“Leave him,” Silas said. “He’s only going to slow us down. It’s time for us to leave.”
“But—”
Silas raised his gun and pointed it at the protesting man’s face. “I just gave you an order. You can leave with me or die where you stand. Your choice.”
The protesting man glared back at him. He released his hold on the injured Guardian and stepped away from them.
“Good choice. Head to the truck now,” Silas said. “Keys are above the driver’s visor. I’ll be right behind you.”
Silas watched the man move past him. He waited until the Guardian stepped out the door before moving in the same direction. If anyone was going to get shot by Foster’s gang, it would be the man in front of him. It was better that way. In his mind, the men were replaceable, and Silas wasn’t.
Walker brought the Land Cruiser to a screeching halt behind the retail center. He cut the engine and leapt out of the SUV.
“Wait for me,” Sams called out.
Walker didn’t pause one bit and charged into the building. He spotted a downed hostile clutching a bloody leg. The man moaned softly, and Walker came to a sudden stop. He brought his rifle up to finish the injured Guardian. As he did, he heard Sams shouting behind him.
“I got him,” Sams yelled. “He’s unarmed. Go check on the rest of the group.”
Walker moved around the wounded man and then took the steps two at a time, racing up toward the second floor.
“Lizzy!” Walker shouted as he moved up them.
“We’re okay,” his wife called back.
Walker charged into the room and grabbed his wife, lifting her up into a strong embrace.
“Oof. It’s okay, Nick,” she murmured. “We’re all okay.”
“Amanda,” Sams called out. “I got an injured hostile. I could use your help.”
“Why don’t you just, you know, end him?” Emily asked.
“Information,” Sams answered. “I want to know how these assholes found us. And anything else they can tell us.” He turned his attention to the man lying on the floor. “Comprende, amigo?”
“Yeah,” the man answered with gritted teeth. “I understand.”
“Amanda?” Sams called out. “I need your help.”
“I’m on my way,” the doctor said as she began to descend the staircase. She took one look at the downed man and added, “I’m going to need everybody except Lizzy to give me space to look at this guy.”
“You got him, Derrick?” Walker said.
“Oh, yeah,” Sams answered. “Me and wounded doggy here have an understanding. Our doctor is coming down to look at your leg. You even look at her cross-eyed, and I’ll shoot you between your eyes. Nod your head if you understand me.”
The injured man nodded his head very slowly. “I’ll cooperate.”
Sams heard someone coming down the stairs and stole a quick glance. Walker and Amanda were heading in his direction. “Good,” he said. “Glad to hear that, amigo. You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
“I’m not lying,” the man said. He laid his head back down on the floor. “No reason to.”
Sams slid over a step to let Walker pass by him. The former Ranger stopped and stared at the injured Guardian.
“Uh-huh. You act up, and I’ll turn you over to this guy,” Sams said. He gestured toward Walker with his head. “His wife was one of the people you were busy shooting at.”
The man glanced toward Walker, saw the visibly pissed-off former Ranger, and gulped deeply. “No tricks. I swear.”
Amanda glanced at Sams, hovering near the downed man. There were about six inches of open space for her to work in. “Guys, I need some room to be able to look at his leg,” she said softly.
“Walker,” Sams answered. “You want me to stay with our new friend or set up a perimeter guard?”
“He’s not our friend,” Walker said. “I’ll take perimeter.” He bent over, scooping up the injured man’s gun before stepping back outside.
Amanda quickly scanned the Guardian lying on the floor in front of her. There was a growing pool of blood under the wounded man. She moved to stanch the blood slowly leaking out of his leg.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Amanda asked.
“Just my leg,” the man answered. “I can move over if you need more room.”
“No. Stay put,” Amanda said. “I need to see how bad you’re hurt.”
“I’ll try,” he answered. He stiffened in pain as the doctor began poking inside the bullet wound. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
Amanda began to examine the man’s leg. “No exit wound. The bullet is probably still in your leg,” she said. “I think it nicked an artery.”
“Can you save him?” Lizzy asked.
“I don’t know,” Amanda muttered through clenched teeth. “He’s lost a lot of blood already.”
The man moaned aloud and jerked at Amanda’s touch.
“Emily,” Lizzy called out. “See if you can find a blanket or some towels.”
“Okay, will do,” the teenager answered back.
“Hold still,” Amanda scolded. “I’m trying to save your life.”
“Why did you attack us?” Lizzy demanded.
“Not now, Lizzy,” Amanda said. “I need him to stay calm.”
“I-it’s okay,” the man said in a low tone. “I don’t mind.”
Lizzy flashed a knowing look at her friend before turning her attention back to the wounded man. “I’m Lizzy. This woman trying to save your life is Amanda.”
“Larry,” the man said softly. “Sorry we had to meet like this.”
“Larry, why did you attack us?” Lizzy asked. “We have children upstairs.”
“I-I didn’t know. Silas. He made us. Said you were dangerous. That you were with some guy named Foster, who had killed a bunch of our people.”
“Silas?”
“He’s new. In charge of the Guardians. Not like the old leader.”
“How so?”
“Walter was reasonable. Tough, but fair.”
