The Long Night Box Set

by Kevin Partner

  "Hold on right there," Paulie said, holding Friedman at arm's length. "Where's Luna?"

  Friedman wiped her eyes and nose before sucking in a pizzicato breath.

  "Nicky! Is she …?"

  "She's alive. We were trying to get people out. Some escaped. Jon stayed behind. Me and Marvin got out. Jon told him to take care of Luna. Told me to wait here for you. Said you'd be coming back this way. Didn't want you to walk into it. I saw them shoot him. Point blank." Now the tears flowed fully.

  Paulie shook Friedman desperately. "Nicky—where is she now? Where is she?"

  Friedman shook her head. "I don't know. They sent men after us and he took Luna off. The dog was with them.”

  "Dany?" Paulie said. "So, she's with Marvin and Dany?"

  Solly could see Friedman nod.

  "Right, let's get you back to the car and you can tell us the whole story."

  The militia had returned. This time, they'd not even waited to talk, but had come in the night and blown the barricade away before flooding inside. Pastor Smith had been grabbed from his bed and dragged away. There had been some resistance from the deputies and others, but it had been short-lived and brutally put down. Fessel and Hodges had died in the firefight, and Graf had led the remnant in a desperate rearguard action, making for the ruined barricade. He'd held the enemy back while Nicky, Tucker, Luna, and a few others had escaped, before being gunned down.

  Nicky had made it out, and she'd seen Tucker scurrying off into the tree line with Luna.

  "The following day, yesterday," Friedman said, "I watched them forcing people into trucks and they drove off along the Seattle road."

  "I've seen where they take them," Paulie responded.

  Solly watched as her expressions reflected the rage and despair fighting within her. Paulie and Nicky were in the front of the Cherokee and Solly sat on the back seat. Ross and Wally were reluctantly keeping a lookout. The dim yellow of the interior light did nothing to hide Friedman's exhausted grief.

  "He was a good man," Nicky said. "He didn't deserve to die."

  Paulie put her hand on Nicky's shoulder and shook her head. "No, he didn't. And yes, he was one of the good guys." She dabbed at a tear running down her cheek, and fought to suppress the guilt she felt.

  "Said I was too young for him. But he was kind and gentle. I just wish we'd had longer."

  They sat in silence for a moment before Paulie finally snapped.

  "Dammit! All that we built destroyed in one night. I guess the militia leader didn't believe what Smith said to him, after all. Something changed his mind. But why destroy everything? What is wrong with people?"

  She straightened up and punched down on the steering wheel. "I'm going to see for myself."

  "Are you mad?" Solly said. "Look, we need to decide what to do with Alison."

  "Who's that?" Friedman asked.

  Paulie's eyes narrowed as she twisted in the driver's seat to look at Solly.

  "It's just a code name for a package Smith sent us to get," Paulie said. "Did he get taken to Seattle? Or is he still in Arbroath?"

  "I don't know."

  "We can't do anything until we know where he is, and I plan to find out. I'm going to get into position tonight, and find a way to sneak in."

  "Seriously?" Solly said, exasperated. "Your town's been taken over by a heavily armed militia and you're going to try to break back in?"

  Paulie gave a curt nod. "Sure. And we have one advantage over them."

  "What's that?"

  "It's our town and we know it better than they do."

  "Who's we?"

  Nicky Friedman turned in her chair, having been staring out into the night. "I'm going too. I know how to get us inside."

  "How come I didn't know about this?" Paulie said as she and Nicky slipped through a thick wooden door and into the stockroom.

  "Plausible deniability," Friedman replied, with a hint of a nervous smile. "You're the sheriff, after all."

  "So, this is Wiseman's?"

  "Yeah. The old man died on the Long Night, but I'd been in here before when he'd caught someone thieving. I remembered the door when we were sealing everything up. It's well hidden from outside and only opens if you have the knack. Luckily, he'd shown me. I think he was showing off. If we go up those stairs, we'll be in the main shop."

