by Harley Tate
He scrubbed at his face. Could any of these kids be trusted? Could he ask them to risk their lives to help his wife and co-pilot? Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice. “All right. Here’s what we’re going to do. Peyton and Tucker, you will come with me. The rest of you can wait here.”
Brianna stomped her foot. “No way!”
“Dad, you’re being ridiculous.” Madison stared at him like he’d grown another eye.
Tracy leaned closer. “Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?”
Chapter Three
TRACY
California State University, Chico
1:00 p.m.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Tracy focused on her husband’s face. She knew he wanted to protect her and their daughter, but asking both of them to stay on the sidelines would never work. She smiled. “I know you mean well, Walt, but you can’t ask all the women to stay here.”
“Of course I can. I just did.”
Tracy laughed. “True. But it’s never going to happen. Brianna is as tough as nails. She’s from a full-on prepper family. She’s been handling weapons since she could read and she’s a hell of a lot more trustworthy in a firefight than her boyfriend Tucker.”
Walter opened his mouth but closed it just as fast. He exhaled and focused on the ground, rubbing the back of his neck as he thought it over. “What about Peyton? The kid’s NFL linebacker size.”
“But a complete teddy bear. He’s coming around, but guns aren’t his strong suit.” Tracy paused. “If Madison were in danger though, the boy would walk through fire and not hesitate.”
Walter nodded, almost wincing as he tried to ask a question. “Are they…?”
“No. Still friends as far as I know.”
Her husband sagged in relief and Tracy couldn’t help but chuckle. “Your daughter’s nineteen, Walt. It’s okay if she has a boyfriend.”
“It’ll never be okay, Tracy. But I’m trying.”
“I know.” Tracy reached out and squeezed his arm. “We’re all tough. Every last one of us.”
Walt’s lips thinned. “I’m sorry I didn’t come home that morning. I had a feeling something was wrong, but I had a job to do and—”
Tracy shushed him. “I don’t blame you at all. You did what you thought was right. We all have. Heaping guilt on your shoulders will do nothing but weigh you down.”
“From what it sounds like, you almost died at that Walmart. If I had been home, it would have been me on that run.”
“We survived.”
“Wanda didn’t.” Walter ground his fist into his palm.
Tracy knew her husband blamed himself for everything that happened to her and Madison over the last week. Somehow she needed to shake him loose of his worry and doubt. “No one could have predicted that night. Even if you had been there, the fire would still have been set. We would still have lost the house.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Tracy exhaled. Arguing about the past would get them nowhere. She rose up on her toes and kissed her husband’s cheek. “Let it go, hon. Focus on the here and now. Drew needs medicine.”
“You do, too.”
“Not as much as he does.” She paused. Walter hadn’t told her much about their trek through downtown, but based on the bullet hole in Drew’s shoulder, it had to be terrible. “Will he be all right?”
Walter nodded. “With the right medication, yeah. He should recover.” With one hand, Walter reached for her wrist and turned her palm up to face him. “Your burn looks bad, Tracy.”
“I know. But I’m fine.” She would never admit how much her hand hurt. At least the antibiotics she had been taking kept her sane and the pain had receded to a bearable level. She thought about the few hours after the fire, when she drifted in and out of consciousness and her daughter had to face the neighborhood alone.
Tracy shuddered. “We should come up with a plan of attack. Scope the place out and figure out the best way in.”
Walter smiled. “You sound like a fire team leader.”
Tracy glanced behind her at the four college kids huddled together. “I guess I am.”
Her husband slipped his arm around her waist and brought her close enough to kiss. His lips brushed against hers. “When this is over and we make it to the cabin in Truckee, I’m taking you out into the woods and having my way with you.”
A laugh bubbled up her throat and she couldn’t keep it back. “Easy boy, you don’t want to frighten the children.”
After a quick kiss, Walter let her go. It was so good to have him back. One hug and the weight of the future lifted from her shoulders.
“Let’s find a place to set up camp nearby and we can come up with a plan. I want to go in at dusk.”
Student Health Center, CSU Chico
6:00 p.m.
Tracy stared at the back of her daughter’s head as she bent over the map Walter had drawn of the health center and the surrounding buildings. For every word she told her husband of her daughter’s bravery and ability to fight, another word echoed inside Tracy’s head.
Love.
She loved her daughter more than anything in this world and part of her wanted to wrap her up in bubble wrap and keep her safe from the reality they now faced. But she couldn’t do that if an infection set in.
Tracy glanced down at her hand. The worst of the burn oozed a milky, yellowish fluid. She had tried wrapping it in bandages, but that only held the infection in. If her hand had any hope of healing, the wound needed to drain and she needed the strongest antibiotic she could find.
Drew fared even worse. That afternoon, he’d fallen asleep and been almost impossible to rouse. His wound was swollen and discolored, the duct tape barely visible beneath the puffy tissue.
She knew they had to stay behind, but the thought of sending her daughter out on this run twisted her insides. Madison and Brianna talked the plan over, pointing at the ground and hashing out who would do what while Walter talked Peyton through their maneuver.
