Apocalypse Assassins: The Complete Series

by D. Laine

  I twisted out from underneath Sadie, jumped to a stand, and turned my back on the whole spectacle. Thea stood in front of me, and I stared at her as my temper simmered. Her presence helped . . . so long as Ewing kept his mouth shut.

  I heard my sister babying him behind me, so I assumed he was fine. Nothing more than a wounded ego.

  “We can’t keep turning on each other like this,” Robbie pleaded.

  Jake walked up beside me, my gun extended in his hand. “You cool, man?”

  “As long as he’s not running his mouth.”

  Jake handed me the gun, a clear warning in his eyes. To everyone, he said, “I think it’s safe to say we don’t know how much these Dugway guys know. They might not know anything, and they might not be aware of who exactly the Preppers are. Most importantly, right now, they don’t know who we are. Let’s keep it that way.”

  When he finished, his eyes were on me. I gave him a terse nod.

  “We wanted to get close to the Preppers without tipping them off,” Jake continued. “We’ve managed to do it. Maybe not the way we originally planned, but we’re here now. We may not know exactly how we got here, but our objective remains the same. Now we can spy on Calvin and find out who Lucifer is. If we’re lucky, we can end this without the Dugway guys knowing a thing.”

  That was assuming they didn’t already know everything. I wasn’t about to tell the group, but I had my doubts. Though we all nodded in agreement with Jake, and our wounds were bandaged with a few nods and pats on the back, I wasn’t about to lower my guard. Not around Ewing. And definitely not around these Dugway guys.

  KEEPING a low profile was not easy considering the opinionated and strong-willed members that made up our robust group. Taking orders from a lieutenant who thought he knew how to save the world took a significant amount of pride-swallowing—from all of us.

  The advantage of staying in this middle-of-nowhere, bare-bones town while we looked for opportunities to get close to Calvin was the reminder of how things used to be before everything went to shit. Aside from no running water or electricity, life in this little town was as close to normal as we were ever going to get.

  And electricity? They were working on that.

  Generators and gasoline were some of the top items on the list of things to scavenge when we were sent outside the fence. Other necessities like food and water were a given, but at this point only added to the large stock of provisions housed in the general store. They were more interested in long term sustainment—like farm animals to breed and seeds to plant. Since the ash contaminating the soil wasn’t going to permit anything to grow for several years, they had plans to turn one of the buildings into a greenhouse.

  I couldn’t help but be impressed. These guys were prepared. They gave me hope that humanity had a chance at bouncing back.

  Once Lucifer and the Watchers were dealt with, of course. And that fell squarely on my shoulders.

  I couldn’t tell Anderson or the few survivors I had met that the worst was yet to come. Instead, I smiled and nodded and did what I was asked to do to give them a better chance at making it, all the while knowing that their successes and failures hinged on my next move.

  I had never shied away from pressure before. I wasn’t about to start, but sometimes it was tempting to forget the importance of my role in all of this. Even if only temporarily.

  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one.

  Across the small bedroom that was unofficially ours to sleep in—meaning the entire fucking group—Thea folded a large white sheet before placing it on a neat pile and grabbing another. She stared into empty space with a nostalgic smile on her face, like she was having the time of her life folding laundry.

  “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could stay here and . . .” She sighed wistfully.

  “Bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything is fine?” I finished with a grin.

  “No, of course not.” She shot me one of her scolding girlfriend looks before muttering, “I wish everything was okay.”

  I pried the wall of fabric from her fingers, tossed it to the side, and wrapped my arms around her waist. “We’ll get there. I promise you, I’ll make it better.”

  I peppered her face with kisses to punctuate my words. It must have worked, because she laughed and wiggled closer. Her tight body brushed up against mine, and the temperature in the room shot up by a few degrees.

  “I wish we had our own place,” she murmured. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad we found this apartment, and I love my brother, and Sadie, and Robbie, and—”

  “Do not include Ewing in that statement. Please.”

  She pulled back to smile up at me. “He does snore the loudest.”

  “I dislike him for a lot more than his sinus problems.”

  Her smile widened. “I want to be alone with you.”

  I hardened instantly. Just like that, all I could think about was getting Thea naked. I glanced between the two mattresses on the floor. Either of them would work for what I had in mind.

  “We’re alone now,” I pointed out.

  The bedroom door had been left open behind me, and led to a small living room and something that could be considered a kitchen. I supposed. It had a microwave and a refrigerator, though the hobbit-friendly size of it gave me doubts. But the important thing right now was that no one was there.

  “We won’t be alone for long.” Thea’s teeth scraped her lip, pulling my attention back to her mouth. “Sadie and Robbie are on their way up with more sheets.”

  Despite the warning in her voice, her hands moved around my sides, inching lower, like they had their own agenda. And I wasn’t going to argue. In fact, I was willing to do whatever I had to do to keep this little bit of touching and kissing moving in the right direction.

  “I can barricade the door with one of the mattresses,” I suggested.

  When she started to laugh, I kissed her. Because I wasn’t joking. I had never been more serious.

