“I’m afraid I can’t allow it. We’re under orders to clear everyone out of this place. Don’t you know there’s been a nuclear explosion on the far side of the mountain?”
“We did hear a big boom. Thanks for the warning, but I assure you we’ll be fine.”
The man eyed her suspiciously. “Where is your identification? From either of you.”
Tabby checked her front pocket, to mimic someone looking for a wallet or billfold. However, she couldn’t think of what to do next.
Dwight spoke up. “Our identification is in the woods, back at camp. If you take us there, we’ll get them for you. Simple as can be.” To Tabby’s eyes, Dwight seemed to snap into focus. He looked at the guards with determination, feigning a desire to truly help the men.
A guard pointed down the path. “You two walk ahead. We have to keep an eye on you until we establish you belong in this zone. I didn’t know there were already settlers in this area.”
“We’re new here,” she admitted, before stepping down the slope.
“Please come get us,” she willed Peter and Audrey through her thoughts.
It was time to test the connection the three of them shared.
CHAPTER 10
Hoover Dam, NV
Kyla was overjoyed to have made contact with Emily and Uncle Ted, but she fell into disappointment once they ceased their radio linkup. Avery assured her he would follow up with his commander about the classified details of the NORAD bunker, but he also showed her a video being taken from a drone.
“This is a mile down the road from the dam. The enemy is here.”
“Then we have to leave,” she replied, forgetting for the hundredth time she wasn’t a military person able to give orders.
Avery seemed sympathetic, as always, but he spoke to his fellow soldiers rather than her. His orders were about fortifying walkways, controlling kill boxes, and protecting the control center. She heard nothing about abandoning the place. Finally, taking the hint, she prepared to leave.
However, Lambert jumped up. “London was nuked!”
Avery stopped what he was doing. “By the Legion?”
“NATO is reporting it through their channels. It says London has been wiped off the map. It must have been a big one, too. The whole city is gone.” The soldier strained to listen in his headphones. “Yeah, it was David. He says the Legion has lost patience with the slow pace of Americans being kicked out of Europe. He said every nation better have every single American out of their airspace before the deadline in two days or he’ll bring the pain.”
“Damn. This needs to end,” she said to herself. Without waiting for more bad news, she hurried out of the room. Meechum wasn’t in the hallway. She wasn’t in the stairwell to the surface, either. After going up and coming out in a small parking area on the top deck of the dam, she finally caught sight of the woman’s black uniform as she picked through the trunk of a red luxury car.
“They said the enemy is almost here,” Kyla deadpanned as she approached.
The Marine wasn’t surprised by her arrival. “What do you want to do?” She continued to rummage through a pile of junk inside the trunk.
“What can I do? Oh, by the way, London is gone. Nuked by David.”
Meechum looked up for a second, then walked to the side of the car and grabbed two things lying inside the back door. “Here, I got you a couple of handguns.” She pulled out two black pistols, though they weren’t the same model.
“What am I going to do with these?”
“Fight. We have to fight for this place. Help the men who saved us.”
“Are you sure? This car looks like it still has the keys in it. We could be back to my uncle if we drive all night.” It was already late afternoon. She wasn’t sure how far it was to NORAD from where they were, using only roads, but she figured twelve hours would be more than enough time.
“If they’re nuking cities, this war is hotter than I thought. The people who would do that for no reason need to be turned into skid marks. We can start with the people who would walk in here and do us harm.” She gestured toward the nearby roadway, which passed the tiny parking lot and went across the dam. The same road also went the other direction, along a straightaway next to a cliff, and then around a rocky hillside. The enemy was arriving from that direction.
“Yeah, you’re right of course. We would be the world’s biggest jerks if we left our allies in a lurch. But I don’t know what difference we can make with two pistols and your rifle. I haven’t trained on these.”
The Marine held both in front of Kyla. “This is a Springfield model XD-M in forty-five ACP. Thirteen shots. Safety is here on the grip. The round hole at the end is what you use to hit the bad guys.”
