Gwen thought about the prisoner who had pressed the pill into her hand when the other inmates had left her with him. It was a moment of compassion that took her off guard. Did she also have an ally within the army of inmates? Was there actually someone among them who had compassion for human life? If that was the case, then there were possibly more. And if there was a standoff against the citizens of this town, then maybe some of the other prisoners would actually help them.
She pushed the thought from her head. This was something she was going to have to do herself. She would try to get Bryson to help her, but he was on the other side of the library. Besides, she didn’t have a plan. All she had was a gun and she needed to wait for the best moment to use it. That’s what her dad would have her do. Wait. Use it only if necessary and even then try to get away if at all possible. Maybe it would buy her enough time to make a run for the woods. Maybe it would just get her killed. Still, as the only one with a formidable weapon against their captors, Gwen didn’t see a scenario in which she wouldn’t unload the gun on someone. She didn’t know the gun, but at most, it would have ten or twelve rounds. Then she would either have to run or wait for enemy bullets to rip her to shreds. In either case, she figured a bullet would be her ending.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Savage walked with Henry down Main Street and Henry wondered if Leland could see them from here.
Henry carried the shotgun in his hands and it felt heavy. He felt sluggish after the fight like he wouldn’t be able to lift the gun enough to shoot Savage if he had the chance.
The thought made his heart beat faster and he looked all around him to see if it was something he could get away with.
He squeezed the gun in frustration at the sight of several prisoners watching them dotted along the street, rifles fixed firmly in their hands. Sure, Henry could turn and pump a shell into Savage’s chest, but it would be the last thing he ever did.
“You’re a good fighter,” Savage said. “You don’t seem to be afraid.”
“What do I have to be afraid of?” Henry asked.
Savage walked with his hands behind his back as though he were going for a stroll down the street with an old friend.
“I would think losing your freedom,” he answered. “You escaped hours before the power went out. Why are you still here? You should have gotten here before the rest of us.”
Henry figured it out instantly, and he held his gun tighter if that was even possible. He had toyed with the idea of pretending he was a Savage-follower, one of the man’s dedicated lackeys, but now he was being questioned, he realized that didn’t make any sense.
“I was here before the rest of you,” he said. “And I was trying to lay low. But then I saw the town being taken over and it got me curious.”
“So, you stuck around?”
“It’s not like I could just hotwire a car,” Henry said. “When I got here, I realized I would have to keep going on foot, and I was tired.”
Henry worried he was talking too much, but Savage seemed to soak in the conversation.
“I was caught here, did you know that? Five years ago.”
“I didn’t know that,” Henry lied.
“Podunk town sheriff found me.”
“Why were you here?” Henry asked.
Savage paused for a moment, his feet coming to a stop as he looked up at the houses in front of them. It was as though the question had never been posed to him, either by anyone else or himself. Henry had a vague idea of the answer, and he didn’t care to continue this conversation with Savage, but it seemed like the natural question to ask.
“My ex-girlfriend’s house was here and my daughter was with me. The cops were on my trail and I wanted to get my daughter to her mother before things got too dangerous.” He then looked at Henry, his jaw squared and his eyes narrowed. “Then the sheriff killed her.”
“On purpose?”
“Does it matter?”
“So that’s why you’re here? Revenge?”
“Of course. Why else would I be doing this?”
“What I can’t understand is how you have fifty other prisoners doing the same thing. Don’t they know what kind of danger they are in? We don’t know how much time we have until law enforcement gets here.”
“Same reason you’re here,” Savage answered. “They have nowhere to go. I imagine if vehicles worked, most of them wouldn’t be here. Of course, most of them would’ve been picked up and arrested by now.”
Henry needed to shake Savage. He needed to get out of the leader’s grip and make his way to the woods. He didn’t know what time it was, but he figured the hour Leland was supposed to wait for him had passed. He hoped his thumbs-up had been seen and that Leland had taken it as a sign to stay where he was, even if it took longer than an hour.
“How do you plan to accomplish your goal?” Henry asked. “Revenge, I mean.”
Savage watched him, almost as if he was wondering if Henry could be trusted. It was the kind of question that hadn’t been posed by any of Savage’s lackeys, but then again, Henry wasn’t one of them. He was just a prisoner who had gotten here and was stuck here. Perhaps this put Henry on a different level than the others in Savage’s eyes. Maybe lower? There was no way for him to know.
“There is no way to plan for this sort of thing,” Savage said. “I’m here because fate chose me to be here. I’m here because it is just and right, and fate saw fit for justice to take place.”
It wasn’t an answer to Henry’s question, but he wasn’t going to press the man. He was a dangerous killer after all—a man who would just as soon kill another jumpsuit as a cop.
“I want to show you something,” Savage said as he picked up the pace.
They were headed toward the edge of the town and near the woods. Henry wasn’t sure if they were in a direct line of sight from where he had left Leland, but they wouldn’t be far off.
His heart pounded as they got further away from the others. Their eyes might have still been on them, but he was almost in a spot where he could turn the gun on Savage, fire, and take off into the woods. It was possible he would be captured, but then the sheriff would be there to help him, right?