  The force of my mouth coming down on hers propelled her backwards. Her feet caught the corner of the mattress and we both went down on it. The stack of blankets she had painstakingly folded for the past twenty minutes tipped over onto the floor. I apologized with a sweep of my tongue across the seam of her mouth.

  She opened up for me with a sexy little noise, and I greedily feasted on the sound. Her legs locked around my waist, pinning me exactly where I wanted to be. Only there were clothes in the way.

  They needed to go.

  I tore my mouth from hers and leaned back far enough to get my hands on the waistband of her pants. No, my pants. Or maybe I should undo hers first.

  Christ. My fingers couldn’t make up their damn mind.

  “I hope you weren’t expecting this to be romantic.” Snap. Zipper. “I don’t have a whole lot of self-control right now.”

  One hand slid inside her pants, searching for the elusive treasure that was all mine. I found it. Hot and wet and ready for me.

  Thea rocked against my hand with a whimper. “Just hurry.”

  I worked her with one hand while combatting my pants with the other. Neither of us could manage a simple snap, let alone the mechanics of a zipper. We were the picture perfect example of sexual frustration. I probably would have found it funny if it weren’t so painful.

  I nearly cried when footsteps pounded on the stairs below us. My shoulders slumped, and Thea lurched away from me, quickly fixing herself. She jumped to her feet as our visitor opened the main door, and I collapsed face down on the mattress with a drawn-out groan of frustration. For starters, there was no hiding what was going on in my pants. Additionally, I was likely to murder whoever walked into this room.

  And I kind of liked Jake, so I didn’t want to do that.

  He stopped in the doorway behind me. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” Thea answered in a too-prompt and too-breezy voice that contradicted the word.

  My face pressed into the mattress, I chuckled. Feeling their eyes on me,
I rolled partially over. Meeting Jake’s curious gaze, I admitted, “You’re interrupting something, that’s what.”

  “Dylan,” Thea hissed.

  “He asked.” I shrugged.

  “Didn’t mean you had to tell him.”

  “Like he wouldn’t have figured it out.” Turned the way I was, only Thea could see the situation I was left to deal with. Her eyes widened slightly at the proof of our actions still tenting the front of my pants.

  “Well then.” Jake cleared his throat awkwardly. “When you’re ready, come downstairs. Anderson wanted to speak to us.”

  I sighed. “I’m never going to get laid again.”

  Something smacked me in the head. My guess was a balled-up bed sheet. It smelled somewhat clean, so I didn’t really care. Either one of them could have thrown it.

  I opened one eye to look at Thea. “I mean that in the most respectful way possible.”

  “I swear to God, Dylan,” Jake muttered as he moved toward the stairs. “Don’t give me another reason to kick your ass.”

  Winking at Thea, I whispered, “He must have a pretty long list by now.”

  I thought it was funny, but she was not amused. I had a long way to go in figuring out this boyfriend stuff. I could only hope for plenty of time to get it right.

  15

  DYLAN

  Considering it was located in the middle of a desert, hours from any major metropolitan area, this was one of those towns that had a little bit of everything in small quantities. Because who wanted to drive an hour to get groceries? A beer? Or fix a flat tire?

  We had the cozy general store that still had most of the food on its shelves. The perishables had already been hauled off and the extra provisions that had been scavenged were neatly tucked away inside. Also lining the main street were the bar—which still carried an assortment of liquor on its shelves—the hardware store, the animal-turned-human hospital, and a laundromat, above which was the small apartment our group had called home for the past twenty-four hours.

  Stepping off the dark and musty stairs and walking through the open room that housed half a dozen inoperable washers and dryers, I smelled the hint of fabric softener that lingered in the air. Though the machines were out of commission, the building was still used as the laundry center. Dirty clothes and sheets piled up in one corner. Washed and damp clothes hung from lines strung across the ceiling. It would take an eternity for them to dry, but they would be clean.

  While the small stream that ran along the outskirts of the town wasn’t safe to drink from, it was suitable to wash our clothes—and ourselves—with. The group had been out there nearly all morning, enjoying the privilege of using soap.

  They joined us in the street now, where Lieutenant Anderson greeted us with a brusque nod. He didn’t bother with pleasantries. He got right down to business, and I liked that about him.

  “We keep track of which areas we search,” he explained as he smoothed a map out on the hood of an ash-covered vehicle in the street. Sections of the map were covered with small red X’s. “We search everything. Businesses and homes. We’re looking for survivors and supplies. Priority is on water, but anything helps.”

  I studied the locations of some of the X’s, and quickly connected these guys to the dead tags we had found in the grocery store in Wendover. That had been . . . a little over a week ago? I supposed it was enough time for a group of well-conditioned men to travel the length of Utah, but while carrying supplies?

  I counted over a dozen X’s on the map. Some several hundred miles away.

  Something wasn’t right.

  “What are you using for transportation?” Jake asked, stealing my question. When Anderson didn’t immediately answer, Jake pointed at the map. “There’s no way eight of you have managed to search that much, travel those kind of distances, and still protect the town without some kind of help.”

  “You’re right.” Anderson nodded. “I’m about to let you in on our secret.”

