Steven Max Russo, author of “The Hunted”, has previously published two books by Down & Out Books, Thieves and The Dead Don’t Sleep. His short story Putting in the Work appeared in The Rag, an online literary journal, and a flash fiction piece titled The Retirement Contract has been published by Mystery Tribune.
*****
It was close to 1PM when Ophelia Harris left the house she rented in the small seaside town of Manasquan, NJ. A bank of low-lying clouds was coming in off the water bringing with it a chilly mist that seemed to shroud everything in damp, dreary, fog.
She patted the pocket of her rain jacket and felt the reassuring weight of her Sig Sauer 9MM pistol.
Ophelia had been on the run for eight months now. She’d been living in Manasquan under an assumed name for the past six weeks, lying low, but lately had grown uneasy.
She carefully eyed both sides of the street looking for anything that seemed out of the ordinary, a car she didn’t recognize or a stranger walking a dog or any type of van or utility truck parked within sight of her front door, but nothing stood out as odd or unusual.
It was late November and the damp air felt chilly, though not yet frigid.
After crossing the town’s main drag she made her way through the dunes and onto the deserted beach. The wind was stronger here, the ocean angry, waves crashing on the beach, the mist had turned into a light drizzle.
Ophelia began walking along the shoreline as she often did; hands in the pockets of her coat, head down against the wind. She noticed a couple approaching, a man and woman, both middle-aged, holding hands and strolling casually along the water. They were laughing and talking and seemed to take no notice of her as they approached. A married couple who lived nearby, or perhaps lovers stealing time to escape and be by the water?
Ophelia began walking along the shoreline as she often did; hands in the pockets of her coat, head down against the wind.
She gripped the pistol in her coat pocket tighter, finger resting lightly on the trigger, head down but eyes up, never leaving the two approaching strangers.
When they got close, their talking quieted. The man smiled and nodded once to her.
“Good afternoon,” he said.
Ophelia smiled back and nodded silently. The woman let go of the man’s hand and then slipped both her hands into the pockets of her jacket.
“Getting a bit chilly out here,” said the woman amicably as they passed.
Ophelia noticed that neither the man nor woman was dressed for a walk on the beach. The man was wearing chino slacks with loafers. He had on a white dress shirt and sports jacket; no overcoat or rain gear, his wet hair plastered to his skull. He held the jacket closed tight with his left hand to help ward off the wind. The woman had on a pantsuit and a light zippered jacket; too nice for an afternoon walk on the beach in the rain.
Ophelia stopped, turned around, and faced the couple’s backs as they walked on. She removed the Sig from her pocket, thumbed the safety off, and held it loosely at her side.
As she watched, the man reached his right hand up towards his chest and removed something from inside his coat.
Ophelia leveled the gun up and aimed carefully at the back of the man’s head.
The man turned suddenly. In his hand was a gun with a silencer protruding from the end and just as he began to raise it, she pulled the trigger and hit him square in the forehead. She watched his body fold and crumple to the ground.
The man’s companion had turned too. At the instant that Ophelia pulled the trigger, the woman jumped to her left and brought up a pistol of her own.
A heavy thud hit her chest before she even heard the shot and Ophelia was thrown backwards; landing heavily on her backside in the soft, wet sand.
She fired her pistol wildly and blindly in the direction of the woman, pulling the trigger repeatedly until the clip was empty. She was dazed and her ears were ringing and she couldn’t see because her eyes were wet with tears and sea mist and her chest ached with a dull numbness.
She dropped her head back into the sand and just lay there for a minute, breathing heavily, then sat up awkwardly and looked over at the downed couple.
The man lay still. The woman was on her side, curling slowly into a fetal position.
Ophelia got awkwardly to her feet, opened her coat, and felt at her chest where the throbbing ache was emanating. Her fingers found the small hole in the Kevlar vest; she could feel the hard lead bullet embedded in the layered material.
She staggered over and looked at the two strangers lying on the beach. The man had a small dark hole in his forehead, eyes vacant and lifeless; the back of his skull was oozing blood and brains onto the sand. The woman rolled onto her back, a dark, sticky, rust-colored splotch quickly spreading through her jacket in the area of her stomach, a bloody gash across one of her thighs.
The woman moaned softly and moved her hands to cover the wound in her stomach. Blood oozed out between her fingers. Ophelia bent down, picked up the woman’s gun, and flung it into the surf. She then moved to the man, picked up his silenced pistol, and slipped her own back into her pocket.
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She walked back to the woman and stood looking down at her. The woman looked back, grimacing in pain but not saying anything.
“Anyone else with you?” asked Ophelia.
The woman didn’t answer.
Ophelia placed her sandy foot on the woman’s bloody wounded leg and pressed down hard. The woman winced, closing her eyes tight for a second, then opened them up again.
“Anyone else with you?” she asked again, this time louder.
The woman shook her head.
“You should have worn a vest,” she said, tapping her finger on the hole in the Kevlar material on her chest.
“You’re dead,” hissed the wounded woman, “we found you, others will too.”
“Yeah,” said Ophelia, “I know.”
She sighted down the long barrel, aimed carefully at the woman’s nose, and then she pulled the trigger.
*****
If you’ve enjoyed “The Hunted”, you can visit our free digital archive of flash fiction here. Additionally, premium short fiction published by Mystery Tribune on a quarterly basis is available digitally here.
For online archive of short fiction (longer pieces) on Mystery Tribune website, you can visit here.
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