Hunting Daybreak: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Romance (Shattered Sunlight Book 2)

by E A Chance

Coop put his cap back on and sat back to consider the name. “That’s unique and kind of cool, like Dr. Xavier in the comic books.”

  Riley chuckled. “I don’t know about that, but if you’re happy, Xav it is.”

  “What if on the off chance it’s a girl?”

  Before Riley could answer, Adrian cried, “Whoa, Biscuit,” and brought the cart to an abrupt stop. Dashay had to slam on her brakes to avoid slamming into them.

  She pedaled to the front of the cart, and said, “What the hell, Adrian?”

  “Look,” Riley heard him say.

  Coop helped Riley out, and they rushed to where Dashay and Adrian were staring at a truck on its side in a ditch. The motor was running, and the lights were on.

  “Grab the med pack, Dashay,” Riley said over her shoulder as she hurried with Coop to the truck.

  Coop peered in the window and tapped on the glass. “Anyone in there?”

  “Yes. Three of us,” a faint voice said.

  Coop waved to Adrian. “Find something we can use to pry the door open.”

  Riley carefully climbed down next to Coop and pressed her forehead to the window. There was a man behind the wheel and two women on the seat beside him.

  “We’re going to get you out,” she called through the glass. “Can you turn off the engine?”

  The man stared at her in a daze, then lifted his free arm and let out a yelp. “I think my arm’s broken.”

  The woman next to him reached down and turned the key. The engine went quiet, but the lights stayed on.

  “Can you open the door?” Coop asked the woman closest to the passenger door.

  She grabbed the handle and shoved on the door, but it was too heavy for her to push open. Adrian returned with a shovel and slipped it into the opening while Coop pulled on the outside handle. They got the door open on the first try, then kept it propped open with the shovel.

  Riley pulled her penlight from her pocket and shined it into the car. The three occupants were covered with cut and bruises, but the windshield was intact and none of them looked to be bleeding excessively.

  “We’re surgeons and our friend’s a nurse,” Coop said. “We’re going to examine each of you before we lift you out. Tell us how this happened and what hurts.”

  “What’s your name?” Riley asked the woman on the passenger side as she shined the light in her eyes.

  “Michelle,” she said, weakly.

  “Nice to meet you, Michelle. I’m Katie. This is Xav and Chante is holding the backpack. How did this happen?”

  “My name is Dale,” the driver said. “I swerved to miss a coyote. At least, I think it was a coyote.”

  “You did your best, Dale,” Coop said. “Don’t blame yourself. Who is your friend sitting in the middle?”

  “Faith,” the woman answered. “I think I broke Dale’s arm when I smashed into him, but I’m not hurt other than bruises and a cut on my leg.”

  “Good to hear, Faith,” Coop said. We’re going to take good care of all of you.”

  Riley and Coop triaged them in a hurry, then Coop, Adrian, and Dashay worked carefully to remove them from the wrecked truck while Riley spread quilts over the dirt on the side of the road. Once their patients were arranged on the blankets, Riley and Coop got to work treating them.

  Riley looked up from stitching Michelle’s head laceration when she heard the loud hum of car engines. Adrian stepped into the middle of the road and waved his arms to stop them. Three black, dusty SUVs came to a stop ten yards from the accident. Riley turned her focus back to Michelle, trying to ignore the panic rising from her gut. If these were Kearns’ people, there would be no chance of escape.

  She caught snippets of Adrian’s mumbled conversation with three men dressed in worn civilian clothes but couldn’t make out the words. She glanced up when the exchange became heated and saw Adrian backing away from them, shaking his head. Could it be possible her journey was over so close to the end?

  She finished with Michelle and asked Dashay to bandage and clean her up while she moved to Faith. Her injuries were the less serious than the other two. When Riley passed where Coop was splinting Dale’s arm, she gave him a knowing look as her panic neared a crescendo.

  Coop winked and smiled. “Take a breath. You’ve got this. We’ll be fine.”