“And Silas?”
“He’s no Walter.”
“Can he be reasoned with?” Lizzy asked. “We have supplies we could trade. We’re just asking that they let us leave the city.”
Larry let out a low chuckle and immediately winced in pain. “That was a mistake. Hurts too much to laugh.”
“Sorry. I’ll try not to do that again,” Lizzy said. “You were telling me about Silas.”
“Yeah. He’s fucking nuts. Dangerous. The rest of the guys are afraid of him. When you started shooting at us, one of the other guys got scared and tried to run away. Silas gunned him down like he was a rabid dog. Told the rest of us he’d kill anybody else who tried to leave.”
Lizzy glanced at her friend. From the look on the doctor’s face, she was feeling the same thing. This Silas person was definitely a threat to their group.
“I’m cold,” Larry said.
“Dammit. He’s bleeding internally,” Amanda muttered. “Larry, stay with me.”
“Don’t lie to me, Doc,” the man said softly. “I’m not going to make it, am I?”
“I’m not giving up on you,” Amanda answered. “Come on, stay with me, Larry.”
“We found you…because of your truck,” Larry said. His voice was almost in a whisper now. “Silas won’t stop. He’ll be back. You need to get those kids and get out of here.”
Emily returned with a ratty-looking blanket. “That’s all I could find.”
“Thanks,” Lizzy said. “Can you check on Henry and make sure he’s okay?”
Emily glanced at the still bleeding man on the floor, nodded once, and retreated from the room.
Lizzy waited until the teenager was out of sight before she took the blanket. She carefully draped it across the wounded man’s torso and side, avoiding the area where Amanda was still working feverishly. Lizzy glanced at Larry’s face. The man was deathly pale and his breathing was extremely shallow.
“I mean it,” Larry s
aid. “You need to get those kids out of Rehoboth. Silas won’t hesitate to kill any of you.”
“We’re working on it,” Lizzy said. “We need a vehicle.”
Larry gave a weak smile. “I can help.”
“Come on, Larry, stay with me,” Amanda said. “Can somebody get me some more bandages?”
“Keys in my left front pocket. They’re for my brother’s place. It’s the only yellow house on Fieldcrest Drive. I was house-sitting for him while he was on vacation. He’s got a Suburban. Silas doesn’t know about it. None of them do. It was my backup plan in case things really went to shit.”
“Larry, you don’t have to—”
“It’s the least I can do. You all have been good to me, even though you have every reason not to. Just get them kids and you out of here. Okay?”
“Okay, Larry, we’ll do that,” Amanda said. “Just hold on. I’m losing him.”
The man nodded once quietly. His chest hitched twice, and then he went still.
“He’s gone,” Amanda said softly. She stood up slowly and stepped away from the dead man.
Lizzy shifted the blanket to cover his face and torso.
Walker stepped back into the building.
“Foster, Charles, and Gregory are a few minutes out,” Walker said. He glanced at the covered body and then turned his attention to the rest of the group. “Why don’t the rest of you head upstairs, and I’ll let you know when they get here?” He turned and stepped back outside before anyone else could answer. There was nothing he could do for the dead Guardian. He had nothing else to do but wait for the remainder of his group to arrive. And make sure no one else got another chance to harm his friends.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Despite the recent firefight, Foster gathered the group above the gun shop once more.
“This is a really bad idea,” Sams said. “We need to get our shit and get out of here. This guy, Silas, sounds crazy.”
“We’re only staying here temporarily. Let me see if I have this straight,” Foster said. “One of Silas’s men told you about a vehicle that the Guardians didn’t know about.”
“Yes,” Amanda said. “We have a key ring here,” Amanda said, holding up a fob with a car key and what looked to be a house key attached on the ring.
“Do we know where it is?”
“Larry, that’s the Guardian who gave us the tip, said it was the yellow house on Fieldcrest Drive.”
“This is crazy,” Sams answered. “This guy was shooting at us and then had a sudden change of heart? I don’t buy it. For all we know, he could be sending us to Silas’s headquarters.”
“I don’t think so,” Amanda answered. “He sounded like he was trying to make amends before he died.”
“Well, he was busy dying,” Sams pointed out. “It might have been hard for him to gather his last thoughts together. Or maybe his brain wasn’t working right, and he told us the wrong place by mistake.”
“Even if he did, we still need to check this lead out,” Foster answered. “Otherwise we’re looking at having to use the Chevy Tahoe I found and our old Land Cruiser.”
“Which is a hell of a risk. The Guardians already know about the Land Cruiser,” Walker pointed out. “They’ll be on the lookout for it if we try to leave town. Derrick and I took a chance using it to go retrieve the armbands. But there’s no guarantee we’ll get lucky and avoid detection again.”
“So do we stay or go?” Amanda asked. “Because I’m not feeling safe here anymore.”
“Sams is right. It’s not safe here,” Walker said. “It’s only a matter of time until Silas brings even more men back to storm this place.”
“We’re not ready,” Foster said. “And we’re not sure this other place is secure, either.”
“Secure? Hell, we don’t know a thing about this new place at all,” Sams pointed out. “It could be a trap.”
