by Lukens, Mark
“We need to get you down from there,” Petra said. “We’re working on a plan.”
“We have rope ladders,” Jo said.
A pause from Petra.
“We used one of them to get Gil up here right after he lowered the lift.” She realized that Petra had no idea who Gil was, but she didn’t bother explaining. “We have three of them. We could anchor them to the knee wall, get down to the ground, but there are too many rippers. We were going to wait for them to scatter after the food in the store was gone, but we thought it might take weeks.”
“Rope ladders,” Petra said. “That’s good. We’ve got more people and trucks. We could come by before dark and get you guys down from there.”
Jo glanced up at the sky. It was probably mid-afternoon. Not too far away from dusk, maybe three hours if they were lucky. “Maybe we should do this tomorrow.”
No answer from Petra.
“Who are you with, Petra? I saw Luke in the back. Is Max with you? Phil?”
“Max and Phil didn’t make it. Dawson’s with us. He said he surrendered himself to you at the store.”
“Yes, him and other Dark Angels.”
“All of the other Dark Angels he was with are dead. They ambushed them right before they got to Hell Town.”
“So who are you with?”
“We’re with a few of the Dark Angels and some of the townspeople.”
It was Jo’s turn to remain silent. She glanced at Gil, then at Kate.
“They wanted to get away from the Dragon. They didn’t want to be part of it anymore. Hell Town’s destroyed. It’s burning. The Dragon’s dead.”
“Say again,” Jo said, suddenly breathless.
“The Dragon’s dead.”
“You’re sure of that.”
“I killed him myself. And Luke killed Jacob, the Dragon’s right-hand man. It’s over. The people who left Hell Town, some of them with us, they want to start over.”
“How many are there of you?”
Petra was silent for a moment, the walkie crackled with static again as Petra answered: “Fourteen of us.”
“The Dragon’s dead,” Jo whispered without pushing down the button on the walkie. “He’s really dead.”
“We’re coming to get you in an hour,” Petra said. “We have five vehicles, but we’re going to have three vehicles down in front of your store. An SUV, a pickup truck, and a van. We’re going to have one driver each in the SUV and the van, and two shooters in the back of the pickup truck. You’re going to have to use your own shooters too.”
Petra paused for a moment waiting for Jo.
“Okay,” Jo said. “Three vehicles in front of the store in an hour.”
“We’re going to use the other two vehicles for a distraction and to flank the three vehicles, using shooters in them. You’re going to need to get everything ready in an hour. Just take what you can carry in backpacks. We can’t take all of the supplies down. We’ll have to go back for them later.”
Jo nodded. “Okay.”
Gil was already up and moving, hurrying over to the tents, talking with the others, letting them know what was happening. Jo was glad he was jumping on the task, getting everyone to pack everything they could take into a backpack in under an hour was going to be quite a job. And they still had to get the three rope ladders secured to the edge of the building.
“So,” Petra said, “we’ll be there in an hour. Maybe a little less.”
“Okay,” Jo told her. “We’ll be ready.”
Jo released the button on the walkie-talkie. She didn’t want to turn it off even though it would waste the batteries—she wanted it on in case Petra called back.
Kate and Brooke stared at her. “They’re coming for us,” Kate said.
“Yes,” Jo answered.
“And what about after that?” Kate asked. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know,” Jo told her.
CHAPTER 59
Kate
“We have to take Tiger with us,” Brooke said as soon as Jo went to help Gil coordinate the packing.
“I know,” Kate answered. She knew she wasn’t going to be able to get off this roof without Tiger. She cursed Max again for ever finding that cat, but she had to stop herself.
Max was dead. He had given his life to attack Hell Town, and she was sure he had been instrumental in some way in freeing Petra. And Petra had said she had killed the Dragon. Could that be true? Was the Dragon really dead? Maybe this war that had started right after the Collapse was really over.
