Page 45 of JoJo

Chapter 14

White hot pain burst through my leg as we ducked behind one of the sturdy old junk piles. I miraculously held in the yelp that wanted to escape at the stinging pain that spread through my right leg from the knee down. “Shit!” Gregg huffed out as he turned to see what had slowed me down before tugging me down further so I was completely covered.

“I don’t know how many there are. I thought it was just one guy, but then I heard two of them earlier and they were discussing a third who had followed Joel Creek to see if I went that direction.”

“It’s okay. How bad you hit?”

A metallic ping noise caused both of us to forget about any wounds I might already suffer. It didn’t matter that my left shoulder was out of commission or the fact that my right lower leg had taken a bullet and I could actually feel the blood oozing down my calf. What mattered in that moment was trying to stay alive.

“I’m sorry I brought this to your door, Gregg,” I told him before I carefully leaned around the corner of the metal monstrosity we were hiding behind to see if I could spot any of the people shooting at us. Luckily for me, I spotted him before he was able to see me and I fired. I hit my target, though I couldn’t tell you where or if it would be fatal, because he went down with a groan and didn’t bother to fire again.

“Don’t you dare apologize. I’d have been pissed at you if you’d kept running in the woods. I don’t think you had much left in the tank, darlin’.”

He could say that again. Instead he managed to find a little hole to stick his rifle through, took aim and dropped another man who was checking on the guy I got. It wasn’t long before heard engines, and at first I thought the Calvary had arrived. They had, just not the one from our side. “We can’t stay pinned down here forever,” Gregg warned me while glancing around at the maze of broken cars and trucks behind us. “I don’t see our chances being any better moving through there though.” I knew exactly what he meant. Moving made us vulnerable. Staying put also made us weak, because they already knew our position.

“Come on out and maybe you’ll live through this!” A booming voice called out. I leaned out, took aim, and shot. Someone grunted and went down. The same voice called out again, “Not smart!” Then no one else spoke and a hale of bullets fired down around us. The acrid smell of smoke washed over the area too, and I just knew what had been done.

Gregg didn’t hesitate even knowing that his home was burning as we had been held down by the shots pinging all around us. He took aim and shot again. I didn’t hear anything so I assumed he missed and I followed suit, quickly unleashing a few bullets into their midst myself before making sure I had plenty of cover in order to reload while Gregg took his turn again. Several shots were volleyed our way throughout all of this, but luckily neither of us took on any more injuries. Mine was bad enough. I couldn’t feel the blood trickling down my leg anymore, but I didn’t think my lack of sensation was a good thing. A numbness had worked its way into the wound that was startling. My shoulder was a different story though. Every time I had to adjust my position to shoot it screamed at me, making me want to just eat the damn bullet myself, but I wasn’t the only one who would lose if I did that. My child would as well. Steel would lose both of us.

That was all of the resolve I needed to keep going. I had a baby to think of. I might not have had babies on my mind when all of this started, but he was on the way and I’d be damned if I allowed anyone to take him from me now. I turned and shot into the distance again. I didn’t see anyone out there this time, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Gregg did the same just as I pulled back and the onslaught of bullets that fired down on us took their toll. Gregg was hit in the shoulder before he could pull back.

“Fuck, that hurts,” he complained as he scooted in closer to the center of the junk heap we were hiding behind.

“Good news,” I told him. “It only hurts until it doesn’t.”

Gregg gave me a dubious look and then glanced down at his wound before trying to assess how my leg was doing. He wasn’t able to get far in his assessment as I moved the minute I heard the loud pipes roaring up the mountain road. There were motorcycles coming, and from the sounds of it, there were a shit load of them.

“I hope like hell that’s your club on the way, Jo.”

“Me too, Gregg. I’m really sorry,” I told him eyeing his shoulder again before I turned and fired into the men who had been attempting to gun us down. I wanted them stuck between a rock and a hard place if that was my club. I also wanted to take out as many of them as I could in case it wasn’t my people coming to the rescue.

“Save a couple of those,” Gregg told me as I leaned back in. I nodded knowing full well what he meant. Neither of us wanted to be prisoners. We would either be rescued or die on this mountain shortly.

“Sorry, baby,” I said to my belly and the life that had been growing inside of me.

“You pregnant, Jo?” Gregg asked, looking even more alarmed.

I gave him a bitter smile and a nod of my head as answer.

“Fuck,” he hissed out again. “I wish you had said so before.”

“We had no time.” He couldn’t argue that. We’d barely made it to the junk pile for cover as it was. Had we stuck around in the cabin to dress my wound or grab more water we would have been dead by now. We bought ourselves precious moments by not tending to my needs. I prayed the baby would be fine, but time would tell. I wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion, dehydration, or blood loss, but I was beginning to feel dizziness wash over me in bursts.

“Hang in there with me Jo,” Gregg called out. I had been about to lean out to shoot some more, but had to tuck back in because I nearly passed out. Gunfire sounded and it almost felt like it was far away instead of close by like I knew it was.

“Gregg, I don’t think I’m going to be much help,” I informed him.

“I know, darlin’. You just hang in there. He glanced around again. “That’s definitely your crew out there. Won’t be long now,” he offered up, but I was already fading. The last thing I heard was a familiar baritone voice calling out my name and quick pops of gunfire.”

“Steel,” I tried to call back, but it came out more of a whimper before everything faded.

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