A knock sounded on Derrick’s door. Jumping to his feet, Derrick smiled, expecting it to be Jeff or Chris, but when he saw Paisley standing there with Serena on her hip, he was taken aback.
She was smiling brightly. “Everyone’s ready.”
He felt like an idiot as he stared at her dumbly. Finally, he said, “Okay. Great.”
She turned and walked away without another word. Clearly, she had no attraction to him. Surprised at the disappointment that shot through him, he climbed down the steps of his trailer and headed into the house.
“What’s going on?” Matt asked as nearly everyone came into the room where he was sitting up in the bed with his leg propped up.
“I have a surprise for you,” Jessica said, holding out a pair of crutches.
Matt tilted his head. “Crutches?”
She laughed, the sound light and airy. “No. You need to use the crutches to come see your surprise.”
His eyes narrowed. “You just want me to get my lazy butt out of bed.”
Jessica’s smile grew. “Yep. That’s it. You’ve been laying around long enough. We have a lot of work to do.”
He moved to the edge of the bed and took the crutches, then slowly stood.
“Take your time,” Jessica said, an edge of concern to her voice.
“Oh,” Matt laughed, “now you’re worried about me.”
“Come on,” Jeff said with a grin, “we don’t have all day.”
Everyone backed out of the room, giving Matt plenty of space to hobble out. “Where’s this surprise?” he asked, looking around the family room.
Jessica opened the front door and stepped onto the porch. “Come outside.”
Derrick enjoyed watching the perplexed expression on Matt’s face—he had no idea what they’d brought back from their battle with the Emperors.
Finally, Matt made it onto the porch. Jessica swept her hand outward to encompass the truck and RV parked in the driveway.
Matt’s mouth fell open and his eyebrows shot up as a sound of surprise left his mouth. He looked at Jessica with incredulity. “Is that ours?”
Derrick had never seen her smile so brightly.
“Yes,” she said. “We got it back.”
“But…how?”
Matt’s reaction was better than Derrick had expected. He laughed. “We found it at the Emperors’ headquarters.”
Matt turned to Derrick, his expression sober. “Wish I could have been there.”
Smiling, Derrick patted him on the back. “I know. Good news is, once your leg’s healed, there will be plenty of work for you to do.”
Matt laughed. “Looking forward to it.”
“Come take a look in inside,” Jessica said.
At Matt’s look of hesitation, Derrick said, “Don’t worry. She cleaned out all traces of that loser.”
With help from Derrick and Chris, Matt made his way down the porch steps and went to the open door of the RV. Again with help, he climbed up the steps and inside. “What? You found the seeds!”
Derrick chuckled. Randy hadn’t bothered to remove the packets of seeds that Jessica had stored in a cabinet, and when she’d found them, she’d laid them out on the counter to show Matt.
Derrick stepped out of the RV to let Matt and Jessica celebrate. He joined the others who were standing nearby.
At lunch, the entire group—except those on watch—gathered on the covered patio to celebrate their successes. Things were looking up. Seeing the happy and relaxed faces made winning the battle against the Emperors all the sweeter for Derrick.
“Today we’re having a feast,” Sarah said as she, Kayla, and Brooke carried trays of food out of the house, setting them on the serving table.
As the incredible scent of freshly baked bread hit him, Derrick felt his stomach rumble.
Halfway through the meal, Chris, who was on watch, appeared with Walter right behind him.
Frank stood and embraced his friend. “Join us.”
Smiling, Walter said, “Don’t mind if I do, but first I want to thank every one of you for what you did for my grandkids last night.” His eyes shone with unshed tears. “You have no idea how happy we are to have them back.”
“How are they doing?” Jessica asked.
He inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. “As well as can be expected. But the important thing is that they’re home.”
“What about those two women?” Chris asked. “Did they make it home okay?”
Walter smiled brightly. “Yes. Scott and Charlie took them home. You can imagine how happy their families were to see them again.”
Derrick wondered what Walter’s grandkids and the two women had gone through but decided he didn’t want to know the details. He and his people had done their part ridding the world of the blight of the Emperors. Now they could focus on truly settling in to their new reality and adjusting the way they lived to make it not only survivable, but enjoyable.
Walter frowned. “I didn’t only come here to thank you. I came here to warn you as well.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Derrick
“Warn us?” Frank asked. “About what?”
Walter pulled a bright yellow sheet of paper out of his back pocket and handed it to Frank, who held it up and began reading. “For the safety of all citizens, a mandatory gun buyback has been instituted by the state of California. Effective immediately.”
Derrick’s eyes went wide as his heart thudded in his chest. “What?”
Frank looked his way. “Says here to bring all of our weapons to an address and they’ll pay us with food, water, and other critical supplies.”
Derrick couldn’t believe this. “Guns are critical supplies.”
