Fire in the Streets by Kekla Magoon

Author:Kekla Magoon
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER 39

THE FRESH SILENCE IS NOT SILENT. The air rings with aftershocks. Little Betty screams from the back room. Glass crunches under Hamlin’s boots as he rushes to check on Rocco’s injury. Lester clicks fresh bullets into his weapon, standing sentry in the gaping mouth of the room. Gazing down the street, in case they come around again.

The moment it really does fall silent, everyone goes stock-still, heads turned.

The baby’s no longer crying.

Jolene’s strangled cry slices through me. She scrambles off of me, not painlessly, and trips her way through the rear door. Before she’s even out of sight, Betty sets up a fresh howl, louder than ever and even more insistent. I breathe a sigh of something, but it isn’t quite relief.

“Everyone all right?” Hamlin calls.

Suddenly I’m standing. “Fine,” I say. Consensus echoes around the room. The only one hit is Rocco. He holds one hand over the shoulder wound, waves the other like it’s nothing.

“Not too bad,” Hamlin agrees. “Looks like we can keep you out of the hospital.”

Cherry comes out of the street and stands on the sidewalk surveying the damage. “Well, this is a righteous mess.”

“No kidding.” Hamlin gets up. The spray of glass from the windows covers nearly half the room. The air is dusty with chewed paper. The desks are dented, there are holes in the walls, the floor is littered with metal. Bullets, bullet shards, shell casings. Dozens of shots fired. It’s chilling.

Jolene emerges from the back room, clutching the baby to her chest. Her fingers tremble against Betty’s smooth bare leg. “We have to call Leroy,” she says. “And we have to call a doctor.”

“Much obliged,” Rocco mutters, grimacing.

“I’ll do it.” I cross the room.

“The doctor’s number’s on the base of the phone,” Hamlin says.

“Um.” I’m staring at the phone now. There’s a hole in the side of the phone base, and the cord has been partly severed. I lift the receiver. There’s nothing.

By this time it’s clear that the firefight is over. We’re drawing a bit of a crowd. Clerks and shoppers poke their heads out from nearby stores. People have come out of their buildings to look at the damage.

Hamlin orders Cherry to leave her post by the windows and go next door to make the calls. Lester is unmoved from his position as sentry. He has his soldier face on, taut and uncompromising, like nothing exists but him and his gun and his enemy. I don’t even know if he can hear us.

“Maxie, help Rocco,” Jolene says.

“I’m okay,” Rocco informs her.

“Fine. Then, Maxie, go ahead and get the camera from the back for when Leroy gets here.” Jolene gives me the orders calmly.

I bring forward the camera and the broom and dustpan we keep in the storage closet.

“No,” Jolene says. “Photos first. Maybe they’ll want this for the newspaper.”

Despite his claim of being fine, Rocco looks a little peaked. I set the camera on the desk and take a seat beside him on the couch, still holding the broom handle.

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