Note From The Author II

Well that brings the story of Jawless to a close... almost.  If you've been paying attention then you know that there is one more person still alive in the warehouse.  I will post the closing chapter very soon.  I"m hoping that you are wondering where Jawless and the other three are headed after the close of this story.

Don't worry Jawless' story is not over.

I will also post a teaser chapter from Book 3 of the I, Undead universe.

The plan is to pique interest in the series with this story as the lightning rod.  There is also a graphic novel version of a short opening scenario in the works (props to L.E.)

I don't want to give away too much though, but it'll be worth the wait.

Thank you for reading, take care and stay Undead!

Chapter 24: Salvation From a Deadman

Now the mother is running back towards the center of the warehouse with her son Andy hand in hand and right beside her.  As they get closer to the bloody mess surrounding the table the mother slows to a walk.

“Close your eyes sweetheart.” She says to Andy, “Just follow me.”

She walks towards the headless corpse lying near the mangled steel chair and the various splashes of blood, bone and flesh.  She kneels down over the body and lets go of Andy’s hand while saying, “Keep you eyes closed honey.” 

The mother sticks her hands in the left pants pocket of the headless gunman.  Nothing.  She leans further over the body and sticks her left hand in the right pants pocket.  She grips a steel ring with her index finger and pulls.  The clanging sound of little steel objects smacking against each other is a beautiful sound.   The mother happily examines the headless gunman’s keys and gives a, “Thank God,” at the sight of one key with the side profile of a galloping horse engraved on it.

            The mother stands and grasps Andy’s hand.  They walk a short distance and she says, “You can open your eyes honey, but don’t look back, okay.  Don’t you dare look back behind us.”

“Okay…(sniff)…mom.” Andy finally says while opening is eyes.

Andy’s vision is blurry.  He blinks several times and whips his eyes with the sleeve of his blue pajamas.  The corner of his right eye has stopped bleeding but still stings.  The sensation reminds Andy of what could have been.

“Don’t look back sweetheart.  Mommy’s got you.” She says trying to sooth her child.  She knows what’s coming.  Andy is so young.

            As soon as they are outside the warehouse the mother picks up her son and embraces him.  Andy loses it.  He cries aloud over her shoulder.  Holding his mother so tight with a mixture of relief and fear Andy’s soft, sweet, five-year-old-voice sobs.

“I thought he was going to kill me mommy.  He was trying to kill me.”

Andy’s cries over her shoulder bring the mother back to that place where humans know they are human by how they feel.  The mother lets out her own tears.

“I know honey,” she says soft and warmly.  “But, he is gone now.  He can’t hurt you.  The boogieman is dead.”

“I was so scared mommy.  I thought they hurt you too.  Did they hurt you mom?”  Andy sobs. 

“They didn’t hurt me sweetie, I promise.  They tried but the big one with the black hood saved me.”

“He said he would.” Andy cries.

She is taken a back by Andy’s statement.

When?  She thinks.

But the mother considers how traumatizing the last day has been for her son.  Instead of enquiring about any encounter Andy may have had with the big man they called Albert, she just holds her son tighter.  With all that she has been through her son, Andy is going to have nightmares about a greasy, fat, old man holding a spoon.  What could she possibly say to him now?

She switches to holding Andy in a way that he can see her eyes.

“Andy?” She asks.  Are you okay?

“I’m so scared mom.”  Andy says wiping the tears from his eyes.

“You don’t need to be afraid.  I am going to protect you honey.  I’ll always be here to protect you.”

Chapter 23: Mother Vs. Walter

It is now, as Walter is lost, frightened and astonished in the eyes of Joe’s severed head that he finally notices the loud clatter of many footsteps running up the stairs from the warehouse below.  The sight of Joe’s head must have distressed Walter somewhat cause his eyes are beginning to tear.  Behind the foggy glass surrounding the room Walter watches as a slim dark silhouette runs for dear life followed closely by a much larger and slower shadow. 

The mother passes the window she had broken with Joe’s head and looks in as she passes.  She could see Walter for less then a half a second. 

