Tomorrow's Dawn (Book 2): Fractured Paradise

by Wohlrab, Jeff

  Brent just smiled and shook his head.

  Chapter 24

  It took almost a week for Daniel to regain most of his strength. In that time, Brent, Jessica, Marcy, and Jensen had managed to plant almost all of their seeds in the field on the hill. Daniel spent most of his time sitting by the front door, enjoying the sounds of the forest and looking at the row of graves on the edge of the clearing. He’d been so close to joining them.

  Sheila had gone through the computer but found no answers. There was no information about the virus other than dates of treatment, vital signs, and eventually, death. This was just administrative information, nothing more. The second computer, after Daniel had removed the satellite link, showed more of the same. What was clear was that this had all happened prior to the mass vaccinations. They held proof that the CDC had known about the inoculations well before they were given to the public. They just didn’t know what to do with that information.

  Sheila felt paranoid. She kept waiting for the sounds of a helicopter chopping through the air as some government agency hunted them down, or the arrival of armored vehicles to round them up for knowing too much. Whoever had been willing to kill hundreds of millions of Americans wouldn’t bat an eye about seven more.

  Brent, Jensen, Jessica, and Marcy had even managed to bring the empty shipping container back, a project that had taken two more days and left one corner of the container badly damaged. They’d also returned with a large amount of cooking oil, which Marcy had used to make doughnuts. The pall of death was still over their heads, ever present, but the warmth of the spring and newfound love helped to push against the darkness for most of them.

  Abby barely spoke to anyone. She noticed Jensen and Jessica disappearing frequently and the way Daniel and Marcy looked at each other. She became more and more withdrawn each day. She picked at her food but wouldn’t eat. They were all surprised when she spent hours with Sheila one day, engaged in conversation. It was a promising sign.

  The next morning, she was gone. She left her weapons and possessions. She didn’t even take a car. They waited all day, calling for her and walking through the woods around camp, but she was nowhere to be found.

  Sheila was distraught. “I should have known. I should have known.”

  Brent put his arm around her thin shoulders. “What should you have known, hon?”

  Sheila looked up with tears in her eyes. “I should have known she was going to kill herself.”

  Brent hugged her. “You can’t know that. Maybe she’s just wandering. She’s been pretty broken up about Dylan.”

  Sheila blinked away the tears. “No, it’s more. She was pregnant. She asked if I had anything which would cause her to miscarry. Dylan was dead and she wasn’t going to raise a child in a world like this alone.” She sobbed. “She’s killed herself.”

  They found her body the next day, hanging from a tree on the edge of the drive. It was almost like she wanted them to find her, to somehow feel guilty for letting Dylan die, to feel guilty for letting her down. They didn’t, they just felt pity for the poor girl. Her grave was the 22nd in a long line at the edge of the clearing. In all, there were 25 mounds of dirt on the mountain that hadn’t been there when they first arrived on the mountain. 25 people had died. Only six were left.

  The mood was somber after that. Of Brent’s original group, only he and Marcy remained. The group from Appling had lost half its members. Ed, Jerry, and Todd were buried on the hill. Dave had abandoned them to seek greener pastures. The weather didn’t help. Spring rains lashed at the windows for days and muddied the ground. It had ended only that afternoon.

  The two couples had dispensed with subterfuge. Marcy and Daniel had taken over the master bedroom, Jensen and Jessica had taken one of the others. Sheila was stuck in the third bedroom, directly between them. She put in earphones and listened to music from her phone at night; it was easier. She considered moving out to the shipping container, but they had moved all of the medical equipment out there.

  Brent slept on a bed in the living room. He enjoyed watching the interactions between the two couples. It reminded him of when he and Rebecca were young, before the stress of parenting and running a business had interfered. Somehow, he was jealous of them. Sure they were living in what felt like the apocalypse, but they didn’t have to worry about anything on the outside, just their little mountaintop.

