Fallen Earth | Book 1 | Remnants

by Morrow, Jason D.

  Henry didn’t have a choice. He had to stay. He had to help Leland anyway he could. In a sense, Leland was the only person in this world offering Henry true freedom. If Henry left now, he wouldn’t be free. He would be a prisoner of his own conscience, and he would end up finding his way back here again one day, looking for answers to what happened here. He would always live with regret.

  He tossed the hoodie and jeans to the ground, considering his jumpsuit to be more of an asset than a liability for the fight ahead. He remembered Leland saying something about the McClure family being located a short distance away from town toward the north. Henry didn’t know what road they might be on, but he did know if he traveled that way he would likely find the family or Leland.

  He walked through the woods, leaves crunching around his feet too loudly, the shotgun metal in his hands cold in the chilled morning air.

  He was some distance from the town when he came to a road. It made him nervous to be on a road in the middle of the day in a prison jumpsuit, but he had to remind himself that no one would likely be driving by. Anyone he would encounter would probably be on foot.

  He looked down the street toward the town, then in the other direction. He started walking and it wasn’t long until he heard voices around the bend. He crouched low and held to his shotgun. For any effective shot, he would have to be a lot closer to whoever was coming around the bend, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t need to use his gun. None of the prisoners had gone out this way as far as Henry could tell. These were people headed for the town.

  Through the trees, he could see the group of them. Mostly men, but a couple of women. And then he caught a glimpse of Leland.

  Henry almost called out to them, but then decided that would be stupid. Instead, he went to the middle of the road so they would see him when they got around the bend.

  When he saw the first man, Henry realized his error immediately. Even if Leland had told them about Henry, these people didn’t know him from any of the other prisoners. And the fact that he was standing in the middle of the road with a shotgun in his hands only made him seem like a threat rather than a friend. But before he could ditch his menacing pose, he was spotted by the family.

  “Whoa!” the front one shouted as each of them spread the length of the road, their guns pointed at Henry.

  Henry immediately threw his hands into the air, though he kept hold of the shotgun in one hand.

  “I’m a friend! I’m a friend!”

  “Stop! Stop, don’t shoot!” Leland cried out.

  Henry closed his eyes, expecting bullets to rip through him. How could he have been so stupid? He should have had his shotgun on the ground with his hands in the air before they had come upon him.

  When the bullets didn’t shred his body to pieces, he opened his eyes slowly, finding each member of the family aiming their guns at him. Leland had his hands up to try and calm them all.

  “This is a friend,” Leland said. “An ally. The one I was telling you about on the inside.”

  One-by-one, each family member slacked their grip on their weapons, but they kept their guns aimed. They weren’t going to take any chances.

  Leland approached Henry, his eyes wide as though he couldn’t believe he was seeing him. He swallowed, reached out, and touched Henry on the shoulder. “Tell me everything.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Savage stood on Main Street alone. He could feel his heart pounding, the redness in his face and ears. Anger coursed through his veins like a drug, fueling him for the fight to come.

  Just let it all go, Jim thought. Just get out of here. This fight isn’t worth it.

  Savage didn’t want to hear it—the voice of doubt in his head. Jim had always been a coward, and Savage always had to be the voice of reason.

  “It’s time to draw him out,” he said out loud.

  He looked toward the library, thinking about all the people in there. Liars, most of them. He could pull any one of them out to the street and point a gun at their heads. They would say whatever it took to get out of the situation. Apparently, even Alex.

  Savage sighed and went back to the library.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Alex couldn’t think straight. Gwen had a gun. His parents were fifteen feet away from him, and Savage knew Alex had been lying to him this whole time.

  The first thing he should have done was be open and honest about his parents living in Hope. By this point, Savage would have probably forgotten or not even cared. Now, Savage would have every right to kill him, or at least he would have a right through his own twisted sense of virtue.

  Alex had betrayed him and he was going to pay for it.

  “It’s okay,” Gwen said. “We’re going to make it out of this.”

  Only moments before, he had been the one to give her hope. Now, she was trying to give it to him. He hadn’t lost hope, but he wasn’t sure there had ever been any. This was the strangest situation Alex had ever found himself in, and he didn’t see a positive outcome for any of them. It would take a lot of bloodshed from one side or the other for all this to come to an end.

  The sooner the better. He didn’t have much time. His parents didn’t have much time.

  When Savage came through the library doors, Alex’s stomach dropped at the way the killer’s eyes were set on him. Savage kept his narrow eyes on the prison guard. He gave a command to a couple of the prisoners who then looked at Alex and nodded. Then they walked toward him and grabbed him under the arms, forcing him upward.

  Alex didn’t protest. He had known this was coming. He had betrayed Savage. Lied to him about his parents.

  He glanced at them, seeing his mother cling to his father as they restrained themselves from calling out to him.

  Gwen did call out, spitting as she yelled.

  “What are you doing with him? He didn’t do anything to you!”

  Savage ignored her as the two prisoners pulled Alex in front of him. He stared at Alex, his teeth clenched.

