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art of Rhode's Green Team, had been called into the corn by Bruce. “Mr. Collingsworth, over here!”
Bruce heard Mat holler out. He hurried through the smoky corn and spotted Mat standing over Mack. “Kill him and then find the boy,” he ordered, covering his mouth with his arm. “The smoke is getting too thick. We have to hurry.”
Brenda slowly opened her eyes. She felt as if a ton of elephants had crushed her chest. Good thing I was wearing my protective vest...never leave home without one, right Mack?
Mack didn't know Brenda was alive. He looked at the M-16 Mat was holding and drew in a brave, bold breath.
“Do it,” he told Mat in a hard voice.
Mat grinned and squeezed his M-16, looking down into a face that had fiery hot flames bouncing off it. But before the killer could put a bullet into Mack, three bullets exploded. One bullet tore into Matt's neck; he dropped the M-16 and grabbed at his neck, trying in vain to stop his life’s blood pouring out over the dry ground. The two other bullets ripped into Bruce's forehead and mouth. Bruce's body tumbled down. His head landed near the edge of the fire. Mack watched the blistering flames start licking at Bruce's head—and then catch. Within seconds, the man's head was engulfed in flames.
“Mack!” Brenda called out in pain.
Mack scrambled to his feet, ran to Brenda, snatched the woman up over his shoulders, and began to run as fast as he could. “It… hurts,” Brenda moaned, feeling her body bouncing all over Mack's right shoulder.
“You'll live. Stop whining. Nice shooting.”
“You… need me. Guess I won't be going to Los Angeles after all. Never one to back down from a fight...” Brenda moaned in pain, feeling as if her chest was going to rip open.
Mack grinned. Brenda was his partner, for better or worse. “We're getting out of here,” he promised and kept his legs moving as the fire continued to eat through the corn. Mack ran and ran and ran, until his legs collapsed.
Finally he was forced to put Brenda down and rest for a minute, expecting to be shot down at any second. Once he caught his breath, he picked Brenda back up and continued to run, and run, and run through the corn. Mack ran for what seemed like hours, putting distance between himself and Green Ridge, shocked he was still alive. When his eyes spotted flashing lights that belonged to a brown Sheriff's car, he darted out of the corn with Brenda on his shoulders. The sheriff’s car slid to a stop. Josh jumped out and ran to Mack.
A large fat man wearing a sheriff's uniform stepped out into the night and looked toward Green Ridge. It was an inferno. “Saw some helicopters buzzing around. Not normal. Finally decided to see what was going on in Green Ridge when I found this kid running down the middle of the road.”
Mack looked back toward Green Ridge, saw a sea of fire crawling up toward the dark night sky, and then carefully put Brenda down. Brenda collapsed against the hood of the sheriff's car holding her chest and simply grunted at Mack. Mack grunted back in a way that told Brenda they were going to be okay.
He reached down and picked Josh up, looked into the boy's scared, hungry eyes, and nodded his head. “You'll be safe with me,” he promised and then looked back at the glowing sea of fire. A fire that was devouring a silent evil.
“Let's go,” Mack told Josh and Brenda, turning away from the glowing sea of fire. Brenda didn't argue. She simply nodded her head and prepared for whatever might lay down the road.
With Mack, she thought, crawling into the back seat of the sheriff’s car, life would never be boring and the bad guys would never be few in number.
Mack thought the same about Brenda as he climbed into the back passenger seat with Josh in his arms.
The fat sheriff took one last look toward Green Ridge, saw nothing but a raging fire, and drove away with three corn torn people in tow.
