Chapter 13

Blood flowing, bullets running, while the Devil laughs at the wicked man standing in front of Abel Solomon. Poor souls; they have no idea who is sending them to Hell.

Abel growled almost as loud as the car with the bullets raining against the back of it. Most of the back window was gone, and the front window, for the most part, was shattered. He was thankful the men the behind him were terrible shots. If he had got a whole of these men in the army, he would have them booted out for being such bad aim. He would be too worried that they would shoot the man next to them before hitting the enemy, but for now, their bad aim was working in his favor.

                He jerked the wheel around the bend, seeing that the driver behind him was good at keeping peace with him. The driver was skilled, sadly, far better than Abel. He wasn’t great behind the wheel, but he wasn’t often in car chases.

                Still, Hope would laugh at him for being this bad at driving. She was better at it. She could fly planes and take names in a dog fight, but when it came to throwing hands, Abel would win out every day.

                The car almost lifted off its wheel before he came crashing back down to the earth, and Abel had to spin the wheel hard to keep it from smacking into some tree. He glanced up to see the other car doing the same thing and shaking his head.

                He glanced down at Evangeline, balled up on the floorboard, keeping her head down and holding onto the side. He sighed, not believing he had stepped into this mess. He kicked in the horn’s nest but saved this scared girl tied up in a cabin. He was following the deal he made during the war. He was doing good in the world. He took out the evil ones, sending them to the Good Lord to be judged.

                It was his duty, and it was still a duty he didn’t always enjoy. He wanted to go back home to be with his wife and sons, living out the rest of his day, but his second chance didn’t come freely. He wasn’t meant to die after the war.

He did die.

                The car behind him dashed forward, kicking his car in the back. He almost lost the wheel, but his powerful hands grabbed it, stopping it from spinning wildly and out of control. He glanced up to see the headlights flooding into the broken back windows when the man hanging out of the side fired off a shot.

                The bullet went racing right into the shoulder of Abel, making him grunt as the round blew out from his other side. The blood went flying all over the dashboard, but he shook the pain off and did not truly care about it.

                “Hold on,” Abel ordered.

                “What the hell do you think I’ve been doing?” Evangeline shouted back as Abel slammed on the brakes with the enemy’s car, hitting him with such force and tossing the man hanging out into a passing tree. The tree laughed at the body crashing against him and not shaking at all as the body fell to the ground.

                Abel hit the gas again, causing the car to race forward.

                He didn’t have time to glance down at Evangeline, but she tried to rub her head from hitting the front of the car. He hoped she wasn’t hurt too bad, but right now, all he could do was get them away from these men. He wasn’t sure how; he couldn’t outrun them, and he couldn’t fight them, but something had to change before it was too late.

                More bullets came racing through the hole in the back, with a few of them cutting Abel along his massive shoulders and arms. He didn’t grunt in pain. There was no point in crying out from the pain. He wished this wasn’t new in his life, but having to push the pain aside was something he had done many times before.

                He spun the wheels, feeling the car start to tip over. Evangeline screamed for a second before the car crashed down the road. Abel grunted from trying to keep the beast from smacking into some trees, killing Evangeline and all this night being for nothing.

                He was about to start praying when a bullet, either from a well-trained shooting or by pure luck, hit one of the wheels of the car. The wheel blew out, causing Abel to lose control of it, and the steering wheel started to go wild as he used all his inhuman might to keep it from spinning. He pushed so hard on the steering wheel, it broke in tow. He held up the wheel, staring at the two parts.

                “Oh, shi -“ Evangeline started to say, staring up as well, but it was cut short by the car going off the road, hitting a few trees, and then rolling down the side of the mountain until a group of mighty trees stopped it. The car was smoking, with Abel rubbing his head with blood leaking out from some wound. He looked over to see Evangeline was alive. She might have been hurt, but she was alive.

                He grabbed his head, looking back up the side of the mountain and seeing the headlights stop on the road's edge. He huffed and kicked open the door. He crawled out with his body weeping in pain, but pain, as Abel had taught himself, was something you could set aside. Pain only meant to tell you were still alive, and those shooters up on the hill needed killing.

                He was about to start moving toward them when he heard Evangeline grunt from inside the car.

                “Ah, damn it,” Abel mumbled, kneeling back down. “You okay, kid?”

                “I think so,” she said, “my leg feels a little funny.” She reached out to him, and he took her hand, pulling her out. He helped her stand, seeing some blood running down the side of her leg. Wood or metal was sticking out of it, but there was nothing he could do about it now, hearing shouting from above.

                “You run,” he said, looking dead in the eyes at her.

                “What about you?”

                “Those hitters can out run us,” he said, “but I’m going to handle them. You start running, I’ll find you, got em?”

                “Yes, sir.”

                “I mean it, get goin’.”

                Abel watched her limp away as he turned back to the men at the top of the hill, pulling his knife free and smiling to himself.