  “You know what has to be done,” Savage said.

  “I know what you think has to be done,” Alex said.

  Savage motioned with his head and the prisoners shoved Alex outside and onto the road. There was no sound as the inmates watched, knowing they were about to witness another execution. Some would salivate at the chance to see a prison guard killed, but there was something different now—a weariness among them Alex hadn’t felt until this moment.

  Alex looked down and realized that he was standing next to the mayor’s body—a place Savage thought might be in full view of wherever the sheriff might be.

  Savage walked out to meet him and pointed a pistol at his head. “Get down on your knees.”

  Alex looked him in the eyes and shook his head. “I’m not your servant,” he said. “You can shoot me standing up.”

  “Perhaps your parents could persuade you?”

  Alex took a deep breath. There was no changing his situation this time. It was inevitable that he would be killed. His uniform alone was enough for a death sentence. He was surprised it had taken this long. But he wasn’t going to do anything to risk his parents’ lives. There was no sense in defying Savage only to have his parents killed along with him.

  Alex slowly got to his knees, staring down Main Street and to the woods ahead of him. Where was the sheriff? Henry Tash? Why hadn’t somebody done something about all this? Why hadn’t he tried to escape earlier?

  Savage pulled back the hammer on his pistol with a loud clicking noise.

  “Do you feel this is just?” Savage asked him.

  “In your twisted mind, I’m sure it is,” Alex answered. “Personally? No. I think you’re insane. Just because you’ve come up with your own set of laws doesn’t mean you’re right about them.”

  “You think we should all live by the same laws?”

  “It’s worked for most of humanity, so yeah, I do.”

  “Truth is relative,” Savage said. “My laws make sense to me.”

  “But
they aren’t real,” Alex said. “Some truths may be relative, but not all of them. One truth I am certain of—you’re not getting what you want today. You’re going to be disappointed, then you’re going to die.”

  Savage walked toward Alex until he was in front of him, staring him in the eyes. Then he pointed the gun at his head.

  “We’ll see.”

  Alex didn’t blink. He didn’t avert his stare. Instead, he watched as Savage’s eyes traveled from his to a spot just above his head. He saw something in the distance, then smiled.

  “There you are,” he whispered.

  Then Savage darted away from the street and back into the library, leaving Alex on his knees.

  The sheriff had arrived.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Leland took a long, deep breath through his nose and let it out his mouth. He knew he was going to die. He was ready. This was all about her. If Gwen had not been there, Leland would have sought help from law enforcement in other towns, even if he had to walk the whole way. But knowing that his little girl was stuck in the library with hundreds of other hostages was too much. If Leland had the ability, he wouldn’t just kill Savage. He would kill every last one of the prisoners for what they had done to the people of this town and for putting his daughter’s life in danger.

  Each step he took toward the town was one step closer to the end of all this. He walked alone down Main Street coming from the north side of town. From what he could tell there hadn’t been much looting here. If the prisoners had come this way, it was only to round up whoever was in their homes and take them to the library.

  Though Leland walked alone, he wasn’t alone. Henry was some distance behind him, watching the sheriff’s back in case some of the inmates tried to capture Leland from behind. The McClures held positions in the woods, each of them with a decent view of Main Street. They were key to any of this working out, but Leland wasn’t sure that it could. Fifty inmates were a lot, and the McClures had a limited view of the town even from multiple vantage points.

  Leland’s plan didn’t feel solid, but given everything Henry had told him about the layout down here, he didn’t see another way to face Savage. He didn’t see a way they could just sneak in and start killing prisoners. Leland and his crew would be quickly overwhelmed and defeated.

  They were well-armed. Each of the family members had three guns with them, though Henry opted for just the shotgun, and Leland kept only his pistol. He would need to be quick on his feet and didn’t want a cumbersome rifle in his hands. That didn’t keep Uncle Frank from insisting that Leland take four more magazines. With six total, Leland didn’t expect to run out of ammunition. Brute force was not how they were going to win anyway. Somewhere Leland had heard that all warfare was based on deception, which made sense to him. The prisoners didn’t actually have to be overwhelmed for Leland to beat them. They just had to think they were overwhelmed.

  The library was in full view when Leland stopped in the middle of the street. His pistol was in its holster, and he hooked his thumbs under his belt as he stood. He saw several prisoners in the distance, some of them talking to each other, some walking between streets. All of them were armed, but none of them really knew what they were doing. Savage had brought them here to die.

  Leland took a deep breath, not wanting to bring attention to himself. The moment a prisoner saw him—noticed a man in a police officer’s uniform—Gwen would be in danger.

  Every part of this was a gamble. Leland in particular was gambling here, playing the odds that Savage would want to savor the moment rather than kill Gwen the second he was aware of Leland. This gave Leland a slight advantage in time and even safety. A prisoner could take a pop at him, but Savage wanted Leland alive long enough to see his daughter executed.

  Ahead of him, Leland could see a man on his knees in the middle of the street next to the body of the mayor.

  He took several long breaths, trying to calm his nerves. Savage couldn’t see his nervousness. He had to see Leland as confident and unafraid of what may happen.