Kyla scrunched her nose. “Very funny.”
Meechum continued. “And this is a Taurus G3, nine-millimeter. It has seventeen shots in the extended mag. Safeties are here on the slide and here on the trigger. Also, it has this round hole at the end. I’ve checked both to make sure they’re topped off on ammo. The cars where I found them didn’t have any spare mags. I tore them apart looking. It means when you run out of bullets, you can throw it at them.”
They both laughed.
“I’ll try to get your M9 from Colonel Avery, but he doesn’t share my trust in your abilities. I doubt he will give it up. It’s why I’m giving these to you. A young woman should never be unarmed in hostile territory, you know?”
Kyla admired her friend. Though she wore numerous stitches on her forehead and still looked like she’d been dug up from a coffin, the woman seemed ready to fight for a random bit of land in the middle of the desert. Kyla, by comparison, could only think of the next battle. Of finding her uncle. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew Meechum was talking sense. Running away wasn’t the way of the dudette.
She took the offered weapons.
“Tell me where to go.”
Cheyenne Mountain Tunnels, CO
When Ted and Rando reached a room with twenty or so tubes connecting to it, and he saw the light through one of them, he took a stab at explaining the design. “This is definitely a ventilation system. These hatches all lead to different areas of the bunker, and I bet some of them exit the mountain, too. They couldn’t afford to have all of them cut off by enemies, so they spread them out.” Ted wasn’t remotely sure what he said was true but talking steadied his jittery nerves. He still worried the unpredictable man might decide to shoot him once he’d gotten them to freedom.
Rando seemed uninterested. He carried a pistol at the ready as he neared the open grate. “You go last. If your people try anything, I will yell down this tunnel and my friends will shoot you.”
Ted pretended to be surprised by the accusation. “We’re on the same team, remember?”
“I hope so, but a man in my position always needs to be wary, no? I’m sure you understand.” He sounded so reasonable, but behind those mirrored shades were deadly eyes.
Ted stepped away from the exit to allow Rando to proceed inside. After a bit of pause, perhaps wondering if Ted was going to call down the tunnel to cancel an ambush, the man put his gun in his waistband holster and slid into the large pipe.
Man after man followed their leader, and Ted figured it was the perfect time to inventory the enemy. Some were dressed like Rando, and were probably related to the drug trade, too. He counted twenty of them. There were also a lot of thin men who wore ill-fitting army uniforms, with patches sewed on crooked. If he had to assign them a role, it might be as expendable bodyguards. There were forty-five. A smaller group wore ornamental uniforms, or serious uniforms that looked like they were official. Ted figured they were the designated envoys of the militaries in their respective countries. There were only twenty-five of them. The last group, which he almost missed, were men dressed similar to the drug lords, but weren’t quite as in-your-face about themselves. After thinking about it, he figured they were what passed as the civilian leadership representatives of the non-Banana Repu
blics down south. There were six of them.
A cartel man was the last person in the line. He motioned for Ted to go in before him, which he was happy to do.
“See you on the other side,” Ted snarked.
The man—a tall, dark figure dressed in a tailored suit—wasn’t one to joke around. He knew it by looking at him, though Ted didn’t let it stop him from trying. His other choice was to be intimidated, which he chose to skip.
The crawl through the tunnel gave him the opportunity to re-evaluate aligning with David’s old pals in the first place. His instinct said he’d made a mistake going back for them, especially after they displayed such mistrust in him. However, he tried to keep it mind they’d been betrayed and left for dead by the people who were supposed to be his bosses. They had a right to wonder about his motives.
Still, as he approached the light, he prayed having some extra muscle would make a difference when they finally made it to David’s other bunker. And, if he was thinking like a true criminal mastermind, he had to warn the others to constantly be wary of a second double-cross. There was no way to know if the cartel operatives, the men seemingly in charge, might negotiate a return to David’s good graces. Having some escaped prisoners to hand back to the big guy could help seal that deal.
