Free The Effacing (Book 1.5): Valley's End by T. Anwar Clark

braced around the back of his cranium, she twisted his neck, lightly landed on her tip toes behind him, breaking his fall with her weight, silently laying him in the grass.
       Perfect! Blessings, she thought.             
       She moved on the next opponent. Together, she grabbed the survival knife from his weapons belt, cupped her palm over his mouth. By the time he reached for her hand over his mouth, she had already driven the knife into his spine. He was too weak to make that slapping noise made when giving a five to the backside, and the rain was louder than his umps . She twisted the blade, pulled up until she heard a sharp crack, and laid him down the same way as the other; extracted the blade and moved on to the next one.
       The heavy rain reduced to a drizzle.
       The third buccaneer began turning around.
       BANG! BANG! BOOM! BOOM!
       He was distracted, along with his partner. Coming from the west end of Maison, many shots fired from different caliber guns and the two troops immediately broke into a sprint.
       Rebekah seized the moment to eliminate her adversary, tossed the blade into the back of big boy’s neck as he ran. He whelped, and his big ass went down with a thump.
       She reached in her lower back and pulled her XDM – knowing the lead nemesis heard the thud – aimed. The last foe turned around with his gun raised, and Rebekah shot twice, once into the center of his bullet resistant helmet, the second, in his throat. He hit the ground.
       Rebekah knew the other group of unscrupulous folks would surely head in her direction now. She holstered her semi-auto and raised the MTAR, crouched at the corner of the house, behind the air condition unit, and targeted.
       The shots back west continued. And the unnatural sound of Sworn’s siren blared from all over, somewhere in the vicinity.
     
     

CHAPTER 20
     
     
       Outside, light tapping sounds, like a pair of drumsticks being used against a rock by an off-beat amateur drummer, grew, and then stopped. The tapping blended with the burning woods crackling sounds from the fireplace of the crowded duplex that housed both Centre City and Valley’s End survivors.
       “Where is your resistance?” the lumberjack biker impatiently questioned.
       “They’ll be here soon.” Maria answered. “Rebekah should be back any minute.”
       “You said that almost an hour ago. You heard those sirens? That means it’s over.” the Louisville Slugger wielding, two times too big Oakland Athletics jersey wearing Valley’s End survivor stated. “What if they’re already dead, or caught?” he asked.
       “They’re not!” Ann jumped in to exclaim.             
       “Well what’s the difference in us leaving out to the docks now than rather waiting on the resistance?” Girder asked, equally as charged.
       “What’s the difference?!” Neshia argued. “The difference is life or death! We already know what else is out there!” she said. “We came a long way and accomplished a lot by pulling together. The others are out there and on their way. You have to believe they’re still out there.”
       “Oh,” the lumberjack biker continued, “I believe they’re out there! I just don’t believe they’re still alive, little lady.”
       Then, a howl broke loose from outside, somewhere close by, chased by four gunshots. It seemed as if everyone froze to the direction the howl came, then in the opposite direction, to the gunshots. The off tempo tapping grew, but this time people began to hear it, and all stood guard for the worst. The sound stopped at the door. After a few seconds, a series of desperate knocks to the door of the dupe echoed throughout the house. Most was startled, others rejoiced, all was anxious and alert.
       “Open the door!” Neshia cried out. She’d been praying for the best, willing to take her slim chance betting on the home team.
       Everyone backed away from the