  He didn’t believe that any more than she did, but she appreciated the gesture. She’d overcome her crippling anxiety in the months since the CME and had even been fearless, but if she failed before achieving her goal, what did it matter?

  Adrian leaned over her shoulder and whispered, “It’s not good, Riley. They say they’re taking us with them. If we resist, they’ll use force.”

  “Are they military? Is it Yeager?” Adrian shrugged. “They can’t just haul us away with no explanation. This is still the United States. We have rights.”

  “They seem like types who do whatever they damn well please.” He straightened and stepped toward Coop. “Look out. Here they come.”

  Riley turned to Faith and said, “That should do it. Your injuries should heal within a week, but you might be sore for the next few days. If your neck becomes painful, find a doctor if you can. I’ll have Adrian get a chair out of the cart for you.”

  Faith nodded and slowly stood while Riley struggled to get to her feet. A man from the SUVs stuck out his hand to help her. She stared at it for a moment before taking hold of it. When she was upright, she stripped off her gloves and stared at him with her hands on her hips. He was over six feet tall and broad shouldered. His jeans and T-shirt were stained and worn, but he was clean shaven, and his sandy hair was short and well groomed. His bearing and facial features reminded her of her first husband, Zach. This man clearly hadn’t been scraping out an existence on the road as they had.

  Making herself look as threatening as her five-foot and pregnant stature would allow, she said, “My friend tells me you’re expecting us to go with you, but you have no right to just drag us off. Who do you think you are?”

  He watched her for a moment with a hint of a smile, then reached into his pocket and took out four copies of their wanted posters. He deliberately unfolded them and held them up for her to see.

  “You may have disguised your appearance, but you are Dr. Riley Poole,” he said in a deep, smooth voice. “No one on my team will do anything to harm you, Doctor, but you and your companions are coming with us.” He refolded the papers and put them back in his pocket, making sure she saw the gun holstered at his hip.

  Admitting to herself that it was futile to resist, she lowered her shoulders in defeat. She’d made the conscious choice to shelter and protect Adrian with full knowledge of what the consequences could be. There would be time later to question whether that decision had been worth the price, but her first thought was that given the chance, she would do the same again.

  She took a breath and raised her eyes to meet his. “We need to finish treating the accident victims. We can’t just abandon them here.”

  “Do what you need to. You have my word that your patients will be taken to a place where they’ll be well cared for.”

  “Thank you,” Riley said, stunned at his willingness to assist the injured strangers. “I won’t leave my horse either. He’s part of our family.”

  Riley could see he was struggling not to roll his eyes. “I’ll arrange a horse trailer to transport him. Those are easy enough to come by around here.”

  Riley took a chance to test the boundaries of his cooperation. “And the cart?”

  “Is it part of the family, too?” he said, mocking her. “You won’t need the cart.”

  With nothing to lose, she crossed her arms and stood a little taller. “I insist on the cart.”

  Coop came up behind her and rested his hand on her shoulder. “Evening,” he said in that jaunty way she loved. “I’m her husband. Trust me when I say you don’t want to cross horns with her.”

  The faint smile returned, and he said, “I’ll get another trailer for the cart.”
>
  Riley nodded her thanks, wondering how he could call for whatever he needed at a snap of his fingers. To have that kind of pull in their post-apocalyptic world meant he had to be one of Kearns’ people, but he didn’t fit Yeager’s description.

  “Kind of you,” Coop said. “Are you going to tell us who you are before you carry us away into the night?”

  “No. Are you finished treating these people?” Riley glanced at Coop, who gave a quick nod. “Good. Wait here.”

  He walked to the other men standing ten feet behind him and began issuing orders. Adrian and Dashay joined Coop and Riley, and the four of them watched the men speaking too quietly for them to hear what they were saying.

  “Are they Yeager’s men?” Dashay asked, keeping her voice low.

  Riley turned to face her and whispered, “Hard to say, but I’d guess not. If they were, we’d be handcuffed in the back seats of those SUVs by now, but I don’t know who else they could be.”

  “Someone wanting a hefty reward?” Adrian said.