Ted stepped out of the cramped tube, almost pushed by the guy behind him. The well-heeled man slid out and fell on his face. He rolled and hopped to his feet with skill, looked at the tunnel exit as if it had tried to bite him, then moved quickly away.
Emily stood nearby, waiting for him.
“Thank god!” she exclaimed.
Ted gave her a dismissive wave, then made her stand a bit to his side. “Don’t give away who you are, Em. If they ask, I’m going to call you Rebecca, my sister.”
She caught on immediately. “Got it, bro.”
He was momentarily struck by her words. Rebecca had been gone for over a week, but he could still imagine her waiting in her New York City apartment for his next visit. It was hard to reconcile the crazy things he was doing with Emily, Kyla, and the others with that quiet, peaceful home of his sister.
To the others, he spoke loudly. “Colorado Springs is that way. If we walk fast, we can get there in a couple of hours.” He couldn’t see the town, but he’d driven through it on the way in. Since he didn’t see a nuclear firestorm brewing in that direction, he assumed they could skirt around the north side of Cheyenne Mountain and reach civilization. Long before they reached the city, there would be roads or houses with vehicles. They’d then gather their forces and talk about how to attack Lamar.
It was his plan, anyway.
He hoped Rando and the others were playing the same game.
Pike National Forest, CO
The walk with Tabby was an uncomfortable one for Dwight. She was young enough to be his daughter, maybe twelve or thirteen, he guessed, and while she was the first one to acknowledge Poppy, he’d begun to think she’d done something to his brain. Ever since that moment, Poppy seemed more real than ever before, but she was also off, as if not the same old bird who’d been with him through so many benders. Even his newly-cleared mind wasn’t able to solve the riddle.
“We have to escape these guys,” Tabby said at some point.
“I can’t risk it. They might hurt Poppy.” The bird preened herself on his right shoulder, ignoring the exchange. “They might take us somewhere with a nice bed.”
“They might take us somewhere with a nice white light. Did you ever think of that?”
He hadn’t.
“Stay sharp. If we get away from them, we have to remember this dirt path. It will take us back to our friends.”
“Jacob isn’t my friend.”
Tabby seemed to get frustrated. “Then our acquaintances! We have to go back to people who can protect us.”
After a short period of walking, the girl strode closer to him, talking quietly. “If I create a distraction, will you run back to our friends? Please!”
He didn’t like the idea of going back to where Jacob was, and he wasn’t going back in the dark pipe again, but he couldn’t say no to the little girl. A noble man might have offered to make the disturbance, so she could get away, but he didn’t think she’d be fast enough. He, however, could easily do it.
Plus, he thought to himself, his muscles were back to their old selves. He almost felt as good as he did after his stint in boot camp, when he was eighteen. David’s white light had rejuvenated him, body and mind, and he had to make good on the gift while he could. On the other hand, Dwight also noted the oddities going on with Poppy, a disturbing inability to remember everything in his short-term memory, and a realization everyone looked at him funny. The white light was probably still doing its magic inside his head. Until it was completely done, the smart play for him and the child was to remain safe and together on the path.
“I would do it, but I’m not sure you’d be safe here alone, Tabby. Poppy and I will watch over you until your mother can come find you.”
The girl slapped her face in frustration.
“I’m sorry, that was stupid,” he added, thinking he knew what had her upset. “I know your mother isn’t coming. We’ll wait until your father arrives.”
She stepped back over to her side of the trail.
An hour later, they arrived at a parking lot. Two black pickup trucks were waiting for the ATVs, each with ramps leading into their cargo beds. Several men stood around talking until he and the girl walked up.
“What did you guys find? Are these Americans?”
The man talking was easy to understand but he had an accent, though Dwight wasn’t sure where he was from. It sounded Middle Eastern or perhaps he was from India.
An ATV driver hopped off his ride. “We found them wandering the woods. Said they were camping.”