You fucker!  She thinks to herself as she sprints left around a corner

The mother knows which room her son is in.  The slim shadow gets some time and distance from the larger shadow that pursues her.  She turns another corner outside the room and bursts through the door of the old staffroom. The mother stops dead in her tracks at the sight of Walter standing opposite of her with a table much like the one downstairs between them. This table, however, has a rabid severed head clicking its’ teeth on it.  She stands still for only half a second, blood-covered, ripped-white-shirt-wearing, skinny, young, blonde woman.  She is looking for her son Andy, but she is not alone for long.

            With the exception of Andy whom is still frightened on the floor, everybody is moving at the same time.  The mother rounds to her left around the table towards her son holding the knife in a threatening manner and not taking her eyes of Walter.  Anger pumps adrenaline through her veins and feeds the fury that has been built up in her over the last day.  She is so close to the finish line, deep breath.  Walter returns her stare and walks to his left around the opposite side of the table towards the door.  Walter clearly believes that somehow the mother escaped and has been chased into a corner by his allies.  Walter is somewhat comforted by his assumption.  At the sight of the mother wearing a white tank-top and long skirt now covered in blood, Walter begins to chuckle.

“Been twenty-eight days already?”  He laughs.

The mother makes a “fuck you, you’re not funny” smirk at Walter as she now stands a few feet from her son.  Walter fails to notice that he now has his back to the door she had come in through. Albert and the others pour into the room so quickly that they knock Walter over and land on top of him like he has the football.

            Before Andy could see anything his mother picks him up and lifts him through the open hole she made in the window.  As she cuts her hands carelessly trying to get through the window as quickly as possible, she hears Walter say his last words.

“What the hell you guys?  I think you sprained my-AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!”  Reid bites down hard into the back of Walter’s neck while holding down both of his arms. 

Albert gets up and grabs Walter by either side of his head.  Albert pushes down on the back of Walter’s head with his left hand and begins to sloppy-punch Walter in the back of the head with his right hand.  From the pressure and punching sensation Walter is feeling, which breaks his nose against the floor, it is as though Albert is trying to crush his skull like a cantaloupe.  The steel chair-arm clangs on the floor with every slam Albert’s gives with his hand.  David and Tala each grabbed one of Walter’s legs.  They bite into them first and then pull the two legs right off, almost in unison.  The sensation of pain causes Walter’s eyes to widen as he stares directly at dust particles on the floor.   Albert stops punching Walter for a moment and brings his teeth down into the back of Walter’s head.  Having no bottom row of teeth to bite down with, the loosened flesh is of no use to Albert.  He lifts his head up while moaning.  Walter only need endure this for two more seconds. 

Albert presses both hands down onto the back of Walter’s head.  Under the crushing force of Albert’s entire upper body, Walter’s skull cracks sending sharp fragments of bone through every inch of his brain.  Albert lets out a moan as if satisfied to have his hands submerged in the blood, brain and boney mess that used to be Walter’s head.

           

            The mother looks back through the open window at the popping sound of Walter’s head being crushed like a watermelon.

            “Yeeesh! She says.  He’s dead…  Sick fucker!

Chapter 22: The Four Henchmen

Under the table in the center of the warehouse, soaked in her sweat and the blood of almost everyman in the room, the mother thought hard and fast of what she could do to save her son.  She tried not to think of what Walter was doing to Andy, she needs to save him.  Albert is closest to the Tala and the driver is walking around the table to meet the last gunman’s other side.  Tala pumps the handle on the shotgun again, but does not get a chance to choose who he is going to shoot.  The mother reaches up from under the table and pulls the barrel of the gun down on top of the table.

KA-BOOM!

The shot hit nothing but the cold steel table that earlier looked like a display from a surgical catalogue for coroners.

“YOU BITC-Ack!”  The last gunman didn’t get to finish his sentence. 