  “Savage!” Leland yelled at the top of his lungs. His voice echoed off the buildings, traveling to the other end of the street.

  Heads jerked up in Leland’s direction and prisoners pointed their guns at him, but Leland didn’t flinch.

  “We need to talk!” Leland said.

  Prisoners scrambled onto the street, most of them ducking behind the corners of buildings or behind cars in the street.

  “That’s a cop!” Leland heard one of them yell.

  Leland didn’t try to count the inmates in front of him, but he could tell many of them were still scattered around. There were certainly some inside a few buildings. Henry would take care of any prisoners trying to come up behind Leland.

  “Where are you?” Leland said under his breath, scanning the inmates in search of Savage. “Step out. Come on.”

  The McClures were ready, or at least Leland hoped they were. He had instructed them to hold their fire until he signaled for them to start or if he was taken down, in which case they would be allowed to go after their son any way they could manage.

  Leland had asked the family who the best shot was among them. Each of them had said it was Bryson, which didn’t help, but then Gregory was second best. Leland appointed the youngest son to watch Leland for signals. They had gone over the signals several times, but there was a part of the sheriff that was terrified of the enthusiasm Gregory had for killing some prisoners.

  He feared the McClures being trigger-happy, but so far they had held back even though some of the prisoners could no doubt be seen from their positions on the hill.

  “You’re all done here,” Leland said. “I’ve got the entire town surrounded. If you don’t drop your weapons, we will open fire.”

  He watched as some of the prisoners glanced at each other nervously. Some probably didn’t believe him. Others might have been ready to throw down their guns and go back to jail.

  Leland had to make them believe they were truly surrounded. The inmates had to think they were up against an army of law enforcement officers, trained and ready to kill.

  Leland thought perhaps the prisoners were up against a far more dangerous enemy: parents whose children were in danger.

  “Where is Jim Savage?” Leland asked.

  Heads turned. Eyeballs darted. Hands twitched.

  Finally, the bald man stepped out from the library and began walking toward Leland.

  He moved slowly and kept to the shadows of the buildings, almost as if he knew he would be in the crosshairs of snipers if he emerged completely. Before coming out into the middle of the street, Savage stopped and crossed his arms. Four of his men stood behind him, and two more remained at his sides.

  None of the McClures knew exactly what Jim Savage looked like, but they had been instructed to take him out if they had a clear shot, and only if Leland’s daughter wasn’t with him.

  Leland knew where each of the McClures was and he could tell none of them would have a clear shot at the moment. He had expected Savage to play it cautious, but it would have made this a lot easier if he had just come out into the open alone.

  “How long have you been out there?” Savage asked. “I’ve been waiting for you this whole time.”

  “I know you have,” Leland said.

  “You let people die,” Savage said, motioning to the mayor on the ground. “Was it worth the wait?”

  “You’re surrounded, Savage. If you try to harm anyone else, officers will unload on you and your men.”

  “I don’t think that’s protocol in a hostage situation,” Savage said. “Not only that, but I think you’re bluffing. This was no small power outage. You wouldn’t have been able to gather a ground force large enough to take us on.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Leland said. “Maybe the outage isn’t as big as you think. Your little prison insurrection was quickly found out, a lot of people have been scrambling to get here. Now we’re here.”

  Leland l
ifted a fist in the air and held up three fingers. A shot rang out from the west, and a bullet slammed into a car near a group of prisoners. Then another shot came in from the south, then one from the east.

  Several inmates jumped back from their hiding spots and scrambled back toward the library, while others hunkered low, looking at their leader for some guidance.

  Savage didn’t move; instead, he held his spot, either knowing he was safe where he stood, or not caring whether he was safe.

  “A nice trick,” Savage said. “But I know that’s not how this works. Police would never send in just one man to be the target of fifty armed enemies and hide in the woods with their guns. Besides, they wouldn’t have sent you anyway. You’re the sheriff, not some Fed, or US Marshal.”

  “This is an unusual situation,” Leland said. “But I’m offering each of you a chance to get out of this alive.”

  “And back to Lone Oak?” Savage smiled at this and shook his head. “I think most of the men here would rather be dead. But I know why you’re here.”

  Leland let the words sink in. This wasn’t working. The deception tactic had its effect on many of the prisoners, but Savage barely blinked at the new problem. He didn’t care about dying. He didn’t care about being caught again. All he wanted was his revenge and that would be the end of it. It was the worst kind of enemy—someone who hated you and wanted you to suffer but didn’t care what happened to themselves or anyone else.

  Savage turned to one of his men standing near the library and nodded. The next minute made Leland’s hands shake. The citizens of the town were escorted out of the library as prisoners shoved them into the streets. They were a mass of several hundred people, herded around like cattle prodded by guns. They were mixed in with the prisoners, interspersed all down the street. Each of the inmates could easily be picked out by their jumpsuits, but this didn’t help the McClures at all. From their distances, it would be too difficult to shoot at prisoners without fear of hitting one of the townsfolk.