“Did you see a campsite?” Indian man asked.
“Nothing is out there.”
“Let’s get rid of them,” Indian said in an emotionless tone.
“Thank you,” Dwight said immediately, “we’ll be on our way. Come on, little girl.” He reached for Tabby’s hand.
The girl took it but didn’t look happy about it. Dwight got a few paces before he was stopped.
“That’s not what I meant,” Indian Dude replied.
“Wait a second,” Tabby said, pulling from Dwight. “We’re very important people. I’m one of David’s prized pioneer girls. I’m here to, um, rebuild this country for David.” To everyone’s surprise, Tabby unbuttoned her shirt and revealed the tight-fitting blue top she’d been wearing back in prison.
The Indian guy seemed to change his outlook. Instead of an emotionless call to murder them, he stepped closer to Tabby. “Well, it looks like you’ve lost your companion. I would eat my hat if this…man…is your homesteading betrothed. Perhaps I can interest you?”
Dwight had seen enough. “She’s thirteen, man! What’s wrong with you?”
Tabby became defensive. “I’m almost nineteen!” However, she snapped her mouth shut, as if she’d said something wrong.
Indian Guy seemed bemused. “Change of plans, boys. We’ll put them in the truck and take them with us. If she’s telling the truth, we’ll be heroes for finding such a rare specimen out here. If she’s lying…well, we’ll see where things go from there.”
The men in black all laughed.
Dwight suddenly heard Poppy whisper in his ear.
“Protect the little girl.”
CHAPTER 11
Hoover Dam, NV
Kyla and Meechum had plenty of time to listen to Colonel Avery as he laid out the defenses for his Team Yankee, since the enemy force wasted a couple of hours covering the last mile before the dam. Avery suspected their drone had been spotted, tipping off the incoming force that someone was inside the dam. Since he only had twenty men, and he wanted to protect his trio of helicopters hidden in the nearby hills, his plan was to hold the western side of the dam as long as he could, then fall back toward the choppers on the eas
tern side. Much to Kyla’s relief, he didn’t intend to fight to the death for the national landmark.
“This is impossible,” Kyla remarked during the waiting, “and I don’t mean it in the ‘oh woe is me, this can’t be done.’ I’m talking about twenty-something soldiers holding off an entire army, forever. Just look everywhere, there are a million ways to approach this place.” She waved around, alternately pointing to the canyon walls on each side of the dam’s top deck, the highway bridge crossing the canyon downstream, which almost seemed to float in the air above them, and the twisty roads winding their ways down each side of the red-rocked canyon toward them. “They could even come by boat from the lake, or the river.”
“I know, I’m excited, too. We’re going to smack those bastards in the face, then retreat to fight another day. Is there anything better?” Meechum spoke while keeping her eye on the western roadway. Though it came out of the rocky terrain in switchbacks, the last hundred yards ran alongside the cliff wall, which created a straightaway. That was where Avery wanted them to strike first.
Kyla looked at her with horror before stopping to consider if the Marine was trying to be funny. When the other woman didn’t laugh it off, she simply shook her head, wondering if she would ever rise to that level of badass.
“There’s the first of their scouts,” Meechum whispered, motioning toward a vehicle on the other end of the straightaway. “Kyla, I need you to keep your head down. The longer we can keep them from seeing where we’re firing from, the longer we can hold this position. Since you only have a pair of pistols, it will be a long time before they’ll be in range to use one.”
“I’ll watch your back,” she said, meaning it, though fairly certain there would be no one behind them. They’d taken up position behind a wrecked passenger car that had flipped on the approach over the dam. Meechum had explained how she’d set up her rifle on the upside-down window frame of the rear entryway and broke a small hole in the glass on the far side of the back seat. Her intention was to fire through the gap so the tinted glass would hide her muzzle flash. Since they were firing down a straight road, she didn’t need the hole to be large.
Minus America | Book 5 | Hostile Shores Page 7