The two of them took a side street, and Henry then wondered if Savage was taking him away from the others to kill him. Henry hadn’t noticed a gun on him, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have one tucked away, easy for him to grab, turn, and fire, all before Henry could blink twice.
At the entrance of the side street, Savage stopped and pointed at one of the houses at the edge of the dead-end road. The house was small and green moss had grown along the edges of the white siding. It didn’t look like it had been lived in for a long time.
“That’s where it happened,” Savage said. “That’s where Sheriff Leland West stormed into the house and started firing his gun. That’s where he killed my daughter.”
“I can’t imagine,” Henry said. He watched Savage as he took a step forward, letting Henry stand a few feet behind him.
Henry looked over both shoulders. This was the moment. This was his chance to lift the shotgun and take out the man who was responsible for the town’s takeover. Here, he could cut off the snake’s head. Sure, they would still have to deal with the other prisoners, but they would be leaderless and wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. They would scatter like ants, their hill knocked over by a careless boot.
Henry could feel his hands shaking. At least he didn’t have to aim. He raised the gun up, though he didn’t point it at Savage yet. There was something inside him rejecting the idea of gunning the man down in the back—something telling him to wait, to stand down.
“I lost the only thing I cared about in that house,” Savage said. He didn’t seem to be talking to Henry any longer. Savage was lost in his own world of memories and he had only brought Henry along as an excuse to look at the house—the reason any of them were there. Really, Savage had just wanted to go there, almost as if to motivate himself or reassure himself of what he needed to do.
But this was Henry’s moment. This was his chance to end this whole fight. In a number of states, Savage would have been given the death penalty for the things he had done. Henry had the chance to be the extension of that. Anything he did to Savage would be justified.
With a breath, he started to turn the gun, then lowered it again when a voice called out to their right.
“Hey, boss!”
Henry jerked his head in the direction of the voice and saw four prisoners together. None of them seemed to have noticed Henry at first, so maybe they hadn’t seen him raise his gun.
“We were just making sure everything was okay,” one of them said. “We’ve scanned the perimeter of the town like you told us and everything seems quiet.”
“Keep watching,” Savage said, walking back toward Henry. “It’s only a matter of when there will be more cops. Could be today or tomorrow, but we have to remain vigilant.”
Each of them nodded, then a couple looked in Henry’s direction, studying him. Henry swallowed but didn’t say anything under their suspicious eyes. Any other time, they may have questioned him, but Savage didn’t seem worried, so why should they? Finally, the four of them turned and began their scan of the perimeter again.
Sweat trickled down the side of Henry’s face despite the chilled morning air. He couldn’t raise his gun and kill Savage. Not yet. There were too many prisoners nearby. He couldn’t know if they were being watched at this moment. And who was he kidding thinking he could shoot Savage and run off into the woods? Even if the sheriff came out to help him, wouldn’t it just be two men against fifty?
No, this wasn’t the time. As much as Henry hated it, he had to wait.
“So,” Savage said. “I’ve got a job for you.”
“A job?”
“That’s right,” Savage said. “The sheriff is out there. I feel his eyes on me from the woods beyond the town. I need someone to send him a message.”
“What makes you think he won’t kill me?” Henry asked. “I’m wearing the same thing you are.”
“I can’t send him a message because that would defeat the purpose,” Savage said. “And, honestly, I don’t trust anyone else to not screw up.”
“You’re going to let me go?” Henry said. “Just like that?”
“To send a message, yes. Then you can do whatever you want.”
Savage was freeing him. Henry could have never anticipated such a move, yet here he was being told he didn’t have to stay here.
“If he’s out there, I can find him,” Henry said.
“I have a feeling he will find you,” Savage answered.
“And what message do you want me to send him?” He was focused on keeping his eyes away from the woods.
“Tell him I’m ready to make a deal,” Savage said. “His life for his daughter’s. If he surrenders, I will let her go.”
Henry waited a moment. “Is there anything else?”
Savage thought for a second, then nodded. “Yes. Tell him I’m willing to kill him in front of his daughter instead of the other way around. I will be just as satisfied inflicting that kind of torment on his offspring rather than him.”
The words could only come from a twisted soul, sickened by anger with a lust for revenge. Still, Henry wasn’t sure he believed Savage. He couldn’t think of a scenario in which Savage wouldn’t try to kill the sheriff’s daughter in front of him.
“What if he isn’t out there? What if I can’t find him?”
Savage lowered his eyebrows at Henry, almost as if to say that wasn’t a possibility. “You better hurry. Time is running out.”
Henry couldn’t believe his luck.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Leland wished for the sirens to blare, engines to rev—something to indicate that help was on the way. He knew it was a false hope. He knew that whatever was happening with this power outage, it wasn’t a small thing. If other officers of the law hadn’t made their way to Hope by now in search of the prisoners then they wouldn’t be anytime soon.
He was down to two options. Either he could go down there into the town by himself and try to fix the problem, or he could go find some help. Of course, help was in the form of a family called the McClures who hated him and what he stood for, not only because he wore a badge and opposed nearly everything they did, but because he had arrested their son just a day ago and had left him in a cell. Now, their son was probably in the hands of the prisoners—a hostage like the rest of the town.