  There was a hint of a smile on his face when he turned to lead us across the street toward the gas station, where one sad looking pump waited for customers that would never come. Beside the service building was a garage. And parked behind the garage were three sleek, black cars.

  The agency’s cars.

  I wasn’t a good actor, so I kept my back to Anderson as he explained. Every so often, my eyes would meet Jake’s. He was better at keeping up the charade, but even he slipped a few times with a knowing smirk.

  “We’ve been using these vehicles to transport supplies. They don’t have normal engines, so they are capable of running in the ash. No fuel is required since they’re battery-operated. They—”

  “Where did you get them?” I interrupted impatiently. I didn’t need another rundown on what these vehicles could do.

  Anderson swallowed. “We made them. At the base. They were classified—”

  “You made them at Dugway?”

  “Yes, Dugway. They were a top secret kind of thing. When the base was attacked, we were able to salvage a few of them.”

  No. They fucking found them on the side of the road about forty miles from here. Right outside the tunnel where the entire team of assassins had been massacred. Where the Preppers saved Marcus, Maria, Jake, and me before telling us about the Watchers.

  My guess was that the Preppers had handed these cars over. Traded, as Anderson had said. I wondered what else they had traded. Maybe a few weapons taken from the bodies of my fallen comrades?

  Sadie must have sensed my growing irritation. She glided up beside me and put a comforting hand on my arm before asking, “Is there a particular location you want us to search today?”

  Anderson nodded, oblivious to my thoughts. “I thought we could start you off with something easy.”

  Inwardly, I groaned. Not only was I irritated, feeling irrational, and trained way beyond the level of “easy,” but Anderson should have known better than to say that. You never referred to an upcoming mission as “easy.” That was a surefire way to turn it into the hardest fucking thing you had ever done.

  Anderson seemed like a decent enough guy. Maybe a little too naïve to play the role of leader. Or he was a good liar, and he had us all fooled? Either way, if he screwed us with his word vomit, I would have to kill him.

  TWO DUGWAY GUYS went with us. They rode in one car with Ewing and Sadie, and we followed them in a second car twenty miles north. The ungodly amount of snow that had fallen two days ago had nearly melted. Small patches of white sprinkled the otherwise gray landscape along the way. By the time we got to where we were going, it was completely gone.

  I couldn’t help but wonder what Lucifer had been trying to do with that storm. Kill us? Not likely, since he ultimately turned the switch off. Give us a warning? But what was the point?

  He wanted us to find him, eventually. He wanted the ultimate showdown with the Watchers. He was sure he would win. And that arrogance would lead to his defeat. I was sure of that. We just had to play the game smarter.

  For now, that included pretending to be a group of fortunate nobodies who had managed to survive with nothing but pure luck on their side. I feared downplaying our abilities and knowledge would be harder than any of us expected.

  “There’s nothing here,” I concluded within seconds of reaching our destination. I stepped out of the vehicle and squinted at the four weathered buildings situated in the middle of the flat basin for no reason other than to interrupt the smooth horizon, and lowered my fully loaded weapon to my side.

  “There is always something we can salvage.” The guy who answered to the name Decks eyed me. He was the older of the two Dugway guys, with wisps of gray hair framing his ears.

  The younger one, called Red due to the copper tint of his hair, stalked around me with his gun in the ready position. “Your first objective is to clear the area of any threats. Be mindful of survivors that may be hiding. Remember your training. Same rules apply out here.”

  I shot an amused glance at Jak
e, who concealed a snicker by lowering his chin.

  Behind me, Ewing muttered, “You have got to be kidding me.”

  I really missed Maria right about now. If she were here, she would tell these guys how it was. She had no filter. Of course, she would have been the one who got us into trouble, too. I could imagine Marcus mutely shaking his head, going along with this ridiculous performance, while patiently waiting for the chance to kill something.

  So that was what I did. I channeled my inner Marcus and let the Joes take the lead. I pretended to learn something from their little training session—because that was obviously what they intended for this mission to be.

  Until it wasn’t.

  Robbie was the first to hear it. I knew something was up the moment she reached for Jake’s arm. Her tight grip warned us a second before the first wave of snapping teeth and snarls hit us.

  A large group of tags rushed from opposing sides, racing out from behind the two end buildings. Decks barked out some orders, but I paid no attention to what they were. I went into action. It was a little like riding a bike—only with lots of blood. My muscles remembered the motions, how to swing a blade to inflict maximum damage, and where to aim a gun to get the ultimate kill shot. Everything came automatically, with little conscious thought.

  To my left, Jake mangled every tag foolish enough to wander his direction. To my right, Thea held her own with a gun. I kept one eye on her while I took care of the tags that got too close. Through our bond, I kept tabs on Sadie while she fought beside Ewing and Red. Though I couldn’t see her, I knew the moment they were in trouble.

  I put a bullet between the eyes of a tag rushing me, and spun around before the body hit the ground. Jake, Thea, and Robbie had my back covered. Decks stood off in no-man’s land, bowling tags down with semi-automatic gunfire. He was good, but a few got through. A tag made a run at Red’s back. Sadie wasn’t in position to help him. But I was.