The Changing Earth Series (Book 4): Battle for the South

by Hathaway, Sara F.

  “Where’s my grandma, Bennet?” Dexter seethed.

  “Don’t forget I’m your superior officer,” Bennet barked, jumping out of the jeep and towering over the young man.

  “Where’s my fucking grandmother?” Dexter screamed.

  “Dexter, you better stow that attitude right now! You will address me properly, son,” Bennet insisted, snatching the boy by his collar.

  “Where is she, sir?” Dexter quieted, humbled by Bennet’s fury.

  “She’s in Las Vegas. Mathew Tweed had her recalled,” Bennet admitted.

  “You knew?” Dex looked at him with tears in his eyes. “You knew all the time she wasn’t here?”

  The look of sadness in Dexter’s eyes almost caused Bennet to lie and say he just found out, but he couldn’t do that.

  “Yes, Dex, I knew,” he stated flatly. “I was afraid you would tell your mom and dad if you made contact.”

  Dexter realized the logic of his decision, but he had been so excited to see his grandma again after all these years. Anger, frustration, and disappointment built inside of him. Wrenching his shirt out of Bennet’s hands, he shouted out “Fuck!” into the air just as a Federal Forces transport pulled into the textile factory parking lot. Dexter’s eyes snapped back to MSgt Bennet.

  “Don’t worry, they’re here to help us set a trap,” Bennet responded.

  “For my mom and dad!” Dexter spun in his rage. “They’ll fucking kill them, Bennet!”

  The discussion was over as the Federal soldiers exited the vehicle with their weapons pointed squarely at the merc soldiers. Bennet’s hand went for his sidearm.

  “Don’t do it, Bennet!” Major Jarvis announced as he approached. “You are outmanned, outgunned, and outstrategized.”

  Bennet stood with Smith, Shaver, Dex, and Johnny in disbelief as their guns were taken from them. They were forced to their knees in a line in front of the major.

  “Imagine my luck,” the major boasted to his soldiers. “Do you know who we have here? This is MSgt Patrick Bennet of the Mercenary Army, Federal Forces traitor and friend to the number one Federal fugitives Vince and Erika Moore.”

  The major spun around in his victory lap.

  “And these two slippery bastards who somehow slimed their way through our gate are a sight to behold.” He stood behind Dexter. “This is Private First-Class Dexter Moore, son of the Federal fugitives Vince and Erika Moore. But this man is the catch of the day. This man is Corporal Johnny McClintock, son of General McClintock of the Mercenary Army, arrested for grand treason against the United States of America. The same General McClintock who sits in a cell in Kansas City awaiting his execution.”

  “You fucking bastards,” Johnny yelled, springing to his feet to attack the major.

  His efforts earned him a jab to the back of his head with the butt of a soldier’s gun. Johnny stammered, falling to the ground. The soldiers kicked him back into the lineup.

  “Don’t worry, Mr. McClintock. You won’t be held guilty for the sins of your father, but you will spend the rest of your life as a refugee,” the Major jested as he spun on his heels again. “Load them up, boys.”

  The men were forced to their feet at gunpoint. Dexter positioned himself next to the major and looked over at him jovially. He started skipping and sang out, “Happy days are here again.” Then he whistled a little tune.

  The soldiers were confused by his actions and slightly amused as well. Suddenly Trucker came flying out of nowhere and ripped the man with his gun on Dexter to the ground. Dexter seized the moment, grabbed the soldier’s gun, and smashed the other soldier on the other side of him in the head with the butt of the gun. The man’s head split like a melon as Dex wheeled and shot the soldier with his gun on Bennet. A shot was fired at Trucker as Dexter sank a bullet into the shooter’s chest. Chaos overwhelmed the scene for the next few minutes. Shots were fired, and men struggled for supremacy. The Federal soldiers fell one by one until the last one standing, Major Jarvis, stood fearfully in front of Bennet. Bennet pulled the trigger. Jarvis slumped down and died on top of Corporal Shaver’s lifeless body.

