Page 69 of Purgatory (Devil Dogs of the Apocalypse #1)

Hawk

Aaah, I fucking missed this shit! The adrenaline, how me and the guys barely need to communicate to know what the others are thinking. The synchronicity is other worldly. Nothing compares. Well... no. Scratch that. Sex is better. Sex with Aly is definitely better.

Damn, her ass looks fucking scrumptious right now....

As I watch her run away from us and out toward the lake, I can’t focus on her leaving.

I focus on what I’m going to do to her when we get back to her again.

Fuck. All three of us, now. Poor girl won’t be able to walk straight for a month.

That’s ok, she won’t need to. We are gonna pamper the ever-loving shit out of her for the rest of our lives.

It still amazes me. The turnaround Jax made.

Cole and I knew how much that girl was getting under his skin.

We could see her dancing her cute butt and wrapping herself right around his stubborn fingers.

I’m happy for him. I’m happy for us. We’ve always been a band of brothers.

Inseparable. Even when there were miles and miles of distance between us, there was never any distance between our hearts.

We love each other and now we all love her.

It just makes sense when you think about it.

Jax nudges me on the shoulder and motions back toward the house.

I grab my gear and follow him off the side of the roof and back into my room.

We cross the hallway where Cole is posted with Sadie and move back into Jax’s room.

I wait at the foot of his bed for his next instructions while he goes to his closet and pulls out two huge mounting platforms. Cause yea, having mounting platforms where his sneakers should be is totally normal. For Jax it probably is. Moving on...

Jax moves to the window closest to him and places one beneath it. He then makes a motion with his chin to the other one.

“They’re for the S.A.W.s. We can mount them and place a hold on the triggers so that they fire off continuously, creating cover so we can sneak out the back and down to the trail head.”

I nod and start to set mine up under the opposite window. Once it’s good to go I look back to him.

“Uh, ok. So, uh, what are we gonna use to make ‘em keep going after we’re gone? Duct tape? I can try to grab a couple chickens to have at it but those bitches are broody as fuck right now and might peck out my eye balls.” I thumb over my shoulder, completely fucking serious about his bitchy ass chickens.

I swear, if we weren't about to leave, they’d be headed straight for my dinner plate in a day or two.

He shakes his head and scoffs under his breath before tossing me a couple of green elastic strips. I cock my head at them. He can’t be serious with this MacGyver shit.

“Boot bands? Seriously? The absolute bane of our military existence is gonna save our asses?” He just stares at me with his one eyebrow up like it’s gonna intimidate me.

.. Ok. Fine… It does… Fucker. I give him a two fingered salute and get on with it, reloading and wrapping the band around the trigger letting it go to town.

With the S.A.W.s doing their job, we hightail it out of there grabbing Cole on the way and head down the same exit Aly took. Out the window and down the mother fucking trellis like we just jumped out of a damn Shakespearean play. Let’s just hope our story is less tragic .

I gotta hand it to Jax, though. Every year we came out here for the summer, I never looked at the house as a fort.

Well-supplied? Yes.

Prepper approved? Obviously.

But when I went into my room to retrieve the weapons, I got what I already knew was there: extra mags for my pistol, a rifle and a shot gun.

The larger guns were all nice and cozy in their cases under the bed.

No big deal. Nothing an avid hunter wouldn’t have.

It seemed the same for Cole. But Jax’s crazy ass?

I knew he had the AR-15 and a bunch of grenades that he swiped from base when the disease took over but fucking S.A.W.s?

AND their mounting stands? What else did he knick while he was there?

Knowing him he probably took the whole damn armory.

It really shouldn’t surprise me, but somehow he always does.

Case in point, the fucking trellis we’re descending, including Sadie who’s currently perched on Jax’s shoulders like a scarf in winter.

Decorations are no longer decorations when it comes to Jax.

Everything has a purpose adding to the design.

Makes me wonder what the silly ceramic dog with the lantern hanging from its mouth near the fire place’s alter ego is.

His head probably popped off to reveal a mini flame thrower for all I knew.

The next house we get I’m going to second guess everything.

Maybe I’ll add some extra goodies just so that I can do the ‘tada’ thing too.

You can’t play John Wick every time we role play, Jax, sometimes us normal dudes want to have some fun too, you know?

We make it to the bottom of the trellis and I take point.

We probably have about a minute or so left before the ammo runs out upstairs so time is limited.

Jax sets down Sadie and leads the way to the trail head to the right of the house which runs down the length of the lake.