That, or he joined the prisoners just for the thrill of it.
He honestly didn’t know if he could trust the McClures, but what other choice did he have? They were the only family in Hope that owned as many guns as Leland and were probably the only ones who would even consider taking on a fight like this. Also, they would want to save their son, Bryson, wouldn’t they? Leland wasn’t sure. He could see them convincing themselves that the boy had gotten himself into trouble and he could get himself out of it.
He had made a call to the family the night before when he had picked Bryson up and put him in the cell. He had told the mother, Alice, that someone could pick him up after noon the next day and be ready to pay a fine. Alice had answered him by yelling a string of profanities that he wasn’t sure was meant for him or her son. In either case, going to the McClures would not be the highlight of Leland’s morning. He just had to remind himself that his daughter was down there, and Savage was going to kill her if Leland didn’t do something.
He wasn’t blind to the fact that Savage would kill her the minute he saw him. Leland had run this whole situation through his mind so many times throughout the night, and he had come to the conclusion that this was an act of revenge. That fact alone was what kept him from charging down into the middle of the town firing off as many rounds as possible. The revenge aspect of the takeover was the only thing keeping Gwen alive. Savage didn’t want to kill her without him seeing the act—just as Savage had witnessed his own daughter being shot and killed.
The safest thing Leland could do for his daughter would be to stay away. But only for a time. Savage would get restless if he wasn’t already. He would eventually come to the conclusion that Leland had either died or was too afraid to face him in the streets. Then he would convince himself that Leland was watching from the woods like a coward, and killing Gwen in the road like he had the mayor would be good enough.
That thought pushed Leland to his feet. The McClures lived about half a mile outside of the city limits, and Leland figured from this point it would take him about twenty minutes to get there. He would have to be careful of scouting inmates, but Leland hadn’t seen any indication of them making their way to that part of town.
Leland started through the woods, the crunching leaves sounding like alarm signals that might bring the entire Lone Oak population down on him in seconds. At best, asking for help from the McClures was a crapshoot, and it was certainly desperate. Over the last hour he had tried to think of other people out in the county who could help him, but they were either too far away or lacked the fighting spirit the McClures had.
Leland stuck to the woods as much as he could even though he thought it was too loud. He figured it was better to crunch through leaves than to be seen on the road.
Leland’s thoughts wandered as he traveled. Hope had its fair share of hunters and fishermen. There was a good bit of wilderness surrounding it. Some lakes, plenty of woods. He thought that if this power outage lasted any amount of time, the little town might be suited to survive such a catastrophe. He didn’t think anyone would care about hunting out of season if there was no access to groceries.
He shuddered to think what would happen in nearby Chicago if this had hit them—if this were an attack as Henry had suggested. He worried about his daughter, Cora, who would be in the middle of it all. Leland thought Hope had problems…What were hospitals going through? Giant apartment complexes? All those cars in the streets? The looting?
He hoped she would sit tight and keep safe. He had to s
ave Gwen first, then he could worry about Cora.
One catastrophe at a time.
What would Hope be going through right now if the prison hadn’t been opened? He figured a few people might have shown up at his door by morning, worried about not being able to start their cars or turn on their televisions. He would have told them it was something to wait out and would probably be fixed by the afternoon.
Leland picked up his pace at the thought. If the power came back on all of a sudden, the prisoners would panic. Savage would know that law enforcement would soon be on its way. He would then be expecting Leland to show his face. If the power came back on, it would essentially expedite whatever timeline he was on. Now was the time to act.
Henry had given him as much of a signal as he could. Thumbs-up—Gwen was down there, no question. Then, Henry had added the five-zero hand signal. Leland figured that could only mean there were about fifty prisoners in the town—an astronomical number for just the sheriff and a handful of miscreants.
But they didn’t have to take down every prisoner. All they had to do was get a few of the big ones—the ones who seemed in charge. In fact, Leland figured if they could just find Savage and kill him, then many of the others would disperse. He also thought that if the rest of the town saw Leland and a group of others fighting, they might do what they could to overwhelm the inmates and help him take the town back.
In any other situation, Leland would have never wanted civilians to take part in helping him. It was his job to protect them and their families, not the other way around. But this situation was different. Severe. Unprecedented. And it made him wonder what sort of consequences he would face if anyone in the town died because he requested their help. He knew this went against protocol, even though there was no protocol for this kind of scenario. Protocol would have him waiting for backup. It would have him communicating with other law enforcement officers to help. Actually, by this point, Leland’s part would be done. The big guns would have been called in with SWAT vans, helicopters, and officers with more body armor than soldiers going to battle. Crews of news teams would be swarming Hope, each of them wanting to be the ones to capture some bloody end to the conflict. News anchors would warn viewers to keep their children away from the screens, which would then make more people watch the events unfold, children included. It would be a standoff of epic proportions that would be talked about for decades.
Fallen Earth | Book 1 | Remnants Page 18