The Forge of Darkness (Darkness After Series Book 3) by Scott B. Williams

they did to his friend, but if they killed him too, who was going to warn Lisa and Stacy? And what about Samantha and April with her little girl back at the house? This was turning out far worse than Benny had thought when he left to look for the one who’d shot Tommy. There were so many of these men! And they were talking about even more people that were further behind, all of them coming here too! David knew he had to get away alive. He had to warn the rest of his friends what was coming. It was too late to help Tommy but maybe he could save the others. He didn’t know where Benny was or if he was even coming back and there was no time to look for him. Besides, these men could have already found him and killed him too. David just didn’t know.  
    He remained as still and quiet as he possibly could until the men lost interest in Tommy and turned to discussing their plans for finding the house. As soon as they moved farther away to regroup by the road, David wormed his way backwards on his belly until he felt it was safe to stand. Then he turned and ran back towards the house for all he was worth, practically running right into Lisa, who was aiming her rifle at his face when emerged from the woods into her view.

    * * *

    “David!” Lisa whispered as she lowered her rifle. “What are you doing? Why are you running? We’ve got the travois to get Tommy.”
    “It’s too late, Lisa. They killed Tommy! One of those men killed him!”
    Lisa could see that David was both terrified and overcome with sadness. “What do you mean they killed him? Are you sure he’s dead? Did he die from the gunshot?”
    “No. It wasn’t the gunshot, Lisa. But it was the same man that shot him. It was that dead boy’s daddy. But there are a lot more of them too, Lisa! That’s why I couldn’t help Tommy. I wanted to, but there were too many!”
    “You mean there are more than we thought? Where is Uncle Benny now?”
    “Yes, a lot more. They came from down the road the way Benny said he thought the other two did. I don’t know where Benny went. He went in the woods and didn’t come back. The men that came after that all have guns, Lisa. And I heard them talking about even more of their friends coming that are on horses! They were talking about finding our house and killing everybody in it and eating all the cows!”
    “You heard them say all that? Samantha asked.”
    “Yes! I heard everything they said. I was hiding really close. I tried to cover Tommy up with leaves and hide him too, but they found him anyway. And then that man that shot him hit him right in the face with a hatchet!”
    “Oh my God! You saw him do that?”  
    “We were too late,” Lisa said, before David could answer. “This wouldn’t have happened if we had gotten here sooner and moved Tommy before they found him.”
    “We came as fast as we could though,” Stacy said. “How could we know there were more men coming?”
    “We couldn’t have,” Samantha said, before turning back to David: “I’m so sorry, David. I know Tommy was your best friend, but you did the right thing. There would have been no point in you dying too, trying to save him.”
    “I didn’t know what to do,” David said.
    “Samantha’s right,” Lisa said. “But are you sure they didn’t see you, David?”
    “No. They didn’t. I waited until they walked back over by the road before I moved. I knew you were coming and I wanted to stop you before you got there. Those men will kill you if you go there, Lisa. They killed Tommy like they just didn’t care! If Benny had been there to help, we might have stopped them, but I don’t know where he is and he might be dead too!”
    Lisa said she didn’t think so, but she wondered how far away Uncle Benny could be to not see or hear so many men coming down the road like that. The only explanation she could think of was that he was well away from the road, off in the woods trying to track down the one that shot Tommy in the first place.