  Riley glanced back at the SUVs. “Likely, but they seem pretty connected. Hope this doesn’t mean there’s a third group hunting us.”

  “No time to speculate,” Coop said. “Grab what you can carry from the cart before they come for us.”

  Riley grabbed her backpack and threw it over her shoulder, then took the smaller med pack. Dashay and Coop each reached for the guns, but the tall man strode up before they had their hands on them.

  “No, you don’t,” he said. “We’ll take care of those. Get in that lead vehicle, now.”

  As Riley slowly shuffled to the SUV, she felt that familiar knot of panic tightening in her gut. They were surrendering to these men, not knowing who they were or where they were taking them. Would they take them to a camp or facility where they’d live out the rest of their lives? Or was this their last day on earth?

  The man that spoke to them didn’t seem violent, but his calm demeanor could have been a cover. From the window she saw members of his team escorting the accident victims to another vehicle. Their captor had been true to his word unless he was merely transporting them to the same prison.

  Their captor climbed into the front passenger seat and the driver got behind the wheel. As they drove away, leaving Biscuit and the cart Aaron built behind, the thought you failed your children looped in her brain. She’d fought so hard for so long, all for nothing. The enormity of it pressed down on her until she feared she’d be crushed under its weight. She slumped against Coop, struggling to hold back her tears, not wanting to show her weakness to the man who held their fates in his hands.

  The journey to their mystery destination took three hours. As afraid as she was, Riley marveled at the feel of traveling so far, so fast. The ground they’d covered in that time would have taken them a week to cover in the cart.

  As the sun rose behind them, the driver turned off the highway onto a dusty, unpaved road. Riley sat forward to take in their surroundings. They rode for another fifteen minutes through what looked like an abandoned cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere. It was the type of place where no one would ever hear from them again.

  The driver finally pulled up to a house as big as Uncle Mitch’s ranch house. Riley had expected a camp surrounded by barbed wire or a concrete box prison. The sight of white lace curtains in the windows was comforting, even though they might have already been there when these people murdered the occupants and took over the house.

  “Here we go,” Coop whispered when the tall man opened his door and the driver opened Riley’s.

  The driver stepped aside for her to pass and motioned toward the front steps of the house. She put a pack on each shoulder and trudged up the steps to meet her fate. As she reached for the handle, the door swung open and a perfectly tanned and toned woman in her mid-thirties with long, shining brown hair smiled down at her. She waved Riley and the others inside, then stopped in the middle of the tastefully decorated great room.

  “Please, take a seat,” she said, then waited for them to comply. They arranged themselves on the two couches, waiting for her to speak. “My name is Bailey Jackson. I want to assure you you’re in no danger, but you are not free to leave.”

  Adrian crossed his arms in a huff. “Where would we go?”

  Bailey ignored him. “You have hot and cold running water, clean, soft beds, and fresh food at your disposal. Help yourselves to whatever you’d like.”

  Dashay got to her feet. “Sounds great but when are you going to tell us who in the hell you people are and why you’ve kidnapped us?”

  Bailey looked shocked. “Kidnapped? Excuse me for a moment.”

  She hurried out the front door and bounded down the steps.

  Coop took his cap off and rubbed his face. “Did you see her reaction when you said ‘kidnapped,’ Dashay?”

  “I’ve had enough,” Riley said, and heaved herself off the couch. As she reached the door, Bailey returned with the driver and the tall man. Riley planted herself in their way. “We’re done with this cryptic game of yours. Who are you people and what do you want with us?”

  “We’ll explain, Dr. Poole, but please take your seat,” the tall man said. Riley didn’t move. “Very well. If you prefer to stand. I’m Conrad Elliot,” he gestured to the driver with dark, short hair and even darker eyes standing behind him, “and this is Paul Kinlaw. I promise to tell you who we are and why we brought you here, but not until you answer our questions.”

  Dashay gave him her fiercest stare. “Why should we?”

  “Because if you don’t, Ms. Robinson,” Paul Kinlaw said, “We’ll hold you here until you do.”