  Bennet knew he had to rally his team quickly and figure out what to do next.

  “Everyone okay?” he questioned.

  There were positive responses.

  “Then we have to get the hell out of here. Everyone in the jeep,” he commanded.

  He made sure to one-arm hug Dexter on the way to the jeep.

  “Thank God for that dog of yours, son,” Bennet said affectionately. Bennet felt that he really did love this boy like family. He did not regret for a minute calling him son and knew he would always be there for Dexter.

  Dexter looked at him with blank eyes. His mind whirled with uncertainty.

  Chapter 13

  The hurricane bore down on Erika and her crew of ragtag volunteers. They were drenched, and the afternoon began to chill as evening approached. Double-timing it down the road, it wasn’t long until the hospital was back in sight.

  Erika remarked to herself how quickly they had made it back as they hurried though the doorway. She looked toward where the patients awaiting help were. Erika watched the man next to her run through the door way. Suddenly, in slow motion, his body continued forward while his head slid backwards. Vince jumped in front of Erika with his pistol drawn and pushed her to the side, but he hesitated. The attacker took a hostage and was now threatening to kill her. Erika shuffled backwards, pulling her pistol as well, and glanced around the room. She was sickened to see dead bodies everywhere.

  “The end is here! God is coming to take us all!” the man yelled as he held a long knife to the lady’s neck.

  Erika was horrified to see the assailant was the same man she and Vince had carried from his room.

  “What have you done? We told you we’d come back!” Erika screamed. She got to her feet and tried to draw the man’s attention. Vince started to slowly circle around the man. He was waiting for his opportunity to take this guy out.

  “No one comes back. God told me. No one comes back. God told me to take them with me!” the man screamed wildly. His crazy eyes were desperately searching Erika’s soul.

  “We came back! Here we are!” Erika was dumbfounded by his actions. This man had killed all the others. “God’s not talking to you, fear is!”

  The man was confused. He had never believed they would come back. He put his head down a little and the knife backed off slightly from the lady’s neck. Vince seized the moment, squeezing the trigger of his gun, and shooting the man through the side of the head. The woman screamed in panic.

  Erika went and held the woman. Erika didn’t know why the man had done what he did. The volunteers had followed her. They risked their lives to save these ailing people, and this man had killed them all.

  Erika stood with the woman catatonically as volunteers entered the hospital to check on the patients. They were all dead. Standing oblivious to the world, Erika watched a huge piece of wooden debris smash through the last pane of glass. As Kyle led the woman toward the door the glass sparkled through the air behind them. Erika’s glorious plan had shattered like the glass in the air.

  “Come on, Erika! We’ve got to go!” Vince yelled, grabbing her arm and running into the street behind the fleeing volunteers.

  Erika looked back and watched the debris-filled wave slowly creeping up the street. Buildings shook like trees in the wind, swayed, and then fell into the floodwaters. Erika had never experienced wind and rain this fierce and she struggled to keep her balance. The group huddled and helped one another fight the wind and water that threatened every footstep. Suddenly, a huge chunk of building fell, smashing a group of volunteers beneath it. Erika furiously tried to move the mass with the others but there was no way. Her heart pounded. The water was now up to her shins. We must keep moving, she urged herself.

  “Help them!” Kyle yelled, watching them walk away, but his voice was drowned to the wind, rain, and flying debris.

  “They’re gone, Kyl
e,” another young man shouted at him as he pulled on Kyle’s arm.

  Relief washed over Erika as they spotted the buses in the distance. Running to them, the rising water threatened their departure. Prayers were said as they loaded into the vehicles. They didn’t know exactly how many people had died in the futile attempt to save the patients.

  The driver sped away from Houston as fast as the bus would go. Erika looked out the window in a daze as the city crumbled along with her confidence. Vince returned from his conversation with Kyle in the front. He sat down next to her and couldn’t help but notice her deflated demeanor.

  “It’s not your fault, baby,” he comforted her.

  “I know,” she said absently.

  “You did what you thought was right,” Vince tried again.