  The older man was on watch now, musing about his early years with his wife. He almost wished he and Rebecca had once had an opportunity like this. No worries about money or a house payment, just time to worry about each other. He thought about the world outside and the possibility they’d go hungry when their packaged food ran out. Or what things would be like when they were out of things like tooth paste and toilet paper. No, it was probably better she didn’t have to go through this. Let the kids have their moment, it was going to get far worse.

  Brent looked around. The sun would be up soon. He could already hear the first of the birds shouting out that morning was coming. He knew the sky would begin to lighten soon. He’d be able to see sunrise off to the south and north before it fell on their little clearing. The shadow of the mountain made morning come later to their little paradise in the hills.

  He was so lost in thought he almost failed to hear the sound of an engine on the road below. He hadn’t heard an internal combustion engine in so long, he had almost forgotten what it sounded like. Brent listened intently as the engine slowed, then revved again slightly as it shifted into a lower gear. In the stillness, it sounded like it was coming their way.

  He scrambled to his feet and opened the door to the cabin. “Everybody up! We might have company!” It was probably nothing, but this was odd enough he felt like being prepared. If it was nothing, they’d just have an early breakfast. He listened as the engine revved again, slowly. Whatever it was, it was big.

  It only took moments for Jensen to materialize behind him with rifle in hand, still fastening his plate carrier. “What is it?”

  Brent held up a hand to silence him. “Just listen.”

  Jensen could hear the motor climbing in volume as it approached along the road below them. He listened carefully to see if it would go past their muddy road, but once again the note dropped in volume as the vehicle slowed.

  “Get everyone into the turrets or tubs. We’ve got company.” He dashed into the darkness to his tub. He unplugged it quickly from the cabin and opened the hatch. In the darkness, he could hear an engine revving as it struggled to push a heavy load up the hill through the mud.

  Jessica appeared on the other side and climbed in with him. “What’s going on?”

  “Sounds like some sort of armored vehicle coming up the hill.” As he backed away from the cabin toward the center of the clearing, he watched the three remaining members of his group dash out of the cabin. Daniel and Marcy went to the second tub, while Sheila climbed into the turret of the Humvee. He couldn’t see Brent. He just hoped he was somewhere safe. The second tub wheeled back into the darkness, closer to the tree line.

  Jensen popped his hatch slightly. He couldn’t hear anything through the heavy armor and glass. The engine had gone quiet, which meant they probably had aggressors coming toward them on foot now. Then he heard it rev again. Typical tactics, dismount and follow the armor in. They were dealing with someone who had done this before.

  He keyed his microphone. “Daniel, move away from the woods. Direct your front toward the tree line. When I tell you, turn on all of your forward-facing lights.”

  Jensen was banking on the element of surprise. Whoever was coming was probably expecting them to be asleep. They wouldn’t be expecting armor. If they were approaching in the dark, they were probably using night vision goggles. A flash of light would blind them for several key seconds and ruin their eyesight for many more.

  The multicam tub was silent and almost invisible as it rolled backward across the clearing. It was 50 yards from the trees before it stopped. Jensen waited with his nerves keyed
up. It wouldn’t be long now. They would have to expect the roar of the engine to awaken them and bring them outside, where they’d be easy targets.

  Jensen saw a slight change in the shadows where the road led down. It was slightly darker than the trees around it because there was nothing there to reflect the light from the faint moon.

  “Now!” Jensen flipped on his floodlights as the tub next to him did the same. In the sudden brightness, he watched as several men wearing all black clawed at their faces. The lights had done exactly as he’d hoped.

  In the drive, he watched a giant armored vehicle slowly claw its way through the mud, sliding slightly sideways as it did so. It was a Canid armored vehicle, painted all black. Due to the angle, the turret was pointed slightly up and away from him. Jensen already had his targeting reticle on the opening to the drive. He squeezed the trigger on the grenade launcher and listened to the thunk as the projectile left the vehicle.

  To his right and left, he could hear machine guns start chattering as black-clad men fell at the edge of the clearing. The HE grenade exploded against the side of the armored vehicle. It continued forward. He fired another grenade slightly in front, hoping to disable it. He opened up with his machine guns on the grill of the beast. He didn’t expect much; he knew how thick the armor was on those vehicles. He was hoping for a lucky shot from the 7.62mm machine guns, but wished at that moment the designers had seen fit to install .50 cal weapons instead.