  Wiseman's had been a hardware store and, since the Long Night, all its stock had been brought upstairs to be used in fixing the town. Work that now lay in ruins. Paulie found herself most angry with Scott Lee, the fake pastor whose arrival had led to this end. She couldn't help but fear that his fate and hers were now intimately connected one way or another.

  Oddly enough, she was a little less concerned about Luna. She'd been incredibly relieved, of course, to learn that her daughter had escaped, and she could think of no one else she'd rather entrust her safety to than Marvin Tucker. Once a thorn in her side, Tucker had proven himself loyal more than once and he was by far the most capable of all her deputies.

  Where would he take Luna? For all Paulie knew, he might be out there right now, looking for her, while she was sneaking around in the town that had once been hers. But he was no fool. He'd go wherever he thought it most likely Paulie would go. And, in the meantime, he'd protect Luna with his life.

  No, for right now, Lee was her concern. He was mixed up in something huge that could have an impact on all the survivors of the Long Night, Luna included.

  It was early morning and the streets of Arbroath were deserted. Smoke was still rising from the ruins of the barricade out of view to her left, but from the window of Wiseman's she could see the main square and the front of the Aldays department store that served as the focus to the community. As she watched, the main entrance door swung open and a trio walked out and stood in front of the store.

  "Petrov!" Paulie hissed as she recognized the familiar squat, swaggering figure. She watched as he talked to the other two, both in military fatigues. "He doesn't look like a prisoner. He's directing them." The soldiers moved off in opposite directions.

  Paulie swore as she watched Petrov go back inside. "I guess we know who's in charge now. What happened to the mayor?"

  "I don't know," Friedman whispered. "Maybe she was taken with the others."

  "They wouldn't have had enough trucks to transport the whole town, so they put Petrov in charge here."

  "What do you think they do with the people they take away?"

  Paulie looked at the young deputy. "They have what amounts to a slave camp. They send people out on work parties to clean up Seattle."

  Another figure emerged from the department store and walked across the marketplace. It was a woman holding a basket and she moved quickly and nervously towards them.

  Paulie crouched down and ran along the shop window until she reached the door. The blind was down so she opened the door a crack and listened as the footsteps got louder. A shadow fell across the crack in the door and she pulled it inward, grabbed the woman, sealing her mouth with a hand.

  The woman fell sideways and struggled as Paulie turned her onto her back. Recognition dawned in the woman's eyes and Paulie took away her hand. "Sheriff! Thank God you're alright! But they're everywhere. You have to get away."

  "Where's the pastor? Are they holding him in the cells?"

  The woman shook her head as she sat up. "No, they took him off with the others in the trucks. I reckon they'll be coming back for the rest of us soon enough."

  Paulie cursed under her breath. So, he was being taken back to Seattle and she'd have to follow him there. She was beginning to hate that man.

  "Sheriff?"

  "Sorry. Yes, they'll bring more trucks. You need to get away before then and hide in the suburbs."

  "Outside the wall?"

  Paulie shrugged. "They didn't amount to a hill of beans in the end, did they?"

  "I'll stay and help," Nicky said. Then, in response to Paulie's surprised look, she continued, "I know the way out, and I can help them a few at a time
. At least some will get away."

  "I won't go," the woman said. "There's children. Someone needs to look after them."

  Paulie sighed. She had a duty to help the people of Arbroath, but she was just one person and she also had a duty to her daughter. But it was Scott Lee's fate that weighed most heavily on her shoulders. If he was lost, then chances were so was everyone else. So, her road led to Seattle and the militia camp. She let the woman slip out, hugged Nicky and headed back to her car.

  Chapter 7

  Paulie looked out from the window in Seattle, scanning the militia base below. Much had changed in the three weeks since she'd last been in this old storage unit. Scott Lee had been with her that day, standing here rather than, presumably, being held in the camp. Marvin Tucker was lost somewhere between Arbroath and here, looking after Paulie's daughter. Jon Graf was dead. Her throat tightened with fear as she thought of Luna, but she knew how vain it would be to try to find them with no idea where they were heading. As for Jon, well, she'd thought she'd lost him that first night and then he'd walked into town with the others from the outlying houses and farms. Now, he'd gone for good. She bitterly regretted her unjustified rage at his “betrayal” when she'd returned to Arbroath.