Cole brings up the rear, making sure the bastards aren't following us .

The bullets stop just as we reach the entrance to the trail which is flanked on either side by large brick columns. The gaudy things have no real place on a private estate let alone at the entrance to a running trail but who am I to judge.

Jax rounds the one on the left and pushes on the back of it.

I hear a pop from his position and shake my head, muttering to myself.

“Of fucking course, it’s not just a damn column.

Whatcha got for us now David Copperfield?

Rabbits? Couple of doves? Helicopter? Why not, right?

” I whisper shout as I cock my head from the opposite side of one of the columns.

He smiles back to me, clearly not affected by my jabs.

Cole, however, rounds the monstrosity and reacts to what Jax has hidden in there.

“Holy fuck, Jax... How the fuck? When the fuck? Holy shit!” he whisper screams at him, trying not to draw attention to us.

Jax ducks down into it and pulls out more guns. No, not just guns. SMAWs. This bastard got his hands on not one, but two Shoulder -fired Multipurpose Assault Weapons. I cock my head again, my tongue going to my cheek.

“I mean, it's not a helicopter. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed...” Just as I finish my mockery, he one ups me yet again, pulling out two thermobaric rockets. I think my jaw up and breaks itself as it hits the ground in shock.

“Well fuck me up the ass twice and call me Tuesday. You managed to get fucking thermobaric rockets? Of course, you did. It makes total sense. WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD YOU THINK YOU’D NEED THERMOBARIC ROCKETS, JAX?

!” He doesn’t answer right away, just gives me one to load as he gets the other one from its home with Cole keeping a lookout for us.

We set up as quickly as we can, then finally, Jax explains himself.

“Back up to the back up, bro. When shit hits the fan, you need something to clear it quick. These babies won’t leave anything to clean up after we’re done with ‘em. I told you, if we can’t have it, no one can.”

He looks back at the house and aims the weapon, regret and loss in his eyes but also determination and strength.

He worked so hard building and preparing the place.

It took him years, but he’s right. There’s too many of them for just the three of us to take on by ourselves and there's too much there that’s far too valuable for it to get into their hands or anyone else’s for that matter.

Since the guns upstairs stopped firing, we start to see Earl’s crew filtering into the house in search of us, trying to take us out.

Looks like they don’t know we’ve already left.

Good. Less eyes looking this way. I take Jax’s cue and aim at the house as well, uttering a small goodbye to the sanctuary we’ve known as home during all of this.

It’s just a place and things. Home is where the heart is and my heart?

Our heart? She’s waiting for us down the lake.

“Light it up!” Jax says and fires his rocket. I fire mine right after, both of the rockets entering different windows, and wait for the explosion. There’s not an immediate blast as they enter the house since these particular rockets have a minor delay on impact, but a few seconds later...

BOOOOOOOOM!

The entire house erupts. Cole, Jax and I take in the damage and assess if there are any survivors. It’s quiet. I don’t hear the yells of a group that would surely be trying to contact the people inside or assessing their own damage. No, I think, surprisingly, we got 'em all. Thank fuck becau-

Out of the corner of my eye I see something move through the smoke and rubble.

I guess someone survived after all. I put the SMAW on the ground next to me and pull up my AR from the sling around my back as I get a good look at the guy’s face.

It’s fucking Earl’s brother. Never got his name.

I’m just gonna call him Fucknut. I swear he's like a damn cockroach. I see him lift his arm, bringing up something over his head and react instantly, shooting him square in the face. Motherfucker was fast, and unfortunately, I’m just not fast enough to stop it.

“GRENADE!”

Too late. The force of the blast is enough to send our asses flying and we land with heavy thuds on our backs a couple meters away from where we were. I might have even bounced once or twice.

Guess that just confirms I’m a Bumble now.

Fuck, everything hurts. If Fucknut wasn’t already dead I’d shoot him again just for pulling this shit. Asshole…I roll around on the ground sluggishly, taking the time to check that my vital organs are still intact.

Yup, there’s my dick. Good to go.

The sigh of relief I release is palpable.

I can’t seem to keep my eyes open, though.

After a blast like that, I can almost guarantee I have a concussion.

I look over and see Cole on his back next to me.

It looks like he’s whole and breathing so we’re good there.

I can’t see Jax from my perspective though.

I try to lift myself up but my body isn’t responding to my commands.

My eyes start to close against my will. The blast just too much from this close of a range.

The last thing I see before everything goes dark is a tower of flames where our lives used to be and never will be again.