The Tempest by A.J. Scudiere (best books to read in your 20s .txt) 📕

as he turned back to look at the barn, he again saw the wall bulge again.

Only this time, the wood cracked.

“Again!” a voice yelled from inside. Followed quickly by, “Step back.”

It took only those three words for Cage to recognize his sister's voice.

His chest swelled with both relief and fear.

Cage beelined for the spot where someone was breaking out of the barn. Joule must have someone with her, as she was shouting orders. Could it be Izzy?

He and Dev were close to where he’d seen the wall move when the next crack split the air around him. This time, he felt something shift in the air molecules next to him.

Holy shit, he thought, they were shooting their way out.

He immediately jumped back. Surely, his sister had this in hand.

Also, if he stepped in front of her shots, and took a bullet or buckshot, that would not be the happy ending that he'd done all of this searching for. His arm shot out across Dev’s torso, like a mother trying to hold her child back in the seat next to her as the car slammed to a stop. The move was probably about as useless.

Dev had surely already figured out what was happening, the same as him. The two of them backed up in tandem as the barn wall cracked, splinters of wood flying. He watched as a pitchfork came through first, tines out, ready to skewer anyone on the other side.

It must have been feet kicking at the wall next. The wood swayed and bulged, and eventually gave way right about waist height. Again, a few splinters flew, but this time a bigger chunk of wood also moved. It seemed hinged slightly at the top, but finally, there was a hole. He watched hands and tools come through as those inside worked frantically to make it bigger.

“Joule!” he cried out, wanting to help but knowing that getting shot was the wrong response. Her excited response of “Cage?” bloomed in his chest. Any last doubt that it was wishful thinking faded away. He had found her!

“We’ll help get you out. Don’t shoot us. What should we do?”

But he didn't hear her answer.

Instead, he felt the muzzle of a gun against the side of his head. Just as he recognized what he was feeling, he heard the words, “You're not going to help her. You're going to stand real still until I tell you what to do. Or it'll be the last thing that you ever do.”

65

Joule pushed everyone else out through the hole before her. The fire was spreading faster than she had anticipated. She would swear she could hear the crack and whoosh as whole hay bales went up in flame.

Fingers of flame raced along the floor, as if the fire was actively searching for her. There wasn’t time to make the hole bigger or cleaner. She shoved Paul out first, because he was the oldest. He'd likely be the hardest to get through the hole. She wasn’t sure how well he could climb or land on the grass on the other side.

Even as he forced himself through the small space, he turned back to Brenda and yelled, “Open the stalls!”

Jerry was next, as the biggest. The hole had to fit him, and she wasn't going to leave him behind just because the smaller people went first. Brenda had dashed around behind her as Joule helped push Jerry through, and she must have opened all the stalls, because now there was a herd of frantic horses in the main room of the barn with them.

“We have to go quickly!” Brenda told her, and Joule refrained from answering “No shit.”

Then, with just her and Brenda left, she put her hand on the other woman's back and pushed. But Brenda pushed her first, yelling over the heat and flames and wild whinnies. “The animals know me!”

As if that meant anything.

It only occurred to Joule then that it might look selfish to go last, to let the others clear the debris out of the way. But it didn't matter now. The fire was close and breathing was difficult. Stepping one foot high, she put her dirty sneaker out through the hole, following awkwardly with her torso and finally hopping ungracefully into the cool night air.

She immediately crashed into Jerry, wondering why he had failed to get out of the way. She looked up to see that Paul and Jerry were just standing there and staring at something.

Joule turned then to see what had them so shocked. Behind her, Brenda crashed through the hole behind her and pushed right into them making them all stumble.

“Get out of the way!” she yelled at them, pushing as she screamed. “The horses!”

Joule almost fell, but Brenda grabbed for her, keeping her upright. Behind them, the side of the barn cracked as the horses butted or kicked their way out. With the opening now big enough, they thundered through the broken wall. Joule could feel thousands of pounds of horse muscle passing inches behind her. The horses managed to not trample the stunned humans standing in their way, but if that was instinct or her own sheer luck, she didn’t know. They bolted into the paddock en masse and then easily jumped the fences in their fear. In moments, they had disappeared into the night. Gone, but at least safe.

The same couldn’t be said for the people.

The two Larkins were there, and it took a moment to absorb the sight. Again, she thought it had to be the Larkins—the man in the ballcap, the woman with the ponytail that she'd seen in the barn just a little while ago. These were almost definitely the people who had tried to burn them to death.

They each held a gun—the woman held hers to Cage’s head and looked more steady doing it. But that didn’t change the fact that the man had pressed the barrel of his semiautomatic to Dev’s temple. His hand shook as the horses thundered by,