Nodding, Frank said, “Couldn’t agree more.”
Derrick tried to imagine what it would have been like to go up against the fully armed Emperors with nothing but knives and fists. He sighed and shook his head. “I’m sure people like Randy would turn all of their guns right over to the government. Then we’ll all be safe.”
Jeff leaned forward, his expression intense. “That’s what some people actually believe. Take all the guns from the law-abiding citizens and then there will be no more guns.” He shook his head and muttered, “Idiots.”
“Mandatory buyback sounds like a polite way to say gun confiscation,” Matt said.
Heads nodded all around.
“Does it say what they’ll do if people refuse?” Chris asked.
Frank scanned the page. “Nope. Just says there’s a short grace period for cooperation.”
Derrick didn’t like the sound of that. “Meaning, when that unknown time period is over, all bets are off.”
Jeff leaned back in his chair. “Far as I’m concerned, they can all go straight to hell. They’ll have to pry my gun from my cold, dead fingers.”
Derrick silently nodded.
“How can they enforce this?” Emily asked.
Shrugging, Jeff said, “No idea. But remember those guys who came by a week ago? Said they were from the government? Claimed to be taking a census? Now that they’ve been here they have to have a pretty good idea how many weapons we have.” He shook his head. “Don’t be surprised if they show up again. On a different mission.”
Derrick turned to Walter. “Did they come by your place?”
Grimacing, Walter nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t like the way they made themselves at home. Wandering off and poking through my property.”
“Those guys are almost as bad as the Emperors,” Frank said, his expression fierce. “They held a gun to my Sarah to disarm us.”
Derrick had heard about that but hadn’t witnessed it. He couldn’t begin to imagine how upset Frank had been.
“I’m fine, sweetheart,” Sarah said as she put a hand on Frank’s arm.
Frank scowled at the ground and shook his head, obviously still deeply upset by the whole experience.
Derrick, on the other hand, worried about what might happen next. They had enough on their shoulder
s just trying to survive without the government putting its heavy boot on their necks. “We need to be prepared.”
“What should we do?” Emily asked.
Derrick looked her way. “We already have the road blocked off and camouflaged, but they’ve been here once. I’m sure they’ll be able to find it again. No doubt they took notes on everything about this place.” He paused. “To be fair to all of you, you need to decide if you want to cooperate with this buyback. It says there’s a grace period for cooperation.” He looked at each person in turn. Everyone’s eyes flashed the same anger he felt. “Does anyone want to participate?”
“No way,” Chris said, nearly spitting the words out.
The others nodded their agreement, saying, “Forget it,” and “uh-uh,” and “Hell no.”
Smiling grimly, Derrick nodded. “Okay. We’re all on the same page. Good. Because if the government is serious about this, and after what happened at the border on our way here I’m certain they are, we’re going to have to deal with them eventually. You can count on it.”
“We need to find out more about the person in charge,” Matt said. He shifted his eyes to Frank and Walter. “Do you know who the Governor is?”
“Last I heard,” Frank said, “it was Shane Moffit.” He looked to Walter.
Walter nodded. “Yeah. I think that’s who’s in charge. He was the State Treasurer before everyone above him died from the bird flu.”
Derrick wondered how many people were working for Governor Moffit and how many of them believed in this mandatory buyback. He was certain there were plenty who supported the idea, but there had to be some in the government who disagreed.
The world was filled with desperate, evil people. But there were plenty of good people too. Like Walter and Jack and the others in their group. If they could find good people to be on their side, they could fight this government overreach and triumph once again.
Then Derrick thought about Ben. They’d been lucky to only lose one person in that battle. Going up against the government would be a whole different thing. They’d need time to recon and plan. Time he wasn’t sure they had. Even so, what choice did they have? They couldn’t turn over their guns. How would they protect themselves against thieves and murderers if they were unarmed? Not to mention protecting themselves against the tyranny of the government, tyranny which seemed to be happening right before their eyes.
“What are you thinking about, Derrick?” Matt asked.
He lifted his gaze. All eyes were on him. They were looking to him for leadership once again. And once again, he would rise to the challenge. He sat up straight and set his jaw. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Thank you for reading No Safe Place. The final book in the Pandemic series will be released in early 2020. To be notified the moment it’s available, make sure to join my mailing list by clicking HERE. As a thank you, I’ll send you my two standalone suspense novels in digital format.
In the meantime, check out the first book in my Parallel World series, Dare to Resist, which is about a world where it’s illegal to be overweight. You can read the first chapter by turning the page, or get Dare to Resist by clicking HERE. The 5-book series is complete.
Here’s what Dare to Resist is about:
Suspended for getting into a fight with a bully, when 16-year-old Morgan Campbell is grounded, she runs away. When she returns home the next day, her world is turned upside-down. Not only is her family missing, but another family is living in her house and claims to have lived there for weeks.