The mother let her hand off the barrel of the shotgun and wrapped both her hands around his ankles.  With all her strength, the mother pulls the pair Gucci shoes and matching black slacks towards her.  In less than a heartbeat Tala is knocked out cold by the hard cement floor.  The shotgun is resting now on the floor.  Tala is approached from both sides, Albert on his left and David on his right.  The two men once known as Jawbreaker and Casper knelt down on either side of the unconscious Wolf as if giving worship to their next meal.  David lifts the gunman’s black shirt and bites down into his stomach.  Then David digs his hands into the hole he made and tears the skins back like he is parting a pair of curtains.  Tala awakens quickly from his short slumber and tries to wail in pain, but Albert places his entire right hand into his mouth.  The Mother looks away but the sounds of what’s happening tell an equally gruesome tale.  Tala’s eyes go blood shot rapidly until both eyes look as black as eight-balls.  His jaw cracks as it unhinges from his jaw.  Albert’s arm quivers for a second and then with a violent jolt his right arm goes flying back and Tala’s head comes off the ground for a second.  Albert throws a bloody mass of flesh on the ground behind him. 

The mother looks back at the three men and instantly gasps in horror.  Tala’s tongue along with other unknown pieces of his insides now lay on the floor behind Albert.  Albert is still over Tala’s head trying to feed his open neck wound yet again.  David’s face has disappeared into Tala’s stomach.  The mother sits frightened under the table in front of both of Tala’s twitching feet.  She knows it could not be long before Albert and the David discover her sitting there.  If for some reason they were willing to cannibalize their former friend, than what would they do to her?

What is happening here?  She thinks

            Something small and shiny makes its presents known to the mother through the corner of her eye.  She turns her head towards Reid’s mutilated body and there at his feet lays the knife that she used on him.  Carefully she reaches towards the knife and happens on yet another horrific sight.  As her right hand grasps the handle of the bloodied blade, the mother watches as Reid raises his entire upper body off the ground like Dracula.  She stifles her scream and backs away back under the table.  Reid is seated on his butt on the floor not moving.   Reid’s dark-black complexion is creepily, contrasted by foggy-white eyes.  His white eyes are just staring at her.  Albert and David may not see her, but Reid does.  The wound on Reid’s neck stopped bleeding but is still very disgusting.  His mouth is just hanging open like he is shocked to see the mom moving away from him.  The mother inches silently out from the other end of the table towards the head and headless body of Joe.  She can hear movement behind her. 

            Ewww!  This is so digusting!  She thinks

The mother grabs the head of Joe by his thick black hair.  At first, she tries to grip it like she would a dead mouse; two fingers pinching a bit of hair lightly.  But Joe’s head is too heavy.  She grabs a hand full of hair.  The thought of what she is about to do freaks her out.

            Oh my God!  This is insane!

The mother stands holding a knife in her left hand and Joe’s head in her right.  What has become of Mel’s henchmen feeds between her and the stairs.  Albert and David feeding on the Tala and Reid is still seated on his ass watching her as if hypnotized by her presence… or daring her to move.  The mother takes a wide journey to walk towards the stairs that Mel, Walter and her son, Andy were last seen ascending.  She can’t hear anything from the upper level as she walks backwards towards the stairs.  The stairs are still quite a ways from her even though she has put considerable distance between herself and her bloodied attackers.  She turns her back on Albert and the others and continues towards the stairs.  The mother is much closer to the upper floor now and can see nothing through the oxidized glass windows that line the entire upper level.  A nashing sound coming from her right hand causes her to stop from fear againShe takes a look back at the crew that had brought her here. 

          OH SHIT!

All four of the men are standing straight up.  With the exception of Albert whom can’t see from under his black hood, but somehow still knows his way around, they are all staring straight at her. 

            Albert stands in front of the other three.  Albert’s appearance is more threatening then ever.  His black trench coat is shredded with bloodied bullet holes.  His white undershirt is now red.  The black hood Albert is wearing stops anyone from seeing what his eyes look like.  The hood ends just under his nose and above his upper lip, which has retracted to expose his blood red upper row of teeth.  The chair arm still tied to his right arm dangles like a hook. 

David stands behind Albert at his left side.  His jaw is broken off and his mouth hangs open much like Tala’s does due to his suffering a similar attack at the hand of Albert.  It is clear that David can use his jaw but his tongue is also missing.   Reid stands beside Tala’s right side.  Reid’s has a large rip in his neck.  His neck wound is a lot like Albert’s, except Albert’s neck is thicker and Reid still has his lower jaw even though it’s broken.   Tala stands slightly behind Albert’s right side.  He has had his jaw broken by Albert as well.  What makes him stand apart from the rest though is the huge hole in his stomach made effortlessly by David.  From under Tala’s shirt every organ below his heart hangs in front of his pants like wind chimes.  It would appear that what ever they are now, they have no use for their bodies’ organs.