She would have time to think about all of that after they were off of this roof and away from this store. The plan to get them was dangerous, but Kate knew the rippers were going to get up to the roof eventually, if not up through the skylight, then from somewhere on the outside of the building. There were ladders inside the store. Eventually they would figure out how to use them; they would take them outside and lean them against the building in the dark of night, climbing them and attacking while they slept. And if the rippers didn’t kill them, then eventually the cold would. Or maybe starvation.
Jo had been holding out hope that Ray, Josh, Mike, and Emma would get back and help them get down, but Kate knew that the four of them wouldn’t have been any match for the hundreds of rippers on the ground below.
And Ray and the others might not even be alive anymore. Kate hated thinking that, but she was just being realistic. Maybe they had made it to Avalon, and maybe they had gotten down into the bunker, and maybe there were people there that could help, and maybe they were on their way back. But that was a lot of maybes. And it was against the odds.
She’d asked Jo where they were all going after they got down off the roof. Jo didn’t know, and Kate didn’t know. They weren’t going back to Hell Town. Petra said it had been destroyed, that it was burning.
They could worry about where they were going after they got off the roof. She was sure Petra and Luke had some kind of plan. It was one thing for a person to hide in a house by themselves, or even a few people, like she, Max, Petra, and Brooke had done. But thirty people trying to hide and stay safe from the rippers, that was a different story.
She couldn’t think about that—she just needed to focus on what they were trying to do: get down from the roof. Petra’s plan seemed haphazard and dangerous. Kate knew the chances of all of them surviving, or any of them, weren’t very good.
Just focus on what we’re doing.
“We need to take Tiger,” Brooke said. “We can’t leave him behind.”
Brooke’s voice was beginning to rise into a scream, her eyes wide. She was on the verge of a temper tantrum, perhaps on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Another nervous breakdown. She’d broken down before; she’d been a broken girl when Kate had first met her down in the brick tunnels under her parents’ warehouse. It might not take much for Brooke’s mind to crack again, for her to curl up into a ball on the roof screaming.
Kate kneeled down in front of Brooke, grabbing her arms, holding them firmly but not too hard, looking straight into her eyes. “Brooke, we’re going to take Tiger. We won’t leave him behind. We’re not leaving any of us behind. We’re all going to make it down to the trucks and drive away from here. Okay?”
Brooke nodded numbly, the anger and fear in her face vanishing, her features suddenly slack. But her eyes were still alive. She was still there. Kate had been surprised at her own words, at how believable they had sounded. Maybe deep down inside she really believed they were going to get away, that they were going to survive.
“First, we need to find something to carry Tiger in.”
Brooke nodded. “The carrying case,” she said in a small voice.
“That’s a good idea, Brooke. But I don’t think we have that up here with us. Remember, Gil carried Tiger up inside his jacket.”
Brooke nodded again. “My backpack?”
“Maybe. We’re going to have to keep Tiger close by. We’re going to have to put him inside at the last second. He’s goi
ng to be scared. I want you to keep Tiger close while we pack up. Can you do that?”
“Okay,” Brooke said. She had Tiger right next to her, petting him. Tiger stared over at the tents, eyes wide, nervous about the activity that was going on.
“I’m going to help everyone else. You stay right here. I’ll bring your backpack to you. Okay?”
Brooke nodded, holding onto Tiger.
Kate hurried over to Jo. She was getting everyone organized, getting duffel bags and backpacks filled up with some drinks, food, medicine, ammo, and any supplies they could fit. Gil and two other men were securing the rope ladders to the HVAC units with other ropes and cordage, some of which they’d cut off of the tents.
A few of the tents were deflated. They couldn’t take them; they would be useless out on the road, useless flimsy houses against the rippers. The supply tent still had a lot of drinks and food inside, much more than they could carry down the rope ladders.
“Rebecca,” Kate said. “Could you and Patrick keep Brooke and Tiger company?”