  Paulie put the binoculars down and wiped her eyes.

  "You okay?" Solly said.

  She'd been aware he was watching her. All she wanted right now, however, was to be alone. She had to know what had happened to Scott Lee and, if she could manage it, to free him somehow. Her experience of Solly had so far led her to believe that she would be more likely to succeed on her own.

  She gave a curt nod and resumed her scan of the base. When she'd last been here, there had been just a few old military vehicles parked in the yard out front; now there was an entire fleet. She couldn't guess where they'd come from, but, by and large, they were covered general purpose trucks that could be used for moving supplies or people from one place to another. Mixed among them were a couple of APCs and one tank that sat incongruously in the middle.

  The place seemed full of men and women in fatigues rushing back and forth, and it had the feel of being a fully-fledged military base rather than the hideout of a bandit as before. Paulie found herself wondering what had changed in the meantime.

  Again, she dropped the binoculars, and slipped down the wall to sit beside Solly and Ross. The old man they'd brought with them from somewhere out east had elected to stay with Nicky Friedman, helping some of the people of Arbroath to escape before the militia trucks rolled back into town. Last time she'd been here, she'd thought they made a pretty rag tag commando unit, but Tucker, Graf and Lee were crack soldiers compared to these two. The boy had insisted on coming and Solly had only put up brief resistance, as if he knew there was no point in arguing. And, in any case, it wasn't as if there was anywhere safe to leave him.

  "Do we have a plan?" Solly asked.

  Paulie bit back her irritation. "Not yet," she said. "I'm just getting the lay of the land."

  "Well, it looks to me as though that base is locked up pretty tight. I can't see any way in."

  She turned to him. "What was your last job, again? Stater of the obvious? I don't know what I'm going to do at the moment."

  "So, the plan is to hope something turns up?"

  "If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears!" Paulie hissed.

  Solly watched the sheriff out of the corner of his eye. She was a ticking time bomb and he didn't want to be part of the collateral damage when she finally went off. It was cold sitting on the concrete floor of the abandoned storage unit, but they didn't dare use even the camping stove for fear of any steam giving away their position.

  He knew she had a poor opinion of him and it was annoying that she didn't give him more credit for traveling clear across the continent to deliver the accursed cylinder. Given that the person they were supposed to be giving it to had disappeared only a day or two before they arrived, he thought he'd responded fairly positively. They were now even farther away from the straight route back to the farmhouse on a mission with no defined purpose other than to see what might happen.

  These thoughts tumbled around in his head as the hours passed. For all his many faults, however, Solly Masters didn't lack self awareness and, in the end, he realized that Paulie's situation was at least as desperate as his. The community she'd helped build had been destroyed, her daughter was out of reach and, like Solly himself, she believed Scott Lee to be the key to preventing a final catastrophe that was being planned by unknown parties.

  He pulled three mugs and a thermos flask out of his pack and unscrewed the lid. The room filled with a tomatoey aroma as he poured warm beans into each mug before offering one to Paulie, who was watching again.

  "Here," he said.

  She shook her head. "I'm not hungry."

  "You have to eat," Solly said. "Whatever happens here, you have to stay strong for Luna."

  Paulie shot him a venom-laced glance as if the mere use of her daughter's name was verboten. And then she sighed, slid down the wall and tipped the beans into her mouth. "Thanks."

  "I warmed them up before we set off this morning," Solly said. "I've also got coffee, if you'd like some."

  "Seriously?"

  For the first time, Paulie's face spread in a grin as Solly took a second flask from his pack, poured a little coffee into her mug, swilled it around to clean the beans out, and filled it. All away from the window. He could feel her attitude toward him thawing by the second.

