And because he was his father’s son, that was exactly what he did. He plowed into them as if he was mastering a video game. He knocked all four gunmen off of their feet and up onto the hood where they slid off as soon as he slammed on brakes.
With all four gunmen under the truck, Duke jumped out nervously with his gun in hand and ran into that side room. And that was when he found his father, who, to his shock, had been shot several times. Mick was sliding down the wall in front of the window, with a trail of blood sliding behind him. His gun was still smoking from the barrage he gave out even as he took what they had too.
Duke’s heart dropped at just the sight of his strong father down and so vulnerable. But that was when he heard morefootsteps inside that building. And that was why he grabbed his father and dragged him to the SUV.
With all the strength he had, Duke hoisted his father onto the middle row of that SUV and slung him inside, closing the door behind him as another group of gunmen were running up the hall. He fired on them first, and then hopped onto the driver side front seat, closing that door, as they fired on him. Then he locked the doors again, put that Escalade in reverse, turned around to see where he was going, and he floored it as he ran right into those gunmen and took them out one by one as if they were obstacles on his course. Even as they were firing at that SUV, he got himself and his father out of that building.
But as soon as he sped backwards into that lobby, he saw his mother jump to the side. She had entered the building with her gun drawn too, trying to rescue her husband and her son.
But she could not have been happier to see Duke when he drove into that lobby. But this time he saw her, slammed on brakes and unlocked the doors. She hopped in on the middle seat where Mick was stretched out and closed the door. Duke locked those doors again and sped out of that building driving backwards, turned with a violent swerve, and then took off.
Roz was already at Mick’s side helping him. He was bleeding badly and was barely conscious. “Oh Mick!” she said in agony as she took off of her blouse and tried to staunch the flow of his blood.
But as Duke drove down the street toward the corner, he saw trouble in front of them. “There’s more!” he cried out as another group of patrol cars were in roadblock formation in front of them. Mick lifted up as he and Roz looked through the front windshield.
“Floor it, Duke!” Mick said with barely enough breath to breathe, and Duke floored it again.
He crashed through the two middle patrol cars, as the other cars moved to the side, and then he headed around that corner that would take them along the eight-mile stretch that led out of town.
But less than three miles after he turned that corner, he saw a brick wall-style fence began closing as if it was closing them in.
“What the fuck?” he yelled out loud. “This can’t be happening!”
Mick and Roz lifted their heads again and saw the brick wall in front of them too.
“And they’re still coming,” Roz said when she looked back and saw those patrol cars turn that corner, too, and was heading their way.
Mick knew he had to take over. “Open that hatch, Roz,” he said breathlessly as he fought the pain of multiple gunshot wounds.
Roz quickly removed the floor mat on the backrow, pressed the button, and it opened.
As she did so, Mick lifted himself in an upright position, grimacing from all of the pain, as he reached into the compartment filled with an arsenal of weaponry. He grabbed the bazooka and put an IED on it, which nearly took everything out of him just to do that.
But he found the strength to speak again. “Duke, press down the back glass.”
“But Daddy, that’ll expose you and Ma to their gunfire.”
“Do it!” Roz yelled at him.
Although Duke was afraid for his parents, he did as he was told. He pressed the button that lowered the back windshield.
But as soon as he did it, Mick fired that IED straight into the oncoming police car caravan.
The cops tried to swerve their cars out of the way of that explosive device, but it was too late. They were hit violently and their cars, along with every one of those crooked cops, went up in a ball of smoke and fire.
But as soon as Mick saw that he had hit his target, he told Duke to press the window back up and then he fell backwards, dropping that bazooka to his side, and passed out.
“Mick!” Roz cried as Duke pressed back up the back windshield and continued to drive.
But that brick wall was still there. He stopped nearly fifteen feet away from it. “How are we gonna get out of here, Daddy? Daddy?” he said as he looked through the rearview mirror. When he saw that his father had passed out, his heart dropped. He turned around to get a good look at him. “Daddy?”
Roz knew she had to take over. Mick was out. And Duke was too green. “We got to get your father help,” she said.
“There’s no phone service in this town,” Duke said.
But Roz grabbed that bazooka, grabbed another IED out of the arsenal hole, put it on, and then hurried to the front of the SUV. “Turn it sideways, Duke,” she ordered her son.
Duke turned the SUV sideways, so the middle row driver side window was parallel to the brick wall. “What are you doing, Ma?”