  “Paul,” Bailey snapped. He sheepishly took a step back. “What my colleague means is, the information we share with you depends upon the answers you give us.”

  “In other words, we’re at a stalemate until you tell us what we need to know,” Conrad said. “We can’t let you go, so our only other option is to keep you here.”

  “So, we’re hostages until we spill our guts?” Coop said.

  “Hostages is a strong word,” Bailey said. “We prefer the phrase long-term guests.”

  “Call it whatever helps you sleep at night, but we’ve been down this road,” Dashay said as she dropped back onto the couch. “We’re your prisoners.”

  “Ask your questions,” Riley said, to the surprise of everyone in the room. “We’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

  “What are you doing, Riley?” Coop said behind her.

  Without turning to face him, she said, “I’m tired and want to go home. That can’t happen until they set us free. The way I see it, we have nothing to lose by answering their questions.” She locked her eyes on Conrad. “So, ask.”

  “Smart choice, Dr. Poole,” he said. He gestured toward the couch. “Please.”

  Riley hesitated for a second before lowering herself onto the couch next to Coop. Their three interrogators took chairs from the dining room table and sat facing them.

  Conrad pulled the Wanted posters from his pocket again and held them up. “Tell us the cause of this.”

  Riley was shocked by his question. “You don’t know?”

  “You’re not with Yeager?” Adrian asked.

  The interrogators glanced at each other. Bailey shook her head. “Who’s Yeager?”

  Riley felt the weight lighten from her shoulders. If these people weren’t with Yeager, they might still have a chance. “Colonel Yeager is the man hunting us. He’s one of Kearns’ hounds. We thought you were with them.”

  “We are not,” Paul said, emphatically.

  Riley turned to Adrian. “Tell them. All of it”

  Adrian looked stunned. “Have you lost your mind, Riley? Without knowing who they are or if we can we trust them?”

  “My substantial gut is telling me it’s safe. Tell your story, Adrian.”

  He glanced at Coop, who just shrugged. Adrian took a breath and locked his hands in his lap. “If you promise to protect me when they hear what I h
ave to say.”

  Riley gave him an encouraging smile. “You have our word.”

  “I didn’t mean you, Riley, but fine. I hope you know what you’re doing.” He slid to the edge of the cushion and straightened his shoulders. “I’m an astrophysicist. I was a solar specialist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. I was the first scientist to spot the CMEs.”

  “CMEs?” Conrad said. “Plural?”

  Adrian gave a slight nod. “Yes. The CME that was predicted to hit earth thirty-six hours after the public service announcement was a second CME. It hit us, but by then, no one noticed.”

  “We weren’t too concerned because the biggest impact was supposed to be in the eastern US,” Paul said. “Everyone west of the Mississippi was blindsided.”

  “The entire world was blindsided,” Dashay said.

  Adrian signed and rubbed his forehead. “She’s right. I discovered a second CME, far larger than the one that was announced, that was going to hit Earth hours earlier and have a much more devastating impact. I confirmed it with scientists at the Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado, then reported it to my superiors. The President was traveling home from a summit, so my superiors reported the information to Kearns. She summoned me to the White House.”

  Bailey’s eyes widened. “You met with Kearns before the CME?”

  “I did, seven hours before it hit. The short version is, I told her to warn the world of what was coming. She refused, saying it would only cause mass panic. To my everlasting shame, I did nothing to get the word out. A warning may have saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives. Kearns shipped me off to Andrews. I escaped in the chaos after the CME. I’m the only person alive who knows Kearns’ dirty secret. I’m sure she wishes she’s kept me closer. If she had, I’m certain I’d be dead by now.”

  The three of them stared at him in stunned silence.

  “Yeager is her hunter,” Riley said, softly. “He’s been chasing us across the country, though we’ve seen no sign of him in weeks. We’ve been doing our best to avoid military convoys.”

  Bailey cleared her throat. She took a moment to gather her thoughts. “If true, this is shocking news. We assumed you tried to assassinate Kearns. How did the four of you end up together?”