by Hunt, Jack
He shifted his weight from one foot to the next, put a hand on his hip and with the other hand jabbed a finger at the ground. “You want to explain to me what is going on here?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit! Then why didn’t you tell me? I mean because I think that would have been key to know because I just went to all the trouble of telling my brother.” She dipped her head. A look of shame, perhaps guilt. Tyler continued, “Is everyone in Camp Olney a raider?”
“No.”
He gave her a skeptical look.
“No. Not everyone.”
He paused for a moment running a hand through his hair. “Is this another one of Jude’s games?”
She stared back at him and shook her head. “No. Hell no.”
“Then maybe you can help me to understand this. You told me your sister was taken by them, but yet you yourself are one of them? Which is it?”
“Both are true.” She sighed and dropped her head. “The day she was taken, I was with her. That’s how I know what they have down there. She was told to remain while the rest of us returned.”
“So you lied to me.”
“I told you the truth, I just left out some of the details.”
Tyler scoffed. “I’d say you did.” He shook his head. “Why should I believe a single word that has come out of your mouth? Are the women really being used as slaves? Were you really living in Texas or was that made up too?”
When she didn’t answer he knew they were lies.
He threw his hands up. “God. Next you’ll tell me your name is not even Allie.”
“It is.”
He glared at her, getting really close. One part of him wanted to kiss her, the other wanted to just leave her behind. After the death of Ella, he couldn’t allow his brother to suffer any more grief. It could send him over the edge. He studied her eyes waiting for her to look away but she didn’t.
“You want my help then you better start telling me the truth. What’s the deal with the branding? And who is this Morning Star? Is it Jude?”
“I don’t know who it is. We’ve never seen the person’s face. Thomas, the guy you saw with the blind eye, he’s the only one that speaks with Morning Star. And he’s not always at the camp. There have only been a few times Morning Star has visited the camp and only Thomas and his inner circle speak with this person inside a tent. All I know is he gets new information on places that can be raided and the group does the job.”
Tyler laughed. “So Morning Star is like the fucking Wizard of Oz. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“Are you?” he said taking hold of her arm and giving it a little squeeze.
She didn’t reply to that so he continued to ask her to explain what the branding meant and who received it, and why there were two camps, and Jude’s involvement. Allie sighed and took a seat on the edge of a curb. She straightened out her legs and picked at loose stones. “There are several groups spread out throughout the county. Branding is a way of identification. A sign of trust. I don’t know who was behind it only that if you wanted to remain in the camp you had to get it. My parents didn’t die in a plane crash.” She squeezed her eyes closed as if she was struggling to divulge any more. “My father is alive; his name is Edison. And he was one of those involved in the development of the camp with your father. At least that’s what he told me. A year ago, Jude said he’d made an alliance with a group that was about to change this country, and that everything we had been doing up until this point was going to make sense. He never said who was behind it but we soon came to learn that it was big. When the power grid went out, Jude wasn’t surprised. It was as if everything was going according to plan. Anyway, several months before the blackout everyone in Camp Olney had to put their names into a bowl. Those who were selected had to leave the camp to go to the place I showed you. My mother and father were left behind. My mother tried to oppose the ruling and…was killed.” Allie dipped her chin. She took a deep breath and continued. “In an attempt to keep my father quiet, Jude arranged to have me brought back to the camp. An act of generosity. Madison had to remain. My father swore to me that he would kill Jude for what was done to our mother. He also wanted to put a dent in his alliance with Morning Star. Not long after that, you arrived. That’s when my father told me that he knew yours and that if anyone could help, it was him. I followed you that night in the hopes that…”
“I would get my father involved,” Tyler said, saying the obvious.
She nodded. “My father told me to be careful. He wasn’t sure what relationship Andy still had with Jude. I’m sorry, Tyler, for not telling you everything. I just thought it was better this way.”
Tyler had been standing the whole time she’d been sharing. He plunked down beside her and picked up a loose rock and tossed it at a green dumpster below the fire escape. It pinged off the side.
“Your father. I never met him.”
“That’s because Jude threw him in a cell. He would let me see him but he couldn’t trust him and he didn’t want to kill him because they had known each other for years.”
“But I saw everything in camp.”
“Not everything. Jude showed you what he wanted you to see. That’s why I said, he’s dangerous.” She sucked air in and looked up as Corey stuck his head out the window to check on them.
“You all good?”
Tyler gave him the thumbs-up.
“Are you going to tell him?” she asked Tyler.
“Not right now. It doesn’t exactly change the situation. We still have to get in and out. So, you don’t think this…Morning Star is Jude?”
“I don’t know. Again, I never saw a face. For all I know it could be Thomas.”
Tyler tapped a stone against the curb. “Morning Star,” he muttered, thinking about the phrase. He’d heard it a few times.
Allie chimed in, “To the native American Indians it meant hope and guidance. It was also a name given to Christ and Satan,” Allie said glancing at him.
He nodded and quoted the two familiar Bible verses. A good part of his childhood had exposed him to biblical teaching, although that influence had dissipated after his mother’s death. After he said, “The yin and yang. Good and evil. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Whoever this asshole is, maybe they justify what they do as good.”