  “I know, Vince. I know,” Erika mumbled with tears in her eyes.

  Vince held her tightly as she cried. She wanted to save those people so badly. She wanted to lead and claim victory. But, it had all been for nothing, and God knew how many people had died because of her. Am I doing the same thing now, she wondered, chasing a dream, an idea that I think is right, and it’s all going to blow up in my face? Except this time, my family’s life is on the line.

  The mood on the bus matched Erika’s. It was quiet and stunk of drenched people. Erika slept in Vince’s comforting arms and awoke when they arrived back at the Austin camp. She roused Vince and they stared out at the rainy blackness.

  Ted Ferguson met the buses as they rolled in and the sullen volunteers unloaded. Upon doing a count they realized they lost six people: the guy that was killed by the psycho and five more when the building crashed down.

  “What happened?” Ted questioned Erika.

  “One of the patients went crazy. I didn’t even think he could get out of bed, but he did. He killed them all and one of the volunteers,” Erika explained coldly. She was still trying to process the emotions.

  “You tried,” Ted declared. “A car will take you back to the governor’s compound.”

  Ted pointed at a waiting white vehicle. Erika didn’t know what else to say, and Vince was ready to get a move on, get Nancy, and get home to his family.

  They quietly sat in the vehicle as the driver, obviously excited to be in the presence of the Moores, chatted energetically, trying to engage in small talk. The vehicle came to a halt in front of the residential buildings. The grounds were lit up like a Christmas tree and people were still coming and going.

  Erika wished they could become invisible and get into their room unnoticed. She could tell by Vince’s stare that he was thinking the same. They slowly climbed the stairs and entered the doorway, hoping it would be empty.

  “There you are! You bitch!” a woman younger than Erika seethed at her as she entered.

  Melvin was there as well. He stood beside her with papers on a clipboard. His presence seemed to be keeping this younger woman from attacking Erika, but he looked deeply concerned. Erika was shocked and in no mood for a conflict.

  “I’m sorry. Do I know you?” Erika questioned as the young woman aggressed Erika, staring down at her.

  “Maybe you don’t recognize me without my father’s brains blown up all over my face,” she fumed angrily.

  The hatred in the woman’s brown eyes disturbed Erika. What did I do? She wondered, studding her face. It was slim, and her features were perfectly set. The dim lighting in the lobby made her hair appear dark but Erika guessed it was much lighter in the sun. But there was something about her voice and those eyes. Where have I seen those eyes before? Erika asked herself.

  “You were in the cell,” Erika blurted out.

  “You killed my father! You bitch!” she fumed.

  Erika thought back to the nine long years that she and her family were locked up in a refugee camp. Going to work for the Federal Forces was the only other option they had to separating from their friends and being adopted out to live on some landowner’s property. They had joined a Federal rescue team. They were trained on how to salvage useful supplies and rescue people in disaster areas. On their first mission Erika found a hidden chamber. A brash young soldier she was with opened the door without backup. The man in the chamber had the drop on the boy, so Erika pulled the soldier’s sidearm and saved the soldier with the death of another. The man had been this woman’s father. She had watched Erika pull the trigger and then a bullet ripped through her father’s skull. Erika had seen her again when Sergeant Bennet had taken Erika to the prison because it was a safe place to talk. He had shown Erika this woman, and the hatred and anger was just as present then as it was now.

  “Remember me now?” the woman hissed.

  “Yes, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am,” Erika tried to explain.

  “Your words are hollow to me…” The woman’s brow furrowed in anger. “I want your life,” she spat hatred through the air.

  Vince stepped up at the threat to his wife, but Erika stopped him.

  “I wish I could explain but there is no excuse. That day either your father or the soldier I was with was going to die. I made the choice for the soldier’s life over that of your father’s, and the kid was a complete ass that probably didn’t even deserve it. I owe you a great debt and if there’s any way I can repay you…” Erika tried to make it right.

  “You can repay me…with your life. A fight, in the ring, to the death,” the woman challenged.

  “I don’t want to fight you,” Erika stammered. She couldn’t comprehend how such a challenge would fix anything.