As Morgan desperately works to figure out what has happened, she finds society has become obsessed with weight in a way she has never seen before. The more she searches for answers, the more she begins to believe she has somehow ended up in another world--a world where it is illegal to be overweight and where those who break that rule are imprisoned in Federally Assisted Thinning (F.A.T.) Centers.
Can she survive in this world until she can get home?
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Dare to Resist Chapter 1
“Hey, know-it-all!” a familiar female voice called out.
The comment wasn’t directed at me, but I had a good idea who the target was. Turning away from my locker, I looked down the school hallway in the direction the voice came from. Sure enough, there was Shelby. The girl who thought she was all that when in reality she was just a bully. And she was focused on Rochelle, a girl I’d gotten to know since moving to Fox Run three months earlier. Yeah, Rochelle was an easy target—kind of nerdy looking with her cat-eye glasses, hunched shoulders, and straight A grades. But that didn’t matter to me. She’d been one of the first people to befriend me when I’d been the new girl at school. One of the only people, as a matter of fact.
Rochelle glanced at Shelby with an expression of uncertainty.
“Yeah,” Shelby said. “I’m talking to you, dork.”
Rochelle frowned as she tried to avoid Shelby, dodging the other students in the hallway who were eager to head home after the last bell. They all ignored the interaction between Shelby and Rochelle and instead gave Shelby a wide berth, which only seemed to encourage her.
“Why’d you have to make the rest of us look bad in algebra?” Shelby asked as she blocked Rochelle’s path, her voice filled with anger and annoyance, her arms held out to her sides in a posture surely meant to intimidate. “You’re such a teacher’s pet.”
Rochelle adjusted her glasses as she stared at the ground.
Shelby’s lips twisted with loathing. “You’re gonna get me kicked off the soccer team.”
“How is that Rochelle’s fault?” I heard myself ask as I waded past the exiting students and stopped next to Rochelle. Why I needed to jump in, I’m not sure, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
Rochelle and Shelby turned to me, both with looks of surprise.
With a thumb jerked in Rochelle’s direction, Shelby said, “Einstein’s screwing up the curve, which means I’m not gonna pass.”
“Morgan,” Rochelle said. “It’s okay.”
I frowned as I looked at her. “No it’s not. If Shelby gets kicked off the team, it’s not your fault.”
“Shut up, loser,” Shelby said beside me. “Before I shut you up.”
Hoping she would leave, I ignored her, focusing on Rochelle.
“Hey,” she said, obviously not willing to be ignored.
Slowly turning my head, when I met her furious gaze, her eyes narrowed as she scowled at me. Then she said, “This is between me and Rochelle.” She looked me up and down. “Go eat a donut or something.”
The jab at my weight stung. I wasn’t even that heavy—maybe fifteen pounds over where I wanted to be. I mean, sure, I had a sweet tooth. And yeah, I’d kind of given up on ever being as thin as the popular girls, but that was just rude.
Pursing my lips, I glared at her. “I can always lose weight, but you’re stuck with your brain.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “What are you trying to say, chubkins?”
Fury, hot and bright, burned inside me and I had to remember to relax my jaw. “It’s not Rochelle’s fault you were born with a brain the size of a peanut.” Then I challenged her with a stare. Why was I egging her on? Oh yeah. Because I hated bullies.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Okay. That’s it.” She was several inches taller than me and had an athletic build. Not exactly a fair fight.
“Morgan,” Rochelle said, her tone urgent. “Let’s go.”
I wanted to. Badly. But the look in Shelby’s eyes told me she wouldn’t let that happen. Not unless I begged. And I coul
dn’t bring myself to do that.
Students had formed a semi-circle around us as if we were about to duke it out. Another reason I couldn’t flee.
With her head tilted and her hands on her hips, Shelby glared at me in a clear challenge.
Now what? With an audience it would be even harder to walk away, although I knew that’s what I should do.
Shelby took a menacing step toward me and I stepped back. Unfortunately, a bank of lockers was right behind me.
I froze. Shelby grinned.
Then I came to my senses. “Back off, or you’ll get kicked off the team for sure.”
A smirk twisted her lips. “Might be worth it. Especially since I’m probably getting kicked off because of my grades.”
Maybe I could convince her otherwise. “Why take the chance?”
She seemed to think about it, then she shook her head. “Naw.” Her hand curled into a fist, and then she lifted it like she was going to slam it into my face.
I couldn’t let that happen.
On instinct, I lashed out, stepping toward her with my arms outstretched. With adrenaline pumping through my veins, I shoved her. I’d only meant to keep her from hitting me, but to my surprise, she fell backwards and hit her head on the concrete floor.
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