“You really think Larry would have set us up?” Amanda demanded. “The man was dying.”
“You don’t?” Sams countered. “It would be the perfect screw-over.”
“Okay, settle down,” Foster interrupted. He made a calming gesture with his hands. “Fighting with each other isn’t going to solve the problem.”
Sams looked away, and Amanda glared at him in response.
“Look, I got an idea.” Foster grabbed the piece of paper, looked at the keys, and wrote the address down. “This is the address. Everybody memorize it or write it down. I’ll go check it out and see if the place is secure and if the Suburban is there. Once I can confirm the coast is clear, I’ll call it in and everybody will move to that location. We’ll use it as our temporary base until we’re ready to leave.”
“The idea doesn’t totally suck,” Sams admitted.
Foster took a deep breath and then continued. “I can go on my own, but I’d probably go faster to clear the place and check the vehicles for possible booby traps if someone else comes with me.”
“No offense, Malcolm,” Walker said, “but with what shit just happened, there is no way in hell I’m leaving my wife here alone.”
“I’ll do it,” Sams said. “And before any of you ladies object, I had basic munitions training in the Army. I know what to look for in terms of possible booby traps.”
“Oh, so now you’re a bomb expert too?” Lizzy quipped. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Nope,” Sams answered quickly. “Never claimed to be. But I suspect I know more about rigging tripwires and booby traps than most of the people in this room. Just like you know more about medicine than I ever will.”
“Good point,” Lizzy said. “Sorry, Derrick. I’m still a little rattled by the Guardian attack here.”
Sams nodded in acknowledgment and turned his attention to giving his rifle a once-over.
“All right, that works,” Foster said. “In the event the location isn’t secure, we might still be able to collect supplies. What do we still need?”
“It’s only a matter of time before somebody else shows up,” Walker said. “I say we take what we got and get the hell out of town as soon as it’s dark.”
“Except we don’t have a clear way out of town,” Sams reminded them. “Short of shooting our way out. Or creating some kind of distraction like an explosion.”
“Any idea where we might get some explosives?” Foster asked. “Because I don’t think the Guardians are going to let us into a sporting goods store to grab any Tannerite.”
“Probably not,” Sams said. “Seeing that we snuck into one and killed a bunch of Reapers last time, I doubt we’ll get a chance to do it again.”
“There was some construction happening not far from here,” Gregory blurted out.
“Really?” Walker asked. “What can you tell us about it?”
“Not much, really,” Gregory admitted. “They’re supposed to do some demolition soon. Well, they were, before all this happened. I bet we could sneak in there, grab some explosives, and get out.”
Walker’s eyebrows shot up. “You know how to handle explosives?”
“Not really,” Gregory answered. “But as long as there’s no detonator connected to it, we should be in the clear. Am I right?”
“Depends on the type of explosive,” Walker said. “No offense, man, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to ask a bunch of civilians who’ve never handled explosives before to go scavenge them.”
“What about some type of homemade device?” Charles asked. “Is it possible to use some household products to create something?”
“We could probably scavenge what we need,” Sams said carefully, “but we’d need to take the time to find the right materials and to make an explosive device.”
“And time is the one thing we don’t have a lot of right now,” Foster said. “Let’s table the distraction idea for now. Where are we at in terms of supplies?”
“Need more silver bullets and food,” Sams said.
“You guys haven’t turned up much in the way of medical supplies,” Amanda pointed out.
“We really need more bandages, antibiotics, and pain meds.”
“I might have a lead on that for us,” Gregory said. “There’s a veterinary clinic not far from here. I doubt there’s anybody in there.”
“You mean besides a bunch of hungry, starving animals?” Sams answered. “I hate to say it but if they’re not dead, then it’s only a matter of time before a pack of Reapers goes in there to feed on them.”
“Maybe not,” Gregory said. “This place wasn’t very busy. The owner was planning to retire before the end of this year.”
“So he may not have had many animals in there,” Lizzy said excitedly. “But I’m sure he still has the basic medical supplies. Like bandages. They might have antibiotics, too.”
“I bet they do,” Foster said. “They use antibiotics like erythromycin and tetracycline for animals, too.”
“I’ll need somebody to go with me,” Gregory said. “Any volunteers?”
“I’d like to go,” Charles said. “We don’t need to clean the place out. We just need to find enough to take with us. If we happen to run into one of the staff there, perhaps I can barter with them.”
“That could work,” Foster admitted. “Which vehicle do you want to take?”
Gregory scratched his head as he thought for a moment. “I heard what you said about the Land Cruiser being known. But I think my dad and I could be all right to use it. The clinic is a few blocks from here. If we get stopped by a Guardian patrol, we can always play dumb and say we found it.”
“Are you sure?” Foster asked. “Derrick and I are better prepared for a potential confrontation if one comes up.”
“The ladies said the Guardians are looking for you,” Gregory pointed out. “If you get stopped in a vehicle they know to look for, then there’s going to be trouble.”
“The kid has a point,” Sams said. “Like it or not, Foster is top of their most wanted list.”
The Wretched Series | Book 4 | Wretched Aftermath Page 13