“Tyler. You ready to leave?” Corey bellowed.
Tyler glanced at Allie, unsure of what to believe. “C’mon. Time to get your sister back.”
14
What a fucking mess, Corey thought as his boots flattened ash and stepped on chunks of charred wood. Markowitz lived just off Conrad Drive in the south end of town. By the description Bennington had given, it was one hell of a private property surrounded by evergreens and thick oak trees on three sides with a spectacular view of woodland park. It was the benefits of smart investments and a thriving helicopter tour business. Now it was nothing but blackened fragments.
“You think he’s dead?” Tyler asked.
Corey shrugged as he crouched and rubbed ash between his fingers. He had no idea. Had anyone told him a month ago his fiancée and unborn child would be buried in a shallow grave, he wouldn’t have believed them, but there were other factors at work that they had no control over. Looting was rampant even in the smallest towns. Stores, homes, anyone was a potential target. They were living in a new world of darkness where the rules didn’t exactly add up. Shards of light from the afternoon sun warmed his skin as he rose. Markowitz’s two-car garage still had the burnt-out steel bones of vehicles inside it. Four of them fanned out scouring the property, hoping that he might have had a bunker or some safe house, while Bennington lay on top of the truck watching their six.
“This is a fucking joke,” Holden said. “He’s not here. Let’s get out of here before we…”
All of them hit the ground at the sound of gunfire coming from Bennington’s rifle.
“We got trouble.”
Covered in ash,
Corey lifted his head to see an armed group of five people fanning out in between the trees. They had obviously seen them pull in and were keen on stealing the truck or anything else they could take by force. Scrambling up and darting across the driveway to the back of the truck, he opened fire with his carbine at two individuals who were sticking their heads out. One of them he nailed in the head, while the other got off lucky. “Come on, let’s go!” he bellowed at the others. Allie popped up from behind what remained of the stone fireplace and unleashed an arrow. At first Corey thought she was firing at him until it flew past his ear straight into the chest of a large fella coming up behind him wielding an ax. He gave her the thumbs-up before rejoining the fight. Two down, three to go, he thought until he saw even more. His eyes scanned the trees. Shit. Shit. There had to be another ten. What the hell? There was no way they could hold them all off, not without some cover. The advancing group had the advantage of tree cover, all they had were the few remaining stones from a house that was burned to the ground, and their own truck. Bennington was hooting and hollering as he spun around on the top of the truck like the hands on a clock, picking off one after the other. “Oh shit, I have missed this,” he shouted.
“There’s too many!” Corey bellowed. “Get over here. Now!”
They were turning, shooting and ducking for cover. He knew it was only a matter of minutes before one of them was fatally injured.
That was when it happened.
An explosion of epic proportion. One blast after another, like detonators going off all around them. Rock and soil rained down as the ground erupted. Several thin trees fell like they’d been chopped down. All he could do was lay on the ground as the assault on their senses played out. Smoke filled the air, and debris rattled across the asphalt before him like pebbles.
“What have we got?” Corey yelled to Bennington.
“I can’t see for shit up here. Holden. You got anything?”
“Nothing, man.”
There must have been at least twenty explosions.
By the time it stopped and the air cleared of smoke, many of the trees surrounding the property were on the ground as if a logging company had come through and brought it all down.
“And that, my friend, is a wrap!” a familiar voice bellowed.
Further out in the yard, a section of the earth was lifted and a person emerged. Markowitz. “Damn, you should have seen your faces,” he remarked as he came up raking the muzzle of his rifle looking for further threats. There were none. Anyone who had survived had got the hell out of there.
“Please tell me that was not all the C4 that I asked you to store?” Holden said.
“Not all of it. Most though. I figured those bastards would be back.” He got this wide grin on his stubble face as he came over to meet them. Markowitz was five-foot-eight and athletic. He wore a loose red shirt, beneath that was a black T-shirt, dirty jeans, combat boots, and on his skull a baseball cap turned backwards. He certainly didn’t look like he’d grown up. A big kid at heart, his love of all things dangerous had taken him into flying when he was in his early teens. Unlike others who went the route of getting a license and logging flight time, he’d gone for a joyride in a helicopter at the sweet old age of fifteen. First time flying, he nearly crashed the damn thing into a resort, but some quick thinking and he brought it down in a swimming pool. Yep, insane, yet creative when it came to survival. Though that was when he was reckless and young. Now, when he wasn’t flying high over Flathead County and giving his spiel on the beauty of the area, he was usually found pumping iron down at his local gym or flirting with some chick in a bar. Never married. Never had kids. He was a womanizer through and through. A pure-blooded, American-made, good old boy who was up for anything as long as it meant pussy and beer. “Hey boys,” he said giving Corey a high-five. “Wondered when you would show.”
“You rigged this place up?” Corey asked.
“Hell yeah. What, you think I would take them on by myself?”
“I’m not sure what disturbs me most. The fact that you rigged up your entire property with C4 or that you figured we were coming and you used us as bait?”
