction. What they saw I had no idea but one guy came at me and I had no idea he was coming until he rounded the car and we found each other with our pistols facing in the wrong direction. Not waiting for him to make a move against me I did the only thing I could and drove the point of my Sai right into his left eye socket. He of course screamed which brought a hail of bullets that when they started to come though my side of the car had me diving for cover using the bodies of the two men I killed. I was surprised several seconds later when the gunfire stopped. Looking around my shield I could see the two remaining shooters were down behind the vehicles they had used as shields neither man was moving.

Lying there was the strangest feeling I had ever had as I knew someone was calling out to me but for some reason I could not make out what I was hearing. Looking towards the house I could see Francis had one of Brodie's rifles with him and he was saying something to me. Thinking that he might be asking if I was okay I gave him a thumbs up letting him know that I was okay. At my okay signal he moved towards the last two guys that were down. Getting up I watched as he picked up their weapons placing them on the car nearest each of them.

Following Francis's example I checked the two guys I killed and removed their weapons which turned out for one was not a pistol at all but what I found out later was a Mac-5 machine pistol. Moving around the car I could tell that my hearing was coming back as I could hear the approach of sirens in the distance. When I made it to the bodies; I could see that Francis was a decent marksman as both men were dead from head shots after having exposed themselves to him when they turned to face me where I had been hiding.

That was where the first deputy found me, standing amongst the bodies. Ordering me to drop the pistol I still carried I complied with his orders the last one being laying down on the ground and spreading my arms and legs. That was as far as that went as Francis who had gone back into the house was calling out saying that he was a cop. Leaving the rifle behind in the house Francis stepped outside holding his badge. There were a few words exchanged then another pause as a second deputy arrived and the first one relaxed as he now had back up in an unknown situation. The first deputy was still covering me but after the second was talking to Francis I was let up and after a short search for any more weapons I was moved away and put into a patrol car the for the time being after they asked if there were any more bodies. When I told them there were two more in the building they closed the door and went to investigate. I had to smile when he reported over the radio that he had bodies everywhere with a total of seven dead and one wounded.