At her distance away from them, the mother can hear the four men all make a sort of lifeless cold drawl of breath.  Sounds like a good breeze hitting a rusted and far-from-in-tune pipe organ.  She looks down at the head in her left hand.  Startled she drops the head to the floor as she realizes that it is alive.

What in the fuck!  What the fuck!  What the fuck!  She thinks. 

The moment the head had impacted the floor, the four men started to walk towards her.  She picks the head back up.  The head of the Joe starts snarling and making nasty biting sounds with its’ mouth.  The mother turns as she can hear her son screaming for mercy.

“Andy?!?!?!” She frightfully whispers.

She turns her head back towards the open warehouse and her heart pounds upon her stomach at the sight of the four men running towards her.  She turns to run, but as she does she decides to put the head in her left hand to good use.  Just like how she used to teach kids when she was in high school.  She swings the head around in a big circle twice before releasing it to the air.  The head sails through the warehouse up towards the window on the second floor.  The mother could hear the head crash through a window just as she reached the base of the steps.  She takes a quick look to her right to see that Albert and the others are so close to her that all they need to do is hope she’ll extend her arm towards them.  The mother holds up the dress from catching under her feet and takes the steps two at a time.  In a flash she has reached the top.   The clattering sound of sole on steel tells her that Albert is right behind her and the David, Reid and Tala are right behind him. 

Chapter 21: Preying On Innocence

Since bringing Andy up to one of the old rooms for some “privacy,” Walter at first did nothing more than verbally abuse the child.  A blessing by comparison, but to Walter, verbal abuse is like foreplay.  The room they are in looks like it used to be a staff room of some kind.  It is very large and overlooks the rest of the warehouse through several rectangular windows that line the entire room.  In fact, if Walter was interested he could look down and see what the three gunmen are doing to Andy’s mother.  Or he would see something else entirely.  But that doesn’t interest Walter.  Since bringing Andy into the room Walter has clubbed his kneecaps with a small stick of wood and smacked him several times in the face.

            “You remind me of me when I was your age Andy,” Walter states.  “Except for the brown hair.  I was a skinny little runt too.”

            Andy didn’t know where this was going and he didn’t care.  Fear kind of takes away ones willingness to figure things out.

            “See this spoon Andy?”  Walter gestures from standing across the room, “It doesn’t know what cereal feels like”

Andy sits with his knees in his chest and sobs at the thought of what that could mean.  Now Andy could figure that out.

“Nice pajama’s Andy, hope they don’t stain,” Walter teases as turns away towards a sink and cleans the spoon with a towel.

“So!  Think the boys will leave anything left of your mother?  Mother!  You know I had a mother once.  She wanted to have me committed after what I did to the cute little kitten she bought me.  You see, Daddy was trying to train me to follow in his footsteps.  Mommy didn’t like that.  She tried to nurture the softer side of me.”

Walter turns around and looks at Andy.  Andy’s face is tucked into his arms.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you Andy.”

Andy doesn’t look or move.

“LOOK AT ME WHEN I AM TALKING TO YOU, YOU LITTLE SHIT!”

Andy’s head shot up so fast he hit his head on the wall behind him.

“Ow!” Andy says rubbing the back of his dome.

“Careful, Andy!  You should really respect your elders.  There are lessons we can teach the generations to come.  And the lesson I leave for your generation is…”

Walter crosses the floor and bends down holding the spoon at Andy’s face.  Walters grabs Andy by his hair and pins his head to the wall.

“… Some people don’t have a softer side.  In fact, I feed off of the hope of you people.  I was on death row, you know?  But people cried that I was misunderstood. There is still hope for me.  Well!  This is what I’m doing with hope… with innocence.  I’m going to take this spoon and dig out your face with all the sympathy my bitch of a mother gave to me.  As I sent her sailing off the balcony of a hotel in Vegas I breathed in her screams.  Screams like sweet music.  Oh, how I have tried to recreate that perfect soundtrack.  Scream for me Andy!”