Markowitz laughed. “Assholes destroyed all I had. I’ve been watching them tearing through this town, lighting fires and killing people in the streets. If this hadn’t worked, I would have taken them out one by one.”
“Sounds like you,” Holden said making his way over and giving him a hug.
Markowitz stepped back from the truck and looked up at Bennington. “You got any beer?”
“Are you kidding me?” he replied, peering over the roof. Then Markowitz laid eyes on Allie.
“Hello, lady love.”
“Um, Markowitz. A little young for you.”
“Please. Let the lady decide,” he said wandering over. Allie brought up her bow and he backed up. “Whoa. Shit girl, don’t you be pointing that at me.”
“I would probably back off,” Corey said. “She’s a damn good shot.”
“As am I, in the sack!” He grinned. He diverted his eyes away to Tyler. “Is this who I think it is?”
Corey wrapped an arm around Tyler’s neck. “My little brother, yep.”
“Looks like you. Is he as mad as you?” He laughed before sniffing hard. “So, what brings you down this way besides the obvious need to be in my glorious presence?”
“Real glorious,” Bennington said sliding off the top of the truck and making his way over to the fallen to make sure they were all dead. They heard him put a round in someone before moving on to another. Holden filled Markowitz in on the details. Told him he was in if Markowitz came.
“Well your timing couldn’t have been better,” he said motioning to the house. “I just put the house on the market.”
They all laughed.
Corey saw Tyler wander over to the area of the yard where Markowitz had crawled out. Markowitz saw him and called out, “It’s a dugout. Nothing more.” Tyler lifted the cover and looked inside.
Markowitz turned back to Corey. “Sounds risky. Fun. I’m in. But we need to pick up Gibby. I told him I would be by today to check on him. He’s not been in a good frame of mind since this kicked off.”
“Um, maybe we should leave him,” Corey said.
“I’m not leaving him. He goes or neither do I.”
Holden got closer. “You think that’s a good idea? Last time I saw him he was wasted on drugs with a needle in his arm.”
“He’s been clean since the power grid went down. A little hard to get your grubby hands on heroin when money has no value now. But food does and I’m sure he’d want in.”
Corey ran a hand over his head and grimaced. “I dunno.”
“You don’t have long to decide,” Markowitz said. “Those explosions will attract attention.” Corey lifted a hand and looked at the others. They shrugged. No one was really in a position to argue. The stakes were high and the more people they had, the easier it would be. Besides, years of working side by side in Iraq had given them a trust that few would ever experience. Sure, Gibby was suffering from PTSD but how bad could it be? “All right, where is he?”
“In the dugout,” Tyler said still holding the entrance covering open.
Corey frowned. “But you said we need to pick him up? I thought he was…”
“Yeah, off the ground. He’s wasted.”
“Shit. Man, we don’t have time for getting him clean.”
“He’s clean. It’s alcohol. He’ll soon sober up. You got coffee?”
Corey raised his eyebrows and shook his head as he went over and looked into the dugout. There he was, laid out fast asleep. He’d just slept through explosions and one hell of a firefight. He mumbled under his breath. “This is a bad idea.”
Holden gave him a hand lifting him out of the hole in the ground. There wasn’t much to it. It was simply an area dug into the earth with a flat roof covered by strips of grass sod. Inside there was wood paneling to prevent the earth from caving in, and a couple of bunks. Essentiall
y it looked like a sauna room in the earth. They were easy and quick to make and perfect for concealment and protection during warfare or hunting.
Keen to put Kalispell in their rearview mirror and not lose daylight, they loaded Gibby into the back of the truck and hightailed it out of there. On the way out, Markowitz brought them up to speed on what had occurred since he’d last seen Bennington.
The truck bounced as Tyler drove. Allie cast a glance over her shoulder listening in on their conversation as they caught up.
“I guess my situation is similar to you all. I had Gibby over and was trying to convince him to get off the smack. His doctor had him on all these pills. Anyway, I was helping him kick the habit. That’s why he was at my place. I told him I would watch him for a week, you know, make it through the sweats, the shaking and night terrors. I had to literally cuff him to a pipe. He pleaded with me to get some heroin. Anyway, I got him over the hump and that’s when those assholes showed up a few days later. At first it was only a handful. I was able to push them back with some force but they returned one night like a mob ready to hang us. I took a few of them out but then they set the house on fire. We escaped by the skin of our teeth.” He leaned forward and motioned for Tyler to pull off and head down to the Flathead River.
“We should get out of the city,” Corey said.
“No, he needs to sober up.”
They pulled off Conrad Drive down a narrow gravel stretch of road that ended in a small parking lot near the winding river. Markowitz hopped out and instructed Holden to give him a hand by grabbing Gibby’s wrists while he took hold of his ankles. Corey already knew what he was going to do. Without coffee on hand, there was only one other way to quickly sober him up, and that was the dunk. They shuffled over to the river and when they reached the edge, they swung his body a few times and then released. Gibby hit the water and as if someone had jabbed him with adrenaline, he came up gasping for breath and cursing. Markowitz cracked up laughing. “You might want to step back,” he said as if knowing something they didn’t. Holden frowned looking at him then back at Gibby.