Tucker leaned against the side of the Jeep beside Tracy and crossed his arms.
“Unhappy about being left behind?” she asked.
He kicked at the dirt. “No. Yes.” He exhaled in frustration. “I don’t know. I just don’t like Brianna going back out there. After the Walmart, I just…”
Tracy nodded. Tucker had come up with a plan to rescue his girlfriend when the two idiots with more bullets than brains had started shooting up the bedding department. Thanks to his idea and Tracy’s ridiculous acting, they all made it out alive. But this time, they might not be so lucky.
She smiled as he looked up. “She’s tough as nails and Madison is with her. As long as they stick to the plan, everything will be fine.”
“Brianna’s not the best at following a script.”
“Let’s hope this time she can.”
Tucker didn’t say another word. Instead, he stood by Tracy’s side. Both of them would be watching people they cared about leave on a mission they might not come back from. All to help Tracy and Drew. Tracy had been through countless goodbyes with her husband over the years: first deployments when he was on active duty, then two-week-long shifts as a commercial pilot.
Tucker probably only said goodbye at the end of a school term. She nudged him. “Do you love her?”
He glanced up at Tracy, face so young, but earnest. “More than anything. Brianna’s all I have.”
“Then go hug her and tell her that before she leaves. Maybe it’ll help keep her focused.”
Tucker nodded and pushed off the side of the 4x4. Tracy watched as he tapped Brianna on the shoulder and pulled her up for a hug. Brianna hugged him back with a fierce determination that spoke to her courage and strength.
Madison stood up and made her way over to Tracy. “We’ll be fine, Mom. We’ll get you better medicine, find some for Drew, and be back here before you know it.”
With her good hand, Tracy reached out and Madison eased in for a hug. She remembered when Madison only came up
to her waist and would wrap her little arms around her thigh so tight, squeezing like if she let go, Tracy might disappear.
The first day of kindergarten, Walter had to pry his daughter’s arms apart and send her on her way. Today, Madison was already pulling back, eyes focused on the building, body itching to go. Tracy gave her daughter a last pat and watched with a trapped breath as she joined her father on the edge of the parking lot.
Tracy sent up a silent prayer. Please keep them all alive. Please.
One by one, Brianna, Madison, Walter, and Peyton disappeared from view.
Chapter Four
MADISON
Student Health Center, CSU Chico
6:30 p.m.
“The back entrance is right up those stairs.” Brianna pulled down her binoculars and pointed at the building before handing them to Madison.
“What if it’s locked?” Madison adjusted the focus and zeroed in on the back of the student health center. It was a newer building, made of concrete with stucco and brick veneers. A pair of double doors stood in the middle of the rear, flanked by narrow windows on either side.
“Double doors are easier to kick in than singles. Even if it’s locked, we should be able to bust them open.” Brianna paused. “Unless there’s a metal support in the middle. Then we’re screwed.”
She motioned for the binoculars back. After looking through them again she nodded. “We should be able to fit through one of those windows on the side. Assuming they’re tempered, a good hit from a rock on the bottom corner should break one.”
“That’s it?”
Brianna nodded. “Tempered glass is safety glass. It’s used for schools, hospitals, car windows. Anywhere sharp glass would be a hazard. It doesn’t break the same way regular glass breaks. One good hit at a point of low flexion and it’ll shatter into tiny, non-sharp pieces.”
Madison exhaled. “Where did you learn that?”
Brianna shrugged. “My dad. He taught me how to break into most places just in case.”
Madison shook her head. While her father had been playing goalie for every one of Madison’s soccer kicks in the backyard, Brianna’s dad had been teaching her how to survive when the world went to hell. It must have made for a difficult childhood for Brianna, but now Madison wished her father had shared a bit of the Clifton family crazy.
With a motion of her hand, Brianna took the lead, easing away from the building that gave them cover and into the open parking lot. Madison hurried to catch up. “My dad said to wait until he gave the signal.”
“I know, I want to be ready. We can hold up in the nook beside the stairs. It’s getting too dark to see anyone out here. I don’t want to be caught in the parking lot before we ever make it inside.”
Madison frowned. It wasn’t how they had rehearsed it an hour before, but it was too late. “Fine. But no more deviations, okay?”
“Sometimes deviations are necessary.”
“We have a plan for a reason.”
Brianna made it to the stairs and crouched down beside them. Madison followed.
“Plans have to adapt and change. Sometimes the plan goes wrong and you need to make a judgment call to fix it.”
Madison didn’t know what to say. Brianna had stood beside her the entire time her father outlined the plan, nodding her head in agreement. Now it sounded like she wasn’t going to play along one bit. “So you’re saying to hell with it? You’re just going to barge in there and ignore everything my dad said?”
“No. Not at all. I’m going to follow the plan as long as it’s the right thing to do. But as soon as it isn’t, I’m improvising.”
Dusk had settled on campus, the trees across the parking lot barely visible to Madison’s naked eyes. Even the building they had crouched behind only a minute before was more apparition than structure. In another few minutes, they wouldn’t be able to see more than a few feet in front of them.