A shotgun blast echo’s from behind Andy.

Walter lets go of Andy, stands up and back a few steps.

“Geez!  I don’t know why, but that scared the crap out of me.” Walter confesses. “Sounds like your mom just got her left tit blown off.”

* * * * *

Melvin Maroni sits in a very elegant and newly finished office.  He looks up from the diamonds on his desk at the sound of the shotgun blast.

            “Done fucking her already boys?” Mel says to himself. “It’s only been five minutes.”

            Mel goes back to jewels on his desk.

            “Fucking minute men!”

* * * * *

            Andy gives a look of wonderment and fear from the blast.  Walter lets a look of puzzlement slip. 

Albert’s already dead.  What could they be shooting at?  There is only the mom…  Walter thinks.

Another loud shotgun blast is heard.

“Oh, there goes the right one.”  Walters laughs again.

Andy continues to cry and cowards against the wall overlooking the warehouse, Still, Andy is hugging his knees against his chest.  Walter stands over Andy holding the spoon in about as threatening a manner as one could hold a spoon.  Walter kneels back down on his left leg and grabs Andy by his sweaty hair.  Walter holds the spoon close to Andy’s left eye.  Andy’s head jerks left and right, with fearful force but does not move enough to avoid what’s coming.  Andy needs a miracle.  Another shotgun blast is heard but Walter doesn’t even acknowledge it at all.

“Now this is going to happen Andy whether you want it to or not.” Walter says in a cold low voice that is less and less like his usually old man tone.

The scoop of the spoon is so close to Andy’s terrified left eye that Walter is smiling evil upon the reflection of the spoon that now appears across Andy’s eyeball.  The edge of the spoon presses slowly and painfully in that small space to the left side of Andy’s left eyeball.  Andy’s hands grab Walters forearm and he tries to stop the spoon.  His fingers dig into Walters skin but Walter doesn’t slow at all.  Andy bites his bottom lip and lets out moan of overwhelming discomfort.  Andy tries desperately to keep himself from screaming.  Walter pushes the spoon between Andy’s right eye and its’ socket. 

            “Come on Andy.  SCREAM FOR MEEEEE!” 

Walter twists the spoon a little but just enough to send a surge of pain coursing though Andy’s little mind.  Andy can’t hold it back anymore.

            “eeeeeEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Andy’s painful song echoes into all corners of the building.

            Walter takes his hand off the spoon and just stares at Andy.  Little Andy has a single tear of blood coming out from underneath the spoon.  The spoon rests on its’ side protruding from the right side of Andy’s right eye.

            “Please stop!  Please stop!  I didn’t do anything.”  Andy finally speaks to Walter, “Uhh!  I want my mommy!”

            “Your mommy?” Walters says putting his hand on the spoon, “Your mom is dead.  And that was so good that we’re just getting started.”

            “NO!  PLEASE!”  Andy screams aloud again.

Just a moment before Walter was about to press the spoon into Andy’s skull, something happens that stops him yet again.  There’s the sound of a lot of glass breaking and Walter’s head, shoulder and back are showered with broken glass.  Something thuds onto the table behind him and stops.  Walter pulls the spoon out of Andy’s face.  Andy has small fragments of glass in his hair too, but the spoon is now a few inches away.  Walter is so distracted by this strange happening that he stands straight up to assess the change in his surroundings.  Before Walter’s knee’s aligned his legs in the upright position he could see what came crashing through the window over his head.  It is a human head.  A human head much like the one that belonged to Tony.  Walter remembers happily tossing that head about the air in a small apartment just one day ago.  But this head had it’s back to Walter and it did not belong to Tony.  Walter could tell as he approached the table that the head did not belong to Albert either, the only person, Walter thought, that was dead in the building.  Albert’s head is shaved and this head has shaggy black hair.  Much like the head gunman, Joe.

            Walter places his right hand on the side of the head and spins it like a record almost exactly 180 degrees until the lifeless eyes were looking into his.  The face of Joe is staring at Walter.  Walter jumps back from the severed head on the table, because what is stranger than a head flying through a window and landing on a table is having that head try to bite you.  The lifeless head of Joe on its’ side is looking at Walter with so much hatred in its’ eyes. 