  “Melvin?” The woman called upon him, to Erika’s surprise.

  “Under the law of the Republic of Texas a family member does have the right to challenge the guilty party to a death match. Did you kill her father, Erika?” Melvin questioned.

  “I just said I did, but you don’t understand. I was doing what I had to,” Erika tried to explain.

  “It doesn’t matter. You did the crime, she has the right to challenge you. I’m sorry, Erika,” Melvin explained. His muscular shoulders looked diminished as he drooped in anguish over the situation.

  Erika was dumbfounded. She had no idea what she could do to repair the damage. Emotionally, she was completely drained and stood unresponsive.

  “And what if she doesn’t fight?” Vince stepped up, not about to allow his wife to participate in any kind of fight to the death.

  “You are banished from Texas and can never return,” Melvin replied. “Trust me, I tried to talk Cassidy out of this. We are going to lose a quality leader no matter who wins. Cassidy took her father’s place as the Western Region Resistance Commander after he was killed.”

  “Enough, Melvin! This bitch isn’t worth the explanation,” Cassidy cursed her.

  “Cassidy, I don’t want to fight you,” Erika reiterated.

  “Don’t do that! Don’t use my name, bitch. Your life is mine,” Cassidy demanded.

  “No, it is not, and she is not fighting,” Vince countered. “We’ll be gone in the morning.”

  Vince pulled Erika by the arm and they walked back to the room.

  “Today, tomorrow, next week, we will settle this!” Cassidy yelled at them down the hall.

  When the door was closed Erika stared at Vince.

  “Can you believe that chick?” Vince asked her.

  “Maybe I should fight her, Vince,” Erika exclaimed.

  “What in God’s name would give you that idea?” Vince wondered.

  “We need these people,” Erika explained.

  “Why, Erika? Are they going to help us get to Vegas?” Vince countered.

  “Maybe.” She couldn’t argue any longer. Her brain was incoherent.

  “Or, maybe not,” Vince comforted her softly. “The mission is to get your mom and our friends in Vegas and then get home to Daniel, right?”

  “Right,” Erika agreed, “but what about the revolution and all the people we could help.”

  “You can’t save them all, baby. And we can’t do anything if you die in a ring over
a choice you had to make,” Vince pleaded with her to walk away. “You can’t save them all,” he repeated to her.

  Erika stared at the ground, lost in thought. “You’re right, Vince. I can’t save them all. I got my mind full of their talk. I’m not some hero. I’m just me and I can’t save the world.”

  “You’ll always be my hero,” Vince assured her, kissing her forehead softly.

  “You know what I need?” Erika asked Vince.

  “What’s that?” Vince took her bait.

  “A hug from Daniel. I miss him, Dex, and Star so bad,” Erika explained.

  “Me too. Let’s just get this done and get home,” Vince confirmed.

  Chapter 14

  Patrick Bennet drove the jeep down the street. He knew they had to get off the road, but he had no idea where to go. The three other young men sat silently lost in thought, relying upon him for direction.

  “Dex,” Bennet yelled to the back.

  “Yes, Master Sergeant,” Dexter replied.

  “Do you know when Sean’s band was supposed to play in Dallas?” Bennet wondered.

  “They’re in Dallas June 2nd,” Dexter replied. “But they’re sure to look for us there. If the Federal Forces haven’t taken them yet. Oh shit, what about Daniel, Master Sergeant? What about my grandparents?” Dexter rambled on frantically. Trucker licked his face, trying to calm him.

  “Calm down, Dex, we’re gonna figure this out.” Bennet didn’t want to lose control.

  “How, Master Sergeant? We’re all fugitives now! My dad’s in a Federal prison!” Johnny was freaking out.

  Heading north, Bennet spied an abandoned warehouse with a small covered lean-to big enough to conceal the jeep. He whipped it in, causing the young men to jerk violently.

  “Moore and McClintock, secure the vehicle. Smith, come with me and secure the warehouse,” Bennet snapped, jumping swiftly out of the jeep.