Maybe Brianna’s idea had been the better one. She sighed. “How do you know what decision is right?”
“Whatever is the most expedient in the moment.”
Madison shook her head. “It’s not that simple.”
Brianna scoffed. “Of course it is.”
“You’re telling me you’d shoot someone if it was the fastest way to get what you needed?”
“If shooting someone kept me alive and got me something I needed, then yes. All that matters now is staying alive. Everything else—morality, ethics, a sense of justice—it’s noise.”
Madison couldn’t believe her ears. Was the dark somehow clouding Brianna’s perception or did it give her the freedom to say what she had felt all along? She thought back to the causeway and how Brianna gunned the Jeep to ride the wake of the semi-truck while it barreled down car after car. How she didn’t bat an eye when they walked into the convenience store and stumbled upon two dead bodies.
Was her former college roommate this cold? This devoid of humanity and compassion?
Madison swallowed. “What about me? Would you kill me if it was the most expedient choice?”
Brianna stayed silent for a moment. “Would you ever stand in the way of my survival?”
“Of course not.”
“Then, no. But anyone who gets in my way is fair game.”
On some level, Madison always knew Brianna had a backbone of steel. But hearing her talk about human life like it was a piece of rubble to step over, a temporary impediment to her path… She closed her eyes and the face of Bill Donovan filled her brain.
“Would you have killed Bill?”
“Before he got Wanda killed or after?”
Madison’s stomach roiled. “Take your pick.”
“Before, no. Your mom did a good job threatening the guy. But after? In a heartbeat.”
“Then why didn’t you? You were armed. When we were standing there on the street, you could have taken the shot.”
Brianna shifted in the dark beside Madison. “It wasn’t my house that burned, Madison. Wanda wasn’t my friend. I was sad that she died, but I barely knew the woman. I wasn’t going to step into a fight that wasn’t mine. I figured you would do what was necessary.”
“But you don’t think I did.”
“Not that time, no.”
Madison fell silent. The fact that she didn’t pull the trigger when she had Bill in her sights haunted her. But he wasn’t armed and she didn’t know for sure that he had been the one to set fire to the house. What if the man they had captured was lying? For all they knew, he was using Bill as a scapegoat to cover up for the real perpetrator.
She couldn’t kill a man when she didn’t know if he deserved it. Not then… maybe not ever. Did that make her weak? Was this new world reserved for those who could turn off their sense of justice when the situation called for it?
“What about Tucker? He voted to come here and help the girl in the radio station. He found a way to escape Walmart without killing anyone.”
Brianna mumbled under her breath.
“What did you say?”
“I said, he’s a sweetheart.”
“So he’s exempt from your necessity-begets-violence stance?”
Brianna’s voice dropped again. “I didn’t say that.”
“Then what are you saying?”
It took so long for Brianna to respond, Madison began to wonder whether she would.
“He’s not cut out for this life.” Brianna stood up and leaned back against the wall. Her voice filtered down to Madison like a whisper from a ghost. “I’m not going to be able to protect him forever.”
“You can’t—” The sound of a bird chirping three times cut Madison’s response short. “That’s the signal.”
Brianna hopped the rail and landed on the steps outside the double doors. “Let’s do this.” She reached for the handle, but it didn’t budge. “Locked.”
Madison pulled the multitool she had purchased at the sporting goods store from her pocket and handed it to Brianna. Her former roommate popped out a small knife blade and w
orked the lock, shimmying the blade back and forth, but it wouldn’t budge.
She stood up. “Do you have any bobby pins?”
Madison shook her head. “No. What good would they do?”
“I need a tension wrench, something I can hold down to release the lock on top.” Brianna patted her pockets searching for anything that might work when the distinctive pop of gunfire sounded from inside the building.
Brianna’s eyes went wide and she spun to face the parking lot. “Find a rock! We’re going in. Now.”
Chapter Five
WALTER
Student Health Center, CSU Chico
6:30 p.m.
Night raids are the worst. Walter would have traded an air strike any day for entering a hostile situation on the ground with no support other than a handful of green kids with no combat experience.
From the cockpit of an F/A-18, he could acquire his target, launch his strike, and be out and away before anyone could even fire a shot. Anonymous and lethal, just the way he liked it.
This was neither. Ground combat with crap for weapons, only enough ammunition to play Russian roulette, and no visuals on the potential hostiles inside combined to make this mission incredibly stupid. And yet there he was, crouched in front of a metal door with a kid who outweighed him by fifty pounds standing around with his thumb up his rear end.
Walter exhaled. If his wife and Drew didn’t need this medicine so badly, he would have taken his time to prepare. Gone in for reconnaissance a few times before busting the door down and making a scene. But Tracy assured him Drew needed antibiotics yesterday.
One look at the puss oozing from the man’s swollen wound and Walter agreed. If they didn’t pump Drew full of antibiotics soon, they would lose him. Walter wasn’t going to let that happen. Not after he dragged that man’s sorry ass through the tail end of a riot, broke the news about his dead fiancée, and got them both out of the city before the barricades shut them in.