  Jensen had fought with Canids in Pakistan. The hulking vehicles had been battlefield replacements for some of their MRAPs, or mine-resistant, ambush-protected armored vehicles. Unlike what the military had experienced in Iraq and parts of Afghanistan, their enemy had focused on rocket propelled weapons and incendiary armor-piercing guns. These beasts had thicker reactive armor as a result but lacked the heavy v-shaped hull.

  He knew his best hope was to strike the undercarriage and disable the drive system or steering, and he had to do so quickly. The turret on that vehicle was controlled from inside, and the gunner was almost untouchable inside the thick armor. His first grenade seemed to have done nothing more than create a loud noise inside.

  The second and third seemed to wound the mighty beast. It veered to the left and nosed into a tree. He continued to pepper it with grenades until he ran out. He fired most at the wheels, but a few at the roof-mounted turret, hoping to disable it. To his right, he heard a machine gun stop. He looked that way, hoping Sheila was reloading, but she was slumped in the turret.

  He saw more explosions around the dark vehicle. Daniel had started firing at it as well, certain it was the biggest threat. He wasn’t wrong. The men on the ground had begun returning fire. The momentary blindness had ended and the lights from the tubs lit up the area like midday.

  “Kill the lights!” Jensen flicked his off quickly, glad they were still governed by a switch and not the infernal touchscreen like many of the systems.

  To his left, the second tub suddenly went dark as well. Jensen pointed his machine guns toward the edge of the clearing where he’d last seen the men and sent several short bursts that way. He was hoping to disorient their opponents, who had just been looking into the bright lights. In the sudden darkness, they would be blind again.

  “Turn ‘em on!” His strategy had worked, but he also needed to be able to see his targets. The machine gun in the second Humvee had joined the fight. Brent was chewing up trees with 7.62mm rounds, hoping to hit their attackers. He’d been surprised by an early morning attack once when the rednecks showed up with their pickup trucks; now he was in a position to fight back.

  Jensen kept a close eye on the Canid; it appeared to be out of the fight. Several of the tires were on fire and it was pushed into the trees. One side appeared to be sitting lower than the other. He focused on the men in the tree line instead. Jensen drove forward to get a better angle. Unlike the turret on the Canid, his guns faced forward. If he could see it, he could shoot it.

  His lights penetrated deep into the trees as he got close. He chewed up several bodies with bursts of machine-gun fire. They weren’t wearing any sort of uniform, just black tactical gear. That made it easy to see them in the bright lights. The Canid only held 16 total, but that included the gunner and the driver. That meant they were dealing with 14, maybe 15 attackers in total. He’d already seen close to that many fall under their guns.

  He knew they weren’t all down though. Small arms fire pinged off of his armor every few seconds. Someone was still in the fight. Jensen suspected one or more of their attackers might have gone around to the left, toward the cabin, so he changed direction and headed that way. The huge black armored vehicle was still pressed into the trees, moved there by gravity and grenades.

  As he turned, the lights swept over the Humvee near the corner of the cabin. Jensen could clearly see Sheila’s bloody body slumped in the turret. He heard Jessica gasp as she saw the corpse and quietly cried out her name. When he lit up the darkness behind the cabin with his floodlights, he saw a lone figure kneeling with a large rectangular shape on his shoulder.

  Jensen shouted into his microphone as he aimed toward the man. “Daniel! Move!” As he squeezed the trigger to eliminate the threat with his machine guns, a flame shot out from the box atop the man’s shoulder and streaked across the clearing. Even as Jensen watched his target fall back under the force of his bullets, the tub behind him exploded with a mighty crash.

  Jensen watched in horror in his monitors as the armored vehicle with Daniel and Marcy rose high into the air and tipped forward. The rear of the tub was consumed by flames and one of the wheels arced high into the early morning air. He keyed the mic again. “Daniel!! Daniel! Can you hear me? Answer me!”

  He was met by silence as the flames clawed at the dark sky.