            “What in the?” Walter says aloud, “What the hell happened down there?”

Chapter 20: 6:10pm

Mel is seated in his fancy office, which looks like it should be a room in the White House, not a warehouse.  As promised he picks up the phone and calls the man who gave him Albert.  The direct line to the Commissioner is busy.  Hang up.  Dial again… busy!  The line to the station itself is busy as well.  The only option was to call the Commissioner directly on his own private cell-phone.  But calling from the land-line in the warehouse is risky.  Mel reaches to the end of his desk where all the possessions that were in the pockets of a large, very English, very dead hitman lay.  Mel picks up Albert’s cellphone and pushes the” on.”    An image that looks like Tahiti appears with time at the bottom, 6:10pm.  Mel holds down the button and  dials out to the Commissioners cellphone.  There is still no answer.

            Very strange, Mel thinks to himself.

            He places the cellphone back down on the upper right end of his classic antique wooden desk.  The Mp3 player next to the car keys catches his eye and curiosity.

Lets see what kind of music the young chap would play.

* * * * *

            “What the hell have I…”  Joe groans as he looks down at the steel leg protruding from his chest.

It’s Albert!  Tala and Reid think. 

Albert is exactly as he was when they killed him a few minutes earlier.  But now Albert is upright and has enough energy to drive the arm of a steel chair through the heart of a grown man.  Albert, it appears, is not done yet though.  The steel protrusion disappears through the hole it made and Albert grabs the anguished Joe by his head.  Albert turns Joe’s head sideways and hugs it into his chest just under where his lower jaw used to be.  Still wearing his black hood, Albert drops his head to his chest pinning Joe’s head under his upper row of teeth.  

Joe screams in agony as Albert’s teeth chomp into the side of his skull.  For a moment it appears as though Albert is trying to eat Joe’s head in one bite.  Albert lifts his head for a second and let’s out a groan that appears to come out of frustration.  Then Albert sinks his teeth into the marks he made a moment earlier.  Blood trickles down the side of Joe’s face.  The rest of Joe’s body jerks as his cries of pain are paused by a cough of blood.

With one hand on each shoulder Albert presses down with all his might.  Joe’s screams continue for only a short moment before his neck stretches then rips.  The spine breaks like wood and his head is completely severed from his body.  Joe’s throat tears as his lungs empty his last breath.  The body dangles for a moment by the two major arteries on either side of Joe’s neck.  Joe’s eyes widen and his pupils shrink.  As the two arteries snap from the weight of his body, Joe’s jaw snaps shut so fast and hard it would take a crow bar to reopen it.  The headless body drops to the concrete floor like a sack of fire logs.  Albert stands before Tala, Reid and the mother with his head still lowered keeping severed head of Joe held against his chest. 

            The two men on either side of the table stare frozen.  The mother is frozen as well.  Fear grips them all, but for her.  She knew what Joe was about to do as he stood between her legs.  Now Joe’s dead and the man who took his head off is standing pretty close to between her legs.

            What the hell is he going to do to me?  She thinks.

The mother can think about it no longer.  She tries to seize this opportunity to free herself.  With both hands freed she searches above her head for anything she can sense by touch.  Within seconds she is armed.  Finding which side is the handle, she brings a knife forcefully into Reid’s neck.  Reid’s neck spews blood onto her chest and neck.  As though Albert can hear what is happening he lifts his own head from his chest letting Joe’s head hit the ground like a bowling ball.  Albert moves quickly towards Reid.  Reid covers his neck with both hands and stumbles backwards.  Reid pulls the knife out of his throat and it hits the ground beneath the table by the mother’s right side.  Reid’s hands turn red with his own blood.  Tala reacts by bringing his shotgun up in the air with the butt pointed at the mother’ face.  She turns her head just in time to see Tala.

“You… (spits and coughs) Fucking bitch!” Reid mutters just before he disappears behind Albert’s monstrous form. 

SLAM!