“Sure,” Rebecca said. She had her backpack ready with enough for her and Patrick. The boy held Rebecca’s hand, lost and bewildered. He looked ready to burst into tears at any moment. All of this was too much for him, too much for Brooke. Too much for any of them.
Kate helped Jo carry backpacks and duffel bags over to the front side of the roof, where the rope ladders had been secured. Kate set her bags down, peeking over the edge of the roof. It was a long way down. A fall might not kill someone, but it would probably bust them up pretty good. She looked out at the parking lot. The rippers had lost interest in the parking lot, hurrying around to the back of the store, over the fallen fence and inside. There was still a lot of commotion coming from below the skylight—it sounded like the rippers hadn’t given up on stacking more shelving units on top of each other against the collapsed lift to get up to them.
“Three at a time,” Jo said.
Kate looked at her.
“There are three rope ladders,” Jo continued. “Three at a time down. Wade, Lisa, and Hendricks go down first with their rifles. They get down and stand guard with the two shooters Petra said they will have. We throw their bags down after them. Then Rebecca, you and Patrick go down one ladder, and Kate, you and Brooke go down on the next ladder. I’m pretty sure the rope ladder can hold the weight of a woman and a child. You’ll be right below the kids so they aren’t scared, so they don’t freeze up, so you can coax them down.”
Kate nodded. Jo was definitely planning this out to the last detail.
“Gil and I will go last.”
Kate stared at Jo. She hugged the woman. She hadn’t known she was going to do it, she just did it. “You’re an amazing woman,” Kate told her as she held onto her. “I’m so glad I got to know you.”
Jo pulled away. She had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. “Don’t talk like that. This isn’t over. We’re going to make it. We’re going to make damn sure of it, aren’t we?”
Kate nodded, wiping at her own tears. “Yes. We’re going to make it.”
CHAPTER 60
Ray
Ray stood in the glow of the flashlight beams inside the lab room they had escaped into. The rippers were still outside the door, pounding on it, screeching and yelling.
“You sure you’re okay?” Ray asked Mike.
“Yes,” Mike said, nearly rolling his eyes.
Ray nodded. He was proud of Mike, proud that he had been brave enough to crawl through the air ducts to get into this room and unlock the door for them—he’d been the only one small enough to crawl through the ductwork.
Now they were safe for the moment; the rippers couldn’t get in, but they also couldn’t get out of the lab anytime soon with the rippers out there.
How many rippers were out there? Five? Ten? Had more of them come down the stairs before the exit was blown up? How many rippers had been on the elevator? Ray couldn’t remember. It seemed like a swarm of rippers had exploded from the elevator car after the doors had opened. He closed his eyes even though he still had his flashlight on, trying to remember the elevator doors opening, trying to see it in his mind again, counting the rippers rushing out. Maybe ten of them. Maybe twelve. How many people could fit in an elevator?
Ray opened his eyes as Josh pulled a chair over from one of the desks, helping Emma sit down. He grabbed a few more chairs. Ray walked over to one of the chairs without a word, plopping down, suddenly aware of how exhausted he was. Mike sat down without a word.
“How did those rippers get in that elevator?” Ray asked no one in particular. “How did the Dark Angels corral them into going in there?”
Josh shrugged. “Maybe they threw a piece of meat in there.”
Ray didn’t want to think of where the “meat” had come from. He imagined the rippers racing into the elevator, fighting each other over the piece of meat. He imagined the doors closing, the elevator lowering. He imagined the Dark Angels somewhere above them closing and locking the metal gate of the chain-link fence. He imagined the Dark Angels leading more rippers to the hidden entrance of the stairway, then blowing it up. He imagined one of the Dark Angels cutting power lines to the solar panels.
He closed his eyes again. This time he saw Gerald getting killed, playing like a horror movie in his mind. He saw the two rippers materializing from the darkness like sharks swimming up from the black depths of the ocean.
“What do we do now?” Josh asked.