  "I'm sorry," she said, after taking a long swig. "I know I've been a bit of a bitch."

  Solly shrugged. "No need. We don't exactly make for the best sidekicks."

  "We're sidekicks?" Ross said, suddenly animated again. He'd spent the past hours silently watching the adults between dozes. "So, Paulie's the superhero?"

  "Of the three of us, I reckon she's the only candidate," Solly said. Like a fresh breeze blowing the dark clouds away, he felt a little brighter, and he could see from her more relaxed expression that Paulie was experiencing the same. Suddenly, they were a team, all because of a flask of coffee and a mug of beans.

  Ross glanced out of the window. "Something's going on out there."

  Solly and Paulie followed his pointing finger. A group of people, most of them in fatigues, had gathered in front of an entrance into a long, low building. A large black SUV moved out of the vehicle compound and reversed towards the entrance.

  A figure came out of the building, flanked by two uniformed men. Bound and gagged, his head was covered by a hood and he staggered as his guards bundled him towards the open back door of the car.

  "It's Scott," Paulie said.

  "How can you tell?"

  "I know him well enough. It's him, I'm sure of it. Come on, we have to follow."

  "Where do you think it's going?" Ross asked.

  Paulie pointed as the SUV began to move towards the compound gate and the lettering on its side came into view: Lee Corporation, Seattle.

  "That could mean anything," Solly said. "Just because it's from there doesn't mean it's going back."

  Paulie hefted her pack over her shoulder. "He's Scott Lee, there's a Lee Corp building in Seattle, and that's where the car is from. Everything's pointing that way, and that's where I'm going."

  Solly followed her out of the door and down the metal steps to where their car waited. "Where is the building?" he asked, remembering the squat black box in New York.

  "I don't know," Paulie said, "I'm hoping to follow that car. Come on." She bypassed the car and made to cut between two buildings.

  "We're walking?" Solly said.

  "No," Paulie called over her shoulder. "We're running."

  The SUV seemed to be in no hurry as it weaved its way through the streets like a presidential motorcade on the fourth of July and they were able to keep it in sight by following a direct line on foot.

  "Here," Ross said, handing Paulie a glossy tourist map he'd found in a booth beside the road.

  They'd taken a
brief stop as even she was flagging now and Solly was almost out for the count.

  "Good idea," Paulie said, scanning the map.

  Solly pointed at a black square. "It's there, among the Amazon and Microsoft buildings. How far is that?"

  Paulie glanced across at the black SUV which was just approaching the end of the next road. The roads were much more congested here and its progress was slower, so it was easier to spot. "Around a mile, I'd guess."

  Solly let out a long breath. "Good grief. I don't know what you expect us to be able to do when we get there, I'm exhausted."

  "Come on Sol, you're twice the man you were when I met you," Ross said, slapping him on the back. "You can do it!"

  Solly smiled at him. "Save your amateur psychology. I know my limits, but I'll get there."

  They followed Paulie as she jogged off after the SUV.

  The Lee Corporation building was a five story black box, almost identical to its sibling in New York. It sat near one of Amazon's city outposts on a wide, tree-lined street that had been cleared of vehicles. They'd seen no signs of life on their journey across the city, something that was beginning to worry Solly. He wondered whether the militia had rounded up all the survivors or whether the Lee Corporation had cleared the area. He also wondered what the connection between the two was. Were they in some sort of alliance?

  Paulie, Ross and Solly peered out from behind a low wall opposite the building. The car disappeared into an underground garage and, hugging the walls, they made their way steadily across. There were no guards at the parking garage entrance, so they ran carefully down the ramp and into the darkness.

  They were just in time to see an elevator door close as the SUV pulled away, its red and white lights disappearing and leaving only the light above the elevator to illuminate the darkness. A guard stood beneath the light, a carbine hanging at his chest.

  "We need to get in there," Paulie whispered.

  Solly gave a little sigh. What was the saying? In for a penny, in for a pound? It seemed as though all the insanity of the past weeks had been leading up to this moment of utter stupidity.