The butt of Tala just misses the mother’s head as she rolls off the side of the table away from him.  The mother hears the table being hit behind her as she lands on all fours on the floor beneath Reid and Albert.  Her hands, feet and knees slam into a floor covered in blood.  She looks at the blood on her hands and then to her left.  Beyond the struggling Albert and Reid next to the chair she was bound to is the body of David the driver.  His mouth has been forced further than it can possibly open.  Blood has poured out his open jaw so much that it reaches a round him and into where Reid’s struggle with Albert causes him to bleed out more.  The mother is now hunched on the floor staring into his lifeless and completely bloodshot eyes of the driver.  There is a huge gash across the drivers exposed cheek as well.  From the way his mouth is open it looks as though his attacker jammed a hook or fist down David’s throat and pulled out whatever his hand griped on.  The mother can’t see it, but the driver’s tongue is gone.

            The mother can hear the Tala reloading his shotgun from the other side of the table.  In a foolish bid of hope she recoils to a sitting position hugging her knee’s into her chest under the table.  Albert has taken Reid and his horrible neck wound to the ground.  Albert straddles Reid’s chest and grabs one of his wrists in each hand, pulling Reid’s hands off of the stab wound on his neck.  Blood spurts towards the missing portion of Albert’s face.  Having his enemy’s blood pour into his open neck causes Albert to relax for a moment from the struggle and completely numbs Reid from blood loss.  Albert releases Reid’s arms and before Reid can react, Albert digs like into the open stab wound with all ten fingers.  Reid lets out one last horrible scream as his neck wound is violently widened.  Blood sprays in every direction for only a few seconds before Reid’s arms fall limp and he begins to twitch. 

            Tala watches and fumbles as his shaking hands try to reload his shotgun.  A couple of live shells hit the floor in his nervousness and land just near the mother’s feet.  Several things happen at once:  The mother looks to the driver and watches in complete astonishment as he slowly rises to his feet.  His face disappears from her line of sight above the table.  The driver his face still dripping with blood slowly approaches the table-side opposite Tala.  Albert has killed Reid completely now.  Albert is still straddling Reid’s chest and is pulling bits of flesh from Reid’s neck and trying to force-feed himself by shoving the flesh into the exposed esophagus under his upper jaw.  The last gunman, Tala, pumps the shotgun and takes aim at Albert’s back.

KA-BOOM!

Albert lurches forward just a little, but gives no reaction of pain to the shot.  The shell went right through his back and burst out the center of his chest spraying his blood all over Reid’s lifeless corpse.  The mother turns in the direction that the shot was fired to see Albert with a fresh hole in his back and the lower half of Reid’s body sticking out from between Albert’s legs.

            The mother is under the table surrounded by three men.  The two of them directly in front of her appear to be walking corpses.  Behind her, Tala has just noticed David, the driver, is standing. 

            “NO!  Not quiet one, too!  NO!  What devils’ work.”  Tala pleads fearful his time has come.

The mother just stares frightened at the legs and feet that belong to the driver.  She is shaking uncontrollably.  The mother can’t help but think that she had just killed a man.  She wants this nightmare to be over.  She hopes foolishly that whatever these men are, that they won’t discover her hiding in plain sight.  Again, however, her mind is not completely thinking straight.  Directly in front of her and luckily unaware that she’s hiding under the table is Albert.  Tala turns his shotgun towards the driver and pumps the handle wrapped around the barrel. 

“WHAT DEVILS’ WORK IS THIS?” Tala cries.

KA-BOOM!

The mother watches as the two feet of the driver stumble back just a little and blood sprays on to the floor behind him.  Albert stops what he was doing to Reid and begins to stand up. 

“THE DEVIL WILL NOT TAKE ME THIS WAY!” The man they used to call Wolf panics aloud.

Albert is standing now with his back to the table.  The knife that the mother used to stab Reid lays just between the mother’s and Albert’s feet, still covered in blood.  As Albert slowly turns to face Tala, the mother looks past the driver’s feet and sees the severed head of the Joe.  She looks in front of herself and sees the knife she used on Reid. 

Suddenly a sound comes from the upper level of the warehouse that causes everything that is happening on the ground level to stop.  The voice of a little boy is heard screaming so loud that everyone, living and otherwise looks towards the sounds direction as it is happening.  It is at this moment, when there seems like there is no chance of her getting out of this warehouse alive and with her son, that the mother thinks up her most insane idea ever.