“We stay here for the moment,” Ray said.
“We can’t stay here forever,” Josh answered.
“I know that,” Ray snapped.
The banging continued at the door.
“We have to kill them,” Mike said matter-of-factly.
Ray looked at his son, barely seeing his face in the darkness with their flashlights shining down at the floor, but he could hear the steely edge in his son’s voice.
“He’s right,” Josh said.
“Mike’s not going out there.”
“We’ll go,” Josh said.
Ray heard Emma hold onto Josh’s arm, the slight shifting of clothing, a rush of breath. Ray had the same fear Emma had. If he and Josh went out there, that left Mike and Emma in the lab alone. If they died . . . He didn’t want to think about that.
“We don’t have any other choice,” Josh said.
Ray didn’t want to hear it anymore, didn’t want to think about it. “I know,” he said in a low voice. “But first we need to wait. We need to wait until the rippers have gone. If we open that door right now, they’ll flood in.”
“Maybe that’s a good plan,” Mike said.
They were all quiet for a minute. Ray looked at his son again, raising the light up a little so he could see his face better, staring into his son’s eyes.
“We could open the door,” Mike said in an unwavering voice. “They rush in. You and Josh shoot them as they come in.”
Ray was already shaking his head no, already voting against it.
“He might be right,” Emma whispered.
“The only other option is to wait for them to scatter again and hunt them down one by one,” Josh said.
Ray was still shaking his head no. He wanted to stop, but he couldn’t. “I . . . I don’t know.” He had to admit that it was probably a better plan than going out into that total darkness and trying to pick them off when they spotted them. He still saw the rippers swimming out of the darkness to attack Gerald—they’d been so fast, so quiet, so deadly. Those eyes and teeth illuminated in the flashlight beam, the glint of the light off their knives.
“Dad,” Mike whispered. “We can do it.”
Mike seemed so much older just then. In the darkness his boy was hidden and Ray saw the man his son would soon become. He saw the strength in him now, the courage, the determination, the tenacity.
“We need to be careful,” Ray finally said. “We need to really think this through.”
“Okay,” Josh said. “Okay. You’re the schemer. What�
��s the plan?”
The wheels in Ray’s mind had already started turning. He’d been against the plan from the beginning, but he’d automatically begun to think of a way to implement it. “Someone will have to open the door. Someone will have to shoot. I’ll open the door, get away from it as fast as I can. Josh, you’ll have the M-16. You shoot at them as they come in.”
“The light,” Josh said. “Someone’s going to have to spot with the light.”
“I can open the door,” Emma offered.
“No way,” Josh said.
“I will,” Mike said. “I’ll open the door. I can get out of the way. I’ll have my light and gun. I can shine the light on them as they come in the door. That way you and Josh can shoot.”
Ray sighed. He didn’t like it, but Mike’s idea made more sense. “I could have my flashlight aimed at the door. I’ll have my gun too, but Josh will do the majority of the shooting.”
They were quiet, listening to Ray’s plan.
“Josh,” Ray said. “You’ll need to try to hit the rippers only. Try not to hit the door. We can’t have it damaged. We can’t take a chance of it not locking again.”
“Okay,” Josh said.
“Mike.” Ray turned to his son. “You don’t use your light. You open the door and then back up out of the way. They won’t see you—they’ll be rushing toward me and Josh, toward the light. You need to make sure you have a clear path from the door. You’ll have your light and gun just in case.”
Mike nodded.
“Emma, you’ll be back over there by the wall. When Mike opens the door I want you to scream as loud as you can. I want your screams to draw them farther into the room as much as the light will. Okay?”
“I can do that.”
“Good. Josh, check your gun. Make sure you’ve got it loaded.”
Josh pulled the magazine out and loaded it with more bullets, filling the magazine up and popping it back in. Ray loaded his gun. Mike had only used one bullet so far—he was on his feet with his flashlight, checking his route away from the door, making sure the path was clear.